OXFORD, Miss. – Boxers or briefs?”
It’s not a question University of Mississippi senior Willow Nero imagined she’d ever ask a group of strangers, but that’s just what the Bay St. Louis native did during her summer internship at knoxnews.com.
Of her investigative reporting on the city of Knoxville, Tenn., and its former standing as the underwear capital of the world, Nero said with a laugh, “It won’t win me an Emmy,” then added, “I was looking to branch out, so I’m really lucky to have the position.”
Nero is among more than 50 Ole Miss journalism students interning this
summer around the country. It’s a number that keeps climbing each year,
according to Ellen Meacham, internship coordinator and journalism
instructor. Forty five students interned during summer 2007 and 39
interned in summer 2006.
Meacham said the department is seeing an increase in summer internships
because of the faculty’s emphasis on work experience, which is
supported by journalism chair Samir Husni.
“We are pleased to have a very organized effort and office devoted to
help students gain careers and internships led by Ellen Meacham, who
devotes half her full-time job to the career center,” Husni said. “It’s
part of our continued efforts to help prepare students for the work
force, and we think it’s working.
“The skills acquired from internships are beyond beneficial. It’s
important that our students get hands on experience in a real world
environment.
Recent internships range from local media outlets such as The (Jackson)
Clarion Ledger to Southern Progress Corp., publisher of multiple
magazines, including Southern Living and Cooking Light.
Nero, who has worked as copy chief and news editor at The Daily
Mississippian, UM’s student produced newspaper, said she was searching
for an online reporting position to enhance her skills.
“Doing online work for the Knoxville News Sentinel was extremely
important to me. You hear about more and more reporters getting laid
off, so I knew acquiring online reporting skills would give me a leg up
in the field.
“Online reporting is similar to broadcast reporting, yet it’s not. It’s
a supplement. Instead of hearing the news on TV or reading it in a
paper, you’re watching it on video and getting a little more info, more
details and more picture angles,” said Nero, daughter of Redwood Nero
and Shawn Prychitko of Bay St. Louis.
Besides editing, writing and reporting, Nero also produces her own
online segments, including the aforementioned article “Random This: A
Monument to Underwear.”
“If there is breaking news, then it’s a lot of uploading,” she said.
“With online reporting, we must get our news out there fast. But I’ve
done some fun videos that I’ve posted and produced with my limited
experience. I had almost no experience when I came to knoxnews.com, but
within the month I’ve been here, they’ve taught me so much.”
The same is true for Haley Crum, who is an independent contractor with
MTV. “It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” said Crum, who
has a double major in journalism and English.
As a member of MTV’s Street Team ’08, Crum is among 51 citizen
journalists who submit videos, blogs, photos and more about political
and social issues in Mississippi from a youth perspective. Sponsored by
the station’s popular “Choose or Lose” campaign, which first began
covering political news with the 1992 presidential election, Crum and
local reporters from every state and Washington, D.C., follow the
election news and deliver weekly multimedia reports.
Crum, the daughter of Kevin and Beverly Cole of Oxford and Charles Crum of Nashville, has been working for MTV since January.
“MTV research shows that young people will be a major force in
determining who is elected in the upcoming election,” Crum said.
“Street Team ’08 is just MTV’s way of providing its audience with
national and international political issues to help make a more
informed decision.”
What’s more, each member of the MTV team also gets to focus on local
news. “It gives people a perspective on smaller states like Mississippi
and Rhode Island,” Crum said. “I get to report on issues important to
our state. I did a story on an Ole Miss student who was deployed back
to Iraq, and my first big story was on Mississippi’s education system.
I was able to bring to light the challenges of ‘No Child Left Behind’
in the Mississippi Delta.” To view Crum’s video packages and blogs,
visit http://www.think.mtv.com.
Crum said it was tough landing the much sought-after position with MTV.
“Ms. Meacham helped me a lot,” she said. “It’s really a tribute to Ole
Miss on how great the journalism faculty treats its students. It really
makes a difference. I probably wouldn’t have gotten any of my
internships without the faculty’s help.”
It was Husni who made contacts for Marti Covington to land her
internship with Michael Duffy, assistant managing editor for TIME
magazine. “When Richard Stengel, managing editor for TIME Inc., visited
Ole Miss for this spring’s Journalism Week, Dr. Husni talked to him
about my work at the DM and my previous internships,” Covington said.
“When I met Mr. Stengel personally, he told me to send him a resume and
some clips of published works. I did, and the next thing I knew I was
interning for TIME.”
“It is important to our program to bring top media professionals to our
students,” Husni said. “Everything we’re doing is what’s best for our
students; it’s that simple.”
Although she is the immediate past editor of the student newspaper, as
well as a former intern for The Clarion Ledger and Richmond (Va.) Times
Dispatch, Covington said she was “pretty amazed” to see her first
byline for TIME.com.
“TIME is such a well-known brand, so practically everything I’m able to
do is pretty cool to me,” she said. “It feels great to research and
write small blurbs about the presidential election and patriotism for
TIME. Then, seeing my writing with a few edits, of course in the
actual magazine is icing on the cake. I also love proofreading cover
stories days before anyone knows they’ll be in the magazine.” Covington
is the daughter of Ole Miss alums Danny Covington of Columbus and Joyce
Martin Covington of Batesville.
While the Ole Miss journalism department offers a variety of tools to
helps students secure internships, Husni said the greatest advantage a
student can have is previous experience.
“We tell our students to work somewhere, either at one of our many
student media outlets or a local media organization. Experience makes
you more competitive as an intern and as a future employee.”
So, does Nero plan to bring a version of “Random This” to Ole Miss?
Not likely, she said, adding, “Oxford and Ole Miss are more noted for food and literature, not underwear.'”