Social video internship

The Examination is partnering with the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting to offer a remote summer internship.

The Examination is partnering with the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting to offer a remote internship to collegiate journalists and recent college graduates during the summer of 2025.

During the 10–12-week, paid program, you will work closely with our production and audience teams to create a range of compelling visual content for our website and social media platforms using design, videos, and photography. You will also have the opportunity for weekly skill shares to virtually connect with investigative reporters and data editors across the newsroom.

This is an opportunity for a content creator with editorial prowess who on a weekly basis wants to create social copy, optimize evergreen visual content for social, and edit and publish short-form and vertical videos in a tight, informative, and engaging way across enterprise and investigative projects. These videos will incorporate audio, video, still images and text.

You have experience in visual storytelling, including identifying video-storytelling opportunities, scripting, writing for social, and editing short-form and social video in Adobe Premiere.

You will learn how The Examination selects, sequences, and publishes images for on- and off-platform use and gain a comprehensive understanding of how The Examination approaches off- and on-platform visual production. 

This opportunity is part of the production team and reports to the Senior Editor of Digital Storytelling. The Examination will provide equipment and software required to complete the job duties. All equipment will need to be returned at the end of the internship. 

You will work closely with the Audience Editor and collaborate with data editors, web developers, reporters, freelancers, and the Impact & Engagement team.

Your portfolio and work samples should reveal a grasp of video storytelling and engaging social content creation.

Department Overview:

The production team focuses on online content, website management and social media presence. Our team creates visual elements – including photo, video, audio, graphics, animations, and layouts – ensuring high-quality production and engagement for all platforms. We work closely with reporters from pitch development to production in a collaborative environment which helps foster accurate, timely, and impactful reporting on global health inequities to equip people in harm’s way and spark real-world change. 

Responsibilities:

  • Attend weekly production meetings.

  • Produce, edit, and write scripts to create videos that feature the expertise of our journalists.

  • Write social copy and help shape how we optimize our journalism on social platforms.

  • Experiment with various forms of visual storytelling to generate formats that bring our best journalism to our target audiences on and off platform.

  • Partner with the newsroom audience editor to understand how The Examination interprets data and uses it to shape how we present stories on and off platform.

  • Engage with the managing editor, investigative reporters, and data editors in one-on-one skill-shares to gain working knowledge on how to identify potential problems, conduct in-depth research, pursue leads and fact-check data.

  • Collaborate with colleagues across the newsroom.

Qualifications:

  • Experience editing video in Adobe Premiere.

  • Experience navigating social media insights and writing social copy.

  • An understanding of all mainstream and some emerging social channels, and a willingness to learn about new platforms.

  • Experience juggling multiple projects.

  • Willingness to collaborate

Perks:

  • Build real-world technical skills and gain a preview of an investigative newsroom's day-to-day activity.

  • Work from anywhere with an internet connection and may have flexible hours.

  • Learn to communicate clearly and efficiently through Zoom meetings, emails, and Slack.

  • Develop soft and hard skills, such as time management across various time zones, adaptability, and teamwork.

  • Network with people around the world and gain a sense of community.

How to apply:

Applicants must be members of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. (Join for free at this link.) Students from traditionally underrepresented groups and those attending HBCUs and MSIs are especially encouraged to apply.

Rising college juniors, seniors and graduate students, as well as individuals who graduated from college within the past three years with multimedia journalism skills, including print and broadcasting are welcome to apply via this online form. Applications close at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, January 10, 2025. Selections will be announced in early March.

The application requires a cover letter, a resume, five work samples and two letters of recommendation from individuals who can speak about your journalistic abilities and would be willing to answer any follow-up questions from the selection committee.

Candidates should be actively involved in campus media or have other news reporting experience and a demonstrated desire to incorporate investigative reporting techniques into their work as they aspire to advance their careers.