November 2020-January 2021

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AMERICAN STUDIES-CAREER MINOR INTERNSHIP REPORT November 2020-January 2021 Adriana Dancu, S3722937 Robijnstraat 16, Groningen +3162252285 a.da.dancu@student.rug.nl

Internship completed at the The Northern Times, Gedempte Zuiderdiep 98, Groningen

Name of external supervisor: Thomas Ansell Name of placement lecturer: Dr. Tim Jelfs

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Preface

I did a placement at The Northern Times as part of the Career Minor. Being an American Studies student, in my third year, I initially chose to do the Minor Abroad, already having been accepted to Northern Arizona University. However, because of the Coronavirus pandemic, I was forced to choose another minor. After a careful look into what each minor offered in terms of employability, I decided that the Career Minor was a good option.

The Career Minor included three courses, of which the third one (the practical assignment) is my internship. For the practical assignment I had to choose between doing a team project, or doing an internship. I chose to do an internship primarily because of the work experience it provides, and because I wanted to do something challenging and out of my comfort zone. Even though I was discouraged at first by one of the minor’s lecturers, I continued to look for an internship nonetheless.

The main source that I used to find an internship was the Career Services on Nestor. Having had a guest speaker from the Career Services that explained their main role helped me very much, because up to that point, I had never looked at what they do. From the Career Services I talked to Mrs. Esther Haag, who mentioned The Northern Times, and that my external supervisor (Thomas) studied at the University of Groningen, and could help me. Needless to say, I was very excited about working for a newspaper, thus, I took initiative and contacted Thomas on LinkedIn. Later on, he asked me for a CV, and a week later, we were discussing my assignments as part of the internship.

I think that the main reason why I chose this particular internship is that it gave me the opportunity to not only gain work experience, which is very much demanded by employers, but also because I could put into practice the skills that I have gained from both the Career Minor and

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2 from my BA studies (which I will expand on later), as well as because journalism is one of the careers that American Studies students can pursue.

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Introduction

The Northern Times is an online international newspaper webpage, which provides English

language content mostly for international people. The Northern Times was launched in 2016 as a collaboration between the International Welcome Center North (IWCN), and Persbureau Tammeling (GIC/Groningen Ondernemers Courant). It is the only English language newspaper in the North, and provides a range of news and feature pieces sourced from the international community and translated from Dutch media.

The International Welcome Center North (IWCN) is a one-stop shop for international people living in, and companies located in, Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. The IWCN offers services in three areas: government formalities (residence permits and municipal registration); information (practical information and referrals to reliable service providers); and social activities (a chance to start building a social and/or business network during activities and events). The IWCN also provides information to companies and organizations about formalities and practical matters concerning their international employees.

Initially, my placement assignments were supposed to involve several tasks. However, because of my writing skills, I focused only on content creation. The tasks that I was supposed to be performing (based on my skills) were:

• Content creation; • Social media promotion; • Reader participation.

These tasks would include writing articles/series, creation of multimedia content, the promotion of The Northern Times’ stories on its various social media channels. Regarding the competencies that I acquired during the internship; three main outcomes can be identified:

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5 • Journalistic writing;

• Multimedia production; • Independent work.

As a result of these outcomes, I improved my writing skills, and learnt how to switch from an academic writing style to a journalistic writing style, as well as what journalistic style means. Moreover, I had the opportunity to contribute with several original, and relevant pieces of articles, and I learnt how to be a good interviewer. Furthermore, throughout my internship I managed to further develop my independent work skills, because I had little assistance in doing my work.

Description of the placement organization

As mentioned before, The Northern Times is an online newspaper for internationals that provides English language content, publishing both original pieces, as well as news translated from Dutch media. The newspaper was launched in 2016. My supervisor, Thomas Ansell is the internationalization coordinator and staff member at the International Welcome Center North, and sub-editor at The Northern Times for which he contributes with eighty per cent of the output. The content that is published on The Northern Times consists of news and translations from Dutch media as well as many original, and themed articles written by several contributing writers.

Description of the placement itself (assignment, tasks, results, output)

During my internship at The Northern Times, I focused primarily on content creation. Even though, initially I was told that I might have to complete other tasks, such as social media promotion, because of the high quality of my writing skills I was assigned to focus mostly on content creation. My tasks consisted of doing everything that The Northern Times does. For instance, I contributed to the translation of various pieces from Dutch to English, each piece related to a different topic, such as healthcare, entertainment, housing, and Coronavirus news. Moreover, I had

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6 the opportunity to write my own series. Because I am an American Studies student, and the US elections were one of the most important events from 2020, I was asked to write some articles in that sense. The whole process of finding people to interview, asking the right questions, and making the articles be interesting was very exciting and fulfilling. Additionally, I also wrote a mini-series on online education at the University of Groningen. In those articles I focused on how online education affected students, if they still feel that they receive a high-quality education, as well as how teachers prepared for online teaching. Furthermore, one of my other tasks was to also edit other’s articles. Finally, after approximately a month through the internship I assisted to, and helped with the broadcasting of an online event that had 3,000 participants, which was a cooperation between several institutions, such as Campus Groningen, and the International Welcome Center North. I was in charge of the technical part, and that experience gave me useful experience and skills as well, such as team coordination, and multi-tasking.

Every task that I had to perform during my internship required extra preparation on my part, as I had to write about things I was unfamiliar with. However, learning to do new things was very pleasant, and had long-term usefulness. In addition, I believe that my mini-series did not only contribute to adding extra content to the newspaper, but they also addressed topics that were prevalent in 2020.

Evaluation

1. Learning outcomes, and acquired competencies

At the beginning of my internship, the most important thing for me was to gain experience in a working environment, to see to what extent I can put into practice what I have learnt so far in both the Career Minor, and my BA studies, as well as to see what new competencies I would gain at

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7 (this is explained in the third section), I also gained new competencies. Firstly, I had to switch my style of writing from academic writing to journalistic writing. This means that I could use a more colloquial language, and I did not necessarily have to always source something that I used from another website; I could use other material for inspiration, and if I did “cite” something, I used to create a hyperlink and the main purpose of it was to have higher chances of appearing in people’s news feed, rather than to justify the claims made in the article. The change was not difficult to make, but it was somehow uncomfortable, as I was used to always justify and back up my claims with facts. Journalistic writing required a different set of rules, however. When writing articles, I had to sometimes engage the reader, and be more careful with what I write in order to avoid litigation. Moreover, I learnt what being a journalist entails. For instance, I learnt how to conduct an interview, how to ask the right questions, and how to use the interviewee’s knowledge to write a good article.

2. The usefulness of knowledge and skills acquired in the Career Minor and the degree programme

Fortunately, throughout my internship, I did find the skills and knowledge acquired in the Career Minor, and my degree programme (American Studies) very useful, even though I did not use all of them.

The courses within the Career Minor that I did before the internship proved to be useful in actually getting the internship. For instance, a workshop that focused on how a CV should look, and what it should contain was extremely useful, as I could create a CV that stood out, was concise, and was tailored to the internship position. For instance, in my CV I showed why I would be a good candidate for the internship, that I am interested in current affairs, both national and international, and that I can adapt quickly to almost anything. Applying what I learnt at that

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8 workshop proved to be very useful, because the CV was the decisive document for getting or not getting the internship. Moreover, the lecture “Communication in a professional context” was also very useful because it taught me how important communication skills in organizational dynamics are; to not only be on the same path with your employer and colleagues, but to also make an impact. For instance, I realized that it is very important to communicate with Thomas and ask for any kind of clarifications, whether they are about the writing style, or the length of the article. Communication was also useful when I suggested I write my own mini-series; I had to convince Thomas that they fit into The Northern Times’ coverage, and that they are relevant. Team work was also very valuable because me and Thomas depended on each other. I depended on him to proof-read and edit my articles, and he counted on me to add to the newspaper’s output by contributing with relevant and original topics. Additionally, me and Thomas co-wrote a few Christmas themed articles, so we had to decide what to write about and who does what. At The

Northern Times, I realized that team-work is crucial because we depended on one another in order

to promote the newspaper’s goal: to bring English language media content in the Northern Netherlands.

As far as the usefulness of the skills I have learnt from my American Studies goes, the most useful were my writing skills. I do believe that the reason why I adapted very quickly to a new writing style, as well as how to structure the content of the articles to make them interesting, informative, and engaging, was due to courses such as Rhetoric and Composition, and the many papers that I had to write throughout my studies. For instance, I kept my articles concise and engaging, and I came up with catchy titles that would make them more likely to be read. The things that I found somewhat frustrating at first, however, were that I had the tendency to use very formal language, always back up the information, and add personal comments. When writing articles, I

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9 had to restrain from doing these things to some extent, because I had to make the articles engaging and not too long. The mini-series about the 2020 US elections is an example of how I am used to write, as they contain academic language, unlike daily articles I had to write, such as Coronavirus updates. Moreover, another skill that I have learnt during my BA studies, and turned out to be very useful, was critical thinking. When interviewing someone, I had to think about relevant and interesting questions. For instance, when I interviewed the three people for the US elections mini-series, I had to write different questions based on each of the interviewee’s knowledge and experience. To do this I had to do some research into what that person was good at, and I had to write the articles in an interesting but not too academic way, so everybody could read them.

3. Knowledge perhaps lacking, future career prospects

Working for The Northern Times was a very interesting, and eye-opening experience.

When I first chose to do an internship, I made that decision more in order to gain work experience, and because journalism is a career that American Studies students can pursue, even though I have never saw myself becoming a journalist. However, working at The Northern Times made me rethink my career choice, because I liked very much what I did. I liked writing, and having the chance to learn new things. For instance, I was asked to write some articles about healthcare in the Netherlands, about housing, and learning Dutch opportunities. I was not very knowledgeable about those topics, but by doing research, I helped others with the articles as much as I helped myself.

Even though I really liked working for The Northern Times, if I were to become a journalist, I would like to be more challenged; to write about more topics. Because The Northern Times’ content must be related to Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe, I could not write about more general topics that did not relate to this three provinces. In addition, I would also like to be able to use

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10 more what I have learnt during my studies. While my writing skills were very useful, I need to know that my BA studies are much more useful than that.

Another aspect that I struggled with was having my articles edited. While I know that that needed to be done, and that it was alright to not write everything perfectly, especially since I have never written for a newspaper before, I still felt like I was not good enough. Even though I was told by my supervisor that I am a good writer, and that his edits were not major changes, I still felt frustrated. Being edited, especially in order to avoid litigation, gave me the impression that I, or at least The Northern Times, was somehow being silenced. For instance, at the beginning of my internship, I had to write about the Dutch Minister of Education Arie Slob’s anti-LGBTQ+ statement: that religious schools can discriminate against this community. After sending Thomas what I wrote, I was asked to change some of my comments, because, even though it was unlikely to, they could be interpreted as defamatory. That is not to say that I used vulgar language, but rather that I openly expressed my problems with Slob’s statement. So, the end article was “nicer,” in the sense that I was told to just present the facts and let people decide whether they are problematic or not. I was told to lay out what happened, the context, why that is problematic for some people, and present some reactions to the Minister’s statement. That was a reasonable writing format, but I was a bit frustrated for not being allowed to delve deeper into the controversial aspect of the story and add my own comments. I know that because it is a rather new and small newspaper,

The Northern Times cannot afford to openly criticize someone or something, but it still made me

feel like it should call out behavior such as Slob’s.

As I said before, working for The Northern Times was as much fun and interesting as it was challenging and fulfilling. If I were given the choice, I would do this internship again, as I met great people, I learnt what being part of an organization means, and I gained very valuable skills

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11 while putting my acquired skills during the Career Minor and BA studies into practice, and further developing them.

4. Practical assignment for The Northern Times

The Northern Times was launched in 2016 as a collaboration between the International Welcome Center North (IWCN), and Persbureau Tammeling (GIC/Groningen Ondernemers Courant). The social function of the news website, as I have discovered, is of huge importance, especially for internationals. Being a non-Dutch speaking person myself, I have always struggled with getting up to date news, which is very important, especially during this pandemic. Moreover, the lack of English language content within Dutch news is quite disappointing given the increasing number of internationals, especially students that come to the Netherlands every year. The Northern Times, therefore, is crucial not only for providing reliable, concise, and accurate information, but also for the further integration of internationals withing the country, and for familiarizing them with opportunities, and events. Even though The Northern Times focuses on only the northern part of the Netherlands (Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe), and is a relatively new newspaper, I have witnessed its importance first hand. Unfortunately, however, the newspaper does not have funds. This affects both The Northern Times’ output, and its chance to grow. For instance, there are not enough funds to hire writers, which automatically means less content, and the newspaper loses the chance to reach a larger audience as fast as it would if there were funds for advertising, for example. I have, therefore, conducted a practical assignment to prove the importance of The

Northern Times, and the necessity for financial investments.

The practical assignment that I conducted consists of data points, and of a survey, completed mostly by students.

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Moreover, while the majority of the newspaper’s users are internationals, with an estimated of 61.07 per cent of them being of English origin, or relying solely on the English language, 13.45 per cent of the followers are Dutch people. This shows that The Northern Times’ content is not important only for non-Dutch speaking people, but also for native Dutch speakers, because of the clarity and thoroughness of the newspaper, which I have noticed myself. Furthermore, the outreach of the newspaper proves its importance as well. In the same period mentioned above (13th

of January to 20th of January), The Northern Times reached an average of 956 persons daily, and an average of 3,071 persons weekly.

Firstly, let us consider the data points on social media. On Facebook, The Northern Times has 6,142 followers. A recent overview (the side figure) of those followers shows that in one week (between the 13th of January and 20th of January 2021), The Northern Times had a total of 3,435 users, and 2,545 (69.3 per cent) new users. Additionally, the newspaper also has a strong base of “returning users” (30.7 per cent).

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13 The data points presented above show not only the popularity rate of the newspaper among both Dutch people and internationals, but also the website’s potential to attract and/or reach a significant higher number of people, were it financed.

The second part of the assignment consists of a survey. The survey was completed by 31 people, most of them students. Unlike the data points presented above, this survey was completed by mostly Dutch people. Nevertheless, this only shows the importance of English language content within Dutch media. For instance, the survey shows that 58.1 per cent consider having English language content “very important,” while only 3.2 per cent consider it “not important at all.”

1569 251 3090 2605 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

13-Jan-21 14-Jan-21 15-Jan-21 16-Jan-21 17-Jan-21 18-Jan-21 19-Jan-21

Pe o p le r e ac h e d

Daily/monthly outreach

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14 Moreover, 41.9 per cent of those who completed the survey admitted that they know at least someone who struggles with the lack of English language content within Dutch media. Thus, while

The Northern Times does provide English language content, financial investment in the website

would further reduce the language barrier that internationals face, and it would also gain Dutch users. Another important factor is the content itself. The survey revealed that for 64.5 per cent of those who completed the survey, the most important content is content regarding news, information about official documents, and Coronavirus news and regulations. The Northern Times provides this exact content besides various original pieces. Further, the number of users would be increased if it had enough funds, and if it were promoted more. Additionally, while Dutch media has been the most relied on source of information about the Coronavirus, the survey shows that for 9.7 per cent of the people who completed the survey, The Northern Times has been the main source of information.

Even though the number of people who completed the survey was not overwhelming, it does not undermine the point of this assignment. On the contrary, it shows that the language barrier

10%

58% 16%

13% 3%

The importance of English language content

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15 internationals deal with is noticed by Dutch people as well. They too recognize the importance of English language content. Similarly, the data points presented above justifies the necessity of financial investments for The Northern Times. The current outreach of the newspaper, plus its relevant, and up to date content makes the newspaper all the more important, and investing in it would only make it more popular, and would increase its output.

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Appendices

In the following appendices I added some of the articles I wrote (80 in total) for The Northern

Times. Appendix 1 MINI- SERIES ABOUT ONLINE EDUCATION AT THE RUG TITLE LINK Here Here Here

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17 Appendix 2 MINI-SERIES ABOUT THE 2020 US ELECTIONS TITLE LINK Here Here Here