Final placement report

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Final placement report

MA International Relations and International Organisation

Student: Martina Alice Candela Student number: S4148355

Placement supervisor RUG: Dr. Bastiaan Aardema Placement provider: Democratic Integrity

Placement supervisor at Democratic Integrity: Ms. Alexandra Pardal Course: LYX000M10 Master’s placement

Duration of the placement: February 1, 2021 – March 31, 2021 Date of submission: April 20, 2021

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As part of the Master programme of International Relations and International Organisation at Groningen University, I was required to perform a mandatory placement of the minimum duration of 7 weeks. I conducted my placement from February 1 to March 31, 2021 as the personal assistant of the Executive Director of Democratic Integrity, an investigative journalism NGO based in the UK. Since I started this master in February 2020, I could not wait to do a placement in the field of international relations.

I studied International Relations in my Bachelor, and I decided to go on studying this discipline also in my master: however, I did not have time to gain professional experience in the field, because I started this Master at the University of Groningen shortly after I graduated from my Bachelor. For this reason, I was anxious to undertake an internship before entering the job market. Moreover, I looked forward to going abroad and maybe embarking on an adventure in a country I had never visited before.

However, things did not go as I expected. Due to the covid pandemic, searching for a placement has been particularly challenging; several internship programmes were suspended, and most of the employers could not ensure that interns could work on site.

In this report, I will describe my personal experience as an intern at Democratic Integrity.

The report is structured in three sections, that cover three different time periods: before, during and after the placement. The first section illustrates the orientation and searching process, considering how I came across the placement offer and why I decided to send an application for that position. Moreover, in this section, I will give a short description of the mission and objectives of Democratic Integrity together with the preparation and expectations prior to the placement. The second section, instead, explores the tasks I had to carry out every day as part of the internship. In the third section I will reflect on my performance and personal achievements during the placement; moreover, I will consider to what extent the placement experience met my expectations and how it helped me for my future career. In the end, I will provide some tips for students interested in undertaking a placement at Democratic Integrity and concluding remarks.

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2. Before the Placement

2.1 Orientation and application process

As I already said, this placement was my first working experience in the field of international relations, and for this reason, I wanted to have the best experience possible. I aimed at finding an internship in a challenging working environment, where I could test and improve my research and analytical skills, while also acquiring practical knowledge in new areas, such as in the use of computer programmes or communication.

I started looking for a placement in August 2020. Because of the pandemic, finding an internship had become increasingly difficult, since many companies and organisations limited and/or suspended their internship offers. For this reason, I decided to first write my thesis in the Autumn semester (from September 2020 to January 2021) and then, start the internship in February 2021, hoping that the number of infections would have decreased after summer, thus rendering the search of a job easier. However, the covid curve kept on growing and the situation of the job market remained the same.

Before the university communicated to the students that it would have not be possible to do the placement abroad, I applied for the European Union traineeship programmes. However, my applications did not pass the selection procedure.

Even though, I strongly desired to undertake a placement at the European Union, I was also aware of the high number of applications that EU offices receive every year for their traineeship programmes and that it is highly improbable to pass the selection at the first attempt. Hence, I tried to be more realistic, and I decided to create an account on Linkedin and start scoping NGOs and companies searching for job vacancies.

At first, I looked for job offers in Italy, my home country, and the Netherlands, because the University made clear that it was possible to conduct an internship on site only in these two countries. In a second moment, realising that almost all organisations in Europe were offering online placements, I opened myself up to the possibility of doing an internship by remote. Hence, I started sending several applications to organisations all over Europe, using online platforms, such as Linkedin, but also contacting organisations and institutions directly.

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During the Autumn Semester in 2020, a group of classmates and I used to study together and sometimes we shared thoughts and tips regarding the search of a placement. A classmate of mine suggested that I gave a look at this small British NGO, which was in a start-up phase, and see whether they were searching for an intern. In this way, I discovered Democratic Integrity. By exploring the website, I noticed that the organisation’s mission was compatible with my interests and especially with the placement criteria indicated by the University. Moreover, I was particularly interested in being part of an organisation that was internationally oriented and learning more on the functioning and structure of an NGO.

Since the NGO was in a start-up phase there was no section dedicated to job openings on their website and for this reason, I decided to contact them directly. I found on Linkedin the name of the Executive Director of the organisation, Ms. Alexandra Pardal, and I sent her an email asking whether the organisation was searching for an intern. Ms. Pardal told me that they were actually searching for an intern, and she asked me to send her my CV and a sample of my academic work via email. Eventually, she invited me for a skype interview. During the interview, Alexandra asked my opinion on current political and geopolitical events and asked me to comment the research papers I had previously sent her as part of my application. In this way, I had the chance to show my interest in international relations and in the organisation’s mission.

Few days later, I was told that I passed the interview and that I could start working as an intern for the organisation. Me and Alexandra agreed upon the terms of the placement, which was conducted full-time for the duration of two months.

2.2 Democratic Integrity

Democratic Integrity is a new-born non-profit and non-governmental organisation based in London, the UK, whose mission is to protect democracy, freedoms and rights through campaigns and investigative journalism. The objective of the British organisation is to shed light on current developments in politics and international relations, that could affect people’s freedoms in Europe. In the period I spent working for them, their main topics of interest were disinformation and freedom of speech, and the potential threats that the digital transformation is bringing about in Western democracies.

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2.3 Placement preparation and expectations

Since I was confirmed for the internship on the first days of January, and the placement was supposed to start in February, I had plenty of time to prepare.

My chief sent me some documents to read before the starting of the placement. I was asked to familiarize myself with European Union policies and policy proposals to counter the threat of disinformation, and to read papers of research on Russian state-sponsored disinformation in Western countries. Hence, my work of preparation consisted mainly of informing myself on the phenomenon of foreign state disinformation in Europe, with a focus on Russia. Additionally, I was provided with the research programme of Democratic Integrity for the year 2021, so that I could have an overview of the issues the organisation is working on.

My placement preparation was only related to the reading of documents; since the placement was an online placement, I did not have to search for housing or handle the finances, because I was based in my house in Italy.

As the tasks and duties described in the internship offer were quite vague, prior to the starting of the internship I had diverse expectations. First, I expected to improve my research and investigative skills in themes related to international relations and politics. Second, I expected to engage in research on the media, something that was completely new to me. In addition, I expected to gain more confidence in working with computer programmes and to manage my own project of research.

3. Tasks carried out during the placement

At Democratic Integrity, I worked as the personal assistant of the Executive Director and I helped her in carrying out research and fundraising activities. On some occasions, I was asked to perform other tasks, such as reporting on online seminars or contacting other researchers outside of the organisation. In the following paragraphs I will describe the tasks I carried out in the two months of the internship.

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3.1 Research

During the first month of the placement, I participated in a research project on state-sponsored disinformation on media channels. My tasks were to conduct background research on policy proposals and legislation adopted by individual European countries and the European Union to counter disinformation and regulate social media on the internet. I was asked to collect valuable information on these topics and then report it on a Google document, shared with the Executive Director.

I consulted several sources and collected information by reading academic articles but also online newspapers and think tanks’ studies.

I found extremely interesting to engage with the world of the media and media regulation, something that I have never investigated before. I delved into the current debate on media regulation and especially on the regulation of big tech companies and their role in tackling disinformation and hate speech.

Moreover, I gathered information on Russian media, and I compared them with western ones, such as the BBC or the Deutsche Welle. In order to do so, I had to investigate national regulations concerning broadcasting licenses. However, I found this task particularly challenging, because of language barriers (information in English was difficult to find) and a general difficulty in finding the right information on the internet. Since the direct research of public broadcasting regulations produced no results, I decided to search for internet platforms that cover general themes related to law and media, such as the European platform of regulatory authorities or the German Law Archive, where I was able to find what I was looking for.

In the second month of the internship, I was assigned to another research project. This project was about biometrics and specifically on the use of biometric technologies, such as facial recognition, for mass surveillance. I spent the first days after I was assigned to this project, to familiarise myself with the topic and in this time, I learnt more on the nature of biometrics (i.e., what is biometrics and what are biometric technologies) and the reasons why biometric data are so sensitive (i.e., problematics related to privacy and human rights).

Every week I had one to two calls with my chief, who supervised my work. On those occasions, I communicated my progress in research and other tasks, and in return, I received a feedback. At the end of the internship, I wrote a report on my research activity in both projects. In this report, I described the research methods employed, the sources I consulted and the outcomes of my research. Moreover, I dedicated a section of this report to my recommendations for future research

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projects. These recommendations encompassed research methods, sources, topics, and ideas for future research studies.

In conclusion, I can affirm that the work of research on these topics, enriched my knowledge on the many existing problematics related to privacy and human rights linked to the use of technologies and gave me expertise in dealing with technology within the field of International Relations.

3.2 Fundraising

The second important activity I carried out during my placement, is fundraising. My task was to search for trusts and foundations that could potentially finance Democratic Integrity and then, report the data on available funding and grant opportunities using Excel Spreadsheets. As the organisation is in a start-up phase, is of utmost importance to find investors that can cover the costs of the research projects and of the other expenses of the NGO.

During the first week of the placement, I had a call with the person responsible for fundraising within Democratic Integrity. She explained me how to perform fundraising activities and gave me some tips on where to find valuable information on foundations. During the two months of the internship, I examined internet portals, such as the European Foundation Centre or the UK Charity Commission website, to find foundations compatible with the structure and objectives of Democratic Integrity. My research was not limited to these platforms, in fact, I was able to find names of funders through the analysis of Democratic Integrity competitors’ websites and social networks. Then, I reported the names and all useful information regarding grants, calls for applications and deadlines on Excel tables.

At the end of the internship, I was asked to write a list of recommendations on fundraising based on my experience.

3.3 Additional tasks

Throughout the internship I conducted diverse tasks. Twice I had to report on online seminars on disinformation. The first online event was held by the Crime and Security Research Institute of Cardiff University on February 23, 2021 and dealt with the use of Topic Models to understand troll

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organisations. My chief was particularly interested in the research conducted by Prof. Shapiro, the speaker of the conference, and asked me to contact him via email after the event was over. In the email, I introduced myself and asked to Prof. Shapiro some advice on research methodology to investigate state-sponsored disinformation on social media.

The second seminar was held by the American think tank All Tech is Human on February 25, 2021. This event was about misinformation and free expression. As in the first case, I was asked to take notes during the event and then, communicate to my chief the most relevant information.

Since the organisation is relatively new, my chief asked me to help her in the optimisation of the search engine. I had to do some research and then write useful guidelines to increase the visibility of Democratic Integrity’s website on the internet. It was interesting to learn the process through which Google generates results from web pages and the best practices to increase the ranking of a website on Google, such as the use of backlinks and the structure of URLS. It was something completely new for me, and sometimes it took me more time than usual to understand some concepts related to the functioning of websites and the meaning of certain technical words. Even though informatics does not fall within my field of studies, I enjoyed engaging with it and learning new things, that could potentially help me in my future job.

4. After the placement

4.1 Personal reflection on the placement

Reflection on the connection between the placement and IR

Most of the tasks and activities I have undertaken during the placement at Democratic Integrity, are highly related to international relations. Even though, Democratic Integrity is an investigative journalism NGO, the topics it deals with, namely disinformation, technology, and human rights, are deeply connected to international relations. My experience as a master student at Groningen University helped me performing tasks of research during the placement. This is because I already learnt research methods and theory in the university courses of the Pre-Master and of the IRIO Master. Moreover, the skills required to carry out research for the placement are the same required for conducting IR research, namely critical thinking, writing and analytical skills.

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When doing research on disinformation and media regulation I analysed legislation drafts and regulations of the European Union, such as the European Digital Strategy or the General Data Protection Regulation, and this enriched my knowledge of the European Union in the field of privacy and technology. The new things I learnt on the work of the EU in these fields, complement the knowledge acquired during the research seminar in European Policy Making, which I attended in the first semester of the academic year 2020/2021.

Besides research, I consider fundraising, the second activity I conducted during the placement, to be related to my field of study. In order to find funders for Democratic Integrity, I visited and examined the websites of many international foundations and NGOs. NGOs are important actors in the field of international affairs and the activity of fundraising, helped me understanding how NGOs work and the strategies they employ to search and obtain funding.

Reflection on my personal growth and learning process

During the placement, I had the opportunity to learn more not only on the NGOs working environment and topics in international relations, but also on myself and my capabilities. This internship contributed to my personal growth and highlighted my strengths and weaknesses. One of my personal learning objectives, prior to starting this placement, was to gain more confidence in exposing my ideas and carrying out research tasks.

Working for Democratic Integrity, I realised that I am capable to do every task, no matter how difficult it is, if I dedicate time and effort to it. For instance, when my chief assigned me the task of producing a document of guidelines on SEO (search engine optimisation), at first, I was confused, and I was afraid not to understand IT concepts and processes. Furthermore, I have never had an interest in informatics, and for this reason, I thought this task would have been boring.

However, when I started reading blogs and articles dealing with SEO, I found this topic surprisingly interesting, and I felt like I wanted to know more. I dedicated extra time to this task but in the end, I was able to produce an exhaustive guide on SEO and to write down relevant advice for Alexandra. This experience taught me not to have prejudice on matters I have never dealt with before, and not to discourage at the first difficulties but to approach tasks with a positive attitude.

Even though, I still have a long way to go, I think this experience helped me gaining confidence in myself and my capabilities. For example, I realised that I have good time management and organisation skills; I never missed a deadline and I always accomplished Alexandra’s requests.

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Another thing that makes me happy is realising that I can now communicate with my superiors with more confidence. In fact, prior to the placement, I found extremely difficult to ask for help and/or advice to my superiors, a bit for shyness and a bit because I am convinced, I can handle everything myself. Because of my reluctance in doing so, it happened many times in university, that it took me longer to perform certain tasks because I missed some information that I could easily obtain by asking to my professors.

Nonetheless, the good relationship between me and my supervisor within Democratic Integrity, encouraged me to express any doubt or question concerning my work. Sometimes, it happened that Alexandra’s suggestions on where to find good sources for my research, noticeably reduced the time spent in searching for information. From this experience, I have learnt that asking for help is ok and most of the time, people are more than willing to help you.

Reflection on prior expectations

Prior to this experience, I had no idea of what to expect from an online placement.

After I spent two months working from home, I can now reflect on the challenges and advantages of doing an internship by remote.

Working from home has of course some advantages: for instance, I could manage my time as I liked. On the one side, I was relatively free from time schedules and I could start working anytime during the day as long as I completed my tasks. In this way, I could also have some free time for myself. However, on the other side, I found extremely depressing to spend the days working from my room and for this reason, I felt the need to go out and walk for 30 minutes to one hour every day to distract my mind from work and release the stress.

Since I worked independently, I did not have the possibility to talk with colleagues. Even though Alexandra Pardal contacted me every day on Signal or the email and called me once or twice per week, I did not have the opportunity to work in a team. It happened twice, that I called the organisation’s fundraising consultant for advice, but I did not have any contact with other colleagues except for the two I already mentioned.

Since the organisation is small, I already knew before starting this placement that I would have been in contact with few people. However, I understood that being part of a team is something that I would like to experience in my future job.

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As I already mentioned in the second chapter of this report, prior to the internship I expected to improve my research and investigative skills in IR and to deal with new topics of research and more specifically with the media. Undoubtedly, this placement gave me the opportunity to explore new topics in international relations but also to delve deeper into themes I was already familiar with. The two research projects I participated to, involved the study of the media as means of information but also as objects of research. On the one side, especially in the case of biometrics, because it is still a new topic in the academic field, most of the news about the use of these technologies were reported in newspapers rather than academic papers. Thus, the media provided me with most of the information I needed. On the other side, the media have been at the centre of my research as objects of legislation in the EU and European countries.

Because this internship rotated mostly around research, I had the chance to improve my analytical and investigative skills. However, in my opinion, doing an online placement limited the development of more practical abilities.

For instance, before starting the placement I wanted to gain more confidence in working with computer programmes and maybe engage with quantitative research. But in the end, I did not use any new programme to carry out my tasks nor I worked with numbers and statistics. In this sense, I did not learn anything new, if not the use of Excel and other Microsoft programmes.

Furthermore, I expected to manage my own project of research. Even though, I was responsible of the two research works Alexandra assigned to me, I did not conduct original research but through my investigations I supported the organisation’s projects.

I can consider myself partially satisfied with the work I conducted as an intern at Democratic Integrity. On the one side, my expectations concerning the improvement of research related skills have been satisfied, while, on the other side the internship did not meet my other expectations on the use of computer programmes and management responsibilities.

To conclude, I am convinced that I could not expect much more from an online internship, especially in these difficult times. In order to have an engaging experience, in terms of professional development and human contacts, it is necessary to work on site.

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4.2 Career Prospects

This internship gave me the opportunity to reflect on my future career and more specifically on what I want and what I do not want to do. During the placement I noticed that I enjoyed doing fundraising and working on Search Engine Optimisation, rather than attending webinars and conducting research. While I always found interesting to engage with new topics in IR, I realised that I do not want to be a researcher in the future.

Even though I still do not know what job suits me best, after graduation I think I will search for a job in a company, so that I will be able to learn and develop new professional skills, ideally in one of following sectors: communication, marketing, and policy consultancy.

4.3 Tips for future students

A general advice I can give to future students, is to start early searching for a placement. Because of the covid pandemic and other personal issues, it took me four months before obtaining a position as an intern in an organisation I was interested in. Hence, especially If you want to be hired in a specific organisation or company, I suggest that you start applying one academic semester in advance.

Moreover, I suggest keeping the mind open to many possibilities; even if you do not obtain the internship of your dreams, what matters is that you can find an internship that allows you to acquire valuable working experience and develop your skills.

A more specific advice for those students who want to undertake an internship at Democratic Integrity in the future is: Do not be afraid to broaden your interests and experience during the placement!

The Executive Director and founder of the organisation, Alexandra Pardal, is very flexible and she cares that her interns have a positive experience. Hence, if you want to explore a new topic in IR or want to improve your skills in a specific field, even if it is something that is not included in your daily tasks, just go for it.

For example, in the last weeks of the placement, I asked Alexandra if I could write a news article. Since I was an intern in an organisation of investigative journalism, I felt like I wanted to learn how to write a newspaper article. Alexandra accepted my request and gave me some advice on the writing style and the text structure. In the end, I produced an article on the use of biometric

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technologies. Even though she could not publish it, she supported my request and now I know more on the style and structure of newspaper articles.

Conclusion

Due to the covid pandemic, I met many obstacles in the process of finding an internship. It took me more than four months to find a placement position and in addition, I had to adapt working from home. Nonetheless, I am quite satisfied with my internship: I acquired working experience, I improved my skills and most importantly, I gained new connections and professional contacts. For these reasons, I am proud of myself to have completed an internship in these difficult times.

Final placement report