Speakers

Image of LEAP 2024: Promoting civic cognizance: conducting primary source analysis and accurate public media production and distributions - Abstracts

LEAP 2024: Promoting civic cognizance: conducting primary source analysis and accurate public media production and distributions - Abstracts

Panel 43: Promoting civic cognizance: conducting primary source analysis and accurate public media production and distribution

In this panel, we will discuss summer internships focused on research, public media production, and distribution. The first panelist worked as a marketing assistant with Media Education Foundation (MEF), a non profit, to prepare social media content, research professors, and expand outreach for the organization. The next panelist interned with a local independent newspaper to cover Amherst town politics and manage the organization’s social media outreach. Another panelist worked as a production assistant for an NPR affiliate radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, that centered social justice and intra-community dialogue, where they specialized in cold booking, audio editing, digital journalism, and scriptwriting. Our final panelist worked in New York at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies for its Data Hub. She transcribed primary source documents, analyzed data, and did archival research that will aid a research project to uncover the history of displacement behind New York’s Lincoln Center.

Learning to Pivot
Elizabeth Alzawahra ’25, Psychology and Politics double major, Education Policy Nexus

Data Input/Analysis: Uncovering a Hidden History
Camila Juarbe ’26, English and Critical Race and Political Economy double major, Journalism, Media, Public Discourse Nexus

Amplifying Marginalized Voices: A Look Inside the Making of Public Radio and Digital Media
Lenox Johnson ’26, Romance Language major & Journalism, Media, Public Discourse Nexus

Local News, Local Politics
Shira Sadeh ’25, Politics and Religion double major, Journalism, Media, and Public Discourse Nexus

Speaker name: Shira Sadeh
Title: Local News, Local Politics
In my sophomore year, I interned with the Amherst Independent, a volunteer-run online newspaper for the town of Amherst and the surrounding Pioneer Valley. I first came into contact with the Amherst Indy when I emailed the editor with a story pitch. After writing the story, he asked if I was interested in becoming a regular contributing writer, a role which we then worked together to turn into an internship. While there, I covered the town’s Human Rights Commission, a town commission that works to ensure that the local government continues to protect human rights for town residents. I did this by attending meetings and events and interviewing key actors. While there, I also managed the Indy’s Facebook page and started its Instagram page to draw in a wider audience, with a focus on diversifying the Indy’s audience and reaching more young people in the Five College area.

Speaker name: Elizabeth Alzawahra
Title: Learning to Pivot
This summer, I was a marketing assistant for the Media Education Foundation (MEF) in Northampton, Massachusetts. MEF is a nonprofit organization that “produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical thinking about the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media”. During my internship, I conducted research on professors and film festivals to market films towards, created social media posts, and helped test their new website. While this internship was very substantive, it wasn’t what I originally sought out to do. In this presentation, I will share how I learned to pivot; how to turn an internship that may not originally align with your goals, into one that helps push you to where you need to be.

Speaker name: Camila Juarbe
Title: Data Input/Analysis: Uncovering a Hidden History
This presentation reflects on my summer working in the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in Hunter College, New York City. While I was initially expecting to work in editing for the center’s journal, I was assigned to be a Research and Communications Intern, working instead for the Data Hub. I inputted/analyzed primary document data that would work to uncover the history of the communities that were displaced in order to build the Lincoln Center. I did a bit of archival and social media work, but my primary role was in data management, which I had never done before. However, as soon as I started working, I felt compelled, and motivated to fulfill my duties, and see my small part in this expansive research project through.

Speaker name: Lenox Johnson
Title: Amplifying Marginalized Voices: A Look Inside the Making of Public Radio and Digital Media
Panelist Lenox Johnson spent three months as a production assistant for WABE 90.1, an NPR affiliate station based in Atlanta, Georgia. The student worked alongside the producers and host of “Closer Look,” a one-hour radio segment broadcast daily on live radio and international streaming platforms. There, she underwent one-on-one training with Emmy/Murrow-winning journalist, producer, and show host Rose Scott. Johnson gained hands-on experience in cold booking, audio editing and optimization, scriptwriting, and copywriting — often under time restraint. Each day, she conducted timely research on on-air interviewees and produced comprehensive, short-form articles highlighting the contents of the show. The content of “Closer Look” is largely centered around intra-community dialogue, with an emphasis on marginalized groups and social justice.