Earlier this week, David Dennis, an alum of Northwestern’s graduate school of journalism, argued in the Guardian that unpaid internships have changed the news industry for the worse.
Since students from low- and middle-class backgrounds often don’t have the means to accept unpaid internships, Dennis wrote, their chances of landing a job decrease. Subsequently, their perspectives are absent from news coverage. And that, Dennis wrote, “alienates a large portion of the American population.”
But it’s not just news companies offering unpaid internships, which made us wonder – how has the rise in internships (and especially unpaid internships) changed industries in the United States? What options are available to students who can’t afford unpaid internships? What role have schools played in promoting unpaid internships?
Join writer David Dennis (@DavidDTSS), Guardian U.S. finance columnist Helaine Olen (@helaineolen) and Gina Neff Ph.D. (@ginasue), an associate professor at the University of Washington, this Friday at 1:30 PM ET for a discussion on how unpaid internships are impacting industry. The chat will take place on this page. You can leave your questions in advance in the comments, or tweet your question with the hashtag #InternshipChat.
Want to help more stories about the intern economy be told? Donate to our Kickstarter campaign!