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An Intern’s View: From Journalism To Copywriting
By admin | September 7, 2012
Nicola Fox, IDK’s most recent intern, shares some insights to her experience with the venture, and what she learned along the way.
I applied for an internship with Irish Deaf Kids during my degree in Journalism and Visual Media and was thrilled when Caroline welcomed me aboard in December 2010. My work with IDK was varied during this time, but mainly focused on researching and writing articles for the IDK blog.
During my time at IDK, I learned a lot from Caroline who became a mentor and friend. Learning about children with moderate to profound deafness, inspired me to delve into a world that I had no previous knowledge of.
Researching topics for IDK made me curious about communication realities and possibilities for children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.
As a result, the research thesis for my MA in International Communications was titled, ‘Social Inclusion and Digital Identity: An Exploration of Facebook as a Communication Tool for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People’.
The three things which I didn’t know before working with IDK:
- A huge range of hearing exists within what is defined as being ‘deaf’.
- People who are deaf communicate in several ways. Not all deaf people sign, not everyone lip-reads, and verbal skills range equally.
- People who are deaf do not live in a silent world.
What did you find most challenging about working with IDK?
While writing for IDK and my research thesis, the biggest issue was trying to educate other people in the varying degrees of deafness while educating myself on the communicative abilities of deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Did working with IDK shape your work after moving on from here?
I loved working with IDK but unfortunately had to move on from this exemplary venture. Working here gave me the passion to commit to doing my MA thesis and furthered my job prospects. For example, my current role in marketing requires copywriting, a skill I learned while with IDK.
(compiled by Nicola Fox)
Further Reading
* Search irishdeafkids.ie for Nicola’s blog posts
Related Posts
* An Intern’s View: From Journalism To Technology
* The Intern’s View: Moving Into Non-Profit Work
* An Intern’s View: Getting To Really Communicate
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