Hello! My name is Francesco Speciale and I am second year Communication Science student. In the last semester I chose to take the internship course. After a couple of months of searching for an intern position, I bumped into an interesting announcement on the UvA Job Board. The announcement read: “Musical Journalism – Resonate Productions”. Music and journalism are two of my biggest passions, so I was thrilled when I saw that vacation! In particular, they were looking for a Communication or Marketing student, so it was best fitting for my studies. I responded to the announcement and within a couple of weeks, I was accepted for the position. My time at Resonate Productions lasted 3 months, from April to June 2023.
Resonate Productions is a cultural foundation based in Amsterdam which creates musical journalism. Musical journalism is a combination of social journalism with music. The foundation produces documentary-concerts, podcasts or films. Their last production was Millennial History, a podcast which narrates events (like the German reunification) in recent history through the experiences of millennials who were there when they happened. Interviews were combined with music from the countries involved in these events and made into a podcast.
My role at Resonate Productions mostly involved content creation. The foundation is still creating a long-lasting audience; therefore, they are now focusing on bringing a good quality communication. My job was to comply to this goal by creating posts and stories for their social media channels. With this task, I was able to apply what I had learned during university courses, such as cognitive and social heuristics.
One of my posts
Additionally, I was tasked to produce a series of interviews of the artists working for the new project. The interviews were to be shared on social media to introduce the followers to the personalities behind the brand. Thanks to this, I could refine my interviewing skills and learn more about video editing. This also sparked the idea for a research project. It would have been relevant to study whether artists’ self-disclosure on social media increases engagement. In agreements with my supervisor, I run an experiment on the topic. The results surprisingly showed how Instagram users were less willing to engage with an artist who uses self-disclosure than with an artist who did not.
Overall, learning practical skills is the most valuable aspect of my experience with this internship. Knowing how communication is built in practice and how to behave in a working environment are things you can hardly experience during regular university courses, which focus more on theory. I am grateful I had this opportunity!