Early career workers granted creative autonomy: agency shifts intern debate towards industry expectations

ABSTRACT

This research contributes to debates on intern labour, particularly preparing young workers for careers in the culture industries and exploitative experiences that may hinder their success. The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of the skillsets required by young practitioners and how creative autonomy can be a fruitful conceptual tool to shift the internship debate from meaningful or (self-)exploitative, paid and unpaid, professional experiences. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with current students and recent college graduates, the analysis shows participants earn creative autonomy by understanding the implicit and explicit expectations of the role and responsibilities of culture industry positions. Interviewees who understand these institutional practices and their role within corporate governance structures shed the status of interns and provide value by contributing meaningful work at the internship site. However, young workers who lack awareness of these industry dynamics of working conditions are typically neglected by site supervisors and assigned exploitative tasks. The findings describe how these individuals would benefit from structured internship programmes with site supervisors who help develop their skillset and learn industry norms through shadowing and observation to pursue more ideal career paths or professionally rewarding experiential learning experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Public relations
• culture industries
• interns
• precarious labour
• creative autonomy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I follow Banks’ (2010) rationale for favouring the term cultural industry over creative, noting that while used interchangeably, culture industry refers to advertising, television, film, radio, music, and fashion sectors where activities involve the aesthetic or symbolic production of goods and services.

2. See Lain et al. (2014) work on evaluating internships in terms of governance structures and distinctions between working conditions.

3. All participants have been given pseudonyms to protect their identity. In addition, names of each participant’s internship site and university have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

4. See https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/work-placements-arts-and-cultural-sector-diversity-equality-and-access.

5. See www.creativecontexts.org.

6. Learn more about the toolkits at https://criticalworkplacements.sophiehope.org.uk.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph R. Giomboni

Joseph Giomboni, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Communications, Social Media Production at Susquehanna University. He earned his doctorate from Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. His research interests include digital and creative labour, internships, political economies of cultural production, crisis communication, and public relations theory. He previously served for 14 years as the Assistant Director of Public Relations at King’s College, Pennsylvania, managing social media platforms, writing news releases and profiles, media relations, and digital media production.