Get ready for Critical Social Justice: Baltimore 365 with our “What You Need to Know” series. 

In light of the Baltimore Uprisings this past spring, media literacy–the ability to find and analyze media–is now all the more important. For example, when the Baltimore Sun places a photo of a police car being vandalized on their front page, as opposed to a photo showing two rival gangs joining together to peacefully protest police brutality in their city, they are sending the message that all protesters are violent.

What narrative does the Baltimore Sun, CNN, or Fox News create about Baltimore? What story are we receiving from these sources? What is missing from these narratives? And why do large media platforms tell a different story than the one residents and activists of Baltimore tell through their tweets and recordings of police in their city? Media literacy requires us to answer these questions and think critically about the messages we receive, where we receive them from, and what they might be missing.

• Media literacy is the ability to find, analyze, and create media.
  • Twitter in many ways increases media literacy because it allows real people to both create and access various kinds of media outlets quickly and easily.
  • Facebook Groups are a way to enhance engagement with particular social justice issues. The forum that Facebook provides allows communication among community members that can shape how they understand the media they receive. Through engaging with specific issues and starting dialogues with one another, Facebook users can better see what is left out of mainstream news sources’ accounts of a story, and can detect when a news story is slanted or biased. They can use the skills they gain in these groups each time they encounter media messages.
• New media is digital, interactive, easier to access, and evolving at a rapid pace.
  • Instagram allows you to visually track events, protests, and news in real-time through the use of hashtags and following specific users. It also eliminates the hierarchy of who can produce and access news.
  • Hashtags are a method of new media, used to track and organize specific information. Here are some examples:
    • #FreddieGray – created both to honor Freddie Gray who was murdered by Baltimore police, and to organize protests around the city. This hashtag allows people to keep up and engage with news about Freddie Gray.
    • #SayHerName – created to honor black women who have been murdered and to bring attention to how black women experience policing, profiling, and violence.
    • #BaltimoreUprising – This hashtag was created to illustrate and organize the community activism taking place in Baltimore city. From organizing marches to getting groups together to clean up the city, this hashtag makes it easy to find information as well as get involved with the activism taking place in Baltimore.
    • #BlackLivesMatter – created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, this hashtag has sparked a nationwide movement to anti-Black racism that permeates our society.

For more about media literacy as it relates to the Baltimore Uprisings, check out these articles:

News Media Struggle to Present a Balanced Picture of Baltimore Unrest

What’s Being Said in the Media vs. What’s Really Happening in Baltimore

Learn more about media as it relates to Baltimore at the Vines, Rhymes, and Headlines: Telling the Story of Baltimore event, happening October 22nd at Commons Main Street as part of the Critical Social Justice Initiative.

University of Chicago Summer Research Experience 

Sponsored by the Becker Friedman Institute and the Booth School of Business

The University of Chicago is offering FOUR current UMBC undergraduates an opportunity to apply for a deep immersive experience in research activities in economics.  The program is designed for undergraduate students with strong quantitative and analytical backgrounds of all majors. Substantial coursework in not required.

Program Elements include:

• Students will attend workshops given by Booth faculty as part of the "Economics Undergraduate Research Experience" beginning the end of June of 2016 and extending into July of 2016.  Information about this program can be found below: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/feature-story/research-for-undergraduates
• Depending on interest and background students will be matched with research professionals, graduate students or professors to work on a specific research project in economics.  This activity will start in June of 2016 and extend until the end of August 2016.  Last year’s research activities included work in Microeconomic Theory, Operations Research, Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, International Trade and Finance and Labor Economics.
• Additional classroom instruction will be provided for those students without substantial formal exposure to economics.

Support:

• All living expenses will be covered by the Booth School and the Becker Friedman Institute
• Housing will be provided in undergraduate dormitories at the University of Chicago.
• Travel expenses will also be covered.
• Successful applicants will be offered a stipend of $10,000.

Qualifications to Apply:

• We seek applicants with an interest in research and willing to work hard for the summer in a stimulating environment!

• 3.2 cumulative GPA or above.

• Open to all analytical backgrounds including economic, finance, engineering, mathematics, physics, etc.

• A strong quantitative background is a plus but is not required.

Application process:

• Required materials:  
• Current Resume or Curriculum vitae
• Personal Statement: Two page discussion of the candidate's objective for the summer and future research goals.  Include why you are interested in the program.
• Two letters of recommendation.
• Unofficial Transcript
• Please send these materials via e-mail to:      

Christine Routzahn, Director

UMBC Career Center

routzahn@umbc.edu, 410-455-3671

• Deadline to Apply:  Rolling Admission, Absolute deadline to apply is Tuesday, December 15, 2015
• For additional details, contact Christine Routzahn at 410-455-3671 or routzahn@umbc.edu

A guest post from Dr. Kate Drabinski

As someone who doesn’t own a car, I travel my bike and foot, bus and train, the occasional ride thrown in by a generous driver. Truth is, even if I had a car, I’d still travel without one, because that’s how you get a sense of where you live. Walking and biking in Baltimore has helped me understand how neighborhoods are organized, segregated, and cut off from each other by streets, transit systems, and urban planning policies. Cities look like they do not by accident or as the result of a series of individual choices, but because of planning decisions and the choices that follow. Even when we “choose” where to live, work, and play, our choices are circumscribed by stories space tells us about whether or not “we” belong. In a car you don’t have to see that, but walking or on bike, you become intimately familiar with the changes that take place as you get from here to there.

MLK Blvd separates and isolates the west side of Baltimore from downtown.  Read more at the Baltimore Brew by clicking on the image.

The separation of West Baltimore from the downtown area is particularly striking to me, the two sides of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard like two different worlds. UMBC’s downtown shuttle drops students, faculty, and staff on the east side of that divide, but both sides are integral to our lived sense of the city, belonging, and who are our neighbors. This walking tour will take us along MLK and both east and west as we learn about the history of this stripe that has made all the difference for difference.

To learn more about the neighborhoods we’ll be visiting during the walking tour, check out these resources:

• David Harvey’s article A View From Federal Hill
• The Battles of Lexington: City Paper goes deep inside and under Baltimore’s oldest market
• Where a 1997 Lonely Planet Guide Will Take You Today in Baltimore 

To learn more about Baltimore be sure to check out the kick-off to #CSJ365, Baltimore 101: Why Baltimore Matters on Monday, October 19th at 12pm.

Tickets for the #CSJ365 walking tour are going fast! If you want to join us on Friday, October 23rd, pick up your free ticket at the Commons CIC desk asap! 

We would like to inform you that the U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid) deadline has been extended through October 23, 2015.

We are now accepting applications for the U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid).

Please visit http://careers.state.gov/intern/student-internships for more information about the U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid), and to start the online application process via USAJobs. Please note that the deadline to submit completed applications is October 23, 2015 (new deadline).

Visit USAJOBS.gov to view the announcement: U.S. Department of State Summer 2016 Student Internship Program (unpaid).

We highly encourage you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or would like to search for topics of interest, please visit our forums or FAQs at careers.state.gov.

We appreciate your interest in a career with the U.S. Department of State.

Name: Jatin Chhikara 

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Mozilla Corporation

Position Title: User Experience Design Engineer

Major(s)/Minor(s): Human-Centered Computing (Master's)

Expected Graduation Year: May 2016

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

My major responsibilities included: making new concepts that involve user centric design in prototyping for the Firefox desktop, and conducting user studies to check the new design concepts by making and testing user plans for the prototypes. In addition to this, I was also involved in user research for the Firefox desktop; my goal was to understand how users perceive and use Firefox in their daily life.

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

Mozilla was the first company where I applied for an internship at the end of last October. I found out about the internship program online through Mozilla's career website. Classes which I had that semester were directly related to the interview, so they helped me in preparation. I also watched lot of interviews of established icons, like Don Norman, related to UX domain to prepare.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

The most exciting part of this internship was making a positive impact on millions of people all around the globe through my work. I have been given the responsibility to lead a project which is a great learning process. I am learning user centered design methodologies for making new concepts into reality from a UX point of view. The UX team for Firefox is geographically scattered all over the world, so daily communication (using different tools such as Vidyo and IRC) and weekly meetings helped me understand the dynamics of working with a geographically-dispersed team. 

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

Three projects that I worked on will be implemented in the new version on Firefox in the future. This internship has given me opportunity to provide good user experience to millions of Firefox-users scattered around the globe. I am able to break all the barriers of countries and cultures by contributing to a product that is same for everyone. It has also helped me align my academic experience with the practical industry work from an engineer and designer's point of view.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

The first piece of advice I would give is to start applying early as giant like Mozilla, Google, Facebook, etc. start hiring interns around November. I would suggest that know yourself well in terms of what knowledge, interests, and passions you have. Focus on what you want and give your all to that. A good online portfolio is a good way to share your existing projects and interests to the hiring manager. Seeking help from alumni and the Career Center will provide you with lot of opportunities to build network.

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

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