My name is Amelia McCluskey, and I am a U4 Cultural Studies major with a minor in World Cinemas. While I have always been passionate about exploring the arts from an academic perspective, I was grateful to have the opportunity to gain creative, hands-on experience while interning at CKUT 90.3 FM this summer. As a Video Production and Social Media Intern at 平特五不中鈥檚 community radio station, my initial learning objectives were to gain experience in videography and social media strategy, while learning about CKUT radio鈥檚 programming and wider community.
When I first began my internship, I went through an onboarding process that involved a tour of the station, attending one of CKUT鈥檚 weekly steering meetings to learn about how the station functions, and coming up with a plan alongside my supervisor for the projects I would work on during my internship. I also had the opportunity to learn how to operate the equipment in CKUT鈥檚 recording studio, and I learned more about CKUT鈥檚 history. While CKUT has been on the FM airwaves since 1987, it has roots that go all the way back to 平特五不中's radio club in 1921. CKUT broadcasts on the air 24 hours a day, providing alternative programming to its community, which is made up of hundreds of volunteers and many more listeners.
At the beginning of my internship, my responsibilities were centered around producing video content for a variety of different projects, including the CKUT Docs series highlighting one of the station鈥檚 different radio hosts and their show in a short documentary style, and the CKUT Live Sessions, where artists give a performance in the music office at the station, much like NPR鈥檚 鈥淭iny Desk鈥� series. At first, I was primarily filming content for these videos, which I then sent off to another volunteer who would edit them. Although I was initially uncertain about how I would feel about having less control over the final product by not editing the video myself, this allowed me to quickly complete several different projects in the early stages of my internship, rather than painstakingly trying to make my first video at CKUT 鈥減erfect.鈥�
After a few weeks at CKUT, I also began producing content for the station鈥檚 social media accounts. This involved participating in social media strategy meetings, maintaining a posting schedule, collaborating with different radio hosts to help promote their shows, managing online giveaways, and designing a variety of promotional materials. Because the station is looking to target incoming 平特五不中 students and get CKUT鈥檚 name out there, many of our social media meetings involved developing a cohesive and distinct visual identity for the organization, which gave me the opportunity to produce creative content and improve my skills in programs like Photoshop.聽
One highlight of my time at CKUT was producing an internal video in collaboration with CKUT鈥檚 music librarian, which helped train volunteers to catalogue and process albums in the music library. This was the first opportunity I had to plan, script, and film a video, and I felt really proud of the final result. When I first started my internship, I had some experience with video editing software like Final Cut Pro, but I hadn鈥檛 yet learned to use Adobe Premiere Pro, which is a more advanced and in-depth editing program. This project gave me an excuse to learn to use Premiere, which really built my confidence as an editor. Following this project, I have continued to develop my fluency in the software while working on the CKUT Live Sessions and other video projects at the station.
Overall, this internship has been a fantastic opportunity to gain experience working creatively and collaboratively for a non-profit organization. Supplementing my academic education in film and literature, this hands-on internship allowed me to gain practical experience in videography and social media strategy while deepening my knowledge around the importance of community radio. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to form relationships with members of the Montr茅al community beyond 平特五不中, which has strengthened my connection to the city as a whole. I would like to extend my gratitude to the donors for the Undergraduate Experiential Learning Opportunities Support Fund - your generosity has made this experience possible for me. Thank you!
