Baseball Journalism Media Relations

The Orange County Riptide, a collegiate wood bat summer baseball team playing games at the Great Park in Irvine, California, seeks interns with strong knowledge and understanding of sports reporting, journalism and media relations.

Please Note: This un-paid internship position will require your attendance at home games in Irvine, Calif. This is not a position that can be performed remotely.

If you are attending college outside of the Orange County, Calif. area, you must make your own living arrangements for the summer. The OC Riptide cannot provide housing for out-of-the-area interns.

In lieu of compensation, academic credit is available for this internship. Academic credit is not guaranteed and is a dependent upon your school’s requirements and terms. Check with your school's Internship Coordinator BEFORE accepting the hiring offer to determine if this position satisfies the criteria for receiving academic credit.

Interns chosen for this position will need strong critical thinking skills, excellent writing and self-editing skills, ability to work in a fast-paced environment, take direction easily and quickly, willingness to work nights and weekends, work well with hard deadlines and have a passion for the sport of college baseball.

Ideal candidates will be a Communications or Journalism major already working for a college Sports Information Office or school newspaper. Be prepared to submit writing samples, preferably baseball related writing samples to be considered for this position.

Learning Objectives:

• Baseball Reporters will learn to cover home and away collegiate summer baseball games writing news, game recaps, analysis and feature content.
• Interns will learn to reacting quickly and accurately during breaking news and to disseminate that news via web and social media channels.
• Interns will learn to augment content with photos and videos along with communicating proactively with content teammates and managers.
• Interns will learn interviewing skills for printed content as well as interviewing for video and podcast content.
• By the end of the internship, students should have gained exceptional knowledge in writing and reporting along with digital media distribution. Should interns pursue career advancement in sports, additional networking within the Southern California sports entertainment industry is available.

Because this position requires attendance at home games, (23 games spanning from June through early August) applicants are expected to work approximately five (5) hours per game. This includes pre-game, in-game and post-game capturing of photos and approximately an hour of photo editing, archiving images, uploading of images, etc. The OC Riptide will also play 17 games on the road. Photographers are expected to attend and capture photos for approximately four to five road games. Team transportation and any expenses, i.e meals, etc. will be provided by the organization. 

Ideal candidates will have knowledge of the game of baseball and knowing the differences that are unique to college baseball and summer collegiate baseball. Being open to feedback, direction and new approaches on how to cover a collegiate summer baseball team is a must.

Duties for the Baseball Reporter internship will consist of, but not be limited to:

Ideal candidates will have knowledge of the game of baseball and knowing the differences that are unique to college baseball and summer collegiate baseball. Being open to feedback, direction and new approaches on how to cover a collegiate summer baseball team is a must.

Duties for the Baseball Reporter internship will consist of, but not be limited to:

Responsibilities:

• Reports directly to the General Manager
• Create interview preparation materials
• Conduct pre-game and post-game interviews with coaching staff and players
• Appear in social media videos and on podcast.
• Write game recaps and publish to team website
• Crop and resize images to accompany game recaps
• Update player profile pages on website
• General duties as assigned

Requirements

• Journalism major or similar field
• Possess a passion and proficiency for writing.
• Excellent organizational skills. Self-motivated and detail oriented
• Strong knowledge of baseball rules and statistics.
• Good team player with great attitude
• Ability to work in fast-paced environment
• Ability and willingness to work varied hours
• Flexible time schedule to cover home and road games

The Orange County Riptide Baseball Club is a 501(c)(3) and all of our internships comply with the US Department of Labor Fair Labor Standards Act. The OC Riptide ensures that all unpaid interns and students understand the following:

1. The extent to which the intern and the employer clearly understand that there is no expectation of compensation. Any promise of compensation, express or implied, suggests that the intern is an employee—and vice versa.
2. The extent to which the internship provides training that would be similar to that which would be given in an educational environment, including the clinical and other hands-on training provided by educational institutions.
3. The extent to which the internship is tied to the intern’s formal education program by integrated coursework or the receipt of academic credit.
4. The extent to which the internship accommodates the intern’s academic commitments by corresponding to the academic calendar.
5. The extent to which the internship’s duration is limited to the period in which the internship provides the intern with beneficial learning.
6. The extent to which the intern’s work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern.
7.  The extent to which the intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.