… Master's student in environmental communication, who did an internship as a communicator this autumn with us at SLU Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies.
– Since I am interested in conflicts between humans and wildlife and study environmental communication, it felt like a very suitable internship. When I was offered to do an internship with the communications officer at the department, the choice was quite obvious. I was also attracted by gaining more insight into the role of communication in academia.
– I have really had a good time here, and it has been so much fun to meet and work with all the staff at the department. Through my tasks, I have gained a good overview of the different areas that the research touches on and have seen how communication can contribute to the research becoming more accessible to those outside the research world. It is valuable knowledge that I will take with me no matter where I end up later in working life.
– It must be the tuna project. At the beginning of the internship, the communications officer and I went down to Lysekil to report from the field when researchers put transmitters on bluefin tuna's. It was very rewarding to be part of the research project, see how it was done up close, and get practical communication work experience. The practical experience is something that students often miss in university educations if there is no opportunity to do an internship. So being part of that is an experience I am very grateful for!
Researchers from SLU put transmitters on a bluefin tuna to learn more about their lives and how they move across the oceans. Photo: Elin Wärm, SLU
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– Since I have some experience working with communication before, I was quite prepared for what was to come, but I was still surprised by how time-consuming it is to understand the research and convey it in an easy and relevant way. It is often very complex concepts that are used. However, it has been fun to see that the public is so interested in the research, which I believe is mainly due to the fact that it becomes available to more people when it is communicated in a way that people, in general, understand.
– This is a difficult question because I will benefit from everything I learned here. But what I take with me above all is always to have a thought behind what you are communicating. It may feel pretty obvious that it is important always to be aware of what you want to communicate and why you want to communicate it, but when you are in the middle of the process, it can be easy to drop the thread because there is so much to be inspired by along the way.