One of the many resources we offer at the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is our Media Law Jobs Board. The Jobs Board is
updated regularly with both full-time jobs and internships/fellowships in a variety of media law and related fields, including journalism, intellectual property, and business affairs. The Jobs Board serves as a centralized place to find opportunities from all over the world.
Looking for an in-house counsel position at a major media company? Perhaps you need a summer internship and want to do public interest work relating to free speech? Are you hoping to spend a year on a fellowship at a major university, developing and expanding your research? Our Jobs Board has postings in all of these areas, searchable by location, keyword, or practice area. Here are just a few of the jobs currently listed on the Board.
- Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center
- The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is accepting fellowship applications for the 2019-2020 academic year, providing an opportunity for those who wish to spend 2019-2020 in residence in Cambridge, MA as part of the Center’s vibrant community of research and practice, and who seek to engage in collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and cross-sectoral exploration of some of the Internet’s most important and compelling issues. The fellowship can be in one of several different topic areas, including Education, Libraries, & Digital Humanities; Ethics and Governance of AI; Governance of Technology & the Internet; Internet Health; Justice, Equity, & Inclusion; Media, Democracy, & Public Discourse; Privacy & Security; and Technology & the Law.
- Summer Internship at NPR’s Office of General Counsel
- NPR’s Office of General Counsel offers challenging and diverse work assignments for legal interns as it provides legal assistance to all divisions of NPR, handling a wide variety of legal issues including: FCC regulatory and other communications; First Amendment; Internet; various aspects of intellectual property, including music rights, content licensing, copyright, trademark, and patents; nonprofit tax; technology, such as software licensing; employment and labor, including Title VII, labor relations, and other aspects of the employer-employee relationship; and corporate law, as well as contracts in all areas. NPR offers legal internships on a rolling basis throughout the year, with summer applications due in January.
- Assistant Professorship (Communication Law/Policy) at the University of Oregon
- The School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon seeks a scholar active in research and teaching in areas such as communication law, communication policy, telecommunication law and policy and the constitutional protection of freedom of speech and press for a tenure-track assistant professor position. The school is accepting applications until the position is filled, so get your application in quickly!
- Summer 2019 Legal Internship at the Knight First Amendment Institute (Columbia University)
- The Knight First Amendment Institute is looking for law students to do ground-breaking First Amendment litigation and help in the early stages of building an exciting new free-speech advocacy and research organization. The Institute aim to promote a system of free expression that is open and inclusive, that broadens and elevates public discourse, and that fosters creativity, accountability, and effective self-government. The intern’s primary responsibility would be to support litigation, working alongside the Institute’s attorneys on all aspects of litigation, including the exploration of new lawsuits, the research and analysis of legal questions, the development of litigation strategy, and the drafting of factual and legal memoranda, affidavits, and briefs. 1L applications are due January 18, 2019.
- Summer 2019 Internship at Viacom
- Viacom seeks Summer 2019 interns in their Business and Legal Affairs department, handling legal matters across various Viacom networks in areas including Digital Business, Employment Law, Series Development and Production, Music Rights and more. Any student enrolled in law school can apply.
- Music Counsel at Netflix
- Netflix seeks a seasoned production music attorney to help support their domestic and international expansion strategy. The successful candidate will handle music contract and copyright related matters as they arise, will likely need to dig into local law and practice in various international territories, and should be extremely comfortable working independently, counseling business partners and making decisions that have both legal and business impacts. Ultimately, the Counsel will be responsible for structuring, negotiating and drafting agreements with the composers, songwriters, artists and performers who create music for Netflix’s Original film, series and documentary content and with the record companies and music publishers who license music.
- The Frank Stanton Legal Fellowship at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
- The EFF legal fellow will work side-by-side with staff attorneys for two years on the EFF’s active civil liberties litigation docket with the goal of developing a deep grounding in cutting-edge free speech law, and related issues in communications privacy and technology law. Non-litigation responsibilities may include advocacy, public speaking, blogging, media appearances, and work on legislative and regulatory matters related to surveillance and law enforcement. Applicants should be recent law school graduates or law students who will be graduating no later than Spring 2019, and have an interest in developing an expertise in First Amendment issues implicated by new technologies.
- Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computer Science at UNC-Chapel Hill
- UNC Associate Professor Zeynep Tufekci seeks a post-doc research to work in an interdisciplinary environment to study the social, political and cultural impacts of digital technology, especially with regards to conflict, polarization and instability. Strong research, analysis and writing skills are used and required for this position. This position will assist the PI in studying how digital connectivity, artificial intelligence and the technology industry intersect in terms of social, political and cultural dynamics, with emphasis on Global South but also including Western nations and liberal democracies. There will be special emphasis on the role of surveillance, security and encryption in mediating these dynamics. Applicants must have a Ph.D in Computer Science or a related field.
These are just a few of the job opportunities available on the Center’s Jobs Board. Check the Board regularly for the latest postings.
Hey students, have you thought about what you want to do after you graduate with your undergraduate or master’s degree? Thinking about law school and a career in media law and policy? A strong background in law and mass communication can be a launching pad for a career in law, media, business, entertainment, government, public policy or academia. For a sampling of the jobs available in these growing fields, check out our 
Fuller’s dissertation titled, “Words, Wounds, and Relationships: a Mixed-Method Study of Free Speech and Harm in High-Conflict Environments,” uses qualitative field methods to examine high-conflict political protests, such as abortion clinic protests, where free speech is truly tested. Fuller’s ethnographic field project highlights core First Amendment doctrines such as true threats and incitement and how they are applied by federal courts. Instead of purported threats, harassment, and violence, Fuller’s research revealed a complex web of social relationships at the clinics, largely influenced by how different stakeholders interpreted speech in these high-conflict environments. His work was designed to help inform courts as these harmful speech doctrines develop. UNC Media and Journalism School faculty Dr. Michael Hoefges and Dr. Tori Smith Ekstrand also served on Fuller’s committee, as well as Dr. George Noblit from the UNC Department of Sociology and Professor Bill Marshall from the UNC School of Law.
Fourth-year Ph.D .student and Park Fellow Kriste Patrow won the First Place Student Paper Award from the Media Law and Policy Division of AEJMC for her paper, “‘Walk’ This Way, Talk This Way: How Do We Know When the Government is Speaking After Walker v. Texas?” Patrow’s paper examines confusion surrounding the government speech doctrine. She analyzed six U.S. Supreme Court cases in which the Court was tasked with determining when a reasonable person would understand a message to be from the government. The analysis revealed ways to anchor the reasonable observer prong of the test, by requiring that there be a main cognizable message and that the government self-identify as speaker.
Fourth-year Ph.D. student Shao Chengyuan received the First Place Student Paper Award from the Mass Communication and Society Division of AEJMC. Her paper, “Asian International Students’ Mass Media Use and Acculturation Strategies,” highlights the important role of mass media use before students relocate. The paper also examines students’ cultural knowledge of American society. The paper is co-authored with doctoral student Lin Li from Michigan State University’s Department of Media and Information.