While internships can be a great way to land jobs, another good way of breaking into this industry -- especially book and/or magazine publishing -- is through the summer publishing courses.

A number of universities offer six week courses aimed at recent college grads looking to break into magazine and book publishing. The summer publishing courses are a great way to land jobs in the magazine and publishing industries because they offer students a brief, but intensive tutorial on how these businesses run. More importantly, the programs are geared at connecting students with professionals working in these businesses. Furthermore, at six weeks, these programs don't require the same kind of financial or time commitment that, say, journalism school does.

For more on the top summer publishing courses, what they offer and how to apply, go here.

One of the keys to being a good journalist is getting your facts straight. News writing requires you know your sources and have all the details in order. A case getting some journalists in an uproar involves a recent story from the NY Times. The uproar is over a story about the women behind the DABA (Dating a Banker) blog -- women who were complaining after their Wall Street boyfriends lost their cushy salaries as a result of the economic downturn.

According to a Newsweek blog, DABA's cofounder, Laney Crowell, "says that what the Times described as a 'support group' of about 30 women is actually a full-blown parody -- and it’s at least partly fictionalized." The Times issued a correction on the story but, clearly, other journalists aren't satisfied. This incident stands as a reminder that, if you want to be a journalist, you need to be certain your sources are who they say they are, and that they're telling you the truth. In other words, you need to check up on everything a source tells you.

One of the keys to having a successful interview is knowing about the company you're interviewing with. This means that if you're interviewing at a magazine, you should know that magazine inside and out. You should also know about that magazine's parent company.

So many media companies are conglomerates these days, that you need to pay attention to who owns what. (Viacom, for example, is a congolomerate that owns MTV, Paramount Pictures and BET; there are then other brands, like Nickelodeon, which fall under smaller banners, since Nickelodeon is under MTV.)

All this is to say, you should pay attention to the big media companies in the field. A knowledge of who the players are in this space will help you sound more informed on interviews and help with your general understanding of the media landscape.

I was watching the Today this morning and they featured what feels like one of their umpteenth segments on dealing with unemployment. (Turn on any TV news show or open any magazine/newspaper and the theme is often about being laidoff and/or spending less.) Anyway, the Today segment got me thinking about this topic and something the expert, who wrote a book on job hunting, said -- namely that anyone who's unemployed should still be structuring their day as if they had a job to go to.

What does this mean? Basically it means that if you're looking for a job, you should focus on a 9-to-5 schedule...even though you don't technically have anywhere you need to be. To that end, if you're looking for a media job, check the corporate job boards and media job sites, and then work on networking.

As the TV expert noted, you might have the urge to check job sites for an hour in your PJ's and then watch Law & Order all day, but you shouldn't. You should be looking for a job, or trying to network or doing research, for roughly, 8 hours, which is a standard work day. (Breaks for lunch, or to hit the gym, are allowed though.)

With so much talk about the slump journalism is in -- and the traditional print jobs journalists are losing -- I found this New Republic piece on the rise of Politico pretty interesting. Subtitled "The brave new world of post-print journalism," the piece chronicles how and why Politico -- a not-that-old dot com which is handily beating longstanding print news magazines -- has emerged as such a force in journalism.

According to the author, Gabriel Sherman, the site got its content and tone right from the start. "Politico succeeded in muscling its way into the political journalism firmament by the sheer volume of reporting and a shrewd--some might say obsessive--focus on the gossipy Beltway scoops and gaffes that appeal to the tabloid sensibility of Drudge and cable news."

Why and how this website is succeeding, where start ups and old guard titles are failing, shoud be of interest to anyone in the print media world -- and anyone looking to get into it.

What's life like for a fact checker? Thanks to John McPhee we now know...in great detail. McPhee's recent New Yorker story, "Checkpoints," delves into the art of fact checking, and the daily grind of doing it, exposing the kind of work these people do. I highly recommend reading this piece if you're interested in fact checking or magazine editing, as it also touches on how magazine articles come in and make their way to the page.

A good way to supplement your income is to freelance. Whether your goal is to carve out a career as a full-time freelancer, you want some work on the side, or you're looking to get back in the ring after being laid off, freelancing can bring in money and help you hone your skills. For journalists and magazine writers, a great freelance resource is Mediabistro's "How to Pitch" series.

This series features Q&A's with people at a wide swath publications -- everything from magazines to newspapers to radio shows, and even a few TV networks, is covered -- and runs down the kind of freelance work they want to publish. The pieces essentially function as as cliff notes for pitching a publication and they're a great help if you're looking to land some freelance work and/or get your byline out there.

Also, if you're looking for a job and having a hard time, putting some of your efforts into freelancing is a good way to bring in some money and get you back to doing some work.

I've talked a lot about how beneficial it can be to read up on the habits of successful people. Finding out how people who've carved out lengthy careers, as reporters, writers, producers or anyone in the media field, can give you insight on your own work and your own career path.

To that end, I came across this interview with Esquire writer Mike Sager. Sager does a lot of narrative journalism -- he calls what he does "literary anthropology" since he's known for infiltrating and chronicling sub cultures -- and this is a great piece to read, especially if you're interested in long form journalism. The piece is also of particular interest if you want to become a magazine editor or magazine writer.

It's a good idea to keep your ear to the ground for media events that might allow you to network or learn something new about the career path you're on (or want to get on). To that end, there's an event that Mediabistro is hosting called TVNewser Summit. A number of name anchors will be at the event, so it's an ideal fit for anyone who's looking to get into television journalism, either as an anchor or producer.

As the unemployment rate continues to rise, people in all fields -- media included -- are either worried about finding a job or holding onto the one they have. Whether you're currently unemployed and looking, or on the job but nervous, you should remember that talking to other people in the field can be both professionally beneficial and therapeutic.

I've talked a lot about the importance of networking for finding jobs but, as it happens, you can also network simply to comiserate and get support. Seeking out friends in media to swap stories about job hunting, or other concerns you have, can help your state of mind. And, if you don't have a lot of colleagues or friends in the field, now is a great time to try and change that and meet people who work in media. You might get a job lead out of the networking or you might find that talking to someone who knows exactly what you're going through puts you a bit more at ease; either way, it will help your job search in the long run.