I delivered pizzas after I got my architecture degree and didn't magically find my dream job. The internship program is 3 years at near minimum wage after a masters degree, because that's the way it has always been. Never mind trying to take and pass the architects exam which staggeringly few pass the first time.
I 'do' architecture for fun now and make far more money than nearly everyone I went to college with. Assuming that they are even working.
You'd take a job that provides real income, as would everyone else, and the people wanting journalism work done would offer to pay up... ???
The problem is that there's always someone willing to go work for free, often with crappy conditions, because they hope that maybe someday someone will throw them a low wage bone because of all their 'experience' at working for free.
Depends. If the unpaid internship had a reputation of leading to a well-paying job, it may certainly be worth pursuing over McBurger. This is called "consumption smoothing" -- we do it when we're young and when we're old, and possibly in between, when we're unable to financially support ourselves.
It's not good to remain a permanent unpaid intern.
Isn't that rather much a false dichotomy? A person with a journalism degree should be able to figure out several ways in which to provide themselves beyond the immediate-but-inadequate burger-flipping versus delayed-and-maybe-still-inadequate that unpaid internships provide.
And if your other option was McBurger flipping after taking a journalism degree... you'd readily take it?