Looking back on a semester of multimedia training December 12, 2007

I have learned so much this semester in Journalist’s Toolkit 1: how to record and edit quality audio in an ethical manner; how to take decent, journalistically ethical photographs; how to write a professional-quality blog and get it out there for others to read; how to make soundslides and FusionCharts and web pages.

There’s more to all of these skills than I thought before taking this class. I now appreciate the immense potential of audio, photos, Web packages, databases, soundslides projects and blogs for journalism uses and, while I think I’ll always be a writer at heart, I look forward to telling stories using these new skills. I also find myself evaluating media in ways I didn’t before taking this class. I watch a ‘reality’ TV show, see a photo, or listen to a recording and wonder if the images and sounds I’m taking in are true representations of the situations, people and places they portray, or if some things were staged to gain a desired effect.

While I appreciate all these skills and the knowledge that comes along with them, one of the things I’m most grateful for is the increase in my knowledge about how to use my computer for useful things, beyond just writing papers and news articles. I am more confident about my computer and multimedia journalism skills than I was at the beginning of this course, and that in itself is a wonderful gain.

As I already knew, and have learned even more this semester, computer assisted reporting and multimedia presentation are where journalism IS today and where it will continue to go. I know that I have much to learn about all this, but I also know I have a good base understanding of how to do some very crucial things. And, I’ll add, they’re things that I know many of my reporter friends who work at papers where I’ve worked in the past few years don’t know how to do. I hope this will give me an edge when I graduate in a few semesters and head back into the work world.

Hunger in North Florida – A Story Package December 12, 2007

Hunger in America is a big problem, even here in Alachua County. This story package describes the problem with statistics about the population in several North Florida counties deemed at risk of hunger and the percentage who receive food stamps, as well as a Soundslides presentation telling a more personal story. The presentation, called “Filling in the Gaps,” is about the struggle to keep hungry people fed. It contains photos from Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, St. Francis House and Gainesville Community Ministries, all in Gainesville.

These agencies sometimes struggle to get the food they need to provide for the people who depend on them. The people who receive the food really appreciate it, as you’ll see in the part of the story about Willie Stewart, a very nice man who was able to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year thanks to Gainesville Community Ministry. I hope you enjoy the show!