Friday, January 29, 2010

Lessons learned in a college newsroom pt. 4

Step back:

I have always had the ability to step into big situations and handle them under pressure. My problem starts when that situation ends.

I have a good idea of how to avoid stepping on peoples toes and where "the line" is. And I respect that, but up until this quarter, I was also always the one who was ready to spring at any opportunity to step in and help. The thing that I now realize is that I'm not helping them, but hurting.

So I can happily say that When it comes to the print version of my student newspaper, I have made myself disappear, and if there is something that the rest of the staff needs done... They will have to learn it.

This also allows me to give my undivided attention to The Communicator Online, which is being judged this upcoming month for the nation's two most prestigious collegiate journalism awards (ACP Pacemaker & SPJ Mark of Excellence)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Multimedia Journalism 225


For the first time ever at SFCC, a multimedia based journalism class is being offered. The idea of the class is to take our knowledge of good storytelling and implement multimedia aspects.

By looking at any major newspaper around this country, it is easy to tell that this form of storytelling is not only becoming increasingly popular, but anyone who knows how to do it, can get a job.

So, for the classes first assignment, we were given one week to do an audio-only, single source, non-narrated, no ambient or artificial noise profile piece.

Let me just lay this out there... This was one of the more difficult assignments I have ever done. Unlike a print story, there is no narrative or artwork to carry the story. I cannot write my way out of a bad quote. What I recorded is what I had to work with.

Here is the link to the piece, let me know what you think. The profile is on Sara Edlin, Drama teacher and play director at SFCC.

http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/Communicator/sections/multimedia/multimedia/sara_edlin_multimedia.mp3