There is nothing like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils to get you in the mood for a good class. This week kicked off a new semester of classes and boy was I ready to get writing again. As of right now, it looks like this is going to be a great semester because not only do I adore a couple of my journalism classes, but the professors aren't half bad either. Here are some first class quotes from my professors that make me excited to be a journalist, and should make you excited too:
"You will learn to appreciate journalism as a service profession, one upon which individuals, communities and the country at large depend."
"Pictures are the primary mode of story telling in the modern media."
"Do not show a source you are weak. If they don't want to conduct an interview with you, tell them you will wait."
"You are going to learn to think like a reporter and read like an editor."
I hope that was inspiring. Now onto more important things... A few weeks ago I came across a fascinating article on ReadWriteWeb about a cool new way to research info on the Internet. Apture, a startup web company, allows readers to highlight a single word on the screen and search the Internet for information about that particular word without leaving the page. Crazy right? No, more like AMAZING.
So what does this mean for students like us? Well, for starters, if you don't know the definition of a word, you can just look it up with the click of a button. But if you are a journalist on deadline, and need to do some quick research on your source before you go out for an interview, this is a great time saving technique. Technologies like this are changing online news content and will continue to influence how we write for the web. Apture is the new link.
Check out this video with one of the creators of Apture. He describes how with the help of some journalists his multimedia tool became a hit.
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
5.13.2010
Holy Twitter!
Well I can say I have mastered the # and @. Every Wednesday night, there is a chat on Twitter about web journalism (#wjchat). People of all different experience levels participate and answer questions that are posted every five minutes or so. One of the questions I answered was "how do you make your idea have multi-platform potential? Are you thinking outside of HTML? Mobile apps, geolocation, etc."
So, I thought, hmmm multimedia, my new found love of audio plays a role here. I tweeted that everyone brings the video camera with them, what about a high quality recorder? And, who would have thought, someone tweeted at me! Ha! I couldn't believe it. It was great, I felt powerful. Everyone talks about how powerful Twitter is, but at that instant, I truly understood its power. People who have never met, who don't know a single thing about each other, but all share this common interest were all online at the same time, answering great questions and having great conversation about online journalism.
I guess I know what I will be doing on my Wednesday nights this summer. Can't wait.
4.01.2010
An interview in the North End
Yesterday was quite hectic. After my morning class I headed into Boston to do an interview with a friend of mine who is a journalism major at Northeastern University. I had just half a day to go into Boston, get the story, come back, and edit it. Gotta love deadlines.
In a cute little Italian Cafe in the North End I interviewed Laura about the obstacles she is facing now, if she is afraid of the future, and what qualities journalism students need to set themselves apart from the competition. She answered these questions among others with great honesty and expressed her love for the field of journalism.
My favorite part of the interview was listening to her talk about the latest story she wrote for one of her classes. She went to a speech at BC that was given by some Catholic nuns. They are feminists, who want to be priests, but they belong to a church that won't let them. Laura loved listening to the speech because she found a personal connection with it and went back to her room to write a great story that just flowed out of her. Then yesterday she discovered she got a C on the story and was disappointed.
We all know that feeling of getting a grade back that you were expecting to be great, but when you look at the letter grade on the paper you worked so hard to write, a pit forms in the bottom of your stomach. It's part shock, part nerves, part anxiety all wrapped into one. However, it's not the end of the world. We are still learning and have a long way to go. It goes to show that sometimes the stories we love to write are not always our best work.
Listen here:
In a cute little Italian Cafe in the North End I interviewed Laura about the obstacles she is facing now, if she is afraid of the future, and what qualities journalism students need to set themselves apart from the competition. She answered these questions among others with great honesty and expressed her love for the field of journalism.
My favorite part of the interview was listening to her talk about the latest story she wrote for one of her classes. She went to a speech at BC that was given by some Catholic nuns. They are feminists, who want to be priests, but they belong to a church that won't let them. Laura loved listening to the speech because she found a personal connection with it and went back to her room to write a great story that just flowed out of her. Then yesterday she discovered she got a C on the story and was disappointed.
We all know that feeling of getting a grade back that you were expecting to be great, but when you look at the letter grade on the paper you worked so hard to write, a pit forms in the bottom of your stomach. It's part shock, part nerves, part anxiety all wrapped into one. However, it's not the end of the world. We are still learning and have a long way to go. It goes to show that sometimes the stories we love to write are not always our best work.
Listen here:
3.31.2010
TimesCast
I just have to say I love the new TimesCast that plays on the New York Times. Everyday between 1 and 2 p.m. the New York Times features a video of the days top stories on their homepage. Simply amazing. I love that it is a short 5 to 6 minute clip of the biggest stories you need to know about and it also demonstrates how these stories are reported on in the newsroom. Viewers get an inside look into the meetings that decide the top stories as well as the chance to hear quick interviews with editors and reporters. What better way to get a quick glimpse on what is happening around the world?
2.25.2010
Everyone's a journalist
Is that guys sitting next to you on the train a journalist? What about the person two tables over from you in the coffee shop?
It seems like anyone in their right mind can be a journalist today. Am I really competing with the person crossing the street? Some consider anyone who blogs or writes to be a reporter, but giving your own opinion on a matter in the form of a blog post should not be considered journalism. (oops, not that I'm being hypocritical or anything).
This industry has done a complete turn around with the technology boom. If reporting some sort of news that occurred is considered journalism, then heck almost every tweet on twitter is a report. I think the term journalism has gotten insanely broad over the past few years. New types of journalism have formed and most people studying this field have some sort of specialty. But I am a believer that having a degree is, and very well should, get you further then not having one.
It seems like anyone in their right mind can be a journalist today. Am I really competing with the person crossing the street? Some consider anyone who blogs or writes to be a reporter, but giving your own opinion on a matter in the form of a blog post should not be considered journalism. (oops, not that I'm being hypocritical or anything).
This industry has done a complete turn around with the technology boom. If reporting some sort of news that occurred is considered journalism, then heck almost every tweet on twitter is a report. I think the term journalism has gotten insanely broad over the past few years. New types of journalism have formed and most people studying this field have some sort of specialty. But I am a believer that having a degree is, and very well should, get you further then not having one.
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