The future is now

I began my computer obsession in fourth grade, when my parents purchased their first PC, a Packard Bell 486 DX-II. That thing was freaking awesome. The cutting edge graphics, combined with the awesome sound card and Windows 3.11 For Workgroups was a virtual playground for my 10-year-old self. I used to spend hours clicking away, trying to guess what file names meant and opening MS-DOS programs.

Then, it happened. My 14-year-old brother arrived home with a fresh copy of Doom II, and the fragging began. I was blown away by not only the awesome graphics and the game's ability to take up hours of my life, but also the new venue of PC gaming. I had already enjoyed Mario's enthralling storyline on the Nintendo Entertainment System, but the graphic re-enactment of my favorite action and sci-fi movies blew me away, pun intended.

About four years later, I took a basic HTML class and helped assemble the St. Francis de Sales school Web site. We also put together basic personal sites (which remained offline). I was amazed at how quickly I picked up the ability to post photos of fast cars and animated skull and crossbones. This course was the bedrock of my web knowledge.

Fast forward to highschool and my parents Dell 8100. My poison of choice was Counter-Strike, an online first person shooter which used the Half-Life engine. This game became my passion for about 4 years. A number of tournaments and competitive league victories later, I moved to San Marcos and lost touch with computer gaming. I have recently began thinking about getting involved in the industry, and I believe it would be a good move.

Cindy Royal's arrival at Texas State could not have come at a better time for me. I needed a production course, and because I did not want to work with magazines, I chose Web Design and Production. I gained more working knowledge in this course than any other. The basic HTML came rushing back to me as Cindy began lecturing on it, and I crafted a decent (albeit rudimentary) personal Web site. This course gave me invaluable knowledge into areas of technology that I had not experienced before. While I feel I know the basics, more work is needed before I would be confident enough to get an assignment and just run with it by myself.

The Multimedia Journalism course was awesome, too. By combining the web production skills with journalism, Cindy gave us a great view into the future of the industry. It is foolish to ignore the web as a means of news reporting. I believe each project was meaningful, and will serve all of us as invaluable in the future. My favorite assignment, by far, was the video project. Todd Schaaf was a great partner and his thirst for Slurm cola is insatiable.

In conclusion, I am very glad I took both of Cindy's courses and I urge anyone who read this novella to take them. However, I will always be a PC guy, no matter how "uncool" that makes me. Long live computer gaming!

What I've learned after a semester of multimedia journalism

I know this sounds ridiculous coming from someone my age who has grown up using computers, but I kind of hate them. My hatred for computers stems from the fact that I’m not computer savvy. I don’t know how to use them. Honestly, before taking this class I pretty much only used my computer to send e-mails and write papers. I’m not claiming that computers aren’t useful. I use one every single day of my life, but now I see how much more relevant they are in my life now that I can actually use one to do something other that check my facebook.
After having taken this class, I have a new found respect for computers and technology in general. I no longer loathe computers because I’m so proud of the fact that I’m no longer computer illiterate. I have learned how to do so many cool multi-media things that are relevant to the direction in which journalism is now heading. All of the projects we have done on bobcat living are a testament to my growth. I did so many things that I didn’t think I would be able to accomplish. The hardest project for me I think was the first one. I had absolutely no idea how to put our stories into html because I didn’t really know what html was. (Sad, I know) I figured it out eventually with a lot of help from Cindy. My favorite projects were the photo essays and podcasts. The photo essays were cool because they were a creative way to tell a story without using words. I really enjoyed taking all of the pictures and putting the slide show together, even though I’m not a great photographer. The podcasts were fun because I got to interact with a lot of different people that I probably wouldn’t have talked to otherwise. I really like the idea of letting the subjects tell the story themselves.
One of the things that stuck out to the most to me over the course of this class was the prevalence of social networking. I had no idea how much social networking has changed the way we communicate as a society. I realize that social networking has grown to something that is so much bigger than just me checking my friends facebook accounts for new pictures.
I didn’t know blogs are as prevalent as they actual are. I don’t think I realized what blogs were used for before I entered this class and had to contribute to our blog. I am amazed that some people actually make a living doing this. I thought blogs were just something for lonely losers with nothing better to do. Now I understand that they are a huge part of the new journalism.
Also, I predict that Google will have taken over the world by 2013, at the latest, but most likely sooner. Heil Google!

Shameless Plug - Multimedia Panel

The Society of Professional Journalists Texas State chapter invites you to join us for our last meeting of the semester, complete with free food and drinks, and a panel of professionals who work with multimedia, including:

~Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon from the Austin-American Statesman

~Dustin Coleman from 210 SA, and

~Dr. Cindy Royal, who teaches multimedia classes at Texas State

When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29

Where: Old Main, Room 234

We hope to see you there!

Multimedia Journalism

After taking this course, I sincerely believe anyone who wants to enter the journalism field have multimedia knowledge. It’s the direction of the industry, and I’m glad I know more about these aspects of journalism.
I enjoyed the Bobcat Living projects.
My favorite was the SoundSlides project. I’ve worked in SoundSlides before, and I think it is a great tool for telling stories in a visually compelling way. It also gives you the opportunity to add audio and text.
I’ve thought a lot about how multimedia plays into journalism this semester. In the past, I hadn’t given it much of a glance. I just wanted to write.
But I am currently wrapping up an internship at 210 SA, a weekly publication in San Antonio. Originally, my job entailed writing stories. As the internship progressed, I took on multimedia assignments. My first was shooting video of an AIDS walk. Afterward, I was shooting and editing my own video on things like costume shops around Halloween and San Antonio chefs cooking with pumpkins.
Now, I have my own podcast with 210 SA that I record, edit and produce every week. It's called Art Attack, and it was a concept that I conceived and have carried through to the end. I consider myself fortunate to work in an environment that allowed me to do this. And I am glad that I learned the skills to apply my knowledge to a practical application. That has been the most rewarding experience for me this semester.
During one of our recent classes, many students said they were glad that they’ve learned how to shoot videos and make podcasts because of this class. But they said they still didn’t feel confident or prepared enough to ask for a job with these skills. I feel that my fellow students just need to bite the bullet and do it. We're just as capable of doing this stuff as the other journalism students and job-seekers out there.
I didn’t know how to edit a podcast earlier this semester, but I wanted to learn how to do it, and I learned. If my classmateas are capable of creating podcasts for class, then they have a great opportunity to apply those skills in a professional environment. The more we try and work at something, the more we will learn.
I guess my hope is that I see more of my fellow classmates taking advantage of the new prospects they have created for themselves by taking a class like this. We are at a new age of sharing and distributing information, and we have a wonderful opportunity as journalists to tell the stories we have been telling. The stories are the same. We still are guided by the same code of ethics. We are still journalists. It's our way of telling those stories that have changed.

Your/Our Future

When I was in the seventh grade, I took a basic computer class required of every student. It was boring for the most part: word processing, spreadsheets, how to un-jam the printer, things of that nature. However, one section covered web design and the Internet. Keep in mind that this was 1997 and web pages were very, VERY basic. But I was hooked.

Taking Multimedia Journalism this semester has just cemented my desire to focus on "new" journalism for my career. My favorite project thus far was making the video for YouTube. The subjects we interviewed seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing and the feedback we received was nothing but positive.

The idea of being a journalist with these new skills is freakin' sweet. Not only can we write, but we can shoot video, take photos, and make awesome Flash packages. One can now do the work of many (which is where the fear of less job opportunities comes from). It's like we're Super Journalists. But at the same time, you have to wonder if these new abilities will somehow cheapen our mission: to bring information to the masses. If all new journalists are going to focus on new media, will the inverted pyramid disappear? Are we just exacerbating our flashy culture? And with blogs, is every citizen with a computer and a rant going to be given the same privileges of old-school journalists? All questions that will be answered in time.

Unfortunately, there is not enough time in just one (or two) semesters to learn everything we need to know about the convergence between print journalism and new media. Hopefully, Texas State will get the hint that their students are interested in the subject and will provide more classes in the future. Cindy has done the best she can (no brown nosing here- she has really worked wonders) to educate us about this new field, but there's only so much that can be taught in 16 weeks.

The coolest thing about what we're doing now is that the news is no longer a one-way street; it's a dialog between journalists, citizens, and subjects. There are more voices to listen to, and that doesn't mean there are less opportunities, just more stories. And that's what we're here for; to help tell those stories in new ways.

Tech geek visions fulfilled

Just when I thought I knew what I was doing, I realized I knew nothing at all.

Multimedia Journalism has helped me learn new tips and tricks for creating online content, which I know will be invaluable as I enter the job market in the future. Prior to this course, I had some skills in video editing and very, very basic web design knowledge. As the semester progressed, I started remembering more and learning new things about the technology.

Perhaps what I didn't realize I would learn in this course is news and information about technology, which I would dabble in on occassion, but now I find myself reading more about Google's takeover of the world and closely following the every move of Apple. This class was the first to emphasize multimedia and techonology news, particularly from publications such as Wired, which I had never read before prior to this semester.

I have always considered myself a wannabe technology geek. Now I have extra motivation to learn more about multimedia because I find it not only fascinating personally, but I am seriously considering it as the route I would like to take as a journalist. I love writing and reporting, but I'm always proud of myself when I can take that a little further and create something visual for as story as well.

What Learned in class this semester: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

When I look back on the semester in my multimedia journalism class I realize there is a whole world of possibilities for a career in this field. Also I think about all of the new things I learned about the interactive media world, like how to make a podcast, post videos to youtube and blogging. I knew before I took this class what each of these things were, I just didn’t know exactly how they were made and published.

I feel that this semester in Cindy’s class really cemented a good foundation of knowledge of web design, video and audio editing, and the future of things to come in online journalism. Before this class I had always assumed the only world for a print journalism major was reporting for a newspaper, but I now know there is so much more I could do for a publication than just write stories. I still need to do some independent learning and further study the things I’ve learned in order to say that I’ve mastered them, but Cindy did a great job getting us to where we are comfortable and confident in our skills.

Another aspect of the class that I was not expecting was to learn so much about how social networking plays such a big part in shaping the Internet of the future. Learning about applications such as second life and discussing the implications of sites like facebook and myspace was not only enjoyable but also informative (considering I already use both of them).

All in all I will hopefully go down a path that not only allows me to write for a great paper, but also maybe help out with web design, flash animations and infographics, blogs and anything else I can.

Anyone reading this who might be considering taking one of Cindy’s classes in the future I strongly suggest that you do, just don’t click the mouse while she is talking.

Time Flies With or Without the Fun

With Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all within a few weeks of each other its easy to get caught up in costumes, turkey, and wish lists.. I feel like I snapped out of it just in time to realize that this semester is over. Usually I associate the end of the semester with stress, but a hint of relief. Relief from knowing that in a weeks time all of my cramming and all-nighters will pay off with a month long vacation. This semester, I feel like that relief has been replaced with fear. As oppose to spending the month of December home catching up with old friends, I'll have to finally put some thought into what I'm gonna do with my life once I graduate. This semester flew by, the next will do the same, and I'll be forced into the "real world." Scary!
After taking this multimedia journalism class this semester, I can honestly say I'm a little less nervous, and a little more excited about the future.

This semester I've been introduced to new programs and skills which I would have never thought myself capable of learning. So rather than fearing that I have only a semester left, I instead feel grateful I have another semester to become more familiar with a lot of things we were briefly introduced to earlier this semester. I think this course did a good job of touching on different aspects of multimedia being used in journalism today. Because a semesters time obviously isn't long enough to teach us in detail the ins and outs of every program, I think we got a pretty thorough introduction. We were able to put together slide shows, podcasts, and blogs, and more importantly, we were shown that if it was something that we had an interest in, we could easily go home and practice on our own to better familiarize ourselves with these skills.

I was also glad we were required to attend different panels during Mass Comm Week. It was good to hear people who had been in our shoes a few years ago speak about where multimedia journalism had taken them. I was glad I got to hear Angela Grant say that a lot of the skills she learned, were learned on the job. Its nice to know that the buzzer doesn't go off upon graduation. That isn't all the time you have allotted to learn what you're gonna need to know for the future.

For the most part, I'm still not sure what I want to do once I graduate, but I can say that after taking this course, I have a better idea. Thats more than I can say for any other classes I've taken. So no, I don't have it all figured out yet, but I'm okay with that.

Lessons in Contradiction

Coming to the end of a long, long education inevitably inspires thoughts of the future. It’s frightening to imagine beginning something completely new and I can’t help but wonder if I have done enough to prepare: learned enough, read enough, taken enough of the right classes.

The world has changed with the advent of the Internet and our field has changed immensely as well. Though I came into this class with this understanding - to an extent- this point has truly been driven home as the course is wrapping up and I think of all that we've learned, discussed and debated.

More people are writing the news than ever before, whether they are actual journalists or not. The everyday person is contributing to the media in ways few ever imagined. That media constantly surrounds us and we find our society with an entirely new set of issues, having to now debate the rights and uses of media that not long ago weren’t even a consideration.

Ironically, I actually feel more prepared and yet less prepared, more confident and yet more frightened all at the same time. I am grateful for my experience with Flash, iMovie, Photoshop and Dreamweaver, but feel like there is so much more to learn and wonder if perhaps I’m stuck in that infamous Alanis Morissette song?

I have been inspired by the work of others, Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon and Angela Grant in particular, who have been down this same path - but intimidated at the same time.

The one thing that could have enhanced this class for me would have been more time to explore the different medias we were merely introduced to. But, in theme with the theme, I simply can’t imagine a longer semester!

I’m excited about continuing to learn more and experiment more but scared sh…well, you know how that ends.

Fantaginormous is the triple chocolate cake of adjectives

The semester is almost over? I need a cigarette. Nothing says "times up" or "it's over" like a gulp of ammonia, rat poison and tobacco. Sweet relief: that's my kind of finality.

This semester has been hectic: I've fallen behind, attempted to catch up, been tripped by a tortoise and kicked by a hare. "The Tortoise and the Hare," by Mother Goose, is flapdoodle*: both animals are malicious. But I got my revenge: I hired Tonya Harding, an unscrupulous female boxer who knows some people with crowbars, to help me get back in the game. The turtle/rabbit team of destruction hasn't bothered me since.

Moving on...

I took the multimedia journalism course for enjoyment more than anything else. The class satisfied a degree requirement, but I wanted to take a print journalism class that tied into my minor: communication design.

I will not being working within the multimedia subfield of journalism. I don't need to know how to write html. I won't be using Flash. I have no desire to make a career of photography, and I doubt I'll ever make another podcast. But why shouldn't I be familiar with all of those things?

I will be making a career of copy editing. I need dictionaries and the AP Style Guide. I love grammar. And, because I am a journalist, I need to understand every facet journalism. It's the responsible thing to do...

There are specialized doctors, lawyers, computer programmers...the list goes on and on...and all of them, no matter what field and specialty, must have a general knowledge of their field before they specialize. Journalists are not exempt from this. I will not be a photojournalist. I don't plan on designing online extras, working in broadcast news or becoming an radio personality. However, I am not an island and, as a result, cannot learn about only those subjects pertaining to copy editing. A child cannot learn to walk before learning how to crawl (eewww, that's as like totally overused as the sounds "uh" and "um").

Mine is an abstract reflection on the material we covered in Multimedia Journalism. I enjoyed the class, but none of the projects struck me as exciting, though the Flash project will probably change that; I love Adobe Illustrator, which Flash is similar to. Either way, I'm glad I took the class: it expanded my knowledge of journalism as a whole, and was an opportunity to gain experience in areas I had not worked in before.

* I've achieved my No. 1 goal for the semester: use the word "flapdoodle" in a graded blog post. I will receive a yellow smiley-face sticker at the award ceremony, in addition to a fantaginormous cookie served on a Braggart plate.

Multimedia Crammed into 16 weeks

Now that this course is ending, I can say that I have learned new skills, but I don't think I have learned enough. I feel like I'm more familar with terms, and I understand how things work. I just wish I had more than one opportunity with each skill. I think that we are all storytellers, but I would have liked to experiment with the camera and voice recorders a little more. With each assignment, I learned my mistakes, but I'm still confused at what separates the amateur from the multimedia professional at this stage in the game.
Careerwise, I feel like I'm only at the beginning. The scary part is that if I want to further my skills in multimedia, I will have to do it on the job. The first part is convincing someone to give me a job, and the second part is accepting that I'm going to learn by trial and error while working on real stories.
I think the blogging would have been more beneficial by having everyone run their blog as if it was on their own site. By doing this, we would be more compelled to read each others posts on a regular basis. I usually would only read a couple, because reading a dozen posts on the same topic can get dull.
For the slideshow, I would have like to go over some photography basics, and for the podcast, I would have liked to discuss what the sound of the podcast could soundlike before we started on the project.
I do appreciate the amount of information that I had access to, but I wish it didn't feel like I just crammed for my the future job hunt. In the future, hopefully a variety of multiamedia skills will be available throughout the mass comm courses.

Early Future

It's just a matter of time before the things we have done in this class and in Cindy's Web Design class become their own concentration.

A large majority of the people in Cindy's classes are print journalism majors. But there's nothing "print" about what we're doing.

We may follow some basic guidelines of print journalism (inverted pyramid), but the things we do seem more like electronic media.

But we know it's not that, either. Electronic media focuses mostly on radio and television. What we do doesn't fit that mold.

A lot of people throw around the term "new media" for what we do. That's a very lazy term if you ask me. "Hmm, there's something new going on here in the media. What should we call it? I've got an idea...."

Another name being thrown around is "online journalism." It's a pretty accurate term. But there's nothing that about it that pops out to you. It's kind of boring. But we're getting closer.

The official name for this class is "multimedia journalism." You know what? That sounds about right. We're journalists, of course, that's why we're here. But we're doing it in a much different way.

It's electronic, but in a different way from radio and TV. It's new, that's true. But in 20 years is it still going to be new? It's online, but that doesn't begin to describe all the ways news can be presented online.

No, we're presenting the news through multimedia. We can give you information on the 2008 Presidential election via a flash presentation. We could tell you how a music festival went down through a slideshow. We can analyze the latest sports news in the form of a podcast.

We're a part of the new wave of journalism. We may not know it yet, but we're going to help determine the future of the media. Radio, TV, and print will be there. But multimedia can go anywhere and we're the ones who will help drive it.

It's not going to be long before students here are mass communication majors with an emphasis in multimedia journalism.

A wrap up of the year-just in time for Christmas

This semester, though fun filled, flew by. It seems like just yesterday I was stressing about which topic to pick for our very first Soundslide project. Though I am still just as stressed if not more, the end of the year a.k.a. semester before my last, is quickly approaching.

When I think back to all we did in our multimedia class, I am astounded by my tech savvinous (I know that's not a real word). I felt like I was above my game in terms of computer skills in the beginning, but it just goes to prove that there is always room for more knowledge.

I originally took this class because it was open and I needed an extra class. I was very doubtful that I would “learn” anything new, but with all our information slowly becoming digital there is never a time when one person can know it all.

I think this class mainly opened my eyes to the different aspects of the field I am earning my degree in. At first, my career path was to work strictly in the journalistic aspects of magazines. Now I am excited about my future because I’m not only interested in the writing, but in the layout, design and any other aspect. Having taken this class and learned more about an otherwise unknown field, I feel that I am able to go out into the field with a level head and an optimistic attitude about straying from my chosen career path.

I am ready for the future because I feel like I can keep up with it. The Internet may be changing everyday, but we are changing too and I think that’s the first step to becoming successful in the real world.

Multimedia today

I feel like the things covered this semester have been very helpful to all who wish to work in mass communication after college, whether one aspires to be a journalist, advertiser, public relations agent or anything else in media. Obviously the Internet has changed how businesses, groups and publications alike must work at getting audiences' attention, so it makes sense that your skills in this area must expand.

I only wish these topics were brought up sooner in one's university education, and I'm sure they will be in the future. It seems almost every class I've had over the last two semesters had stressed the same things; even in print reporting classes convergence almost always hangs over what we are doing. I've noticed a huge spike in the amount of stress given to multimedia reporting over the last half of my education at Texas State, and feel young students in the future need to be exposed to this and have interactive access to the software, skills and guidelines as soon as possible from now on. I think as the media arts get more saturated with convergence journalists and other professionals, having dabbled won't be enough. Students need to refine these skills beyond that.

Right now I'm not sure if I wish to continue pursuing journalism, but the multimedia aspects are very appealing, if only to try new ways to produce stories. I had fun doing my video project for Bobcat Living and will try more of that in the future. I think print will always have a place for harder, dense news, but seeing as I have never been that interested in news, I'd like to get better at convergence reporting and move towards features that bring individuals stories to light, stories that might not have been told in the past.

For example, I was watching a sports show on TV that ranked the top inspiring stories of all time. One was Jason McElwain's performance after being inserted late into a high school basketball game last season. McElwain was a senior and the manager for the Greece Athena High School boys basketball team in New York, but has autism and as such did not play during the season. But at the end of the season he got in the game and hit six three-pointers and scored 20 points in four minutes, much to the enjoyment of his friends, family and teammates. This was one of the few inspiring stories that wasn't filmed professionally, and wasn't about pro sports. I thought it cool that years ago people wouldn't not have known what McElwain did.

Bobcat women's basketball

Texas State women's basketball win its opening game of the season against Texas A&M-International.

Video produced by Drew Hampel and Maira Garcia

Music mixed by Drew Hampel

Battle of the Bands — San Marcos

This is a video of the Wavebreak Productions' Battle of the Bands, held at Gordo's in San Marcos. Enjoy this work by Todd Schaaf and Colm Keane.

The Secret Life of Tattoo Artists

Interview with three tattoo artists at Classic Tattoo in San Marcos, Texas. College students seem to be fascinated by tattoo culture, and here are the answers to many common questions. By Haley Fontenot and Anna Tauzin.

Saxophone Recital Video

Texas State students perform at the Saxophone Studio Recital on November 14, 2007, after practicing various solos since the beginning of the semester.
by Chris Boehm and Emily Messer

Taus for Tots

Latin American Journalism

Here is our video on Claudia Mellado-Ruiz, professor of Social Communication at Universidad de Concepcion in Chile and an International Fulbright Scholar. She spoke at Texas State on November 13, 2007 about her research on Latin American journalism and how it compares to American journalism. This video was done by Katrina Moline and Andrew McNeill.