It’s all about opportunity on the Internet

Right now young journalists have the opportunity to utilize many forms of storytelling to compliment the written word. These forms include everything from video, audio and photos to mapped images, links and alert messages. Fortunately, as a young journalist, I’ll get to spend my last semester of college checking out these tools and techniques via New Media/Multimedia English 721. It will be interesting to see how my understanding of new media will match up to the expectations of employers while I job hunt in the field of journalism over the next few months. As for the course itself, I’m looking to benefit in three major ways.

First, I want to see what my peers’ expectations, understanding, and goals are for online reporting. They’re the ones that grew up with the Internet, so it will be important to see what their beliefs are in relation to seasoned journalists who are already plugging away at new media.

Second, I want to experiment. I want to see what works and what doesn’t. I want to cut losses and I want to cut them fast. I want to try as many new techniques, tools and applications as possible. The Internet is moving closer and closer to individualized customization of the viewed product. I want to see if a story can be told in multiple ways – effectively, efficiently and with time-use maximized over and over again.

Lastly, I want to get a feel for what journalists are writing and creating online. I want to understand their methods and I want to fine-tune what I already know using their techniques as a guide.

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Here’s a link to a multimedia piece produced by Richard Tsong-Taatarii of the Star Tribune in Minnesota. It shows aspects of an outreach program for homeless people in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Not only does the story give audio and video, but it also utilizes still photos with narration. Using both video and still photo images is a great way to tell this kind of social-impact story.