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| Photo by James Brosher |
| Podcast anchor Natalie Avon reads from a script during a taping of the "Hoosier Headlines" podcast in the Indiana Daily Student multimedia studio. |
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All school year, professors and visiting professionals have told School of Journalism students about the importance of building an expertise in more than one medium, that the days of working in one field and one field only are long gone.
The message is taken to heart at the Indiana Daily Student. This semester, the staff has been working to give its reporters a chance to get a taste of what media convergence means by launching a more multimedia-focused Web site, a project that was one of IDS editor-in-chief Carrie Ritchie’s main goals.
“From what I’d observed and learned at the St. Petersburg Times, this is the direction newspapers are now going in,” said Ritchie, who interned at that newspaper last summer. “They’re trying to find new ways to use their Web pages. I felt like we weren’t doing some of the basics we should be doing.”
Over the course of the spring semester, Ritchie and the IDS multimedia director, sophomore James Brosher, have worked to overhaul the IDS site. It now has a multimedia tab at the top of the paper’s front page and features podcasts, which allow print reporters the chance to learn audio reporting skills.
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| Photo by James Brosher |
| Even in multimedia projects, it’s all about the writing. Natalie Avon goes over the script before the podcast. |
Not everyone in the IDS newsroom embraced the new multimedia focus quickly, though.
“There was some reluctance at first,” Ritchie said. “People weren’t quite sure what exactly we were doing. But once stuff started going up on the site the staff, seeing work get posted, they started getting excited. I think everyone in the newsroom has lent their voice to a video piece by now.”
Associate professor Jim Kelly teaches photojournalism and publication design at the School of Journalism. He said while students may be a little reluctant to learn skills they hadn’t expected to need, learn them they must if they are going to be able to compete in an increasingly tight job market.
“I have heard probably a dozen photo editors say that they will never hire again hire a photographer only,” Kelly said. “They only people they’ll hire from now on are going to be those who have multimedia experience.”
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| Photo by James Brosher |
| It takes two to create the podcasts. Ashley Braun uses the computer to capture and process Avon’s broadcast. |
“The IDS going multimedia, focusing on its Web presence, is preparing students for the realities of the profession they’re about to enter,” he said.
All that hard work isn’t being noticed only by those within the School of Journalism. People outside the school are giving the overhaul a thumbs-up as well. IDS staffers recently found out the paper’s Web site is one of nine finalists for a national Online Pacemaker award. This Associated Collegiate Press award is designed to recognize the best student reporting on the Web. One of the judges, Will Sullivan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said the contest was pretty tough to judge this year.
“The quality, design, depth, breadth and timeliness of content being produced at these college publications rivals and sometimes beats that of most professional media outlets,” Sullivan wrote in an e-mail. “I was highly encouraged to see many papers producing podcasts, multimedia, blogs, forums and breaking news on their Web sites.”
It’ll be October before the IDS finds out if it wins the award, but multimedia director James Brosher said he’s pretty happy being a finalist.
“We’re all pretty excited about the Pacemaker,” Brosher said. “It’s an honor to be among so many prestigious papers. And to be able to know we can run with the ‘big dogs’ in multimedia is awesome.”
Perhaps not so awesome are all the long hours Brosher’s put into the IDS site redesign.
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| Photo by James Brosher |
| Preparations finished, Natalie Avon (left) and Ashley Braun get the week’s podcast underway in the tiny multimedia space at the IDS. |
It’s not done yet. The students and their publisher say they’ve given the IDS a multimedia foundation it can build on in the coming years.
“What they have been able to accomplish this semester is just amazing,” Comiskey said. “I’m just really proud of them.”
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