Shannon Ryker | April 7, 2009
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| Photo by Scott Myrick |
| From left, associate professor Amy Reynolds helps graduate student Erica Hunter during a lab session. The integrated media class is preparing students to tell stories in several formats. |
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New this semester, J560 Workshop in Integrated Media is helping journalism students pursuing master’s degrees hone their skills in several media. In conjunction with the School of Journalism, WTIU and WFIU, the class of 10 students is led by the School of Journalism’s Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Amy Reynolds and Director of IU Radio and TV Services Perry Metz.
“This class is a great way for our journalists to be integrated in multiple platforms,” said Metz. “It is a real eye-opener for many students.”
Beyond the skills, students are learning how to work in today’s converged media industry.
“We want to expose each student to technology they may have never used before,” said Metz. “There may be a student who knows the Web well but not (video) editing. We want to help that student learn to edit also.”
Throughout the semester, students have worked with the basics of various multimedia equipment and programs, including video editing, audio editing content management systems for the Web, photo editing and Web design. Once the students have learned the skills needed for the program, they put them to use reporting stories and working with WTIU and WFIU staffs.
The students’ projects may be published or broadcast on a Web site, Newsmatters.org, a joint production of television station WTIU and radio station WFIU. Both are local public broadcasting affiliates.
The projects from the first half of the semester introduced new skills and technology. In this second half, students are working in platforms of their choice to further refine skills in these selected areas, and they can choose their own reporting topics.
Reynolds said through their work reporting, editing, videotaping, photographing, designing, voicing or writing about a variety of topics, students will have produced multimedia projects that not only inform the local community but also could be included in their professional portfolios.
Journalism graduate student Penny DeYong said she will focus on learning video and audio.
“I am new to the Mac computers and video and audio, so this class is really an opportunity to master those skills and put them to use,” she said.
Reynolds and Metz are learning, too. They collaborated to design the concept of the class and now are assessing its progress.
“Amy and I had been talking about how the School of Journalism wanted to update the journalism graduate curriculum to address multimedia and how TV/Radio was looking to expand into other platforms,” Metz said. “We thought this would be a good way to experiment in both.”
Reynolds said the graduate program has not offered a class that integrates multimedia platforms and requires students to contribute to local media. But there is a “natural partnership” between TV/Radio and journalism, she said, and that makes the class work well.
Team-teaching brings another unique learning aspect for the students. Each instructor brings something valuable to the classroom, students said.
‘The instructors’ caliber and expertise in their fields really open the direction of the class to where we want to take it.’– Penny DeYong, J560 student
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Roughly halfway through the semester, students and instructors said the future of this pilot class looks good.
“Both Amy and I have had a wonderful time so far,” said Metz. He and Reynolds met with students for midterm conferences before spring break and said the general consensus looked as though the students were satisfied.
DeYong is one who agrees with that assessment.
“I think this class has great potential, especially for people who come from different backgrounds,” said DeYong. “In graduate school, you need to create your own opportunities and this class is a great forum to do it.”
