The world of journalism is an ever-changing, ever-evolving environment. As technology is updated, so are the ways in which we both present and view newsworthy information.
Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu wrote, “Every journey begins with a single step.” While my journalism journey did not begin with my recent multimedia journalism course at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, it was certainly an educational detour.
My eyes were opened to a multitude of unique and engaging ways to present information and to enhance the visual appeal of an article.
At the beginning of the course, I knew I was out of my comfort zone. Professor Nancy Hanus tossed around words like blogging, statistics, visualizations, and embedding. She introduced a variety of websites that I had never heard of. To say the least, I was nervous.
Then Professor Hanus told us that our focus for the class would be on the local education system. We were given the task of choosing and exploring data within specific school districts: researching data primarily though the MiSchooldata website and interviews.
Throughout the course, we found and presented data and statistics through our class blog. We were treated to several guest speakers, including Jessica Strachan, Ron French (Bridge Michigan) and Nicquel Terry Ellis (CNN). Each presented valuable information from the perspective of current professionals in the journalism and media world.
Admittedly, I was skeptical about receiving anything useful from the course, but I was pleasantly surprised. I found that blogging is actually kind of fun. I have a better understanding of how to find and make sense out of data and statistics, as well as how to present them in an article.
I received a crash course on how to prepare for and conduct an interview as we interviewed the communications directors for Wayne-Westland Community Schools and Farmington Public Schools.
Even if I decide to go in a direction beyond journalism, some of the skills learned during this course will be very useful tools to have in my toolkit. As an example of some of the interesting things I learned in this course, see the timeline below (also taught in the course).
This course may be over, but it is not the end of my journey. If anything, it sparked my interest to explore other aspects of this multi-dimensional world. I’m ready to take the next step.
