For a first lecture, Monday’s J2150 class was fairly standard, including a syllabus explanation and a supply list, among other segments.
As a journalist intending to concentrate in News Editing in the Print & Digital News department, my multimedia experience has been minimal. I took pictures for my high school yearbook and my Advanced Placement Studio Art portfolio and have sporadically messed with WordPress. I did contribute audio segments from an interview I conducted to The Maneater’s slideshow about last spring’s Rockin’ Against Multiple Sclerosis Rock-It competition, but I would barely count that — I didn’t work with the clips after sending them to the editor. So, multimedia is a bit of a foreign field.
However, that’s not to say I don’t admire it. As so many technological advances are being made, multimedia is becoming a bigger component of media outlets. No longer will you just find stories on a newspaper or magazine’s website — an audio slideshow, a related podcast, a short film or even all of the above could accompany a story on a topic.
I view these projects as supplements, not replacements, for news stories. I will always appreciate and recognize the importance of the written word. However, many multimedia projects I’ve seen enhance an original print story, such as the behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoots for Vogue’s 120th anniversary issue, a whopping 916-page September issue, about which I tweeted earlier this week. Others offer an outlet for stories that benefit from a visual focus, such as The New York Times’ multimedia presentation about the Second Avenue subway construction in New York City that has been in progress for more than 80 years.
As an editor, I think I should have some knowledge about multimedia, even though I might not be involved in its creation in a career setting. The more I understand, the more I can appreciate it, and I’m excited to use Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Photoshop and other programs this semester to master the art of multimedia.