My Final J198 Thoughts

Where do I begin? There's a lot for me to say about Multimedia Reporting and really, they're all good things. I came into this class blind--I had no idea what we would be doing. I took the class because I had just had Jeremy in Media & Society and I did pretty well, so I thought it couldn't hurt and I needed one more Journalism credit.

I think the emphasis on social media was one of the most important elements that I took away from Multimedia Reporting. We're moving into an age where communication is focused on efficiency. How fast can we move information around? With the evolution of networks such as twitter and facebook, the speed at which people can interact with one another is unprecedented. In Multimedia Reporting, we learned specifically how to utilize this medium (via Twitter and blogging) to publicize our work and it especially made us all realize how quickly our efforts can be seen by others. I was shocked when some of my tweets regarding my final project were retweeted and responded to by people I don't even know, yet they gave some pretty awesome insight!

By focusing on social media and spending a lot of our time in this realm, I think it's safe to assume that the class picked up on the notion that social media isn't just meant for "social" purposes. Businesses, organizations and companies are too jumping on this trend and using social media to market their brands. In today's society, it's not if a company uses social media, it's when, and the sooner the better.

In terms of the class, I really liked how Jeremy utilized these platforms along with us. Both inside and outside of the classroom, he kept the conversation going thus making it impossible for "J198" to ever leave our minds. Without him there, I don't think the whole idea of us conducting class in this area would have ever worked!!!

Moving along, I think being able to report in more ways than just on paper will be beneficial in the future. To know how to create news videos, podcasts and slideshows is something that isn't just useful in the professional world, but it's kind of cool to know how to create this things for personal reasons--making memories!!

As an overall evaluation of myself, I think this class really taught me that it's ok to make mistakes. There were plenty of assignments in this class that were far from perfect, but they all made for excellent learning experiences.

In the end, if I could take this class again, I WOULD!