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Words of Wisdom: Chad A. Stevens on learning important multimedia skills Posted by Jessica Stuart, October 1st, 2009 No Comments » We're kicking off a new series on the blog, talking with educators and journalism students about the value of Journalism school and the multimedia skills students need to start their careers. There has been a lot of discussion lately on whether it's worth it to go to Journalism school, and whether students are learning the multimedia skills they need to be successful in a pretty rough market. As the school year gets back underway, we're getting more and more questions from students wondering what skills they need to acquire to land jobs. Obviously, there are no simple answers to these questions, but we hope to offer up some words of wisdom for students and others interested in the profession, especially during this time of transition. Chad2 We're going to kick it off with Chad A. Stevens- a former MediaStorm Producer, who is now an Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

Words of Wisdom: Chad A. Stevens on learning important multimedia skills Posted by Jessica Stuart, October 1st, 2009 No Comments » We're kicking off a new series on the blog, talking with educators and journalism students about the value of Journalism school and the multimedia skills students need to start their careers. There has been a lot of discussion lately on whether it's worth it to go to Journalism school, and whether students are learning the multimedia skills they need to be successful in a pretty rough market. As the school year gets back underway, we're getting more and more questions from students wondering what skills they need to acquire to land jobs. Obviously, there are no simple answers to these questions, but we hope to offer up some words of wisdom for students and others interested in the profession, especially during this time of transition. Chad2 We're going to kick it off with Chad A. Stevens- a former MediaStorm Producer, who is now an Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

Essential multimedia tutorials and resources for do-it-yourself training Wednesday, March 25, 2009 The funny thing about the new wave of journalism is that news organizations are requiring journalists to learn additional technical skills, but aren't making the necessary training readily available. In order to be or remain employed in this industry its essential to hunker down and learn some new skills. The following tutorial sites will take you from journalist to multimedia journalist, something that looks great on any business card.

Multimedia journalism teaching: 10 things I learned One way to teach multimedia reporting skills (by which I mean use of the reporting tools, not HTML and scripting) is to have an intense, short boot camp. Three days, five days maybe, with long hours each day. Another option is to integrate the skills into a full 3-credit course - call it "multimedia reporting," or just change the existing Reporting 101 course to include the current tools. I like both of those options, but this semester I tried a third option: Students enrolled in the regular 3-credit reporting course could take an additional 1-credit course in multimedia reporting. They were permitted to enroll only if they were also taking the reporting course. (They have previously completed a 3-credit mass media writing course.)

Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it) Post-Oprah and apres-Ashton, Twittermania is definitely sliding down the backlash slope of the hype cycle. It's not just the predictable wave of naysaying after the predictable waves of sliced-breadism and bandwagon-chasing. We're beginning to see some data. Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings, recently noted that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. To me, this represents a perfect example of a media literacy issue: Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it. When I started requiring digital journalism students to learn how to use Twitter, I didn't have the list of journalistic uses for Twitter that I have compiled by now. So I logged onto the service and broadcast a request. "I have a classroom full of graduate students in journalism who don't know who to follow. Does anybody have a suggestion?" Within ten minutes, we had a list of journalists to follow, including one who was boarding Air Force One at that moment, joining the White House press corps accompanying the President to Africa.

Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it) Post-Oprah and apres-Ashton, Twittermania is definitely sliding down the backlash slope of the hype cycle. It's not just the predictable wave of naysaying after the predictable waves of sliced-breadism and bandwagon-chasing. We're beginning to see some data. Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings, recently noted that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. To me, this represents a perfect example of a media literacy issue: Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it. When I started requiring digital journalism students to learn how to use Twitter, I didn't have the list of journalistic uses for Twitter that I have compiled by now. So I logged onto the service and broadcast a request. "I have a classroom full of graduate students in journalism who don't know who to follow. Does anybody have a suggestion?" Within ten minutes, we had a list of journalists to follow, including one who was boarding Air Force One at that moment, joining the White House press corps accompanying the President to Africa.

"It's no secret that web design is a fast-growing industry. Virtually every type of business is in need of a quality website. There are opportunities at the large agency level down to freelancers developing small-business websites from home. So how do you break into this exciting field? With little or no experience creating websites, getting yourself up to speed can be a daunting task. There are so many different avenues of design and development to explore. Which way should you go first? Which skill sets suit you the best? We aim to give you an overview of a few things things that are essential to a well-rounded knowledge of web design. These are starting-points, if you will. Below each item, we've listed additional resources for you to continue on in your learning process. Before we get into it, heed one important lesson: You can't become a professional web designer overnight. It takes years to reach an expert level in any aspect of the field. But everybody starts somewhere, and there's no better time than the present begin your web design education."

FotoFest® created the first international Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art in the United States. FotoFest ® is an international non-profit photographic arts and education organization based in Houston, Texas. FotoFest's purpose is to promote the exchange of art and ideas through international programs and the presentation of photographic art. Our programs work globally and locally, bringing together an international vision of art and cross-cultural exchange with a commitment to community involvement and the enrichment of Houston's cultural resources. In addition to its internationally known Biennial, FotoFest sponsors Inter-Biennial programs - exhibitions, international exchange programs, and publications. In grades 3-12, FotoFest operates a year-round classroom education program, Literacy Through Photography, using photography to strengthen writing skills, visual literacy, and cognitive learning.

Welcome to blipfoto - the zero-fuss, free website that lets anyone join in and publish one photo a day. Record your life in pictures, improve your photography skills, or just keep in touch with your family and friends.

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops is an inspirational resource for all photographers, from enthusiasts to professionals. Offering over 150 educational programs a year, you'll learn from today's most influential instructors to inspire your creativity and expand your technical skills. Whether engaging your imagination in Santa Fe or exploring far off places, The Workshops supports all levels of participants in their passion for photography.

Photofusion is London's largest independent photography resource centre. We are unique for the breadth of our work and services, providing access to a full range of facilities including contemporary gallery space, darkrooms, studio, digital imaging training, picture library, agency and ongoing photo-art education programme for professional, student and amateur photographers. Situated in the vibrant heart of Brixton, Photofusion's photo-digital facilities continue to draw visitors into an exciting and rapidly changing area. As Brixton's most prestigious gallery space, our exhibitions alone are expected this year to attract 30,000 visitors. Founded in 1984 as the Photo Co-op, Photofusion has metamorphosed from a small collective of documentary photographers through a number of identities through successful fundraising campaigns, to become a leading resource for photographic artists. In recognition of this role, we receive regular funding from London Arts, and consolidate this grant with income from our commercial activities. Photofusion aims to promote a ladder of educational opportunity through courses, workshops and seminars. We are moving increasingly into the field of training for disenchanted young people who may have been alienated by formal education, and are working in collaboration with a number of community and arts organisations to help people access arts training and gain skills for the workplace. Photofusion's position as a leading photography resource necessitates a close relationship with the development of digital media in order to offer artists the best possible facilities for innovative arts production. Photofusion now offers expanded digital and darkroom facilities and improved disability access.

Centurion conducts its flagship risk assessment and hostile environments training courses nearly every week in the UK and once a month in the USA. Our scheduled Hostile Environments and Emergency First Aid Training (HEFAT®) courses are open to all-comers and encompass a wide range of subjects geared towards minimising risks to personal safety for those who live or work in volatile regions. These residential training courses include discussions and practical exercises on Mines and Booby Traps, Weapons and Ballistics, Emergency Navigation, Kidnapping, Personal Security, and a great deal of field emergency first aid training that assumes definitive care is not immediately available. At least 68 per cent of our training takes place outdoors. Each week our instructors pass on life-saving skills to those who travel to places that are exposed to a higher than normal degree of danger.

Introduction to Digital Storytelling by Daniel Meadows Digital Stories are short, personal, multimedia scraps of TV that people can make for themselves. They're 'mini-movies'. Desktop computers enabled with video editing software are used to synchronise recorded spoken narratives with scans of personal photographs. This project requires commitment for, as well as all the technical stuff that must be learnt, script writing, picture editing and performance skills are also needed and these have to be worked on, which is why most Digital Stories are made by people attending workshops where participants can benefit from the help and advice of facilitators. People of all ages and abilities make Digital Stories and many have testified how rewarding the experience is for, when their story is shared with friends and family or posted on the web, they find they have discovered a new voice. There's a strictness to the construction of a Digital Story: 250 words, a dozen or so pictures, and two minutes is the right length. As with poetry these constraints define the form (e.g. a haiku is a poem written using 17 syllables, and the 14 lines of a sonnet are written in iambic pentameter) and it's the observation of that form which gives the thing its elegance.

"The fascinating field of digital forensics couldn't be more relevant for a journalist, researcher or editor. Specialised analysts can test the authenticity of a photograph: how many times has it been saved? Have additions been made to the original, and if so, in which order? Are parts of the image generated by a computer? Professor Hany Farid, based at the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College in the US, explains that photo forensics refers to mathematical and computational techniques "that seek to determine if a photo has been altered from its time of recording, and how/where the photo was altered. "This field of study is highly technical, and while some simple analysis can be done without much technical training, most of the forensic techniques require a highly skilled practitioner.""

Pro-Ams - people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards - are an increasingly important part of our society and economy. For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory, it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career, which has involved sacrifices and frustrations. The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organisations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it. The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought. Based on in-depth interviews with a diverse range of Pro-Ams and containing new data about the extent of Pro-Am activity in the UK, this report proposes new policies to support and encourage valuable Pro-Am activity.

WeSay.com is an online news site that hosts photographers of all skill levels and features their photos."

useful basic multimedia info

Twitter Basics for Journalists & Recovering Journos On Saturday, at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, I gave a talk to an audience of mostly journalists explaining the basics of blogs, social media, and search visibility. People had lots of questions, more than I could get to in the session. I was getting stopped in halls, at parties, and even in bathrooms, to be asked things like, "Does it really make that big a difference if I blog under my own domain?" (Answer: Yes!) OK, I don't mind answering those questions. That's really why I went to this conference - because I know that journalists (many of whom are facing potential layoffs, or who have already been laid off) are in dire need of online media awareness and skills. So I'm going to do a bunch of posts answering questions, because it's more efficient to do that via blogging. This is one of those posts. By now you've probably heard about Twitter, the social media service that allows you to publish posts of 140 characters max. What Twitter does, in a nutshell: This service allows you to receive posts ("tweets") from other Twitter users whom you choose to "follow." Likewise, other Twitter users can choose to follow you. When you follow someone on Twitter, their tweets show up in reverse chronological order in the "tweetstream" that scrolls down the Twitter home page when you're logged in. The effect is somewhat like an ongoing Headline News version of what's happening in the minds and worlds of people you know or find interesting.