Now that Rich is here at the University of Miami, he has brought the bootcamp to our School of Communication.
I’m going to try to blog as much as possible (particularly about the lunch and dinner keynote speeches), but the sessions are 12 hours each day and plus we the assistants shuttling people around, so I can’t promise a certain frequency.
What I can promise is tweets. Tweets galore! As long as my Tilt, iPod Touch and laptop batteries can all survive the long days, I’ll have updates. The School of Comm also has lots of outlets, so I should be ok.
It’s hardly a modest proposal, but on Tuesday morning I submitted my entry for Publish2‘s “I am the future of journalism” contest.
My submission includes text and an audio slideshow.
To view and vote on my entry, click the picture to the right. You must be registered with Publish2 to vote.
Enjoy!
(Unfortunately, that’s not a photo of me. My fedoras always fit perfectly, thank you very much.)
Sidenote: If you’re a journalist and you’re not familiar with Publish2, I recommend you check it out. In simple terms, it’s like del.icio.us for journalists but with features specifically tailored for its users.
“But I’m already signed up for a million social networks,” you say.
No worries, Publish2 helps you share links on your other networks. With the simple check of two boxes, you can also save a link to del.icio.us and post it to Twitter.
You can also create a profile on Publish2 with your work experience, add your clips and list all the sites where you publish.
(Full disclosure: I’m the CoPress community manager, as well as a core team member.)
In a major move to help college newspapers thrive online, CoPress has announced a plan to move interested papers to WordPress and host the sites for a low monthly fee, plus a minor initial setup cost.
Or, if you’re just looking for low-cost hosting sans WordPress, that’s also an option. If you go that route, you don’t pay the initial setup cost.
What’s the advantage? Well, when you consider how much money your college news site could generate if you sold all the ads, and therefore took in related revenue, choosing CoPress could pay for itself.
Not to mention the fact that you have complete control over your site. That, in my view, is the most attractive reason. I oversaw The Miami Hurricane‘s move from College Publisher to WordPress last summer and wish CoPress existed at the time.
But, whereas our situation allowed us to make the move on our own, many school papers don’t have a server or the technical know-how to make such a move. Or, if you do, you can avoid a possible headache (particularly in transfering your College Publisher archives) with a little help from your friends.
I have one month to learn a new skill, or skills, during winter break. Therefore, I would like to take a survey to see what skills would most benefit someone graduating in May.
Some background: I will be an online intern at The Dallas Morning News this summer (see related post), a position that focuses on writing and video (mostly breaking news and enterprise).
My career goal is to work as a multimedia reporter.
I have some degree of proficiency in each of the following (in no particular order):
Or should I simply work on improving some of the skills I already have? I’m taking a video class in the spring to further refine those skills, so I probably won’t focus on video during break.
If there’s another skill you think would be valuable, please let me know. I will probably focus on one, maybe two depending on the intensity of the primary skill.
A couple of my visual journalism professors have recommended learning XML and more Flash, specifically focusing on AS3.
Personally, I’m learning towards database and CAR stuff.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions in comments below, with a brief explanation of why.
Thanks!
Update, Dec. 22: Apparently one of my plugins broke the comment feature, so no one has been able to respond so far. Fortunately, Twitter came to the rescue!
Almost all of the recommendations have been for learning more about databases and CAR, as well as SEO.
Newspaper reporters, editors and others listen as Miami Herald Multimedia Editor Rick Hirsch gives opening remarks at Saturday's workshop. (From my camera phone, TwitPic)
This is the first in an occasional series called “Tips from a J-Student.” Posts will focus on ways journalism students can better prepare themselves for jobs, internships and other opportunities.
Yes, we helped unload a car. Yes, we helped set up breakfast. Yes, we handed out name tags and programs.
But why?
Well, there was free breakfast and lunch. More importantly, it was an opportunity to see old friends, meet new people and learn something (sessions were also free for volunteers).
As for learning something new, I was able to attend a session in each of the three time slots (more details). It just so happened that all of them were led by Miami Herald journalists:
Spreadsheets and databases – Rob Barry, investigative reporter and database specialist; Stephanie Rosenblatt, multimedia developer
Online story planning – Paul Cheung, deputy multimedia presentation editor; Niala Boodhoo, multimedia business specialist
I wish I could have attended all the workshops, but I picked the ones where I thought I would learn the most.
So what good does this do you?
Find out if your school hosts any professional development events. Most UM journalism students have no idea this opportunity – though limited to a few volunteers – exists at all.
If there’s not such an event, see what you can do to lobby for workshops or some other opportunity to network and learn (somewhat related: a shameless plug for Sean Blanda‘s efforts to bring BarCampNewsInnovation to Philadelphia).
But the overall lesson is to take advantage of any available opportunity to improve your skill set, make new connections and continue relationships. And, if that opportunity doesn’t exist, try to make it happen.
Upcoming opportunity: From Jan. 3 to 10, Knight Char in Visual Journalism Rich Beckman will host his annual Beyond Bootcampworkshops at UM for the first time.
Students have the (paid) opportunity to assistant in one of the three-day sessions. I’ll be helping out with the video narratives sessions, Jan. 7 to 10. Of course, I plan to blog about this event.
Looking forward: Several upcoming posts in this series will related to applying for summer internships. Although it’s too late for many summer opportunities, I hope these posts will help students applying in the spring and beyond.
Weigh in: Have you found any similar training or networking opportunities at your school? If not, what kind would you like to see?
