I am taking Multimedia Journalism at Umass Amherst with Professor Steve Fox. The class is a hands on course in multimedia journalism, during which we learn how to use many different tools to report the news.
Multimedia journalism is amazing in that with the rise of social networking sites the news is accountable to the general public in a whole new way. Journalists’ reports need to match what the general public is tweeting and bloging about, otherwise the same journalists that appeared to be trustworthy sources just a decade ago end up seeming almost manipulative.
This new type of journalism is really exciting in that it not only holds journalists accountable, but anyone with computer access can become a journalists. Pictures of police brutality are uploaded to flicker minutes after they happen. Video’s of protests hit youtube within hours of being filmed. Blogs are a new form of text news, and twitter can be used as a news ticker if you know where to look and who to follow.
In short, I am taking this class to learn how to use the tools of this newly forming participatory journalism. It is an exciting time in the history of information and journalism and I want to be as aware of the potential as possible.
Multimedia Journalism @ Umass 