When I first decided on journalism as my career, I was under the impression that I would work solely in print. I was adamant that I would go nowhere near a camera, and I certainly would not be putting video stories togther – that was for the technical people, not me.
Kristin McGrath takes a photo while Sean Connolly and Kristin Tangel decide where to visit first.
Now that I have gone through bootcamp, I have completely changed my tune. I cannot wait to get behind the camera again or grab my digital recorder and create a story by melding still photos and audio. While gathering what I needed for my multimedia stories was challenging, I couldn’t help but feel exhilerated when I saw the final product, knowing that I had done it.
In addition to getting hands-on experience, we were also given the opportunity to listen to some pretty impressive guest speakers. They came from different perspectives (some were more old-school while others embraced the changes in journalism) and from different media, but they all had valuable insight to share with us.
They all had different experiences with journalism, but there seemed to be some common themes running through all the talks:
- have specialized knowledge in one area, but have a passable knowledge of many others
- be able to use all types of media – don’t limit yourself to one platform
- you must be passionate about what you do
- the Internet may be making life difficult for some journalists, but it’s also opening a lot of doors for others, especially those of us who know how to take advantage of technology
The past three weeks have been overwhelming and stressful, but they have also been eye-opening. Despite all the claims that journalism is a dying field, I came away from the course with a new sense of optimism. It may be difficult, but I know that if I am determined, I can find a way to do my dream job.
Bootcamp was a great way to get me ready for my classes in the fall. I am more curious and more motivated to experiences new forms of media and to break out of the box that I had confined myself in. I have no idea what the future holds, but I can’t wait to experience it.
Throughout bootcamp, we were encouraged to record our lectures and I’ve decided to include a slideshow to give an idea of what the past three weeks have been.
