Of course

I could not be any happier that this class was offered my junior year at Lehigh. No offense to freshmen, sophomores or seniors, but I think taking the class as a junior made it just right. I was, in terms of journalism, "ripe" enough to understand the value of class because of the job market and because it keeps me hooked to wanting to know more about multimedia while granting me at least one more year of experimentation before the real world.

One of the questions we were asked on our applications to get into the course was what we thought about citizen journalism, or something along those lines. I don't recall what I wrote, but I know that I've come across different definitions throughout the class.

Simply, the notion of citizen journalism is a step away from globalization by focusing on local matters while introducing the idea that anyone around the world can have an impact in their society as well as the global society.

It is scary though to think that because of citizen journalism, J-schools may be delegitimized. I don't know if in a year or two I may be begging for food outside of the New York Times building while tourists film me and decide that I'm newsworthy. Suddenly, their video is a YouTube sensation and they're budding journalists.

Journalism is increasingly becoming a gamble, but with this class, I've realized, no matter what level of experience you have, if you care about what goes on in your community or elsewhere, you are capable of contributing news.

Some people see barriers, I see undiscovered opportunities as simple as having a shoot and share camera and being anywhere, anytime.

The course was incredible--I hope other journalism majors at Lehigh can come to realize it is indispensable, not just for their resumes, but for their approach to story-telling. Some stories are 140 characters long, some 1 minute and 30 seconds, and others take up an entire website.

So, in a nutshell--great course, awesome professor, cool gadgets.

Lights, camera, evaluation!

I would be a hypocrite to say I hated the camera we used...because I just bought it. However, I do wish we would have used something other than Windows Movie Maker...though it's good for beginners, it limits you a bit and I just hate Windows in general. I think I cried at least twice because it would freeze in the middle of editing the videos.

As for the handouts---tremendously helpful. Really concise and explicit, and love the graphics. In terms of the books, I began reading one but..to be honest, I slacked off and didn't read them. Not that they weren't good, but because the readings weren't stressed and we didn't really go over them in class. Otherwise, I would have definitely read both of them.

I think that's it for now....

Revita(liz)ed

I remember when we had individual conferences with our professor last semester. I remember thinking, "What in the world am I going to tell him?" I had no real understanding of multimedia. I had no real expectations. It's like when you go to a review session, and though ideally you're supposed to ask questions, you're hoping other people will ask them for you, because you don't know the material. Well that was me, hoping my professor would guide me to the right questions and then the right answers.

Boy oh boy did that change. As soon as I got the hang of Twitter, blogging, editing videos, etc., etc., I realized I had many questions and many ideas, but just not enough time. I felt like a creative side of me that lay dormant had suddenly awoken, and it just wanted to experiment with everything. There were event times when I wish I had my camera to take video of some club activity or something going on at Lehigh, and there were times I wish I could livetweet an event, only to remember, no, I don't have a Blackberry or an iPhone, I have a stupidphone (bc that would be the opposite of a smartphone, right?)

Little things like that made me realize how aware I was of social media, how critical it had become to the evolution of our society's communication. Every moment, if you decided it could be, was important. So, in terms of social media consciousness--I think I did well.

In terms of execution, there were things that I could have done better, like time management or video editing-related stuff, but overall, because I did something I had never done before, and from what it looked like, people enjoyed my work, then I would have to say I surpassed my expectations.

Of course, there's always, ALWAYS room for improvement, and I think I could have blogged more or tweeted more.

What do you think?

Biden in Bethlehem 1

Biden in Bethlehem 1

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Someone call the doc-umentary

Yesterday, after much procrastination, our group put our final video together--the Bethlehem Steel/Sands Casino Documentary.

It wasn't the most difficult project to execute, yet there were problems, as there always are and always will be.

Many people wouldn't cooperate. Either they were camera-shy or simply absent--one potential subject was leaving on a month-long vacation to Spain and Germany (and he was leaving in an hour). Others were out to lunch.

Another problem was trying to find a topic worthy of a documentary. At first we thought, let's interview all the bar owners if Sands has affected their establishments, whether positively or negatively. Like I said before, not all potential subjects were jumping at the opportunity of being featured in a video made by three Lehigh students. (Anya, remember that man in Villa who thought the video was about short girls, or something like that?)

Now, probably the most substantial problem was finding the time to do all of this. With the semester wrapping up, we were constantly busy and I don't blame anybody--at one point, I just wanted to give up, not because I wasn't having fun or because I was losing interest but because I didn't want to do anything that was half-assed. Some of us were also going through some personal troubles--not sure if that makes a difference.

However, I never thought I would say this but the reason we were able to get the video done (as well as the whole project), is because we were a group. IF I would have been alone on this, I don't think I would have been as productive or as organized. Our group developed a collectively conscious approach toward every project, and I'm sure many can agree that working in groups may be harder than the project itself.

Forgive me, I went off on a tangent, but I wanted to make sure I said that before I moved on. I really do thank Becca and Anya for being solid team players.

Back to the video.

Yesterday, after six hours of dicing and splicing (and the occasional curse), we made the video. It may not be the best documentary on Bethlehem Steel/Sands out there, but I believe it reflects the main opinions of community leaders in a way that seems as if its an ongoing conversation between them, with no referee and no guidance. It's edited to seem like it could be scripted (at least that's the effect I was going for), but it is natural and spontaneous.

iphony? I hope not

Gizmodo--I'm making a blogging note to come back to this post and elaborate.

Also, OMGov! A Lehigh grad is one of the founders---will talk more about this later.

Rain, rain go away, come back never

Due to typical April weather, (showers, then flowers--I get it), Anya, Becca and I are prancing around the South Side tomorrow to get some good footage for our narrative story.

Now, off to do my rain dance!