myldredelle

[myldredelle]

New Medi@ Journalism Final Project.

My initial expectation for the New Media Journalism Final Project course thoroughly met my learning expectations. What my goal was prior to taking the class was to have a great portfolio/ resume reel to present to future employers, and be able to write and present stories in an innovative manner. These tools are things that greatly help in the next step of my mastery journey of making my online magazine a legitimate company and moving closer to having it be the industry’s standard for virtual traveling, as well as preparing for me employment with future employers molding me to be a well rounded journalist.

 The courses expectation of the students was to have each student publish a blog and or establish a website that includes multimedia pieces that document his or her project in evolution and to write a research-based and supported thesis paper that serves as an in-depth exploration of the project.

 Throughout the course the assignment that has been most helpful in my learning experience was the method and results assignment of the thesis paper breakdown. This includes both the initial posting of the assignment as well as the peer feedback that was received. This section allowed me to see my project on a broader spectrum because I had to breakdown every step that I did which made me have to go back and go through my previous work with a fine toothed comb. This process made me appreciate the project process even more than before and really see how everything that we have been taught has come together.

 This course has prepared me for my journalistic career by showing how the tools that I’ve been provided are to be used within my profession, and how to expand upon each of them because the journalist career is one of constant continuous education.

[myldredelle]

New Media Production and Distribution

My initial expectation for the New Media Production and Distribution course thoroughly met my learning expectations. What my goal was going into the class was to be able to forecast audience behavior and actions as well as knowing the in’s and out’s of the industry both traditional and new, to have a more innovative way of communicating therefore making my endeavors stand apart. This is something that has greatly helped in the next step for making my online magazine a legitimate company and moving closer to having it be the industry’s standard for virtual traveling.

 The course’s expectation of students was to explore the concepts of interactive publishing and management by learning how to marry journalism fundamentals with the technologies of interactive publishing. The course also expected students to learn to be able to address issues of newsroom organization, content development, budgeting, responsibilities, and standards in a 24-hour multimedia news environment.

Throughout the course, the assignment that was most helpful in my learning experience was the distribution plan in week two, this includes both the initial planning post and the response post with the peer feedback that gave different way to help improve the plan as is. This was most helpful because it brought to my attention the micro analytics of my website. Along with the general analytics of my website, the instruction has us hone in on what day our viewers visit our page the most which allows a journalist to really be able to make a rather successful distribution plan, allowing you to thoroughly pin point the best moments to distribute content on both your website and social media sites.

This course equip me with tools that will help me later be able to monetize my website and be able to monitor the sites analytics to then see how to best present the content.

[myldredelle]

Public Relations and Reputation Management

The Public Relations and Reputation Management course provided many insights for me, and what I plan to do with my New Media Journalism Degree. Although each assignment took part in further unfolding my career goals, the one that was most intriguing to me was the “Renovating About Pages” assignment. This assignment helped me to properly shape what the goal for my site was, and while doing so, it put together a bigger picture for me as to what I wanted the function of the site to be post graduation.

 The “Renovating About Pages” and “ Promoting Your Brand” assignments were the two assignments that I feel will aide me most in being a New Media Journalist. Both of these assignments help in the development of who you say you are, and how to come across to an audience as just that. The Promoting Your Brand assignment also allows you to understand how Public Relations Specialist think, and what their job entails first hand because you are doing their job for this particular assignment, but for yourself. These assignments show how and why a well working relationship between journalist and public relations specialist is both important and useful for both parties.

 From the knowledge acquired during this course. I am now better prepared to work with professionals in the public relations industry because not only was I told about what their job entails, but also I had to do their job and my job simultaneously. This courses teaching, has shown me how to best approach professional in the public relations industry to get what I need from them, and they get what the need from me. So now knowing what they do first hand, I am able to better gage the relationship between the two professions allowing for better communication, and a more fluid relationship that doesn’t leave either one exasperated.

[myldredelle]

Soci@l Media & Online Community Engagement

Initially my expectations for the course Social Media and Online Community engagement was to learn how to properly leverage social media for stories, which would be making sure the sources are credible, and effectively connect to the virtual community. The plans that I set out for myself during this course were to study tutorials like those that are given on Mashable.com to help in the set up of my social media pages and provide extra tools on social media career success. Another I had was to research and study the social pages of those successful in my career, as well as have all of my social sites connected to my cell phone to make easy to be current, which have all be accomplished.

 The expectation of the students for the Social Media and Online Engagement course was to learn theoretical and practical approaches to understanding, designing, building, and using virtual communities, and how user-generated content within those communities expands the definition of news. Also, helping us, as journalists understand how to leverage social media to find story ideas, engage audiences, and promote our work.

The course topic that provided to be most helpful for me were the discussion boards for each week, and how the professor had our classmates give us two ways to improve our social media posts before we actually posted them that following Sunday. This allowed me to learn about new aspects in the social media platforms that I chose, that I previously did not know about. Each time I implement the feed-back that my classmates provided, I would experience great growth in my post, whether its more followers or more post shares.

This course has prepared me for my journalistic career by expanding my knowledge of leveraging social media to find stories, engage audiences and promote my work, which would aide in having social media career success.

[myldredelle]

Multimedia Reporting

The initial goal that I had for my Multimedia Reporting course was to be able to organize content, have it be effective when presented and hone my on camera and my overall reporting presence skills. I would say this course presented me with something that was slightly different from my original goal for the course. Although I did hone in on my reporting presence, it was less on camera and more vocal and having the subject tell the story that I was proposing. It was having my website be cohesive to what I have said the beat of it was, and making It more presentable, visible and “ eligible” for my industry.

I learned how important it is to be consistent in content and visual structure, along with what it means to have a story subject tell the story at times, and just be the presenter of it. This course further brought the different journalistic aspects that I have learned in my other classes together, and systematic showed how they build off each other leading to what was added in this course. The objective of the course was to have students learn how to access, transfer, and process electronic information, and how to gain ownership of a story by presenting that information
in a visual, useful, and factual way.

The tools provided in this course are definitely something that I would use professionally along my mastery journey of becoming a media proprietor. This course has helped in expanding my knowledge of my field, and the different aspects in it for example, being more of the presenter than the storyteller has brought all of the story components together seeing how they work like a well oiled machine. It’s essentially all of those multimedia components that bring together new and traditional media, and place them all in one designated area for easy access to readers.

[myldredelle]

Digital News Production

My initial expectation for Digital News Production, was to have my stories come across authentic even though they are presented digitally, and I learned exactly that and more making my stories not only come across authentic but clear even without there being narration added.  So you were forced to get the most meaningful and story worthy clips, and doing that made me accustom to picking my clips that way even when there was going to be narration involved which just helps tell the story even more.

The course expectation of me was to develop the fundamental skills necessary to take assembled journalistic content and distribute the content across integrated platforms in the format of a newscast or news report. The content that was most helpful for me within this course was the constant editing, script writing, and voice-overs that we did each week. These assignments really brought together every single component of journalism that we have learned so far in the program, and I can slowly see components to what will be needed and asked for when applying to journalistic positions.

This course has prepared me for my career by teaching me how to put together whatever packages will likely be asked of me as an aspiring journalist. In addition, the different video aspects that we are learning are very helpful in making us well rounded journalist even if our initial plan is not to be behind the camera or in font of the camera. Learning all of the different elements of journalism help, us understand the flow of each component that makes stories whole. I would say that this course exceeded my expectations, it taught exactly what was set out of it and also made small segue into more components of journalism that will be taught in future classes or those that can compliment what’s already being taught.

[myldredelle]

Multimedia Development & Editing Mastery Assignment

My initial expectations of the course Multimedia development and editing was to learn how to properly present aspects on media platforms, and how to make my stories and graphics come across the way that I intended them to. This is something I feel is important for a journalist to know how to do, because you want your audience to believe that the content that you post is factual, so having these skills solidifies me being a credible source for my audience. What was expected of me as a student on my mastery journey in this class was to learn the best practices of photography, photo management, video and audio production, web skills, and how to utilize and combine them to produce and edit sophisticated multimedia content for multiple platforms including converged environments.

 The Building a sound story assignment was the most helpful in my learning experience with this course, because it was the beginning of me putting the previous skills that I’ve learned to the test. On top of me having to show my skill for this assignment, I was also learning a brand new component to add to it that made me realize how important it was that I learned things in the order in which I am, and further see how all of the courses are coherent. The skills that I’ve learned in this class went beyond what I expected. I learned what the courses learning objective was as well as what I expected and all of these newly acquired and honed skills will greatly help me on my Mastery journey of becoming a media proprietor beginning with reporting/ hosting. Being able to do my own multimedia developing only strengthens my knowledge and although my goal is to be in front of the camera, knowing how all of the components conducive to making a great story are created allows me to gain further knowledge and understanding of every aspect pertaining to my desired career field.

[myldredelle]

Research and Investigation Skills Development

My original goal for the Research and Investigative skill development class, was to substantiate my research, and stay current since things are constantly evolving in the media industry, while learning the theory of it all by doing it hands on. What the course expects of the students, is to be able to appraise and challenge the validity of data, study the fundamentals of research, and examine the relationship between research and theory while simultaneously exploring and keeping in mind research ethics. This means that we will be able to recognize, find, and evaluate credible sources when writing a story and providing credible sources to support what we have wrote. What was most helpful to me was the week 3 and 4 discussion boards. The week 3 discussion board was very helpful in peer feed-back, having us research potential professionals that we could interview that pertained to the beat of our websites, then having our peers put an addition three possible interviewees that also related to the beat of our sites. Through that assignment, I was exposed to five new people that I could interview to help build my sites content, and that perfectly fit my site's beat because two different people replied to my initial post. The week 4 discussion board was very helpful, by having us list three public records that related to the beat of our website for possible use for future publications. We had to be very specific in our research, and describe where the other person (The reader) could find the document, so that they could also view the supporting evidence and validity of the story if they feel necessary. The knowledge I acquired from this course has greatly prepared me for my journalistic career, by teaching me how to do thorough research to gain valid context support, what sources are credible and which type of accreditation and support works best for certain stories.

[myldredelle]

Legal Aspects of Media

The course study for Legal Aspects of Media definitely met my learning expectations. What my goal was going into the class was to learn my rights as a journalist, and understand the legal concepts of current and possible future trends of media technology. My favorite assignment of the course was definitely the discussion posts for each week; this is because it allows you to gain different views of the same subject, a lot that you may have never thought of because we all view the world differently. As far as topics for the course, I’d have to say that the lesson on defamation usage most resonated with me because it seems like one of the laws that’s easily breakable, and seems to be one of the most difficult to arm yourself for even though it is absolutely possible to.

The course topic that proved to be most helpful to me was the defining commercial speech discussion post because of the free question that was asked of what would you say to your boss if he put you in a possible compromising position about a project you were asked to headline. Going through and reading all of the post, I realized the many different ways that the question could have been answered that did not naturally occur to me when writing my initial post. The knowledge acquired during this course, has prepared me to better handle legal issues in the communications industry by first informing me of possible issues that could arise, and those that have already arose in the industry along with how they’ve all been solved. With the discussion post, understand many different ways of approaching the different situations that may occur, with also informing me on the best way to avoid having to deal with being sued at all. Overall, this course has helped greatly in my journey to becoming a well-rounded journalist.

[myldredelle]

Writing for Interactive Media

The course Writing for Interactive Media, taught what I wanted to learn and more. Initially, my goal for this class was to be able to convey themes and complex information in a simplified way for easy understanding. This was definitely one of the things that were important to keep in mind when writing an article, it has you constantly thinking of your audience, how to properly relay the message to your audience in a way that they would understand while still getting across all of the information that you wanted them to get. There were many challenges in this course because we began honing in on not only our writing technique, but our interviewing skills as well.

I learned how to go about interviews by having whom you would like to interview in mind and doing extensive research about them, so that you could be more than the reporter to the interviewee could, and to you they can be more than a subject matter. Researching your subject gives you more appreciation for them and can possibly help you get more out of them during an interview because when someone feels like you’re legitimately interested in them as well as what the interview is about, they begin to volunteer information that makes your subject even more credible and supported. Two main things I have learned during this course that I will take with me professionally, is the proper way to ask for interviews and how it varies when you are asking face to face vs. over the phone or via email. Having visual aids to help guide me through the different type of interviews I would be conducting was very helpful by allowing me to see what worked in different interview environments, and how to be prepared for the unprepared “ on the spot” interviewing by being observant and aware of what’s happening in my surroundings.

[myldredelle]

New Media and Communications Mastery Journal

My original goal for the course was to use new media tools to marry traditional and digital story telling. Throughout the course I have definitely been given the tools to begin doing this. I’ve learned more about the digital exponents that are needed to successfully run a digital newsroom, and I feel that it makes a great foundation for the rest of my courses to build on in pursuit of my mastery journey. One of the most challenging things within the course that I’ve learned, and are still working on developing is my website. Before having to create my own, I never realized why it took so much thought and effort. I now realize that’s because it’s a huge part of your branding, and so you really want to be careful of what you put out and how you put it out there, but with that being said, you still want it to be something out there, even if it needs to be perfected, because it allows an audience to see your growth and grow with you, but still at the end of it they’re seeing you. That’s something that I’m working on, realizing that obviously I don’t want it to be thrown together, but I also don’t want to wait for whatever perfect may be, because I can work on that as the journey goes. Something that I’ve learned that wasn’t expected is how to do research on a deeper level for when we had to list in some assignments who we would interview for certain stories, and most time you may not be able to get the obvious person you’d initially want to interview, but there’s always more components to the story, such as the person that may have been the hostess or bartender that night, that could be a witness for celebrity party’s or the bells man that worked during a large conference or anything, it really helped me deepen my research.

[myldredelle]

When I though I was cute at the conference with my heels on and one broke smh # breaking news# literally

[myldredelle]

Mile- High Meeting

Tired of having the same boring board room meetings? How about having your meeting in the sky? Dinnerintheskyevents.com has found a way to make the conventional, unconventional. For 9 years Dinner in the Sky which sprouted from a partnership between Hakuna Matata communications agency who specialized in gourmet pleasures, and The Fun Group who specialized in amusement park installations, together have brought childhood magic and imagination to adulthood by allowing you and 22 of your friends, family or colleagues to experience dining, meeting, entertainment, or product launch presentations from a birds-eye view. Don’t worry it’s completely safe, and available in over 45 countries world wide! So to all foodies and adventurers, what better way to join the mile-high club?

[myldredelle]

Congrats to Viola Davis what a Monumental way to win your Second Emmy!!!! The first Black Actress to win Lead Actress in a Drama Series!!!!!!

Viola Davis Makes History, Moves The Damn Line For Women of Color

Viola Davis won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her lead role as Annalise Keating on “How to Get Away with Murder” at the 67th annual ceremony Sunday night.

WATCH: this historic and moving speech again here. 

[myldredelle]

New Media Gift or Threat?

New Media is the marriage of traditional and new age journalism. It’s incorporation into existing media companies and outlets, expand the way we communicate with our audience as journalist and our loved ones as consumers. It’s been said that New Media is a threat to learning and communication, and poses a challenge to conventional media. But lets highlight how it’s enlightened and expanded the traditional market. Generally when casting for movie roles, actors/actresses must attend a casting audition call, and if for any reason you aren’t able to make the audition, unfortunately, that’s just an opportunity that you missed out on.

Two out of the five main characters in the highest grossing music biopic of all time, Straight out of Compton Jason Mitchell and Corey Hawkins, landed their roles via Skype, not to mention co-star O’Shea Jackson Jr. had a lot of Skype coaching form his father when he was away shooting Ride Along 2.

“For the first bit of the film, my dad (Ice Cube) was filming “Ride Along 2,” so he would Skype me on an iPad while I was on set every day, before each one of my scenes to let me know where his head was at”. 

Not only is new media an expansion for media companies and affiliates. It also expands communication on a personal level, especially for the many families that have a loved one serving in the armed forces. For example Sgt. Theron Scott who was able to witness the birth of his baby boy while stationed in Afghanistan. “Being able to get on Skype and see the baby born was the closest thing that I could possibly imagine without actually being there.”

New Media isn’t meant to be a threat, but, to expand communication making it as personable as possible when you cant physically be present. It allows more intimacy than a phone call, and has proven to be the next best thing to being physically present. What’s your take on New Media? Has it changed communication for better or for worst?

[myldredelle]

This was my inspiration for this week. Remembering that I cannot please everyone, and that there will always be those that do not root for you for whatever reason. But in the end those who did and those who didn’t were apart of your motivation to be as great as you were meant to be and more.

[myldredelle]