Using Different Media

When Terry Williams came to visit I'm really glad that he talked about using different types of media when reporting. He said that he likes to hire people who can do video, audio, and photos and that most times, only being good at one isn't enough. I'm currently taking Digital Reporting with Tom Haines and I've been learning how to use those three types of digital media and how to incorporate them into social media. Throughout college I've learned how valuable social media is to journalism and that good reporters use social media. I never really thought about using digital media though until I took Tom's class. I always figured that a paper would hire someone else who was good at using it and that they would let the reporter just do the writing. In class though, as well as at TNH, I've been realizing how important it is for a writer/reporter to be good at using digital media to report. I'm happy that Terry Williams brought this up when he came to our class because it shows that this actually is a good skill to have and that papers actually look at this that when choosing who to hire. I'm glad that I've been learning about this in Tom's class and I'm also glad that I'll be able to improve these skills and apply them to real life during my internship next semester. I'll be interning at the Nashua Telegraph and they told me that they're going to be letting me use equipment so I can do video, audio, and photos. I'm excited to be able to develop my skills even further and it'll hopefully make me a more valuable reporter and more papers will be willing to hire me. I think that this use of digital media for reporting says a lot about where journalism is going. It opens up so many more possibilities for how we as journalists can tell a story.