Unlike dear Spongebob here, what I learned in journalism school so far has not been “blankity, blank, blank.” In fact, J2150 has been conditioned so much into my life that I had a dream that I was conducting an audio interview with someone. Even my REM-stated brain remembered to get two clear audio interviews and scoped out lots of good nat sound (I think I was at a dress making shop or something. Perhaps it was a psychic vision of events to come). It appears that you can’t even outrun journalism in your dreams. No one is safe now.
All jokes aside, I now find myself critiquing “professional” journalists work because of this class. I was watching one interview where a journalist (that was not me) bumped into my favorite celebrity and had the nerve to record pixelated video. Even if that was it spur of the moment mobile journalism, I couldn’t comprehend how and why the video could be so low qual. Additionally, me and my friend have developed this thing for analyzing every sequence in a journalism or non-journalism piece. “Why did that guy pan?” or “Why did that guy zoom?” we’d ask. “This is on KOMU/KMIZ. Did that guy even take 2150?” we’d joke.
And don’t get us started on photography. We’d look at a photo and say “Oh, that’s a very dark environment. What shutter speed do you think the photographer used?” we’d asked each other and then wonder “Why are we even asking that question? Can’t we be normal and not see things as a journalist for two mighty seconds???”
That answer of course is “No.” Once the J-School gets to you, there is no turning back. I’ve still got another 2.5 years and I can only imagine how critical I’ll become by the end of the ride. Going back to my very first blog post about my expectations, I wrote ” Overall, I would like for this course to help me draw connections between my daily multimedia use and its application to the world of journalism.” Of course that was a very generic statement I wrote for the purpose of getting the blog post out the way, but now it holds meaning. I see myself being able to understand the world of multimedia through a very different lens. Needless to say, I’m glad I gave this class a chance.
Mia Johnson Writes 