If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you should know by now, that I only write extended pieces when I've just gotten my "drink on" see Corona haze or had way too much caffeine see a desperate plea. Well, I went too far this morning and had an extra cup of [...]
If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you should know by now, that I only write extended pieces when I've just gotten my "drink on" see Corona haze or had way too much caffeine see a desperate plea. Well, I went too far this morning and had an extra cup of coffee, making it 7 instead of 6.
Now you know where I'm coming from.
Everywhere I look, in dark corners of our building, at the cocktail party for POYi last night, in my emails, in my dreams…training, train us! How come they won't train us to do multimedia? When will they get it? And on and on it goes.
Well, guess what? I have an answer. Or at least some advice. Ready?
Two words, train yourself! There I said it. If that makes you mad, then you can stop reading this and go back to your dark corner and wait for your newspaper to train you, send you to that wonderful all encompassing multimedia workshop in the sky, while the rest of us learn by doing. And when the layoffs come, and they will (have already) let's see who's left.
This is the sad reality of our buisness, for some of us our 'calling'
- Down sizing
- Limited resources
- Leaders with no sense of direction (not in my case, of course)
- Falling profits
- A general feeling of doom and gloom in the newsroom
- People screaming, "Who moved my cheese?"
- No money for training
Wake up and smell the coffee! There are no reenforcements coming, no help on the way. Squint your eyes, open them wide, whatever it takes too see the writing on the wall. This is what is says…..If you love, truly love your profession, and you love to tell stories and want to be in the biz for the next decade, then, invest in yourself.
- Identify the way you learn best.
- Invest in that method of learning. If it's books, buy them. If it's DVD's, buy them. If it's a workshop, send yourself.
- Invest in yourself, it's about you, not about your company.
- Close your eyes and go back to those days in college where you stayed up all night in the darkroom (for those of you too young to know, a darkroom was a place where you would…oh forget it) Harness this energy.
Still need more reasons:
- It's the greatest return on investment, the returns are enormous.
- You become more valuable in the process. You stop settling for just getting by.
- You realize your potential.
- You own your own future.
- You become a risk taker.
- You will be happy and have the ability to do your own thing.
We all know we're alone on this. Why? Because no one has to do anything for us, we have to do it ourselves because we're the ones with the most to gain or lose. Don't play it safe.
Ok, the caffeine is wearing off. Talk to you the next time I throw back too many Red Bulls…….
-r
13 Responses
Amen, brother.
I work at a daily newspaper that is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
We got handed some digital cameras that can do video. It was strictly voluntary. Reporters who wanted them got them. They were told to go play and shoot video if they wanted. But the newsroom union got involved and filed a grievance!
As one of the geekier people, everyone is waiting for me to sit down and show them how to use the cameras, how to make edits in Movie Maker, write documentation, show them how to plug in a friggin USB cable, etc.
Ridiculous.
I’ve taught myself how to use Excel, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Quark, etc. I even figured out how to use the Mac that runs on OSX. I’ll teach myself Movie Maker next. Why can’t they do it?
I sat through a meeting this past week where we were discussing our use of video on our Web site. One of the editors had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned YouTube. Granted, you may not be technically adept, but as a news person — you don’t know about YouTube?
Sorry for the rants, but I needed that off my chest.
Thanks for the great site, Richard. Your links, tutorials and other pointers have helped me more than I can say.
Amen!
In teaching classes in multimedia, I’ve found that student’s fear of technology is their biggest limitation. I always tell them to “Push buttons and break things”. Break down that wall of fear. That and learn to learn online. The industry moves too fast to rely on teachers and workshops alone. Workshops on storytelling are great, but to learn technology….I’m not so sure.
My 2 cents.
Props to you. I love your site, and am using it, and others, to teach myself. And I am a slow learner. But as a journalist for 20 years, I am excited about the new tools, and the chance to learn new things. Two other good sites, and I am probably telling this to people who already know:
http://www.macloo.com/
(a journalism professor named Mindy McAdams, and author of “Flash Journalism”. )
and
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/multimedia/projects/
Last year I spent some time and effort learning Final Cut Pro and started shooting and editing some short videos for newspapers. I ended up doing more editing than shooting, which frustrated me at the time.
A month ago I badly broke my leg…I aint gonna be shooting anything for five months.
I’m a freelance and have started video editing from home. If I hadnt taught myself to use FCP I’d be totally, utterly screwed right now.
I’m gonna use the downtime to learn Flash…
What?
As a current j-school student are you telling me that my future employer won’t give me hours everyday to study new media and digital storytelling techniques while they pay me a salary?
MegaStuffyNews Corp. Inc. won’t have the latest books, DVDs, software, hardware and tutorials available on the shelf for me to absorb?
Before you flame up on my post, know of course that I am kidding.
No one is interested, nor do they have the time or money to reinvent YOU. Don’t push the blame on the company for you not knowing what the latest out there is. Push yourself.
The post mentioned remembering back to your college days. Let me further that.
If you have a full-time 40 hour work week and you aren’t learning anything on your own time, do not complain.
I wish I only had a 40 hour week.
Remember when you were in college? Full class load plus a part-time job or two plus studying for exams? You probably have more free time now than I do or when you were in college.
So no excuse for waiting for an employer to motivate you.
A chorus of amens. We’re training our whole staff to produce audio and SoundSlides, but it’s hard when everyone has such a crushing workload.
We’re probably typical of most newspapers: our staff has outdated computers and no software to produce multimedia pieces. Thank God for Audacity.
We are training a handful of people in video and we’ve got good gear for them. But there’s not enough of it to go around and there’s not enough time in the world for everyone to learn it.
The top dogs keep talking about how the web is the future, but the message hasn’t percolated down through the budget makers and middle managers.
Invest in yourself if your company won’t.
Excellent!
I am circulating this Monday!
Well said! The worst thing a journalist could do today is wait for someone to come around with a handout. Yes, I’m making a beggar analogy. Sitting and waiting for someone else to teach you something? You might as well just retire now.
You nasty dog you… How dare you suggest people learn on their own?
It’s amazing to me that people do wait for others to teach. It takes all the fun out of the learning process . There is a wealth of knowledge out there and alot of it is free on the web. Plus, there is only so much you can be taught by someone else. The best way to learn is to go out there and “just do it”. Learn from your mistakes.
“Just do it” — © Nike
I would like to say “THANK YOU!” to Joseph Hollack’s post above.
I’m a college student right now, imagine everything he just said *plus* working at a student newspaper without being paid.
I’m doing my best to try and make my time for school, the paper, and learning. It’s hard but you have to do what you have to do.
If anyone complains about this I wonder how you ever even switched to digital from film.
…good luck
[...] First, how could you possibly miss an opportunity to party with ME? I promise Eddie-Adams-like late nights in the lobby or my room, teaching you everything I know, shouldn't take too long, but I do love to talk and look at others work. So if this isn't enough to get you to invest in yourself, cuz I know your paper isn't gonna pay, how about this line up: [...]
Somebody get this many more coffee!
Dancing as fast as I can here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXSA8KMk1Ew