Comments on: The Question of Training

By: SpaceyG

SpaceyG — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:53:06 +0000

Dancing as fast as I can here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXSA8KMk1Ew

By: Shaminder Dulai

Shaminder Dulai — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:18:31 +0000

Somebody get this many more coffee!

By: Unique microphone, NPPA Summit, Snakes, Zoom H2, Creativity, Apollo, VR Photography — MultimediaShooter

Thu, 03 May 2007 16:37:55 +0000

[...] 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: [...]

By: Christopher Guess

Christopher Guess — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:55:55 +0000

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

By: sean connelley

sean connelley — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:48:41 +0000

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

By: Mindy McAdams

Mindy McAdams — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 04:05:50 +0000

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.

By: Keith Jenkins

Keith Jenkins — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 00:47:35 +0000

Excellent!
I am circulating this Monday!

By: Chuck Fadely

Chuck Fadely — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:49:53 +0000

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We’re probably typical of most newspapers: our staff has outdated computers and no software to produce multimedia pieces.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.

By: Joseph Hollak

Joseph Hollak — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:09:18 +0000

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.

By: Sion Touhig

Sion Touhig — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 21:07:33 +0000

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…

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:52:51 +0000

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/

By: zach wise

zach wise — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:22:33 +0000

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.

By: Not@Home

Not@Home — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:45:11 +0000

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.