Photojournalism attempt...

I was woefully unprepared for this weeks assignment.

I try not to make excuses when I blow something, be it assignments or tasks.

Over the weekend I went to a Dog Fair in Dover and forgot my camera. There were tons of dogs - some well behaved, some excited, some crippled - which would have made for some great shots.

On the same day, again without my camera, I went to Garrison Hill Park. I climbed the look-out tower there, which is covered with all sorts of filthy graffiti, and could have gotten some great pictures of a young family that was up there with there daughter. It would have been great if I got "MY CRABS HAVE AIDS" (like I said, filthy graffiti) in the background and the little girl in the foreground.

So if you look in the upper right corner you will see the photos I was able to get for this assignment. They are quite bad and the quality of the photos seems to have been degraded.

Coming soon to this blog near you

That title sounded a little weird...

Nevertheless, very soon I will be posting an interview with Deanna Wood, the head of the UNH Reference Librarians and the Head of the Faculty Union here at UNH.

Deanna was a dear to talk with -- she was open, very articulate and quite funny. She had some really amusing thoughts and observations about her life and work.

However, the focus of this assignment was not just to do an interview with someone that "keeps the university running" but to learn how to manipulate the audio files in Audacity.

Following are a few of my thoughts about using the program:

-- It is amazing how much control you have over your audio. I can remove every "umm", "uhh", "hmm" and lip smack. It is really neat. In the assignment description it was stated that we should not have our voices included in the interview. So, at one point, Deanna said something then I said "OK" then she started talking again. I was able to zoom into the three-tenths-of-a-second "OK" and delete it! That is SO COOL!

-- Interviewing on tape is not as easy as it sounds. [Please not delicious pun.] I have a tendency to talk people through a question. For example, I engage the person with my question and as I am asking it, he or she begin to answer it. This make editing and removing my voice difficult, if not impossible. I know now that I should start an interview with some introductory info. For instance, ask the person to pause between my question and their answer. And, to restate the question so that the answer will be framed and have some context.

-- While Deanna was a great interviewee, I don't think I steered the interview enough in the direction of how she specifically keeps her small segment of the university running. Now just to note, she did say that she doesn't think that SHE keeps the university running, but I think that if I had been a bit more limiting in my questions that I would have gotten more focused answers. I say this because I think that we got deeper into job-specific territory rather than university-role-specific territory.

I think those are all the thoughts I can compile about the interviewing and editing process.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to post audio to my blog...

Phil's Multimedia Workshop is flapping hard to get off the ground!

Good Morning my fine Internet friends.

This blog will showcase the work I will do in my Multimedia Journalism class at the University of New Hampshire.

I have some short- and long-term goals for his blog.

First, it's required. That's self explanatory. How else would you show off multimedia stuff if it just lives on a USB drive. I want to get a good grade in the class so this is mandatory. That's a very short-term goal.

Secondly, I want to create a body of my journalism work on the Internet as an informal resume. So, that means that I will probably edit and post some older stories -- mostly profiles because they don't really go out of date -- to fill in the cracks and give you all a taste of my voice and interests.

Thirdly, I hope that I will be able to look back on this (and keep it up to date if I can ever find my cursed lost camera) and say that I had a hand, however small, in creating good quality, online journalism that can be used as model for students and industry leader that come after me.

To get up on a soap box for just a minute, I think that all news consumers should understand the difference between "Citizen Journalism" and real journalism.

Real journalism comes from training and guidance - both classroom and workplace experience. Blogging is fun and entertaining. I have a personal blog and I like writing goofy things.

When people confuse gossip and uniformed commentary with real journalism, we all lose.

Therefore, I hope to create that distinction through my actions in this class -- stories posted, video and audio recorded.

I hope you enjoy my work.

I'll do my best to keep you entertained and informed.