Creative Multimedia Journalism

Why it justifies one-fourth of my educaiton:

 

The main thing I want to do with my life is bring the truth to people and through that, I want to bring justice and change to our world. I want to explore and experience every possible answer and culture that inhabits Earth. I want to go off any beaten path to find the true nature of things.

 

I’ve given these ambitions much deliberation and believe that photojournalism is one emissary for me to access my goals. However, this profession – and both aspects of journalism and photography – has an ultra-competitive job market. This is an excellent development as it keeps the stories and reporting top-notch. But it also requires an unprecedented level of innovation in order to get noticed. Photojournalism is not a singular or even a bilateral set of skills. It has become a complex multifaceted discipline that combines many different technologies and areas of specialty. This is why I feel that no one major can encompass what is necessary for the job or instill in any employer a particular sense that I stand out and can do better than my undoubtedly talented colleagues.

 

By expanding my major over several fields -- Communications, Marketing, New Media, Visual Arts, and Journalism -- I think such a multimedia major would raise the interests of future employers and lay the masonry for several steps in my professional climb. But more importantly, I think that it would allow me to explore each particular aspect more cohesively than if I minored in any two or three and consequently, expand my resources and widen my reach of possible modems of transmitting the truth.

 

As the photographer, you are both passive and extremely involved. Very rarely is such duality feasible or manageable. But a natural parallel path has been created. What I aim to do with my Individually Designed Major is take that method of trail blazing and find some yet-explored path. With my experience in not only digital photography, but also film, technical editing, web design, communications and journalism, I feel that I will have a unique set of tools to create something new.

 

Why my goals could not be met by existing programs:

 

In the entire university, only three courses nearly encompass what I am hoping to study thoroughly through my proposed curriculum: photojournalism 1, photojournalism 2 (which is not being offered at the moment) and digital photography.

 

I firmly believe that no combination of majors or minors would be able to achieve the specific splice of exploration in the fields that I wish. I could not, for example, major in journalism and minor in communications, new media and visual arts. As I mentioned before, there are certain aspects in each of the disciplines that are irrelevant to my desired study. I am also working on two minors already: environmental studies and anthropology. In journalism, it is extremely advantageous to be versed in your subject. Anthropology and environmental studies are the areas that I am most interested in working with. By this logic, I think it is essential to have these minors. I could use my acquired skills to work in Environmental Journalism or Visual Anthropology. Ideally I could perhaps work on programs or stories for National Geographic.

 

Augmenting my repertoire with the minors, both would give me a familiarity with many cultures, traditions, and sciences and lend to a more genuine portrayal in my reporting. My journalism will be more comprehensive and sensitive to the issues and the peoples involved. It is important to be understanding and respectful to cultures and every group. My prior initiation into global civilizations or the specifics involved with the environment will make for an easier transition into work in any project. The culmination of the two departments will result in a complete picture of the global situation and a rather broad perspective of reality, which I believe, will bring a sensible, down to earth voice to my work. Also by spreading out my studies into multiple departments, I will have access to more opportunities for internships and connections. With the diversity of my classes, I might stand out to those I hope to work with and gain a wide variety of experience witch will in turn allow me to offer much more to employers or otherwise navigate my career if I choose to freelance.