Friday, May 09, 2008

BPN 1093 Training a media versatile journalist

Yesterday, the LunchTalk at the Faculty of Communication and Journalism (FCJ) in Utrecht was interesting as students took notice of eReaders and eBooks. But around the LunchTalk some breaking news for the Faculty was happening. In a very short time television screens had been installed for narrowcasting within the HU University of Applied Science and especially in the FCJ. Besides, the journalism students started to register the LunchTalk, did an interview, edit these streams and bring them online.

It is a small revolution in communication that is happening at the FCJ. So far the faculty had computer screens hanging around, offering information about the schedule, lectures and events. The technology used was teletext-like: text in colours with rudimentary graphics. A few years ago also a tickertape newsbar was installed on the outside of the FCJ. The intention was to show the outside that the FCJ was about news. The small computer screens inside the building make place now for large screen television screen with flashy video, direct link–ins with guest lectures and interviews. Undoubtedly there will be text information, but the image of communication will change in a flashy video pictures.

To fill these screens with video and other information, the journalism students will run video- and audio productions. This is remarkable. Although there has been a change over the last years, the education towards media versatile journalists was not yet really integrated. Students who can work in teams and can produce text, audio and video are still rare and much sought after. It was great to see the students at work linking up their Macs to internet and streaming. After the lecture an interview was done as a summary to the lecture. Slides, photographs and movie parts were split into the video. Besides the registration, the Power Point presentation and the two historical movies will be online on the intranet of the FCJ.

The registration of the LunchTalk lecture has not been edited yet, so I cannot put it by an embedded link on my blog. But as soon as it is online, I will put an update to this posting.

Blog Posting Number: 1093

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