Your Multimedia Stories

I'm linking below to your multimedia stories, which will live on our college server for five or six years -- so that assessment teams can review your work.

Our two graduate students, Tina Irgang and Linda Blachly, were required to do a bit more work on these stories than the undergrads.

Most of you also linked to the personal resume/clip packages you created early in the semester on wordpress.com. You linked to these pages in the copyright line of your multimedia story. So if you'd like to peruse each others' work, you should have links to do so for those personal pages, too.

Thanks for all your hard work this semester. You survived units on blogging, tweeting, Web page building and layout, basic photo and video shooting and editing, slide show and google map creation, headline writing and search engine optimization, copyright and libel. You'll be stronger journalists for it. Hopefully, this exposure will make you fearless in picking up and learning other new tools as they come along. And maybe you'll even be creating some of them!

All the best in your internships and jobs this summer! Please keep in touch!

Here are the story links:

Grad Students:

Linda Blachly's Bittersweet Reunion

Tina Irgang's 14th Street Project

Undergrads:

Naz Beyranvand's iTouch in the Classroom

Dana Cetrone's Great Oaks

Ben Slivnik's Chatroulette

Matt Wilson's Patuxent River cleanup

Sheila Kelly's Fresh Produce

Gabby LaVerghetta's Asian Activism

Tricia Smith's Pets and the Economy

Hibar Akhtar's Muslim Youth Competition

Whitney Taylor's UMD Water Polo

Matt Ford's German Beergarten

Caitlin O'Brien's Springtime Activities at UMD

Rachel Pryzgoda's UMD Police

The Frugal Traveler

I am obsessed with traveling. Absolutely obsessed (granted I can't do it as much as I would like.)But if any of you are as crazy about traveling as I am, you should check out this section of the New York Times travel area called "The Frugal Traveler." It is one of the best columns I have read, and everything he talks about is for those on a budget. Not only does he have Q&A's, but he has reviews, how-to's, and of course, multimedia. This morning when I was looking at it, he had a video up called "San Francisco Welcomes Frugal Baby." Beyond being the cutest thing in the world, it is a really good video with some great examples of shots where the frame is still as other objects move in and out. He has a shot of a street in San Francisco, with the cars bustling through, and on the other end of the spectrum, a fantastic shot of Venice with a gondola slowly floating through the frame. Although he has some shaky walking shots, it's offset by the wonderful baby shots as she toddles through the frames and up stairs and around corners. It's a really good example of some of the techniques we learned in class, as well as a great little piece to make you smile, because after all, who doesn't love babies? Hopefully you will check out the Frugal Traveler and like it as much as I do!

LinkedIn success?

LinkedIn sounds great in theory, but I can't help but wonder, how much does it really help in the job search? I decided to do a little research (Note for Hiba: Through Google, not Bing!).

When I typed in "LinkedIn success stories," I found they actually existed. Nineteen whole search pages worth. Judging by the personal accounts that came up, LinkedIn seemed to be a useful tool for those already in the work force rather than those looking for entry-level positions. This obviously makes sense because they know more people. The more people you know, the better your chance for networking. I.e. The better your chance of finding a job.

One example of a success story was David T. Stevens, who after losing his job at a radio station, immediately changed his LinkedIn status to "I'm up for grabs, who wants me?" Within a week he had a new job as a program and event's manager.

However, in all of these accounts, the idea of "branding yourself" was the most important aspect. It could never hurt to do this too early, even if your credentials and network circle aren't as stellar as you'd like them to be.

Anyway, see the following blog for 10 Ways Journalists Can Use LinkedIn:

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/04/24/ten-ways-journalists-can-use-linkedin/

Also, if you are graduating and looking for entry-level positions see this link: http://www.onedayonejob.com/

Happy job hunting!