Student comments on the course

“I think it is invaluable to watch a story grow — editorially and in terms of production.”

“By editorially, I mean: beginning with a passion, converting it into a story idea, developing its scope, finding the people, following it up, and writing the first, second, third drafts.”

“By production, I mean: starting to think package beginning with the story idea stage, multimedia, procedure, deadline and then the actual art of putting it all down and then up.”

“The newsroom format of the class gave me all that. And although, I still like to think of myself as a child of chaos, I have always wanted to get things under control and on track. It’s good to learn how to be able to do that.”

“The most rewarding parts of this class have been the fact that we had a simulated newsroom, but unlike the real thing, we got to make all the decisions about the form the project would take.”

“Most J-school assignments are lone wolf type things — this was a truly shared experience. When you work in group — get a broader perspective than working alone.”

“I think we demonstrated the value of teamwork, and, more importantly, we learned how well a diverse team of talented people — each with a distinct skill set — can create a product that no individual could pull off.”

“It is possible to do a group project where everyone does the tasks they’re assigned. I can’t tell you how many group projects I worked on as an undergrad where one or two people wound up doing all the work. This class has been amazing — everybody really pitched in and showed how a project should be done.”

“The most valuable was to be a part of a team to build a website from the ground up — from development, design to reporting. It gave me a better sense and grasp of how they all fit together and how to think about them for future projects.”

“I learned that production is always a) more difficult, and b) more time-consuming than it appears in advance, and that sharing the load is the key to getting things done.”

“I've come to respect the challenge of motivating people to create content that jibes with a project’s requirements without overly constraining their creativity. It’s hard to give people the freedom to do good work and still ensure that the work they produce will have consistent voice, style, depth, etc.”

“How difficult it is to actually dig into someone's personal life — very different from the ‘public’ people we meet so often in our assignments who ‘have’ to meet with you.”

“Keep your mind open about what'll you'll find — don’t go into a story with pre-conceived idea of how it "should turn out” — let the story unfold itself.”

“Everyone has a different definition of success. For example, Aminta thinks she is doing very well, and she is, but by her definition. Someone else with more money that lives in a more upscale neighborhood might think differently. It’s all a matter of perspective.”

“Getting a very private individual to open up about their life.”

“We learned that Garcia is a popular surname among people who agree to be interviewed for grad student multimedia journalism projects in Los Angeles County.”

“Reporting: How do you find people? How do you tell their stories?”

“Biggest challenge: Getting over the fear of reporting.”

“I learned that, anytime I make audio recordings that will be heard by others in the final product (for radio, online or TV production as opposed to recording interviews for print production), a slightly different interview technique must be used. I’m accustomed to a very conversational style, which helps set subjects at ease and give very natural and unguarded comments. But that means I, as interviewer, am gently coaxing the subject to continue with "uh huh" and "oh really," so my voice overlapped into many pieces of audio, making them unusable since we only wanted the voice of the subjects.”

“Editing the photos to compliment the reporter’s story. Sometimes the story and photos did not mesh as nicely as I would have liked.”

“The project management skills will no doubt serve me well if I end up in a leadership role somewhere.”

“The fact that there were two senior editors, bringing complementary sets of skills, and running the class like a newsroom was useful. I think grad J-school is all about working with different editors, with different quirks. I think meeting expectations is a whole learning process in itself. It also gives me more confidence.”

“The other great reward is having the final product on the net, available to show prospective employers and hopefully be seen by people with an interest in the subject matter, including the subjects themselves.”

“This was also my first semester concentrating on photography, so it was great to be able to shoot a ton of stories and photos. The most valuable sessions were editing the photos because it allowed me to learn from my technical mistakes but also learn to how to think about the photos as a storytelling device, not just cool pictures.”