Essential skill set for a multimedia journalist

1. Journalistic judgment: what makes a good news story?
2. Writing: On top of a solid training in journalism writing, a multimedia jouranlist needs to know some unique conventions for web-based writing.
3. Photography: In addition to all the basic photography knowledge, a multimedia journalist needs to incorporate video style shooting when taking photos, for purpose of producing sound photo slideshow.
4. Videography: How to use camera, compose a shot, what to film in the field, how to edit, etc.
5. Audio production: This is more like radio journalism in a digital age. The multimedia journalist needs to know how to use digital audio recorder, how to conduct a field interview, and how to edit the audio files.
6. Graphic design: How to process images/photos for online delivery.
7. Web design: How to create a basic web page; how to edit a web page created by others.
8. Online delivery: Flash, interactive map/timeline, photo sound slideshow, blog, citizen media, social network, etc.

The idea is to train our students to be a specialist in storytelling, and a generalist in media technology.

About Mu Lin

Dr. Mu Lin is a digital journalism professional and educator in New Jersey, United States. Dr. Lin manages an online marketing company. He also manages MulinBlog Online J-School (www.mulinblog.com/mooc), a free online journalism training program, which offers courses such as Audio Slideshow Storytelling; Introduction to Social Media Marketing; Writing for the Web; Google Mapping for Communicators; Introduction to Data Visualization; Introduction to Web Metrics and Google Analytics.
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