This project has been quite challenge but I'm honestly proud when I look at all the work I put in. I did a revamp last night with the color scheme. Now I think it looks more like a real Web site without all the loud colors that had nothing to do with the text. I have a better appreciation for Web pages because I never realized what it actually takes to make a Web page look like a Web page. I know my Web site still needs more tables so that everything isn't so vertical and that's what I'm going to work on next. I really like the look of Greg Stoops and Megan Sharlow's page because they didn't follow the normal template.
Though Dreamweaver annoyed me many nights, it's really a good tool for those of us who don't know HTML too well. My favorite part of this process was interviewing folks. Most of the people I interviewed, I only knew by name or didn't know at all and it gave me a way to make some friends or at least associates. Likewise, I liked doing the podcasts, though I think I was more nervous than my interviewees. Looking back I would've asked my interviewees to clarify what they meant on a couple occasions but I was just so thankful that someone actually let me record them, I didn't want to piss anyone off, so I just let them talk. It's nothing new, but I was also reminded how much I hate the sound of my voice. My least favorite part, and I'm it was for most people, were the modules. There's a lot of room to mess up in 700-900 words. Professor Lieb told me my writing style was too much like a research paper so I kept going back trying to make the text sound more fun. I also hated doing the slideshow because I've yet to get it published. Now I'm using Windows Movie Maker which saves your slideshow with the extension .MSWMM and wouldn't you know, after you sign up for a Web hosting site and get ready to upload your video, the site only takes .wav! I think that's really stupid being that Web hosting site I went to was recommended by Windows Movie Maker, shouldn't they make all that somehow compatible? YouTube also requires .wav files, so again I'm stuck.
If I had to do this project over again, I would chose a topic more exciting. I chose to talk about graduate school because I'm going and I assume a lot of my classmates are going or at least considered it at some point so it was a relevant topic. And though it was fun, the topic started to lose my attention a couple times because after a while of researching, you start seeing the same statistics over and over again. The people you interview start giving very similar answers and so it becomes boring. I also realized with this project, you can try to map out your story nice and neat before you begin but in order to keep your site current and new, you're constantly changing story ideas. Online media is definitely something I would go for in the future if I were a lot better at it. I also think more courses should be geared towards online media if this is the trend in journalism instead of this monster of a course that you take when you're almost done school.
1 comment:
Nice, thoughtful reflection, Jewel.
"I also realized with this project, you can try to map out your story nice and neat before you begin but in order to keep your site current and new, you're constantly changing story ideas."
And that's part of growing as a journalist. You start with what you have but always need to be ready to abandon it when something more interesting comes along.
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