The future is cancelled due to economic uncertainty

I travelled all the way across Canada to attend the best school for photojournalism in the country. You know that already. Well, you know it if you've read this blog before.

As I went through the first year of photojournalism, it became obvious job prospects were few, and graduating photojournalists were many.

I had a chat with my Venerated Writing for Photojournalists Instructor (He insisted we call him that. It was either that or he got to call us maggots.) Scott Whalen about what kind of education I should pursue beyond photojournalism so I could be employed and feed myself.

He suggested I speak with Rob Washburn about the ejournalism program.

I chatted with Rob about the program. He told me that in his program I would get to do journalism with computers! What more could a journalist geek ask for?

He also told me about industry trends, which are focussed more and more on online products, convergence of presentation and why this is important for the future of journalism.

He considered my previous experience and accepted me into ejournalism with one year of photojournalism under my belt.

As much as I enjoyed photojournalism and I believe I made a good choice to come here for the photojournalism program, the ejournalism program is where I belong.

The ejournalism is where a number of people belong, but they may not get the chance because, this week Loyalist College has cancelled the program.

Media of every stripe are driving their audiences to their online products. The current writers' strike in America is about who gets what share of the profit of online content. For once in my life I am at the leading edge of a trend.

And the Loyalist College administration cut the program.

The program has been undersubscribed, but there is no other program like it in Canada.

And Loyalist College does not see the future.

I will graduate, but my class may be the last.

Loyalist College has the opportunity to have the best photojournalist program in the country down the hall from the only ejournalism program in the country and they are squandering the opportunity to be at the leading edge of a major trend.

I'm sure the administration will be able to explain why it makes sense to cut an undersubscribed program.

But they're wrong.

Makin' Media Cards (for real this time, I swear)

Yeah, I screwed up the previous posts. Now let's just agree to never ever mention them again.

What I did on my Christmas vacation (Part II)

I bet you thought I forgot all about the "What I did on my Christmas vacation" series!

Before we left for our much needed Christmas break, my Beloved Instructor (He insists we call him that. In September he gave us a choice, it was either "Beloved Instructor" or "Wind Beneath Our Wings") Rob Washburn told us to come back in January with an issue we would like to investigate and create a website on for the upcoming semester.

I felt like a four year-old kid in a candy shop: There were too many possibitities! Where do you start first! What if you see something and then you see something better, then what do you do!?!

So, I decided to make a list.

Nice to have:
Connection to BC
good visuals
distinctive audio
little previous publicity, "new ground"

Possibilities:
Canadian issues: identity (since WW II, since WW I, in relation to US, in relation to UK), telling our stories, education, First Nations, Arctic sovereignty, National social services patchwork, minimum wage, welfare benefits, health care, wait lists, provincial delivery, dentistry, mental health, mental health stigma

Demographic trends: baby-boomer retirement, economic effects, social effects, health care delivery

Media issues: journalism ethics, ethics within ejournalism, media concentration, effect of journalism within politics, online political trends, effects of politics on journalism, effects of journalism on politics , response to "Cult of the Amateur"

Immigration: people living in sanctuary, undocumented immigrants, human smuggling

Environment: automobile (emissions, emission regulation, drive-through restaurants, culture, future technology), forestry, global warming (global warming disaster planning, defense against rising sea levels), generation of electricity

Urban planning: urbanization, public transit, trains vs planes, busses

Racism: First Nations, immigrants

Human rights: First Nations, post-conflict veterans' support, Fair Trade products

Internet: net neutrality, privacy

Poverty: child poverty, First Nations' poverty Wage gap

Intellectual property rights/digital rights

Prostitution: legalization, abuse, pimps, pop culture/hip hop, morality, trends, profession

Illicit drug use: legalization, addiction, trafficking, organized crime

Peace: international peacemakers, national peacemakers, history of international conflict, history of conflict

Yeah, it got a little out of hand.

When school started, with the help of my Beloved Instructor, I narrowed it down to a comparison of the current peace movement to the peace movement from the 1960's.

And the reason there's a picture of the Dalai Lama is because he's into peace.

And because I took the picture.

Makin' media cards (Now with sound!)

Because it will enhance your experience, that's why!

Fictional ducks

This has to be the weirdest Wikipedia entry ever. Not so much for the content, but who would have thought of creating a list of fictional ducks?

Wikipedia

Never mind what I was looking for when I found it.

It wasn't porn, though.

Although I'm sure Rule 34 would apply.

Ew.

Makin' media cards

UPDATE: There's supposed to be sound with this. A ka-boom in fact. Where's the ka-boom?

The lesson in this is never, never pay your tuition late at Loyalist College

You want content? Here's your content!

Okay, I love cars. When I was a small child I slept with cars, not my unnamed Teddy bear.

For brief periods I was a car. That would be a whole other blog post.

As a person who loves cars, at some point you will try to fix something on the car yourself. As a geek, that means you get a book to read up on the subject. This introduced me to Chilton and Haynes manuals.

Besides producing car manuals, Chilton is also the publishing house who brought us Frank Herbert's Dune series.

So, about Haynes.

They, produce books other than car manuals too. Books for men, women, babies and how to make babies.

Via Jalopnik

Fall grades

Level:	Credit
Program:	Journalism-Publishing/Report
Admit Term:	Fall 2007
Catalog Term:	Fall 2007
College:	Media Studies
Campus:	Main
Major:	Journalism-Publishing/Report
Academic Standing:

Course Title
Web Authoring: 70
E-Journalism: 92
Online Publication Project 1: 90
The Business of Journalism 1: 84
Multimedia Design: 97
Flash For E-Journalists: 92
Multimedia Production: 70

Credit Summary

		Attempted	Earned	GPA Hours	Quality Points	GPA
Current Term:		22.000	22.000	22.000	1879.00	85.40
Cumulative:		58.000	58.000	58.000	4861.00	83.81
Transfer:		0.000	0.000	0.000	0.00	0.00
Overall:		58.000	58.000	58.000	4861.00	83.81

Ta da!!

I am disappointed with my grades in Web Authoring and Multimedia Production, but the grades are fair.

My final assignment for Web Authoring was handed in late because I was far too ambitious in what I attempted. My video assignments were not well shot and for the audio assignments, the audio quality was poor, but I am happy with the content. I will post the videos later, judge for yourself.

I loved the work of the past semester, but it was crazy busy. I'm looking forward to the coming semester, starting January at 9am, for The Journalist's Art of Story in room 3H11.

I wonder where room 3H11 is?