Whether you are a new media maven or an ink-stained wretch, you should make it your mission to learn something new this year.
For most journalists — young or old — it’s a good time to finally learn a skill that will translate to the new millennium. Solid reporting skills and a command of the English language are musts, but now you need more. But, some skills require a lot more monetary and time investments than others.
Everyone wants to learn Flash. Don’t learn it if you are new to new media or Web design/development. The program costs $699 and has a steep learning curve.
If you haven’t already taken the time to learn HTML and CSS well, why would you think learning Flash would be a good idea? It’s not, but there are several easier and cheaper things you can learn (and if you are doing this on your own, without help from your work, cheap is good). Flash is a great option for designers looking to learn a good Web skill, but it does have a steep learning curve to get good at the program — it can take years to master.
Below you’ll find my recommendations for print journalists with little or no new media skills. In a few days, I’ll have recommendations for new media journalists.
Make it your goal to learn at least one of these skills in 2008:
1. Photojournalism — Who doesn’t own a digital camera? I’ve had one for six years, and just about all of us have at least one. If you don’t have one, get one.
Most likely, however, you have a digital camera and just haven’t used it for much more than taking pictures at parties and of family — mostly semi-posed and posed shots. It’s time to start using your digital camera for photo journalism. Take non-posed shots of everyday life, of nature, of your town or city.
If your camera allows you to adjust white balance, ISO, aperture and shutter speed, you need to start playing around with those features. It’s time to learn what each of those adjustments means for photography and how they can help make your photos better.
News U has many photojournalism courses, several of which are free. Between DP Review and News U, you’ll have an excellent crash course in digital photojournalism.
After that, start posting your photos to Flickr or a blog, like WordPress.
2. Audio — Every reporter worth his or her salt should have a digital recorder. Start recording every interview you have that goes over a few minutes (make sure your subject knows he or she is being interviewed if you do it over the phone). If the interview is good, and it makes for some good audio, edit the clips with Audacity (it’s free) and put it with your written story.
Mindy McAdams has a suggested low-cost audio package that won’t run you much more than $100. If you can get your work to get you a Marantz recorder like I have, go for it. It’s worth every penny.
3. Audio slideshows – If you have taken the time to learn photojournalism and audio, you should learn to put that content together in Soundslides. Find a subject and a story to film and then record your interviews and put it together.
Once you learn Soundslides, you could start making multimedia packages like these.
4. HTML — Learning HTML is free — completely and utterly free. It is easy, and you should know it. All you need is a text editor and W3C Schools.
Forget CSS for now, which is what us designers and developers use to make Web pages, and learn HTML inside and out. It can be done within a few weeks. You may never need to know how to make a full-fledged Web page, but you should at least know how to Webify content, work well within a CMS and make some modifications to a blog.
Conclusion: Learn something new this year. All of the skills I have listed here could be realistically learned in one year, but you should at least try to learn one of these skills and become good at it.
