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New Media Journalism Final Project ~ Reflections

The final project is complete and as I am entering my last few days at Full Sail University, I reflect on what I have learned. The New Media Journalism Final Project consisted of a mix media article and a thesis paper. Last semester the article, How is cloud-based storage impacting your everyday life?, was completed and can be found on Women In Nashville. This semester I focused primarily on the thesis paper that supported my findings.

Before starting my last semester at Full Sail University, I was a ball of emotions. I coursed through excitement, sadness, anxiety to say a few. This twelve-month journey has been intense, but none the less really educational. Initially starting my thesis paper sounds like a daunting task. When one thinks of a “thesis paper” they normally assume a ton of writing and a ton of research will be needed. Full Sail’s format for this month's class organizes the paper in such a way that I never felt the burden of writing thousands of words.

This final project taught me a lot. It granted me the ability to fully plan a large scale mixed media project, over one thousand words. To date, this is the biggest article I have written and I now that it was a success I believe I am equipped to replicate more like this one. The planning of the final project completely knocked me out of my state of procrastination. The project required extensive planning as well as back up interview sources. Procrastination would not allow for mistakes on a project of this magnitude.

The last few months truly gave me the complete feeling of being a full fledged journalist. What seemed like a daunting task, a long task time-wise, to create an article, promote, and post an article is almost like second nature now. From this course specifically, I will take into my new career the skills of organization, pre-planning, and always have plenty of backups for my primary sources.

As my tutelage from to Full Sail University comes to a close, my journey towards mastery continues to the next level.

#fullsailuniversity #nmjfinal #win #womeninnashville

New Media Publishing and Distribution ~ Reflections

As we are coming to an end of my tutelage at Full Sail University, this semester’s class was related to New Media Publishing and Distribution. My expectations of this course leaned towards spreading the news of my website, Women In Nashville, which is geared to empower women and be a positive influence on their life.

This course focuses on the new media journalists putting all that we have learned together in one project. For this class, I chose to focus on technology and how it can be used and misused. My article, "How is Cloud based storage impacting your life," showcases what I have learned for the last eleven months at Full Sail University.

This was a very hard semester. It really showed me what the professors have preached insistently through out the course, having a well thought out plan and properly doing time management is the key to success. This course taught me how to properly put together a distribution plan, link social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest together to work as one.

What I found very interesting on my journey to Mastery this semester, is the amount of teamwork from other classmates. Knowing that I was not on this journey alone and able to get professional and just criticism from my fellow classmates is an added benefit.

The professor, my classmates, and my professional industry coworkers all helped to give me a boost to succeed within this course. I will take away the knowledge on how to do a fully in depth research piece as well as how to properly submit a proper pitch to different media outlets within the Nashville community (whether it be online or a traditional outlet such as a magazine, newspaper, or television).

The experience gained from this class granted me the opportunity to see what a project looks like from beginning to end. And for this, I believe I am truly prepared to continue working on my website and continue to build my portfolio.

#fullsailuniversity #new media publishing & distribution #win #womeninnashville

Public Relations and Reputation Management ~ Reflections

As we are coming to an end of my tutelage at Full Sail University, this semester’s class was related to Public Relations and Reputation. Coming out of the social media course my expectations for Public Relations and Reputations border on learning how to stay out the news in a negative light. With social media, a person or entity can go viral at any moment. The viral incident can be positive and/or negative. My expectations of this course leaned towards how not to be negative as my website, Women In Nashville, is geared to empower women and be a positive influence on their life.

A reputation is hard to create and even harder to maintain, lesson one of this course. I was pleasantly surprised on the life lessons that were taught throughout this month’s course. It really does take a team to create a brand, even if one is a proclaimed “Soloproneur.” While I am the creator and sole journalist of Women In Nashville, I appreciate the people who promote and support my journalistic efforts.

From this course, I will take the examples of how public relation specialists can help add to my brand and that we, realistically, should be working together for the greater good of our intended audience. It was a great opportunity and learning experience to make a PSA and learn how they should be properly structured. This project gave me insight into what I want to do after graduating, that which I am grateful for.

As a journalist, we try our hardest to report the facts, be unbiased, and stay true to our core values. One can only wish and hope that the product we put our is received well by our intended audience. What this course taught me most is to make sure that all outlets I use under the Women In Nashville logo represents the company to the best of its ability; be consistent across the board.

#fullsailuniversity #public relations and reputation #womeninnashville

Social Media and Online Community Engagement ~ Reflections

Social Media and Online Community Engagement is a class I looked forward to taking at Full Sail University. My initial interests in this class include, but were not limited to, learning about new social media applications that could boost my website. Women In Nashville started out as a Full Sail graduate project but is starting to shape up into quite an attraction for women entrepreneurs. Initially, I thought the class would teach me a few tips and tricks about target audience engagement for sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The class was much more than just the basic social media websites, so much more.

The word research according to Webster means “the collecting of information about a particular subject.” Social Media Engagement extended my knowledge about not only engagement but also researching pertinent media topics. Reddit provides a wealth of knowledge and a group community of like-minded people. With Reddit, I was able to connect to technology experts as well as local entrepreneurs in an effort to create new articles that tie back to Nashville.

The picture and video social media platform, Instagram can benefit business as well as journalists. I have used Instagram personally but to use it to promote an article is simply ingenious. Through this semester’s tutorials, I have learned that it a great picture that tells a story attracts one’s audience, but one will need to have an equally outstanding article to back up the picture.

What I will take from my experience in Social Media and Online Community Engagement? The research comes in many forms for a journalist. With social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, and Klout and others I will continue to engage with my followers and try to build on the group conversations I am a part of in each platform. I believe having a few (not many) social media platforms connected to Women In Nashville will keep the company’s name circulated through proper channels.

#full sail university #Social media #social media engagement

Multimedia Reporting ~ Reporting

This semester’s class expectations for Multimedia Reporting were to enhance my skills in reporting and interviewing. Building skills in taking multiple media sources and incorporating them into one news story was a skill I wished to develop in the Multimedia Reporting class as well. My hopes in this class is to learn to create and promote a well thought out package, from idea concept to completed multimedia article posted on my website. With this knowledge I will be able to form a great portfolio of articles as the basis of my new career choice.

Throughout these last four weeks, I have learned how to outline my stories better. Meaning I now have a system in which I craft my stories. This class builds on the skills we were taught in past classes. Week 3’s assignment, little person-big issue, was a pivotal assignment for me during this course. It allowed me to really interview two people that did not know each other but shared the same interests on a topic. This assignment really gave me a glimpse at how I am going to conduct interviews for the capstone project.

As always it is a great learning experience to see the view my classmates journey as well through our New Media Journalism program. This a great group of people and we help each other with a combination of praise and constructive criticism. This is a process and we are all on a journey to make a mark in our journalistic endeavors.

My website, Women In Nashville, has benefited immensely from this class. I have noticed that my writing has grown in content as well as in sources. With the building of articles that our classes have us doing weekly, I have grown in an audience. Multimedia Reporting introduced monetizing my content and I look forward to exploring this avenue more in the upcoming classes here at Full Sail University.

#full sail university #multimedia reporting #WIN

Digital Production News ~ Reflections

In the Digital Production News class, my expectations were expanded on what was taught in Multimedia Development. The expectations included doing more interviews and putting out packages that were not only relevant but intended to grow my following and readership. Now that Women In Nashville is established, my expectations are to enhance viewership while providing great quality articles.

This course was made to enhance the attendee’s skills in interviewing subjects. It also provides students with the necessary practice and skills in sharing their articles/stories on multiple platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Digital Production News will teach students to integrate multiple media aspects into the article. It will not only have words, the story piece, but also video and graphics. The focus will be on enhancing the story with people who are experts in their field. This allows the article to show a verified source.

Full Sail University’s Digital Production News provided an additional layer to what was learned in Multimedia Development. Learning to further use Adobe Spark as a means to promote our articles to fans and potential readers is a plus. The added application Storify really helps with the organization of creating a story, especially since it allows one to quickly locate articles and other social media posts to support our theory.

This course has given me the opportunity to hone my interviewing skills. With the exception of the first week, all of the assignments produced through this course has had at minimum one expert interviewed. Also within this course, we delved in different types of video articles. I particularly liked articles where we, the reporter, narrate and include short soundbites of an interviewed subject. This course has given me the tools to continue to produce quality work video and writing wise. With this new knowledge, I am hoping to expand my reach on Women In Nashville. Next, I wish to expand on the promotion of my articles via multiple social media platforms.

#full sail university #Digital Production News #Reflections

Multimedia Development and Editing ~ Reflections

My expectations for Full Sail University’s Multimedia Development and Editing consisted a class that would require its students to write numerous articles and visually represents them on a website or social media in some form. This is partially correct. MDV is so much more than just writing a story, it encompasses story, photos, audio, video and so much more.

This course expects its master’s students to be able to paint the picture of a story while telling it to the audience. Upon completion of this course, one should excel at getting enough photographs to boost the story, edit photos and audio together, correctly promote one’s story via a social media platform, and interview outside sources that will support the article.

The Multimedia Development and Editing course provided a lot of new content than past courses such as introducing Adobe Audition and iMovie. Both of these tools and Adobe Spark laid the foundation for us to start visualizing our stories. It truly is a learning process, past classes taught us how to write articles this class teaches us how to enhance the writing with sound and audio.

This course instilled in me audio editing skills, a foundation in them that I will carry on into my next courses. With this class, I learned to plan out my articles more and strategically plan out my editing of sound and photographs. Creating an effective social media post is one of the best tips gained as well, this, in the long run, will help me promote future articles and gain a substantial following. I have learned a lot and have ways to go in my journey to mastery.

#fullsailuniversity #reflection #Multimedia Development and Editing

Research and Investigation Skills Development – Reflection

Prior to taking the Research and Investigation Skills Development class at Full Sail University, my expectations for the class were to hone my research skills to properly develop a well thought out body of work. As this class is now coming to an end, I reflect on the knowledge past four weeks and what I have learned.

Learning how to determine what is a public record and also how to obtain copies of a public record was an important lesson learned early on in the class. The Freedom of Information Act is quite extensive and what I appreciate most about all of the FSU classes is they continue to expand the study of the Act and how it can be helpful to a new journalist.

Learning to create infographics was a great highlight of this class. Being a creative, I am a very visual person. Using the infographic to visually express facts and draw in the audience provided me with a way to combine both my word creativity with visual art in a sense. I prefer to use the infographic software easelly and infogr.am. Both were easy to master and the templates they provided were easy to adapt to my stories.

One major skill needed for doing investigative research is the ability to conduct an interview with valuable resources. Ann Friedman’s article The art of the interview really provided me with a short blueprint on how to conduct an interview and what preparation is needed prior to the interview. Sarah Stuteville’s article 13 Simple Journalist Techniques for Effective Interviews also provided a more in-depth way to interview and it delved more into the location and ambiance in the interview space.

The techniques and lessons learned this past few weeks have broadened my senses to perfect future articles. With the tools of conducting a proper interview, remembering the location should be comfortable to the interviewee, and pregnant pauses in an interview are ok. These are just a few lessons learned this past four weeks. Overall this class has taught me how to gather supporting facts and make my creative work trustworthy to my audience.

#fullsailuniversity #reflection #research and investigation

Legal Aspects of Media ~ Reflections

As I near the end of my Legal Aspects of Media course I reflect back on some key points learned in this course: There must be truth behind anything one posts for journalism, defamation and deceit are punishable by law, and lastly verify all of your sources.

Of the many assignments and topics discussed in this course, the one that I found most interesting was the copyright assignment. During week 3 we had the task of researching three records on the website www.copyright.gov. This website, quite insightful, will definitely assist me with future stories. It provided a plethora of information about text, pictures, movies, etc. Knowing a piece, I wish to use in a future news story is copyrighted will help me to gain permission to use said material as well as properly give credit to the owner of the copyright.

I am unable to choose just one-course topic that will help me the most in my future as a journalist; as they all will be helpful. But if I am forced to choose the copyright would be the top followed by defamation. I definitely do not wish to step on anyone’s toes and post an element, whether it be music/picture/text, without properly having permission or correctly citing the source.

The lessons learned in the Legal Aspects of Media course gave me a great foundation to start my journalism career. Knowledge is power. This month we learned about defamation, copyright and the laws that give us freedom of the press. We read over cases that challenged the first and fourteenth amendments. Although for me, the process of reading court cases was painful I am glad that I persevered through it. The cases shed light on how the amendments were properly and improperly used.

This class forced me to look at the legal aspect of what reporting the news brings. To uphold the law one must first understand it. Although the pace of the course is fast, the material provided created a needed foundation to understand how to protect my product and craft.

#legal aspects #fullsailuniversity #reflection

Writing for Interactive Media ~ Reflection

Full Sail University’s Writing for Interactive Media course was an eye-opening course. It was my first experience in writing as a journalist. Upon entering the course my initial assessment of what we would be doing was a little skewed. I knew we would be writing a little but I thought we would also be tapping into the production of news as well.

I was happy to be wrong in my initial assessment. There are quite a few steps to getting the written portion of journalism down. I am quite pleased that we started from the absolute basics of how to construct a proper journalistic story. There are layers to the buildup of a story and a proper way to quote an interviewee. I had never interviewed a person before so the experience was a great deal of help as an ice breaker into providing a quality article to my readers.

What I discovered most in doing the two article requested in this course, was researching my topics and essentially creating an article on my discoveries. Being requested to interview people helped me become in a small amount an extrovert. I normally will not approach someone or seek them out for anything. This class gave me a reason to just strike up a conversation. I learned a lot from the techies in Nashville as well as made a good number of contacts. Learning to network within your circle can help assist you in future adventures; so I am finding out.

Practice makers perfect. Writing for Interactive Media was a stepping stone, a starting point, my foundation into my new writing career. I will use the tools provided to me and continue to practice my craft. In doing so, this will help me continue to achieve my personal goal and purpose.

#fullsailuniversity #writingforinteractivemedia #journalism

New Media and Communications ~ What I’ve Learned

#fullsailuniversity #new media communications #journal

My Mastery Journey for Full Sail University

I found out how to make the Mastery Journey in video form after much research.

#mastery #mastery journey #fullsailuniversity

My Mastery Journey Timeline

#Mastery Journey Timeline

Inspiration ~ Music

Music is my lifeline, it helps me think through my problems, celebrate a big win, relax from a hard day's work. Just like Valerie Bell says, “A Life without Music is Unimaginable,” (Bell). Throughout my Mastery journey, I am sure there will be an eclectic selection of tunes helping me along the way.

References:

Bell, V. (2016, March 29). A Life Without Music Is Unimaginable. In The Odyssey Online. Retrieved September 18, 2016, from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/life-music

#music #musicismylife #full sail inspiration

Above is my logo for my Full Sail Mastery Journey ~ Britt LaShea

#full sail university #mastery journey #logo

To stay abreast of current news, technology, and entrepreneurship tips, I have created a Feedly account. The screenshot above shows you a few things I’m tracking.

#feedly #tech #news #entreprenuership

LinkedIN - Resume, Network, Discover

LinkedIN is an amazing online tool to network in. I have reconnected with a lot of my undergrad colleagues and some of my existing clients from PlayMaker. I found through the articles that I have read on linked in a vast amount of new tech projects that are starting up and/or being improved. If you wish to connect with me or just view my background, please click the link below:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-thomas-1139a462

#linkedIN #online resume

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