Greg Vandermause @gregvandermause - Tumblr Blog

Mastery Journal: Course 12

Finished!

What a journey. Each and every month provided new set of skills and a different mode of thinking, and this month was no different. The final month was the New Media Journalism Final Project. It has been many years since I wrote a large academic paper and of course I have never written a thesis paper. Plus, we spent the last 11 months in the program writing journalistically, so it was a challenge to switch gears mentally to write academically.

With that being said, the process of writing the paper was very enjoyable. It was just hard to find the time and motivation (isn’t that always the case). In reflecting back on my Mastery Journal Timeline goals, I aimed to complete my professional portfolio and have a solid online presence. Another goal was to blog more.

I think those goals all have been met or are currently being met. One of the biggest takeaways I’ve learned from this program is podcasting. It is such a valuable platform for getting content out there. I look at it as a form of vlogging. I am also more active on social media and sharing useful content.

The final goal laid out last September was to work on the Broadcast Journalism program at Bethany Lutheran where I work. While this is still in progress, I can see clearly now how this program should run. I plan to incorporate many of the things we learned from this program and apply them to our program at Bethany.

This has been by far the most challenging year professionally for me. The last twelve months have taught me discipline and time management. Many weekends were spent doing homework instead of family time or going on a trip. Many nights were spent reading and project planning rather than hanging with my wife. There has been a lot of sacrifice within my house to reach this finish line.

The challenge of working full time while doing school presents its own challenges. Finding that balance is really hard. There were many difficult moments in the winter when my work gets really busy with our hockey broadcasts. I can recall a 12 week stretch without a day off from doing something school/work related. It took a toll. Also, we had a baby during that time. He is almost 9 months old. My wife is a saint!

Last week I got acute appendicitis to add one final challenge to overcome. I am thankful it didn’t burst and had surgery to remove it. Recovery went well and I am back to work after a few days. There will always be challenges in life. Challenges personally and professionally. How do you respond? The last twelve months have been a refresh in my career. New skills, a new approach on thinking and a new desire to continue to impact and lead people at Bethany.

Thank you to Full Sail and their team of instructors in this program. Thanks to Bethany for pushing me to get my master’s degree. Finally, thank you to my wife, Missy, for continuing to believe in me!

#togodbetheglory #fullsailuniversity

Mastery Journal: Course 11

The Finish Line Awaits!

This month I reflect back on New Media Publishing and Distribution in the form of a VLOG. Enjoy!

#capstone #sumertime

Mastery Journal: Course 10

Staying strong; thirsty to learn more

Public Relations and Journalism are not so far apart. These worlds overlap as new media becomes the norm and everyone can tell their own stories. This class met and exceeded several goals as part of my reflection this past month.

In the Mastery course, my timeline goals were to understand more on ethics and to see things from a PR point of view. Reading about the PR Code of Ethics in week two provided a solid taste of what public relations people believe and how they operate. The week two discussion board assignment in writing from a journalist's perspective to a PR person was a fun way to think differently about how to view the work I am doing.

Ultimately, this program is about building our own brand and style. Producing an About Me video was a great way to dive back into our own sites. It is important to continue to assess and look inwardly at how our message and our sites are presented.

When I look back on this month, the biggest takeaway is going to be the Brand Journalism portion of the class. I think it was very valuable to have focused a week on gaining an understanding of what that is and how companies are creating their own newsrooms and sharing their own content the way they want. In a lot of ways, that is exactly what I do at Bethany where I work. I am all about sharing stories on current students and alums from our program to engage and in trends and recruit future media students.

Identity is simply what the company stands for internally. Your image reflects a perception at any given time by an external group. Knowing those two identifiers will help your company narrow that gap to a more leading to a more positive reputation.

There is lots to take away from this course. I look forward to applying these thought processes and practices in my own work to build a solid foundation and understanding for future broadcasters and journalists.

I’ve enjoyed doing a monthly podcast as a result of this program. I recently purchased a podcast kit and am implementing a Podcast Studio for our students and college to use. Looking forward to seeing how stories are told and distributed!

#publicrelations #fullsailuniversity

The Journey Continues

Course 9 is in the books (digitally speaking).

This month’s course was Social Media & Online Community Engagement (SME). In reflection on my Mastery goals for this course back in month one, I aimed to practice blogging and writing stories and to find more ways to interact with an audience for story development. Another goal was to learn more about Tumblr by watching a lynda.com tutorial and my third goal was to watch a government social media video on lynda.com.

While the final two goals were not accomplished, there still is time to look at those. It also serves as a reminder to get back into watching more of those videos. I think those are vital to learning some of these new concepts. The first goal was achieved in using new platforms for myself. I have not been on LinkedIn much nor Reddit for that matter, so it was educational to see how to utilize posts and content in those spaces.

The three most important takeaways this month would be gaining a base knowledge of Reddit and how that space is used, what type of content goes on LinkedIn and when to post and thirdly, plan accordingly to find an expert for an interview. Week three was a struggle with Memorial Day weekend looming, both my plan A and B interviews fell through. Even with the experience I have in my career, I should know better to not leave anything to chance. As I tell people in my broadcast program, plan for what you can, prepare for what you can’t.

Gaining a better understand of the social media platforms is vital to promoting your work and searching for stories. This course did a good job of providing the tools needed to learn more about how, when, and what type of content to post across the board.

My capstone project is on learning about the transition traditional broadcasters make to streaming esports and the challenges they face. It has been exciting to keep a pulse on what Full Sail is doing with the opening of ‘The Fortress’ this month.

#bedifferent #esports #justgettingstarted

Class 8 = Completed!

I enjoy this process very much. Reflection is an important part of any journey, whether it be academic, professional, athletics and so on.

When looking back on my Mastery timeline from course one, my goal was to be a ‘jack-of-all-trades’, with the intent to learn more about displaying our content on various platforms. The reality is that we learned about the different ways to repurpose the content we have already made.

The first way we do that is by doing a follow-up story. When looking back on the month, this stands out as the most beneficial takeaway for my profession. Learning the three different types of follow-up stories (second cycle, developing story, the update) help separate into categories which may be the most beneficial to utilize for a story. This is very helpful to have practiced for my work in teaching undergrad and following story lines as part of our sports broadcasting program that I oversee. We cover division one college hockey here in Mankato and the season is long, the story of a team or player develops all winter long. Some items from week one can be implemented in doing a follow-up.

Week two also provided great content to add to the toolbox. More than 80% of AP stories follow the inverted pyramid method. The more and more I ready news articles, I can see this structure laid out in the author’s work.

The Narrative storytelling aspect is something I wish we would have spent two weeks on. It is a different mindset to tell stories that way. Narrative is a story that features characters, rather than sources. It communicates experience through the five senses and a few others. It has a beginning that grabs attention, middle that keeps the reader engaged, an ending that lingers in the readers mind like a gong.

I really enjoyed this class. It was a great addition the building foundation that is taking place in this program at Full Sail. On to the next!

#fullsail #multimedia

The Sun is Shining, plenty to be excited about

Mastery Journal: Course 7

Looking back at my Mastery Journey Timeline, my initial expectation was to walk away with a better mindset of theories and techniques. The goal of the course, as stated in the syllabus, is for students to develop the fundamental skills necessary to take assembled journalistic content and distribute the content across integrated platforms in the format of a newscast or news report. I would say my expectations and the actual process matched up. Overall, this class was very beneficial to the whole program up to this point.

I felt by far the biggest takeaway was the reverse hour glass method stated in week three. Looking at a story from small at the top, big in the middle and a solution at the end by another character was a great tool to think about when working on a story. I don’t shoot a ton of video so learning the wide, medium, tight, tight, method was a useful tactic.

In order to be a successful journalist, you must be able to combine all the elements such as solid writing, social posting, headline writing (still a work in progress), shooting, and editing. This course did a great job of introducing great exercises for us to complete as new video journalists. I also thought this course did a great job of forcing us to research stories and backing it up with outside sources on a weekly basis. We may think something is newsworthy. Prove it.

The last two months were great timing for the content of these courses. I’ve been extremely busy with my other duties at work such as being the Executive Producer for Maverick hockey, which has taken quite a bit of focus and energy. I’ve been able to share some of the content from these courses with my students as we tell the story of this hockey team. Now that our broadcast season is completed, I look forward to spending more time focused on my Mastery Journey.

Spring has sprung!

#WCHAchamps #adobepremiere #noexcuses

Mastery Journal: Course 6

Halfway There!

My expectations for this course was to follow trends of an NFL franchise and the way they distribute their innovative content to their fans and to watch a lynda.com tutorial on photoshop. I ended up watching the lynda.com tutorial on Adobe Spark as that was more relevant for the assignments this month. Back in October, I took my 200-level broadcast class to the Minnesota Vikings facility to learn about how they distribute and interact with their fans.

This course expected us to think and write with visuals. Pictures tell the story. Let our words and captions aide them. Same can be said for the podcast week. The longer form conversation helps tell the story in a different medium, the text helps fill in the blanks in a shorter form to a reader. These expectations help build the foundation of the true multimedia journalist.

There were two items this month that really stick out as I take time to reflect. First, I have never used or even heard of Adobe Spark. It is interesting considering I use just about all of Adobe’s other products. Now that we were introduced to it, I see it being used across many newspaper companies and on YouTube. It is a great resource to easily help tell a story with photos. I very much enjoyed that week and look forward to using that content again for another story.

The other item was the podcast week. I am very glad this class forces us to do that assignment. I am around undergrads and people more creative than me who have a podcast or listen to them regularly. It is a great platform that can be more comfortable for people to take part of rather than a traditional on-camera interview. It was fun to do a podcast and to see how hard it is. Listening back, you can hear the certain things I wish I would have done differently, such as promote my site or social handles. It was a good start but looking forward to doing more in the future. In fact, I did some research on buying the Rode’s podcasting console for the future. Super slick console to do podcasts.

Finally, I believe the course has added more tools to the journalist tool belt. Yes, if you can write well you can get a job anywhere. That is true, but you need to be able to offer more to an employer such as taking solid photographs and produce valuable content to a listener. I am excited to use the things covered in this class for the future in my writing, photo taking and social posting in the future.

Spring is coming! Maybe...😞

#adobespark #podcast #icedams

Mastery Journal: Course 5

Reflection Back to Mastery Timeline Goals

My timeline goals for Research and Investigation Skills course were to watch a lynda.com video on writing a research paper, read an article on creative writing and research, and to meet with the English department at Bethany to provide my writing for feedback.

This is a great opportunity to revisit these goals and to try to get my writing looked at more by others around me. In addition to the writing center on my campus, I should reach out to local writers in town at the local newspaper. I talk a lot with Shane Frederick, sports writer at the Mankato Free Press. Shane is an experienced writer who shows his ability to turn around a game story after a hockey game on a deadline. Plus, Shane does a great job on twitter to engage with his audience.

3 Most Helpful Things I learned

There was a lot of great content in this course. I enjoyed researching government sites in week one. This was a task I never have done. I realized a lot of information could be found relatively easily. You just need to spend some time researching to verify information.

Secondly, hyperlink! We consume a great deal of articles each day on our screens. How often do we consider the source or the validity of what we are reading? I spent more time following hyperlinks in articles I read the past two weeks to follow through on if they link correctly. I learned it goes a long way to build credibility with your reader to back up your content with facts and data.

Lastly, learning about infographics was very useful. It was insightful to learn that there are many free infographic sites out there to use, something to consider for the future to help spice up data.

One other thing...

Throughout this course I had the chance to visit Full Sail on January 22nd. I was in town for the NCAA Convention at spent the afternoon on campus for a tour and visit with the program director and one of our instructors coming up. It was fun to be on campus and see all the great things Full Sail does.

On to the next!

#blessed #fullsailuniversity #polar vortex #onlyinmn

Thankful!

I have so much to be thankful for! The past four weeks have shown the importance of family and the people God has placed in our lives. In fact, my family grew with the birth of our third child, Van, on December 10th. He is healthy and mom is recovering well.

He has a loving older brother and sister. Getting use to crying and diapers and interrupted nights is taking some getting use to but this to shall pass as they say. Just enjoy every moment, even the difficult or crabby ones!

We also had the blessing of having all of my in-laws make the trek to the cold north from Arizona. They often get here once a year in the summer, but never in winter. So this was great to all be together for Christmas and the re-affirmation of baptism for Van. We see my family from Wisconsin fairly regularly so I can see how it is uplifting for my wife, Missy, to spend time with her family. While a few of us took turns being sick it was still wonderful to spend time together, playing games and just being around.

On January 1st, Missy and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. I talk a lot to students about how it’s not how you start, but how you finish. Yes, we look a lot different since that day (or at least I do!), but every day gets better. She is most wonderful person in my life. She is an amazing mom and wife. Love you!

As I begin my 5th course at Full Sail, I look forward to getting back to learning and challenging myself in new content and learning to think differently. I believe this program has gone well so far and am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of it. It has been great to have been off of work and class the past four weeks. Taking time to re-asses and analyze the past few months is important. Most importantly, I know am greatly blessed. God has given me so much. My health, my family, Bethany, my church, and most of all, the sending of His Son, Jesus, to die for my sins. To God be the Glory!

Stay positive and continue to work hard.

Have a great 2019!

#bethanylutherancollege #blessed #gopackers #mankato #dunkindonuts

Class 4 is complete! Time for a break.

The past month we spent time in the Legal Aspects of Media course. I have never had any law course of any kind in my education. This was more than fantastic. Reading court cases and spending time analyzing the proceedings was something I grew to really enjoy. One of the biggest takeaways was to really spend time digesting and thinking about these cases and how they affect other proceedings. Once I reread everything 10 times I think I finally got the jest of it.

My favorite assignment was week two where we looked the Sullivan v New York Times and Gertz v Welch cases in a research project. First, it was beneficial to understand how our court system lay the foundation for their interpretations throughout the years and much of that started with Sullivan v New York Times. Second, knowing the difference between public people and figures vs private citizens is helpful as we see defamation suits in the news.

I found the week on copyright to be of the most value. In my current job at Bethany Lutheran College, I oversee a studio program. Students make work all the time. I never fully new that copyright exists once you make something. Of course, filling the proper copyright paperwork helps fight copyright infringement but it is very beneficial to share that with students. Plus, in a world where people think everything is fair game to use, they need to be mindful of fair use and other cases to properly credit works of others. It’s not the wild west, copyright is very real and there are real consequences for misuse.

We broadcast sports on a regular basis. Having this knowledge will help as we look to further educate ourselves on music law and what the social media platforms say we can or cannot use.

There was so much great information to digest in this month. Looking forward to getting some real use out of this content to help further my time at Full Sail.

#merrychristmas #legalaspectsofmedia #fullsailuniversity

by Greg Vandermause Bethany Lutheran College’s broadcast program had a unique opportunity to showcase their work on a major sports network.

Here is the link to my Fox Sports article on the Bethany’s Media Arts blog. This was the final project for the Writing for Interactive Media course. Thanks to Mandie Quist for helping with the layout. I’ve heard lots of great responses to the article.

#foxsports #bethanylutheran #blessed

Writing for Interactive Media Recap

That’s a wrap for class number three in the New Media Journalism program at Full Sail. This was my favorite class so far. There was so much great content in the Writing for Interactive Media course. I know I took a writing course or two during my undergrad time, but I think those were more creative writing. I’ve never had any meaningful guidance on how to write for media so this has been a blast.

The first thing we did was create our About Me page for our website or blog. This was an enjoyable exercise to actually put pen to paper to try to describe yourself. That proved to be harder than I thought.

Week two was creating writing our first story. This was fun to do. I interviewed Sam Shubert, a Bethany student, who is studying for the semester in LA at a film school. My goal throughout this program is to write about student stories happening in the studio I manage so this was a good test to see how this will would work and if my vision could come through on paper. It’s a start at least.

While this class was going on this month, the program I oversee produced a hockey game on Fox Sports. This was a lot of extra work but gave me good vision for our week three assignment as we needed to write another story which included two interviews. Writing about what was going on for my work was a natural fit and I felt I saw improvement from story one to story two.

This past week saw us tune up our About Me page and revise our story two idea. Part of me wishes this course would go on for another four weeks. I’ve so much wanted to have this type of structure and to know some of the basics in story structure creation. I am looking forward to writing more for the blog at my work.

There were a lot of great things to take away from this course. My favorite was the links about writing 25 different headlines for a story. I thought that was fascinating and very helpful and to consider writing headlines a craft unto its self.

#fullsailuniversity #writing #blessed

New Media & Communications Recap

The New Media and Communications course created the foundation. It laid the ground work to start thinking differently and approach how to read news articles and blog posts. Plus, it got us started in getting our work out there by creating our own twitter handle and web site where our own work will be posted as we go along in the program. It is great to spend time reflecting on this, there was a lot of content to process and this will help progress us moving forward into the next course.

Throughout my time in media and working in production, there is one thing I truly know and that is content is king. Now, I’ve never truly had any other education in journalism so the who, what, where, when, why model was very important to read about and practice. After finally spending time using that model regarding the news article breakdown assignment, we can finally dissect what makes good content. Chris Cillizza (2016) says, “Think of journalism as falling into three basic baskets: The “what” basket, the “so what” basket and the “now what” basket”. The biggest takeaway from the course is that the “what” isn’t the currency anymore. Everyone can find the “what”. The “so what” and the “now what” is where companies will spend more and more effort to drive attention to their sites. The “what” still matters but it is not solely the driving force for news companies. I think this is a huge concept to wrap my head around as I go about my professional work in teaching undergrads the importance all three concepts in their story creation.

As we move into article and content creation in the courses to come, I am reminded of week one article by John Saddington, where he says, “And that’s the point: Quality blogs and quality content are always focused on a singular idea and passion, always, despite the fact that you have more passions in your life” (2016). As I’ve gone through the weekly exercises, I began to form my audience and identify a platform for my writing. With that singular idea concept in the back of my mind, I am focusing my content on what my passion is. I thrive in instructing interested students in the world of media and production. My focus will be writing articles around student-success and studio news to celebrate our current students while engaging with alumni and targeting prospective students.

Looking forward to the next course!

References

Cillizza, C. (2016, April 18). Journalism isn’t dying. But it’s changing WAY faster than most people understand. Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/18/journalism-isnt-dying-but-its-changing-way-faster-than-most-people-understand/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.912b572c07a6

Saddington, J. (2016, May 17). Great Blogs Find Focus in These 3 Areas: Passion, Expertise, and Unique Value. Great Blogs Focus: Passion, Expertise, and Unique Value – TentBlogger. Retrieved from: https://john.do/focus/

#fullsailuniversity

84.8k Likes, 1,471 Comments - Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk (@garyvee) on Instagram: “It’s time to kill this excuse one and for all. - Facts are facts and lets make this Sunday the day…”

Inspirational Post: Finding Inspiration in my ability to stay focused. Stop making excuses and get it done!

Courtesy of Gary Vay on Instagram

#sunday #noexcuses #blessed