By Sondra Rodriguez, Student Reporter
The new broadcast and publishing capabilities of the JMC Network Student Media News Lab will improve the final product for readers on and off campus.
The newsroom is equipped with all new computers for video editing, page designing and publishing news, said Cade White, instructor of journalism and mass communication and director of the photojournalism program.
The newsroom also includes a Podcasting room.
Outside the podcast room, the rest of the newsroom runs on the standard university software, but also has added Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Pro software. This includes InDesign and Photoshop for publication design and photography purposes and Final Cut Pro-used for video editing.
“All of these are industry-relevant tools,” White said. “What we have right now might be as nice as or even nicer than what students will see in the professional world.”
White said because of the experience students will gain through working in such an environment, he expects ACU graduates to outshine others, post graduation.
Dave Hogan, instructor of journalism and mass communication, also said working in the newsroom will better equip students for a career in journalism. He said publications will be looking for students with the broad range of experience this facility will provide.
“The news business is changing and multimedia is becoming much more important. I think it’s important for students to understand how to run a video or produce a podcast, as well as how to write a story in the traditional way,” Hogan said.
Because drastic technological advances were made for JMC students, readers will see changes in the final product. Readers are the ones who take an extra few seconds twice a week to grab a copy of the Optimist while treading through the masses after Chapel, and the ones who continue to grant reporters insight into their lives and routines for the sake of a story.
“A certain event will happen and they pick up on it right away, like the noose incident. I hadn’t heard anything about it until I picked up a copy of the Optimist that day,” said Gregory Martin, junior interdisciplinary major from Cibolo.
Martin was unaware of the construction and opening of the newsroom but now anticipates the content and quality of this year’s issues with the upgrades.
Aundi Brown, senior accounting major from Wichita Falls, said as a student outside the JMC department, she thinks the newsroom will have a positive effect on both students and the newspaper.
“I know journalism is a hard field to get into, and hopefully this newsroom will give them the edge they need to break into it,” Brown said.
Ben Fulfer, junior sociology major from Memphis, Tenn., agreed with the decision to implement and practice multiple forms of media in JMC students’ education.
“Converged media makes everything quicker and easier for both the department and readers,” he said. “It’s all you see in professional journalism now. This will definitely help out graduates in that are once they graduate and get out there.”
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