I'm kind of excited to start learning multimedia. I've always liked taking pictures, though I've never gotten into editing them much or making them into journalism. I've never really blogged, though I've sort of started a blog last year; it only has one entry. I can usually never think of what to write about.

The multimedia stories I've watched recently really showed me that certain stories are much more effective with pictures, sound, and video rather than just print. Last class, we watched the story on mediastorm.com about the legacy of Chernobyl, which I found really powerful. The shocking pictures of mutated children, as well as the interviews, really showed the impact of the disaster--something that would be impossible to show in just print. What the interviewee said at the end was also kind of scary--he said that they say something like Chernobyl will never happen again, but things break, and we never know. I can really say it's one of the most powerful videos I've ever watched.

Another nice video I've seen recently, at http://masteringmultimedia.wordpress.com/, is about injured war veterans. I really liked the way the facts and statistics are covered by a voice-over by a reporter, while letting the interviewees tell the human side of the story. This is a good technique, as the veterans being interviewed are there to explain their experience, rather than tell solid information on how many people have been injured, etc. I was watching a local news channel the other day, and half of their interview time was the people telling statistics rather than something human. I found that kind of boring, since I was expecting them to say more about their reactions to what happened.

Overall, though, I'm looking forward to learning how to work with multimedia , as great stories can come out of that. I think it might be hard to edit stuff though, after you've gotten all the footage. It might be difficult deciding what things to cut out and what's important to the story enough to keep. Hopefully combining sound, still photos and video into one project won't turn out too challenging at the end.