Kent State University - School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Print students do "stand ups." Broadcast students record podcasts and write narrative stories. Both take photos, capture audio and produce slideshows.

Professor Fred Endres created the course in 2000 to prepare students for the changing media environment. And, just as that environment changes often, so does the course.

"It's been impossible to keep the content and approach static," Endres said. "As the field changes, so does the course."

Senior JMC major Jeff Russ wants to run his own Web site after graduation. When he had an assignment to use a camera for the class, his interview didn't turn out the way he wanted because he didn't know to use a light kit.

"It was a real crash course in photographic lighting," he explained, saying that video cameras were not like stills with a flash to correct lighting.

Recent grad Vince Slomsky was a broadcast news major and was pushed away from his standard video packages.

'The new landscape
is fully multi-platform and new grads will
have to prepare for
that job market'

Fred Endres,

Course instructor

"Instead of just interviewing people with a camera and mic we had to write stories for the web and use different media to accomplish our assignments. We had to take still pictures, use digital recorders and even do podcasts which are all slightly different than what I am used to using," he said.

Endres said a major goal of the course now is to provide original multimedia stories for KentNewsNet.

"Regardless of what some students may think, the media landscape has changed forever and will continue to change. The new landscape is fully multi-platform and new grads will have to prepare for that job market," he said.