The Multimedia Journalist ─ Storytelling for Today's Media Landscape

The Multimedia Journalist is a text that will teach students how to become visual storytellers-an absolute must in the new media landscape. Many programs are training students to create multimedia content on basic levels, excel at one or two types of storytelling on advanced levels, and collaborate in significant ways to design, develop and package multimedia stories. Palilonis, though young, is regarded as one of the real stars in multimedia journalism, and envisions the text to be a relatively brief book outlining basic issues and techniques that are fundamental to the journalistic enterprise. It is important to note that it is NOT a software book, and thus will not be something that is immediately outdated.

The website, which she will design, produce, and maintain, will include a brief overview of each of the chapters outlined above for the print text. However, for those who have access, a second level of content will include a blog maintained by the author that includes discussions of industry news and innovations in multimedia storytelling, a discussion forum through which individuals can post and respond to posts moderated by the author, an example gallery that is constantly updated and that includes commentary about the examples, interactive exercises and software tutorials, and a catalog of links to tutorials outside the site.

Jennifer George-Palilonis is the George & Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Multimedia at Ball State University.