Visual Journalism Day

At first was a happy the school of journalism and mass communications was going to celebrate visual journalism day because that meant my classes would be cancelled for the day. I went to see two presenters, Geri Migielicz and Kim Komenich both of which were very interesting. Both presenters had a lot to say about the current shifting state of the media industry. Geri Migielicz is the former director or photography at San Jose Mercury News and currently is the executive editor of Story4, a multimedia production studio. She had a lot to say about the industry and how these days people do not hold steady jobs in media but they do "gigonmics", small jobs here and there to get by. She started sjnewsphoto.com where she learned HTML and flash. After she taught herself how use multimedia programs she started her new company which produces media stories. Geri emphasized that people need to embrace change and it is vital for students to learn all the multimedia programs. Kim Komenich preached the same message about the media industry. He is an accomplished photo journalist who now regards himself as a field producer. He spoke about interactive media which he believes is the next phase in which people tell stories, the viewer gets to participate and shape the story itself. 

Both presenters made me think about my future career. As a public relations major I need to be aware of the evolving industry. I am not sure if steady jobs will exists for PR people when I graduate. The presentations me a little bit. In the school of journalism and mass communications every student has a specialized major and these presenters told us we need to know how to do it all. But one thing they did say that was hopefully is that everyone seems to be excited about the new changes happening and there is money to be made.