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BASED UPON AN ORGINAL 10,000 WORDS BLOG POST: JUNE 25. 2009
Before you graduate you could spend your time away from class shopping, playing sports or in the bars... or you could use the downtime to get heads up on the thousands of other grads competing for journalism jobs. Use this checklist to improve your journalism skills and set yourself apart from the pack: 1. Start a blog and post at least twice a week 2. If you already have a blog, write a post that gets retweeted 20 times
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3. Shoot 100 amazing photos and post them on Flickr 4. Friend at least 50 journalists on Twitter who in turn follow you back - to start: Jay Rosen (jayrosen_nyu), Chrys Wu (MacDivaONA), Suzanne Yada (suzanneyada), Patrick Thornton (jiconoclast), Andy Dickinson (digidickinson), Amy Gahran (agahran), Steve Yelvington (yelvington), Steve Outing (steveouting), Ben LaMothe (BenLaMotheX iVIark S. Luckie (lOOOOWords)
5. Become a part of a crowdsourcing project (Try this - http://mps-expenses. guardian.co.uk)
19. Subscribe to at least 25 non-journalism blogs using an RSS reader (^IpiCreate an online portfolio; I love carbonmade - free tool for creating your portfolio and hosting Also, check these out: http://www.10000words.net/ 2008/07/15-journalists-out standing-personaLhtml 12. Learn at least one other form of blogging (e.g. photoblogging, videoblogging, liveblogging) 13. Crop, resize, and color correct 50 photos using photo editing software. Try one or some these: Fotoflexer/Photobucket, Photoshop Express, Picnik, Snipshot, rsizr, EasyCropper, Splashup, Pixenate, FlauntR, LunaPic, Wiredness, 72photos, mylmagercom, Ceilsea, Viclmager, Onlinephototool.coni, Online image Editor, Piccyfix, pixer.us, FixPicture.org
6. Improve at least 5 Wikipedia entries
14. Start your own podcast
7. Create an audio slideshow using Soundslides
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8. Shoot and edit a 3-minute video and post it to YouTube 9. Design a website from scratch using HTML and CSS (There are fantastic FREE tutorials on the web, incl. on YouTube and Kirupa)
15. Create a profile on Linkedln 16. Learn another computer language besides HTIVIL (e.g. XML, PHP, MySQL) 17j Create an avatar and use it on all your social networking profiles
24. Set your social network profiles to private, edit your privacy settings to restrict the possibility of someone posting and tagging you and a potential employer seeing it and/or remove any incriminating evidence This is very good advice, think about taking it
20. Record, edit and embed a 3-minute piece of audio Try using Audacity, a free audio editor and recorder 21. Interview 10 people using a handheld audio recorder
25. Create a multimedia project that incorporates, video, audio, and text
22. Interview 10 people using a video camera 23. Create a map mashup using a CSV file - What is this? Here is a great tutorial: http:/Anultimedia.journaiism. berkeiey.edii/tutorials/ geotagging-photos/createcsv
26. Create a Flash project that uses ActionScript 3.0
digg 27. Write a blog post that is Dugg at least 20 times 28. Join Wired Journalists 29. Attend a multimedia training workshop or take an online course 30. Remind yourself why you want to be a journalist
A GOOD READ Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency CBUgi of JoumcAmand CorrmMcaaonK.umwily otnoiiaa
' del.icio.us 10. Create and maintain a Delicious account with at least 50 links that you find interesting
18. Learn how to create a basic —• slideshow in Flash - There is —' a great one provided by the Knight Digital Media Center at http://niuitiniedia. journalism.berkeiey.edu/ tutoriais/flash-intro/
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University of Rorida journalism professor Mindy McAdams has compiled all 15 posts from her multimedia proficiency blog series in a 42-page handbook, complete with the original links: http://www.jou.ufl.edu/ faculty/mmcadams/ PDFs/RGMPbook.pdf