Hi Bootcampers!
Welcome to the Inaugural Multimedia Bootcamp at UMass! We’re looking forward to your arrival.
BJ Roche, Jackie Hai and I have come up with a plan for your 2 ½ days, including a plan to develop a class blog by Saturday night to be filled with content you produce during the bootcamp. The theme of the blog will be: “Welcome to UMass!” The blog will be linked off AmherstWire.com and is something that you can continue to contribute to during the course of the year.
Our hope is to divide you into reporting teams prior to the start of Bootcamp, but before we get there, we have homework!
First: Please e-mail us and let us know what you know and what you hope to learn. Specifically, do you have any familiarity with: Blogging, social media, taking photos, shooting video, capturing audio. Has your training come via class or on your own? What journalism classes have you taken? In your note, please also include whether you have your own digital camera that you will be using in class. Also, if you are planning on using your own laptop, you should download Soundslides and Audacity.
Next, we want to introduce you to a few resources. Some of you may have seen these before:
- The UMass Web site
- The Journalism Program’s Web site
- The Journalism Program’s Facebook page: Go here to meet your fellow Bootcampers!
Also, please do the following:
- Gmail: If you don’t have a Gmail account, please set one up. We’ll talk more about the value of Gmail in class, but the short story is that the UMass e-mail system is shaky and can’t handle the transfer of large files very well. We can show you in class how to have your UMass e-mail forwarded to Gmail.
- Twitter: If you don’t have an account, please set one up. Once you set up an account, please start posting and conversing with your fellow bootcampers using the hashtag #umbootcamp. This is another way for you all to talk to each other prior to the start of Bootcamp, as well as between classes during Bootcamp and even after Bootcamp is over.
- News alerts: Please subscribe to news alerts from the Web sites of at least three news organizations.
- Elevator pitch: Please be prepared to give an “elevator” introduction on the first night of the bootcamp. If you were in an elevator and had only five floors to introduce yourself to the group, what would you say? Items you might want to include: your name, hometown, what you love to do, why you chose journalism and what you hope to accomplish during the bootcamp. Be sure to practice, so you sound like a pro. We’ll be asking you about your elevator pitch in many classes, so brush up.
- AP Stylebook: If you don’t own one already, please buy one and bring it to the Bootcamp.
That’s about it for now. Feel free to e-mail us or comment below if you have any questions.
See you soon.
Steve, Jackie, BJ
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