tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-238868792011-07-13T10:25:20.960-07:00This blog is a collection of thoughts about teaching journalism and how I teach journalism at Cerritos College.Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.comBlogger901100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-75215497409777212552009-02-28T16:52:00.000-08:002009-02-28T16:54:57.215-08:00

Rich's Musings blog has moved to http://www.richsmusings.com. If you have bookmarked this web site or its RSS feed you may want to change your settings. The site redirects to richsmusings.wordpress.com.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-46622976625826689582009-02-25T09:21:00.000-08:002009-02-25T09:24:46.480-08:00

Regular readers of my comments or my blogs may have deduced that I have a hard time being brief. When I've got something to say I've got lots I want to say.Well, learning social networking using Facebook has me learning how to share the short story, too.One of Facebook's main features is the "what are you doing now" feature where you are encouraged to tell your "friends" what you are doing now.A

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-55099573379533093562009-02-24T11:28:00.000-08:002009-02-25T14:03:08.282-08:00

(Feb. 24, 2009) -- Donna Brazile was delightfully folksy, Mike Murphy was amusingly arrogant, and Maureen Dowd was disappointingly detatched as the three lumanaries squared off in a panel discussion on timely political issues Monday night at the opening salvo of the American Jewish University’s 2009 speaker series.Outspoken political commentator and founder of the Huffington Post online news site

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-20402332794366081352009-02-07T18:05:00.001-08:002009-02-07T18:05:36.536-08:00

Thirty-three students from seven community colleges attended the Editors Day held at Cerritos College Feb. 7, 2009. The purpose of the event was to give editors of student publications a chance to network and share common problems and seek common solutions. The format for the day was simple:The students split up to assure diversity at each of seven tables and spent the first hour just talking

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-44786811030733508412009-02-06T10:56:00.000-08:002009-02-06T11:13:32.757-08:00

This week Cerritos Journalism launched a new version of its Wings magazine. I’m really excited about the new concept.The new magazine, which will be published in six installments over the course of the semester, has just one story/topic per installment. It is essentially a four-page tabloid newspaper, but it folds down to a 5.5-inch by 6-inch size for the cover. When you pick it up it looks like

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-38741916415700385592008-09-07T10:27:00.000-07:002008-09-07T10:50:09.944-07:00

Talon Marks editors and I have been spending the last few weeks learning the ins and outs of a new content management tool for talonmarks.com. College Publisher, our online partner since December 2000, is introducing a new, high-end tool for college publications and we're part of the first wave of colleges and universities in the country --and most likely the first community college-- to switch

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-30427967340046089902008-08-11T21:13:00.000-07:002008-08-11T21:16:09.724-07:00

A new Web 2.0 tool that is being touted as one of the possible futures of journalism is Twitter. It is a Web-based instant message tool that allows rapid-fire group story-telling/conversations. I don't get it.But the New York Times the other day featured a very funny mash-up video about Twitter that still has me rolling on the floor.In the video it mentions a culprit by the name of Robert Scoble.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-35349204314758355492008-04-30T15:28:00.001-07:002008-04-30T15:51:55.591-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I learned about a new web-based tool that allows you to create Flash-based multimedia projects without having to actually learn flash. It's called "Sprout Builder." We've been growing multimedia classes at Cerritos College mostly with video, but I immediately see lots of possibilities with Sprout Builder as another way for our students to learn to tell stories in multimedia

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-86041582914057289422008-04-23T16:48:00.000-07:002008-04-23T17:11:50.160-07:00

What a mess we had this last week with Paramount Pictures and an Iron Man promotion ad.Short story: Rather than pony up for a print ad promoting the movie, Paramount wanted a trade ad: It would give us free movie tickets and memorabilia to hand out if we would give them a free full page ad with color. The value of the giveaways would supposedly be what the ad would normally cost.We balked at

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-13952899209393523722007-06-28T11:53:00.000-07:002007-06-28T12:37:50.039-07:00

Everything I read suggests that for newspapers to survive, they are going to have to rethink news and where it comes from. A big push today is for user-generated content. But do any of us fully understand how to do that at the campus level? Especially when we feel we're overworked just doing what we've always done AND introducing an online publication. It's hard to break out of old mind-sets,

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-5369961204467890462007-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:002007-04-22T18:39:45.831-07:00

Journalism students from 26 high schools from around southern California convened at Cerritos College yesterday for the annual Write-Off competition of the Southern California Journalism Education Association. This was probably the sixth or seventh time in the last 10 years that Cerritos has hosted the event.Great folks all, but it is a shame Cerritos will not benefit directly from the event.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1162967254870312952006-11-07T22:13:00.000-08:002006-11-07T22:34:26.103-08:00

As I reported in my earlier blog entry, my students were getting creative again in putting together a poster ad. Their latest entry is a takeoff on the X-Men:The Last Stand movie and one of the posters used to promote the movie. In my students' version it becomes News-Men: Be A Part of the New Stand. They entered it in last weekend's JACC Bring-In Ad competition and won an honorable mention. The

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1162762025598503532006-11-05T13:19:00.000-08:002006-11-05T13:29:13.226-08:00

Cerritos College students won 33 awards at the JACC SoCal conference this weekend. That's the most Cerritos students have ever won at a single jACC conference. I'm really proud of them and happy for them.Of course, the true value of winning awards is giving students affirmation that they are growing as writers, designers and photographers.And what is more remarkable is how they won them. JACC has

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1161913170171566242006-10-26T18:15:00.000-07:002006-10-26T18:43:33.913-07:00

A few years ago a couple of my most creative students started what is becoming an annual tradition. They decided to create a house ad promoting our program in the form of a replica of some famous pop culture image. First up was The Sopranos. The ad was designed for bring-in competition at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges' bring-in competition for student designed ads. I got to

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160606953226494192006-10-11T15:45:00.000-07:002006-10-15T20:22:46.800-07:00

We're 90 minutes into the interview and a couple of times already I thought it was winding down, but new questions keep coming up. Comm director calls time. Has to get her to next interview.All done.Glad I can type quickly. Nice to be able to do some research on the fly. Hope I learned something I can pass on to my students and my colleagues.Oh, and she didn't take the pillow.Added after-the-fact

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160606700293534282006-10-11T15:33:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:39:34.210-07:00

She's talking about how important young peoples' vote are. Marching is great, but that doesn't change policy. Voting does.Attacking the MinuteMen now.No notetaking. No more photos. I think my interruption of the photographer stopped him. I don't think he's taken a single shot since he came back into the room after uploading the photo for me.Talking about the fence along the border and comm

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160606025764671692006-10-11T15:25:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:39:12.776-07:00

The students are back to the one questionner. He's asking some good followup questions about how Congress works. Still waiting to see what happens next.Not too many students writing anything down right now and the assemblywoman keeps tapping the table right in front of the tape recorder. Will probably render that portion unusable.Next: Who will be the next Democratic nominee. Crowded field, but

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160605500439171502006-10-11T15:13:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:38:53.550-07:00

Oooh, the strategy changes. The one student is through with his questions and the next hits with questions about Darfur. I noticed ahead of time that one of the students had printed out a news release of Sanchez'. BTW, I'm scrambling to find links on the fly. Ain't Google great.What can students do about Dafur? She says that it came up on her radar when students asked her about it. She mentioned

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160604796839959012006-10-11T15:07:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:38:20.420-07:00

So far only one of the students, the one who has been here the longest, and certainly the one most politically savvy, has been asking questions. Next: Iran and Korea.(North) Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq was. I'm not writing the story, so I'm not going to go into all the detail. Guess I've been doing too much of that so far. I'm more interested in watching and commenting on the work of my

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160604410248204592006-10-11T15:00:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:37:48.866-07:00

Okay, took a break to post part 1 and send a note out to JACC faculty in case they want to come in and watch my experiment. So I missed a question or two.Now she is giving the stories a great story on why young voters should pay attention and vote. She found a young smoker who was passing on his chance to influence smoking laws and taxes.The character of elections is the next discussion. Negative

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160603911846110482006-10-11T14:46:00.000-07:002006-10-11T17:37:22.896-07:00

I'm going to blog sort of live here. Assemblywoman Linda Sanchez, who represents our district is in my office right now and I'm sitting back watching my students interview her while she is on a information swing. Nice of her to include the student press.Ms. Sanchez was here a year ago or so doing the same thing. One thing I remembered from last time was that no one seemed to take notes on what

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160426094774021182006-10-09T13:14:00.000-07:002006-10-09T13:40:02.013-07:00

Spent last Friday at Pierce College helping the staff there understand the new powerful tool they have in a College Publisher web site. They'll launch this week.But part of the day was spent talking with colleague Rob O'Neil about how much we can expect of students. I've been amazed over the years at the talent of students and how hard they will work for the student newspaper. When I started

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1160192665429288652006-10-06T20:24:00.000-07:002006-10-06T20:44:25.446-07:00

You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. -- Zig ZiglarZiglar is one my favorite speakers and I particularly like this quotation. Which is why I was happy to spend part of my day training faculty and students at Pierce College, who are getting ready to launch their new College Publisher site. They received training from College Publisher

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1159997685650890422006-10-04T14:22:00.000-07:002006-10-04T14:34:45.663-07:00

Tuesday was an interesting day at the Talon Marks newspaper. Tuesday is the day we normally toil all day putting together a print edition and preparing the next online edition (got to get away from that structure one of these days). But for a variety of reasons, including not wanting to overload my students, we scheduled in an off-week. It is interesting to see what the students do when they

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1159988377596338002006-10-04T11:44:00.000-07:002006-10-04T14:16:39.073-07:00

"Do you like to write or take photos?"That was my opening line last night as I reached out to a couple of hundred high school students at the annual Cerritos College University fair held in the campus gym. While the goal of the event is to stage a university fair emphaszing four-year colleges and universities from around Southern California, the entire state and the nation, each year the college

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1159204062497867532006-09-25T09:53:00.000-07:002006-10-04T12:02:55.663-07:00

A fellow journalism instructor at another community college hurled a criticism my way this weekend for all I write about the role of new media in journalism. Good instructor, but like many may be behind the times a bit. Not only have I tasted the new media Kool-aid, but I'm worried that I need to start gulping the stuff to catch up.For some time I've been thinking that with the shift of young

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1159066736318906312006-09-23T19:47:00.000-07:002006-09-23T19:58:56.330-07:00

Cerritos broadcasting student Gayle Parks does a regular community action talk show for local Media One/ATT/Comcast/Time Warner (whoever owns it this week) Cable of Downey cable access.Thursday I was invited for a second time to talk about the Cerritos College Mass Communication department in general and the journalism program in particular. And, boy, did I have to do a lot of talking.The

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1157823497756390272006-09-09T09:47:00.000-07:002006-09-09T10:47:50.220-07:00

What is the role of the faculty adviser in a free student press. This has been on my mind a great deal lately first because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger just signed AB 2581, a measure that guarantees that the student press is free from administrative censorship and because a couple of colleagues at California community colleges have been under a lot pressure from their administrations to take a

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1156623315997334602006-08-26T12:50:00.000-07:002006-08-26T15:42:07.233-07:00

We implemented the new talonmarks.com design this week. It is not working completely --still needs some tweaks-- and, boy, do we have a lot to learn to keep it looking the way it should from week to week. But here is what I like most about it:My students came up with the design on their own (last semester students no longer with us, unfortunately) and presented it to College Publisher with "Can

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1155873317270578792006-08-17T20:53:00.000-07:002006-08-24T13:16:38.956-07:00

One of the reasons I started this blog last March was to learn by doing. And one of the things I learned in the process is that it works best if you post new content on a regular basis. I knew that before, but it was reinforced.But lately I've been bitten by the tsetse fly of blogging: No new ideas. While it has only been a couple of weeks, it seems like an enternity and I fear losing the

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1155360387611417022006-08-11T22:14:00.000-07:002006-08-11T22:28:20.230-07:00

Ran across an interesting column about the shift of media taking place that requires a NewThink when most of us are used to OldThink ideas. The author says:The media shift isn’t just about small vs. big. It’s also about a new way of thinking, or perhaps bringing back an old way of thinking that’s been lost in the era of big media mergers and the bottom-line focus on profits over serving people.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1154828269646722972006-08-05T18:26:00.000-07:002006-08-05T19:34:58.453-07:00

One of the blogs I read regularly is called Reinventing College Media. The blogger, Bryan Murley, helped run a college media adviser's workshop in Washington, D.C. last week. One of the scheduled speakers was Washington Post editor Jim Brady. He didn't make it because of a scheduling error. But he shared his PowerPoint slides with Murley and you can view them at www.collegemedia.org/images/

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1154560867431882042006-08-02T15:56:00.000-07:002006-08-03T16:30:41.426-07:00

Word is out today that College Publisher has a new owner: mtvU, a division of MTV, which a division of Viacom.I think this is a good thing. College Publisher is already the largest network of college newspapers, with some 450 or so partners, including talonmarks.com. The hookup with mtvU/MTV/Viacom makes it even more of a solid host for college papers and, as the news release says, brings to the

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1154462977829778642006-08-01T12:55:00.000-07:002006-08-01T13:33:09.683-07:00

As we're getting ready to launch a new format for talonmarks.com, we're hoping to ramp up some new content, mostly video, podcasting and blogging. We contacted two on-campus content producer partners --the radio program and the film program--to see if we might incorporate their student-produced content on the student-produced talonmarks.com site. They both jumped at it.In fact, film instructor

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1154200163522702662006-07-29T11:36:00.000-07:002006-07-29T12:21:54.206-07:00

Most journalism teachers I know, present company included, teach a pretty straight and narrow serious approach to newswriting. And appropriately so.There is a lot to learn in mastering the inverted pyramid, consistency of style, accuracy and objectivity. But to survive in tomorrow's news world and to appeal to younger audiences, I think we have to start paying attention to the edgy presentation

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1154063701797674892006-07-27T21:52:00.000-07:002006-07-27T22:17:40.526-07:00

Are college journalists, or even journalism teachers, ready for the digital age? Apparently not, according to Leonard Witt, president of the Public Journalism Network:Yesterday I gave a talk to some 50 college student newspaper editors and managers about Reinventing Newspapers. Most had not heard of citizen journalism projects like OhmyNews, Northwest Voice or MyMissourian. The editors, from

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1154018157931497722006-07-27T09:25:00.000-07:002006-08-01T13:40:19.073-07:00

Great story in today's LA Times about small town journalism in Atwater, Minn. The Column One feature tells about a small town left without a newspaper a decade ago. People wanted a paper, so they started one. For nearly a decade, Atwater had no newspaper. The only way for the town's 1,047 residents to find out about fires, summer festivals and the latest births was to eavesdrop on conversations

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153705071357812162006-07-23T18:30:00.000-07:002006-07-23T18:38:25.856-07:00

We don't really look at the Talon Marks as a source of ad income, even though half our operating expenses in a school year come from advertising and those numbers have been dropping in recent years. But here is some interesting news for us to pay attention to.A new survey of 7,500 university students found that they would like to see more local advertising on their campus' newspaper websites. 64%

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153699511581982402006-07-23T16:49:00.000-07:002006-07-23T17:09:43.856-07:00

Okay, forgive me. I'm a dinosaur. An enlightened dinosaur, I hope, but still a dinosaur. But I finally get RSS (Really Simple Syndication).I saw it before, but didn't understand it. I even bookmarked some feed sites without realizing what I was doing. Soon after my bookmarks bar started including numbers that I couldn't understand. The browser was looking at those feed sites and telling me how

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153628350730972752006-07-22T21:06:00.001-07:002006-07-22T21:20:15.593-07:00

Web media is the dominant at-work media and No. 2 in the home, according to a June report from the Online Publishers Association, according to this CNET News.com article. The article and the study are interesting for a number of reasons. For one, what time of day do you think most newspapers and magazines are read? Another interesting thing about the article is how CNET News.com handled an update

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153441209137139562006-07-20T17:03:00.000-07:002006-07-20T17:23:20.646-07:00

I know the lyrics for the song "Tomorrow" from the musical "Annie" say that "tomorrow is ALWAYS a day away," but it is also ONLY a day away. So I like to keep in touch with my student newspaper staff during semester breaks, especially the lon-g-g-g-g summer break, and keep their thoughts focused on the coming semester.I met with a number of returning students for lunch today to get them started

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153362547048057682006-07-19T19:23:00.000-07:002006-07-19T19:29:07.066-07:00

A little bit of crude language, but this web video about ugly web sites on MySpace is as funny as it is informative about how much we take for granted that new technologies provide. The amount of work involved in creating a newspaper page or a web site is made so simple for us with today's technology.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153360567433191772006-07-19T18:49:00.000-07:002006-07-19T21:28:41.276-07:00

Mindy McAdams is quickly becoming one of my "must read" bloggers. She has included an interesting summary of a PEW Intenet and American Life Project study on blogging.PEW is a good source on how Americans use the Internet.Reuters also has a story on the report.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1153195780911406312006-07-17T21:05:00.000-07:002006-07-17T21:09:40.943-07:00

Mindy McAdams writes a really interesting blog on teaching online journalism. I found this post about interactive artists particularly interesting. I think it defines an element we are hoping to capture in our Internet for Journalists class.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1152670163301033802006-07-11T18:50:00.000-07:002006-07-29T12:51:19.286-07:00

I've been thinking about how to infuse my journalism courses with blogging so that my students can learn. One thought is to require all returning newspaper staff members to develop a weekly blog that focuses on some aspect of the college or student life.*Ran the idea past incoming editor Tanya Bermudez the other day and she wasn't interested in it.** Still, I wonder...* The more I read about

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1152471509495348002006-07-09T11:20:00.000-07:002006-07-09T12:25:50.530-07:00

Last night was the big 50th anniversary Talon Marks reunion. What at hot time (literally for a while there)!It was so great to see some 50 or 60 current and former Talon Marks staffers and their families join us for the evening. It was a thrill to talk to so many of them and see how their lives were affected by their long hours at the Talon Marks. Some were my former students, but the vast

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1152199641026030472006-07-06T08:10:00.000-07:002006-07-06T08:28:45.286-07:00

San Jose State University's Steve Sloan has produced a series of podcasts that talk about journalism education and new technology. A link can be found in the sidebar of this page.Of particular interest to me was a 13-minute podcast entitled "Who Needs Ink?" That was the title of a presentation at the California Commonwealth Club presentation in San Jose that Steve attended in March 2006.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1152142885313877502006-07-05T16:18:00.000-07:002006-07-05T16:48:35.186-07:00

The ">Bodega Bay newspaper announced this week that it is going to drop its print edition and continue to publish exclusively online. Seems that subscription costs cannot cover the printing costs and the publisher feels he has enough of an out-of-area audience to sustain the effort.">It is too early to tell whether this represents the shot heard 'round the world for newspapers. Bodega Bay is not

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1152067490673154922006-07-04T19:35:00.000-07:002006-07-04T19:51:05.430-07:00

Saw this clip in the LA Times today:When the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences created a new Emmy award this year for news and documentary programs produced for websites, mobile phones and iPods, the group aimed to recognize the best of new media. But when the award is presented in September, the winner will likely be old media.That's because five of the seven nominees for the

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1151972482434480232006-07-03T17:18:00.000-07:002006-07-03T21:30:04.326-07:00

In researching podcasting in journalism education I ran across this interesting piece produced by National Public Radio. (requires Window Media Player). It talks about one school's attempt to deliver some content to students in placed of them actually attending class three days a week.Here is another series of podcasts discussing the changing state of college media sponsored by the College Media

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1151881611495800422006-07-02T15:53:00.000-07:002006-07-02T16:11:49.530-07:00

It's mid-summer and I just ended my summer school day class --the online class still has a couple of weeks to go-- so it is time to start thinking about next school year. Big in my thoughts is how to incorporate the concept of blogging into my journalism classes.I tried an experiment in the newswriting class last semester that really did not work, but it was start. (See the entries way down below

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1151453980304475472006-06-27T17:09:00.000-07:002006-06-27T17:20:52.666-07:00

I was talking with Amara Aguilar today about a class we hope to offer next spring on multimedia storytelling. Basically, we're ramping up our old Internet for Journalists course to have it emphasize multimedia storytelling. So exciting! Wish we had thought of it sooner so that we could have started it as early as fall semester.It'll be great to work in the dynamics of audio video, slide shows,

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1151340742765559052006-06-26T09:46:00.000-07:002006-06-26T09:53:35.506-07:00

Boy, is this ever the season for reunions. In the last few months I've been to a reunion of my alma mater's journalism department (see entry below) and three family reunions.And then there is the Talon Marks 50th anniversary reunion coming up in just a couple of weeks. Whew!It is going to be fun to have former Talon Marks students back on campus, though it looks like our numbers are going to be

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1150761978867193562006-06-19T16:45:00.000-07:002006-06-19T18:00:54.826-07:00

Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil. You've heard it before. But it has manifested itself locally in two recent student press issues --one from a high school paper and one from a college newspaper. All the more reason to strengthen student press laws and improve student press right education. What timely occurrences for my mass communications students who are currently working on First

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1150507302321294392006-06-16T17:56:00.000-07:002006-06-16T18:29:36.673-07:00

Got an e-mail from an instructor at a community college today about the trouble he is having getting his students to embrace the online edition.He can't get volunteers and has even offered to pay a student to update the site. He is doing what so many schools do; he's trying to turn the site over to one individual. Been there, done that, found a better way. The WHOLE staff has to be involved with

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1150338020728265972006-06-14T19:12:00.000-07:002006-06-14T19:23:32.480-07:00

Just heard good news for Hersson Preciado. He's in Florida right now at the national convention to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (see entry below). But he has just learned that he has been selected for a prestigious 10-week paid internship at the Santa Maria Times this summer.Runnerup in the selection process was Erick Galindo, also of Cerritos. Both are talented individuals

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1150321451984972372006-06-14T14:25:00.000-07:002006-06-14T14:48:29.543-07:00

You've heard the phrase before. It's a small world. It just got too small for me.For several months I've been following a situation at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. The interm college president there, Dr. Morgan Lynn, had accused the board of trustees president there of overstepping his bounds and, among other things, asking her to get rid of the adviser to the student newspaper there (hence

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1150166383349945012006-06-12T19:19:00.000-07:002006-06-12T19:47:50.936-07:00

I don't know how many times over the last 30 years a student has told me, "I'm going to be the most famous student you'll ever have, just wait and see." But most students who go on to journalism careers don't make news, they cover it. As I was looking at USA Today online this evening I ran across the name of a former West Valley College student I've always been extremely proud of. He's in the

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1149954533825889042006-06-10T08:29:00.000-07:002006-06-19T21:43:59.986-07:00

It is certainly clear that the future of journalism includes an online presence, yet it astounds me the number of California community college programs that still do not include an online component in their programs. There are at least two areas they need to catch up quickly: an online publication and online education.As part of my role as the Online Communications Director for the Journalism

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1149463860297772712006-06-04T16:19:00.000-07:002006-06-14T14:54:55.530-07:00

Mt. San Antonio College will be hiring a new journalism instructor this summer and already a couple of applicants have asked me for advice. Well, I don't have a cyrstal ball to tell me what Mt. SAC is looking for, but I've done pretty good in the past in counselling journalism job applicants. I've been on both sides of the interview table a number of times and have learned a few things.I think

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1149109250080946382006-05-31T13:44:00.000-07:002006-05-31T14:03:11.110-07:00

Most days are exciting, but some are just plain sucky. Today is the latter.It started off by waking to the sound of the street sweeper and realizing I forgot to move the car off the street. Bingo. $35 ticket. And that was the highlight of the day!The Talon Marks computer server somehow got damaged over the weekend when the school had a spate of campus computer network troubles and for a while it

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1149036564568753022006-05-30T17:38:00.001-07:002006-06-17T13:56:54.770-07:00

Sometimes trying to instill the value of talonmarks.com as a primary news source among the student staff is a challenge. But every once in a while, the students show they understand and care.The latest comes in the form of a proposed redesign of the site from outgoing online editor Diona Carrillo and designer Benny Orbase. Their proposal wil require some help from College Publisher and parts of

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1148690456047974522006-05-26T17:23:00.000-07:002006-05-26T17:40:56.066-07:00

Enrollments are down and it's been a challenge this week just to get adequate enrollments to offer summer school classes. RTV instructor Craig Breit, my department mate, has been struggling, too.I've tried recruiting high school students, first through hosting Southern California Journalism Association conferences, and most recently by sponsoring our own high school journalism competitions. But

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1147876635844045612006-05-17T07:22:00.000-07:002006-05-17T11:41:41.913-07:00

Took a handful of students to listen to NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman talk about globaization last night. It was the last in the 2006 LA Music Center lecture series. What a powerful speaker! He presented an edge-of-the-seat message for 90 minutes without a single note in front of him. Of course, his talk was an outline of his very long book "The Earth is Flat." Got home and immediately

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1147797006087283052006-05-16T09:06:00.000-07:002006-05-16T09:31:52.796-07:00

The last thing I did before going to bed last night was check USA Today online. When I woke up this morning the page was still on my screen. I hit refresh and it changed. So much for permanence.Robert Mercer of Cypress College talks about the new paradigm of here-is-the-news-now compared to the here-is-this-issue-of-the-paper news (my words, his sentiment). The USA Today refresh sure emphasized

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1147566614054457462006-05-13T16:57:00.000-07:002006-05-14T11:59:22.120-07:00

Went back to school this weekend. The Mass Communications and Journalism department at my alma mater, Fresno State, held its first-ever reunion for graduates. So I went back to school to see old classmates and teachers.Not sure I would have recognized any classmates had they shown up --as far as I can tell, none from my years did-- as I was so busy working and going to school at the time to get

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1147317421335618912006-05-10T20:04:00.000-07:002006-05-10T20:27:39.173-07:00

One of the goals of the high school journalism awards we're starting this year is to turn it into a learning lesson for Cerritos College journalism students. The plan all along has been to have the newspaper students do the judging of the high school entries. We got started on that today.In addition to working together in teams to judge the best of the entries, the students are supposed to write

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1147121399525777932006-05-08T13:39:00.000-07:002006-05-14T12:00:37.286-07:00

Amara shared a good link with me about a research paper written by Eric Wiltse at University of Wyoming on web logs in journalism classes. The paper has some good discussion on blogs and how to integrate them as learning exercises in classes.In the paper he says that "college-level instruction is important to bring journalist standards to this growing medium." Robert Mercer, in a recent JACC

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146952139483718722006-05-06T14:47:00.000-07:002006-05-06T16:55:28.376-07:00

Attended a workshop this morning at Riverside College about convergence issues. The presenters were all from the Internet side of their publications, so there was a decided bias for web enhancements. That’s okay, though, I have that bias, too.One presenter said that visual content –video and photos and photo galleries—is what drives readers to the web sites, not necessarily text content or voice

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146710724666995752006-05-03T19:36:00.000-07:002006-05-03T19:52:36.540-07:00

Teaching would be a cushy job if it weren't for grading. Geez!More and more toward the end of the semester (Thanksgiving and Spring Break) I hit a grading slump. Sometimes it lasts for weeks. Of course, that's when the more complex assignments start coming in, so I don't know if it is the break in the routine or the more intense grading involved, or both.It's a hard slump to pull out of, but so

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146693446255183902006-05-03T14:49:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:41:31.856-07:00

For several years Cerritos Journalism has maintained a relationship with the Southern California Journalism Education Association by hosting its annual Write-Off competitions. Aside from wanting to support good journalism at the high school level, an obvious hoped for advantage would be to establish connections with local area high school programs.But the problem is that most local area high

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146579433843631202006-05-02T07:11:00.000-07:002006-05-06T16:53:29.936-07:00

I've been struggling on what kind of podcasting assignment to give my beginning newswriting students. This is the first semester I'm going to try something and I'm still at a loss on what exactly to have them do. The purpose is to introduce them to podcasting, but how to do it is a mystery.Complicating the matter is the fact that we've got so little time left in the class and I want them to

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146339384499715442006-04-29T12:31:00.000-07:002006-05-01T14:21:08.773-07:00

All this convergence stuff sure adds a lot of extra work. Ran across a pretty good article from Editor & Publisher magazine on the topic. My thoughts, of course, are relected in posts below.SPECIAL REPORT: As Print and Web Merge, Headaches EmergeThe Web's growing influence has not only provided fresh advantages for news presentation, breaking stories, and timely opinion. It has also created new

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146257995161333952006-04-28T13:48:00.000-07:002006-05-02T11:44:44.766-07:00

Talked this week with College Publisher, the company we work with for the content management tool we use for talonmarks.com, about blogging and podcasting. I was a bit disappointed that they are not further along with implementation, but we don't know much ourselves other than we know we want to start experimenting, to just do it (see the entry at the beginning of this blog on this philosophy).

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1146062077426561922006-04-26T07:20:00.000-07:002006-05-01T14:23:49.136-07:00

There is no greater recognition than that which you get from your peers. This was the message from Dr. Noeila Vega this week at Cerritos College's annual Distinguished Teachers ceremony.She's mostly right. I've been fortunate to be recognized by my peers several times in my lifetime. I've receved national recognition (CCJA Hall of Fame and EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL award for my City Council program) and

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1145999518249254942006-04-25T14:06:00.000-07:002006-04-25T16:46:56.910-07:00

Wow! Another outstanding product from Cerritos College journalism students. The new edition of Wings magazine has arrived and it is probably the best Cerritos magazine I've ever seen. Wings editor Benny Orbase and his crew, along with adviser Amara Aguilar, put together an outstanding product. I am continually in awe of the great work done by our students. They've already got me dreaming of a

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1145571979659326362006-04-20T15:19:00.000-07:002006-05-02T11:45:07.816-07:00

It's been a pretty good year for Cerritos College journalism. And there is more to come.There were the general excellence awards for both the print Talon Marks and the online talonmarks.com at BOTH the JACC SoCal and JACC state levels (among a lot of other awards), the national honorable mention for talonmarks.com as an outstanding non-daily online student publication, the selection of Diona

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1145417349952327322006-04-18T20:23:00.000-07:002006-05-01T14:24:33.516-07:00

Assembly Speaker pro Tem Leland Y. Yee (D-San Francisco) held a press conference on his AB 2581, "the Hosty bill," today at Skyline College in San Bruno. AB 2581 would prohibit the censorship of student newspapers at a California college, university or community college. I'm excited that a reporter for the Whittier Daily News decided to cover the story down here. She sent a photographer over to

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1145387965386452002006-04-18T12:08:00.000-07:002006-04-25T16:54:01.706-07:00

talonmarks.com, the online newspaper put together by Cerritos College journalism students, has won a national honorable mention as an outstanding non-daily student newspaper. The Cerritos publication was one of seven national non-daily publications honored in this category of College Publisher's 2006 Awards of Excellence.College Publisher is the leading content management system for student

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1145241457752759782006-04-16T19:31:00.000-07:002006-04-18T12:06:05.833-07:00

Had a bit of insomnia the other night. Not sure why. Maybe it was a culmination of inactivity from a week of spring break where I tried to "relax." Maybe my mind was racing from all the last minute work put into income tax forms. Or maybe it was simply that weird tasting spaghetti sauce my wife made for dinner.Whatever it was, I found myself lying awake in the middle of the night contemplating a

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1144722433744129482006-04-10T19:21:00.000-07:002006-04-10T19:27:13.756-07:00

Here's a new wrinkle on podcasting lectures, one that as a member of the Cerritos College Web Advisory Committee I should have thought about earlier on my own: the American Disability Act requires that I include a text version of the podcast to accommodate any deaf students. Here's an article on how to create a transcript. Probably a PC program, but I'll check into it.This is something we should

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1144164340520780642006-04-04T08:16:00.000-07:002006-04-04T08:25:40.520-07:00

Am so proud of my students and the work they do. We just got back from the JACC convention where the students won a general excellence award for both the print and online editions of the Talon Marks. They also won a slew of other writing and design awards for mail-in and on-the-spot/bring-in competitions. Though many of them were just honorable mentions, it shows that they are performing pretty

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1144163667206489542006-04-04T08:13:00.000-07:002006-04-04T08:14:27.220-07:00

Just got back from the JACC convention. What a great organization. The opportunities for students to learn and the excitement the contests and workshops creates is awesome.One thing I’ve felt bad about though, especially since I became chair of the Mass Communications Department and have watched out for broadcasting a bit more, is that there is not something like JACC to energize the broadcasting

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143663719658015562006-03-29T12:14:00.000-08:002006-05-01T14:26:05.836-07:00

Well, my first lecture is on my web site. I found that I had to get the RIGHT Bluetooth adapter for my computer, one that would support a headset input (D-Link DBT-120 for about $30) and then my Bluetooth headset for my cell phone would work. But I'm not sure it kicked in as the default input for the lecture. As I stepped away from the computer the quality went down. I'll double check next

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143522032364361392006-03-27T20:56:00.000-08:002006-03-27T21:02:55.423-08:00

Well my first experiment with recording lectures was not as successful as I hoped. I move around a bit during my lectures and spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the computer --away from the built-in mic--and the recording wasn't very good. I can turn the computer around next time, but I think the answer is some kind of wireless mic.Thought I'd try something cheap and bought a Bluetooth

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143407805143645802006-03-26T13:04:00.000-08:002006-04-29T21:08:47.540-07:00

Time to just get started. I'm going to start recording lectures in my mass comm class and posting them on the course web site. I've downloaded a freeware audio recording program from the Apple site (Audacity) and created a page on the site for uploading. I'll create an RSS feed and link to iTunes later.As far as the fear of students not attending class and listening to the lectures instead, I

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143336123341356282006-03-25T17:14:00.000-08:002006-03-25T17:26:02.780-08:00

I love doing workshops at Cerritos and hope we can do more like the one we did this week on podcasting. What I'd like to do is pair with our mass communications partner, Radio-TV, to eventually sponsor monthly workshops. But that may be too ambitious, though it could be a goal to strive toward between now and 2010.A more modest goal would be to aim for three each semester, with one of them being

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143335663016181282006-03-25T16:58:00.000-08:002006-05-01T14:26:51.723-07:00

Wow, this is my week for workshops. Last week I did a workshop on the use of College Publisher as a web publishing tool for college papers to a small group at CSU, Long Beach; Wednesday night I attended a plagiarism and journalists workshop at CSU, Fullerton; Friday we hosted a workshop at Cerritos on podcasting; and today Susan and I went to a workshop in Beverly Hills on blogging and

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143334695569728862006-03-25T16:56:00.000-08:002006-05-01T14:27:17.886-07:00

Twenty-six media students and faculty from Cerritos and neighboring colleges and universities learned more about podcasting as a journalistic or teaching tool March 24 at Cerritos. See story and photos.

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23886879.post-1143334216001139572006-03-25T16:32:00.000-08:002006-05-01T14:27:49.746-07:00

A month ago I was at a journalism conference for faculty in Morro Bay where we discussed how to rethink the journalism curriculum for the 21st century. While continuing to focus on the basics, we were encouraged to also look at the new technologies of podcasting and blogging. While a lot of instructors were excited, a lot, especially the university instructors, were already talking about how it

Rich Cameronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17035686758423273930noreply@blogger.com0