Announcements
News Central Podcast
The weekly RaiderCast podcast from News Central (Humberto Martinez and Ian Klumpp) is now in its third installment. You ought to check it out. You can subscribe by pointing your browser at itpc://podcaster.mcom.ttu.edu/students/techtalk/rss.xml. Note: you have to have iTunes installed on your computer to "read this file."
Hot video contest
There is a wonderful opportunity for people adept at telling stories visually (through video) available at myspace. There are several prizes including $5,000 scholarships and great exposure. Check out the blurb on it at http://www.myspace.com/filmyourissue .
New cameras available; Web files updated
The Journalism Department just received six new Sony professional HD camcorders. These are called Sony "Z" cameras after a Z designation in their model number. If you want to use one of these cameras, you will need do the same kind of training and pass the same kind of test you do with other cameras. See the training document and the equipment section of this Web site.
Feb. 26, 2008 Exam schedule
Exam schedule change: The exams scheduled for weeks 8 and 12 are being combined into a single exam in week 10. This exam will be administered Monday, March 10.
Feb. 25, 2008 Calendar
The Campus Beat Calendar is online in News Central. This will evolve into a daybook.
Feb. 15, 2008 Web photo styles
Team Web producers now have four style sheet declarations to help with photo layout. If the desire is to place a photo on the left side of the main column and to have text flow around to the photo's right, use the class "leftfloat." Photos to be placed on the right should have the "rightfloat" class applied to them. A full-column wide photo (478px) should have the class "fullpix" applied to it. In any case, you may now add a caption by applying the class "caption" to the text you place immediately below the photo.
Feb. 12 SPJ meeting = studio tour
Erin Gregg reports:
You definitely don't want to miss the next SPJ event. We'll be touring KCBD next Tuesday, February 12 at 9 p.m. We'll also get to stick around for the 10:00 p.m. newscast. Anyone who would like to participate can meet at the station at 9 p.m., or join a caravan from campus. The group will meet in front of MCOM 101 at 8:30 p.m. and head over to the station together.
KCBD is located at 5600 Ave. A (near 50th Street). Please don't miss this chance to see our local news station in action!
January 30, 2008: AVID suite signup
As a class, we have regular access to Final Cut as our video editing software. You are encouraged to use Final Cut. Because many of you were trained on AVID, you may use AVID if a machine is availble. You must reserve a machine to work on it. For the signup procedure visit the "Using AVID" document which is in the news team section and requires the news team user name and password.
January 24, 2008: Files erased daily
Action taken by IT staff in Mass Comm this week underscore the need for all journalism students to have backup media for all work done for class. Computers in 005 (and some other labs) are now set on a routine that cleans out all data files on a nightly basis. Work done on a computer today will not be there for retrieval tomorrow. In fact, if your computer hangs, and you have to reboot, the rebooting process will clean out all data files. It is absolutely critical that you have appropriate backup media. For video files, this means an external hard drive.
January 22, 2008: Resumé writing workshops
The College of Mass Communications Career Center is conducting a series of resumé writing workshops in January and February. The purpose is to assist students in securing internships and employment. All workshops will be presented in Mass Comm 223. Here's the schedule:
Jan. 22 Tuesday 11 a.m. Feb. 4 Monday noon Jan. 28 Monday 1 p.m. Feb. 5 Tuesday 9:30 a.m. Jan. 30 Wednesday 2 p.m. Feb. 6 Wednesday 3 p.m. Jan. 31 Thursday 2 p.m. Feb. 7 Thursday 3:30 p.m. Feb. 1 Friday 10 a.m. Feb. 8 Friday 9 a.m.