Synopsis
This semester, I have been able to dive into storytelling and digital journalism more than ever before. In this class we’ve gone over the basics of finding information, how to look at raw data, and how to visualize it online. At the same time, we have also been practicing the journalism skills we’ve learned in previous classes by working on our stories for most of the semester. After these 18 weeks, I have learned so much more about organizing multimedia elements in order to tell a more effective news story. What challenged me the most throughout the semester was being able to balance all the layers of research and planning that go into creating a cohesive multimedia story. Now that everything is finished, I have a lot more confidence in my future projects because I’ve learned so much about myself, and how I work, during this process.
Developing the Project
Throughout this process, I conducted myself with professionalism, transparency, and I showed respect to anyone I encountered. Before getting started, I did my homework and let facts guide my process instead of any preconceived idea to avoid framing a biased story. I communicated my purpose to all of my sources, obtained permission to take pictures and corroborated their information before going forward with publishing their story. My sources trusted me with their stories, so I used data, observation and video to give their experiences the proper support in the article. When sourcing and writing, I avoided any real or perceived biases by attributing my research.
In addition to that, I also expected myself to have biases, so I made sure to be very mindful in every single step. The fact gathering was the biggest part of this assignment, and the whole time I had to check my own work to stay as objective as possible.
The challenge of this story was mostly figuring out how to balance a project like this while taking my other classes. This is something that I’ve never done before, and it was very exciting, but that also means it was nerve-wracking. My biggest challenges were learning challenges in using data, visualizing it and executing the multimedia elements of my project. Something I could have done better is that I should have gotten more sources, and more perspectives. It was also challenging to balance my ideas with my capabilities. Throughout the process I made sure to get more than I thought I needed and to ask backup questions just in case I had to pivot my story later. Having more than I needed was reassuring, but it was hard to navigate all of it even with my notes.
It was also tricky finding information on motorcycle clubs and biker meet ups that didn’t show me results about outlaw clubs and gangs. There are a lot of stories about bikers dying and being on the news for the fatal crash, a lot more than any other kind of motorcycle content that I saw out there.
I was able to talk to the president of the Black Sabbath Motorcycle Club and attend their annual dance. It was fantastic to have that opportunity and to be welcomed so wholeheartedly by Rayetta and Trinidad. On top of that, the party was really exciting to be at. There were so many people walking, talking and riding around the parking lot outside, and inside there was a whole dance floor of people celebrating. It was such a cool thing to be doing for a school assignment, and the people that I talked to were all very kind, interesting people. I am very grateful for the opportunity to interview people in the biker scene for college credit because otherwise I wouldn’t have had a chance to speak to them. That was the most exciting fact gathering of my assignment. Other than that, I had plenty of opportunities to look at data on motorcycles, to practice visualizing raw data and to exercise my Microsoft Excel muscles. I was also surprised throughout my research of the biker culture in San Diego, and across the United States. Many preconceived notions that I had about riding motorcycles, like thinking it’s much more popular than it is, and being surprised at how family-centric some clubs can be, were proven wrong as I went further. The equipment I used were the tools I already had in my kit: my good ‘ol reliable android, an audio recording app, a wide-open storage drive, a notebook of 200 3×4” sheets and Adobe Cloud.
Digital Media Experience
How this experience has helped me have a better understanding of digital journalism
I’ve been able to learn by doing! I went through hundreds of different ideas of each element of my story before I ended up with the final product. I’ve gotten a much better understanding of how to tell a story in interlocking elements that highlight that particular chunk of information. This whole semester was an exercise in putting information into the best form for the audience to understand. For data, it’s best to create a simple visualization like an infographic, and interviews can be condensed with video, audio and text, visuals can make the story more engaging, etc. This has gotten me used to thinking about how to tell a cohesive, multimedia story.
It has also gotten me into some data journalism which was very interesting to learn about. Datasets, digital tools like Microsoft Excel and big groups of raw data were intimidating to me. Coming into this class, I had virtually no experience doing digital journalism. But, since taking this course, I have learned how to work with:
Of these, the digital media languages and the content management system were the the most challenging for me. They were also the lessons that I was the most looking forward to during this semester.
My experience working with HTML, CSS and WordPress was a long time coming, and I should have been ready for it. In fact, at the beginning of this semester, I was profoundly sure that I understood exactly what was ahead of me. My dad has taken care of me my entire life by using these program languages, and turns out I did not inherit the knack for it like my little sister did. I’m being dramatic, I actually really enjoyed learning these because even though it was challenging this is absolutely something that I had always wanted to learn about. This was the perfect way for me to go at it by myself, and I’ll keep learning about them for a long time. The hardest part was making sure I understood the different scale of all the different tools, like when to use CSS to fix a problem or if something in HTML is messed up. The easiest part was learning how to put Google Analytics tags into the header of the CSS, and putting metatags as well. That made the most sense to me, and it’s so cool to get my own analytics on my own website.
I also got practice using digital journalism techniques like social storytelling and social listening. To do this, I have used Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to monitor a particular community’s conversations over a short period of time in order to find common themes, trends, etc. This is useful for learning more about an intended audience which is invaluable in any medium of content creation. Also, I have experience using digital content creation tools like Canva and Adobe tools to design visual media for social media. This requires use of design principles to communicate a clear message, and to connect with the intended audience. I learned that using these social storytelling tools takes a lot of multitasking, critical thinking about your own work and a basic understanding of the principles of design.
The most enjoyable moments in working on the website, my journalist story and why
The most enjoyable moments in working on my website were definitely using HTML and CSS although those were actually some of the most stressful moments. This was one of my favorite things because I finally got a hands-on understanding of something that I’ve been looking at for my entire life. It’s a new key to unlock a whole different arena of creativity, innovation and paywalls. Maybe it’s my frontal lobe developing, but I’m extra aware of how lucky I am to be learning things like this at this moment on Earth, and I truly feel like these tools are gifts. It would make my younger self so impressed to know what I’m doing now, and I know that my family is so proud that I’m able to have this experience at college. HTML and CSS specifically are the foundation of basically everything I know about the world. I always had the Internet, and it feels so empowering to now use these tools for things I’m passionate about like my journalism story.
And my dad’s job finally makes sense to me.
One of my favorite parts of my digital story was getting to talk to Rayetta, Trinidad and Bino for my story. All three of these people are strong individuals that I look up to in a different way, and they’re all entirely too cool. I was incredibly humbled when they gave me their time because it felt like such a gift to see the beautiful communities that they had built. I’m proud that I went to that annual dance because I almost talked myself out of it at the time, but I knew I’d be kicking myself if I did. It was exciting to be exercising the journalism techniques we’ve been learning up until this point, and it was surprisingly very affirming when I used them. All of my classes helped inform my judgment, and I was able to trust my gut and just be a person out there having lots of conversations.
