Multimedia Journalism

By: Hailey Fernelius

Multimedia journalism is driven by the possibilities of a digital era. MMJ can use video, audio, photos, graphics, and social media, but is defined by its reporting, writing, and ethics. Jennifer Napier-Pearce creates MMJ every week in her online TRIB Talk.

In a recently viewed TRIB Talk, Pearce was discussing the new LDS policy on gay couples and the church. The talk included video of her and four other participants that she was interviewing with audio. In all of her talks she checks her twitter and webpage for any comments or questions, and takes phones calls.

According to the Berkeley Advanced Media Institute, “To stay ahead of the curve in this evolving media environment you must know how to produce content and create compelling stories for a mobile first audience.”

MMJ was created to be interactive and fast. “It is a quick process these days, reporters can have a story out within minutes of an event happening,” said Pearce.

Some may wonder if this high speed form of journalism is prone to errors. Information that is published without being checked can be risky business. But this is not a major issue. “Errors happen, but it can be fixed very quickly,” said Pearce.

Sheena McFarland, once a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, said that MMJ stories are not written and completed all at once. When a reporter is at an event, they write a couple of lines about what is going on and then follow it with, “we will continue to update the story throughout the day.” McFarland holds a record for the most stories written in a 24 hour period.

According to the BBC Academy, “Multimedia Journalism can be one multi-skilled reporter telling a story for TV, radio and online or it can mean running a newsroom where journalists working in different media collaborate.”

Pearce and McFarland stress the importance of being multi-skilled. Throughout her life Pearce has had many jobs. She was an English Major at the University of Utah, she interned at the LA Times, and has worked for multiple magazines. But none of these allowed her to pursue her interest in radio.

This interest prompted her to volunteer for a local radio station, where she started building her knowledge of microphones and other radio equipment. From there she went on to co-host a talk show, worked for Utah.com podcast, and eventually made her way to the Salt Lake Tribune.

“It is not enough just to be a journalist anymore,” said McFarland. In order to be desired by companies these days you must have a wide range of skills that go beyond being a good writer.

This means that someone interested in journalism should intern at places that will give the skill set to operate radio equipment, produce videos, create websites, and how to properly use social media to get your message across.

Another thing to keep in mind is how much research needs to be done in order to accurately report on a topic. You need to have sources from both sides of the story, and a lot of the time you need them quickly.

Pearce explained that she had a story that she was reporting on that day that she still needed to research how to reach her target audience. So, she has to research a topic, find credible sources to discuss on it, and figure out how to reach her target audience. “Building a brand takes time, effort, and resources,” said Pearce.

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Josie VanBaest: student-athlete and so much more

By: Hailey Fernelius

Josie VanBaest is a student at Southridge High School in Beaverton, Oregon. She is someone who likes to stay busy by being involved in her school. She plays on the women’s softball team, is one of the lead singers in the school’s choir and is an active member in the school’s drama club.

VanBaest decided she wanted to start playing softball when she was in elementary school. “Both of my parents played when they were young,” said VanBaest.

“If I could pick what position I played, I would be on first base,” said VanBaest. She is often pitching or is placed in the outfield, but she thinks her skills are better served on first base.

“I’m pretty good at keeping my eye on the ball and reacting quickly once the ball connects with the bat,” said VanBaest.

She likes the sport because she gets to meet new people and she has a fun way to exercise without feeling like she is exercising.

“It’s not all fun and games,” she said, “It’s a lot of work.” VanBaest explains that with all of her practices, games and performances she falls behind on her sleep. “She has to stay up later on days when she has games to get her homework done, because there is no time before,” said VanBaest’s step-mother, Stacey.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average teenager needs between eight and ten hours of sleep a night. But, they also reported that only 15% of students surveyed said that they actually only get about eight-and-a-half hours of sleep on school nights.

“Athletics for youth in this day and age require a lot of time and effort. To be great, you must put in a lot of time,” says Josie’s coach and father, Michael. This time has to come from somewhere and Michael VanBaest acknowledges that it will either come from sleep or studying.

He also explains that he does everything he can to motivate his players to stay focused in school. “If you don’t achieve above passable grades, you don’t play,” Michael VanBaest said.

He is also focused on creating a stronger team. “The longer they play together, the more they learn to listen to each other on the field.”

When it gets broken down, she spends a lot of her time with these girls. Stacey VanBaest explains that each practice is about two hours long and they have it twice a week, each game is about two hours long and they have those twice a week, and then they are expected to improve their hitting and pitching outside of practice as well.

“It’s fun to go to the batting cages and help each other improve on our swing,” said Josie VanBaest.

“It’s really great to see Josie excelling at so many things in her high school career,” said Stacey VanBaest. She and Michael VanBaest never miss any of Josie’s games or performances.

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Story By MICHELLE JAMES

Six hours of dancing a day, five times a week is a normal week for modern dance major Courtney Collins. Along with the dancing, there has to be time for work from academic classes, as well as time to go to the gym.

Collins has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She started with ballet and tap and eventually also did jazz and lyrical and then modern. Collins said she chose to major in modern dance at the University of Utah because it is what she loves, and this way she can do what she loves for a living.

According to the Department of Modern Dance’s website, the U’s department has 100 undergraduates and 15 to 25 graduate students each year.

Classes for a modern dance major encompass many aspects of the dance industry. Collins has to take classes such as ballet, elements of music, kinesiology, dance history, dance production, choreography, improv and intro to technology.

“It enhances our knowledge,” said Collins about the variety of classes.

Pamela Gerber, director of undergraduate studies, said a dancer’s schedule “is very full as the dance class load is rigorous and for the most part, a prescribed list of course requirements over the course of four years.”

Having these dance classes and academic classes can have its challenges. Collins said the dance classes require lots of physical energy, and then there is additional outside work that needs to be done for dance and other classes. It’s also difficult to get involved in dance activities when she has other classes, said Collins.

Another difficulty that comes up when going between dance and academic classes is one that might not be as thought of. Collins said how they are very active in dance and then have 15 minutes to quickly get changed and go to an academic class.

Beyond the balancing of classes there is the need to work out outside of the classroom. Collins said people might think that since dancers are already active they might not have to go to the gym, but she still has to. Collins said she goes about three hours a week.

Courtney Collins’s mom, Michelle Collins, knows the difficulties that are part of a dancer’s life. Michelle said how much time dance classes take, which leave little room for studying and schoolwork.

“Dance requires physical stamina and academics need mental acuity, unfortunately the combination of late-night dance classes and little sleep adversely affect both of those,” said Michelle Collins.

Michelle Collins also said there are the emotional challenges of a dancer being exhausted after a weekend of performing or competitions.

Michelle Collins said the emotional support can be “exhausting and heartbreaking.”

Even with all these challenges, Courtney Collins finds a way to create a balance. She said she loves majoring in modern dance because she can be more focused on modern dance and grow more.

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Eliza Larsen is a 19-year-old transfer to the University of Utah. She transferred from Barton Community College in Great Bend, Kansas. Eliza grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and has played soccer her entire life. She graduated from Olympus High School in 2014 and accepted an athletic scholarship at Barton.

Eliza played for Barton from the fall of 2014 to the spring of 2015. On what it was like to be a student-athlete she said, “It was hard but fun. Practicing every day paid off in the long run. I learned self-discipline and who I was.” According to the Barton Community College website, Eliza was on the Dean’s List fall and spring semester, and was on the all-academic team fall semester.

“My GPA was a 3.5 fall and spring semester,” Eliza said commenting on her award.

Living out of state was very hard for her. “Not being able to go home on long weekends because it would either cost me $300 to fly home or a 16 hour car ride was very hard.”

Eliza’s mom, Angie, and younger brother, Cross, also had a difficult time with her being away. Angie said, “We missed her terribly, and worried about her. Not being able to see her face everyday hurt my heart.” But she commented on the positives about Eliza being gone, “We were only able to return to Kansas once to watch her play. Fortunately she had two home games that weekend. It was definitely a proud parent moment to see her on the field as a college athlete.”

Her brother Cross had the hardest time with Eliza leaving out of her three brothers. He said, “I felt sad when Eliza was in Kansas. I just missed everything about her and I was so happy when she would come home to visit.”

But, Eliza looked on the bright side of her situation. “Having no social life was a positive. If I weren’t so busy that year I wouldn’t be where I am today.,” she said. “I think my GPA wouldn’t be where it is if I wasn’t so focused on maintaining a certain GPA.”

On the soccer field Eliza wore the number 5 jersey. She played as center position. Her overall stats on the Barton Sports website are impeccable:

• She started 15/19 games
• She scored one goal
• She took 23 shots on goal

She said in one of her games she received a yellow card and in another game one her teammates got into a fistfight with a girl from the opposing team.

Eliza is now at home in Utah attending the University of Utah, playing intramural soccer and pursuing a degree in Exercise and Sports Science.

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From the Mountains to the Big Stage
By: Sam Kioa

Balancing academics along with playing for a high profile collegiate football team can be difficult for most student athletes throughout the country, but for Stanford University offensive lineman Brandon Fanaika, it’s more of a way of life.

“I’ve been playing this game and everything that comes along with it my whole entire life.  At this point, I understand how disciplined you have to be to keep up with the game.  I love everything about it and can only be grateful that I’ve been given this opportunity in the first place,” said Fanaika.

Fanaika hails from the small city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, where he reflects on most of his childhood memories up to graduating from Pleasant Grove High School.  According to Max Preps, Fanaika was considered the top high school football recruit in the state of Utah in 2012.

Fanaika received scholarship offers from prestigious schools throughout the country during his high school years.  Auburn University, UCLA, and USC were just a few of the universities that were highly recruiting Fanaika.  Stanford University ended up being the final destination for Fanaika but his decision came at a high risk as well.

Fanaika made it clear from the beginning that he would only sign a letter of intent to a school if he was allowed to serve a two year church mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  Stanford University just so happened to highly covet Fanaika and so they allowed him to serve his mission and keep his scholarship upon his return.  At this point, he was more than excited to play for a successful football program that respected his personal decision to serve a mission.

Although Stanford was respecting his personal decision to serve, others weren’t so pleased to hear about his decision to serve a mission.  Sport analysts throughout the country along with fans criticized Fanaika for his decision to give up football for two years.  Many claimed that he wouldn’t be the same elite player that he was when it returned home while some even claimed that the University should take his scholarship and give it up to someone who wasn’t leaving on a service mission.

Throughout all of the negative responses that Fanaika received, one person that helped him stay faithful to his decision was his mother Navu Fanaika.

“I told Brandon that he needed to make stay faithful to his decision and to not let any outside influences affect his decision.  Brandon has always been a good hearted young man and I didn’t pressure him into anything.  He knew what he wanted from the beginning and Stanford just so happened to offer him the best option for his life and that’s what he wanted,” Navu stated.

Fanaika eventually completed his two year mission and is currently a redshirt sophomore playing for the Stanford University football team.  One example that he’s been able to turn to is fellow Stanford teammate and Pleasant Grove native, Dallas Lloyd who also served a two year mission before enrolling into Stanford University.

“I’ve known Brandon my whole life and to end up in similar situations, I know that it’s something that only made us stronger.  Now we’re both here playing for one of the best football teams in the country” said Lloyd through a text message.

Despite all of the scrutiny Fanaika received throughout his prep years, he is now contributing to one of the most successful collegiate football teams in the country.  Stanford is currently ranked 13^th in the country according to ESPN.

“I consider myself more than blessed to be where I am today.  Because of what happened in the past, I’m stronger than I was back then and because of that I’m able to help out my younger teammates who go through similar situations as well,” Fanaika said.

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Fraternities and sororities have been under much scrutiny from surrounding communities, university officials, and media. However, members of the greek system say the good they do outweighs to few instances of bad behavior.

Negative aspects include rape accusations and racial discrimination have been top headlines in the news in recent times.

In a BuzzFeed article written on Aug. 24 of 2015, Javier Moreno, discussed the trouble of University of Virgina’s Old Dominion University’s Sigma Nu chapter, which has been temporarily suspended. The chapter was suspended because members displayed large banners with sexually suggestive behaviors. These banners included sayings such as “Rowdy and fun, hope your baby girl is ready for a good time,” “Freshman daughter drop off,” and “Go ahead and drop off mom, too.”

The national office of Sigma Nu has since sent this chapter a notice that it was being suspended, “pending the outcome of an investigation.”

Other recent negative news involving greek life is hazing. At the University of Utah there is a zero tolerance policy. One student, Chun Hsein Deng who went by Michael, suffered a brain injury while being hazed and was taken to a hospital an hour later. In a BuzzFeed article on Sept. 14, 2015 written by Claudia Koerner, it states, “Police told reporters Deng was blindfolded and carrying a backpack weighing 30 pounds as a line of fraternity brother tackled him and threw him to the ground.”

Deng’s family is now suing against the fraternity for wrongful death. Deng family believes that even though the fraternity’s national office does not permit hazing, the family believes the fraternity knew the hazing ritual was being practiced in multiple locations.

Ambra Jackson, the Panhellenic Council president at the University of Utah, is strongly opposed to hazing.

“Hazing essentially demotes the value of our sisterhood and brotherhood. It also contradicts many of the values our organizations were founded on,” Jackson said. “Research has showed that there are numerous harmful effects on individuals as well.”

Financial concerns are also a negative aspect of fraternity and sorority life. McCall Davis, a former Delta Gamma member, had personal challenges with the financial components. “I dropped for a few reasons. I wasn’t close to a lot of girls, so that also made it financial because I wasn’t investing my time in the side events, like formals or date nights, so money became a problem.”

Lexie Maschoff, the president of Delta Gamma, commented on the reason why women or men drop from their organizations — if primarily they don’t enjoy being apart of their organization or if it is because of other reasons. Maschoff said, “Honestly people don’t usually drop because they don’t like it or it that is the reason they don’t tell me that. They’ll usually just say that they have financial reasons.”

Overall, the main reason as to why women and men drop from their organization is because of the financial issues.

On the contrary, being a part of fraternity and sorority life is gaining a large amount of networking opportunities. Matty Collett, an active member of Delta Gamma, said, “Being a part of Delta Gamma was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Not only have I found amazing friends, but I’ve also made amazing networking opportunities with new jobs and internships.”

Being a part of fraternity and sorority life also means that you are required participate and complete a certain number of hours. Ambra Jackson commented on community service saying,

“During the fall and winter, chapters will offer to rake leaves or shovel snow for their neighbors,” Jackson said. “Of course it is difficult to live next to college housing, essentially, but greeks are doing a better job of being more respectful of the area.”

In an informal survey of fraternity and sorority members, members were asked the following questions:

• Do you use your personal income to pay for your college tuition?
• How are your dues paid?
• Does your organization require service hours?
• How many service hours do you complete each semester?
• What outside organizations are you apart of on campus?

The 100 responses to this survey gave these results:

• 33% said that they use their own personal income to pay for college tuition.
• 47% said that they use their own personal income to pay for their organization’s dues.
• 93% said that their organization requires service hours and they complete those hours.
• 38% said that they complete over 15+ community service hours per semester.
• Outside organization involvement on campus includes:
  • Student government
  • U of U Cheer Team
  • Air Force ROTC
  • Entrepreneur Club
  • One Love
  • Ethics Club
  • Business Scholars
  • ASUU
  • Honors College
  • Intramurals
  • ONE
  • Global Business Brigades
  • Bioengineering USAC

“I think the greek system at the University of Utah needs to continue to educate our members on the importance of diversity and conclusion,” Jackson said. “These conversations have been occurring in our community and I am excited to see how we continue to progress.”

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Story by Allexis Gonzalez

McKay Nelson, a lanky 16 year old, has been playing for the Riverton High School football team for the last three years. This stalky teenager, however, isn’t your quintessential football player. Mitch Nelson, McKay’ Nelson’s older brother, said that McKay Nelson is breaking the stereotypical football mold because, “He actually cares about his grades and he is never satisfied with the effort he gives, which makes him stay humble and makes him work like a beast not only in the gym, but in the classroom and even at home.”

McKay says that his driving force behind playing linebacker on defense for Riverton is for the pure love of the sport. “High school football is a lot of hard work and dedication that teaches you important lessons with a lot of fun along the way,” McKay Nelson said. Coach Brent Hawkins said that unlike a lot of the other players on the team, McKay Nelson goes the extra mile. He never has to worry about the 3.9-GPA student keeping his grades up.

McKay’s time on the team, however, hasn’t been all easy. The 16-year-old started playing junior varsity as a freshman and had a tough time breaking into varsity. It wasn’t until this season that McKay made the cut for varsity and the teenager says even still he was side lined to the junior varsity games for all but one of the season’s games.

According to the NCAA, of the nearly 8 million students who participate in high school sports, only 460,000 will compete at NCAA school and even fewer make it to be pro athletes. McKay Nelson is fully aware of these statistics and said that, “Football has never been my end goal. It’s just been a way to do something I enjoy while I’m in high school.”

“He really is quite a good little football player, but I’ll be honest, he’s not going to college with this or anything like that with his field-skills alone. He is one of those kids who use football as a life coach to teach him to be disciplined and brave and to do hard things and to balance or control emotion and anger –that’s what football is for him,” Mitch Nelson said.

McKay says that he plans on taking the life skills he’s learning from participating on Riverton’s football team and put them toward his future college studies and his plans to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after high school.

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MY STORIES:

Officer Sean Bennett, Salt Lake Police Department

Local greek community hopeful for the future of the national community.

Eliza Larsen: The Dean’s List and All-American athlete.

MY BLOG:

When we were assigned our profile paper on Emily Andrews, it was a rough start. I sat down to begin writing but all I could do was stare blankly at my notes I had taken. I could not figure out where to start or what I wanted to talk about. I also began to question whether my notes were even good enough to write a decent story!

With so many different topics written down — rumored abortion techniques, the recent video scandal of Planned Parenthood, Andrews’ personal life and journey — I wanted to narrow it down to one broad topic. After some time, I finally passed my insecurities about my notes and discovered what I wanted to write about. My biggest dilemma was most definitely figuring out where to begin. I decided I was going to write about Andrews’ personal life and journey to where she was that day. After all, it was a profile-type story we were writing!

Through my outline process, I began to pull topics that were a part of her personal life and journey. I then categorized them by what they corresponded to (i.e. childhood, high school, extracurricular activities, college experience, Planned Parenthood experience, interning, etc.). This outlining process really got my thoughts engaged and it was very easy to write from there.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Lexi Smith. I am currently a second year student at the University of Utah studying Communication, with minors in Arts Technology and International Studies.

When I’m not doing schoolwork or sleeping, I love to read, write and hang out with friends. My parents call me a busybody because I’m so busy. I’m rarely ever home. Yet, ironically, I am a huge introvert and homebody.

My aspirations for the future are to work for a large online- or print-based social media and news company (Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, etc.).

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