The New Tools of Storytelling

While the rain was pouring down this afternoon, I found myself attending a presentation given by Dan Gillmor, the Director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University on "The New Tools of Storytelling". As an Accounting major it is not very often I find myself attending a journalism presentation so it was definitely a nice change of pace for a rainy Tuesday afternoon. 

As Dan was well into his presentation, he asked the audience a rhetorical question- "Are all bloggers journalist?" That was an easy question for me to answer in my head...NO WAY! Since creating my blog for this class I have "published" 3 posts but in no way shape or form would I ever consider myself a  real journalist. But if we all can create buzz or media through blogging, posting Youtube videos, etc. who are the "real" journalists and more importantly what is journalism? Dan described  that there is no clear cut answer. You do not need to be a professional to write about news worthy events but in fact you just need to be at the right place at the right time and have your IPhone on you to capture the moment. So maybe one day I will be able to consider myself a journalist if I have my IPhone ready to go... can't wait to find out!

One of the most interesting things I took away from Dan's presentation this afternoon was how digital tools have evolved with new technologies. He showed us an example from the Summer Olympics to demonstrate his point of how data is more understandable when visualized. Personally I was amazed at what  saw! Check it out to see how far Usain Bolt’s 9.63 Olympic record is ahead of every Olympic medalist whose ever competed in the event.

That's it for tonight! Stay dry!