As the spring semester draws to a close, many new projects and updated portfolios are available on ComMedia, a showcase for professional-quality work produced by students at the College of Communications at Penn State.
Some highlights: Photojournalism student Ashlyn Holsinger provides a harrowing insight into the impact that parents' divorce can have on the life of a college student. Two perspectives on a controversial gay pride week commitment ceremony are provided by multimedia reporting students Michelle Bixby and Joshua Sykes. Broadcast senior Jess Mallen captures the political impact the Democratic primary is having on PSU students and the State College community. Print journalism junior Erin Prah also focused on the hot political climate, a package produced in her spare time from crafting an engaging profile of colorful campus administrator Paul Ruskin. Sportswriter Mark Viera sheds light on an affliction suffered by highly competitive female athletes across the country and how a Penn State triathlete on the road to recovery has modified her training to improve her health. Other multimedia projects focused on campus activists, a student boxer, a pet-loss grief counselor, an inspirational wheelchair athlete, a pressman, an Odyssey of the Mind coach, a Latina poet and campus religion.
New student work may also be found on the news and feature story pages, including primary election night coverage and a profile of a campus Red Link bus driver. The Centre County Report television news broadcasts are updated weekly and may be found in an online archive. ComRadio broadcasts may also be found in a ComMedia archive.
Even after the semester ends, students will be able to update their portfolios from internships and first jobs. This guide to individual student work can be found in each section of the ComMedia site.
Broadcast television students get hands-on experience at Penn State, learning the skills needed to tell stories from the field and in the studio. Top students produce programming for the Centre County Report and the Big Ten Network.
In a rapidly changing media landscape the College of Communi- cations is committed to producing journalists who are fundamentally sound reporters, trained in an environment that nurtures good writing.
Penn State photojournalism courses are designed to promote critical thinking and develop visual story telling skills in the context of a rapidly changing technological environment.
Students explore the multimedia toolkit, telling stories in an online environment with a mix of audio, text, images and video.