Jennifer George-Palilonis wants to help Ball State graphics students hit the ground running. She directs journalism graphics — one of four main sequences in the school’s newly revamped news curriculum — and she sees versatility with multimedia skills as a major component of the students’ success.
“It’s a very challenging endeavor, considering that the industry is in such a state of flux right now,” said George-Palilonis.
Led by News-Editorial Sequence Coordinator Mary Spillman, a committee has looked at Ball State’s entire news curriculum: news-editorial, graphics, magazine and photojournalism, trying to anticipate how things might be 10 years from now — not just how the industry is today.
In this edited interview, I’ve asked George-Palilonis to describe new ideas, specifically for the journalism graphics program.
Sara Dickenson Quinn: What are some of the goals you have for Ball State’s journalism graphics classes?
Jennifer George-Palilonis: The biggest, most important thing is learning to work across platforms.
Up to this point, was the idea that graduates would probably go on to do one thing or another? Print or online? Design or graphics?
George-Palilonis: Yes. But even in newspaper environments now, people are not relegated to only one area. They are designing across disciplines, across platforms.
So, instead of having separate classes for print and online graphics, for example, we have a class on information graphics reporting across platforms -� even bringing broadcast into this, with 3D-animation driven, audio voice-over graphics.
And news design now includes both print and online, taking a single story across platforms and looking at how print and online affect one another, creating conversations.
What are some of the other goals?
George-Palilonis: In addition to the courses that are solidly built into the curriculum, we’ll also offer some special topic classes.
In fact, we have already started doing this. For example, during the Fall 2008 semester, Mary Spillman and I combined my capstone graphics reporting course with an interactivity design course in her iCom minor. The students worked together for an entire semester on developing what we’re calling Journalistic Games. Using Adobe Flash and multimedia storytelling, students use gaming strategies to develop serious games that can help people understand news topics.
One of the best games was called “A Day in the Life of a Soldier.” It included a game that had the user search for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in a rural area with a clock running. It helped show the stresses our soldiers face in Iraq.
I am also involved with another class called iMedia, in which students from broadcast news, journalism, computer science and advertising work together to develop interactive news and advertising applications for television and the iPhone.
These sound like projects with a great deal of collaboration and real outcomes where students get a sense of both technology and of content.
George-Palilonis: Yes, and a sense of audience.
Where do most of your graphics students go right now after they graduate?
George-Palilonis: It depends. Most go to newspapers. Interestingly enough, as tight as the news industry is right now, I’m still getting calls right and left from newspapers that want graphics majors. I take that as a good sign that graphics students, in particular, have a skill set that’s more adaptable across platforms.
Even prior to our discussions about the overall curriculum, we’ve worked really hard on the graphics sequence to increase our focus on multimedia and make sure that students are graduating with knowledge of multimedia storytelling and Flash editing and a lot of the things that we know online producers are doing.
Are potential employers asking for those skills?
George-Palilonis: They’re absolutely asking for it.
It’s interesting, though, I do get feedback from students who have heard from employers that they’re very impressed with their Flash knowledge and with their multimedia skills. Then, they get to the newspaper and they don’t get to do any of that.
I think there are a select number of newspapers across the country that are truly putting the resources toward thinking multimedia. I think there are a lot of other news organizations that know that they should be, and want to be … but given the current state of newsrooms, they may not be able to or know how to get that off the ground.
So, I do hear from students who may be a bit frustrated at times. They feel like they’re ready and raring to go -� to get out in the field to do multimedia storytelling, and they end up doing more traditional newspaper design and graphics reporting jobs.
Do you think that means multimedia is still a secondary priority?
George-Palilonis: Yes. I think for most small to mid-sized newspapers, it’s an issue of resources. I hear from editors that they’re being told from the top down that they need to be doing more multimedia. They want it. But, when it comes to the actual resources they’re given and the positions they have to fill, those are slim to none.
It’s a constant fight between trying to move forward and do more multimedia and not really having the resources to get the paper out every day.
What’s the vibe from students who have been out there for two or three years now?
George-Palilonis: It really depends on where they are. I do have former students who are out there at great papers, doing great work. It’s a struggle, but they’re getting to do great stuff and they’re happy because they’re doing what they thought they’d be doing. The multimedia skills that they have might make their jobs more secure.
But there are people I myself graduated with — going on 13 years now — who are getting out of the business. They’re leaving not because of buyouts or being on the chopping block, but because they have concerns about the industry itself. And, of course, there are rounds and rounds of cuts.
How do you advise students?
George-Palilonis: I think I’m speaking mostly for the Graphics sequence, because that’s where I’m most plugged in. But, while they’re in school, I try to remind students that the skill sets that they’re developing will translate to other industries and will also translate to other iterations of what the news might look like and become.
As long as they’re able to maintain and hone those skills, they’re going to be OK.
Though this program is geared toward journalism and newspapers, I can’t tell these kids that that is their only option any more. It’s not that newspapers aren’t an option at all. But from my perspective, I’m really trying to broaden their horizons, while still concentrating on news and information — with a journalistic storytelling emphasis. …
A good example is a student from a few years ago who did an internship with the Indy Racing League. I was skeptical when she took this internship, I thought that this could be one of two things: they’ll either recognize the skills that this kid has and really take advantage of it, or she’ll be designing bumper stickers for the summer — and where would the journalism be in that?
In fact, she ended up designing a ton of marketing and promotional materials, a ton of news-based, PR materials. She did some multimedia graphics for their Web site, and she got to design John Andretti’s car for the Indianapolis 500.
Decals for the car?
George-Palilonis: Yes. And literally where the graphics were placed on the car. So, this was a very non-traditional internship for what we would consider to be a journalism graphics major. But she said she ended up using all of her skills and then some. She was able to really branch out and find a place that would benefit from her skills.
What other job options would there be for graduates? Maybe things that are less commercially based, like non-profits or museums? Those would be places that might need information-based multimedia storytelling.
George-Palilonis: Right. When I was an undergrad in this program in the late ’80s-early ’90s, it would not have happened. At the time, it would have been: “If you don’t want to go to a newspaper, get out of the program.”
This program is still the place to go if you’re a newspaper journalist who has a visual emphasis. But everything is changing so much.
We have to make sure that we don’t alienate students who could benefit from the concepts we teach. And we have to recognize that journalism is changing so much that we can’t define everything we teach through the lens of the newspaper. Although … I still strongly believe that the newspaper is at the heart of what we do.
