Advanced Multimedia Reporting

Class Agenda – Wednesday, April 19

Event announcements:

 

And for those of you who are 21+:

Discussion: Making a great portfolio website

http://www.amandamustard.com/

http://emilyjreports.com/

http://www.edouphoto.com/

http://kaylehope.com/

https://njfrandino.wordpress.com

 

A few popular website builder options:

WordPress

Adobe Portfolio

Weebly

Wix

Squarespace

Jimdo

 

Buying a website domain:

Domain.com

GoDaddy.com

 

Things to consider:

What medium (or media) are you going to be featuring prominently? Keep that in mind when choosing a template.

A portfolio website is basically an online resume. You’re selling yourself, so make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. Link to your various social media profiles, Vimeo/YouTube accounts, etc. You can even post your resume on there if your like. And write a good bio for your About page.

 

Requirements for Final Portfolio

You need at least two main pages on your site in addition to an optional Home landing page that showcases your best work: a Video page where we can view your projects and an About page, where you describe yourself and your work (names/sections can vary, but that’s the general idea). Those of you who are doing photo stories for your breaking news assignment will need a Photography page as well.

You might want to consider getting a nice professional-looking headshot taken for your bio page as long as you have your cameras. And make sure you proofread! I want to see a sentence or short paragraph introducing each of your projects, on the portfolio site if the template allows space for it as well as on the Vimeo page where the video is hosted.

It is recommended but not required for you to link the website to your own domain name. Most of the site builders listed above have basic options that will allow you to host your site for free if you have a ____.wordpress.com or a ____.weebly.com address; often your site will show up with advertisements unless you upgrade (the monthly fee varies). It’s up to you whether or not it’s worth it at this stage to pay for the more polished, professional-looking website that a personalized domain will give you. A domain name will usually run you about $10 a year and it’s fairly simple to link your portfolio site to it by going into the settings and making a few changes. Let me know if you run into any difficulty here and I’ll be happy to help you.

 

On a related note…

Also, recommended for those of you who are trying to get into the freelance journalism game: http://storyhunter.com/

 

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