MMJ at UP - Spring 2019

February 27, 2019 This morning I found a piece of creative storytelling in modern day multimedia journalism— a piece which took me completely by surprise. At work I was sifting through OPB’s webpage in search of a news story regarding a recent action in the state legislature that was sure to be deep in policy and short on creativity. Instead I found myself on an unexpected journey, traversing through another one of Oregon’s incredible, historical achievements which, being a lifelong resident, was unbeknownst to me.  It seems that Oregon was the first state in the nation to have woman as its chief executive. The story I stumbled upon was written by Bryan M. Vance and is titled,  The Governor Who Couldn’t Vote: Why History Forgot Oregon’s 1st Female Head Of State . It was a drawing enough line for me to simply click the link, but what I found completely enthralled me and took more than a half hour of my already overallocated work day.  The first female govern...

“From WBEZ Chicago, it’s This American Life . I’m Ira Glass. Stay with us.” Since its beginning in 1995, This American Life has sought to share the compelling stories of real people, stories that span across America and beyond. From uplifting to heartbreaking stories, the non-fiction storytelling This American Life accomplishes is truly remarkable. Each week, the staff at This American Life picks a broad, overarching theme - anything from death to loneliness to love to change – and reports on stories, both within the United States and abroad, that connect back to the central theme. Each episode begins with a prologue where Ira Glass, the show’s host, and executive producer, will present a mini-story that introduces the theme for that week. After, he will either jump into Act 1 of the program with a story he is reporting on or kick it off to another producer or journalist to report their story. Typically, each episode has two to three acts, depending on the length of each story...

A piece of multimedia I found to be inspiring was KGW Portland coverage of wizard Con by Destiny Johnson. The piece was a video that also had a photo gallery accompanying it. I think the video does a great job of showing the event in a variety of ways. The first is that it does a great job of setting the scene not by doing a pan shot but by what was a sped up view that felt like a walking time lapse throughout the convention. This was an interesting way to show so such a big space and give someone a feel of what it would be like to be there in just a matter of   a few seconds. After showing the viewer around the convention the video cuts to a group of people dressed in costume and has them simply describing who they are trying to portray. Then it goes into profiling different costumes of people showing off their creativity and all the different people there. The video does this in a variety of ways the first being a   medium shot of a girl and then the nex...

Self-made and driven by his passion for adventure seeking and video producing, Rory Kramer is the freelance filmmaker of our generation. He has created music videos for Justin Bieber, The Chainsmokers and Avicii, as well as toured with a few of these artists and created some impactful content on his journeys world-wide. Once a 15 year old kid, inspired by MTV’s  Jackass , filming his friends skateboarding in Indiana, would turn his passion for videography into a career 15 years later.  Although an exciting thought, this dream never seemed possible, and the road to get there would not be easy. At 25 years old, Kramer was living in his parents’ basement with a college degree that meant nothing to him, and lacked a sense of purpose and drive.  His father told him it was time to find some motivation and to go get what he wanted. For a while, Rory believed he wanted to be an actor.  His father drove him 3,000 miles from Indiana to C...

Adbusters is an “international collective of artists, designers, poets, punks, writers, directors, musicians, philosophers, drop outs, and wild hearts” based out of Vancouver BC. This collection of creative heads works in collaboration to produce a bimonthly magazine full of spoof ads and manifestos, as well as unCommercials, which they post to their Youtube account. Their content is meant to reach the disgruntled employee, the dreamer, and the outsider—they pride themselves on being an independent magazine, considering it a hallmark of their honest message.     The anti-capitalist and pro-environment platform was founded by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz. The publication is created by a staff of about 10-15 employees, but relies on the help of volunteers to handle some logistics such as shipping and packaging. The platform soared to popularity after it was attributed with starting the Occupy Movement on Wall Street. According to the Vancouver Courier, ...