By: Kate Gruetter

National/World Editor

I would like to start this article by prefacing that Multimedia Journalism is not a class I regret taking. The course taught me very necessary skills like perseverance and determination. However, it taught me these values through tortuous experiences, ones I wouldn’t wish even on my worst enemy. 

Multimedia Journalism is a course that teaches you how to use various Adobe applications to create projects and assignments, like podcasts, short films, and graphics. It’s a course typically taken by freshmen, but is offered to all grade levels. My sister’s experiences in Multimedia Journalism helped me discover the true horrors of the class, ones I promptly blocked out after leaving the class. The experience of sitting with her at our dining room table one night, attempting to convey the complexities and intricacies of splicing audio and visual editing on Adobe Premiere Pro, took me back to my freshman year. One riddled with Premiere Pro nightmares and Illustrator torture. 

Something the course’s teacher, Doug Garrett, doesn’t clarify when promoting his class is Adobe’s tendency to delete your projects. Now, I know there’s a save button for a reason. However, sometimes unlucky students, like my freshman year self, forget to utilize such a tool, and experience the joy of finding our articles gone the next day. This tragedy happened to me multiple times, twice with the same project. Not only was this extremely frustrating, it was also extremely time consuming. I spent hours on Multimedia Journalism, trying to recreate what Adobe lost. I cried. I sobbed. I pounded on my computer and begged for help. This being said, I did finish every project Mr. Garrett gave to me ––– they simply required too many tears and tissues than any elective should. 

Multimedia Journalism files are also hefty to upload. Large video and audio files take a while to download onto your computer, and even longer to upload to YouTube. I spent countless sleepless nights awake next to my computer, praying my projects would eventually go through. I watched as the bar counted, hoping, wishing, praying my work would safely submit. To this day, I download large files with shaking hands and severe terror. 

All in all, I don’t regret taking Multimedia Journalism, because it taught me how to use different applications and persevere through trouble. However, I would be lying if I said the class didn’t leave me with lasting memories, ones fraught with tragedy and terror.