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ABOUT MULTIMEDIA AT EHS

While outlets for multimedia journalism do exist as clubs at EHS, our journalism classes focus exclusively on print and online news publications. I've been lucky enough to collaborate with EHS Broadcasting before, and there are plans to incorporate journalism students into our school's podcasting club soon. In my time as a journalism student, and editor of our entirely-extracurricular yearbook staff, I've found that I've been most helpful to my school community and fellow student journalists when focusing my time on leading our print and web news publications, even if that means I missed a few opportunities to explore different mediums at this point in my journalism career.

multimedia

Long before I was a "journalism kid," long before I really even understood what being a journalist meant, I was an "art kid." I've been interested in art my entire life, and while writing is my preferred creative outlet now, those illustration skills come in handy when one of my publications calls for it.

The slideshow above displays a small sample of the pieces I've created for our publications over the years, with descriptions that tell the story behind each illustration.

If the YouTube embed doesn't work, try to see the video here.

my collaboration with broadcasting club

Several weeks before Ramadan was to begin, members of Broadcasting Club reached out to our yearbook adviser to find someone comfortable with interviewing a student for an episode of the Friday Morning Announcements that would play the week before the holiday. This was a student I had already planned on interviewing for the yearbook, as our theme that year focused on identifying students from diverse backgrounds as they looked to their past and prepared for their future. The student I interviewed was a freshman who had written a book about a Muslim girl trying to fit in with her friends during Ramadan, based on the student's own experiences.

Several technical errors occurred during the recording of this interview, which meant that the first several minutes of the interview were not recorded. While I had written down some background information and questions I wanted to ask, many questions arose naturally during the conversation, so I wasn't able to just repeat everything we'd discussed at that point, something the students behind the camera didn't realize. This was the first interview that the club had recorded for this purpose, so everyone in the room was a little bit on-edge. Regardless, I'm very glad I was able to experience this, and I hope to explore broadcasting again at some point in the future.

 

In the time since that video was made, I've taken the opportunity to experiment with video editing with multiple class projects (like this short film). While not journalism-related, these projects helped me learn some video editing basics that could be translated to broadcast news production.

About me

Hello! My name is Caspar Dowdy. I've been involved in Edwardsville's publications department since my first yearbook meeting as a freshman. As a sophomore, amid the inconsistencies of hybrid and remote learning, I took on the role of design editor for yearbook and took Journalism 1 the first year I was allowed to enroll. My junior year, I was finally able to take Advanced Journalistic Composition, the class that produces my school's newspaper. I was given the role of opinion and design editor for our print and online publication, though I was able to assist in several editor-in-chief duties, while also stepping into my place as editor-in-chief of the yearbook. Now, as a senior, I'm honored to be editor-in-chief of our print and online newspaper as well as our yearbook.

 

I am proudly recognized as "the journalism kid" among my peers in my (sometimes rare) ventures outside the publications classroom. This program has shaped the person I am, both in and outside of my journalism work. On days when chronic illness leaves me tired and overwhelmed, this program keeps me engaged in school and excited about the future. It's given me the opportunity to work with people and mediums that I'd never thought possible and cover topics I had never even thought about. But more than that, it's been foundational in giving a self-admittedly awkward autistic kid a new way to conceptualize identity, confidence and purpose.

Thank you for looking at my JOY portfolio. I'm incredibly lucky to represent Edwardsville High School in this competition, and on a larger scale, play a part in drawing attention to the underappreciated journalism programs of Southern Illinois.

© 2023 by Caspar Dowdy. Created with Wix.com

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