By Michelle DeLateur

One day, about three months ago, I decided that I needed a radio for my apartment.  Not an iPod player. Not an HD system for my car.   A simple radio.  After about three days of searching, the closest thing I came to a radio was an armband for working out.  Run on batteries.  This would simply not suffice. …But that excursion reminded me of our continually changing world of journalism.  And the people within it are changing as well.

In an older form of journalism, and by old I guess I mean 10 years ago, the different pieces of journalism stayed within their own fields:  Cameramen were the only ones allowed to touch the camera.  Newspaper writers stuck to their computers.  Radio producers were not producing video content and they were most definitely not posted on the same webpage. 

But now, in a complex and continually growing multimedia age, those rules have shifted.  Broadcast journalists shoot, edit, write, and anchor.  Radio pieces are on iPods, websites, and smartphones - at the same time.   These changes put new pressure on journalism students.  We need to be equally as skilled with our cameras as we do with our radio kits; as bold and creative with our Panasonics as with our Edirols.      

Some of us at The End of The Dial jumped into radio from a video background.  Switching from the eye to the ear may seem daunting.  It may feel like we are in some way creating media for a new audience, and that radio requires a different set of skills that we have not developed yet.

But the switch is not far – neither physically on the face nor in practice.  In the visual world, where the eyes overpower the ears, a news voice is incredibly essential.  And in reality, all of us are reporters in our daily lives.  We summarize stories into concise forms to share with other people.  Reporting is not a foreign concept.  But Wav files, Mp3 files, Hertz, and ProTools crossfades may be.

So while some of us navigate the change from visual to audio, there may be a few bumps.  But we can promise creativity and fun!  And we are very glad to have you on our journey!