Tech day kicks off week of 'new beginnings' in Journalism Dept

By Hanh Quach

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Beginning today, the first-ever Journalism Week will introduce new beginnings in a new media.

The week's events are a culmination of semester-long projects for about 10 students in one of the department's newest classes, client-centered journalism, which covers the basics of advertising and promotion.

Technology Day kicks off the week Friday morning with events at three sites.

Internet presentations of software used to create on-line pages, including the newly released Adobe Pagemill, will appear in the Great Hall of the Franklin Building, at Park Avenue and Fourth Street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Workshops focusing on Photoshop and QuarkXPress software will also be available at the Gila Computer Lab at East Second Street and Park Avenue.

Multimedia demonstrations will be at the Center for Computing and Information Technology's Media and Visualization Lab at Speedway Boulevard and Mountain Avenue.

"Journalism Week is good for the department because it lets people know that the department is working, useful and can be recognized," said Holly Sharp, agriculture senior.

Beginning with today's Technology Day and ending Dec. 7 with the Journalism Department's Job Fair, planners said they hoped that Journalism Week will help people realize that there is a future for journalism.

"Some people don't realize the usefulness of journalism in their lives," Sharp said.

"There's a gap between those who really know the Internet and those who've only seen the word 'cyberspace' a few times," said Jim Purdy, journalism senior and student coordinator.

"Technology Day is primarily to bring students up-to-date on technology," said journalism instructor Dick Bakkerud.

Throughout the day, demonstrations projected onto 10-foot by 10-foot screens will show students what on-line technology looks like and how it works.

"It's not such a big mystery," Bakkerud said.

The Desert Yearbook will display on-line pages, and the Arizona Daily Wildcat will offer visitors a sneak preview of the new on-line version of the campus newspaper in the Franklin Building.

"Technology is changing not only in our lives but how we receive news," said Sharp.

Friday, winners of the first Arizona Young Publisher's Design Competition for high school students will be announced. Participants competed in one of two categories: on-line publishing or newsletter design with desktop publishing.

Technology Day will also feature the first videotape showing in Tucson of president of Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates' keynote address at the Comdex international computer trade show two weeks ago in Las Vegas. The speech, "The Future of Multimedia," will play throughout the day in the Franklin Building.

Bakkerud described Comdex as "the biggest event for computers."

Beginning Monday, Journalism Week will feature a series of lunchtime lectures from Arizona journalists, also arranged by the class.

Monday's lecturers include Arizona Daily Star editorial cartoonist, Dave Fitzsimmons, and Jim Calle, attorney and UA journalism graduate.

Tuesday, producer and director of KUAT-TV Ted Robbins will speak on "Commercial vs. Public Television," followed by news director of KVOA-TV Mick Jensen, who will discuss "Marketing in Journalism."

Managing editor of the Tucson Citizen, Ricardo Pimentel, will speak on "Diversity in the News" Wednesday, and Bobbi Jo Buel, managing editor of the Arizona Daily Star, will talk about "On-line Journalism."

Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Galvez and photojournalist for the Daily Star, A.E. Araiza, will present "Los Dos Visiones," an interactive photojournalism presentation and discussion Wednesday, Dec. 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Creative Photography.

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