NEW MEDIA IN JOURNALISM 471
hen Angela Grant
was hired as the first
multimedia producer
at MySanAntonio.com, she had
already written her own job
description the summer before.
The 2006 summer interns
at the San Antonio Express-
News were the first to be given
the title “multimedia intern.”
Part of their assignment was
to write a job description for
a multimedia producer. Grant
was hired as the multimedia
producer at the San Antonio
Express-News following her
summer internship. She contin-
ued to edit her job description
as she began creating video
for MySanAntonio.com, the
joint Web site of the Express-
News and channel KENS 5.
“There are always new things
to learn, and no one to teach
me,” Grant said about the multi-
media producer’s job. Grant has
a degree in multimedia jour-
nalism from the University ofTexas at Austin. “It was a new
program. We took the same
basics as everyone in journal-
ism and a few courses unique
to Web publishing. We learned
html, audio and video edit-
ing, Dreamweaver and Flash,
and we had a course in blog-
ging and citizen journalism.”
“I’m really proud of the
Express-News. They decided it
was necessary to have a more
dynamic Web presence and
jumped into this multimedia
thing headfirst, even though no
one there knew exactly what
I would be doing and there
was no budget for equipment
or my salary!” Grant said.
In its first year, the multime-
dia staff at MySanAntonio.com
grew by three producers. The
producers found themselves
having to work staggered shifts
so that someone was covering
the news all day. The goal for
each producer is to have onevideo news package, or “dead-
line video,” uploaded each day.
Deadline videos take up
about 75 percent of her day,
Grant said. “Every day I have
an assignment that has to be
shot, edited, produced and
published to the Web site.
“Students who want to
become multimedia journalists
should watch online video—be
an online video consumer. It’s
easier to produce what oth-
ers want to watch if you think
like the audience. Invest in
a cheap video camera and
practice shooting and editing
using some of the freeware
available on the Internet.
“Then, if you decide to
become a journalist, you can
immediately go to work for a
newspaper as a multimedia
producer.” Grant offers informa-
tion and critiques to amateur
videographers on her blog,
NewsVideographer.com.Portrait of a Young Journalist
Angela Grant, Multimedia Producer