By Stephanie Avalos

Journalism in July (JIJ) has been helping aspiring high school journalists expand their knowledge in the profession at the University of Texas at El Paso summer program for the past eight years.

First year director Nick Miller sees the program as a learning experience for both mentors and students as they face the changes in technology.

“I knew it was something to help train young journalists become more adapted to all the facets of multimedia,” Miller said. “I think the importance of having camps like this is that they give a lot of information in a compressed amount of time. I think this is giving a sample of what it’s like being a journalist.”

In 1999, journalist pioneer and former UTEP student Sam Donaldson recorded the first podcast used for reporting news, a revolution for journalism. Students in the program use Donaldson’s innovation to create an online website where they produced video packages.

“Some of the first journalists didn’t have pencils at all, they were the town criers and then as the printing press, paper and pencils came about, the idea is those were all the different tools,” Miller said. “The tools have evolved.”

Journalism in July student, Sarah Skirmont helps with the production of a video, one of the many facets to the multimedia workshop. photo by Stephanie Avalos

Two years ago, JIJ made the switch from a solely print program to a multimedia project. Students are now required to accompany a story with video, audio, pictures and an online story.

“When I was in the program two years ago, it was in its first year of going into multimedia,” former student, Garrett Anderson said. “It was the beginning of an integration for both JIJ and multimedia, but there has been so much done since the two years that I was here.”

As JIJ grows in experience they start to recruit students from outside the boarders. Genaro Cruz is one of three Juarez students who have attended the workshop in the last two years.

“We have a communication class [in Juarez] where we get to learn about journalism, television and newspapers, but we don’t have any kind of publication,” Cruz said. “I’m taking back not only all the basics of journalism, but also having to work on an audio and print story.”

Since the program started in 2002, the program has evolved from teaching and producing strictly print publications to the array of a technology savvy production.

“Each year the finished product is more dynamic. We’ve progressed so much in two years I couldn’t even venture to say where the media is going to be in the next four years,” JIJ coordinator, Mike Brooks said. “Maybe we’ll be doing a 3-D publication with a laser holograph.”