"I paid the light bill just to see your face."

In September, I reported on Syracuse’s newest form of art: graffiti.

Read the story here.

Katy and Clark Starkel

When we first got to Republic, Washington, I think it’s safe to say most of us were surprised by the bunkhouse. Although large, the bunkhouse is kind of like an unfinished house with no locks and walls that were still covered in fresh paint. But we’ve made it work—even hooking it up with Internet and locks along all of the outside doors.

To be honest, the living conditions are nothing to worry about. We’re all so busy, we practically just use the house for storage and a place to sleep. In the past week, AJ, Michelle and I have spent more than 20 hours with our main story character, Jared Starkel. Starkel is an Iraq veteran living in Oroville, Washington—less than 10 miles from the border of Canada. If life wasn’t stressful enough with a wife, three kids and one on the way, Starkel is in the middle of applying for Veterans Affairs disability and medical benefits.

Currently, he works at the grocery store just a block away from his house. In order to get benefits from his current job, Starkel must work 40 hours each week at Prince’s Center, the local grocery store. Even a half hour short on his time sheet and Starkel will lose his benefits for the month.

But somehow the hard times don’t seem to affect Jared’s love for his family. His wife Cassie is a non-stop worker. She volunteers for each of her kid’s school and extracurricular activities while holding a full time, temporary, job for the United State Census 2010. At nearly nine months pregnant, Cassie Starkel continues to fill her schedule with responsibilities—even penciling in her baby boy’s birth for a cesarean section on June 17th.

Although Cassie has the date planned out, there have been a couple of false alarms for baby Garen already. Just last night, AJ, Michelle and I made a late-night run to the hospital in hopes of being with Cassie while she gives birth. But alas, Jared and Cassie were sent home this morning with baby Garen still holding tight in the womb.

What I ended up bringing back from my three days in the City was a single question: where am I supposed to start out post-college? When you think of newspapers doing multimedia, there are very few small, local papers that have jumped onto the multimedia train (successfully, I might add.) When I think of places to look for inspiration, I think of The New York Times, MediaStorm, San Jose Mercury News, St. Petersburg Times and even The Washington Post. But notice that all of those papers are either national or located in large cities. Rarely does an entry-level journalist start out at one of those papers or Web sites.

I’m not suggesting that any one of these publications has the ideal form of multimedia, nor am I suggesting everything they produce is gold. However, these sites definitely have something over your average local, or sometimes even regional paper that considers raw video thrown up on the Web site to be multimedia.

So I pose this question to anyone who reads this and to anyone who actually cares about the subject: Where does a young multimedia journalist start?

I’m sure a few months from now I’ll say similar things.

The thing about journalism, that I both love and hate, is that it’s a career of no personal satisfaction. What I mean by that, is you’re never completely satisfied with your work. You’re constantly learning and constantly growing. And frankly, I believe if I ever reach a point where I become satisfied with my work, well I should quit journalism.

We are our toughest critics. And it’s that criticism that makes us better– to a certain extent.

But it’s also inspiration that makes us better. And I find inspiration in many thing or many people. One of which I discovered before my time in Tucson, but have recently found a new appreciation for.

Zach Wise works in the multimedia department for The New York Times. One of the things I love about his reel is the style of video and editing that’s unique from any other.

In the meth story I worked on in Tucson, I learned to distinguish between basic videography and artistic videography. Sure, I could’ve thrown my piece together 5 o’clock-news-style. But there’s something much more appealing about editing a piece that almost flows like music. Journalism is really art. And video/ multimedia is the perfect outlet to express that artistic desire.

The program was about two intensive weeks of video training and reporting. The story I worked on was about teen methamphetamine use in Arizona. The basics: Arizona is number one in the nation when it comes to high school kids who use meth, according to a survey performed by the Center for Disease Control.

You can watch the video here.

Talena Brown was 13 years old when she took her first hit of methamphetamine.

It took me three weeks to find a subject. But when I finally found her, she was perfect. I don’t mean that from a journalistic standpoint– like I had a checklist to mark off when looking for my subject. Talena Brown was talkative; she was open about her addiction. We bonded instantly.

Talena took her first hit of “G” when she was 13 years old. She didn’t know it was meth. For six months, Talena smoked one of the most addictive drugs on the streets and didn’t know it. By the time she found out what she was doing to her body, it was too late. She was hooked.

Talena is now 17 years old– and she’s been sober for nearly two years.

At her lowest point, Talena was smoking an “8-ball,” equal to three-and-a-half grams of meth, each day for free.

For PHO555 we had to find a process. What better process than making cookies?