BHSU STUDENTS LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA TO APPLY REAL-WORLD PHOTOJOURNALISM SKILLS

This semester, BHSU Assistant Professor of Mass Communications Allen Morris is utilizing social media to provide his photojournalism students with real-world practice.  

Morris saw a need for students in his photojournalism course to practice skills that would prepare them for professions in mass communications and journalism. By utilizing the social media site BlueSky to turn in assignments, students can apply the skills they learn in photography and video capture, editing, and formatting in a way that emulates work they may do in their future careers.  

“We always try to update our classes in response to industry standards and to stay in alignment with affiliated disciplines,” said Morris. “This method of project submission is much better than using a standard D2L Dropbox for this class. It really gives students a taste of what they might encounter in the real-world, but with the safety net of still being in college with an editor to catch any glaring issues or mistakes.”  

“I think that this method of instruction benefits me and all my classmates in our future careers, because photojournalism and photography alike are very heavily displayed online these days,” said BHSU student Sierra Hopp. “By teaching us what we need to know for photojournalism, then uploading it onto a social media platform, it sets us up well for jobs like this in the future.” 

Submitting assignments to BlueSky also gives students the opportunity to engage with the community by photographing events and a platform to share their work with a broader audience outside of the classroom. 

“Using BlueSky makes us more accountable for our work and the choices behind it,” said BHSU student Abigail Reich. “I think it’s another great way to build portfolio work and an easy way to share our current work with other people. It feels like we’re a part of something bigger than just a class.” 

 "It keeps students focused on creating well-crafted images and video clips since more than just their colleagues and professor might see them,” added Morris. “The account can also become an amazing archive of the projects and ideas that have been discussed through the years as the program evolves.”  

To view the Photojournalism BlueSky account and follow the class this semester, visit bsky.app/profile/bhsupj.bsky.social.