From broadcast to magazine to newspaper to film, the Media School activities fair will house numerous organizations that provide hands-on experience for students who want to know more about media and all of its forms.
The Media School will host more than 20 media-related organizations for an activities fair 1 to 3 p.m. today in the Dogwood Room in the Tree Suites at the Indiana Memorial Union.
This activities fair will serve as venue for students to receive more information and get in contact with all these organizations at one time.
Among these organizations is Indiana All Media, an organization that provides media services to other student organizations on campus, as well as hands-on involvement for students wanting experience in multimedia.
Zach Watt, the video department head of Indiana All Media, said the organization wants to be a prominent part of the Media School.
“We always want to gain new members, people who are interested. Because the thing about our organization that is really interesting, that kind of provides an upper hand, is that we have our own equipment, so when you pay a membership fee, you become a member, and you are allowed to use that equipment whenever you want,” Watt said. “You have to rent it out, but you’re allowed to use that for whatever project.”
Watt said students looking into Indiana All Media do not need any prior knowledge or experience with multimedia.
“There isn’t any specific requirement or knowledge that you have to have coming in,” Watt said. “We basically just want people who are interested that want to get experience and have a good time.”
Watt said that as far as needing to know anything you know, none of the club organization are paid professionals.
“We learn as we do it, so coming in and not knowing what we’re doing is completely OK,” Watt said. “That’s something we love, because we not only get to teach, but to learn together.”
Another organization attending the activities fair is WIUX Radio.
WIUX is the only student-operated radio station at IU that provides opportunities for students to become on-air disc jockeys or work on different committees to plan events such as WIUX’s Culture Shock.
The other radio stations open to students do not have all of these opportunities.
“It’s staffed entirely by student volunteers that come from a wide-range of backgrounds and majors,” Sam Velazquez, WIUX’s general manager, said. “You don’t have to be a broadcast major to be a part of WIUX. We’re a very large — one of the largest — on-campus organizations.”
Similarly to Indiana All Media, Velazquez said students do not need any prior experience coming into WIUX.
“You can be a member of WIUX and have never touched a radio console or anything like that in your entire life,” Velazquez said. “But we train our members, we create a very open atmosphere that’s very conducive to learning and gaining experience and experiencing new things. We ask that our members be perceptive and open-minded, and we want passionate people, people that really care about whatever it is that they’re going to be sharing, whether it’s on the airwaves, as an on-air DJ, whether it’s as a committee member.”
Other organizations attending the activities fair include American Student Radio, Hoosier Games, IU Cinema, IU Student Television, Public Relations Student Society of America, Student Cinema Guild and WTIU Public Television, among many others.
