Conflicting reflections

So, an explanation for the last post.

After having our original ferry depart 30 minutes earlier than expected and waiting an hour for the next one, my Visual Journalism class made it to the San Juan Islands with guarded optimism. For us, this trip was both an excuse for a vacation and a marker for when we began our work on the big website project. Things went smoothly until we had to find our host homes for our nightly rest.

I sincerely hope that whoever wrote our directions was either in a hurry or bone tired. I certainly would not understand why they were so poorly written any other way. They failed to mention where to turn onto key intersections and, to top it off, were CUT OFF at the end. Meaning were forced to call our hosts to find out exactly where they lived an hour before midnight.

If I weren't so buzzed from the drink I had at the restaurant, my gamma-powered anger issues might've cost us our ride.

But what really got me is how our professor treated the whole trip. She insisted we take a look at parts of the museum we were not allowed to take pictures of. She kept remarking how nice certain sculptures at the park would look on the website. And not once did we hear any nice back story on the art pieces, just a brief summary of the artist and how much the sculptures cost.

I personally think our professor was having issues with one of the most basic tenets of journalism we learn about in ethics class. That is, conflict of interest. As she is a part of the museum board, I can understand how our professor feels the site should represent the best of what the museum has to offer. But at the same time I feel like shes not really teaching us anything. We're here to do the museum's work, and its up to us to figure out how. Perhaps its a part of how our 'capstone course' works, but then we should really have more training coming into the class. NONE of my classmates or myself know how to put a website together properly. And now we're expected to know how to embed video?

Please at least teach us some of the skills we need before expecting us to give you something to impress the board at your next meeting.