Sony VJBK1TVVP200 Brochure (Washington State University) - Page 1

case study WSU Edward R. Murrow College of Communication Is First School to Use Sony Video Journalist Backpack Customer: • Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication Industry: • Education Challenges: • Allow for field production with a minimum of equipment • Provide a tool for students to learn photojournalism methods • Maintain high-quality video standards Solution: • Acquire 20 Sony Video Journalist Backpacks Benefits: • Made it convenient for students to work "on the go" • Allowed for students to travel much lighter in the field • Was affordable and easy to use When Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication began to integrate their broadcast news and journalism programs in September 2010, Marvin Marcello, General Manager and Associate Professor, Murrow Symposium, turned to Sony to develop a kit that would allow their journalism and media students to easily capture still pictures, video and audio. Marcello worked with his Sony Account Manager Claudia Souza and Peter DiIorio of Sony's Systems Solutions Group to spec out a custom solution to meet their students' needs. Over the next 18 months, Sony worked closely with the school to determine the best solution that would benefit students in its reporting, multimedia, and editing classes. Then in the spring semester of 2012, the school launched the Murrow Backpack Journalism Project. In this program the student journalists travel to some of the world's most remote regions to report on important stories, as an "eyewitness" to world events. They are on the scene where and when the news is being made. "The Backpack Journalism Project not only gives our students the opportunity to travel to unfamiliar locales and meet people from all walks of life, but it allows them to highlight some of the lifechanging work the volunteer groups do in third-world countries," said Marcello. "They witness firsthand the positive impact of the work being done in these communities and post these stories to share with the rest of the world." Stephanie Schendel and Andrea Castillo were the first WSU students selected to take part in the program, and they were assigned to report in two different parts of the world: Guatemala and Nicaragua. The budding journalists photographed, blogged, and produced video stories about their experiences and encounters. The students, both seniors in the next