Mediating Reality: The New Role of Visual Journalism

The image-sphere is upon us. Images have surpassed words and visuals now play a central role in shaping conversation. But the advent of new technologies bring with it challenges for journalism and how we tell true stories in the age of virtual reality. What is visual truth when viewed in virtual or augmented worlds? What are the dangers and opportunities when journalists craft these digital narratives? In an examination of the principles of multimedia journalism, experienced journalist Richard Koci Hernandez will discuss the characteristics of the new, often experimental story forms that appear on today's digital news platforms, the importance of story design in an era of convergence storytelling and the ethical challenges that face visual journalists.

Richard Koci Hernandez is an internationally recognized, Emmy award-winning innovator in journalism and multimedia. Koci Hernandez recently published "The Principles of Multimedia Journalism: Packaging Digital News" Taylor & Francis, 2015. In this much-needed examination of the principles of multimedia journalism, the text aims to systemize and categorize the characteristics of the new, often experimental story forms that appear on today's digital news platforms.His photographic work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and a National Geographic Book on iPhone Photography, among others. His most recent photographic monograph, Downtown was published in 2013 by French publisher, outofthephone. In 2013, his multimedia project for CNN, Our Mobile Society, earned him his fourth national Emmy nomination from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Koci Hernandez is an Assistant Professor of new Media at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Open to the public, no charge.