Last week, about 20 of the Stater‘s reporters, photographers and editors trekked to the Hirsch Lab in Music and Speech for a crash course on how to operate a camera.

Some of the staff fiddled with how to set up a camera, while others stood in front and said a few lines.

We just learned the basics: Set the camera on a tripod; make it eye-level to the person you’re interviewing; plan for the worst; carry extra tapes and batteries.

Like most of the journalism world, the Stater is using the Web more efficiently than before to present our news.

That means we’ll have more photo galleries, videos and podcasts at StaterOnline.com. Occasionally, a reporter or photographer may have to pick up a video camera before covering a story.

Professional papers are doing it, so we’re going to learn, too. Gannett, which owns 90 daily papers including USA Today, and its newsrooms are shoving cameras into reporters’ hands and letting them go crazy.

Most of our videos, however, will be from our own videographers or from our collaborative effort with TV2, such as today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day video.

The Stater will also create both news and local entertainment podcasts.

If podcasts aren’t your thing, then check out our blogs. If you’re into sports, click on the Sports Flash link to read what our bloggers have to say about current sports news and results.

Podcasts, videos and blogs may get you to visit StaterOnline once a day, but it’s my goal to keep you checking the site throughout the day. The Stater‘s reporters will write daily updates on meetings and breaking news.

For example, check the site later today for an update on the provost candidate meeting.

Anytime we have an update on a story, or a breaking news story, we’ll place it in a daily update section and send out an e-mail. To get the Stater through e-mail, register at StaterOnline.com.

When I spoke with the staff during our training sessions last week, I told them that the Stater serves two main purposes:

1. It’s the primary news and information source for Kent State students, and

2. It’s a training tool for us and our futures in journalism.

This focus on the Web, while maintaining a strong reporting base, will help both of those purposes.

By telling a story in multiple formats and in multiple ways, you, the reader, will have a greater understanding of the issues, and the staff — from reporters to editors to designers to photographers — will be better prepared to enter an industry that is changing every day.

The Stater is your paper. We are here for you. These pages are filled by students — with stories that affect students and with stories about students.

This page, the Forum page, is filled with opinions written by students. It’s called a Forum because it’s supposed to be open to discussion.

Seth Roy is a senior newspaper journalism major and the editor of the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].