My first year as a graduate student in journalism at the University of Southern California coincided with the launch of the school's convergence program, which had the students studying all three major media (print, broadcast and online) their first year and then picking one to focus on their second (I chose print). Studying broadcast newswriting and production was a thoroughly enjoyable, eye-opening experience that made me gain a new appreciation for the craft.

During the course of one semester, I shot, wrote and edited the following two broadcast packages.

• Election Dissection: The candidates vying to represent Los Angeles' 4th council district debate more than just the issues.
  View it on either Windows Media Player or Real Player.
  
• An explosive combination: Dogs, people and cars try to coexist at Hollywood's most popular dog park.
  View it on either Windows Media Player or Real Player.
  

(The compression and encoding processes diminished the quality of the picture significantly, so accept my apologies in advance. And if you are having trouble streaming video because of a slow Internet connection, right-click on the link, choose "Save Target As," and download it to your hard drive.)

Check out the print component of my coverage.