Mobile Storytelling Students to Visit Bastrop State Park

February 05, 2017

daleblas

Texas State School of Journalism and Mass Communication students will head to Bastrop State Park next weekend as part of a Mobile Storytelling in the Park course. Professor Dale Blasingame is teaching the course with 19 students enrolled. They'll be spending a weekend in the park while producing social video content for Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram that Texas Parks and Wildlife can use to encourage other young people to visit Texas state parks.Going MobileStudents in the Mobile Storytelling in the Park course have spent the past five weeks learning how to turn stories solely using their phones. They'll be responsible for creating social content that will chronicle the rebirth of Bastrop State Park, which suffered a devastating wildfire in 2011 and a flood last year. Signs of life are emerging at the park - including flowers and new trees, nearly 2,000,000 of which have been planted in the past five years."This is a different experience for the students - to find the beauty in nature that isn't instantly observable," Blasingame said. "This is a great park, and I'm confident it's going to rebound. It's an honor to have our students play a role in that rebirth."This is the second year for the Mobile Storytelling in the Park course. Last spring, Blasingame's students produced video content from Garner State Park with a goal to get more young people to visit our state parks. Blasingame will also teach a version of this class over Summer 1, along with Kym Fox and her Feature Writing course, as part of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication's first-ever Study in America course offering. Students will visit six state parks and three national park properties across west Texas and southern New Mexico.