Elmer Ploetz is a videomaker, professor and print journalist from Eden, N.Y. He has worked for The Buffalo News since 1985 as both a reporter and copy editor and has also written extensively about the arts, especially video and music. In the spring of 2007, he created The News' first on-line videos. Ploetz has also taught as an adjunct instructor at SUNY Fredonia since 2002. He'll be leaving The News in August to start in a tenure track position at Fredonia, where he'll be helping develop a convergence-based journalism program that emphasizes research and storytelling - using whatever medium fits the story. Ploetz received his MA from the University at Buffalo in 2006, in American Studies, with an emphasis on documentary studies. His thesis project, "James Blue, Buffalo and the Complex Urban Documentary," employed both print and video. Publication is pending.