Producing multimedia documents requires various skills, computer-related as well as journalism-related. Detailed planning of the project, including time frames for phases, deadlines for production and resources used is necessary.
The immediate availability of equipment like cameras, scanners and multimedia workstations is a decisive factor: without quick access to these resources or priority of others over them planning and deadlines can't be implemented.
The current situation at the University of Missouri-Columbia -- seen from a student's view -- doesn't fit the above needs. Resources are restricted, or if accessible they must either be shared with many other students (resulting in queues, waiting lists and loss of time) or can be used only when the owners or priority users don't need it for some amount of time. Suitable disk space is unavailable to students (the 10mb at Physics Lab won't last for audio or video).
Software resources are scattered across campus, being present in various versions on differend computer types. The installation of new software is a complicated process, requiring efforts like convincing system administrators and providing the software.
Concluding, I state that there is various equipment available, but not accessible in a central place. Most parts of the University even aren't aware what is available and where it is. Developing a public resource pointing to them would be a first step. Developing an organizational scheme to access or concentrate multimedia resources should follow soon to ensure efficient use of this usually expensive equipment.