Hearing about the Boston Bombing

I was in math class right before the class was about to start and I was, of course, checking my twitter to see what else was going on in the world.  I saw one mention of some sort of explosion during the Boston Marathon.  However, my internet on my phone wasn’t working so that was all the information I could get.  Next my teacher comes in and asks is anyone had heard about the bombings at the Boston Marathon and a couple of students did, but they each said something different about it.  I then wanted to know what EXACTLY happened so I texted my roommate asking for the real story and she, of course, was already constantly getting updates from twitter about it so she gave me as much information that was out there.

I hated not being able to connect to the internet and not seeing for myself.  However, later I discovered that some of the stuff that was posted on Twitter was incorrect. This makes sense because when the individuals in my class explained what they had heard happened none of the stories lined up.  I guess that’s what happens when we have social network websites that try and give you the newest news right when it happens.  Facts are likely to get mixed up.

2013 Mizzou Idol Discusses her Experience

“Music is my life. Music is my passion. Music is the way I express the complications of life and a new way of storytelling.”- Marissanne Lewis-Thompson

Marissanne Lewis-Thompson was crowned the new Mizzou Idol on February 15, 2013. Now, a few months after her victory, she still looks back on that night in awe.
She remembers her original reaction as being completely shocked. Marissanne remembers not having the mindset of winning. All she was focused on was having fun. The year before she competed and only made it to the top 12. When Marissanne heard her name announced by the judges she was beyond shocked. “I compete a lot but almost never win,” Marissanne said.

Currently the new Idol is happy about all the opportunities she has been given because of her victory. Since the competition she has sang the National Anthem at Relay for Life and at a Mizzou Baseball game. In a few weeks she will be singing at the Shack for the Life Music Series as well as singing for the local student run radio station KCOU.

Marissanne is not allowed to compete in Mizzou Idol after winning. However, she hopes to still be apart of Mizzou Idol in any way she can.

The Atlanimal’s Blog!

The Atlanimal’s Blog!

This past Spring Break I was given an amazing opportunity, through Mizzou Alternative Spring Break, to travel with 11 other strangers to Atlanta, Georgia and serve animals shelters for the week.  It was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in college. 

For three days we worked with a cat shelter called Fur Kids.  Fur Kids is the largest no kill animal shelter in Georgia.  Since I am obsessed with cats this was absolutely amazing.  We did have to do a lot of dirty work such as cleaning up cat pee and intensely cleaning out 9 different rooms containing about 13 cats each.  On the cat side of things, the most interesting thing I learned was about a disease called FIV which is basically HIV but with cats.  Fur Kids has a specific house designed for housing about 50 cats with this disease.

On our last day of service we switched location and helped out the Small Dog Rescue which the creator of Fur Kids also started.  This shelter was a great change of scenery. It was great to change things up and be around dogs for a day instead of cats.

This link that I posted will take you too my groups (The Atlanimals) specific blog spot.  Throughout the week we, as a group, blogged about our days.  This link can also take you to read the other ASB groups experiences as well.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-me-saigon-f,0,5630782.flash

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-me-saigon-f,0,5630782.flash

In lecture this week we were talking about multimedia.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to really learn anything new so for this blog post I am showing an audio slideshow from the LA Times.

My next assignment in class is to create an audio slideshow.  I however struggled with just getting audio.  And earlier in the semester I wasn’t the best at capturing pictures either, so this should be interesting.  

This slide show is very moving.  Not only is it an important topic, it makes you feel and sympathize.  Unfortunately my subject isn’t as important as this, but I am going to try and use this slideshow as well as others on this website for inspiration.

60 Minutes

60 Minutes

In lecture this week we discussed what exactly makes a good story and how we as journalists can form a good story.  Though the techniques of good storytelling are used in all the different types of pieces, this week we seemed to focus more on broadcast.  

The link I posted above takes you to a story posted on 60 Minutes Overtime.  60 Minutes Overtime is sort of the left overs/extras from the stories that were aired on 60 Minutes.  Whenever I think of good broadcasting and storytelling on television I immediately think of 60 Minutes.  For some reason their stories didn’t seem to bore me when I was younger.  Granted they sometimes have entertainment stories, but even the news stories are very well told.

This link will take you to an Overtime piece that is unique.  The clip starts out mentioning that it is the reporters first time reporting for 60 Minutes and actually interviews the interviewer.  Then they draw connections between her and the main subject of her first story.  This is a very interesting way too show a little extra bit of a story.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/

I stumbled upon this website The Daily Beast on Facebook.  I decided to check it out and was amazed.  This is an excellent idea. It gives the gist of articles about news.  If you’re a busy person, too busy to read all of the newspapers, this website could be your best friend.

As a future journalist I think it could be your best friend too.  It will keep you informed to the bare minimum and make sure you don’t miss something important.  I’m not saying that you  or others should only read this, but if you are short on time it could help.  

Websites like this could become more popular as time goes on.  I’m sure they have some sort of app for your phone or tablet and you can just read what you need to know without shifting through the other stuff.  This is sort of a scary thought.  Who is going to want to keep reading long articles in a news paper when they could save time by just reading websites like this?  I think the original articles are just as important because they do give some important details.  These details aren’t necessary for a story but they do add to the story.  I hope that websites like the Daily Beast don’t completely replace real articles, but they are handy.

91 Journalism Blogs

91 Journalism Blogs

It’s a little ironic that I have posted a link on my blog that takes you too a website containing more blogs, but in lecture this week we had three different speakers one of whom talked about convergence journalism.

When I first started out here at Mizzou I didn’t really know what convergence journalism was.  It now seems to be pretty much a combination of everything in journalism.  It’s basically what we are learning in this J2150 class.  

Blogging is one of the new ways to get out news and opinions.  This link shows “91 journalism blogs and websites that you will love.” Websites and blogs are used in convergence journalism.  Convergence is coming up with new and interesting ways to get news out too people.  Creating a website that is more interesting for people to view, so they remember what they read.  Making sure people understand the news and become interested in it is important.  Journalists should want people too want to be informed (if that makes any sense).

35 Powerful Pictures That Tell a Story

35 Powerful Pictures That Tell a Story

In our lecture this week we discussed what exactly makes a good picture and video.  The first thing we talked about is how a picture and a video has to tell a story.  That is the main purpose. Without telling a story there is no reason for that picture or video to even exist.

Other things that create a good video and picture are:

1) The quality of the picture/video. This includes the type of lighting that the picture is taken in.

2) Emotion.  Every picture should portray an emotion, and make its viewers feel something.

The link that I have posted shows 35 truly impeccable photographs.  Each of them made me feel an emotion, and I understood what kind of mood they were portraying.  The very first image is extremely haunting.  The scars that are shown cause me too imagine the type of pain that was inflicted on that man in order to create those scars.  There are many haunting pictures in that collection, but there are also some joyous pictures as well.  The picture titled “Malawian boy running after 4×4” is very warming.  It is interesting, however, to see how much the haunting photos seem to outnumber happy ones.  Is this just people usually tragedy is what attracts people the most? Or does it relate to the “Bad News Bias” in journalism?

Award Winning Story

Award Winning Story

In lecture this week we had a guest speaker who spoke about writing in and around your story.  This link that I have posted is one of the Pulitzer Prize winners from 2012.  It is one of the best articles I have read, mostly because it was interesting and I wanted to keep reading it.  
A lot of news stories are boring.  They do tell you all the facts and what you need to know, but journalists should have a way to write what is relevant as well as keep it interesting.  This story/article makes the facts easy to read.  

Young people have not showed as much interest in the news as older generations.  If the news was more interesting and not so cut and dry maybe this would change, and more people would want to know about the news.  This, however, has a fine line.  The news still has to be real.  You can’t lie about a story just to make it interesting.  There needs to be a balance.  With Multi Media Journalism, I think journalists are working at making news and stories more enjoyable.  It’ll be interesting to see how journalism evolves in the future.

2013 Superbowl Commercials

2013 Superbowl Commercials

     Every year the Super Bowl is one of the most discussed football games in America.  But people don’t just discuss the game, they also discuss the commercials.  Here’s a link that contains every commercial that was aired (and some that didn’t make the cut) during this years game.  

This year the commercials seemed a little different than other years.  There were at least 2 commercials that I noticed along with trying to sell a product, the commercial told a back story as well.  In lecture this week we got to listen to a speaker that talked about how the journalism world and the marketing world are converging.  After viewing some of these ads and thinking about it, this is true. 

     Two commercials that that didn’t just focus on selling something were the Rams Truck “Farmer” commercial and the Jeep “Whole Again” featuring Oprah Winfrey.  The Rams Truck commercial contained a touching narration about farmers.  By putting in the storyline of farming Rams truck, I imagine, was able to connect more to farmers, who are the type of people that would buy and use Rams trucks the most.  The Jeep commercial showed how smart they were by adding Oprah as a narrator and also putting in images of American soldiers and troops reuniting and fighting for our country.  They included 2 things (Oprah and Our Troops) that are known for being able to identify with the people.

My personal favorite commercial is the Budweiser “Brotherhood” commercial.  I don’t even like beer, but every time I watch this video I shamefully almost cry.  Budweiser was able to connect with its audience by providing a touching story about a man and his Clydesdale horse.  It’s the perfect story line.

After watching all of these commercials it is just interesting to see what companies are catching on to the changes in media.  A product doesn’t have to be just a product anymore.  You can connect it with something that is relatable to the viewers and get more attention that way.