Defining Online Journalism

Looking back at my first post, I think my definition of online journalism has changed somewhat. I've learned a great deal about blogging and twitter, and just how easy it is to get news online in this ever-changing technological world. I now feel like online journalism can really be anything- from the New York Times to Joe Shmoe's blog about a small-town in Idaho. Fast-paced and increasingly popular, online journalism seems to be the future.

What I don't think I emphasized enough in my first post was how the audience is involved. Allowing people to comment on stories from online newspapers and even individual's blogs is a great way to connect with your audience. Online journalism seems to be more of a conversation. I like that. It's like when you're in class: no one likes just sitting there and being lectured to, unless you need sleep of course. Participating in a discussion about what's going on, what you like, or how you feel about something of note is just plain more exciting. Reactions. Isn't that part of a good story anyway? Getting people's reactions to an event is essential to a story. I mean the good ol' this happened on this day at this time for this long is great, but, people and their reactions make a story real, and good, for that matter.

Fall Fun

I've had a great fall. The season, that is, and in Massachusetts, the foliage is always gorgeous. To remember my season, I took lots of photos and spent a lot of time outside enjoying the scenery.

A few of my favorite fall things to do include fall foods, festivals, and Thanksgiving, of course. One fall activity I manage to do every year is go apple picking. Apples can make lots of tasty dishes, and not to mention, the picking can be great fun. This year, and the past two, I've gone apple picking with the saxophone studio I am a part of. We spend a large amount of time together rehearsing, and like to go apple picking to just have fun for a change. Here's a little album I put together of our day of apple hunting, we like to say.

If you live in New England, you probably enjoy your fall as much as I do. I found a few cool fall things on Boston.com so that you can plan for your next fun fall. Check it out: Apple picking in New England, Fall food festivals, and free events.

Can you see the water?

I can't! Woah.

The Nashua Telegraph

For websites in my area, I explored the NashuaTelegraph.com based out of Nashua, New Hampshire. This online site is an edition of The Telegraph, their daily printed newspaper.

The website seemed well done to me. There were news updates from surrounding towns, though not much about my town. They did do a nice job collecting nation-based articles from other papers like the Los Angeles Times and by using the Associated Press. As far as the local stuff goes, it was decent, but there were spelling errors that I noticed on the staff writing and sentences like:

“Nobody else was reported injured...” that were not to my liking. Nobody? Bleh. No one.

The website did, however, have a great layout with links to other sites and blogs in the area. It was well organized, and had lots and lots of ads. I would say the website should double check its proofing and put the top news from the area right at the top middle, with pictures.

The best thing they did on the site would probably be the latest updates column and the 7 Days tab, where you can check out the top news from the last seven days. It would be exactly what I would go for right when the page opened up: the latest news from my town/area and what happened that I missed.

As far as the site’s economic model goes, it seems to be following the selling advertising model, pretty traditional. Although, I do remember using the site about a year ago, and I’m sure I couldn’t access certain pieces unless I subscribed. Maybe they took away the value-added services model because people didn’t want to bother with it? Either way, just using the selling advertising model makes it easier for everyone. Oh wait! Somehow, my name is on the top of the homepage...I guess that means I did subscribe. Apparently they do also follow the value-added services model. Woops...

Tin in Congo

(NY Times)

When asked to find a slideshow, I searched many a website. The New York Times ended up winning the race for a great one, an audio slideshow called The Spoils: A Scramble for Tin in Congo.

In the pictures, the lives of poor Congolese are shown, working hard to produce tin from a mine surrounded by soldiers. Conditions are horrible for living and working, and with toxic fumes and tunnels caving in, it seems hard to survive as well. Workers have to carry heavy stones and 110 pound sacks on their backs for wealthy countries to use the tin to produce things like laptops and cellphones. Seeing the pictures of the people was much more than saddening, especially when seeing pictures of children working.

"It is the saga of much of Africa's riches: unearthed by the poor, controlled by the strong and consumed by a world oblivious to its orgins."

This quote really hit me. How can the world be so oblivious to this? How come we don't know? How can we learn about these things? Is there anything we can do?

Unbelievable

If you haven't seen Boston.com's The Big Picture, check it out. Now.

The pictures are just stunning. Seeing the pictures of the California wildfires was intense. After seeing what people are really experiencing, everything changes. The fires are no longer just a horrible story happening to people in California, but are a terrible disaster attacking people's homes, and destroying lives. Seeing the ruins pries at your heart. It's one thing to see it on the news, but when the photos are that detailed and clear, it's so much more real.

All of the photos posted are incredible. Antartica was my favorite, it's like another world.

Check it out.

Must See

My roommate showed me this video...

I laughed for a long time at the one that misses the trampoline in the beginning...

The music is perfect.

Journey's New Voice

I love this story, one that is truly inspirational and shows the power of youtube. From CBS Sunday Morning, here's how Journey found their new lead singer Arnel Pineda. Makes me cry every time.

Mmm humiliation...

My friends and I like to go to Applebee's for Sunday night trivia. They have half off appetizers and gift cards if you win, so we think of it as a win-win. Well, while there this past Sunday, my friends did the unthinkable.

Happily eating my half priced appetizer, I all of a sudden hear singing. Ohhhh no. Waitors were coming out of the kitchen with a dessert in hand. My roommate later described my face as sheer horror when my friends started laughing and pointing at me. No, it was not my birthday, and yes, I was mortified.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, for one thing, Applebee's dessert shooters are the bomb! Especially when they're free.. Besides this, I came across this photo while surfing the web a bit, and I thought to myself: yep, I would have the same facial reaction if I saw this unexpectedly. It's the second photo in the album, prepare yourself.

I love my friends.

Everything Has Changed

Barack Obama is the newly elected president. AHHHHH!!!! That was what most of us were doing here at UMass when we found out. We were screaming, crying, dancing, and watching in disbelief and joy.



As the New York Times put it, racial barriers have fallen because of him. It's history in the making. What an absolutely amazing time to be here at UMass, with my generation's first vote. I am so proud to have cast my vote and been a part of all of this.

I am so excited for everything to start changing. As a friend of mine said, we are a country again. Obama has united us all. We are proud to be Americans now, and are proud to have Obama as our leader.

Political Coverage

For this week's election-related assignment, we were asked to compare the sites Daily Kos and Instapundit in their political coverage abilities.

I really enjoyed both sites. Instapundit didn't have much in the way of photos or videos, but it wasn't really necessary. The headlines were enough to get me interested, and the stories were just as good. The site was also updated fairly often. Daily Kos was also just as good, especially with the live map of election results. With videos and statistics, my interest was kept the whole time.

Both sites seemed to play up stories on issues with the polls and stories for Obama. Being for Obama, I can't complain, but they may not have been completely fair to the Republicans. Daily Kos held my interest by putting up youtube videos of the candidates and Instapunit had the up to date stories everyone is interested in as well as the weird stuff that people love to read.

Palin Hung in Effigy

Have you seen this? Really, nuff said. Check out the story.

Here's CNN's video, too. So far, 3127 comments.

My hometown has a blog?!?! Well, sort of...

Upon googling my hometown, because placeblogger.com wasn't working, I found one blog for Hudson, NH. Unfortunately, it was only a MerchantCircle blog to promote businesses in my town. However, I did find out about some cool businesses that I didn't know were there. I had no idea my town had a Limousine service, or an Electrolysis office.

The only other blog that I found for Hudson was a Hudson for Obama website. It's funny looking at this business blog's pictures. One of the local restaurants even has a picture of a hamburger up.

Well, overall, this isn't a very good representation of the businesses in the area. We have numerous plazas that have just gone in and there is no information on them. I did find, however, a local newspaper in town, a jeweler that I didn't know about, and a sewer and landscaping company.

Hudson, get on this! To begin, more businesses need to put their information online. Also, why doesn't my town have a blog? There are almost 30,000 people, at least one person could start a blog about it. I am deeply saddened.

Trash Can Surfing

I love my friends. When we're together, we just laugh. A lot. Well, we all practically live at the Fine Arts Center because we're music majors, which makes for some interesting times. The FAC is nicknamed "the bunker" because of its bomb-shelter-like qualities and because there are no windows where we have our classes and practice. It makes life here on campus a little more gray, but we still seem to find ways to laugh about things.

For my original videos, I decided I would include two of the few videos I have shot on my camera (turn the volume down, I'm laughing pretty hard). Two of my friends are doing what I like to call "Trash Can Surfing", on a particularly overtired day for all of us. It definitely beats rehearsing.

Comparing Sites

(© RON CHAPPLE/CORBIS, ps. check out this article from Scientific American on getting your fiber through coffee)


One of the assignments for this week was to compare these sites:
BaristaNet, LoudounExtra, and iBrattleboro.com. After poking around on the sites for a while, I noticed some things.

As far as the strengths and weaknesses for each site, I have to say that iBrattleboro.com and BaristaNet were set up well. On both sites, you could scroll down through the headlines and get short, to-the-point stories on just what you are looking for.

LoudounExtra is still loading on my computer... The top box that includes the top five or so stories has not been working for me. I clicked on a story once it was finally loaded, and now that one isn't loading. I give up! Even the pictures associated with other stories as you scroll down aren't loading. I'm sure these not-loaded things could be strengths of the site if they actually worked.

I like how Brattleboro's stories were all provided by townspeople. People get a chance to read and write exactly what they want to know/say about the area. I mean, it just makes sense. It's like talking to all of your neighbors at once, without having to deal with the morning coffee breath. I also really liked how Brattleboro has a little section for "Who's Online" so that you can potentially talk to a neighbor if they're available.

Again, BaristaNet's stories were short and clear. I wish my town had something like this. Also, Barista, as well as the other sites, had a lot of links to blogs, events in the area, and other stories of interest to readers.

I think overall, despite the fact that LoudounExtra is still loading, the sites do a pretty good job at informing locals of what's going down in their area. They all had sections that a reader can click on for specific information on a certain topic, as well as the latest news and constant updates. Each of the sites had published about 6-7 of the latest stories for the day by mid-afternoon. I say, well done.

Stolen Glances

You know those moments- a glance at a stranger on the bus, in a grocery store, or a crowded subway station that seems to connect you with that person for a split second. You make eye contact, and in those few moments, everyone else in the room disappears. Time seems to stand still. Well, at least until your subway train whizzes from your happy moment.

Everyone seems to experience these little 2-second love excursions. James Blunt even has a song about his lost connection.



CNN.com has a cool story about these lost connections, and the romance ads that have been popping up on the Internet since ISawYou.com and SubwayCrush.com were intoduced. One couple in the story even owes a lot to Craigslist, which has a "missed connections" board on the site. Question is- is the Internet making it too easy to find people? Back in the day, those lost connections would be lost forever. I guess I wouldn't expect anything less from our Internet world today. But, maybe the Internet really is bringing people together, even if it is through "girl in the red sweater on West 82nd" romance ads. Maybe James Blunt should post his lost connection...

Ch.9 Conversations, Not Lectures

(FUSION)

When reading Chapter 9 this week, I came across a paragraph that I felt strongly about in the book. The main idea of the section was that the Internet has created opportunities for the public to comment, influence, and create their own journalism. This means that,

"Journalists can no longer view themselves as the sage on the stage," Emerson College journalism professor Janet Kolodzy notes. "They must step back, step down, and team up."

I am apalled that journalists would say that "the news is what I say it is". What? Since when are journalists above everyone else by telling the world the news? Journalism means, to me, sharing with OUR world the news and even shedding light on stories that may bring justice to the citizens of the country we live in. I have never thought of a journalist as a "gatekeeper", controlling exactly what people see and hear. The whole job of a journalist is to bring the people the REAL news, showing exactly what our world is like, even if we don't want to see it. Journalists don't have the right to control what people see, they are citizens as everyone else is. Journalists should share the news with the people, and have people share stories with journalists. Journalism should be a conversation with the people, not a lecture.

Drawing Comments

My experience drawing comments has been an interesting one, that’s for sure.

When thinking about what to write to draw comments, the first thing that came to mind was music. Music is a big part of my life and I figured it would be a good idea to post something related to something I care about. So, I posted a video of a contemporary saxophone piece about a samurai warrior. Unfortunately, that first post was not successful at all. I didn’t get any comments on it. True, I only left it up for about a day, but I thought it might at least get one.

After that first attempt went awry, I decided to take the post down from my blog. I figured people probably weren’t used to contemporary saxophone, and that I should try to go for a bigger audience. I thought about posting funny videos, cute videos of puppies, anything to draw some comments. Nothing, however, felt good enough to post.

Fortunately, later that day, I had a conversation in Franklin Dining Hall (as my post says) that led to the youtube find of Total Eclipse of the Heart. Wow. After watching that video, I knew right away that it was going on my blog. It was just the kind of thing I was looking for: something absurd, hilarious, creepy, or just plain crazy that people would want to talk about. And it worked! Turns out, people thought it was just as atrocious and wonderful as I did.

All I did to draw some comments was show it to my friends (who were conveniently in my dorm room at the time, and usually are in my room at all hours of the day and night- we’re kind of like Seinfeld, always talking about nothing. I’m Jerry, in case you were wondering. Ps. One of my friends is here now and is making vomiting noises) and asked them to comment on it. Then, I talked about the crazy video in as many of my classes as I could, telling people about my blog and asking them to check it out. I also updated my status on facebook to: CHECK THIS OUT: http://is.gd/3KlS WTF?!?!, so that people would see that if they looked at my profile.

This process was harder than I thought, and easier than I thought, if that makes sense. I realized that I had to post something that wasn’t so specialized as the contemporary sax video, but I could never make up my mind on what to do. When the 80s video came up, however, I knew that a lot of people would think it was ridiculous. Things became a lot easier from there. I was really excited about the video because of how insane it was, and I think that rubbed off on my friends, and their friends, and so on. I really wanted people to see this video, not because it was on my blog, but because it was definitely something I would want to share with as many people as possible anyway. Thank you, Bonnie Tyler!

Amazing.

I guess lately I've been interested in youtube videos, and I just couldn't pass up posting this one. If you have ever danced in your lifetime, you know that it takes quite a lot of balance, discipline and work to make movements fluid and beautiful. Well, this duo makes it look easy. The thing is, the man lost his leg while he was a child, and the woman lost her arm in a car accident. Their dance, however, is one of the most beautiful I have seen between a man and woman.

The dance shows the value of mutual support and friendship in their lives.

(Fast-forward to 30 seconds in)

Turn Around...

This evening after marching band, I went to what I like to call Frankenfurter (otherwise known as Franklin Dining Hall). While eating my cereal, fruit, and peanut butter and fluff (because there is nothing else there I would put in my mouth), I noticed a friend of mine was sitting at a table behind me. He was facing away from me, chatting with some friends.

Being the person that I am, I decided to be creepy like someone who was watching him from behind and text him: Turn around....

From there, a text frenzy ensued of the lyrics from the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" across the dining hall's expanse. This then spurred a google search of the music video.

What I saw next took my breath away- heh heh. I hope you too, can experience this total 80s mind fuck.







What the hell is going on in this video?!?!?