The Bread and Butter

Everyone knows these days the internet is the most efficient way to get information out, about anything! I personally use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools in order to accomplish this. Also, blogging is another effective way. The ONA winners of 2009, and the finalists for that matter, all had one thing in common, they each had in depth and well known blogs. My personal favorite was a finalist named, "The Daily Beast." Though it fell short behind its enemy, "Lasvegassun.com", I feel that the content on the site appealed to me more. "The Daily Beast" has a layout that is easy to follow and many of the features are what struck my eye. The first thing I noticed was a huge picture to attract the audience. The picture was one that was to explain the top news story and underneath had a quick, to the point, blurb. The other elements that really caught my eye was the video bar on the right, but most importantly the cheat sheet running through the middle of the page, which explained the top stories of the week. Each of these forms of multimedia attract me because they are eye catching and explain in depth info in seconds. In my personal opinion I thought about 90% of the finalists were better than the winners, this shows me that opinion of others is based solely on what they want to see. Though "The Daily Beast" was my favorite of all, the following also caught my eye based on the similar elements I tend to follow, http://mediastorm.org/ and http://www.publicintegrity.org/

The Next-Gen exposed by Chen

Apple has been expanding and taking over the world with all of there incredible technological advancements. But, why is Co-owner Steve Jobs so heated, so incredibly irate, that he could breathe fire out of his mouth at this point in time? It was the work of one man, Jason Chen. Keith Olbermann's video really got me tangled in a very twisty turvy spiral. I agree that Chen is a journalist and therefore should be protected by the laws set forth by the state of California. After seeing Chen's house busted into and utterly destroyed, made me sick to my stomach. I feel you can get your point across in a much more effective and less violent mannerism. So, in this aspect of the case I will stand by Chen, the property was his and violating his home and items he worked hard to get was wrong on the police departments thinking. However, when it comes to ethics, I believe Chen worked as an unethical human being. The right thing to do when finding a lost item not owned by you is to simply turn it in. Instead, Chen was money hungry and was able to make more than a pretty penny for his discovered piece of gold. The report defending Chen had a lot of good aspects in which the rights of the journalists shield law, stating that journalists have the right to not share sources for the sake of the people and/or cleanliness of the story, are represented. Overall,I think this situation deals more with the money aspect just like everything else in the world. Chen is being frowned upon because he took a bribe, however, as unethical as that may have been the laws defending journalists seem to hold more true than a simple signed note.

Your story is NOW... PUBLIC!!!

The power of the internet strikes again!!! Some stories go public because they are newsworthy; others are derived from gossip and word of mouth. After viewing Nowpublic.com, I have come to the conclusion that both of these story types were represented within this website. The lead stories for this website are chosen by what the staff perceives to be the most important topics at the time being. When navigating the site, on the left under the main story there was a button labeled "Staff Picks", that's why I believe the stories are chosen by staff members, rather than the general community. The story that is on the main page currently is "Faisal Shahzad", who will be charged for crimes having to link to terrorist acts. Below the terrorism story comes the Bp Oil spill, which in my opinion should be the main story, and a Phillies baseball fan being tasered. People who write for the site aren't necessarily journalists, because anyone can choose to write for the site. Now public is easy to sign up for and anyone can do it. The site allows you to upload videos, bring in RSS feed, write your own opinions, etc. Once you publish posts Now public puts your feeds in a database in order to share your story with others! As a writer for the site you are not paid, however Now public gives you the tools to represent yourself and eventually get a paid position somewhere else. You are your own editor for this site. You choose what you want to write about. You upload items that help You. The point is, you are your own boss, own editor and self-sufficient writer, I love that! This site is effective because it gives you the tools to be your own boss and allows you to get your name out there with the built in global community. The downfall of Now public is that though you post your story, the story won't necessarily be read by a ton of people. You are your own boss so getting the story out is all up to YOU!

Fighting for Life

After scoping out all my options, Bloggingheads,Short Vlog etc, to write about, I decided I'd stick to what I know is a legitimate and entertaining source, The New York Times. The story I chose was on Boxing in the Philippines. Like many other countries, the Philippines is a very poor country, so boxing ends up being a way to literally fight out of poverty. This story can be characterized as an editorial rather than a feature story because of its controversial nature. Just hearing the term fighting, I believe, stirs negative thoughts, but when you watch the video the fighting perspective becomes much more vivid. The story I chose is an effective video because it displays the reasoning behind boxing and why people partake in the physical action. The video demonstrates how poor the country is and fighting saves families lives. When reading a paper, people can see pictures and people can easily twist the story to make it look like a lush area with no troubles. When video production is present though, nothing can be hidden and the truth can easily be portrayed. The ineffectiveness that could be present with a piece like this, is editors only showing the boxing nature and cropping out what the people must deal with on a daily basis. The video side of this short film is what was effective, so reading the info I would believe to be just another blurb on a page. Fight For Life baby!!
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/11/12/sports/1247465653943/boxing-in-the-shadow-of-pacquiao.html

Fist to Face Tradition Without Submission

When looking at various slideshows I was excited to stumble upon one that related heavily to my lifestyle, BOXING! What the slideshow showed me was the process of brutal strength and determination. The Men and Women of the US Army who are willing to lay down their lives for us learn a technique in life, which just so happens to be a fighting style. This article is very newsworthy because the U.S Army is in its 100th year, A decade, of boxing. Not only is this a great workout for these individuals, it is also a useful skill and required feat to have in order to proceed in the U.S Army. To be honest I think this story would have just as strong of a meaning without captions. The Army is known worldwide for having boxing tournaments in order to pass time and to get in shape. However, what the captions do that the pictures don't is, express who the individuals in the pictures are and why Boxing is such a necessity as a soldier in the Army. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/04/08/sports/20100409_BOXING_index.html?ref=sports

Tyler is in a relationship with Twitter, You and two others like this

I started tweeting literally the day before our Journalism 111 class started. I was so flippin’ confused on how to use it at the beginning, but this past week I have been tweeting my brains out. I love the fact that you can connect it to anything and everything. I get Twitter updates to my phone, which has been extremely useful. For Example, I was headed down to Seattle this weekend and received an update from KRKO 1380 about a terrible accident. So, plans changed, which is ok, better than driving 35 miles for nothing. As a journalist I think Twitter is exceptionally useful by directing individuals to my blog. As I said before Twitter connects you to so many opportunities. Once I tweet people on Facebook can see what is going on, people following on my website http://www.fightforlyfe.com get info, and people strictly following my blog are updated. In overall generality I think Twitter is useful to get word out quick without having to wait for newspapers to be printed or for the news to bring their story together. Twitter is definitely a new addiction ;).

Seattle PI= Seattle Porn Industry

The wide world of sports amazes me these days. Not only is their the normal day to day sports, for example football, baseball, and soccer, but also there is the uprising of the UFC and Lacrosse. After reading through the Seattle Pi's Seattle Sports Blog, I was very impressed by the structure and unique style. The blog right away caught my attention with its large picture view and quick, to the point blurbs underneath each individual picture. Also, for those who wanted to read a little more, links are available to click on for a more in depth outlook. The blog is very strong when it comes to picking out the largest and most appealing sports stories at the time. One which caught my eye was a group of girls in the up and coming lingerie football league. I was appalled as I kept reading, only to learn that the girls would be getting in trouble, to the point of team suspension, for wearing too much clothing and football gear while off the field. Dear God, what has this world come to with these sex driven industries? How degrading and uncouth can the environment thrive on? This blog also did an awesome job at allowing users to say all they needed to get out. From what I saw people didn't like reading about the story, but they also weren't good writers themselves, so it was easy to just blow those over opinionated fools off. Finally, on the right side of the blog was a useful setup of other similar stories and top of the line writers. Thanks for reading all you Studmuffins ;) http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlesports/archives/199470.asp#comments