This I Believe About Digital Jouralism

The world, in which we live in now, is constantly involving technology. From computers, Internet, medical equipment, and the machines that make the medical equipment.

So much of what we, as Americans, read and learn can be found on the Internet. One can find recipes, research topics, the news, the dictionary and thesaurus, diagrams, and books are even published on the Internet. The Internet is a way of communication for many, with the rise of popular social-networking sites such as, Facebook or MySpace. It is also a way of communication with e-mail.

The Internet is useful and helpful to so many, as most bill companies, now have moved an option of payment to online. Customers who opt. for online bill payment also have the option to receive their statements online verses getting them mailed to them via the postal service. They also are able to have the payments automatically taken from their checking accounts monthly to avoid the hassle of remembering each month or receiving a bill.

Dr. Tracy discussed in her essay “The Evolution of the Newspaper of the Future” the idea of “computer-mediated communications (CMC)”. She describes CMC as “another way of technologizing the world.” Dr. Tracy explains the evolution of technology:

“While many squawk in alarm and anxiety, the millions of people using the Internet illustrate that society is now ready for this next stage in the evolution of communication. In fact, computer mediated communication may return to human exchanges what the process of writing removed.”

This is a prime example of what is happening now with the idea of communication being done on the Internet. Most of the newspapers across America are now resorting to online publications. Some of the major newspapers are cutting days of print, as more and more people are viewing the newspaper online.

So much communication from people is done through the Internet. People don’t send out hand-written letters anymore, as they send e-mails. Several businesses are now resorting to e-mail as their major form of communication verses meeting with the person to discuss the issues at hand.

However, as Sir Timothy Berners-Lee discusses in his Testimony “Digital Future of the United States: Part I—The Future of the World Wide Web”, the Internet is not complete. Lee discusses that the Internet has just passed it’s decade use world-wide, there is so much more to be learned.

Lee discusses the Web and what the Web relies on:

“The Web, and everything which happens on it, rest on two things: technological protocols, and social conventions. The technological protocols, like HTTP and HTML, determine how computers interact. Social conventions, such as the incentive to make links to valuable resources, or the rules of engagement in a social networking web site, are about how people like to, and are allowed to, interact.”

We have already seen the rise in the popular social networking websites, and more and more is being updated and involved with the websites. Games, and other forms of communication is being added to the social networking websites.

The digital world in which we live in is growing and changing each and every day. We have made large advancements from when the Internet has started. More and more of what we do will be incorporated with the digital world.

The audio file can be heard by clicking here.

Santa Comes to Town

Each year Santa brings toys to children across the world and visits malls and cities for the children.

This year, in Brooklyn, Michigan, Santa was welcomed with a parade and a song sung by the viewers. He was brought in by the Michigan International Speedway’s pace car.

The parade started with the lights and sirens of the Columbia Township Fire Department.

Several other local businesses followed. The favorite of the crowd was the advertisement for the Annual Hot Air Jubilee with their baskets that they fired up.

Other local businesses included local churches, Curves, Dance Schools, and Patrone’s Hair Salon.

After the parade was over, Santa went to the gazebo and the children and their families helped him turn on the holiday lights by saying “Merry Christmas” all together.

The viewers of the parade were then invited to go into the Township Hall to get pictures with Santa and warm up with some hot chocolate.

To hear the audio file, please click here.

Movie Film, Gone Wrong (News Scoop Assignment)

People lined up at movie theatres across the country for the world-premier of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” on November 20, 2009.

People in the Jackson area lined up inside and the line continued outside to watch the mid-night premier at Jackson 10. Lines started to form at 10 p.m. and people were still arriving at mid-night.

About an hour into the movie, the film melted from the lamps. It caused two theatres to be out of commission at the same time. The manager acted quickly in the event and was able to get the film fixed and back up and running within 20 minutes.

For the following 30 minutes of the movie, the manager was watching the film and having to stop it two more times in attempts of fixing the film.

Many customers began to get up and leave the theatre. About 200 customers were in those theatres.

After the film, many customers stood at the front of the movie theatre asking for free tickets to return. The manager of Jackson 10 began filling out “Emergency Tickets”.

The next day, people continued to line up at Jackson 10 to watch the premier of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

“New Moon”, based off of Stephanie Meyer’s book, had movie sales for the mid-night viewing at $26.3 million, according to ABCNews.com. The opening-day viewing brought in $72.7 million, which beat the previous record of $62.2 million with “The Dark Knight”, according to ABCNews.com.

Smoke Detectors

A story posted on WILX.com was a huge eye-opener about the use of smoke detectors.

A police officer was at the right place at the right time, wilx.com said. There was a couple who was sleeping and they didn't know their house was in flames. The officer went in and saved the couple from the blazing house.

From experience, smoke detectors can go off because of moisture in the air. So when you have a smoke detector near the bathroom and you get it foggy in the bathroom, it can cause the smoke detector to go off. So, because of this, people take the battery out to make it so they don't go off. Or they take the batteries out because of the sensitivity of the detector.

This is an important reminder of families to check their smoke detectors often. Once something catches on fire, it doesn't take long for the rest of things to go up as well.

The Future of the Internet

The Internet has grown very quickly. More and more people are beginning to rely on and use the Internet daily. Before, Internet used to be a luxury, in few people had it to play games on and things of that nature, now most of everything can be found on the Internet.

The Internet is used to communicate with old classmates using Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. It is used for mail with e-mail servers. It is used to pay bills. It is used for research, instead of using books. And it is used to access the news verses getting the news from the television or newspaper.

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee published a report on "Digital Future of the United States". In his report he talks about the beginning of the web and how the web has grown from the beginning. Berners-Lee discusses how HTML has expanded and how more accessible the websites are now.

He states at the end of his report about how the web is not complete. "The Web, and everything which happens on it, rest on two things: technological protocols, and social conventions. The technological protocols, like HTTP and HTML, determine how computers interact. Social conventions, such as the incentive to make links to valuable resources, or the rules of engagement in a social networking web site, are about how people like to and are allowed to, interact."

A Free Newspaper?

In Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Schudson blog, The Reconstruction of American Journalism, they talk about the change of newspapers to the digital age of Internet.

"Larger newspapers are seriously looking into ways to seek payment for at least some of the news they put online." Why shouldn't they? Newspapers should be charging viewers for the newspaper online. Yes, Internet is free, but there are some sites that you may not read the rest of the story until you have paid.

If the newspapers give the regular subscribers a username and password they would be able to use that and get their newspaper online, but others would need to put in other information. "Whether 'information wants to be free' on the Internet has become a highly charged, contentious issue, somewhat out of proportion to how much money may be at stake or its potential impact on news reporting."

Because the newspapers are publishing their newspaper online for free, they are loosing profits and having to cut employees and trainings. People who have Internet are now able to view their local newspaper online for nothing, so they no longer purchase the local newspaper.

"As newspapers sharply reduce their staffs and news reporting to cut costs and survive, they also reduce their value to their readers and communities."

A Tribute

I can remember being in Middle School and on Veteran's Day, we had an assembly in the gym.

A few weeks before the assembly, our teachers handed us some red, white, and blue starts to put the names of the Veteran's on them. I can remember sitting down with my Grandma and learning about my family and who was in the service. My dad, great uncles, uncle, and aunt. It was quite a learning experience with me and it gave me time to sit with my Grandma at the kitchen table. At the time I just wanted to get them done and be done with the project. But looking back I realized that I had gained a lot of knowledge about my family history.

So many of these times and wishes are starting to catch up with me. Paying more attention to my social studies classes, so I know more now. But I've also realized that things that I didn't think I was ever going to use, it's starting to come back to me now. It's so weird to say, "hey, I know that answer!" And realizing it was something I learned in High School and didn't think I would ever use it in real life. I guess I should have listened.

I am so grateful to have a country like ours. I am thankful for all of the men and women who served in the services for me and for my life!