This I Believe About EMU

After learning about NPRs famous "This I Believe" assignment, my digital journalism instructor assigned the class to create our own This I Believe About Eastern Michigan University.

It was very interesting to hear the other stories that have been published on the website and read them. I enjoyed creating mine, once I got a topic.

You can listen to my audio file here.

Addicted to Technology

While writing the previous blog, the ideas and thoughts spawned something else in my brain.

After a recent eye-opener, I realized that I am addicted to technology. I can't go a day without e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, or checking out my blog. I check my e-mail multiple times throughout the day, I check my social networking sites out at least once a day.

More and more people are getting new phones that have Internet capabilities. The current phone I have, it has my e-mail set up so I can receive my e-mails as they come in. I really like being able to stay up on my e-mail and it is nice to have it on my phone for while I am out.

MySpace and Facebook have capabilities as well for updating your status and uploading pictures directly from your phone. While it is nice, it causes for some problems as I am constantly checking to see what is going on with my friends.

Whatever happened to just making a phone call? Now my friends text and don't really like talking on the phone. I love getting phone calls and hearing other people. I was happy the other day that the first phone call in a while was an automated phone call from American Red Cross. Most of the time the communication done is through text messaging.

Technology has taken over my world. How about yours?

Who Is A Journalist

After reading Scott Grant's We're All Journalists Now for my JRNL 213 course, I wanted to answer a question Grant asks his readers. It brought up many ideas in my head and I wanted to share them with my viewers. =]

Who is a journalist?

This question goes with what we have been learning in this Digital Journalism course. Are bloggers considered to be journalists? How about the idea of YouTube or any other video sharing network online, would those users be journalists?

Always agreeing with the idea of yes, those people involved with the above areas are considered to be journalists. And according to Webster's New World dictionary. The New World dictionary definition of journalism is "the work for, or producing of, a newspaper, ect." It does specifically express newspaper, but it also has the ect. afterward. Just like news reporters on television are journalists.

We (our digital journalism class) blog three times weekly, and we blog about various different items. Our readings, current world events, and other various things. Are we, as students, considered journalists? We provide information to an audience. We create work for the ect. portion of the definition of journalism, according to Webster's New World dictionary.

I hear more and more about YouTube. There is so much information on YouTube. You can learn how to do various things, you can watch people dance, you can watch music videos, clips from movies, and clips from the news. I asked someone how to do something, and they told me to look on YouTube to figure it out. There is just so much to be seen and heard on YouTube.

The roles of a journalist are and have changed, it is no longer just television and newspaper now. There is so much more out there and so much more to advance.

Brent Cunningham - Take a Stand

Brent Cunningham wrote in the September/October edition of the Columbia Journalism Review about "how journalism can regain its relevance". (The story can be found here).

Cunningham talks in his story about how Jim Carry wanted us to use objective journalism and document it for those in the future. To see exactly how our views have changed and how journalism has changed.

All along, we have learned how to be non-objective in our writings. We just need to put aside our feelings and publish just the facts. But what Jim Carry wants, according to Cunningham, is to be objective.

Cunningham also mentioned how the social networking groups, we have the connectivity that Marshall Berman was talking about. With the social networking now, people voice their opinions and continue it on and on throughout the network.

The local news station has now included Facebook and Twitter on their news at 11. They post things about a story, such as last night with the per pupil budget cuts the Governor announced, and say some comments on the station.

There is much more to come, as technology and journalism is changing. I can't wait to see what my future holds.

K -12 Budget Cuts, The Best Decision?

Last night on WILX they announced that Governor Granholm is making more per pupil budget cuts.

Not too long ago, it was announced that there will be $165 per pupil cut, and now they just announced another $127 per pupil cut.

The economy is in a time of need. Schooling is so important for children and teenagers, and it's important for them to get the good schooling to continue onto college.

It's so hard for the teachers, as they have larger class sizes and not enough money to buy the things for the classrooms, such as books and things, as they don't have the money. If they do, more than likely it is coming out of their pocket.

Students now have to start taking in their own school supplies that schools used to supply for the students, such as paper and things.

Why would we want to make budget cuts to the most important thing Michigan needs? You got me....

Words Do Hurt

While reading Ryan's blog, it triggered a story I would like to share.

On Saturday, Oct. 13, there was a horrible accident on M-50. A minivan full with a family rolled and a 8-year-old boy was thrown from the vehicle and was killed. Jackson Citizen Patriot published a story about the accident. It was an update to the original story that they didn't know the details of the accident or the victims.

While reading the updated story about the accident online, I began to read further down at the comments. I couldn't believe my eyes at what people were saying. The community was talking about how the mother, who was driving, didn't buckle her child up and that is why he died. How she is a horrible mother for what she had done.

I understand that the child wasn't buckled up. And I do understand that there was four other adults in the van and a 12-year-old also in the van. Now, the child is 8 and knows that he needs to be buckled in a vehicle. He shouldn't have to be buckled in by an adult.

And who knows what was going on in the vehicle, the child could have dropped a toy and unbuckled himself to reach down and get it, and they got into the accident. Or he could have unbuckled himself just because.

The mother is going to have to live with this for the rest of her life. She will always blame herself for this. People will still look at her like a murderer, and they will all blame her, but why voice that opinion. I do understand the freedom of speech, but when you have rude comments like this, to a family who is hurting so bad, why would you want to hurt them even more with your comments?

This goes with Ryan's blog about the murder that happened in his town and the murderer's Facebook account getting posted around with the horrible comments on there with children who have access to the Internet. Why not keep them to yourself?

America... The World As We Know It

Your driving down the road and two cars in front of you get into a car accident. You pull over and run up to the cars, while on the phone with 9-1-1. You look in the vehicles and you make sure that everyone looks alive and you inform the operator of their condition. The operator tells you that help is on the way and you hang up.

The driver in the other car gets out rubbing his head with blood dripping down his face. You yell and make sure he is okay. He nods.

You are now looking at people through the windows of the car. They are starting to go into shock from the accident and a panicking. You try to calm them down, but nothing you say can calm them down, they just want out of the car. You try to put yourself in their shoes and know that you will just want out of the car as well. So you start helping the person in the car get out.

Pause.

Growing understanding from television has taught you in a situation like this, you would want to not help them out of the car because they shouldn't move until the ambulance gets there and assess the victims. You know there is a possibility of a broken bone in their back or compression of the spine that could paralyze them if they move. On the other hand they are struggling to get out of the vehicle and you don't want to just stand there.

But in reality, if you help move them out of the vehicle and they become paralyzed because of their movement, they could potentially sue you for making them paralyzed.

Resume.

You begin to pull the person out of the vehicle and help pull out their family. You notice that one of the passengers is not waking up despite their parents yelling at them and screaming. You crawl into the car to make sure that the passenger is still alive. You listen and they aren't breathing. You begin to breath for them, by doing CPR.

Pause.

You may not know this or you may know this information, but if the victim dies while you are doing CPR, the family could potentially sue you.

Resume.

You continue to do CPR to help the victim breathe. You can now hear the sirens in the background getting closer and closer. Finally, when you are just about of breath, the paramedics run up and put their oxygen mask over the passengers face and takes over for you.

After 15 minutes of the paramedics do work on the passenger, they are finally breathing on their own. You take a deep breath of relief once you are given this news. The rest of the family is being checked out by paramedics and advised to go to the hospital via ambulance.

The police officer is now walking towards you and you begin your statement of what caused this accident. You are given a card with the officers name on it and you are thanked for your time. You take a deep breath, and begin to shake as the adrenaline is starting to wear off. Everything is starting to catch up to you.

Stop.

We all know the rules of life and you shouldn't move after being in a car accident due to fear of paralyzation. We may or may not have known about the risks involving CPR. And we, as journalists, know that we could get sued if we keep a source confidential. We all know that if we spill hot coffee on ourselves, we could possibly sue the company.

America has grown into a world of suing. Would you honestly sue someone for trying to save a family members life? Would you sue someone for doing what we wanted at the time? Would you sue someone who you knew was going to publish the quote and it went to trial your quote couldn't be kept confidential anymore? These don't make any since but they are true. You make the choices to ask for help, you made the choice to comment on the issue at hand.

Would you be able to just stand there and watch as someone is forcing themselves out? Could you just stand there and watch someone die?

Teacher's Lives Public?

A recent poll done on WILX.com was, does the public feel that parents should know what teachers are doing in their personal life? On Oct. 15, around 10 p.m. the latest was 19% say "yes" and 81% say "no".

This poll was taken in efforts of a story that broke out on Thursday evening about a local teacher. Photo's were found that were inappropriate. The picture was taken at a residence and off the clock.

This topic can go either way, the teacher was off campus and this didn't affect her teaching abilities and she is still the same teachers that the students go to each weekday.

On the other hand, she is a roll model for her students and her actions should have consequences.

What happened at the party was her own business. If we start judging people, not just teachers, but in every employment, there will be a lot more photo's found. We can't exactly judge people's employment on their weekend activities.

Several years ago, when MySpace and Facebook started taking off in the social networking world, several students at Jackson Community College were told to be careful on what you put on Facebook and MySpace. The reason being, potential future employers will be looking at your page.

The main problem with this is that what about those who have outstanding recommendations and excellent work history, will they not get a job because there was a picture of themselves on their Facebook page holding a beer with a group of friends? This picture could have been taken on a weekend and it isn't affecting her work history.

How is pictures that happened any of their business? What causes people to judge on one mistake that was made or one prank a friend made out of our control or one get together? Can we judge a person with just one photo? Can we make the decision of "they could be a potentially bad person because of this [these] photos." I think putting all social networking pages aside, the person may be a excellent candidate for the position and shouldn't be judged on what happened.

Mackinaw Bridge

An article was posted on mLive.com about how some posted on the authors Facebook status about how the Mackinaw Bridge is old and a lot of people don't want to go there anymore. She mentioned maybe because it was a "been there, done that" type of situation.

I remember being able to go across the bridge at night on July 3rd, when a lot of the cities were shooting off their fireworks that night. We were able to watch St. Igneous, Mackinaw City, and Mackinaw Island's fireworks all at the same time. We also got to see the beauty in the lights that light up the sky from the bridge.

It was so beautiful to be able to look across the lakes during the day and seeing the boats float across and the beauty of the bridge and the lakes.

I know a lot of people who live in Michigan, say "oh it's just the bridge"... but it's more than that. It's beauty. A friend of mine just went up north, about 1 hour away from the bridge and said she wasn't going to take her kids up there to see the bridge. I asked her why, and she said that she didn't think they would enjoy it. I said but it's beautiful and it's really cool to be able to drive across it and see so clearly. Eventually she ended up deciding to do it on a rainy day, and her kids loved it!

I would love to be able to go to Mackinaw Island and see the island, but I haven't had the opportunity because of the cost and the lateness of when we arrived up to the bridge. But I would love to have that opportunity to go and I would love to share this opportunity with my kids. And of course, I want to make our up north trip we had this year, a yearly event until our kids are grown.

The Power of YouTube

The power of YouTube has created several wide known people. From music performers to weddings. One video that sticks out to me is the Wedding Dance Entrance.

They were just ordinary people who decided to surprise their guests in dancing down the isle at their wedding. They wanted to put their video on YouTube to share with friends and family when their video was watched by several views. Many YouTuber's started to comment on their video and it was shared through e-mail.

The YouTube video that was intended for family and friends is now shared nationwide. The newly-weds and their bridal party were invited to come share their dance on stage at the Today Show.

This is just one example of how the definition of Digital Journalism, according to Wikipedia, has changed. Other examples include how Soulja Boy became famous off of YouTube along with Sean Kingston. They are now a part of our world and they are famous...

CPR Classes

A story was done on WILX.com this evening about CPR and First Aid Courses. The article discussed where people can go to take those classes.

As a student, I discussed the possibility with my teacher, who was also a volunteer EMT at a local fire station, about making CPR and First Aid classes mandatory in schools. After witnessing a seizure, I didn't know what was going on and I thought the person was dying. It was a scary feeling and luckily the police were right there.

If CPR and First Aid classes were available in schools, should it be mandatory? My answer, yes. Hopefully no one would have to use those skills, but it is still something everyone should know. When you cross a situation like that, you would never think but things come back to you quickly and you know how to react to situations without freaking out.

After witnessing that first seizure and talked with my teacher about what to do in that situation, I was able to recognize the next person who had a seizure in front of me. I was able to react quickly and not freak out until after the paramedics and fire department arrived. I knew immediately what to do and informed the other person with me, what to do as well. Would you? Do you know how to react to situations like this?

Citizen-Journalism

The idea of citizen-journalism that Rich Gordon mentioned in the report by Dr. Logan is a good idea. For news sites to have citizen-journalism is discussed in the report. "These are Web sites in which stories and photographs are provided by the members of the community."

For the idea of the community members to produce the news that they want to read would create a wider range of readers. It would give the members of the community the power to put what they want on the news site and become a journalist in their own way.

On the other hand, as I am going into Journalism, is this something that I would want to have happen? Now community members who went to football games can produce their stories and photos, they can also get the leading stories in town meetings and hearings on the news. So what exactly would happen to my job if this idea of citizen-journalism goes nation wide and takes over the newspapers?

Up North

In a classmates blog by Clifton, he discussed how NPR published a story about how Michiganders have forgotten about the Upper Peninsula. He asked a question of "Have You Forgotten About the U.P"?

The Upper Peninsula in Michigan is extremely beautiful and is full of color. In the U.P we have Sault Ste. Marie, and Tahquamenon Falls, and Iron Mountain. There is a lot of history in the Upper Peninsula and it is so beautiful up there.

Many people forget about the U.P. simply because there isn't much up there, at least of what the public thinks of. And more people are down in the lower peninsula vs. the upper.

Personally I would love to live up north because it is so beautiful, the air smells cleaner, and it is much quieter and lots more wildlife up north. I do plan to go every year and visit up north because of it's beauty.