Media Hype video

Apart from adjusting the lightness or darkness of an entire photo, it is never ethical to alter a photo or video to accompany a news report. This doesn't mean its ok to lighten or darken the skin of someone. I am only talking about a poorly lighted picture that needs to be lightened to show the content in the picture. It is never ok to add or subtract subject matter to a picture like the University of Wisconsin did for its brochure. The picture accompanying a story in a newspaper is usually the first thing the reader sees and altering it gives the reader a false idea of the story. If a news outlet doctors a photo and then people find out, it will not only hurt the outlet's credibility, but it will lose the trust of its readers.

I believe it is ok to choose stories based on reader demand or interest, as long as all the facts are told. In the shark attack news it needed to be stated in every account of each attack that there is not a higher risk of shark attack from other years. If all the facts are presented, I have no problem with giving shark attacks more coverage if that is what the reader/viewer wants to read/see. However, if there is a more important story that may not have the same impact on readership/viewership, it needs to be presented closer to the front story or earlier in the broadcast than the shark story. The number one priority for news outlets is to get out the truth and give the entire story, even if it isn't the most exciting or interesting story to begin with.

"Freebies" and "junkets" are always morally and ethically wrong and no journalist should ever accept a gift from the company/individual/group they are covering. An all-expenses paid trip to Spain to test drive a BMW gives off a bad impression to readers. Even if nothing unethical is going on, and the reporters are not swayed in their opinions, it still can and does give off the imprssion that something shady is going on. Trust between reader and writer is essential in maintaining a strong relationship and if that trust is compromised, unwarrented or not, it is really hard to get back. It is so much easier to just say no and pay your way to cover a car. If no one accepted the free trip, the car companies would change the way they go about presenting a new vehicle and make the trips more economical for the news outlets to cover and report on them.

I think "The Fat Squad" hoax faked out so many news outlets because once one outlet picked it up, the rest followed suit because of the unusualness of the story. People jumped in to the coverage and didn't do the background research it normally would have because they didn't want to fall behind. Some media outlets must have had some reservations about "The Fat Squad", but falling a day or two behind in coverage would have cost them thousands, if not millions, of readers/viewers who went somewhere else for their coverage. The internet news media will fall for these pranks at a much higher rate than traditional news outlets. Anyone can start a blog and write whatever they want regardless of their educational background or knowledge and that will lead to unqualified reporters reporting on the hoaxes without checking any of the facts beforehand.

Second Life Enterprise

Linden Lab announced the launch of an open Beta program for its behind-the-firewall product, Second Life Enterprise, the company said on Nov. 4.

The company also announced it will release a marketplace for Second Life Enterprise in Q1 2010. The marketplace, Second Life Work Marketplace, will add customization features for the virtual world environments, and it will also add more revenue streams for the product.

“Out of the box, the system comes with content such as meeting rooms and conference areas, which are just ready to go,” Chris Collins, Enterprise general manager at Linden Lab said. “There’s also a marketplace - an area where users can purchase content for their meeting rooms, or if they’re the military, it could be content for tanks and planes, all the way up to full software applications.”

So far, 14 companies or organizations are part of the Beta program. The list includes IBM, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), The New Media Consortium and DefenseWeb Technologies.

The addition of the behind-the-firewall product will give these countries more options for simulation, training, collaboration, innovation and product design.

Program Technology Lead for NUWC Metaverse Strategic Initiative Douglas Maxwell said Second Life gives them a unique opportunity to prepare for real-life situations in a risk-free environment.

"Virtual Worlds have the potential to provide a safer, more cost effective approach to some of the Navy's current mission areas,” Maxwell said. “The Naval Undersea Warfare Center has collaborated with Linden Lab to create a version of Second Life Enterprise that is secured and meets military grade information assurance compliance standards - out of the box."

IBM is one of the 1,400 schools, businesses, government agencies and other organizations that use Second Life to some degree.

"Second Life Enterprise version offers a great combination of collaboration, content creation and communications tools and resources," said IBM vice president of innovation initiatives Francoise Legoues. "We were one of the early adopters of the Second Life platform, and having that technology behind the firewall gives us the opportunity to expand our use of the platform enterprise-wide."

Second Life Enterprise pricing starts at $55,000. The beta is expected to run from Q4 through the first half of 2010.

Brandon Gibson profie

ST. LOUIS – Not many people experience life-changing phone calls while out shopping for supplies for their apartment.

At the same time, not many people get to experience the thrill of playing football in the NFL.

Brandon Gibson has been able to experience both.

Gibson, a former Washington State wide receiver and sixth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, was on his way to Wal-Mart when he received a phone call from a St. Louis Rams representative informing him he had been traded.

“I was pretty shocked,” Gibson said. “I thought I had done enough during training camp and preseason so that the Eagles would give me an opportunity to make the 53-man roster, but there were injuries at linebacker. We had extra depth at receiver and the Rams felt I could come in and help their team.”

After the trade on Oct. 20, Gibson was inactive for his first potential game with the Rams, an Oct. 25 showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. He saw limited action in Sunday’s win against the Detroit Lions.

Gibson said as he grows more comfortable with the Rams’ offense, he expects to see his playing time increase.

“I’m not sure (when I’ll play more), maybe when I gain the coaches trust that I can be in the correct assignment and give maximum effort
,” Gibson said.

The Rams’ offensive coordinator, Pat Schumur, spent eight seasons in Philadelphia as the quarterbacks coach. Because of this, Gibson said the two offenses are almost identical, giving Gibson and edge to play sooner rather than later.

“It’s the same offense so I think I’ll contribute in the same way as I would have at some point in Philadelphia, I hope,” Gibson said. “I really would just love the opportunity to play.”

Gibson said the Rams contacted him during the fifth round of the NFL draft but ended up drafting a different receiver, North Carolina’s Brooks Foster. Foster’s season ended before it could get started after he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in preseason.

On the other hand, Gibson thrived during the preseason for the Eagles. He led the Eagles with 12 catches for 123 yards and one touchdown through four games. Gibson said a lot was going through his mind as he took those first NFL snaps.

“I just tried to remember my coaching, play fast and have fun,” Gibson said.

Gibson said the biggest difference between the two teams is the mentality each has going into games. The Eagles (5-2) are tied for first in their division and considered to be Super Bowl contenders. The Rams (1-7) had not won a regular season game since Oct. 19, 2008.

“Not saying the Rams were expecting to lose but it is just a young team,” Gibson said. “When you’re a young team, you must figure out a way to win games. In Philly, playing at your highest level and winning every game was what was expected.”

Gibson was widely considered one of the best receivers in college following his junior season when he racked up 1,180 yards and nine touchdowns. He struggled to repeat those numbers in his senior season under first-year head coach Paul Wulff and his draft stock fell.

As for heading to a new city, Gibson said he is transitioning well to his new surroundings.

“It (the transition) has been real smooth,” Gibson said. “I don’t get shocked too often. I try to get used to my surroundings and get comfortable as soon as possible.”

Frontline: News War

The show Frontline on PBS brought up some interesting topics in its “News War” segment. One of the first things I noticed was the level of newsworthiness among current news anchors and news outlets. On local television channels there is a fair amount of solid journalism and reporting, but on major national outlets, there has been an obvious switch to more opinion-based programming. People want to watch news with people who share their opinions and now, with so many different outlets, they can find exactly what they want.

Another interesting thing to me was the loss revenue from classified ads for newspapers as people switch to online sources like Craigslist. Craigslist offers better exposure, free advertising to a larger audience, than a traditional newspaper’s classified ad that charges people who place ads by lines or characters. It has led to a significant shift to online sources because it just makes more sense to advertise for free if you can. A side affect of this is other advertisers switching where they spend their money. Instead of placing ads with newspapers in their classified ads or in other sections, advertisers can reach more people if they buy space on Monster.com, Craigslist or other similar web sites.

The most important topic I saw was the conglomeration of newspapers. It doesn’t make sense to me that only a few major corporations own a significant majority of the newspapers in the United States. Local ownership makes so much more sense because a local owner will have the community and the individual paper’s best interest in mind when making decisions. A large corporation who owns papers in Florida, California and Illinois can’t always have each paper’s best interests in mind when making decisions because each paper has much different needs.

In all, there are many significant problems with the way news is presented and if news coverage continues on the same path, it will only make bigger and more problems.

internet stuff

Part 1:

Of the 104 race related hate crimes in 2007, four of them happened in Pullman. Only Seattle (14), Spokane (10), Tacoma (10) and Vancouver (6) had more. Covington also had four hate crimes based on race. The city of Pullman also had one hate crime due to sexual orientation of the 34 reported in the state.

In 2006, Pullman had zero hate crimes related to race but had four related to sexual orientation. In comparison, Spokane (7) was the only city in Washington that had reported more. In all, 37 hate crimes associated with sexual orientation were reported in Washington in 2006.

Part 2:

During the 2008 election in Washington, Christine Gregoire received the most money contributed to her campaign. She received $12,002,778, slightly more than the $11,599,166 raised by Dino Rossi.

The largest donation group other than political parties was anonymous donations. They made up .05 percent of the donated money.

In 2008, forestry and forest products contributed to 33.80 percent of its groups donations to the Republican party. The Republicans received $341,193 compared to $201,558 for the Democrats.

Democrats ($27,875) received more money than the Republicans ($11,830) from lobbyists and public relations in 2008.

Part 3:

Digital voice recorder – http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=iqc4AAAAEBAJ&dq=%22digital+voice+recorder%22&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=0&as_miny_ap=&as_maxm_ap=0&as_maxy_ap=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=

social networking – http://www.google.com/patents/about id=fVsGAAAAEBAJ&dq=%22social+networking%22

automobile – http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=E9lrAAAAEBAJ&dq=%22automobile%22

WSU Crimson Girls

PULLMAN – Their preparation starts about six hours before kickoff. For the next 10 hours, their job is to smile and keep people entertained. They are seen all over campus. They go to tailgate parties, Hollingbery Fieldhouse, corporate tents and even the President’s luncheon.

After that, they quickly go back and get ready for the game.

“Then we head back to the gym and primp quickly before heading out for four hours of smiling and dancing even when we’re losing 54-6,” Lacey Lingle said.

They are the Crimson Girls and Lingle is one of the captains of the 2009-10 squad.

On top of their constant preparation for Cougar Football Saturdays, the team performs at all Cougar home volleyball matches and is preparing for the upcoming basketball season and the highlight of their season, the Universal Dance Association Collegiate Nationals Competition in Orlando, Fla on Jan. 15-18.

“Nationals is one of the most exhilarating things we do as a dance team,” Lingle said. “It's our only opportunity to compete all on our own. Most of the time we're cheering on other teams, but at nationals we cheer on each other and compete at the apex of collegiate dance competitions.”

With so much to prepare for, the team has to practice five days a week. The team has practice sessions from 5-7 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesday and Friday the team has two-hour workouts in a studio in Bohler Gym.

During their practice sessions the team spends the time going over pom motions and game breakdowns for an hour and spends the rest of the time on individual stunts or the routine the team is preparing for nationals.

“At practice we work on our Nationals routine and also on our sideline and half time routines, which we perform at every home football, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball game,” Lingle said. “Most importantly though, we bond and have fun and laugh a lot.”

The team must submit a video application of their nationals routine by Nov. 3 to enter this year.

Another new challenge for the Crimson Girls is adapting to the coaching philosophy to new head coach, Erica Boruff.

“Our new coach incorporates a lot more strength building into our practices,” said Corynn Fine, third year Crimson Girl and fundraising chair. “She wants us to look strong and fit, not skinny or tiny. Also, she has us practice a lot of "talls and hip-hop tricks, which spice up our Nationals routine.”

Freshman and first-year Crimson Girl Melissa Hallenbeck said the team needs to practice as much as they can to prepare for a tough November.

“We're preparing for basketball season right now. November is our toughest month because we have football, volleyball, basketball and nationals,” Hallenbeck said. “It's tough.”

Members of this year’s squad all stressed the importance of getting back to nationals. Hallenbeck said the team’s goals are to improve on its eighth-place finish at the 2009 national competition and to always stay positive.

“We spend a lot of time together working as a team,” Hallenbeck said. “We dedicate about 16 hours a week to the Crimson Girls dance team, and we have to always give it 100% and work our hardest no matter what. But it’s all worth it for a a successful team thought.”

Special leads

Rush to finish barrier at Howard Hanson Dam before heavy rains
The Seattle Times - Oct. 5, 2009
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010001508_dam05m.html

This story is an example of a narrative lead. The lead reads:

"In 1949, the Army Corps of Engineers warned that water might seep through the north abutment of a dam being contemplated on the Green River, but the leak 'would be negligible and could be easily controlled.'

It wasn't.

The abutment — a hillside that anchors one side of the Howard Hanson Dam — has leaked almost since the dam began operating in 1961. Engineers have monitored it, worried about it, debated what to do with it and made a series of improvements to control it.

The latest leak, detected after a huge rainstorm last January filled the reservoir higher than ever, prompted the corps to reclassify Hanson as "unsafe" with an "urgent and compelling" need for immediate action. Only 10 of the corps' 650-plus dams fall into that high-risk category."

The newsworthy information does not come until the fourth paragraph in the story. The first three paragraphs are used primarily to set up the background information of the dam and to explain the severity of the situation.

I think this lead is the best choice because it is not just a basic news story so a summary lead wouldn't be enough. Plus the actual event occurred the previous year so it is not very timely and wouldn't be considered hard news. I think this was the best way to go about writing this lead.

Charles R. Cross publishes new, interactive Led Zeppelin book
The Seattle Times - Oct. 5, 2009
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2009991075_ledzep05.html

Another example of a narrative lead.

"On May 11, 1969, Led Zeppelin, then a relatively unknown but up-and-coming British rock band, played a concert in Seattle before a few thousand people at the Aqua Theater at Green Lake, drawing noise complaints from some of the area's residents.

Led Zeppelin, which would become one of rock music's seminal bands, shared the bill that day with Three Dog Night; this paper reported the concert to be a "smashing success." Seattle, said local rock historian and journalist Charles R. Cross, "has always had more of an appetite for hard rock than other cities," part of what he called that "blue-collar, longshoreman ethic."

In fact, Led Zeppelin proved to be a big influence for many local bands that became famous in the 1990s during the city's grunge-music era: Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam. It was "the template for what a hard rock band should be," Cross said.

Led Zeppelin is the subject of Cross' latest book, "Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls," due to be released Tuesday. The title is a relatively obscure line from perhaps the band's most famous song, "Stairway to Heaven," and a reference to the book's premise — that the band has had an outsize influence on rock music, one that could not be fully predicted or appreciated when the band was together. "

The story is about Cross' new book "Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls" but doesn't reference the book until the fourth paragraph. The first three graphs are used to explain Led Zeppelin's importance and, specifically, its importance in the Seattle area.

The book would be hard to write a hard, summary news lead about and none of the other special lead types would make sense in this situation. I think the current lead captured what the author wanted to get across better than any other way it could have been done.