The Final Stretch

Hello. I would first like to discuss class before moving to my article from the N.Y.T. To be honest, I somewhat forgot the events that took place on Wednesday and Monday. What I remember most about Wednesday was how Media Fellows can improve and about the internships. The internship program is the most attractive incentive to join this program of distinction. Not only is that a career building experience, it prepares students for leaving college. I feel that is even more important at a school like this that can become a bubble at times. Also excited to hear about the new Media Fellows, especially Dr. Casey's nephew who is definitely a cool guy. I feel that this school is attracting lots of new intellectually driven students.

To address the discussion of the 'Chaos Scenario', I'll echo what I wrote last week. I have a real problem with the author's general stance on television's business model as flawed and the subsequent belief that a large amount of media mediums are a dying breed. To start with television, I'll say that I see this medium as improving because their are so many more channel options. With sports, ESPN and its family stations as well as more niche programming indicates that the consumer will have more options. A comprehensive business model in which cable programming packages include a full array of specified sports channels is a good one. From my perspective I think that the medium will not die, the broadcast model will simply emanate itself as a new narrowcast model. Same to radio. I generally believe this to be an increasingly popular medium because it is thorough and deep. Their are more choices. MLB Gameday radio on the Internet is awesome. Sometimes a visual element will be established through the voice and I don't see radio dying in the sense that the Internet can carry radio. I actually heard Garfield talk about his belief on NPR and just couldn't disagree more. I think some things will die like the newspaper and that's concerning, but the extent of his 'chaos scenario' I think is not applicable. I could be wrong, but from my dealings with these mediums, I think adaptability is the theme.

As for my article in the so-called dying medium of hard copy, good old New York Times, it was a selection from last week's Wednesday edition in the International section entitled, "South Sudan Says Sudan Strikes Again." I am very interested in African politics and societal structure as a whole. I am concerned by this predicament. It's an economic based fight unfortunately. The Times article is short and sweet, but to the point and that's what reporting is all about in this instance. The issues here are fairly simplistic and that to me is why I'm frustrated by a lot of inter-related conflicts between AU member nations. Sudan is not very nice and South Sudan acts like they are innocent but their is definitely mutual clash about the oil pipelines on border regions. Look, in that arid of a climate that is all they have and with two new countries in such a large area geographically, stuff is going to go down. I feel mad at China too, because they just are looking for profit from the oil pipelines, they don't care about peace. Darfur's bloodshed was catalyzed by shady Chinese weapons exchanges with a corrupt Sudanese government operation. Overall, I feel that the author is very independent in writing this article. Given that Sudan is very unfair with its neighbor, the article still justly points out that both party's are to blame for a centralized issue. It is objective reporting like this that continually makes me praise the best newspaper in the world.

To finish, my project is going fairly well, despite the fact that I need more B-Roll. I have to figure out my total shot list for the week, but am willing to work hard to achieve those goals. I have two interviews left in addition to the two I have and around 2:45 of interviews edited so I have a very good plan. It will be a very interesting film. Soundslides is the biggest struggle. It's a bad program and I disagree with the fact we have to use it. I would have rather done a longer film because I felt like it would have told a much better story with my medium. I can still use still photos in a video format through Final Cut, in fact it is much much much easier that way. I'll figure it out though as the framework for my project should make an interesting product.

Obama, Chaos Scenario, Fun

I would first like to apologize for the lateness of this blog post. It slipped from my mind this weekend and with a rather important science test on Monday coupled with a strenuous weekend of WGRE baseball games against Case Western, I didn't get to it. But, I enjoyed last week's classes big time. Jon Coffin is my man. Xiiiiiiiiii!!!!!! He's a great chapter advisor and I learned a lot about his career in politics and here at DePauw. I had no idea that he was the man who really integrated our website, making it more attractive for incoming students and more receptive to the needs of the student body here at DePauw. Obviously, I feel like we all can learn something from those in public relations. There are ingredients that go into the profession that make it really important and as a broadcaster, I am also interested in the field. That also delves into my political interests where public relations can either bring up a candidate, Barack Obama, or act as extreme damage control, John Edwards...actually never mind public relations won't help you sir. As for my newspaper article, yes I did read an article from last week's Thursday paper. Why did I pick a selection from this seemingly random day in the New York Times? Well, easy answer, my main man "The O Dog" President Barack Obama gloriously adorned the front section with a sly grin. He's awesome. I will be campaigning for the guy shortly. Still waiting for Dr. Bohmer to let me know how I can defeat any batch of helpless Republicans. The article I chose was related to the race.It's also about my state...Go Bucks! "For President And Romney, Ohio Hurdles" was the title. Ohio is a state that always go with the victor of the presidential race. Specifically, Columbus is the place to win. The article expresses how the state is still crucial to both Romney's and Obama's plans. Obama and Romney are both plugging away in 'The Heart of it All' for votes from us cow loving midwestern folks. Cows are the simple part of our state, figuring out how to win in my state is the hardest part. Working class whites are what both candidates have to fight for. The economy still sucks in the industrious state of Ohio. Many of those in the manufacturing sector will not vote again for Obama and it is up to the President to gain their trust and reveal Romeny's money grubbing, individualistic tendencies. People still don't like Romney in our state and the article touches on that fact. But that might be cancelled by voters like the dude from Brookville, Ohio who said he hasn't seen much "change" as promised during the presidents campaign. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150525674260672&set=a.10150272428280672.326880.569695671&type=1&theater. That's my response to those claims. But Ohio might pail in importance to Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina this year, states that are proving even more open minded with more educated people moving to those areas. Obviously these intelligent people who have the ability to read past a third grade level and who might care than something other than a fat paycheck, are Democrats. There's the news. Vote Blue As for the book, it's interesting and I loved our discussion about these topics Monday. Is the business model for the newspaper dead? Certainly yes, in the hard form but not on the Internet. Is the television model dead? No, Garfield I disagree. I said it in class Monday. The television will thrive. Sports it the example medium. There are way more channels and audiences for small niche, narrowcast markets. Those will continue to grow and I expect to see the "The Ohio State University" channel on soon...to a global audience. To say the media cannot survive through records, television, the radio is ludicrous. Advertisers can still approach these mediums, but they need to get more creative. We discussed product placement as a means to still achieve success. Television I would say is growing while, sure, records are going down, but the media can still make money from music by switching to a more live concert oriented approach. There are ways around the more open forms of communication if you will that make it hard for media companies to make money. In the end though, people are still paying for the radio, television, and news in a niche, more specified form.

Public Relations...Ozzie Guillen Might Have Needed It This Time

This week in class I found some things interesting and other things not as compelling. The first class of week was a nice discussion that we had with Dr. Bohmer and the rest of the class on the effects and actual definition of public relations within the media landscape. It was an interesting discussion because I feel that P.R. is often times left out of the fold when we talk about the media. In terms of the discussion's viability, I felt that we covered a lot of ground and sparked some new ideas about the meaning of P.R. I had really never thought of P.R. as the dark side, but now that that point was even brought up, it makes me look at the industry in a new way. But after Friday's discussion with the panel, I actual see that journalism can be the dark side as well. But relating back to Monday, I feel that the discussion was a very necessary prep for the next two days to come. Wednesday and Friday were interactive platforms to talk with actual DePauw students who are successful. On one hand, these are great. We see how people succeed and they tell us how they did it. There were young people, older people, an advertiser, public relations gurus, newspaper journalists, art oriented designers. I found all of these different angles within the media to be unique and cool in the sense that for most of these people they were passionate about what they were doing. On the negative side of those two latter days, I felt those discussions to be overly dragged out, so much so that they took away from the meaning of the discussion. The hour and a half time slot for Friday was just too much and it got kind of boring in my opinion. I was interested for an hour, but they you start spinning your own wagon too much and it's like, alright let's end this discussion. Obviously, that's just the nature of the class being that amount of time, but it was a complaint I had. Overall, I found it to be a nice week with some different elements and I look forward to hearing from Brother Coffin.

For my newspaper article, I chose 'In Miami, Winning Is Not the Only Thing', from the Wednesday, April 11th edition. Why did I chose this article? It was a front page article on baseball. So that's pretty much it, but then I thought of a different aspect of this article that makes it important. Ozzie needs some P.R. help to the max right now if he wants to regain popularity in Miami. It is funny to me how such a huge new operation, over $600 million dollars of time and investment, new players, new logo, new name, and your team's integrity is essentially squashed by one comment. Humorously, that is the one comment you do not want to make in Cuba, USA. The comment I'm so ambiguously referring to is Ozzie Guillen's praise of Dictator Fidel Castro, saying that he respected him. Wow, that is the one thing you don't do down there. Who is his P.R. guy? I know the guy is variable all the time, but there are a few general things that you just don't say. It really shows how a few insensitive comments can totally, eternally ruin a person's career. I don't care if its sports, politics, or entertainment, if you are in the spotlight and are not being constantly guided on what to say, one bad slip could cost you millions of dollars. In this case, many of the Cuban-Americans want his head and are asking for Guillen to resign immediately. One man said he wants a refund for his $900 season-ticked package unless Guillen leaves Once seen as a Latin-American icon in this region, his reputation literally changed overnight. I think that this is a sports story that can relate to life. If you mess up, there is serious consequences on any stage and I'm glad the N.Y.T. recognized the importance of this story. As usual, the Times took this story and dissected it in a very chronological and cohesive manner. It's the duty of any great investigative newspaper to get to the root of the source of the people affected. In this case it was the Cuban-American community. Well, OK, who was interviewed. How about the senior fellow at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami and the director of the University of Central Flordia Institute for Diversity in Sport. So sports, aside they got to the root of the issue and interviewed these two people with very specific talents and credentials. Newspaper journalism is so contingent on getting to the root of a story and thinking outside the box. Most sports outlets would simply comment on Guillen's comments, but the Times really looked at the effects it had with Cuban-Americans, the fans, and Mr. Guillen himself. The facts were there, the reporting was strong, and the sources were legitimate. This is what I hope we don't lose with the death of a newspaper model in the American media.

Amusing Ourselves to Death/ A New Hope for Somalia

The article I chose for the New York Times was titled "A Tast of Hope as Somalia's Battered Capital Rebuilds." It was specifically about the Somalian center of commerce and government, the capital city Mogadishu. This city has been virtually in ruins since 1991 when the government was overthrown. Since, a series of warlords have split the city into a myriad of battlegrounds, resulting in mass chaos. Somalia has been the most dangerous country in the world the past twenty years.

As a student of geography and world politics, I have researched the Somalian situation in the past. So when I saw the headline for this article I had to immediately read it. The article gave me hope that a new Somalia would emerge and I feel the in-depth reporting of this article did a fantastic job of painting the new picture for what Somalia would be like today.

Somalia's capital has undergone an unprecedented period of peace that has opened the door for more mainstream democratic principles in the populous and an insurgence of capitalism, not military forces. The non-violent culture is new to all of those in Somalia, and has prompted lots of Somali-Americans to come back to their homeland for a new start.

The article gave many perspectives of those trying to make it in the job market. I feel iron core news reporting stems from an ability to compile a multitude of legitimate opinions on a given topic. This article certainly achieved that task. The author interview a fishmonger, a banker, an artist, a policewoman, and a former assassin.

The fishmonger and banker were very upbeat and were enjoying prosperity that was unfamiliar. Yet, the author also pointed out that for others the process of switching to an entirely new system of life is rather difficult. The assassin, who had killed over 50 people, left his operation when he was assigned to murder his cousin, a pro-government advocate. That was the last straw for him and he escaped the profession, but still has to constantly be on guard for someone trying to kill him.

The article gives the perspectives in a very cohesive and chronological way, and we get the overall theme; Somalia is changing for the better. I call this important reporting. Somalia is a big deal. In many ways it is the microcosm for a collection of failed African governments. So to see this country on the upswing is very promising. I feel that the New York Times making this story a front lead article was important and indicative of the New York Time's ability and will to report on global topics about a wide range of subjects. That is what really constitutes a meaningful news intake experience, because it is more well-rounded. Reading stories about African politics is a very good thing to do because it is not a continent discussed a whole lot on the news.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

This book was a good read. I can't say that I agree with every opinion written by Postman, but overall I totally agree. In class I brought up the point that this is a modern day interpretation of Brave New World. Instead of Soma being the drug that dehumanizes our culture, it is the television that acts as the Soma in today's world. I couldn't agree more.

I most agree with Postman's interpretation of television news. Overall, the argument we get from Postman is that television news is unproductive through a television medium. In a more 'literature oriented' society if you will, a propensity to read for news is favored. I find this a far better medium for obtaining news because when you read something you are much more likely to remember it in my opinion. The current standard for television news is such that we are not typically learning a great amount of pertinent information.

Postman argues that oral, literature, and televisual mediums are all fair in one sense or another. But each has a different realm of the type of news they should contain. Postman and I share the belief that literature for political topics and more concrete, hard news is a far more beneficiary medium.

Overall Postman is warning our generation that the practice of being dominated by the televisual medium needs to end. This is not an effective way to learn and it is a medium the encourages short attention spans. I don't expect our society to become more apt to read the newspaper instead of watching a television news program, but I hope that our generate will become more sensible in obtaining important information through the media.

Ohio State Swag