Policing Facebook:

I was an orientation leader for the freshman students this past summer. We do an activity called the Social Barometer. The two OL's say a statement and then the students go to a designated side of the room where there is a sign saying "Strong Agree, "Strongly Disagree", "Agree" and "Disagree". If you came to freshman orientation here a Bridgewater, you probably remember it.

One statement that always caused a great deal of controversy was "College Administrators should be policing my facebook page".

People typically either felt really strongly in agreement or very strongly in disagreement. My partner and I were not allowed to voice our opinions at all during the entire exercise-which was impossibly hard- being extremely opinionated.

I personally though, feel like they should not be policing our facebooks. If I accept you as a friend it is then my responsibility to be aware of the things that I put online. HOWEVER, the word policing dictates that they are going on there looking for something wrong with the intention of taking action when they do find something.

We are in college. We partake in "college" behavior. I do not think that should make people think any differently of me or anyone else on a professional level. What I write in a resume is me on a professional level, what I put on facebook is me on a social level. The two don't need to be seen on the same scale right now in my life.

When I go to find a job after college, I realize jobs can look at what I have done and scan through my pictures.  However, I am not ashamed or trying to hide anything I have done in college. If they wouldn't want to hire me based on the parties I went to when I was in college, then I guess so be it, thats trivial and will be-in my opinion- irrelovent then.

Everybody Calm Down.

 I stayed home sick yesterday and spent the entirety of the day watching t.v. (which is a rare). On the news- on day time talk shows-on night time talk shows-and on late night talk shows- everyoneee was talking about Charlie Sheen. Apparently he caused a big ruckus at a hotel over the weekend, and everyone has a comment and play by play on what happened.

 Literally I could tell you the hotel he was at, how much damage he caused to the hotel ($7000), literally every unimportant detail. It's crazy how the media takes one story and turns it into this giant dramatic thing. I am not sure who said it but on TMZ they quoted another celebrity saying "if he had done this at the Marriot, no one would even be talking about it"  VERY TRUE.

The hotel Sheen was staying at was a $1000 a night hotel room. Celebrities trash hotel rooms. This isn't the first time this has happened. He is obviously a big drinker, possibly doing drugs, possible there was a hooker in his cloest (?), its ridiculous, yes, but this isn't taboo celebrity behavior.

I just think its nuts-  there MUST be better news out there that just clearly gets bypassed because people would rather hear about celebrities trashing hotel rooms. CRAZY.

What I did find respectful and also sad was that his ex-wife Denise Richards was literally three doors down the hall with Sheens two young children. She refused to make any negative comments about her ex on camera or in a radio interview the following day. Trash talking is never classy so two points for her for not bashing him-when clearly it would have been easy to!!

Still Good People Out There!

So last Friday I was babysitting (per usual) and I was watching that show "What would you do?". Its where they set up hidden cameras and run social experiements to see what regular people will do in different situations.

I always want to be put on the show because I feel like I would act completely different that the typical people they have on- the people who just don't seem to care at all.

This week they showed a nicely dressed lady pass out on a busy sidewalk and it took on average 3 seconds for someone to help her. They then had a poorly dressed man do the same, and it took people 3 minutes (!!) to respond. Then they made the mad look homeless and had him hold a beer can and pass out. NO ONE DID ANYTHING. They just walked right by him as he lay on the ground, having just passed out in front of people walking by.

The only person that helped was an actual homeless woman who just stood beside him for a half an hour just asking people who walked by if they would call him an ambulance. No one even listened to her or acknowledged her. Here is this lady who has absolutely nothing to offer this man, and nothing in general, and yet she's standing there trying to get someone to help him.

I sat there literally sobbing for like 15 minutes. It breaks my heart that people would walk by another human being who could be dying and no one even acknowledges it. I know sitting here I can say I would help him and whose to say what I would do in that situation. I wouldn't say I'd bend down and begin giving this stranger mouth to mouth but I would atleast take the 30 seconds to call him and ambulance and to see that he was okay.

Its nice to see that there are still (a few) good people out there,but its very sad that there aren't more people willing to help out another human being. What if it were you in that mans shoes? You would want someone to help you.

Activism is fashionable?

I dont really get the way society thinks sometimes. There have been issues with gay teen suicide prior to the recent tragedies. Now though with the extreme media coverage of the cases, it appears more people are deciding to stand up against bullying. I think it is great that people are making a stand and realizing how wrong bullying is.

What bothers me though, is that these things arent new? These issues have been occuring for years. It is tragic that it takes a crisis like this where 5 young lives have been lost in one short period for people to realize that something more needs to be done.

Had we as a country taken more action a year ago or five years ago how many lives could have potentially saved?  I hope that now that people are recognizing how wrong bullying is that those who witness it occuring will stop it. If someone had stepped it at any time while those young men were being harassed daily- even just one time- maybe they would still be around today.

It breaks my heart that these things are happening- that young people with so much life left and so much potential are taking their own lives because they feel there is no other way- that dying is the only resolution to their problems. There is hope, and there are people out there who will stand up for you and accept you, and be there for you.

The world is changing everyday and I'd like to think its for the better.

Who Knew?

So in a fit of stress, my roommate and I went to the Bridgewater town police department to try and get some reporting done for our wonderful feature story assignments. They weren't very nice to us. The officer told us they were far too busy with the high schoolers just getting out of school. Lame.

HOWEVER, we then decided to chance it and go over to the BSU police station. We talked to the officer at the desk who told us there probably wasn't anyone around to speak to us, but he did give us an extension to leave a voicemail and hopefully speak with the detective in the morning.

He was really nice and asked when our paper was due, when we said tomorrow- (as in today) another officer opened the door and said "since its due tomorrow you can come in and I'll try and help you." ( I realize I shouldnt be admitting to all of this- but they were just so nice.)

All together three sargents spoke to us, one for nearly an hour asking all our questions and talking about all different things pertaining to the school.

I normally had a kind of negative connotation with the police at this school. (having been pulled over here numerous times..with multiple cruisers for a broken tail light?)  But anyway- the officers yesterday gave me a much better impression of them and we actually had a good time speaking with them.

:)

Class Reading:

This weeks chapter was about the structure and formatting of an article and how to format works of journalism.
This is can say is my sole reasoning for not particularly liking journalism. I took this class because I knew I didn't love that kind of structured writing- but I knew it would be challenging and I do want to become a better writer so here I am.

My dream in life is to write books. Granted you need to excel in writing and grammar and certainly punctuation (which I realize I need to work on), but I want to be able to write the way I want to write. I take a creative non-fiction writing class where people write one or two word sentences. Those students spend pages writing about anything and nothing and half the time it doesn't make sense- but its brilliant. I have learned so much as a writer from being in that class.

I like that freedom of writing how and what you want. I feel like journalism where it has to be so unbiased the majority of the time, and follow such stringest guidelines and rules, takes away from any sort of creativty of writing.

I completely respect journalists, I don't think that is an easy job by any means, and I commend those that do it and do it will. I however, do not think that it is the profession for me. I actually did like the reporting aspect but I feel like there is just so much red tape that goes along with that. There are so many things you can not do or say, and rules and regulations you must abide by and I feel like its just a very difficult field to get into alone let alone be successful.

Parties?

So my feature story assignment is on Burrill Ave and how some people feel that there are more parties there this year than there were last year.

I have talked to the Liutenant asking him for the police records, which he told me he can not give me. I know Copeland wants us to like basically make them give us the records  but I'm like super uncomfortable doing that.

I mean I do go to this school and the last thing I want to do is be a bitch to one of the cops. So I feel like my story is kind of at a stand still right now while I figure out exactly how I want to approach that whole situation.

I also need to go do some door to door action and interview people that live on the street next week and see what they say on the matter. Also a little awkward.. but that I can hopefully manage to do.

Honestly, I dont think the partying situation down there is any worse or better than it was last year. I go out on Thursdays but Burrill typically isn't my scene I feel like there are always a lot of freshman out and its always like really drunk chicks being messes and I dont know..maybe thats just been my few experiences.

I'd just much rather go to other people's houses where I atleast know the majority of the people at the parties and I feel a little better about being there ( less girls giving dirty looks..   which I can't tolerate). Not to mention whether the parties are more often or not- cops are always creeping down there..and I'd rather not cause any trouble or be questioned walking home at 2am.

But I mean if any of you reading this are frequent flyers of Burril Ave feel free to comment on this and I could certainly quote you in my story/ talk to you more for your opinions on this matter. Also, if any of you know anyone that lives down there maybe I could grab some contact info and talk to them a little! Thanks :) Hope all your stories are coming along!!

Class Readings

A great deal of this chapter discusses the different ways to report news.

I truly wonder what the future of news will even be like. Today, if something is breaking news and you
happen to be watching the news channels then you will see it. But what are the real odds of that these days?
I feel like the majority of news- if it was that dyer- would scroll across the AOL.com screen or on google.
If you don't see it there you will certainly see it posted as someones facebook or twitter status.

We have discussed time and time again how important it is to the media and journalists it is to be the FIRST to break a story. I feel like someday they will eventually just have people from news channels use their personal websites to post  that what news is breaking.

Granted people will probably always appreciate the full news coverage eventually- the initial breaking news aspect of news may soon no longer be as effective.

Its definitely great in states of emergency that people are so ridiculously connected to the rest of the world. However in every other scenario- technology seems to be limiting a lot of other things people used to value (news, personal communication, etc). Only time will tell but it certainly something to consider for the future and certainly when some people are planning their lives around these potential careers.

I think I'm being punked?

Ever since we moved into our apartment its been basically the biggest shitshow I have ever been a part of.
Our original landlord sold the apartment building two weeks after we signed our one year lease. Consequently, he signed it over to the two hugest a-holes I ever met.

They immediately began demolitioning throughout the entire building while we were living there. They drilled giant holes into the floors of our bedrooms..cut down trees in the front yard with chainsaws at 6AM..and would shut off our water at random times of the day. That was the start.

After two weeks of being fed up and us plotting their deaths within our ghetto apartment walls..we politely asked them when all this stupid shit would be done.  They said two weeks. It is now the SECOND WEEK of October..
and I kid you not there is a man digging a six foot trench around the entire outside of our building.

Last week a man on a ladder was working on god knows what right outside our bathroom window, and we now have over 12 cameras conveniently place around the outside and inside of our building- one nicely placed outside our apartment door.

Not to mention- that our water is third degree burn hot when on the cold part of the dial. We nicely put up a message on the maintence wall that our water was hot enough to hospitalize us to which they replied- turn it down-     Its on COLD- We Arent Stupid-  is what I left on the board this morning.

I'm currently contemplating ways to get evicted because as much as living at home with my siblings and parents makes me want to take a long walk off a short cliff- atleast their is running normal temperature water and no nazi landlords trying to be slumlord millionaires..

So any eviction suggestions by all means- Im open to anything.

A Little Manners, Please?

Now I've never taken any sort of etiquette class. I'm not certified in finishing school and I've never read Manners for Dummies. HOWEVER, I appreciate those in society who still have some remnants of politeness.

I always say thank you. ALWAYS. I mean that may seem extreme or that I am lying but its true. If I eat dinner at home I say thank you after. If someone holds the door for me, I say thank you. If someone lets me walk through the cross walk- I still say thank you. I thought that these things were standard to do.

Now my irritation today comes from one of my many jobs. I babysit overnights as I have mentioned before. Now I watch this mans children for over 15 hours. Not only does he not call to check in on his kids- who are only 5 and 7, but he never says thank you. 

I normally pick his kids up from the rec center in their town bring them home, feed them dinner, make sure their homework is done, have them brush their teeth, get on pajamas, wake them up in the morning, feed them breakfast, pack their snacks, get them dressed, brush their teeth again, and get them on the bus. 

RARELY, does their Dad call to even check on his kids. That alone- is sad.  Yesterday he was home when I got to their house he handed me my money, said bye to the kids and walked out.  A THANK YOU wouldnt kill you?

How many times do you hold the door for someone, and they just walk by you? Or when you let someone go in your car and they dont even wave to acknowledge it? I know these things arent a big deal, but it takes literally a second to say thank you.

I just wish people had more manners, it wouldn't hurt.

Interviewing/Class Reading

The world of interviewing has certainly changed in the recent years. With more attention being brought to the new media outlets and technology it is no surprise that people are using such venues as skype and others to conduct online meetings and interviews. As great as it is to have such capabilities I think these should really only be used as a last resort.

UCLA conducted research that states 93% of communication is nonverbal. How much of this would we be missing through a computer screen or over the phone?

I feel like people would feel more comfortable being part of an interview that is in person- it is obviously more personal and people may be more apt to share things or explain things easier knowing if they area face to face.

This is a great tool though if someone is physically miles away or countries away. To be able to speak with the people directly involved in whatever you are working on regardless of distanct is certainly invaluable to the world of journalism.

I just hope that the standard means of conducting interviews will remain something that is practiced in the future.

Sometimes when I watch shows like Oprah and she is interviewing people through skype I dont think it is as impressive as when she has those people sitting directly with her. Maybe thats a weird way to think of things- but I feel like its much more legitimate when they are there with her during the interview versus answering her questions at a 30 second delay.

Coming Home

Last night I had an event with my sorority. One of my sorority sisters brothers had recently come home from Iraq and shared his experiences with us. He was over there for a total of 12 months.

Autumn's brother Christian basically worked as an aid to the Iraqi Police. He would work with them through translators as well as working with the inmates. It was a really strange concept even for him to grasp. He basically was saying that he would have to make sure that the inmates were being treated properly, given enough food and water etc. However, most of these inmates were in jail for having tried to kill American soldiers.

He told us about a time when he and his unit were going to the dining halls for dinner. When they were in the dining hall they heard something fly by them. It was a rocket, that was intended for a Iraqi officials helicopter right outside where his unit was eating dinner. They all evacuated the dining hall and went back to their rooms. They all sat there laughing and joking about the rocket while eating their food. He said it was then he realized just how much he had changed since being there.

He said how he realizes that that isnt normal behavior for people not exposed to this to act so nonchalant about it. My sisters and I sat there listening in silence as he was chuckling about it. Its crazy how people can become so desensitized to such things, which he pointed out to us.

I am always so grateful when I hear about soldiers making it home. I love watching families be reunited, and cry everytime I watch those youtube videos of soldiers coming home. However, I sometimes forget to realize that just because they made it home certainly doesnt mean they are coming home the same person they were when they left. There are constant residual effects of what they have seen over there. Even when they are home for many they are still fighting a battle just now the battle is internal.

I have nothing but utmost respect for soldiers and those who are willing to risk their life for this country and its citizens. I may not agree with this war or with the governments decisions in dealing with it, but I will always support the troops.

Accuracy Not Needed?

From this last reading and from class- I had never realized that television stations and other journalism sources are more concerned with who broke the story first rather than the stories actual accuracy. Sure it is great to be the first to get coverage on something, but what does it matter if the coverage is only half right- if that?

People watch the news and read papers to find out things they DON'T know- but they are reading it and watching it because they trust that what is being shown is the truth, is valid, and is real.

I feel like its almost an abuse of power by putting something out in the world that could later be found partially if not totally wrong, when the public is depending and relying on these sources.

Professor Copeland told us about the man that wrote about the jail being over populated and the huge issues surrounding that and then come to realize that he wrote his article without finding out the actual truth- and that jail was actually one of the best kept and properly populated ones in the country. Thats not only a egregious error but its an utterly embarrasing one. Not only did this mans story run- but it ran on the front cover that everyone reads.

It is no surprise that this man eventually left the profession- its certainly unfortunate- but thats not exactly a spelling error and missing punctuation, thats kind of a big deal.

This definitely makes me question what I see on television and what I read now. Before I would have relied solely on the one source I watch on TV or just one article I read, when in reality to really know the truth I guess sometimes we need to look into it ourselves..maybe we'd be better off.

Crisis in America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br7nbQSIyhg


Ellen Degeneres made a profound and much needed address to the country today on her show. After the recent suicide by a Rutgers College student, the 4th suicide of a gay teen in 3 weeks- she felt it was neccesary to acknowledge this tragedy.

I dont understand people's desire to ruin the lives of other people. It was evident this Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, hadn't done anything to provoke others. Yet, someone felt the need to video tape him with another male and broadcast it.  What is wrong with the world?

These gay teenages and often even younger are tormented, tortured, and made to feel inferior wherever they are, and for what purpose? Does it make others feel better about themselves knowing they are hurting someone who is obviously having a hard time already?  Do these people feel remorse for what they have done?

I feel like it is so much easier to simply accept others, accept difference, and even embrace diversity, than to hate.  People who are openly gay are well aware of the troubles they will have to deal with in telling people. They know not everyone will accept them. They realize that by choosing to admit to who they really are, that they are choosing the harder path, but they are atleast being true to themselves. Why is society today not embracing these people for being brave instead of ostracizing them from the rest of society?

People are people. Everyone deserves respect. No one is walking around dictating who straight people can love, yet people full of hate feel justified in telling gay people who they should and shouldnt love. Something needs to be done about the bullying problem in this country. I realize there is more and more coverage of these tragedies, but clearly that isn't enough. Gay teens need to realize that there is support for them, and there is life past high school, past college, past bullies, past hardships. Things will get better and taking your own life is never the right answer.