The end, but a new beginning

This marks the end to my j2150 class,
but this isn’t the total end, this is a beginning to a life of journalism where I can use the skills I’ve obtained to create a successful career for myself. I’ll be able to report stories and events using visual components, and actually know what I’m doing. I have a better understanding now of how visual elements can really take a story to the next level. Videos, photos, and audio allows one to deliver a story in ways one couldn’t with just written reporting. Personally this semester has been eye opening, after having to follow Gina, who is blind, using all outlets for visual/audio components, or shooting photos of a family that I didn’t know in their own garage making a cardboard boat for a boat race was a challenge and made me step out of my comfort zone, which I’m thankful for, because now when I step into my career, I’ll have the experience to know what I’m doing.
I had a wonderful TA as well. Shane was so patient with us, and knew how to teach us in a way that was easy to understand. We could relate to him so much because he’s a professional, but still with a young personality. It was great to see how passionate he was at teaching and about his craft.
I seriously enjoyed this class, and hope that the rest of my journalism career is just as enjoyable.

The Huffington Post’s Sexist Linkbait Strategy

The Huffington Post is ran by a woman, however the way they portray women in the online publication is questionable..

Arianna Huffington is the editor/creator of the Huffington Post. She is an inspiration to me because she is a woman in a very powerful position. However as a journalist, and looking trough the site, it’s clear that the portrayal of woman is kind of dissapointing. The way they advertise stories either about women, or woman affiliated are objectifying and degrading. The women’s section of the magazine is tucked away, and the section is filled with stereotypical topics that women “would” be interested in. The YouTube video makes this point very clear, and shows just how one sided the Huff can really be. It only until you start to do the research that you come to realize this.. and it’s really sad because as a woman, Arianna should be aware of this and take it into account. I know money and profit is a key goal of the publication corporation but really? Putting your own kind up to be sacrificed for a buck? Sounds good.

The Man in the Chair: By Echo

This is a video that my friend Echo made of the music I’m in this summer. This is for her last project, and I think it turned out really well!! She’s in the photography/ documentary track at MU, and I think will go far. She is very talented. Her eye for shots, for lighting, and for a great story line is really impressive, and I hope that I could be that creative. The lighting that she captures is really pretty, and the (cinematography?) is very pretty. With all the still shot scene setters, and gentle glow of the lighting really makes the profile of this wonderful man come alive. Granted it’s video, but you know what I mean. This is a really sweet angle, with plenty of money moments and I’m very proud. Also I’m in it a couple of times. 🙂

Beginnings of Final 2150 project.

The end is almost here! Me and my team started our final project, and it’s coming together pretty nicely. We had an idea at first, which was great. There’s a pair of Mizzou students who volunteer their time in conducting a dance class for young kids, all by themselves, and we thought that would be a great visual, and impacting story. There would have been plenty of angles and visual options for video and photography..even audio as well, with adorable quotes from kids and deep quotes from parents.. but the idea fell through. Just as we were about to start, the sources backed out. So we were at square one again, wondering what we could do in this short amount of time. It was almost like it feel in our laps. This weekend there was a cardboard boat race at a local park, sponsored by the Food Bank here in town. Anyone could compete, and all you had to do is donate 3 cans of food to register, and make a boat entirely out of cardboard, then race it across a lake around a marker, and make it back to the finish line with out the boat breaking. Me and the team decided this was a great story and also provided a bunch of great visual components and rich diverse angles. We started right away by finding families who were involved, assembling their boats. I met with a father and son team who were assembling a boat to compete in their first card board boat race. They were really sweet and friendly, letting me into their work time to take pictures of them painting, and creating their boat. They were very open to talking with me and ended up giving me a really interesting interview. It’s always so nice to come across sources who are willing to work with you. That to me might be the most challenging part of this profession. Being able to work with sources and getting the information you need from them, while maintaining their friendship and trust. This was probably the biggest challenge for me through this whole process. I’ve never had to actually go to someone’s private home, and invade their life to follow them around with a camera for an hour and a half. It took a lot of will power and zen for me to conger up that kind of courage. But you just have to remind your self why you’re here, and what you love about what you’re doing, and know that if you’re dedicated, you’ll come up with something great, which I feel like I did.

To be or not to be. That really is the question.

To be a journalist, or not a journalist. I feel like everything I’m doing isn’t getting me any closer to what I want to do. But what do I want to do? People tell me that I’d be a good journalist, and say that I care about telling people’s stories. This is true, I do love getting to know people, and being creative while telling their stories, but lately I just feel like there might be something else for me to do.

I feel like there are so many steps to getting to do what I truly want to do. The truth is that I really do want to be a journalist. I want to be able to tell stories and make people aware of what is truly going on in the world. I want to be that watchdog for society, while being creative. I want to make a change by telling the truth. But the system they have going here is hard. It takes so much to go through the pulmonary rounds to get to the top. I understand that this is a competitive program, and are “weeding out” the people who aren’t as passionate, but what happens when they start weeding out the people who actually want to be there, on account of mindless things. I have enough passion in my pinky finger to fill an entire room. I’ve been dreaming of being a journalist, but if that’s all lost on a GPA score, I will be devistated, and they will be missing out on a journalist like myself. Not to toot my own horn or anything but man, things need to change. This entry is coming straight from my frustration.

Night life crawls into campus

Night Life is a free mobile application for Android and iPhones designed to feature all local venues, such as bars, restaurants, and music events around Columbia with deals and events they are hosting.

Created by MU alum Kyle Turner, this app will provide students with an outlet to easily access information about events around town, while also saving money.

“That’s the mentality behind the app itself, to provide something free for the students and try to help them out.” said junior Danny Glover, volunteer for Night Life.

The app has had 10,000 plus downloads and 2500 unique users every week. To help publicize the app, creators and volunteers are organizing a $10 pub crawl, sponsored by Y 107, to introduce to students it’s features.

The event also includes a free t shirt to the first 1000 participants, and an entry to win a free iPad 3, and to try and beat the Guinness World Book of records for pub crawl attendants.

“This pub crawl is just kinda trying to spread the word about it.” said junior Danny Glover, volunteer for Night Life.

Junior Danny Glover volunteers by providing information to students about Night Life, a free smart phone application at Speaker’s Circle Tuesday, April 10.

Speaking to passing students, freshman Phill Benjamin volunteers in publicizing a pub crawl happening this weekend, Tuesday, April 10. “One of the older guys in my fraternity created the app.” said Benjamin

I Want To Go To Paris

or somewhere that’s different. I want to travel and fly over seas somewhere where nothing is the same, and every experience is unique. I want to go somewhere where they speak a different language, and I have to figure out everything by body language and frustration. It would be interesting to see how I’d survive. I also want to meet everyone I can. Just talk to people, get their gossip and stories, and compare them to my own tribals and tribulations. I want to go to acting school, and learn how to perform. Not just Columbia level perform, I mean full on, I could be on Broadway in a heart beat perform. That would be such an amazing life to be able to be paid to perform a show you were cast in every night for a sold out crowd filled of people all around just to come see you. I can only imagine how humbling that would be. Or I could go to cosmetology school and become a make up stylist. So often now I’m hearing stories from my friends back home, saying how much money they make and how many client’s their booking already doing hair and such while I’m sitting in class, getting poorer and poorer. I mean I have to keep in mind that later I will have a degree to call my own and maybe a great job, but that’s a huge maybe. What if things don’t pan out the way I plan? I don’t think I’m the type of person to let that happen, but who knows? Life throws curve balls all the time. I just have to be able to look at myself with a straight face and say, “I love this. Journalism is all I ever wanted.” and be content. But right now it’s not looking like that’s happening.

I know that this seems a little rant-y and kind of a crazy jumbled up spilling of thoughts but this is an example of just writing everything I’m thinking right now, with out stopping. We were advised to do this every so often, to understand your rhythm of writing and your style in my J2150 class, so I figured this was a good place to practice. So in conclusion, right now you looking deep inside my exposed mind. (I mean kind of, that was slightly dramatic.)

Here’s something I’ve been really obsessed lately. I play the violin so I hope to someday be able to get back into it and be well practiced, like this guy. If he had some video skills he could have made this SO awesome.

Spring Break

So the last few weeks of school have started. The count down is on. 29 more regular school days and it’s off to…more school. I recently just enrolled into classes for the summer. Spanish, math and hopefully  a journalism course and the summer is complete. I am so done with school. You’d think that the week off they gave me would help clear my mind, free me of my stress, and help me focus on what was to come, but really all it did was increase my anxiety for it all, causing me to fret over the dreaded Monday back to school ALL BREAK LONG. It was terrible. Literally an hour into spring break I was chanting “I don’t wannna go back, I don’t wanna go back, I can’t believe I have to go back,” and I had a whole 7 days of freedom. Needless to say that put a damper on things.

For the next several weeks though, me and two others in my journalism class are going to be working on a group project. All of us will be covering the same story but in different ways. One of us is writing the story, the other is filming, and I have the pleasure of shooting photos. Finally, something that I can control. Before, when I was working with video, it was like stumbling through a pitch black room, trying to find my cell phone. Haha it was terrible! I knew what I needed to do but could not get there, because I didn’t know what I was doing.. but this will be SO much better, because not only will I not be alone, but I will have the comfort of my camera to help me be creative and tell the story the best way I know how.

Today by the way is Autism Awareness Day!! So read something, educate yourself, or maybe interact or think about a personal tie you have with someone who has autism. I agree that there needs to be more done than just an awareness day, but this is the first step.

Speak Out Video

A couple of nights ago I filmed my broll and interview for my J2150 News story project. I had to think of a subject on the fly because my last subject (though I love her) couldn’t meet with me in time, so as a result I had to improvise. I decided to cover an event on campus that the RSVP center was hosting in demonstration against domestic abuse and sexual violence. The event was called Speak Out, a poety slam based that featured multiple spoken word artists from around campus, and a famous poet that they brought in from LA, Thea Monyee. The artists prepared a variety of spoken poems displaying their views on domestic violence. It was gorgeous and absolutely moving to hear these students all around 20 years old, speaking out for victims of such tragic situations. One of whom caught my eye, who was the founder and president of the new spoken word poetry organization on campus.

Bully

Last weekend, as my last post states, I attended the True/False Film Fest, and was subject to the most influential film I have ever seen. The documentary, Bully, directed by award winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch, depicts the truest form of bullying by displaying through the lives of a few students in some parts of the US. This film struck a nerve with be, because I was once bullied in school myself, as well as my twin brother, and seeing it first hand through these children brought back vivid memories and frustration at what little was being done to stop this issue. The film was supposed to be shown March 30th, and to be released and shown in schools across the country, so other students could see the effects of bullying, but was given an R rating. This was a devastating blow to the cast as well as the public, because not only did the cost members want a change in their situations, but they wanted to be the change in other’s lives as well, but could not do so because of this barrier. Just recently one of the cast members, Alex, who suffered from bullying first hand at his middle school (being called derogatory words, hit, stabbed with pencils) went with Hirsch to the capital to fight for a change in the rating. They lost by one point. All that hard work to change lives and the battle was lost by a single point. As the cast answered questions after the showing I went to at True/False, you could just see the frustration these children and parents had, because they had worked so hard to make a change, and couldn’t get there. It was killing me that I couldn’t do anything about it until they had mentioned a petition they were conducting online to change the rating, and get it in schools. I signed it the moment I got home. These kids/parents are an inspiration, letting their lives be plastered onto a big screen, and baring their hardships and vulnerability for 100’s of people to see, in hopes to possibly save other children’s lives.

The link to the petition is posted below in the hopes that you take the time to watch the trailer and see what I’m talking about. You really only need the length of this trailer to realize how incredible this cause is, and if you feel inclined, I urge you to stand and fight for these kids who are being bullied everyday, and taking drastic measures to end it.

http://www.change.org/petitions/mpaa-don-t-let-the-bullies-win-give-bully-a-pg-13-instead-of-an-r-rating