I Feel Like I Should Be Doing Something About It..I Think I Got Angry.

Maybe angry wasn't the word for it. Maybe it was aggrivated or upset. Or a mix of all of them.

When Bob Wigginton came into our class today as a guest speaker, I guess I didn't expect him to be AS passionate as he was. Maybe I just didn't think about it hard enough before he came in.

He was a reporter for about 24 years so I guess one would have to assume that he was passionate and cared about his art of journalism. I can only imagine his inspiration from reading the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal.

Still though, when he was speaking to us before we could ask questions I felt...just upset I guess. Like when he said that in the past two years over 6,000 journalists have lost their jobs I felt like saying "And...? What am I supposed to do about it?!"

I realize we are Gen Y and we will be in control of and running the majority of this crazy government pretty soon, but thinking about all of the other problems in this economy is just making my mind feel like it's going in a blender and it's not going to stop spinning.

I Don't Read Newspapers.
Newspapers do form a connection with the outside world..but I also believe that CNN does too.
I honestly and knowingly recieve more of my news information from television because my tv is literally always on when I'm in my room. I find it easier to do something else at the same time the news is on and that's what our generation's becoming about: multi-tasking.

I would rather be studying and listening to the news and then stopping what I'm doing if it catches my attention than dedicating 20-30 minutes reading a newspaper a day. It's my preference.

I don't take anything he said though for granted. I consider him to be a very informed, intelligent man. Things are just changing. Times are just changing.

Maybe when I'm a little older I will be wanting to pick up a newspaper more, but I'm not sure.

Actually, I think I felt guilty after this because before I walked to my next class I picked up the latest copy of The Legacy...

Only Rule: Never Say No.

Ever since beginning of High School I was dedicated to Theatre. I participated in all of the musicals I could (except Annie, that seemed like zero fun times).

When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up one of the many changing answers was "rich and famous" or "an actress".
Last year I was a Theatre major at my community college.

Now, here I am, Mass Comm major taking a Jill Falk Survey of Professional Media class.
I still consider it entertainment though.
Professional entertainment, if you will.

So for Sibley Day of course I jumped at the opportunity to attend the Improv Workshop with Proffesor (not sure if that's his correct title) Quiggens.
We played two games.

Whaddareyoudoing?!
This was the first game we played. It starts with two people on the main floor. One will be pantomiming (pretending to be doing an action) of anything. Ex: person pretending to be fishing. The next person will walk up to them and simpley ask 'What are you doing?'.

That person pantomiming, our exampling fishing, will say anything ridiculous and opposite of what they're actually doing.
So our fishing man says "Saving the world from Gladiators".

Person #2 that asked the question then has to act out saving the world from Gladiators.

This goes back and forth and you can switch out people in the middle of the game.

Party Quirks
If anyone has seen Whose Line is It Anyway? has seen Party Quirks performed.

It consists of 4-5 people (the number can always be more after everyone gets the hang of the game). One person is the host and must leave the room prior to starting. The others are the guests who get assigned to be either 1. People 2. Object or 3. Animal. When all are assigned the host comes in and let's the guests in one by one after they step off to the side.

The host has to guess what/who each guest is before the game ends. There can always be a time limit added on.


--I thought Whaddareyoudoing?! Was a better game because you get to think on your toes and it's a little bit more freedom with your actions.

Overall I believe Sibley Day to be a success. Everyone should come see and Improv show at the Black Box over in the new Performing Arts building!


At a Renaissance Faire that I work at in Kenosha, Wisconsin we have a group called the IMPROVables. They do the same kind of games.

They're fun to watch!

Citizen Journalist..Formerly Known As The Audience

The term citizen journalist is pretty literal; just normal, everyday citizens contributing to collecting media and making it available to the masses.
But it's more than just taking a picture of an event with your Iphone and posting a story about it online. Granted, that is a part of citizen journalism, it's just not the whole.

There are actual types of citizen journalists, which I found to be very interesting because at first when thinking about this term, I took it just as we were talking about it in class. Very literal and thinking just about people pulling out their picture phones and showing everyone what they've discovered or what happened to them on the way to work.

The website Poynter Online actually lists the different types of citizen journalists. From commenting on editorials and newspaper articles to the new hot commodity of blogging, everyone has the opportunity to become a citizen journalist.

In the Poynter Online article, number four, The Citizen Bloghouse I found to be the most interesting. A main company contains a blog and can choose to allow citizens to contribute to the information they've posted, possibly even start a blog of their own addressing that specific topic..and get paid for it.
I mean, we were talking about people taking on social networking jobs, I think it's even crazier to think that people are getting paid now to just sit in front of a computer and blog about a company's ideas/topics.

Addressing the same article, I feel like citizen journalism might take away from the actual honest opinion of the average reporter. There's opportunities now for people to give their advice and input into a reporter's article before it's even published. It makes me think that originality is going to be thrown out the window. And say good-bye to media reporters doing their assignments on their own.
But then again, we are Gen Y, and we do prefer to work in groups and feel that sense of community, so I suppose it might not be such a bad thing.



Citizen journalism has a lot of benefits, one of them being spreading information from overseas. This article discusses about violence in Kenya in December of 2007; a woman by the name of Okollah started blogging about what exactly was going on. What the media wouldn't talk about. Her blog escalated into people using Google Maps to pinpoint exactly where the violence was taking place.
It seems like without citizen journalism being formed, people might have never really known about this.
It really makes me wonder what other information we're missing out on.
...but it also makes me really excited to think about what media we'll be receiving soon.

I found this awesome video via YouTube covering citizen journalism...check it out.

The Medium is the Message

I have to admit, after searching "Herbert" Marshall McLuhan I found his achievements to be very impressive. For a man to be gaining an education "out of spite" of his professors made me even more interested in him.
Still, searching his name, I've found this: He was the co-editor of Explorations magazine, taught at countless universities (including St. Louis University from 1937-1944) and received the Gold Medal Award from President of the Italian Republic at Rimini, Italy, in 1971, I felt that I didn't really find all that I needed to on this man.

I found he was a philosopher for mass media, how cool is that?! He wrote Understanding Media, which passed along the phrase, "The medium is the message".
When I first read this phrase, I took it very literally. Ok, so we take in media (t.v., radio, internet, ect.) and we use that as the "message" that today's society and government are trying to tell us.

I was very wrong.
But I also found out that most people are.

McLuhan's point in this, is that we all look at things from an obvious point of view and then we miss so much more.

Apparently, McLuhan REALLY means that medium is "any extension of ourselves" and message is really "the change of scale of pace or pattern" when something new is introduced to today's society.

Why Would I Want to Feel Like I'm Being Spied On?

I do not own a smartphone.  Yes, I want one;  I'm even determined enough to plan to have it by April of this year.  
But do I want an application that gives me and others in my Gmail account an application that let's them know where I am (and vice versa)?
.....Not really.

For our GenY article, I chose "Did Google Just Kill All Other Mobile Social Networks?".  Before I read the article, the title caught my attention.  I knew about Google making a phone with certain applications, but after I was done reading this article, I was completely turned off by it.

The article cover the topic of Google having a type of applications for their phones called "Latitude".  Latitude makes it possible for the owner to view where people can view where their "friends" from their Gmail addresses, RSS readers and people who read their blogs to see exactly where they are.  
I find this slightly creepy.

I appreciated that the article covered the issue of "our real friends aren't all the readers or in our Gmail account address list--they're on social networks like MySpace and Facebook".
This would be Google's downfall because if someone's real friends aren't on Gmail or don't read their blogs.Reviewing this article even more, it addresses that this would give a "Big Brother" feel to anyone in possession of this.  Latitude doesn't even allow chat conversations (yet), just the "comfort" of knowing where your "friends" are, at all times.And this goes to the title of this post, 'Why Would I Want To Feel Like I'm Being Spied On?'.  There are all kinds of people in this world, some not very mentally stable as others.We joke about things over social networks like "Facebook stalkers" (someone who views other people's Facebook profiles, whether they're friends or not), but what about real stalkers?Will Google take responsibility for something to go as sour as that?I, for one, will steer clear from Latitude.  For now at least, until it improves and it's possible to use Facebook or Myspace instead of Google accounts.

THE PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!

Part of the Bill of Rights, freedom of the press gives us the right to voice our opinions and not fear "interference".  I don't believe that when the Bill of Rights was first written, that anyone had predicted what we might be getting ourselves into.  
I do believe that the freedom to speak one's mind, write it down and even publish it could not necessarily be a bad thing.  On the other hand, sometimes we offend and even "cross the line" when it comes to respecting someone's privacy.

Now, when I say freedom of the press, this covers all aspects of media.  Anyway that we recieve news:  television, newspaper, radio, internet and so on and so forth.  

People should be able to write what they want and say what they want.  I mean, after all this is America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, right?  Wrong (to a certain extent, at least),

We want to know everything and journalists work hard at making sure we do.  
But will it be ever enough?  And how far do we take issues before we "cross the line"?

While it is true that we have a democracy that seems to let us get away with almost anything compared to other countries, sometimes it seems like freedom of the press can put us in more jeopardy than we thought.
Take the New York Times vs. U.S. case.  The summary of it states that, "The New York Times and Washington Post began publishing portions of the "Pentagon Papers" (a secret Defense Department report of U.S. involvement in Vietnam)."  The U.S./Nixon Administration saw this as potential useful information to the enemy.  At the end of the case, The New York Times won.

While I believe we as a nation deserve to know certain things.  I believe there's a time and place for everything.  In my opinion, if I had a part in making a decision on that case I would have ruled in favor of making an injunction with the papers.
Freedom of the Press is important, but not as important as my life.  Any kind of story that could be potentially harmful is a possible problem if lives are at stake.

Is it really worth knowing everything?  Or are we better off left in the dark on some issues?

Meet My Friend, Fernando

When I first came to Lindenwood this year, one of the people I had the pleasure of meeting an International student from Panama, Fernando Sucre.

Fernando has lived in the United States for two years and is enjoying every moment.  
I had the opportunity to ask Fernando about how the media differs from his hometown, Panama City to America.  

MOVIES..

Panama tends to watch and view more American-made movies.  Since Spanish is the common language spoken in Panama, American-made movies tend to contain subtitles (or even the random dubbing).  According to Fernando, there actually aren't even that many movies shown that AREN'T American-made; which is just fine by him because he enjoys American movies better.

RADIO..

Compared to the U.S., radio is actually valued quite a bit more.  Not necessarily for the music, but for the rapid flow of news that Panamanians can recieve while living in the busy City.  Fernando informed me that since he comes from a larger city, they're always on the go (this instantly made me think of Chicago) and because new technology, such as smart phones, spread as fast there, the radio is seen as the main source of information during the day.  
Since there is such a need for radio, they of course have stations dedicated to news and politics.  The only downside to political radio in Panama, is that sometimes it can seem rather biased towards certain candidates.  Which, of course, would sway people's feelings about that politician.
Radio is also still nationwide.  Click here for some of the top radio stations in Panama.

SOCIAL NETWORKING..

I believe I come off as rather ignorant to think that social networkings such as Facebook or Myspace only exist in America (but hey, I've never left the country..so bare with me).  I gave Fernando a little bit of a laugh when I asked him if Facebook or Myspace was even avaliable in Panama.  Of course they are; they're even just as popular.  

MAGAZINES/NEWSPAPERS/TELEVISION

Retaining hot information can always come from the latest gossip column found in almost any supermarket or newspaper stand in America.  Apparently, it's the same for Panama.  Fernando admits to having a sister that reads People Magazine to keep up with American celebrities.  
It's no different either when it comes to newspapers.  Panamanian news seems to be filled with more global news than local news.  While Fernando could not vote  this year, he told me his dad still called after Obama won the election to ask him if he was excited about living in the U.S.  during the time our first African-American president was elected.
It made me think about how little we actually know about other countries and their politicians.  I can't even name one from another country.
As for television goes, some of the channels consist of FOX and CNN.  This is another source of media that involves Panama with global news.

The View on Americans..

While Fernando admits that the media portrays Americans "a certain way" he believes that no matter where you go, you'll always be wrong.  He's met plenty of nice Amercans..and plenty of not-so-nice Americans.  Kudos to Fernando for not believing everything he hears about Americans and keeping an open mind about U.S. citizens.

*Interested in learning about specific newspapers and other media from Panama?  Visit this website.

Am I A Representative for Gen Y?

Generation Y, iGeneration and "Gen Why?".  These are some of the nicknames for my generation and I must say, there are some things I cannot deny are irrovocably true; but there are other things, that just plain out upset me.  

My ipod is always on hand.  I text as much as possible.   And I also like to question if certain things are necessary.  I even, yes, have a good measure of respect for authority.

Life revolves around my extra cirricular activities to make me a more well-rounded person and I make work fit around that.  I am slightly pressured to do well in school and in my everyday life because I know, when I graduate college, the economy will not be in the greatest state.  
The only funny thing, is that I put more of these pressures on me than my parents do.  
They just want me to be happy.

I believe that I am Generation Y, that I would rather wear comfortable clothes and flip flops to work rather than what some would call a "stuffy monkey suit".  
I also believe that our generation should not be necessarily held responsible for having happy, wonderful childhoods.  Maybe our parents told us that we can always win, that we're special and that we can be anything we want to be because they didn't get enough of that when they were children?  

But of course, Mr. 60 Minute Man failed to address that possibility.

For as much as we supposedly put ourselves in front of everything, according to a Generation Y study, Gen. Y appears to spend more time with our parents and family.  Despite the growth in divorced parents.

As far as the work environment goes, I completely agree with the fact that we don't want work to control our whole lives.  We might come in with the attitude of "if I don't like this place, I'll find somewhere else to go", but I think that's fine.  We work hard, and we might as well enjoy where we are.  Maybe we want to be happy in all aspects of our lives; instead of thinking of going to a crummy job where we'd rather do anything else than go there for most of our day.  USA Today addresses this in an article, "Generation Y:  They've arrived at work with a new attitude".  I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying your job. 
We also keep our lines of communication open when we're at the workplace.  Again, I don't see anything wrong with this.  So many people take their work home with them, so why can't we take home with us to work?  

As long as this doesn't affect our work.  Working as a hostess, I cannot have my phone on with me.  Texting my boyfriend while I'm seating guests would look bad, and I do not want to affect my place of employment negatively.

Living at home...hmm I mean, isn't is a smart move financially?  No one wants to be put in a bad financial position by moving out because they feel obligated.  Not everyone stays at home though.  I myself, am practically moved out because I only see my family about four months out of the entire year because I live six hours away.

Does the Baby Boomer Generation think all of our lives are like the movie Step Brothers?

For most of us, this isn't reality.  No matter how much Baby Boomer Generation wants to believe it.  

My advice for older generations would be to try and open your minds.  Our generation is evolving.  We have more effective ways of living, and if they try, they might learn something new and exciting.

Everyone should be able to enjoy and appreciate the more effective ways of living.