WSU Kobblog

Media Hype

2009-12-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

In the video, there are examples of digital manipulation in photos and videos. When, if ever, is it ethical to alter a photograph or video that accompanies your news reporting?
I don't think it is ever ethical to alter a photograph or video that accompanies news reporting. That would be altering the truth, and journalism is all about portraying the truth. To do so would be a contradiction.

The video shows examples of "hype"-filled headlines and alarmist reporting. In many cases, this is due to the fact that such reporting tends to get the attention of audiences. Should the news media adjust their news reporting strategies based on reader demand and/or interest?
The news media should not adjust their news reporting strategies based on reader demand and/or interest. Journalism should not have a hidden agenda, they need to be crystal clear in their motive. For news media to be "pure" it has to be unbias, if the news media is purposefully seeking out hype-filled stories, then that's bias and unacceptable.

Several publications and media outlets accept "freebies" and "junkets" from PR firms and lobbyists. Under what circumstances, does this present a conflict of interest for the journalists?
Yes, this presents a very big conflict of interest for the journalists. Like I said earlier journalists need to be unbias. When journalists are put into these situations there creates an enormous amount of pressure to write favorably upon the companies pampering them, to say thanks for the treatment, continue to receive the treatment as well as avoiding a possible backlash fromt the company. Again, that is unacceptable due to the amount of bias involved.

Why do you think so many media outlets were fooled by the "Fat Squad" and other fake news stories? Do you think that the Internet news media is more or less likely to fall for such pranks?
I think it's just a matter of journalists not looking into their stories as much as they should. There's also the matter of the prankers going to great lengths to make the prank happen. I think the internet news media is...

Second Life Goes Corporate

2009-11-16T01:27:00.000-08:00

Business is making its home in the virtual space as virtual worlds focus on providing a more corporate environment.

Linden Lab announced their release of the expansion to Second Life, a program in beta called Second Life Enterprise which aims to create a secure, more cost-effective, corporate friendly program on Wednesday.

“We’re in an environment with a high cost of travel,” Atwood said. “This is a significantly cheaper way to bring people together in real-time.”

Unlike the first Second Life, Enterprise offers a much more secure network, more visual, audio and text collaboration tools, seven prepackaged virtual regions with an auditorium, two conference centers and a number of sandbox regions. The program can support up to eight regions simultaneously and 800 users in the same environment, according to Linden Lab.

More than 1,400 organizations use Second Life as a more efficient and cost-effective way to host meetings, train, and prototype new technologies.

IBM, Northrop Grumman, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, DefenseWeb Technologies, Case Western Reserve University and The New Media Consortium are a few of the 14 organizations participating in the Beta program for Second Life Enterprise.

Linden Lab works with the military to create a product secure enough to be used with the military.

“Virtual Worlds have the potential to provide a safer, more cost effective approach to some of the Navy’s current mission areas. 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,” said Douglas Maxwell, program technology lead for NUWC Metaverse Strategic Initiative.

Linden Lab is working to create another program to complement Enterprise called Second Life Work Marketplace. Work Marketplace will allow customers to browse, test and purchase content from third-party developers.

Second Life Enterprise starts at a cost of $55,000 and its expected availability will be in the first half of 2010.

Second News Story & Feature

2009-11-16T01:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is so late onto my blog, posting these slipped my mind.

Feature-
Many years ago in Stimson Hall, a hall mom was in charge of the hall. Heather E. Coakley is bringing that unique feel back as she works as a Residential Education Director.
Hailing from Illinois, Heather graduated from North Central College with a degree in Speech Communication and a minor in Theater and Organizational Leadership. She is now pursuing her Masters at Washington State University in Higher Education Administration while working as a Residential Education Director in Stimson Hall.
As a RED, Heather works to do much supervision, advising and administrative tasks concerning the function of Stimson as a residence hall, but to call it at that would not do her job justice. Heather works to build community and involvement in the hall while helping students grow as they get to know themselves and their leadership potential.
“I get to know the residents really well, I have tons of fun, I do things at my job and sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, I’m getting to do this as my job,” Heather said.
Heather brings a unique feel as a leader to Stimson Hall, something that has not been felt in many years, being the only female and acting as a hall “mom” if you will.
“She has embraced Stimson by investing herself into the hall and in turn has become a place she calls home.
“She is something new and I think that they enjoy that she brings a new dynamic to the hall,” Nathanael K. Fairchild, resident of Stimson and friend of Heather, said.
Although there is a great potential for bumps along the way the addition of a female RED in an all-male residence hall has been very smooth.
“I think the hall has embraced Heather well, being that she’s the first female hall director here since the early nineties. I feel like the hall has been very good trying to get to know her,” John M. Powers, her coworker and friend, said.
Due to the way the hall has embraced her, the staff and some residents are referring to her as “mom.”
I find it comical in the fact that it shows the staff has come to embrace her, and also how she has embraced the staff. Both parties are comfortable with that, it’s representative of the fact that it is a change to the hall as she is a female in the hall, Powers said.
Stimson has been a very traditional and historic hall. Built in 1922, Stimson has been a very traditional hall. Stimson has always valued community and camaraderie within the hall.
“I just love local history. I came from a town that had a lot of local history. They really liked to celebrate their heritage. To come to a building that has a similar pride in its history is really cool because there is so much there, I'm still finding out things about the history,” Heather said.
Some of the unique characteristics Stimson has is its unique recruitment.
“The most unique thing about Stimson is the way we recruit Resident Advisors. We call them Sponsors here, a system that's been in place since the 30s, when the house mom decided she needed helpers,” Heather said.
In the end, Heather is working towards her goals with higher education administration and Stimson Hall is a stop along the way where she is there to influence the residents and the residents influence her.
“Things are going great. People know I am here, they know they can come to me, they do and that is all I can really ask for,” Heather said.
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2nd News Story-
You must have heard the rumors, right? The rumors about Duncan-Dunn being torn down. Or how about the rumors about Community too? Oh, and do not forget Ganon-Goldsworthy and KMac as well.
The development of the residence halls has been a slow process for the last few years, Olympia Hall being the first new addition in thirty years. There have been numerous remodels and renovations but nothing completely new. Washington State University Housing and Dining Services was working on new plans for the residence halls during that time.
WSU Housing and Dining Services was working with Mithun, an architectural company, to plan future residence hall buildings. The original plan was called Precinct One and was to tear down Ganon-Goldsworthy and KMac and put in 4 buildings overlooking a courtyard, said Director of Housing and Conference Services Robert B. Tattershall.
Due to the features and expenses of a new residence hall, the price of living in that hall may be increased compared to other residence halls. However, the students do not seem to mind.
“Over 700 students picked Olympia Hall as their first choice, only about 200 can live in Olympia. It worries us that it is by far the most expensive, but Olympia is beyond the most popular on campus,” said Tattershall.
Just like Olympia Hall, future residence hall building projects are sure to be environmentally friendly.
Yes, they will be environmentally sustainable. You can do green things like replace windows and change the heating, but you will never be able to do near as many green things compared to building something completely new, said Tattershall.
There are many features surrounding Olympia Hall.
Some of the big things are that we are entirely card access. We are the first green residence hall, for instance all the materials came from within 500 miles of Pullman, and all over the hall is sustainable information such as the low energy lights and the low flow toilets, said Residential Education Director Meg E. Autrey.
A great example of the issues WSU faces as they look at the future of the residence halls on campus lies in Duncan-Dunn.
“You can renovate these things but you can’t really renovate them in a way to meet the student’s needs today. We allow microwaves in Olympia, that’s the only place we can allow it, the electrical is not enough in other halls,” said Tattershall.
Duncan-Dunn was shut down for the fall semester of 2009. The reasons were because of Olympia and cost.
“Duncan-Dunn has quite a few facility problems. The roof needs to be replaced, the plumbing needs to be replaced, just about every year some bathroom has to go offline for a few days or a week while we replace some pipes. The building is just inefficient. If we close it we save a bunch of money.”
A Duncan-Dunn alumni shows his opinion about Duncan-Dunn.
“Well, I must admit that I’m pretty sad that it’s considered being torn down because I had such an amazing experience there my freshman year, but I can see why WSU decided to shut it down,” said student Brett Melnrick.
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Frontline: "What's Happening To The News"

2009-11-02T02:25:00.000-08:00

The documentary brings up quite a few issues that news is facing today. The documentary conveys the importance of these issues and the feeling of loss that is happening not only to the sentimental value of "old school" news, but of how news is changing. Some of the issues that the documentary brings up are: what is news, hard vs. soft, the move to the internet, not as many journalists on the streets and then it goes over the story of the Los Angeles Times and how it reflects American journalism.

First off, I think it's very interesting that shows like The Daily Show and some blogs are being taken seriously as news sources. Not only interesting, but typical. Typical of people to look to the comedic or entertaining outlets for their "hard" news fill. It's ridiculous really. The documentary made it clear that those who are involved with those types of outlets don't want anything to do with journalism, but people still treat it like that. According to some it's not ridiculous but to those who are educated in the journalistic profession can see the ridiculousness of the situation.

The other issue I find typical is the story of the Los Angeles Times and how the corporate owners from the other side of the country (almost) are trying to run this paper with no character, just straight business looking for profit. It's typical for people to de-personalize themselves with a organization when they aren't local, it's also typical for people to let greed take over and not let people be content with what is sufficient. Needing more is driving so much for today, yeah they're being successful making money, but is that really success in a profession whose role is a public service?

In-Class Research Exercise

2009-11-02T00:17:00.000-08:00

1)
In 2006 there were 4 total Hate Crimes all towards sexual orientation. In 2007 there were a total of 5, 4 towards race and 1 towards sexual orientation. Overall in Pullman, race and sexual orientation are threatened most.

In Washington in 2007, racial hate crimes are by far of the most concern. There are a total of 104 race hate crimes while the rest of the types of crimes are at an average of about 22, that's a radical difference.

Pullman matches Washington in 2007 with a big difference in racial hate crimes compared to over crimes.

2)
Christine Gregoire received the most with over 12 million dollars in donations.

For Christine Gregoire, Lawyers and Lobbyists contributed over 380 thousand dollars. For Dino Rossi, Lawyers and Lobbyists donated over 70 thousand dollars. A significant difference.

Republicans received more donations from Forestry and Forest Products with over 2 million dollars. Republicans received more donations from Lobbyists and Public Relations, but with only a 100 thousand dollar increase.

3)
Digital Video Recorder
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=N7h1AAAAEBAJ&dq=Digital+Video+Recorder
Social Networking
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=aTB4AAAAEBAJ&dq=Social+Networking
Automobile
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=UlInAAAAEBAJ&dq=automobile

Special Leads

2009-10-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

Direct-Address Lead
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009990787_jaffe04.html
This lead is very fitting for the story. The story is essentially comparing relationships to investing funds. I don't think very much improvement could come fromt the lead. The story works because it draws you with personality. I don't think another lead would have worked better due to the way he introduces the story. A summary news lead would have lost the personal level on which the story relates with people.

Narrative Lead
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010001258_brier05.html
I think the narrative lead does well with a story like this. It gives a history for the story that makes it unique, something you wouldn't feel quite as much if there wasn't a narration at the beginning. I don't think the lead needed to be improved and a summary lead would have lost the unique feel of the story. Other special leads could have worked just as well.

News Story #1

2009-09-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

After a year and a half, Washington state traffic programs make headway.
Washington state signed Target Zero into action early 2007, since then programs like X52 and Drive Hammered, Get Nailed were created with the same goal in mind. Washington state made fewer than 39,500 DUI arrests in 2008, roughly a 7% decline from 2003-2007 annual average of 42,611, according to the Washington State Traffic Commission.
“My experience with the programs has been completely positive. For the little amount of paper work, it’s a great thing for the community to make it that much safer,” said Washington State University police officer Matt T. Kuhrt, 30, in an interview Friday.
Programs like these gave the Washington State University Police Department $4,300 over the past year. Eighty two extra hours were devoted to DUI and speeding emphasis patrols at the WSUPD, according to the WSUPD.
“The wages are spent on officers working overtime. They are not to be spent on equipment. There are other grants and programs available,” Kuhrt said. Emphasis patrols are placed monthly and affect either DUIs, speeding or seatbelts. All are overtime patrols.
The traffic program X52 focuses on putting out extra patrols fifty two weeks out of the year focused on catching DUIs and speeding. Drive Hammered, Get Nailed focuses on drunk driving. Both programs rely on publicity and advertising of the program to scare people out of drunk driving or speeding, the Washington State Traffic Commission said.
“People will remember something about it and they might think twice, they are witty advertisements,” Kuhrt said.
“They’re not just interested in maximizing revenue by catching people. We know from public policy cases that the more tools you use the more effective a program is,” said Washington State University political science professor Steven D. Stehr.
The umbrella program, Target Zero, hopes to achieve zero traffic related fatalities or serious injuries by 2030, according to the WTSC.
“Just these campaigns will not reduce traffic fatalities; we need to take other steps. Stricter punishments are one goal we need to work more towards,” Kuhrt said.
Pullman is a college town, its population and demographic changes drastically from season to season. There is potential for drunk driving and speeding to affect Pullman differently.
“I could see both sides of the equation. A lot of residents live in walking distance of the bars, but it’s a normal thing to find more of a drinking culture in the confines of a college town,” said Stehr.
“It doesn’t really affect Pullman any differently, impaired driving affects places the same, it doesn’t affect any town differently,” Kuhrt said.
No one can see whether or not there will be unforeseen consequences from the campaigns.
There has been a decline in parents putting their children in booster seats. It turns out there was a misinterpretation of the Ticket or Click It campaign. Parents thought it was the law that their children needed to be belted down, when in fact they needed to be in a booster seat. We will have to see if there are any unintended consequences with these programs, said Stehr.
“I think these programs are effective, I wouldn’t be putting my time into doing this if I didn’t think it made a difference,” Kuhrt said.
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Second-Day Lead Writing Exercise

2009-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

4-year-old still missing after one day, anyone with information regarding the child is asked to contact either the parents or the police.

2009-09-28T01:57:00.001-07:00

During the 2AM hour (our time) on Monday I watched Al Jazeera talk about the shahab-3 missile threatening other countries with range, russia is asking for cooperation from iran, Theodore Karasik talks about potential war in the middle east, Tropical Storm Katsana on Saturday in the Philippines, and much more. Later into the 2AM hour I watched some of Russia Today talk about the Russian Naval Orchestra, Russia and belarus test new joint defense system in militay games, Col. Gen. Leonid Maltsev talks about the military games, Iran tests long range missiles as tension over nuclear aims mounts: Iran has long range missiles and threatens other countries, Merkel wins in Germany and says to revive econonmy and protect jobs, French foreign minster appeals to US in hope Polanski can be released on bail: pleading guilty to underage sex charges. Later during that hour I caught the following on the France 24 channel: Merkel is trying to protect jobs in Germany, Iran tests long range missiles, Philippines government overwhemed by deadly floods in the philippines, Socialists win election in Portugal and US atlanta's georgian bank becomes US's latest bank failure.

AL JAZEERA
I think the Al Jazeera new network will be very successful in reaching the U.S. through the internet with programs like LiveStation. Due to our relationshp with the middle east right now, people care about what's happening over there.

I think the Al Jazeera should be allowed to broadcast in the U.S. Our country has always been for civil rights like freedom of speech and such ideas.

From what I saw, Al Jazeera was a very to the point news station. It functioned very much like other large news stations, very formal and serious.

During the hour that I watched, I didn't see anything that broke their code of ethics, they had a pretty general "Murrow-based" code for the most part.

Summary News Lead Example

2009-09-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of a summary news lead from the New York Times.

LINK:
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?ref=world

LEAD:
BAGHDAD - American and Iraqi forces raided a house in Baghdad and, after a gunfight, arrested three Iraqis suspected of launching a rocket attack coinciding with a visit here are Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the American military said Wednesday.

This is a summary news lead because it goes straight to the meat of the story, although it could possibly be a multi-element news lead, it still follows the summary news lead formula. It tells what happened, why it is significant and when it happened. The multi-element lead comes into play with the two actions happening with Iraqi forces raiding a house and arresting three Iraqis.

Journalism Topic #1

2009-09-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

For our first story, I would like to look into the following:

The WSU Swine Flu epidemic: Is it all that it's cracked up to be?
Washington upped their police watch for DUIs: Is it effective?
The rennovation of campus: Olympia, Duncan-Dunn, Ganon-Golds, Kmac

Oil in Ecuador

2009-09-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

The first video gave a very straightforward display of events with equal representation from each side. It followed "The Murrow Standard" well, but was very broad. The 60 Minutes presentation didn't look into all the subject matter as deep as it could have, but is perfectly acceptable due to what kind of news presentation they were making. If they were doing a very detailed and specific show it would have been much too long for viewers.

The second video gave a very detailed and specific news presentation aimed at explaining what happened in Ecuador and discrediting some of the tension aimed at them. It was a very focused presentation and probably wouldn't be held up to "The Murrow Standard" all that well.

Overall the first video was broad but acceptable, and the second video was very focused not holding up to "The Murrow Standard."