Monday, September 29, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
MTV's "Rock the Vote" at Quinnipiac
The highly apathetic Quinnipiac University has been making efforts to increase the political awareness of its students for years, and the student programming board organized “Rock the Vote” on Friday in Alumni Hall.
In total, there were just over 80 students in attendance and about 30 of the attendees were there for a class. The guest speakers were an hour late due to transportation issues, and only approximately 50 students returned after the delay. When asked about the large amount of empty seats, co-coordinator Mark Miller replied, “I thought there would be a bunch more people. I guess Friday night isn’t a great time to have a program.”
“Rock the Vote” is an MTV inspired idea, which uses music and popular culture to increase political awareness among young adults and encourage them to vote. Two guests from a popular reality television series made a special appearance at the event. Cyrus and Brooke, two cast members from MTV’s Real World: Denver, with the help of Quinnipiac Democratic and Republican committees came to explain to students the importance of every vote.
“I honestly came to see Brooke and Cyrus. I don’t know that much about politics, so I figured this was a good way for me to learn a little and meet them. I think most people that are here are here to see them anyway,” said junior business major Laura Murphy.
“I like to get involved with politics here at school, so I thought I would come check it out, but I don’t think people from the Real World are real appropriate for something like this. They got randomly picked for a reality show. If those are the people that students are actually influenced by, that’s sad,” said junior education major Matt Tremper.
www.rockthevote.com
In total, there were just over 80 students in attendance and about 30 of the attendees were there for a class. The guest speakers were an hour late due to transportation issues, and only approximately 50 students returned after the delay. When asked about the large amount of empty seats, co-coordinator Mark Miller replied, “I thought there would be a bunch more people. I guess Friday night isn’t a great time to have a program.”
“Rock the Vote” is an MTV inspired idea, which uses music and popular culture to increase political awareness among young adults and encourage them to vote. Two guests from a popular reality television series made a special appearance at the event. Cyrus and Brooke, two cast members from MTV’s Real World: Denver, with the help of Quinnipiac Democratic and Republican committees came to explain to students the importance of every vote.
“I honestly came to see Brooke and Cyrus. I don’t know that much about politics, so I figured this was a good way for me to learn a little and meet them. I think most people that are here are here to see them anyway,” said junior business major Laura Murphy.
“I like to get involved with politics here at school, so I thought I would come check it out, but I don’t think people from the Real World are real appropriate for something like this. They got randomly picked for a reality show. If those are the people that students are actually influenced by, that’s sad,” said junior education major Matt Tremper.
www.rockthevote.com
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Interactive Narratives
Interactive Narratives is a good site if you are looking for a visual explanation, rather than reading about what happened. Also, it strikes me odd that all of the stories on interactive narratives are from other credible news sources. I suppose that this is good, because people know the news will be reliable if it is from The New York Times and USA Today. I was expecting an online news source that would have articles, written by reporters working for the website, instead of video graphics from other credible news sources, showing or explaining a certain event. It seems as though anyone can do this, so interactive narratives doesn't seem like that good of a news source. However, most people probably understand better if the story is laid out in front of them step by step, with virtual graphics to show what basically happened. An example of this would be:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/05/30/nyregion/20080530_CRANE_GRAPHIC.html#
The story of the crane, which killed two and hurt several others, is fully mapped out by this interactive graphic. The story is shown step by step, with small passages explaining what happened as well. Overall, this is a very good idea to show people the news, but I believe that true journalism is best portrayed with words, not pictures. Interactive Narratives is somewhat effective, but I wouldn't consider it online journalism.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/05/30/nyregion/20080530_CRANE_GRAPHIC.html#
The story of the crane, which killed two and hurt several others, is fully mapped out by this interactive graphic. The story is shown step by step, with small passages explaining what happened as well. Overall, this is a very good idea to show people the news, but I believe that true journalism is best portrayed with words, not pictures. Interactive Narratives is somewhat effective, but I wouldn't consider it online journalism.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Presidential Candidates' Policies on Pot
The issue of decriminalization and legalization of marijuana is a small issue in the 2008 presidential election. Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as well as the third party candidates, all vary in their policies towards the issues surrounding marijuana.
In 2004, Obama said, “In terms of legalization of drugs, I think the war on drugs has been an utter failure. I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws. But I’m not someone who believes in legalization of marijuana.” With regards to medical marijuana, he believes that it can be necessary, but only if it is scientifically proven to have a positive effect. Obama is also against the incarceration of current medical marijuana users, and believes that medical marijuana should be subject to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
While McCain agrees with Obama on the issue of the arrests of medical marijuana users, he is entirely against all reformation of marijuana laws, as well as medical marijuana use. McCain strongly frowns upon marijuana, and believes that there are other, healthier alternatives to relieving pain.
Libertarian candidate Bob Barr believes that the issue of marijuana use should be determined on whether or not America wants a government that is so powerful that it can tell you what to do in the privacy of your own home.
The Green party candidate, Cynthia McKinney is for legalization of industrial hemp and all its uses, and the decriminalization of all victimless crimes, which includes possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Independent candidate Ralph Nader believes that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and that it should be “brought into a system of regulation and taxation”, which “would provide greater control over purity, potency, labeling, health warnings and age restrictions than the current ‘war on marijuana’ approach.”
In 2004, Obama said, “In terms of legalization of drugs, I think the war on drugs has been an utter failure. I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws. But I’m not someone who believes in legalization of marijuana.” With regards to medical marijuana, he believes that it can be necessary, but only if it is scientifically proven to have a positive effect. Obama is also against the incarceration of current medical marijuana users, and believes that medical marijuana should be subject to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
While McCain agrees with Obama on the issue of the arrests of medical marijuana users, he is entirely against all reformation of marijuana laws, as well as medical marijuana use. McCain strongly frowns upon marijuana, and believes that there are other, healthier alternatives to relieving pain.
Libertarian candidate Bob Barr believes that the issue of marijuana use should be determined on whether or not America wants a government that is so powerful that it can tell you what to do in the privacy of your own home.
The Green party candidate, Cynthia McKinney is for legalization of industrial hemp and all its uses, and the decriminalization of all victimless crimes, which includes possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Independent candidate Ralph Nader believes that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and that it should be “brought into a system of regulation and taxation”, which “would provide greater control over purity, potency, labeling, health warnings and age restrictions than the current ‘war on marijuana’ approach.”
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Only-Online Journalism
Online journalism is a great means of distributing the news to a worldwide audience, on a constant time-frame. Anyone with computer could find out what is happening in the world at any given moment, and that accessibility is necessary for this ever growing and ever changing world. Another positve factor of online journalism is that it helps the environment, which is presently a big concern in the 2008 presidential election. However, despite the positives of online journalism, the idea of only-online journalism doesn't seem like a reliable media business, simply because there is no means of making money besides advertisements. It might be able to work in a small, moderatley wealthy suburb, where almost everyone has a computer, but the small town paper might not be able to have enough advertisements to pay the employees. I big city would most likely not have a problem with advertisements, but the news would not be fairly distributed, because of the large amount of people without computers. Cyberjournalist.net does a good job of laying the news right in front of you, but there are too many people out there without computers. Also, it doesnt seem like there are enough ads to make enough money to pay the writers. Even people in poverty need to read the news, and reporting the news is more about dispersing the facts to everyone than making money.
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