Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Viewer Discretion is Advised Due to Profanity

Karina Vargas happened to be at a Bay Area Rapid Transit Station very early News Years Day. There was a fight on the train and BART Officers came to it break up. Oscar Grant is seen in the video amongst the group the officers rounded up.

In a video posted on YouTube, Vargas footage is shown first and the next segment of the video has her speaking to a reporter from a local station at what seems to be her residence.

In the interview, she did mention the officer who shot Grant was shocked himself when he realized what he had done.

If she didn’t get in the train in time after the shooting, a BART Officer would have confiscated her camera.

This is the reaction from a representative of BART after watching the video a TV reporter presented to him.

As a result of the shooting, a riot occurred in the streets of Oakland.

CBS5: Inside The Oakland Riot: A First-Hand Account

And the BART Officer Resigned

All Headline News: BART Officer In Fatal Shooting Resigns; Protests In Oakland Turn Violent

For some people watching the video, it might reopen fresh wounds and perspectives of how officers react in a situation regarding a person of color. However, others might say they have to listen to both sides before making an opinion of the event.

The comments on YouTube from viewers of the videos ranged from prejudice to outrage. Here are two examples below.

From the Reactions From BART Officials Over New Video Of Fatal Shooting YouTube video (second one right above)

FormalScience (31 minutes ago) 

Terrible injustice on this kid and his family, cops are just to trigger happy. Did the cop think he had his taser in his hand, not his firearm?, there were plenty of police there to overpower him if necessary so why pull a weapon at all?.

From the Oakland, Ca Fruitvale Bart Station Shooting. Full Video and interview with Karina Vargas (first video above)

Lowranger7 (31 minutes ago) 

Glad he’s dead. Hope he suffered. A fitting end for all n*****s…and f**s too !

I just want to send a big thanks to Barbara Raab for passing along this information. In case anyone hasn’t heard or read, there is a blog called Suzanne Yada (last name pronounces YaY-Duh).

Yada recently posted a great blog giving tips for journalism students.

It includes learning to network, meeting deadlines, social networking and so forth.

The first part is called Resolutions for journalism students, part I: Become invaluable

Part II: Resolutions for journalism students, part II: Network like mad

New Greater Bethel Ministries has a Soup Kitchen/Food Pantry in Hollis. It is a storefront with a sign in the window that is hard to see from far away, whether driving or walking along Hollis Avenue near Francis Lewis Boulevard.

Mother Ruby Graham, 77, is the coordinator, wearing a sea captain’s hat, and does most of the cooking. Her assistant, Sister Curtis, and volunteers Sister Meebam (wearing a magenta hat and blouse) and a retired military veteran (wearing an “I Love NY” shirt), help Mother Graham run the place.

It wasn’t easy taking photographs because of the dimly lit place with few fluorescent lights illuminating. Additionally, some of the the people who came to get a hot plate might have been convicts who were released from jail and immigrants according to Sister Meebam. So the ISO had to be increased, and the pictures came out brighter.

The book took more than two years to be put together. Phantom Students focus on the experience of New York City author, Charlton D’souza, on what he and other students faced while attending Marymount Manhattan College Community Leadership Program (CLP). The program was designed to reach out to students in communities that have been overlooked by institutions of higher education. 

The program began in 1993, with 15 students enrolled, D’souza had discovered. When the year was over, only one student graduated from it. By a very slim margin, the entire class dropped out.

In 1999, 17 students out of a class of 27 graduated, making it the highest number of students to complete the program. In total, 156 students were enrolled in the program.

The program itself is no longer in existence. The last class enrolled documented thus on a chart in Phantom Students was in 2001. His colleague and long time friend since high school, Brandon C. Jennings, was in the program at the time it was cut along with D’souza in early 2004. In addition, he is still paying a loan to this date. 

Nationally, D’souza researched that one of the reason why students were dropping out of school was due to economic issues. He went to the U.S Census website and saw that “In 2005, the average tuition was $13,425 for room and board (for in-state students) at the nation’s four-year public colleges and universities. In 2008, that number has increased to $15,372.”

For private institutions, in 2005, tuition, room and board was $36,510. In 2008, the number increased to $41,000 a year.

D’souza was in the program on a full academic scholarship, but on February 21, 2004, he did not get to see it last. It was in the evening when he was leaving school. One of the security guards handed him a letter. Inside, it was a statement that said he was “no longer a student and had been discharged from the university.”  

When he was in transition of wanting to transfer to another school, D’souza could not get a transcript or speak with any members of the administration. So he protested “outside the college and held a press conference seeking help. He also began to file complaints to the United States Department of Education and the Attorney Generals office, and the person holding the position was former governor, Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer also has a connection with the institution as well.  

The young man is very driven and determined. Even his former Marymount professor Americo Casiano believes in him. Casiano currently works for the Bronx Council on the Arts, a private non-profit organization that provides “cultural services and arts programs” for community oriented organizations throughout the Bronx.

The book is almost ready to print. It has only 176 pages. And he has a website where he is trying to reach out to schools to speak about his story. He came up with the name Phantom Students because he  ”wanted to bring attention to the students who weren’t graduating from college.” Pretty soon the book will be up on the website to be viewed chapter by chapter. Later this month, a book signing party will take place.

Visit the website at http://www.phantomstudentsacrossamerica.com/  

Taken by Henry Cool Pics on Flickr

On Tuesday’s morning edition of “The Today Show”, host Matt Lauer interviewed former Victoria Secrets model and current TV show mogul,Tyra Banks on a survey her show conducted during this summer to over 10,000 teenage girls and young women.

“Tyra Banks good morning and Wow” were the first words Lauer said. “I’m a parent of three little kids and my jaw dropped….What surprised you the most?”

Tyra explained that finding out how honest the girls were in their answers because the survey was anonymous, surprised her the most.

The survey itself was composed of questions centering on “sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy, as well as drinking, drugs and violence among females.” (excerpt taken from Today Show contributor Laura T. Coffey report on the story.)

Here are some of the statistics from the study:

• On average, girls are losing their virginity at 15 years of age.
• 14 percent of teens who are having sex say they’re doing it at school.
• 52 percent of survey respondents say they do not use protection when having sex.
• One in three says she fears having a sexually transmitted disease.

Just viewing some of the clips that was provided to Today’s viewers showed one 16-year-old girl wearing a green jacket who smirked when she told Tyra she had nine lovers since losing her virginity at age 13.

Click here to view the Today Show video in its entirety

In addition to the video, an article was accompanied to provide more description of the survey and statistics. (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27706917/?GT1=43001)

And an interactive map: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27285583/

NYC STATS

“About 1 in 3 youth are currently sexually active”

Last year in August, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued its sixth volume of “NYC Vital Signs”, focusing on”Teen Sexual Activity and Birth Control Use in New York City”.

Statistics was provided by the New York City Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Knowledge of emergency contraception varies by gender and borough

*Youth in Manhattan (55%) and Staten Island

(54%) are more likely to report knowledge of

EC than youth in Queens (41%) and the Bronx (43%).

*Youth in East and Central Harlem more

commonly report having heard of EC than youth

in North and Central Brooklyn (59% vs. 37%).

The show will be airing this Friday…check for local listings.

Two days ago, President Bush met with the 2008 NCAA Champions. Out of all of the pictures with the teams, this one shows him being down to earth. Xeni Jordan, Co-editor of boingboing.net, co-host/producer of Boing Boing tv. broke the news.

Who can come up with the best caption?

President George W. Bush with the Arizona State University Men's and Women's Track Team. White House photo by Eric Draper

These are a compilation of videos I came across YouTube during the election campaign. I will not use barelypolitical aka Obama Girl in this post. Enjoy!

McCain vs. Madonna: Gray Ambition

Barack Roll

McCain Green Screen – ‘Super McCain Bros’

  (more…)

Yesterday Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the update to his November Financial Plan. He predicts for fiscal year 2009 and 2010, the city will see at least a $4 billion dollar budget gap that will be felt in the pockets of taxpayers.

“The gravity of the budget situation requires us to make hard choices that will not be popular with everyone.  But they’re the right ones to see us through these very difficult economic times and they will help speed our recovery, while continuing to keep our streets safe and clean and keep improving our schools,” he said in a press release. “We will not let our city return to the dark days of the 1970’s when the fiscal crisis all but destroyed our quality of life.”

 

These are the proposed actions that will take place to accommodate the budget gap in the Plan’s Budget Summary recently published:

For Agency spending reduction: 

Reducing the city’s workforce by 3,000 employees with a possibility of laying off 600.  

More than 1,000 police officers from the NYPD will be reduced with the cancellation of two academy classes in January of 2009. However, in July 2009, 2,000 will be added to the force.

Library and cultural institution subsidies will be cut by 2.5 percent for 2008 and 5 percent next year. From this, cultural institutions will feel $11 million taken away in city funds and libraries will lose hours from 6 days to 5.5 days per week.

As for the Department of Education, $181 million this year and $385 million for 2009 in city funds will be reduced. And it will be coming from the administration. Look forward to seeing 475 administrative officials jobless.

     To Increase Revenue:     

•   Elimination of the $400 property tax rebate that will gain the city $256  million in revenue.
• An increase in certain fees and fines to generate $123 million. (mmm…could this mean an increase in personal income tax)

By the way, somewhere in the city, five engine companies in firehouses with fully staffed ladder companies won’t have to work the nighttime shift. And training for firefighters on probation will be cut from 23 weeks to 18 weeks. (Imagine that…will this cause more issues for the city that could add more to the deficit…you be the judge.)

It hasn’t been 24 hours since Britney TV, her official channel on Youtube, posted the “pop princess” latest video to her up and coming album “Circus”. So far, more than 800,000 viewers clicked to see what she will bring. 

The song “Womanizer” is a very catchy song with a fast techno beat and a little electronica on the side. Its lyrics may sound like a retaliation against a former backup dancer, Mr. K-Fed, or it could be an anthem for women to rant. Clubs across the country and possibly the world will more than likely play this song repetitively. 

But the video already is bringing mixed reviews. Like most videos on YouTube, subscribers or non-subscribers can click the link once and it will take them directly to the video, but that is not the case for Britney. In order to view the video, people have to become a registered user. Once signed-in, a button that says “Confirm Birth Date” appears on the page. When it is clicked, it will take viewers to the video. What happened to make them go through this process?

Youtube users flagged it because of particular scenes in the video show Britney fully nude lying on a wooden bench in a bathroom that could possibly resemble a sauna. However, her intimate parts are covered, but it was still censored.

Comments are blaring on the video page, ranging from cheers to jeers. Here are some examples:

“Nakita2C

I was never a Britney Fan back when she came out in 97 with that “Hit Me Stupid One More Time” some crap like that. But I’m not feeling the video at all. It’s too provocative, and I don’t like the whole Video Game sounding music. I had to flag this video.

I’m not gonna support Britney or Christina, or whoever likes showing off their bodies just to get peoples attention. I’m disgusted with today’s music.

 

Crossdrag 

COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS FLAG AT:

press @ youtube . com

let’s get the censorship removed!!!!

 

prettygrl222 

lol haters cant stand the fact that britney is gonna be at the top of the charts again, and the fact that she looks great and this video is one of the best videos thats come out in a while…so they are flagging it…and they also cant stand the fact that in just one day, there are so many comments and views

 

DaddyYankeeSongs

UMBRELLA – RIHANNA (naked and NOT flagged on YouTube)

WOMANIZER – BRITNEY SPEARS (naked and flagged on YouTube)

I LOVE THIS VIDEO.

PS: This is a video of Britney, why are u talking about Christina? :S

WOMANIZER WOMANIZER (8)

LOLLIPOP (8)

(Not to get off the topic, but it is interesting to see the YouTube pages of the commenters who post harsh comments.)

Will this video hurt her or push her further into the gates idolatry? Her album “Circus” will be in stores Dec. 2, her birthday.

The video “Gimme More”, was posted last year, and it has over 41 million views.

Click here to see the video because the rights to embed the video was disabled.

Here are just a couple questions that are irking to surface when it comes to blogging. 

1. What does it take to make a successful blog? 
2. Should it be lengthy to get a point across or just keep it short and simple?
3. Why should it matter if no one isn’t posting comments on the blog?
4. Should I post blogs that cause controversy?
5. Should I carefully choose the content that I post?
6. Where else should I go to give my blog exposure beyond the school’s blog?
7. Why am I blogging? 
8. What am I blogging?
9. Do I really like to blog or should I vlog?
10. Can I handle the backlash on a blog I posted? 
11. What if I violated copyright issues without knowing it? (Ah Ha!)
12. What about spamming?

How do you guys and gals feel when you are blogging?