Unleash Your Inner Poindexter

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An Enlightening Experience

July 7, 2011 2 comments

Photo courtesy of forstersartofchilling

During the course of my time taking JOUR 333, I have learned so much!  I am more than glad I took this class.  This class has really taught me a lot of things I would have never figured out on my own.  It kicked a lot of the assumptions I had about Flickr and Delicious being “another dumb social networking site” in the butt.

It is totally beyond me why this class is not required of us with the knowledge of the transition going on within the journalism industry.  I would recommend this class to anyone majoring or minoring in journalism.

We have been allowed to tap into our creative senses and express ourselves through our blogs.  There were so many things that I did not know about blogging that I can now apply to my blog on Tumblr, such as not being able to grab any picture I want off the Internet and use it in my blog.  I think I prefer taking my own photos anyway.

I even enjoyed doing my first podcast.  Now that I understand it, I wouldn’t object to doing more.

I have learned the importance of using tags and categorizing my posts through this class, which is something I never bothered to look at when posting my blogs on Tumblr.  I love my WordPress blog so I just might take my best blogs from my Tumblr and transfer them there.

I have thoroughly enjoyed myself during these five weeks!  There was never a doubt in my mind that I couldn’t do this and now that I know, it comes to me like breathing. I would do it all over again if graduating weren’t a concern. Lol!

With all my elective credits filled, I don’t care that this will just be added onto that list though.  I value what I have learned in this class and will carry it with me when I am on my journey, exploring the world of technical writing and possibly running my own news agency in the future.

 

Digital Journalism, Photography, Social Media, Web Design , , , ,

Independence Day in Las Vegas

June 29, 2011 14 comments

Independence Day at Seastrand Park in 2010

Every year, I’ve always struggled to find things to do for the 4th of July.  Not only because I was under aged (not 21), but I was getting too old to be popping fireworks.  I also have two little brothers that I never seem to have the answer for as to where to take them to see fireworks.  One thing I did know that never gets old is watching fireworks!

I took it upon myself to do a little research and find out exactly where the fireworks would be going off around the Las Vegas area. People always said that there were firework displays on The Strip, but I missed them by mere seconds every year.

I started off Googling places that had done presentations in previous years, but then I remembered LasVegasWeekly.com.  I check their website to know which clubs to go to on the weekends so I knew they would have what was going on July 4th weekend.

Along with the firework displays at Caesar’s Palace, Mandalay Bay, the Las Vegas Hilton, and the Station Casinos, as I described in my podcast below, there will be displays at Lake Las Vegas, Primm Valley Casino Resorts, and Basic High School.

Though July 4th firework shows are not as expansive as our New Year’s shows, it is always a wonder to see what kind of rabbits they are going to pull out of the hat.  It’s perfect, free entertainment if you have children, younger siblings, and – who said watching fireworks were for kids, anyway? So take your significant other if you please, grab your blanket, some snacks, and lie out on the grass or drive your vehicle on a hill to sit back and enjoy the Independence Day celebrations.

Independence Day Fireworks - Las Vegas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Digital Journalism, Podcasting , , , ,

Facebook’s Forever Changing Privacy Settings

June 27, 2011 2 comments

I’m sure that many people have heard, “be careful what you post on Facebook,” and other social networking sites alike.  In this day and age, employers are not hesitating to turn to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. to look over the profiles of their potential employees.  Some people do not want to believe this, but as one of my old mentors said, “your generation is Facebooking your opportunities away.”  I, in no way, am condoning that you hide things, other than personal information, but there are many different privacy settings available that some people may or may not know about.

My Facebook after tampering with the privacy settings.

Facebook is constantly changing their privacy settings.  Everytime I seem to have my page completely locked up, they change something else that I have to hear about someone protesting in the news.

Most recently, I found out how to disable your name from turning up in all search engines, as far as Facebook is concerned.  In my playing around, I also found out that some of my information that I thought I had blocked from people who are not my friends was still visible to them.  They added on new settings that require you to individually go in and set who can or can’t see your status updates, wall posts, picture albums, things you like, etc.  I could go on forever!  One instance, I found out that because I had logged into Facebook from my cell phone, it automatically posted my number on my page.  Despite my disabling the phone number setting, I had to manually go in and delete my number.

I’ve seen how-to article after how-to article on how to properly set your privacy settings, but they seem to get more complicated with the constant upgrades and add-ons to the site. I never knew that protecting yourself could be so hard!

Hopefully my YouTube video can help you better understand how to keep your personal information just that – personal.

 

Social Media , , ,

It’s NOT Privé…It’s Gallery!

June 23, 2011 5 comments

Las Vegas has so many nightclubs that a new one opening sometimes goes unnoticed.  When Planet Hollywood’s nightclub Privé closed in April 2010, all I ever heard was the bad wrap they got for the unsavory activities that went on within the club.

Gallery Nightclub inside Planet Hollywood

A year later, Planet Hollywood has reopened the doors of the club with a new name, new staff, and strictly enforced rules.  Gallery Nightclub, adjoined with the Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Lounge, has been doing their best to brush up the bad taste Privé left in everyone’s mouths.  Their staff of well-organized, take-no-crap security and the dancers that elegantly tangle and untangle themselves in the nets that are mounted to the ceiling give off a different vibe than the one that had “caution” written all over it a year ago.

Gallery was the first club I visited upon turning 21 in April.  I have been to other clubs since then, but I can honestly say that none are as well put together as this one.  The chemistry between the staff was evident from the moment I walked through the door.  While you would think the security would be tense, waiting for something bad to happen, they were friendly and had fun all while doing their job.  The DJs choice of music was impeccable, playing songs for every creed and color in the venue.  Gallery has such a positive atmosphere that I wouldn’t mind going back over and over again.

For my photo essay, I used my Nikon Coolpix S70 and my iPhone 4 to take the pictures.  People are always taking pictures in the club so I didn’t have to be very discreet about how I did it.  I definitely didn’t take direct pictures of anyone because I didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable.

Though Gallery doesn’t have quite as popular of a reputation as other clubs, I’m sure they will get there and people will see that it definitely is not Privé.

 

Photography , , ,

Social Media: New Tools For Journalists

June 18, 2011 2 comments

Facebook and Twitter

Though some may disagree, Twitter has given digital journalism a boost.  With journalism becoming more and more advanced everyday, social networks like Twitter and Facebook are helping to get bloggers’ and journalists’ names out.  With 140 characters per post on Twitter, you can post a short and sweet tweet informing your followers of a new blog post or article.  If you have already established yourself, you can reach out to your readers through social networks.  This allows them to feel like they are involved and you develop a relationship with them.  I can say from experience that it does make you feel good to feel like you had a part in a popular blogger’s new post.

While reading my classmates’ blogs, I saw a lot of them bring up a very important thing in writing for Twitter journalistically; watch whom you follow!  You don’t want to be following people posting things that aren’t going to further help you in your journey to becoming a journalist.  You also don’t want to get too comfortable either as you may have future employers watching.

I feel that a way to tell if you’re getting too out of control with your tweets or not is to watch your followers.  People will unfollow you for many different reasons, but I know that as a blogger, you don’t want to tweet things that are too crazy giving people a reason to unfollow you.

I decided to delete my first Twitter because I had too much useless nonsense on there.  People forget about the keyword that tells the purpose of these sites—they are social networks!

With other tools such as TwitVid and TwitPic, you can make your tweets as interesting as you want.  It’s up to you how you incorporate these tools to enhance your journalistic skills with Twitter.

 

Digital Journalism , ,

Welcome To Your Sanctuary

June 16, 2011 4 comments

I chose the “Arjuna X” theme because I felt it went a long with the title and tagline of my blog.  There were a few other themes that I really liked, but they were a little too dark for my taste.
Being that I am a fan of bright things and simplicity, I wanted the theme to give people who visit a positive vibe and i wanted to avoid complexity.  I feel that my blog has an airy feel to it, but has a newspaper-ish feel also. Contributing to the newspaper-ish feel is the small and sophisticated typography.  I read the newspaper from time to time as well as read the news on the Internet, but the format of a newspaper has always appealed to me because of the professional look of it. There is something very professional about the layout and typography in newspapers. The columns can be a tad bit cramped in newspapers, but I didn’t want my layout to be too spaced out or as cramped as a newspaper. The typography is in no way distracting to me. The only thing that could be too distracting is if there was too much going on on the page.

Photo courtesy of Jhanique White

The colors remind me of my room. They say that your room should be like your sanctuary so my room is painted sky blue and it brings me peace whenever I am in it.  I wanted that same tranquil, welcoming feeling for the blog and hopefully that showed through my theme selection.  With there only being two columns, I don’t think that there is much customization that I can do other than adding or taking away widgets.  I did try to incorporate some of the tips from the blog, Twenty Usability Tips For Your Blog by Tom Johnson, also.

The most I can do with the banner is change it to a different color of banner that came with the theme. As far as image placement, I believe I could add some in the one sidebar that is available. This one sidebar is all the theme needs.  I don’t think that there should be more than one sidebar because it would take away from the real reason the visitor came there for – to read!

Web Design

Journalism: Stagnation vs. Transformation

June 10, 2011 13 comments

Photo courtesy of Jhanique White

The shift in journalism will be harder for journalists that have only known good ole newspaper journalism, but there should be a way to make it easier on them.  There should be workshops offered instead of jobs having a long list of qualifications that only the up and coming generation would possibly know.  Though you have to be adaptable in any situation, I would hate to bump the more experienced journalists from their jobs.  By keeping them around, we could learn things from them and vise versa.  There has to be a way to converge the times.  There are remnants of newspaper journalism, but like some of the commenters said below the article on ojr.org, with them having to focus so much time on learning all the new skills, how can they have time to be able to write a quality column for their job?  I don’t mind the changes, and could do both newspaper and Internet journalism, but can we say the same for those that are not savvy?  This is not to say that it cannot be learned because I believe if journalists that do not have knowledge in this area start learning now, they are completely capable of adapting.

In an article on NYTimes.com, it discusses a study done to show how the media industry is doing.  The study showed the decrease of local reporting because of the rise of digital journalism.  The cutbacks due to the changes have caused a loss in jobs for some, leaving fewer journalists to write more thorough articles.

A lot of things have evolved, for example the news and how many people are turning to the Internet to get their news.  I saw an elderly couple in the airport with an iPad recently which I have to say shocked me because I wouldn’t think that people their age would be into dealing with new age technology.  Who am I to say that though knowing that my grandma was very adamant about learning about the Internet to stay in contact with all her children and grandchildren.  I don’t feel that it is too much to ask of journalists to learn the basics of new technology because these changes were bound to happen, and there will only be more advanced changes later so why not learn now?

Digital Journalism , , ,
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