"It's the start of somethin' new..."

High school is a big step, and it is completely different from middle school. In good, and bad ways. When you start high school you're starting something totally new and different (hence the title of the post). At my high school students get so much more freedom. You don't have to walk in lines anywhere. You don't have to eat in the cafeterias if you don't want to. The second day of school my friends and I just walked out of the main building to go to a separate building and I was eating a brownie the whole way over. All I could talk about during the walk over was the fact that I was eating a brownie while walking away from my high school. But like I said earlier, there are some bad things too. Like the fact that I was exhausted all the time for the first month of school. All I wanted to do was sleep... and eat:l  But the pros of high school definitely outweigh the cons.

Response to Media Critique(J1)

Blog: http://graysonsmit.blogspot.com/

I definitely agree with this critique. The writer definitely made the interesting important, violating the seventh principle of journalism. It seems to me like the writer heard about the "car funeral" and thought " I have an idea! Why don't I write about this because people would get a good laugh about a guy giving his car a funeral even though it isn't very newsworthy." I liked the critique not only because it was written about an article that wasn't newsworthy, but also because it was short, simple, and got to the point.

Response to Media Critique(J1)

Blog: http://sydneyblocker.blogspot.com/

I'd just like to say wow! This article was amazingly written. Sydney didn't use third person and the article she critiqued wasn't newsworthy. The article I critiqued was also from usnews.com. From the looks of both our critiques U.S News isn't producing the best work right now. The only thing I would advise Sydney to do would be to put a link to the story before, after, or in the critique. I'd definitely like to read this article myself because it sounds like a good laugh. Sydney also provided a simple solution to the violation of the first yardstick. Overall this was a very well written media critique on an article that was in violation of the first yardstick.

Newspaper Lecture(J1)

Newspapers were a huge medium, and the fact that they started in the American colonies and are still around today is amazing. If newspapers had never been invented then we might not have the first amendment which is one of the most important. When John Peter Zenger criticized the royal governor not only did he help found the first amendment but his case helped the jury decide that the truth was the ultimate defense and that's what set America apart from all the other countries. I feel that without newspapers there would be very little freedom in our country. I'm very glad that newspapers were started because we wouldn't be able to write,say or practice any of our ideas and beliefs and who would want to live in that kind of country?

Binary Models Lecture(J1)

During our lecture on binary models I found it very interesting that there were so many different models because I only realized that forms of communication were either information or entertainment. I had no idea that information-entertainment was a binary model. The other models were really interesting to talk about because of the fact that you can fit any form of mass communication into one of the categories for each model. During the lecture I wondered if the elitist-populist model could be conglomerated because of it's relationship to the information-entertainment model which can be conglomerated into "infotainment". Is it possible for a media organization to try and get their version of important news out to the people while trying to get a big audience?

Magazine Lecture(J1)

I really enjoyed the magazines lecture because I learned so many new things. I had no idea that magazine innovations included photojournalism, investigative journalism, personality profiles and the first national advertisers. I never really thought much about magazines before the lecture because I only used them to cut out pictures for projects or to read about Lacrosse, but after the lecture I realized just how big magazines were and why they are still around. Magazines can be found very easily and are much cheaper than paying for cable or internet access which makes them easily accessible to lower income families. Although television and the internet are demassifying(or already have demassified) other media types I feel that magazines will always be needed somewhere due to either low income, bad technology skills or simply the desire to have an actual object to hold instead of a staring at a screen.

Photographs of 9/11(J1)

During the video that the class watched on 9/ll I sat amazed at the fact that photographers could capture such amazing photographs of such a tragic moment in history. The fact that the photographers could take such an ugly event and create amazingly beautiful pictures shows just how experienced and talented they are. The video shows how important photography is to journalism. When the articles of 9/ll were accompanied by one of the amazing photographs taken it gives the readers a deeper understanding of what that moment was like and how it affected so many people.

Media Critique (J1)

Article: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/19/house-to-vote-on-cutting-40-billion-in-food-stamps

       In the article House to Vote on Cutting $40 billion in Food Stamps written by Lauren Fox and published on www.usnews.com , the writer fails to be fair to all sides of the topic. The  seventh yardstick of journalism is fairness and the writer is unfair by writing three quotes and six paragraphs opposing the cuts to food stamps and only one quote and two paragraphs supporting the cuts for food stamps.The writer could have easily avoided violating this yardstick by simply getting a couple couple more quotes from the supporting side or by cutting some of the quotes out of her final copy for the opposing side. In violating the seventh yardstick of fairness Lauren Fox's article also gives the impression that she opposes the cut on food stamps which violates the fourth principle of journalism which is "Independence". If the writer had simply fixed her errors in being unfair it would have also eliminated the impression that she wasn't being independent.