Gay Marriage

Violent video games

Blagojevich

Features as video:

Turtle Man

Videos/photos that contribute to features

Chasing the Swell

Multimedia that adds to stories — number crunching — graphics

Las Vegas Sun: Painkillers

Pop U lation

Photos:

informational photos

Passive photos

Active photos

Photo elements: light, rule of thirds, point of entry, movement, perspective, mood, personality

The language of the image:

Columns are great avenues for newspaper editors and reporters to express their opinions, provide insight to certain topics or provide a voice for voiceless ones in the community they serve in. More or less, columns writers have the freedom to write about whatever he or she may want.

But that freedom for me, for whatever reason, caused me to have a case of writer’s block on Thursday, when my final column at The Spectrum was due.

My last column had to do with Christmas.

I considered doing a ”goodbye” column saying farewell to UB or an inspirational column of what I learned during my college experience. But, I decided against both. I already did a “goodbye” column, sort of, and also felt they were too cliche and over done. I wanted to do something new and different.

That led me to think about current events. I didn’t feel too passionate about anything in the news on the world, national or local scale. Nothing tickled my fancy so I moved on.

I then began thinking about the time of year. It’s December and therefore Christmastime. I wondered if I could write something along the lines of the Holiday season. On top of it, how many people can say they left a publication on a festive note?

I began to think about what Christmas has meant to me throughout the years, wondering if there was any lesson I learned or interesting antidote I could write about in my column slot.

Eventually, I figured it out, and left my final mark with The Spectrum.

Thanks to illegal downloads, album sales are lower than ever.

As the trend ceases to end, artist look for new ways to attract public interest.

Mix tapes, books, cameos and talk shows are popular ways to use the media to stir up buzz.

Journalism may have found its significant other after all. Journalism meet promotion Promotion is about half your age and double your net worth. Together you can make ‘talentlessness’ cool

No wonder Lil Wayne and Miley Cyrus break records,  Oprah Winfrey talks about them.

Now that the Internet has made downloading easy for listeners bloggers can help with sales too. Just go  write a story on your favorite artist from your favorite blog site, post it and viola. Your favorite artist will rise in popular votes.

Rapper Drake has ” a buzz louder than a beehive.” Over the past year, Drake has broken music and newspaper headlines. If Drake plans to sell his reckoned million copies,  he will have to keep his album in the lime light. The media has already helped sustain that light by promoting Drake’s latest project: ‘Thank Me Later’

If journalism could focus as much attention on music as they do hippie rock concerts,  artists may have a second shot at breaking those old Beatles records.

It will be hard for our favorite artists to break records in this recession. Who knows,  bloggers may have more power than you think. Maybe you can use this tactic to promote a  project on your own..                   Grammy Nominee [YOUR NAME HERE]

The entire semester we have been doing blogs, getting assignments and grades from UB Learns while also getting e-mails about our field trips. Then I ask Professor Biehl, why was our final in class being handwritten?

Handwriting doesn't allow you to be as creative or as timely with your writing process.

I know I am not the only one who does every writing assignment on their computer.  It is much easier to edit, correct, and even experiment with leads and sentence structures while using Word.  I used the entire class and more to finish the final and still didn’t feel comfortable with everything that I wrote.

I like to read my papers and articles about 1000 times before it is my finished piece.  Probably not the best way to write with deadlines but I am a perfectionist.  The first sentence I write will not be the finished one.

Please don’t take my criticism for the final as a criticism for the class as a whole (my sucking up paragraph).  I felt like the blog was a great way to test new writing and ideas while the field trips added a great visual into the professional world (but sometimes a pain getting to). But the final was just a bad ending to the class’ already technical scene (although some difficulties along the way).

Even if we weren’t in a lab for the final, why couldn’t we have taken it at home?  It’s not like we can cheat on an exam that is already so subjective.

Thank you for being so understanding Jodi, or maybe this is the blog I drop…

I recently discovered something that I wish had been in existence 3 years ago when I started college.  Although it may be old news to some, the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is one of the handiest gadgets I have seen in a long while. They are marketing it towards college students and journalists in many of the reviews I have read.

A problem that I commonly have, especially in the classroom, is being able to listen to the professor and write down the corresponding notes at the same time. This pen translates the audio into text and then combines that with the notes that are written.  Also included with this pen is a calculator, a fun piano game to entertain your friends, and a headphone jack so it can be used as a normal recorder too.

This could be useful for journalists as well, so that interviews don’t have to feel so much like interviews. Instead of concentrating on getting good notes the interview process can flow more like an informal conversation with the occasional jotting down of notes.

Surprisingly although it came out over a year ago, the price is still not so affordable for a pen. The cheapest version available is still being sold at $180 on their website. The pen also needs specialized paper to work correctly and the cheapest notebook for that is $8 right now.

Although I am not a journalism student, this pen seems like it would be a good investment for those that are.  I am wondering if anyone has ever used one of these pens and what your experience with it was, is it worth it?

I didn’t know what to expect. Matt Mosher, our life editor who saw the scene first while out delivering pizza, told us someone might have been killed. But in my previous experiences in hearing second-hand accounts of car crashes, the scenes tend to be less serious than originally told. Therefore, I remained skeptic.

When we pulled up on Audubon Parkway near the accident, we could see several flashing lights from police, fire rescue and ambulance vehicles. I started to think that this could be bad. Then we started taking photos of the wrecked cars. Both vehicles were totaled and how the cars. It got me wondering if someone may have died.

This wreck will be a memorable one for me, not just due to the severity, but because it was the first one I arrived at affiliated with a news agency. I have covered sporting events, elections, press conferences and concerts among other things during my young journalism career, but this was the first instance where I was apart of reporting on something where numerous lives were in danger.

Being so close to people that were visibly very shaken made me feel weird, as I felt sorrow for them being in such a bad predicament. But I also felt excited to be there live to see what had just occured and have some responsibility in trying to tell the story of what went down to our readership. I strangely must say, I hope I have the opportunity to experience this again someday.

I was listening to Drake’s song “What I’m Thinking Now” when he asked that question. It made me think? – since high school and summer reading I haven’t read a novel. Pathetic right? Well its true.

In the world of Generation Y reading hard copy is a thing of the past, just like using typewriters and writing people letters.

When was the last time you wrote someone a letter?

Most teenagers and young adults never leave their house without their cell phone.  I feel naked without mine.

The cell phone is the new American computer.  Understand this.  Within five years, most cell phones will be smart phones, where you word process, access the internet, do Photoshop, email, text and thousands of other applications.

We need to think about using the cell phone as a primary means of getting information and data to people.

Generation Y is a cell phone—not computer—generation.  Understand this!  The cell phone—not the desktop, laptop or netbook—is the weapon of choice for Generation Y.

The newspaper must not just think about the digital age, but it must think about formatting and writing for the cell phone.

That’s right. I mean learning how to write for the cell phone, not the laptop, desktop, or even the netbook, but the cell phone.

Every newspaper ought to have their copy edited especially for cell phone users; we need to produce books and even movies that are specifically designed for the cell phone user.

Many people, for example, check out their phones during short breaks.  So, maybe we need to write more capsule articles, which are cell phone friendly.  We could produce movies that have scenes done in ten minute segment, which are easier to view when you have only a few minutes.

I am just saying that the newspapers have to think ten to twenty years down the road to get ahead in the game.  So, if the cell phone is the future, don’t hitch yourself to just any digital wagon.  My bet is on the cell phone wagon, what’s yours?

By AMANDA WOODS

I think I convinced an undecided, inquisitive freshman that journalism is a perfectly reasonable career path to pursue in the 21st century.  

The problem is, I’m not sure that I’ve convinced myself.

As I sat in a van on the way back from a trip with the Newman Center on Friday, I started a conversation with a freshman sitting next to me.  After I told her I’m an English major in the journalism certificate program, the inevitable question arose.  

“So what are you going to do after you graduate?” she asked me.

“I’m thinking of going into journalism,” I told her.

“Oh, that’s cool,” she said. “I was thinking about journalism at one point, but my dad told me journalism is dying.  Is that true?”

“No,” I said adamantly. “Journalism isn’t dying.  It’s just changing.”

I went into a three-minute long tirade about how some newspapers are closing, but there is going to be a greater media presence on the Web.  I explained that now, journalists need more multimedia to go along with the news.  It’s becoming more and more common for video and audio clips to accompany articles.

  I discussed how bloggers are becoming citizen journalists when they report breaking news from the comfort of their homes. No matter how popular blogs become,  I told her, people are always going to want accurate, objective news, and they can get that from the mainstream media.

I think I gave the poor girl an earful more than she expected when she asked that question, because her only response was, “OK, that’s good then.”

But is it good? For me?

The conversation I had with that girl replayed through my mind all weekend, and I kept thinking, “I only have one more year here in Buffalo.  By then, will I have enough knowledge under my belt to be a successful 21st century journalist?”

I consider myself a good writer, but I’ve  learned that’s not enough to make it in the journalistic world.  I’ve already begun blogging, but I still need to become more techno-savvy.  I need to take better pictures.  I need to lose my fear of speaking in front of a video camera.

Hopefully, I will gain that knowledge and conquer those fears as I continue my journalistic studies at UB.  And it’s not enough for me to be competent.  I need to stand out — because the competition will be intense.

By Phil

Don’t these guys ever get tired of listening to their own voices? Don’t I ever get tired of listening to their voices?

I find myself thinking about these questions every time I turn on sports radio in my car.

No doubt about it, I listen to Schopp and the Bulldog on WGR 550 nearly every day.  Actually, everybody around me listens to it because the volume is cranked up so high to hear through my ear muffs.

I mean… we are in Buffalo.

This fact alone shows how skilled these opinionated characters are at what they do. These guys have a four hour slot from 3-7 p.m., five days a week, and with the depressing sports scene in Buffalo, they still manage to be entertaining. These radio voices are creative, humorous and provide an open forum for listeners to chime in.

Radio resembles a prehistoric internet in this sense. Audience participation along with the fact that the DJ’s are opinionated, give radio some aspects that are common in the internet forum.

On the other hand, the hosts of this show also conduct excellent interviews, give in depth analysis and always are on top of the latest breaking news. This proves that they are equipped with great journalistic qualities and skills along with their ability to entertain the listener.

It’s an awesome mix.

I don’t have to search or look anything up. Just turn on the radio, and glue my ear to the speaker. I get the facts along with perspective, and even some laughs.

The best part is, whether I want to argue or agree, all I have to do is hit the speed dial on my cell phone, and give these guys a piece of my mind.