Student Reactions to Occupy Movements

The Occupy movement has been spawning protests in cities and towns across this country.

In Vermont, Occupy Burlington was the largest in the state and a number of students attended from Lyndon State College.



Seniors, Joshua Cook and Jen Nolan, have been the both Occupy Burlington and Occupy Boston. They have seen the surprise concert by Gogol Bordello preformed live at Occupy Burlington. They have pitched tents, listened to rallies, and have been increasingly involved with the movements.

Gogol Bortello preforming "Start Wearing Purple"

Questions of police brutality have been raised as viral videos have surfaced of police unneccarily using pepper spray on students.

“If we could voice our opinions freely why are we being silenced by police?”, says Nolan.

Two other students from LSC have been vocal, but have not yet participated in any organized protests.
Isaac Tanney is a senior at Lyndon State studying Music Business. Tanney believes that it’s good to have police officers on the scene in a big crowd just in case something gets out of hand.

Junior, Sarah Bruno doesn’t think a Occupy Lyndon State College is possible. “It’s not possible on such a small campus,” Bruno reiterated.

Tanney believes that with the right lead and energetic force to the project, something like Occupy Burlington or Boston could happen here.

All in all the students seemed to have a cohesive thought that having an Occupy Lyndon State would be a good cause which with take a lot of passion and drive to push forward. Then again who knows, Lyndon doesn't want to be the next news story on police officers mistakenly shooting rubber bullets or being too frivolous with their pepper spray.

OCCUPY BURLINGTON

My idea is to get student reactions to the recent developments in the occupy movements. I know that the occupy movements have gotten increasingly violent. I want to look at students of different major, different backgrounds, and different majors and see their varying opinions. I want to include a photo slideshow of the occupy movements, I have a few pictures and I know of a few people who have been there first hand to take pictures and would be willing to let me use them in the project.

Lyndon State Disaster Scenario

Covering Disaster

Disaster Exercise Strikes in ASAC

BOOM! Airbus 320 was on route to Boston when 150 passengers and six staff memebers suffered an in-flight explosion--that was the set-up for the disaster simulation held in ASAC on Saturday.

The participants of this day long seminar were Peggy Sherrer's Responding to Psychological Trauma class and Dan Williams's Covering Disaster class.

Center is Peggy Sherrer being interviewed after the simulation.

The day started at nine am with an online interview with Elana Newman. Newman is a professor of Psychology at the University of Tulsa.

The professor was invited to participate in the disaster exercise because of her leadership experiance in both areas of journalism and psychology: she is both a research director for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma as well as co-director of Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Abuse, and Neglect.

After the interview and a short break for breakfast of bagels, juice, and donuts the classes were introduced to the first responder panel.

From left to right: Danny Bigelow, Mark Podgewaite, and Charles Bethell

Charles Bethell is a clinical psychologist and mentions he is a regular on the panel every year. Bethell is the person called in by people like Bigelow or Podgewaite if they need a psycologist to look into an incident.

Mark Podgewaite and Danny Bigalow are both locals to the Lyndon area. Podgewaite is the director of Lyndon Rescue and Bigalow is with the Lyndonville Fire Department.

Before the simulation began, Elizabeth Mehren: professor of Journalism at Boston University, arrived. Mehren, as well as being a professor in Boston, is a journalist having written for newspapers like: the Los Angelos Times and the San Fransisco Chronicle.

Mehren in an interview after the first simulation.

The class participants were given just a few days to brief themselves with their part. Their job was to role-play as best that they could with the situation that was handed to them. In the simulation there were four types of parts: the actor, the human services official, the reporter, and the observer.

The observer would hop from room to room and look at the situations in front of them. The human services reporters were held in one ASAC room that represented the family center. They were in charge of calming the actors down who, some of who had suffered serious injuries.

A counselor and a witness discuss in the family center.

The actors in the simulation had the hard job of remaining in character. Mariah Ogden played the mother of two children who were affected by the plane crash. A section of fuselage slid off the runway and hit the family of five. Mariah, as the mother character, had to deal with the death of her son Taylor and the critical injury of her Daughter, Courtney.

Mariah playing her part of mother to two injured and killed children.

The first seminar went smoothly with only a few tears shed. Hannah Corda played a first responder fireman who was disturbed and upset by the fact she couldn't save more people in the crash.

In the middle of the confusion of facts and different scenarios playing out at the same time, there were reporter sneaking into rooms and prying people for answers. Some of the reporters were: Kaylee Murphy, who stayed patiently in the hospital waiting for the right moment to ask questions and Josh Cingranelli who bounced room to room ushering witnesses and responders for the number of people killed in the crash.

All in all the Disaster exercise went smoothly. After each simulation the class collected back and debriefed after each session. They all seemed to come away with a greater understanding of what it means to be in an act first, think second situation.

VIDEO PROJECT

Me and my partner Justin still haven't decided what we are going to do our project on for sure. We do have a few options.

One thing we might do is visit WWLR, get a tour of the station and do an interview with Nick Brien (the manager of the station) They always have events and they are selling shirts and apparel items.

Another option is to talk about Community Chorus. It is being cancelled for the Spring semester so maybe we could talk to Bill Cotte about it or interview some members who have been there for 20 plus years. Another cool thing is to tape some of the footage from chorus class.

Or the final option is Justin is going home to Maine for the weekend and he thinks he could find out some event going on. I know he is working the weekend so he could find an interview to do and I could do the editing for it on Monday.

These are just some of the options, we weren't able to come to a final decision at this time.

Breakfast on Golden Pond

Peter Archambault is a senior at NECI (New England Culinary Institute). He is taking an online history class while he finishes up his six month long internship at the Manor On Golden Pond. NECI works in six modules. Instead of going to school for Fall and Summer Semesters--they go to school for six months working in kitchens with chefs and working real cooking lines for the School's restaurant, and then they do an internship for six months. Peter Archambault graduated a year early from High School so his first internship started up just after his 18th birthday. The first internship opportunity he accepted was at the Kennybunkport Inn in Kennebunkport Maine.

After another six month stay at NECI Peter took his 2nd internship at the Manor on Golden Pond. This Manor was an especially convenient opportunity because of its on site housing just a few steps from the kitchen. Peter liked the Manor so much that for his final internship he decided to go back and experience it all over again. One of the only downsides he said was: "Since my chef's name is Peter they had to develop a nickname for me." They took the first syllable of his name and at the manor he is now referred to as "Archie."

The Boy Scouts is where Peter got his first real cooking experience. He used to opt for cooking when he was in the scouts: "I always was the cook, If i cooked I never had to do the dishes." Overtime, Peter became more aware of how to use food and what items go with other food items. He would use this knowledge be creative with school projects. Instead of doing a slide show or presentation for a class he would sometimes find ways to incorporate food: "I needed to research Korea so I made a cucumber Kimchi." Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish.

Peter's aspirations are to either go back to school to get a Business degree or to work in a butcher shop. One of his passions with food is the deconstruction of animals and meat fabrication. The business degree he might pursue would be if he decides to own his own restaurant: "It would also look good if i were to become an executive chef."

He isn't exactly sure where he will go once his Internship rounds out in April. He plans to migrate back to the Vermont area--Burlington or Montpelier (Where NECI and most of the connections he built back at school sit). All he knows if that one way or another cooking will be in his future.

iReport Critique

OCCUPY D.C: The First video from iReport that I critiqued was called "OccupyDC: Steve Fitzgerald Gives Excellent Activist Speech on Real Economic State." A little bit of a wordy title but basically the idea of the video was Steve Fitzgerald preeches about capitalism and the 1% telling the masses to Rise Up against big business who get bail outs and tax breaks. It was taped October 28th. The scene was set with the speech giver in the forefront line dup against office buildings in Washington D.C. The American flag is waving off the the side and many other protestors can be scene walking around. I think this video is a great example of video storytelling and is very interesting:

• Its interesting because the story is relevant (Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Bulrlington are widely talked about and discussed).
• The visuals keep the viewer interested.
• the audio also is emotional and passionate and keeps the viewers attention.

IS IT NEWS? It is news because it is information regarding a currently talked about event. It is a topic a lot of people are affected by and get directly influanced by. Also, a lot of people keep up with the Occupy strikes and want to be involved with what goes on when they cant make it.
IF I WAS A CNN PRODUCER WOULD I PUT THIS ON AIR? I would definately put this video on the news. It would work very well as an accompnaying song for a story involving Occupy Burlington or any of the Occupy efforts.

COULD I MAKE THIS BETTER?If i was in the right place and time and could tape this ssame speech I dont know If i could do it better. I think the angle and the sound quality is great. The only thing i would do differantly is have Fitzgerald directly adress the camera or break up the video with crowd reactions because it was a lot fof just one person talking.


Bangkok Flooding: In the second video: "Video of Flooding Near Bangok's Grand Palace." is a short video of of the high tide that reached a record high near the Grand Palace in Thailand. This story is a little interesting because it involves the elements which is a theme that gets increasingly popular as the dreaded 2012 approaches.

• The story is interesting because i involves Asia and military forces: "Overnight the Army had constructed an approximately 80 cm high, concrete hump/ramp that contained much of the overflow from reaching the Grand Palace."
• Its also interesting because its high risk and dangerous. It is suspected to do it again.

IS IT NEWS? It is news, but not in the standalone video. It would need some sort of explanation or story to go along with it. It does have an accompanying article but without it the viewer would know exactly what the cause of the water was and where it was.
IF I WAS A CNN PRODUCER WOULD I PUT THIS ON AIR? I would put on the air. I think the coolest thing about iReport is that is allows for citizens from all over the world to report what goes on without having a repoter going tot he scene. I would use it as footage but there would have to be a lead in story and maybe some audio they place over it. It doesnt do a great job as a storytelling tool.
COULD I MAKE THIS BETTER?Any added audio or a way to have some other languages heard in the background would add to the scenery and location of the video. I'd like to see more of a story in the video so any people talking about the floods and how it affects them would be beneficial.


Coal Train: The last video I looked at was "Coal Train in Rockport KY." The quality and view of this video is the only thing that makes it interesting. I like the voice of the woman and the sights of the people on the boat in the video but it wasnt news and it wasnt very interesting.
IS IT NEWS? The Video wasnt really news it was a video of a trian going through a bridge in Kentucky. In short it was a history lesson. If they talked about something that happened with the train recently like the items they just picked up in another sate of a minor incedent it had then that would be news.
IF I WAS A CNN PRODUCER WOULD I PUT THIS ON AIR? The only way I would put this on air was if there was an audio peice to add to the video that had a relevant peice of news.
COULD I MAKE THIS BETTER?Like I said if there was audio playing as the train was crossing or breaking up the video fo the train with other related trains or something that make it more news and less history, then the video would be much more powerful.

Breakfast on Golden Pond IDEA

Consummate comfort 
Memorable dining 
Exemplary service
                                                            -Manor on Golden Pond

The slideshow we plan on preparing for class is going to be called "Breakfast on Golden Pond" We are going to interview a cook at The Manor on Golden Pond in Holderness NH. If you recall the name Golden Pond its because there is a movie named after the Golden Pond lake in Holderness called: "On Golden Pond." The  movie starred Jane Fonda and Katheryn Hepburn.
Like the movie, The Manor on Golden Pond was also named after the pond. Peter Archambault is an intern at the manor and has return for his second nine month long stay, cooking on Golden Pond. The manor is a luxery hotel that has is at the peak of its most popular season. Due to the foilage and out of state leaf peepers that come to visit the manor. 
The hotel's motto is: Consummate comfort. Memorable dining. Exemplary service. We plan to meet with the staff of the restaurant and have an insider look on breakfast at the manor. Peter will give a demonstration on the preparation and atriculation that goes into each meal and afterwards give us a tour to the spacious manor that has won been named number 5 on Forbes magazine's Summer Travel Guide and was featured in NH Let's Go.

Fall Multimedia Slideshow

Slide Galleries and Photo Shows

There are slides sideshows and there are photo galleries. The difference between the two may not be apparent at first. They are both a grouping of pictures with a similar thought of theme in mind.

According to Mark Briggs's Journalism Next:

(A slideshow) refers to a series of images presented with continuity, usually in a flash-based player like a movie (171).

That means a photo gallery is simply a collection of similarly themed photo's in a "next and back" button clicking format. Photo galleries usually have some form of text around the thumbnails while slideshows have information incorporated into the movie with text of audio.

The red outline is the story that accompanies the show.

The First Slideshow I looked at had audio and It was hard to find a simple slideshow without any other media. In the new media world where if you don't keep the audience's attention they keep clicking it is essential to keep the viewer on the website with more than visual appeal.

 On the BBC news website I found an audio slideshow about glaciers: Rivers of ice: Vanishing glaciers. The content of the slideshow was explained above the slideshow in a small blurb explaining the time and people involved int he making of the slideshow.

The pictures in the "Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers" were of special importance to the slideshow. David Breashears was asked to retake pictures of glaciers that were first shot over eighty years ago. He retraced the steps George Mallory  had taken in 1921 and found the same spots he found to take pictures of the same glacial vistas along thee Himalayas.

The set-up of the slideshow was effective. It took up most of the screen as the viewer scrolled down. No adversisments cluttered the screen and the layout was easy to read and not to in-depth that reading the story above simply restated what was in the slideshow.

In the four minute slideshow was a podcast dirrected by Breashears. He described what he did on his expedition. One cool feature was when he was talking about scale the slideshow seems to interact with his voice as the picture would fade to ones that showed the scale of the mountains. Every picture, I felt like it had a purpose.

I think the audio element added to the telling of a story. Without out the voice to connect it back too the slideshow would feel a bit empty. Whn I was watching the slideshow like a show it was hard to turn away from it. If I did go onto a new tab, the pictures with just so enthralling I had to turn back.

The second slideshow had no audio. Its was on a news website called Reuters and it was on Ukrainian Fashion week. It was a lot like a photo gallery except I couldnt choose how quickly the photos passed. The sound makes a huge impact of how the viewer sees the media. When it has audio it is more engaging and interesting then just a stack of photos to look through. Its like having someone shove an envelope of pictures under your nose and sifting through the pictures at their own speed. The slideshow without audio leaves the viewers bored and lost. 

The four things I did like about the second slideshow I circled in the picture on the right.
1. I liked that there was the option to look at all of the photos at once. On the previous slideshow the viewer could not look at the glacier pictures seperately.
2. The social media integraction was a nice touch. it makes it easy to share with friends and get mor epublicity for the website.
3. There was an option to flick through the pictures faster and kindof make it more into a photo gallery. It didnt stop the slideshow through, the slideshow kept fading in and out but it gives a viewer get a longer look on a photo they liked.
4. Lastly, there was a small sentence at the bottom of every picture thar outlined what was happening in it. The sentence was just nough for the reader to fill in the details of what was going on.

Still, the slideshow without any sound just isnt as engaging as one with an interview or communication. The photo gallery i looked at last was the least like a story. With the "Ukrainian Fashion Show" at least the viewer saw the fashions one after one in a chronilogical order so it seemed cohesive.

The photo gallery I critiqued was found on Yahoo News. It was a collection of albums: "10 Iconic Album Covers" on the side a long description of why each cover is famous.

The effect the photo gallery has on the viewer is almost uninteresting and bland. They are the smae albums were grown up seeing: The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and David Bowie.

There is no element of storytelling. I do like the ability photo galleries have to change the pace of the of the photos that are established.

The next button allows the viewer to either go back or go forward and the experience is designed for each person to go at their own speed. I also like the ability to look at all of the thumbnails and choose whichever one the viewer wants to look into further.

In general, slide shows act as more functioning storytelling tools then photo galleries. Photo galleries are predictable and conform to the same format where as a slide shows is game to more creative methods. I don't feel like I'm seeing a story unfold with the galleries I have visited because it is too static and un-moving. The audio of slide shows add to the show's cohesion and storytelling opportunity. 

Finger on the Pulse: Johnny on the News Podcast

JOHNNY ON THE NEWS.

Photo taken by Christina Cadorette on the "Etruscan Woman" Statue between LAC and Vail.

Johnny on the News is a new band formed by four LSC students. The band is made up Jeff Stevens and Trevor Gross on guitar and back-up vocals, Brian Lacharite on keyboard, and Kaleigh Crowely who sings front and center.

The name of the band was originally a filler name. It was started after Jeff Stevens screamed Here's Johnny during a rehearsal and it stuck: "I originally wanted the band name the news but apparently that's too Huey Lewis for people so we just kind of took The News and Here's Johnny and made it Johnny on the News." keyboard player Brian Lacharite said in an interview

Starting back officially during Family and Alumni weekend at Lyndon State College, Johnny on the News was just an idea in the minds of Brian Lacharite and Trevor Gross's radar screen last spring semester: "We have kind of been brainstorming it all Summer so we just finally made it happen, brought in some of our other friends, and hopefully looking to expand." said Lacharite.

They then recruited the last two members of the group: Sophomore Business major Kaleigh Crowely and Jeff Stevens a Junior Music Business major. "Right around the time that Brian and I were definitely like yeah lets do this, It passed through my mind--who was really going to sing the songs?" Trevor Gross said expressing concern over who would cover the vocal stylings in the songs.

 He goes on to say in the interview that he Kaleigh Crowely had popped up in one of his classes and it turned out she had "an amazing voice" according to Trevor Gross. Jeff Stevens was introduced into the band the same way as Crowely. A similarity shared between all the band members--they have all had a class with Trevor Gross.

The final member of their crew was Christina Cadorette. Trevor Gross had enlisted her to be the band's manager after he had a few classes with Cadorette like the rest of the group had and appeared at a few M.E.I.S.A Meetings.

This new band who hasn't even been together a full month but already played their first live gig on Monday October 10th in ASAC 100 at the Vermont Benefit Bash. Among the cover songs they preformed were: Wilco's You and I and Adele's Someone Like You. 


Before the concert they played one small show at the Lyndon Outing Club where they sang mostly covers and premiered their two original songs: Unfortunate Truth and Man's Best Friend. Their future plans inclue writing more originals and fade out the amounts of cover songs preformed.

Johnny on the News is still looking for a drummer. They have a few people they are audioning but a spot int he group still remains. The band jammed with Ohanga Freddie Losambe on drums at the Vermont Benefit Bash in their rendition of Are You Gunna Be My Girl.


When asked where they would like to see the band in the future guitarist Trevor Gross said: "We have a lot of ideas within the group. We really want to get that line-up full."

In regards to the same question Lacharite piped in: "We'd like to really ramp up playing shows starting local, smaller venues and then kind of branch out into doing regional shows and then eventually do a full-fledged tour kind of across the nation."

Photo taken October 5th by manager Christina Cadorette

Johnny on the News on Facebook: LIKE IT!

LETS TALK ABOUT COMP-EN-SA-TION

ON TOUR WITH JOHNNY AND THE NEWS

Johnny and the News is a new band that just sprung out of the campus population of Lyndon State College. Three Music Business and Industry majors at Lyndon State bounded together after meeting though the community of the major. When the Summer of 2011 ended and the Fall semester began Brian Lacharite, Trevor Gross, and Kaleigh Crowley started up their band their debut beign Family and Alumni weekend at the school. Their first live concert was at the Lyndon Outing club at the end of September; among their setlist was a cover of Someone like you by Adele

Just outside the Lyndon State Campus where the three students met

For mine and Justin Chenette's podcast project we plan on Interviewing the band and seeing what new projects they have going on. They are currently booked to play at the Vermont Relief concert in ASAC 100 on October 10th. Justin and I will have an interview all three of them then sit in on a rehearsal before the concert and tape them on the podcast. Then, we will sit in on their rehearsal and hear them preform live before their big event on the 10th.

PODCASTS

Three Podcast Review

The first podcast I reviewed was called Scene/Unseen with Chris and Jimmy. The idea is that every week one of the co-hosts sees a movie and the other host does not see the movie. They both go to discuss it after it has been viewed by one and the one who sees the movie can help shatter some of the preconceived notion the other one has or they can help go into details the'unseen' host doesn't know about. The Podcast is a lot of fun to listen to, they add a lot of humor and have many clips of scene sound bites that the viewer cant see but make them guess what movie they are listening too. Most of the episodes have a theme. The one I watched had the theme of Hair: Hairspray was viewed and Shampoo was a clip.

The second Podcast I viewed was called Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips. The last one I viewed was called "When to Capatalize sentences" The podcast seems like it would be boring but the fun examples and the way she describes wha she is doing is educational while being fun. The newest podcasts are put right on her website Grammar Girl. The negatives about her podcasts are the stream of consiousness style of her podcasts that seems to have us stray fromt he point very easily but overall the blogs are easy to listen to without being bored. I also enjoy the vairety of her podcasts from writing tips to sentence tips to grammar and sourcing--everything a writer needs to know.

Chick Chat has one host named Mary Margaret and every week she has different women visitors on the show without revealing last names. They go into details about celebrities sharing opinions and views on celebrities and other pop-culture references. Mary leads to conversations asking questions and fueling the women's opinions. I guess my negative comments would be that there really isn't a theme or point to the podcast other than it is a group of women. They also stay a long time on one topic. Like in the August 1st podcast they talked about Lady Gaga for about 10 minutes. they do bring up new points of lady Gaga that I hadn't known before. Through all of the women's knowledge they do have a lot of relevant things to say about pop culture.

GOOGLE MAP

HEALTH SCORES IN LYNDONVILLE VERMONT GOOGLE MAP

( A collaborative effort with the one and only Justin Chenette)

We made a Google map displaying health scores of restaurants in the Lyndonville area. We covered:

1. Asia

2. Trout River Brewing Company

3. The Hornets Nest

4. Stevens Dining Hall

5. China Moon Buffet

6. The Lyndon Freighthouse

7. Subway

8. The Branch Brook Inn

View Health Inspection: Lyndon in a larger map

The highest and most impressive score was a 99 and that goes to the Branch Brook Inn. The lowest score was a 74 earned by Asia. The idea of the Google map was to see what restaurant s in Lyndonville had what health violation.

On the Vermont Department of Health and Safety's website they say: "Critical items (listed in bold) need to be corrected while a qualified inspector is on-site or shortly thereafter according to a corrective action plan." The Vermont Department of Health and Safety operate on a 44 item inspection system. They enlist one of their staff to go visit the restaurant then after they leave, if necessary, the health inspector may have to go back to the site according to the correction plan and make sure the restaurant is on track. The time the restaurant has to fix their critical errors depends of the status an the condition of the restaurant.

According to the chart on the Vermont Health and Safety website this is the chart they go by when there are critical points on a restaurant:

The Google map we created allows the customers in Lyndonville to see what places are actually dangerous or were dangerous to their health. Of course if the restaurant got a now score in 2009 and are still open today we hope to think that the inspectors did their follow-ups and that the place is now running up to code. It is only a score under 70 that the restaurant owners should be truly worried about the standing of their establishments. If they only have a few non-critical errors that they fastly fix--they are in the clear.

No Java, No Fox

FOX 44 CRITIQUE 

The first thing that sparks my mind when i see the Fox 44 website is the immense amount of Java script on the main page.

In a perfect world, without macs or smart phones, Java would be a good idea--but we do live in a world where half of it is occupied by mac users who cant access Java.

This would make most of the main page un-navigable to all mac and smart phone users.

I did like the use of a "conversation room" in a few social media sites. The Twitter and Facebook integration is right at the top of the main page.

This allows for fans of the website to follow along with stories on their social networking site. This not only means for more viewers and subscribers but it means for more reoccurring viewers as then they are reminded of the site on their regularly viewed network.

WRITING: When it comes to the writing of Fox44 there is much more text than in CBS Atlanta. Fox has thick paragraphs of text that aren't broken up like CBS. Fox does have a column of related articles on the side that will keep viewers occupied for longer. Users also have the opportunity to like each article on Fox44.

VIDEOS: On CBS the video option is in the drop down menu but FOX44's was hidden and took me a few minutes to find. Once i found it just under the slideshow on the front page i realized they were just the top videos and that there was no search option.

ORGANIZATION: CBS's website was covered in such a vast amount of of stimulation, them trying to get every last bit of information down that it was overwhelming. FOX focuses on a smaller array of information and executes it well. They don't try to jam in a great amount of things into a small space.

NORTHEAST NSN

NSN: Your hometown sports specialists.

NSN northeast kingdom is the defination of an organized and eye-catching website. There is no overload of information or stimulation. On the left side is a photo slide show of local sports events. Now, Ill be the first to admiit that baseball, soccer, and football are not my cup of tea but I can definately appreciate the quick mind capturing information and the paced photo slideshow that is certain to keep viewers interested.

The small caption under the picture is a nice multimedia outlet that also allows for some interactivity as the viewers can click and choose similar pictures. Next to the photo slideshow is a gray box that covers the upcoming games. The short information blurbs telling the teams, time, and sport is effective and easy to follow. there is no filler information that the reader skims through. It is bare-bones media that is sure to keep the reader on the page.

The best part about the homepage is that the everything the viewer wants to see is right up on the top of the page so that scrolling isn't as necessary as other website, which is important considering websites lose viewers as the page scrolls down. As the page scrolls viewers become less interested.

Each piece of text on the website has large sized font with easy to understand paragrpahs and long headlines to tell the viewer what the report will be about. One of the coolest features on each articles in the rating 

feature.This not only allows the viewer an opportunity to actively participate on the website but it also gives the website owners and reporters a better idea of what is working for readers and what isn't. 

Also there is a scroll bar on the side of the article rather than on the side of monitor. This allows for the readers eyes to stray less from the page and the words the website wants them to read.

One other things i saw on the website was a flock of ads and as an avid computer goer i can speak for everyone by saying, ads are annoying, but the way NSN has set them up in the corner and on the bottom of the page so that it doesnt distract the reader or pull them out of the story. besides, how could I not support a website that advertises my favorite school--go LSC hornets!

Pimpin' Blog

PIMPIN'

I started my blog with the fish gadget. And I continued by changing the background the the bookcase because I'm an English major and print and books are a big part of what I want to do. I named it Thirsty Kirstie because thats how I get people to remember how to pronounce my name. I added a poll on the side and a follow by email option.

No News Here

NO NEWS HERE


TICONDEROGA LOSES FIRST ROUND LEGAL BATTLE

Midville lost the first round of legal batte after John O'Kelly tried to sue over the display. A local attorney (Manford Mabley) said that John shouldn't be allowed to to sue due to the fact he had only been in to see the display once. 

 DOG BIT CHILD IN MIDVILLE

Gordy Jamison was ticketed after an assault of his canine's viciousness. His Chow mix dog bit a six year old child around the neck and ear who is now being treated at a children's hospital for his injuries.

HEART ATTACK CAUSED BY CAR CRASH

Woman crashed into the Subway Central Restaurant window causing a man to die of a heart attack. John Barker died at Memorial Hospital after complaining of chest pains when the car came crashing through the large plate glass window.

TICONDEROGA COUNTY SCHOOL RESTAURANT CLOSING

Spokesman for the Ticonderoga County school said that closing the school's restaurant will save20,000 to 50,000 dollars. Although special needs children went to the restaurant after school for some hands on experience, there are 80 other restaurants in Midville that can offer the same thing to them. 

Articulating (CBS)Atlanta

The first thing one must notice when logging onto the CBS Atlanta website is the piles of links thrown at the onlookers from all angles. After the reader gets over the swamps of text and the downward shirfting menu bars located at the top of the screen, they will then finally be able to see the strong accurate and well-updated structure of each article.

There are copius amount of text. Text that is not usually shaken up with pictures, polls, or video--anything that would make the story more interactive. For this I will rate this website more media 1.0 than the newer interactive media 2.0 form.

The red icons next to each story link do come in handy if you are deciding weather or not to read the article. its good to know when their are pictures or videos available for further reasearch before the reader glances over the article.

I will say that the homepage is too jammed packed with stimulation. Its hard to read any of the lengthy titles when blinking ads for vacation getaways to South Walton light up the whole sidebar of my screen.

Besides the ads that take up much of the readers patience there are a lot of things directly aimed towards the people of Atlanta, Georgia. This makes sense because that would be their target demographic but for the people who do not live any where near Atlanta, the school closings and local channels are not relevant.

The drop down menu although it seems to add to the homepage's already cluttered appearance it does add a depth to the website. It makes it easy to navigate to articles that the reader may be interested in by theme but it also has a search bar and a connection to other social media.

The video section of the website is also intriguing and high quality access to the material. CBS Atlanta may not be the most modern cutting edge website but they master the classic. They know how to write a good story that is grounded in fact and not friend to seek out the truth.

For more Information visit the CBS Atlanta website here.

Finding Food Porn: Critiquing Scanwiches

Have you ever had a hankering for olive loaf, american cheese, pickles, and mayo on wheat bread? That was the newest post In the blog "Scanwiches" , posted on August 31st. It was a sandwich made at the 5 Burough Bistrow in New York City.

The premise of this widely popular blog on Tumblr is all about one man and many, many sandwiches. The creator of "Scanwiches" is a graphic designer who also has the double identity of a severe foodie. He scans pictures of sandiches he buys or makes himslef into his scanner for the estetically pleasing and vibrant image. Jon Chonko, the creator of the blog, may be one of the leaders in the new visual food pandemic thats been sweeping the internet, also known as "Food Porn."

Recently the blog's fame had led to a contest by Jon Chonko, created to continuing extending the hype of the blog. The contest was called "Fanwiches" and the mission was to immortalize the next great Sandwich. The "Fanwich" would then join the ranks of other famed named foods like: Caesar salad, Reaban sandwich, and beef Stroganoff.

The contest was judged by: the blog's creator (John Chonko), April Winchell (runs Regretsy), Melissa Vaughn (recipe developer and Author) and Powerhouse Books. First prize won their Scanwich to be presented in the "Scanwiches" book out for open release November 23rd 2011 (on National Sandwich day, no less). They also get five signed copies of the "Scanwiches" book and a framed picture of the sandwich. 

 The above picture shows the winner, a sandwich called "The Stalwart Goatherd" created by Brianne M. The sandwich contained: Montchevre goat cheese, honey, roasted beets, roasted red pepper, roasted garlic spread, Arugula, on raisin and nut whole wheat bread. 

Yeah, that's right--the "Scanwiches" book. The blog has hit such high fandom that it has become a book. However, one can only assume that after looking at pages and pages of different sandwiches the only result that can be conceived is hunger closely followed by boredom. One question might be, why would the fans of the blog pay the $19.95 for a copy of what they have already seen for free on the internet. 

The pros of this blog would be its remarkable innovation. Who thinks to scan their sandwich in high quality photo working for all of the internet space to see? Its a great concept although it may be a slightly repetitive and reoccurring one. The readers and visualizers of the blog are also shown a variety of interesting tastes that other people may not have thought of. The flavor combinations of Octopus and mixed Italian salad may not be apparent to even the most passionate of the foodies. 

On the other side on the argument, no matter how passionate the reader is about a good and appealing sandwich, how long can anyone look at page after page of sandwiches with limited explanation or informative reasoning. Id like to see more definitions and more written descriptions added to "Scanwiches" for  it to be a blog that is more pleasing and satisfactory to readers who want to do more then stare at pretty pictures of sandwiches

my closing words for this blog? Is it lunchtime yet? 

For  more information on the "Scanwiches" blog click here to their Tumblr site or here for more information on the "Scanwiches" book