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.