AP’s decision to publish fallen marine’s photo

This topic shouldn’t even be an issue, if the news  is to portray every aspect of life, there is no reason why we as a society can’t be shown death.  If society is  to collectively form an opinion about war they have to be exposed to an actual portrayal.

Newspapers in every other western culture would have shown a picture of a fallen soldier without any form of debate. America is pampered into this non-realistic ideal that war doesn’t produce life-ending results.  If we as a nation can be so avid to pursue “evil-doers” then why can’t we be shown the repurcussions of our actions. America has this double standard when it comes to war, the media can show our fallen enemies but when a soldier of our own is shown , people decide its time to bitch.

Humberto Martinez

Humberto Martinez graced a University at Albany journalism class with his presence on Tuesday October 21. His reason for being there was to inform the students on how to achieve success in journalism.
Martinez hails from Houston, Texas where he was born and raised.  He dabbled into the art of writing at a young age. He slowly built up his resume while in high school  where he served as editor of the yearbook and one of the editors of the school’s newspapers.
After high school he enrolled at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, he then graduated from this institution with a degree in both journalism and photo-communications.
Proceeding college he went into the Hearst Fellowship Program and started working at the Beaumont Enterprise, a newspaper located in Texas. The Hearst Fellowship Program is a 2 year program that places you at different Hearst newspapers in an 8-month rotation.
Martinez is an avid user of social media networks, especially twitter. He has a large number of followers on his twitter, who will respond quite diligently after he poses a question.
His philosophy is,” tweeting interesting things will allow people to follow.” The other day he had been interviewing someone who kept a man in his trunk for two days deliberating whether or not to put the body in the lake. As he was interviewing him he tweeted about it thus causing his followers to comment.
Though he loves twitter, he says that,”twitter can backfire on you,” as he was trying to establish the Times Union on twitter. However, twitter marked the Times Union as spam and for two weeks Humberto had to send an array of emails, eventually twitter took them off the spam list.

Humberto Martinez

Being one of the youngest journalists at the Times Union, it can be hard to become distinguished. Martinez took it upon himself to be noticed by making the Times Union more tech savvy. He put them on the web, and twitter, however he says that sometimes you become IT and have to help the dinosaurs in the newsroom.

The Parents who cried helium balloon

Helium Balloon

So, I’m sure mostly everyone has heard this story, if not, read on my friend….

The synopsis of what happened, is as follows, on Thursday October 15, it was reported that Falcon Heene, a six-year-old boy was adrift in his father’s helium balloon. The parents had called into the police and TV stations that their son was in a “homemade flying saucer” that floated across Colorado for two hours.    Local and federal officials tracked the balloon for 50 miles as television station helicopters circled it.

Falcon was found in a box in the attic at his home. He was in the attic due to a quarrel he had with his father, the father would soon be  apologetic. Falcon had tried to get into the helium balloon causing his father to yell at him.  So , you can see where the father may be upset.

The news immediately were on the scene following this runaway balloon. As soon as it hit the wire, it was on the news, as their helicopters were tracking the balloon. The family had recently been on the show, “wife swap” and had shown off their aerial interests.

On Larry King Live, guest Wolf Blitzer, asked why Falcon did not come out of hiding earlier as his name was called. After the boy’s father relayed the question, Falcon said, without further elaboration, “You guys said that we did this for a show.”

This seems to be a hoax, but they are still investigating the situation. If it turns out to be a hoax, I’d be glad, it takes a lot of talent to pull something of this magnititude off. Hopefully it is a hoax but they can’t charge them.

Matt Baumgartner visits our class

Matt Baumgartner at Bombers

Matt Baumgartner, owner of Bombers, Wolf’s Biergarten and other establishments in the capital region,told of his life to a journalism class at the University at Albany.  The topic he dwelled on for the majority of his speech was blogging, a form of writing he just recently has been pursuing and is apparently good at.
Baumgartner went to Union College, pursued an Economics and Spanish major, but was socially involved, he joined a fraternity, Sigma Chi, which gave him insight to the business world.
After college, he obtained a job with GE, a job that he did not enjoy, but ultimately payed well. While there he would send emails to fellow employees, the feedback from these emails were nothing but positive and gave him confidence in his writing.
A trip to turning stone would change his life, one night he was playing let it ride and won $20,000 ($15,000 after taxes). Also after visiting a bar in Boston, the Big Burrito, inspired him to quit his job, and open his own burrito bar on Lark Street in Albany, NY.  This would occur in October of ’97, Matt was only 23 years of age at this time.
He would eventually open up several other establishments in the capital region, some would fail, but the majority flourished and have become a household name in Albany.
His life as a blogger started only quite recently, Michael Huber of the Times Union approached Matt with a opportunity to write a business blog. Baumgartner accepted without even knowing what he was given.
His first post would be after a stressful night at the Schenectady bombers and it was merely his way of ventilating. The feedback he received was astounding and he began to write more often after seeing this.
His style of writing is very personal and that is what attracts his readers, it is not mundane, dry business lingo, but is a gateway into another man’s soul. A man that is  easily relatable and leads a glamorous life, that so many people are attracted to.
But being so relatable has its negative side, now that people have a face to associate with the name, people feel more comfortable approaching him as they think they have a sense of his identity.  It also allowed customers to be more apt to write to him about their grievances, which can obviously o add more stress to a business owner.
After six months of writing a blog on the Times Union, Baumgartner leaves to start his own blog, so he has no boundaries and can write the way he wants.  His new blog is entitled, Friday Puppy, a theme he previously had on his Times Union blog that involved posting a puppy’s picture every friday.
With his active lifestyle, as he goes from Albany to New York City weekly. It is surprising he has enough time to manage several businesses and maintain a blog.
As a successful blogger, Baumgartner surprises me when he states, “ I don’t even read books.” Obviously,  you do not have to be a well-read, literate person to be a successful blogger.

Fair Use

It is fair to say the internet has changed the way most businesses operate. It has made daily operations, easier, quicker and more efficient. But unfortunately with every advance in technology comes a dilemma.  The dilemma that newspapers are facing is how to manage ownership of content on the web.  In other words, how much can one site borrow from another before it has infringed upon the rights of the writer of the article?

            Let’s debunk this dilemma.

           

            Articles are posted on a website, people read them and carry on with their daily lives. This is the typical lifestyle we are accustomed to, however, journalists do not operate the same way. Whereas the typical internet savvy citizen will read an article, perhaps check to see who has written it, perhaps not, then continue with their web browsing. Journalists read blogs, twitter, articles and will attribute the sources, cognitively collect who wrote it, perhaps even remember their name, and make reference to what they have read. To a journalist everything someone writes is theirs and there is no such thing as sharing, especially when it comes to a thought provoking article embedded in the Internets endless database.

            The internet is not a sacred place, regardless of what journalists may say, it is a tool that not even the brightest, most intellectual people know how to control. It works by its own means and is open to everyone to read, unless you live in China, and frankly, that is an entirely different story.

            If you are privileged enough to live in a country that doesn’t have any form of internet censorship, then you should know the controversy that surrounds the internet. Never has there been a public forum such as the internet, where you can place an array of ideas ranging from christianity to neo-naziism. It is astonishing to see the beliefs that are allowed to be displayed on the internet. But that is what makes this country so unique, that regardless the extremity or abhor-redness of your beliefs you still have the right to display them.

            Before the internet, these beliefs had to be portrayed in a public setting, rallies, protests or conventions. By participating in these presentations you are completely exposing yourself to ridicule and shame. These demonstrations were not as discrete as they are today. By the use of the internet you can hide your identity and still be able to project your beliefs. People do not have to be subjected to them either, in order to become a spectator, you, yourself must search these beliefs out. Therefore, if you do stumble upon them, it is your own doing and dissent should not be heard.

            That being said, the internet is a tool of its own devices, no one should be able to control it and anyone attempting to will fall short of their goal and will receive the backlash of free speech activists.

             In recent years, the debate over ownership of content on the web is not foreign to journalists. In lieu of the ever expanding efforts to transcend newspapers from print to  internet it has caused quite a dilemma over who owns what.

            As stated before, the internet is a public forum, therefore everyone should be able to take any content they desire and resubmit to any site they choose to.  This is not a bad thing, as many journalists perceive it to be, you are out-letting your writing to more people, which in return allows more readers to view your work.  Isn’t the whole point of being a journalist is to write down your thoughts and have it reach as many people as it possibly can? If that is the case, then why are so many journalists concerned whether or not someone has taken their work and put it on another website.

            Most likely the website is geared towards a different audience, which means more readers, or if not, it is addressing it to the same people who may have never stumbled upon the website you originally submitted it to.

            Not to be contradictory, but it is understandable for journalists to get upset when someone else republished their work on a different site. As a journalist, you consider your words to be sacred and when someone else takes those words to republish them; I’d be pissed too. But journalists must remember that the internet is a changing medium which practically has no rules or regulations. It would be like getting mad at a child who has never been told no before; the consequences may be severe.

            Bloggers especially should have every right to republish another’s work, firstly bloggers are not credited, and are for the most part just citizen journalists  who write about everyday life. Bloggers who do take articles directly will usually attribute the source from which it came from, because like journalists, they understand the sacredness of written word.

            However, this rule does not apply when dealing with other newspapers, they should know better than to republish someone else’s work. They are suppose to set an example as to what is the right and/or wrong for journalists.  If they can not come up with their own articles than they shouldn’t even be in the newspaper business. Their only job is to report the news and if they cannot even do that with their own staff, than that is a complete failure on their behalf.

            Content should not be managed on the internet, the internet was designed to link people together and provide a forum for a plethora of ideas.  Bloggers  and websites have a right to take these ideas and redistribute the message to the general public. Attribution should be a necessity, but if a blogger forgets to cite where the information is coming from, there should be no consequence. Journalists need to realize that this will continue to occur and to not be ill mannered when it happens but to be flattered that someone like their work so much they republished it.

Trends in online journalism(1)

It seems to me that way too many news sources are transfixed on what the president says or does that has nothing to do with the running of our country.  But this is what people want to read, they would rather be told what the president thinks of Kanye West than what his views are on healthcare. I get it, I mean who wouldnt love reading about how the president refers to an entertainer as a “jackass” than read a mundane article about the presidents views on healthcare in our country.  Of course this will attract the eye and our attention quicker than a headline entitled ,”President Obama’s responds to the nations outcry for universal health care.”  Obviously when asked what is the more important of the two articles, i’d assume everyone would choose the article concerning the healthcare of our country. But which one is an easier and more entertaining read? Of course, the article that claims the president called someone a jackass. But why are we as consumers of news only go for the easier of the two articles? If we know which one is more important, why do we not read that article instead? I wish I knew the answer, because even I will read the article about Kanye West over the article concerning healthcare.  We, as a country love reading about entertainment, we are fascinated by the lives of celebrities.  Their lives are full of glam and prosperity to a point that we are filled with envy, so we want to consume as much news as we can about them. It’s as if, our lives are not entertaining enough for ourselves, so we try to live the life of another by reading about them and keeping up to date with their lives according to the paparazzi. Which is sad, because we should be enjoying our own lives and not dwell on the lives of others, that is not a healthy way of living. I personally do not understand what the hype is with keeping up with celebrities. I can’t even watch television shows concerning celebrities, for example, as the Kardashians, or Hulk Hogan.  But there is such a huge market in the entertainment industry exploited entertainers, it’s quite the conundrum. If we read a newspaper in during the great depression or prior, we wouldnt have seen an article concerning an actress or musician, if there were any it might only detail if they were performing, it wouldn’t dive into their personal affairs.  News should go back to the more traditional style and focus more on the stories that are important. Kanye West is comical to say the least, but shouldnt not be recieving more hits online than the presidents view on healthcare.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=67&aid=170096