Stephanie's Blog

ooops!!!

2008-05-19T20:17:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that I forgot to give the website I made!

Reflection

2008-05-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

I finally came to the end of my project and found that I am very pleased with the end result. I took so much time on it that I can be very proud of it.

The general concept is that people can visit my site and find relief over anxiety and any other problems. The first page is the home page where I just give a little background on what the website is for and a little outlook on what it is like to have anxiety. I made two pages full of my friend and I's bio. Each one lists off our favorite music to listen to when we are stressed or anxious, our personal history, our hobbies and jobs, and our biggest anxieties. This gives the viewer a little more insight on who they are talking to, and if they have any of the same anxieties they can talk to each one of us personally instead of just asking us both for opinions.

I also have a page of videos that I will hopefully be updating soon. I have two videos, one which is the video project that never loaded up on my webpage I made in class. The first video is a spoof on the the "home improvement" shows that have been terrorizing our televisions lately. The video is titled "The unprofessional way to decorate my patio." My friend, Jeannie, and I went around to Lowe's and target and got fun little tools to decorate the patio, and put it all together in one day.

There is also a podcast that you can check out, its me talking, pretty much about nothing, for about four minutes. I talk about a little scenario that I believed helped me through my anxiety, and told people they are not alone.

The website was fun to make, i really enjoyed creating it and I've received a few emails from people asking advice. Its always been pretty enjoyable trying to help people, and I have a knack for it, so making this website was fun to do. I am glad that I chose to take this class. I enrolled a little late because of scheduling issues, but it was well worth the stress in the beginning. Thank You Professor McCune!

Starting the Multimedia Project.

2008-05-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Starting the project was the hardest part. I could not decide what my website should be about and writing an about me and information was especially tough. I used iweb on my mac to make my website. I really just wanted a website that I would be satisfied with and not something thrown together at the last minute.

I spent countless hours choosing the right photos and graphics for each page. I really couldn't figure out how to use some tools, but after a lot of work and tutorials I figured out how to use all the tools.

It went well in the beginning and I had no complaints :)

2008-04-18T00:55:00.000-07:00

hmm

The Paper?

2008-04-16T00:56:00.000-07:00

I was flicking through the channels last night and came across an interesting new show on MTV. Now, I am not an MTV fan at all, but I decided to watch this show for one sole premise, Journalism.

The show, The Paper, is a new twist on normal reality shows, about teens in high school on a newspaper team. The first episode was about four young hopefuls looking to become the new Editor-In-Chief. The rest of the season is about how the Newspaper Team is run and the inside politics that lay beneath the surface.

The paper these "lucky" teens write for is called "The Circuit." Supposedly this paper doesn't just cover school topics, but bigger topics such as Presidential Elections and the war in Iraq. Now, when watching this show, I couldn't help but wonder what effect it will have on my generation that watches MTV.

A few questions ran through my head:

1. Will this show become a flop because it portrays more of a "Lord Of The Flies" type of plot rather than sex, scandal, drugs and drama?

2. Could this show start a new wave of newspaper?

3.Now that this world has become so technological, will this maybe stir up possibilities of the traditional newspaper, not just online news broadcasting or television?

4. Will young teens start to read the paper and get more caught up on news because it seems "cool" now that it is on MTV?

5. Will this show just become about the teens or will it really discuss the newspaper producing process?

One safe bet to say is that there will be drama. Teenagers trapped in a room together? Yes, there will be.

I am praying though this will actually make students in high school more aware of the school newspaper and actually pay attention to the news being printed.

I worked at my high school's newspaper and not many students actually read the paper. The students just collected it during every announcement meeting time and looked to see if they were on the picture collage on the back of each paper.

If all else fails, I at least this show can make students more aware of their surroundings.

However, I am curious to see if there is any impact on technology with this show. Maybe for once, teenagers will read more than texts and IM's to get their information....

BBC goes tech savvy

2008-04-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

All stereotypes can now be put to rest. The British are not stuck in the 19th century, sipping tea in their large hats and using proper english, they are now making a huge leap into a potentially dangerous pool of internet media. BBC is making tracks towards putting their whole empire onto the web. This will enable fans to download all the shows that have been aired and read UK news whenever they please.

BBC's strategy seems to rely on the fact that many people use the internet more than they watch television. This is a new era for television broadcasting companies, and BBC is taking it to a whole other level. Behind the scenes it seems that BBC wants their information to be more accessible. Doing this will allow them to grow new demographics and psychographics in their line of work. Bottom line: BBC will be accessible around the world and can thrive more when the internet is an access to their products.

Now, even though this sounds amazing to BBC and it seems as if everything goes according to plan(nothing ever does, trust me) then they will be a widely successful broadcasting company. All of their time and energy will bring more consumers to their station and they can finally have a wider range of viewers. Also, this will open up doors to more money and new ideas that the company has been brewing. They will join up with iPlayer and have a connection to Apple, which everyone wants to be connected to in some way. Also, this could be a huge investment and they could have more outlets for people to use such as a regional newscasting websites and different types of online "magazines."

However, with every great plan, there are also repercussions that could take dramatic effect if all fails. BBC owns most of its shows and is funded by the government by television viewers taxes. Now, if all said and done, BBC does not have to worry about sponsors or advertisers on their websites, so they will have a largely growing population of people who will use the website more frequently. Good for BBC bad for Advertising and media.

Also, in order to start this complete makeover of the oldest broadcasting company in the United Kingdom, they will also have to do some lay-offs to meet the budget. This means, many people are out of jobs.

As we have noticed, many television companies in the United States are slowly intergrading internet with their stations. Such as Fox Channel, which has now posted all their videos online so if you miss an episode you can watch it without having to wait for a repeat.

However, BBC website and FOX have many differences to each other. Yes, they both have their television shows posted online on their own websites, but what people can see is that BBC has made this a whole little world.

BBC has made it so you can customize your homepage, listen to radio stations, practice your English with quizzes and tips, look up the weather, watch the news, catch up on sports scores, and of course, watch television shows.

Now FOX has some interesting tricks up its sleeves as well, but not publicly announcing it as well as BBC. You can see the schedules for the upcoming week, watch old episodes, see sports, listen to the music that was used on the shows, has a kids page for kids shows and has a store you can purchase items.

But honestly, FOX? what are you trying to do here compared to BBC? BBC seems to have all the bases covered, or at least partially, and who knows? They will probably add much more to this website as the year goes by.

Old Media Vs. New Media

2008-03-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I was just surfing on Google and I stumbled upon an article written on July 29, 2004 in the Seattle Pi Newspaper. It was interesting because its title was Bloggers: The new media or a fad? It was hilarious to read the different thoughts behind blogging. Hugh Hewitt, a distinguished blogger/radio talk host, describes newspapers will just become day-old bread. It will be old news once it is published the next day because everyone will be able to read the information on the web before the paper.

Also, Hewitt talks about jealousy. Newspapers are saying it is a fad because they are jealous of the blogging that is becoming strong. He describes how radio said television was just a fad, and that movies said television was a fad, but in actuality, it was the awakening of a new technology.

This article reminded me much of what we have been talking about in class recently, so I thought it was interesting that this was talked about four years ago. Check It Out!

Parsing The Future

2008-02-28T22:10:00.000-08:00

For this assignment, I read a blog post by Ryan Sholin about Links that Redefine News. This post was asking if anyone knew any innovative websites that were the future of journalism and mass communications.

At first, I looked at the sites and thought that most of them weren't anything special. The New York Times and such were all websites I regularly visited to get my fix of the news while procrastinating. However, I looked a little deeper and realized that some of these websites were a lot more creative than I thought. I pressed a couple links or buttons, got redirected, and found more fun things to do while reading articles.

For the Las Vegas Sun, I used the flight tracker and ended up following some random airline and knowing when it was landing, if it was delayed and what airport it had departed. I was hooked at first, and I actually kept reading about which cities in the country had the most flight delays and such. Very crafty of them.

The City Block website was also very interesting. Although it is just getting on its feet and has not been fully developed, it has a very different perspective. The website tells you what is happening on your block, city and county. Yes, there are only a couple of cities that are on the website so far, but when it is fully completed and has much more included, I think that it will do well.

The website I enjoyed the most was Global Voices Online. This website was purely directed towards the audiences instead of other writers and journalists. This website has news from every country, and all the information is written by people in other countries. It gave me a sense of how everyone can now be connected to each other no matter what. It really made it seem like it is a small world after all.

This assignment made me think about the new media world we experience everyday. We The Media by Dan Gillmor describes it perfectly. The world of mass media is now focused on consumers, and it more of a conversation than it is a lecture so to speak. People can voice their opinions and thoughts about each issue and article. Mostly, it shows how much the earth has evolved into such a technological world. It seems that every website now has ways for the reader to respond and have a community forum so that everyone is involved in every aspect of the news. Journalists are now in each and every one of us, some are just better than others :).

SUPERBOWL!

2008-02-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

So this year was the first year I have EVER watched the superbowl. Odd, I know. Well I had never seen the commercials that were aired during the superbowl and I actually found them quite amusing. There were many hilarious advertisements, I must admit, but there were a few that my stone-faced sister even laughed about after.

First, I hope you all got to enjoy the HILARIOUS commercial made by Diet Pepsi Max. It was all these people and celebrities in different situations falling to sleep while doing whatever it is they were doing. All of their heads were bobbing back and forth to that one song "What is Love." Well, if you didn't get to see that one, I hope you do. It was amazingly creative.

The second commercial was for BridgeStone Tires. A squirrel went out into the middle of the road and starts screaming because a car was coming towards him. Then the commercial cuts to a montage of all these different animals screaming and scared for the squirrels life. The next thing you know, the passenger in the car is screaming and the driver swerves quickly to avoid the squirrel. Everything goes quiet. I thought this was a much better tire commercial than all the other ones I see, which just show you the tires driving on different terrains. What a creative idea huh? It surely got my heart racing:)

The last one that my sister and I both laughed over was the baby on a web cam talking in an adult voice about E-Trade. In the background there is this creepy clown, and in the end the baby talks about how he got himself a clown and wasn't expecting it to be as weird as it had turned out to be. Well, I don't know about you, but any baby talking makes me laugh. I do not know why, do not even try to ask me.

For this being the first time I've watched the superbowl commercials I must admit I was impressed. Have a good day:)

PhotoShop #2

2008-02-05T10:11:00.001-08:00

I removed dust molecules, cropped it, made it black and white, and did some saving from TIF to JPEG

Photoshop #1

2008-01-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

PHOTOSHOP LAB

DBH building with adjustments on Brightness&Contrast with High Quality

Statue Man with Size Adjustments with Medium Quality

The Big Ol' Library was resized and has been adjusted with brightness&contrast
Low Quality

I am going to be honest, there is not a whole lot of difference in the photos that I changed. Even though they are different qualities, since the size is not all that big, you can't tell much of a difference. However, I guess when I am uploading photos, whichever one takes less time and still looks presentable will be the one I choose.

Two Blogs.

2008-01-31T09:10:00.000-08:00

I found two blogs that reflect the area I am majoring in at SJSU.
The first:http://susiemadrak.com this woman is a former journalist that blogs about her perception on the media today.

The second blog, is multiple blogs about web journalism and new social media.http://www.theindependentpublisher.com

First Post

2008-01-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, my name is Stephanie and I am a Journalism major at SJSU. I am taking MCOM 63 to learn basic skills on creating mass media. I want to be able to know how to work all the new technology that goes into media, and not just be able to open the windows. I am intrigued to figure out the mysteries of Adobe and InDesign considering I only know a little bit about each program. Have an amazing day.