COMM 361 Blog

I was able to interview Karen Kellogg from Fairfax Community Church a few weeks ago. It was difficult getting the audio transfered from my iPhone app to my computer to edit so it has taken awhile to get it up. I hope it finally works!

The month of April sure has gone by fast! I went to two different events this month. The first event was the Women in Film and Video job fair which was very intimidating to say the least. Since I don’t much experience in film production I am simply trying to find an internship. Going to this job fair was good for me and I thought it would be a good event to go to for this class as well because in online journalism we focus a lot on the media aspect. After all when you take a good picture or video it greatly adds to the story.

Heres a video that explains what all the job fair is about.

I wasn’t able to take pictures of the actual event, but I did take some pictures of what I received when I got there. Also because I signed up so early I was able to cut the line and I got a special name-tag. For some reason they won’t upload so here there are.

The other event the speaker asked that no pictures or video be taken. I went to an event where the speaker talked about how there are a lot online conspiracies. Dr. Rand Waltzman spoke on “The Truth is Out There. Or is it? Information, Misinformation and Deception in NEW MEDIA.”

Dr. Waltzman talked about how there is a great need for better security for online social media in particular. Online security is at risk here in America because of the laws in place to protect people’s privacy so that makes it hard for security to even happen online. Dr.Waltzman explained that there are a lot of different ways online terrorist are making problems online the first is they make up conspiracies and some people will believe them.

Dr. Walzman also talked about a book called “The dictators guide to the internet” which was funny as it talked about how there are many different ways to scare people through social media use. Walzman also talked about how there was this salt panic back in 2011 in China.

At the end of the lecture there were a lot of different opinions from the audience mostly people thought that when it comes to the interent and cyber security there are really no concreate solutions we just need to keep talking about it in order for solutions to result.

Some good photography pointers were given by some visitors to our class from the Creative Services here ar George Mason.

• Sometimes you have to go back and find a different angle in order to get the best shot. When taking photos at an event it can be difficult because photographers are usually designated to a particular area to get shots.
• Ken burns affect when you go out of focus and then back into focus.
• You can write and script things out that way when you go to get the audio your ready.
•  Good visuals can be killed by bad audio
• If your audio is terrible then you will miss out
• Sometimes the video and audio might get messed up and then you would have to redo it.
• It can take a while to get the perfect shot it all depends on the location and the lighting at some point.
• Try to carry a few cameras and lights, you never know when you might need them.
• Soft box and Light sources are a big part of taking good pictures
• Macro lenses give really tight blurry pics
• 28mm lens is a very good one for a photographer to have as well as a
• wide angle lens
• The flash that comes on a camera or pops up don’t use that makes everyone flat get a different flash!
• Try and shoot from 4-6 golden hour.
• Your shutter will control the ambient light
• Aperture will control indoor light
• The f stop is quality of light
• Shooting in overcast days is easier
• Depth of field is your aperture
• Some of the optics on the lens help to take pictures

Here are some pictures that I have taken that I am proud of.

I took all of these photos with my iPhone. The information that I received during this class was very helpful. I have recently been able to use my dad’s DLSR camera to film for my video classes and I all of this information helped me to better understand how to use that camera. I am still struggling because there really is so much to learn with a DLSR but I think that this lass definitely helped me figure out the settings a little better.

Joy Suh showed our class how to conduct research from Mason’s library website. Ms. Suh also explained to the class the various databases you can acquire from the Fairfax county public library‘s website. There was a lot of information regarding how to gain legal documents that I found could potentially be beneficial. I was already familiar with the databases that Mason provides but Ms.Suh showed the class that there were easier ways to access the information.

For our food access group this information can benefit us because now we know our way around the fairfax county website.

Kevin Goldberg

The following are little bits of great journalism law rules to follow from class speaker Kevin Goldberg. He teaches Comm 475 Journalism Law at George Mason University in the Fall and is a lawyer that specializes in First Amendment law.

Gluttony

The Fair use Defense is not an excuse. For whatever you use that isn’t your own content, give credit to whoever its due.

If you are using content that you didn’t create try to get permission or pay for their usage. Be certain

Greed

Do they want to make money? If so then we shouldn’t use their stuff to make money.

It’s not enough that you use only 30 seconds or less you need to make sure you know what you are doing with that person’s work would you be helping them or not.

You can say to a source in 49 states plus DC give you reporter’s privilege and you don’t know what will happen if you don’t get that information.

Maryland had the very first reporters privilege law.

Shield Law is different in every state– check out your states laws.

What type of media does it cover? Internet, broadcast ect. Some states don’t consider blogging journalism.

Sloth

To hell with getting it first, get it right.

If you use the word allegedly you are not 100% accurate, but if you have a source that is reliable saying allegedly…

Be as precise as you can.

If someone said something to you say it as they did it’s accurate and it shows fairness.

There is an idea that they more important someone is in our society we can say more things about them.

You wait long enough to give them time to “no comment”.

If you go to print without asking them for a comment then you can get sued.

Lust

Section 230 if people post on your site you take advantage of this section

Broken promises

Section 512 is the copyright version

The copyright of the content belongs to whoever created the content

Pride

Make a clarification about who you were wrong about or take down what you did.

Envy

Ask for  permission first

wikimedia commons

Wrath

Not everything is fair game.

Reasonable expectation of privacy generally in a public space.

There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in your home, on your telephone, in a doctor’s office or secured place.

How can we determine privacy in the gray areas?

Ask yourself, what is reasonable?

We hear a lot about the problems with the “food pyramid” But here is what my “social Media” Pyramid might look like. I tried my best to upload my own media pyramid but for some reason this blog wouldn’t take it so I found this one. The only thing that I would change about this media pyramid is the microblogging with Facebook. I find that I usually am on Facebook quite a bit more than I am on Twitter or Pinterest.

Social Media Pyramid

Mostly when I am online I instantly go to Facebook then from there I might go to other social media websites or reddit.com. I think that my social media is fairly consistant. Recently I noticed that I am on Facebook a bit too much so I then decided to delete my Facebook app on my smartphone. Now I really don’t get on my phone quite as much as I used too.

Media is constantly in our faces no matter where we go because out phones are always on us. On campus I see people walking around on their phones all the time and I must confess that sometimes I am also walking and on my phone. Let me tell you first hand that is not a good idea! One time I as so focused on my phone I almost ran into someone. I have since tried to give my phone a break while walking.

Once Facebook becomes boring for me I then will go on amazon and browse the books or I might go to netflix or hulu and check out what is on there. There are also a lot of fashion blogs I like and recently I’ve started to cook so I’m always trying to find quick healthy and inexpensive meals that I can eat on the go.

Have you very wondered if your grades in school had anything to do with your hunger?  These statistics can start to from very young, as early as one’s childhood.  In Fairfax County there is a youth survey that is conducted annually for all of the students in sixth, eighth, tenth and twelfth grade.  The survey includes questions that asked students questions such as, “How many times has one gone hungry in the past 30 days?”. According to the youth survey itself it reports, “One out of five students reported going hungry at least some of the time in the past 30 days.”

Most of these teens affected in these Fairfax schools are Hispanic and/or African American, and live in single-parent homes. Kids not getting the necessary nutrition is only part of the problem. According to capitalareafoodbank.org, the U.S. Census ACS 2006-2008 found that about 13 percent of people in Northern Virginia are at risk of hunger, and 1 in 6 children in Northern Virginia were at risk of hunger.

The bigger problem that we are faced with when looking at hunger is that it is an issue that directly affects education. A student’s hunger has been correlated with skipping school and lower grades. According to the Nutrition Cognition Initiative, continuous low nutritional intake affects factors such as motivation and attentiveness, which can have a negative effect on developmental processes such as learning and students attain lower scores on standardized achievement tests.   The Fairfax County Youth Survey not only asks the question of if they have gone hungry in the past 30 days, but it also surveys the grades that they have gotten and how many days of school they have missed or skipped.

When looking at the surveys conducted in the past few years, there is no question about whether food is important not only for our daily consumption, but also for that push needed to succeed and experience education to the fullest.

Charlie White a six-year-old second grader at Oakton Elementary School enjoys his lunchtime. “I really think lunchtime is my favorite! Sometimes my mom makes my lunch and sometimes if I am good I can pizza on some school days.”

Charlie doesn’t like his vegetables as much he says, “ I don’t really eat all my vegetables. I do like the apples my mom packs though.”

Charlie White age 6

George Mason University held the Martin Luther King Jr. service fair today at Dewberry Hall. The Cultural Integration Association, a group that’s goal is to embrace Mason’s diversity, was one of the booths on display at the event.

Zeineb Bawazira, a member of the organization said, “We are promoting our organization today and our goal is to bring different cultures and promote community service and diversity. Mason is one of the most diverse universities in the nation so our goal is to bring different cultures together at the same time for a good cause for helping the community and abroad.”

One of the immediate goal’s that the group is focused on is hosting an event at Mason called The One Million Bone Project. March 4th is when the event is tentatively scheduled to occur at Dewberry Hall inside the Johnson Center.

“We would be creating bones out of clay and for each bone we would register them online” said Bawazira “We would then get a dollar for each bone. That money would then go to a non- profit organization in Somalia to help families of the genocide. The bones would actually be representing the people that have died or goten killed through the genocide.”

“The bones will be displayed at the National Mall June 8th through the 10th.” said Nathan Ludwig another member of the organization.

The event will be free and anyone that want’s to participate would be welcomed.

Please visit their website at sites.google.com/site/diversitygmu2/

Hi!

I am a senior here at Mason majoring in communication with a concentration in media production and criticism.