Pah Loots Pu Powwow at WSU

The 33rd anual Pah Loots Pu Powwow took place at WSU last weekend. Me and Keith headed over to Beasley to check it out. Here is just a taste of what we found in the form of our soundslide project for jounalism 475.

Reaction to Frontline Piece

Frontline's piece on convergence of media and the movement of traditional journalism to more modern online forms exemplifies the modern media hype over journalism's future.

It is true that the face of journalism is changing, news is moving online, large papers are laying off employees and bloggers are garnering more attention from the mainstream. But I believe that the actual change does not, yet, live up to what we have been told. Large traditional newspapers have recently fallen on hard times, lay-offs have not been uncommon and most news media sources are beginning to move toward newer media. On the other hand small local newspapers continue to grow.

It is not just likely that blogs, online news, and "man on the street" reporting will become more popular, it is inevitable. Journalism must and will evolve to accomodate these changes but I do not think the change is what some would proport. Newspapers will not die but their circulation will decrease and they will likely turn to online journalism to fill the gap. They will have to incorporate more video and audio media to quench a new generation's thirst for news in a different form. At the same time they will also likely lose some market share and might be forced to coalesce with other sources including local television news.

It will be increasingly important for young journalists to have a firm grasp on new media but reporting and writing skills, staples of traditional journalism, will continue to be the most important factors in mainstream journalism.

WSU Recycling, Journalism 425 video project

WSU recycling program has recently implemented a new pilot program. The single stream program is making things more efficient at the recycling center by avoiding much of the time consuming sorting process.

Journalism 475 test 1, PollDaddy.com survey

Coca Cola audio edit, Journalism 475 test

Journalism 475 Test 1, Coca Cola audio edit

Jimmy Blue Keith Chaplin College Hill Podcast

Blog Poll

Journ. 475 Genre-specific blog

As an aspiring journalist I plan to focus my attention on issues that are important to a wide range of people and issues that will continue to be important in decades to come. I this light I hope to center my writing on environmental issues and the specific impacts they have. For this reason I have chosen to look at a blog about the current state of environmental issues for my genre-specific blog assignment.

The blog “non toxic vision,” (http://www.nontoxicvision.com) written by an Austrian living in the United States, states that it focuses on current affairs of environmental concern, eco-fashion, green home design, and a green lifestyle. The blog is not flashy, or at first, eye-catching. This lack of visual stimuli, although not highly pleasing to the eye, allows for straightforward navigation and make the blog easy to read.

Non-toxic vision has a great deal of information, all of it following the single connecting thread of environmental issues. Many of the posts are articles pulled from other sources although there are also posts written by the creator of the blog. In addition to the written material there are links for further reading on a number of the specific subjects as well as photos and multimedia material.

This blog is simple but still fairly effective. The information provided is interesting and seems to be updated regularly. One improvement I might suggest would be to include more visually stimulating material as well as a heavier use of multimedia, in this way the reader’s attention might be grasped more quickly and held longer.