August 2009 Archives

Do you care who gives you the news as long as you're getting it?  If a person that wears a trash bag as a rain coat and sleeps on newspapers every night gives you the news would you believe him or her (I wouldn't want to be gender biased)?  I would most likely not trust them and then I would switch the channel to a news anchor who wears a nice shirt and tie.  So, TV anchors don't really have to be knowledgeable of the story that they are reporting.  They just have to be able to read well.  Well, the person wearing the trash bag may be able to read well, but do they look attractive?  I wouldn't think so.  In this case, neither would the rest of the viewers, therefore a more attractive looking news anchor would be hired. 

Appearance seems to be pertinent to news.  Attractive and "cordial" anchors seem to flourish in society.  So, let's do our hair, apply our make up, and practice our reading skills.  Then, maybe we too can break news to viewers all over the world.

Knowing that The Onion is actually a fake news broadcast, I was expecting something slightly strange.  Had I not known that it was a spoof, I probably would have tried to follow the program as closely as possible.  Due to the fact that news programs want to be the first to report breaking news, it seems as though they will project information into society that it sometimes false.  For example, the birth and death date of Don Abrams, the Senior Haition Burea Chief, was flashed across the screen for all the viewers to see.  After a slight pause, Don Abrams' voice came back through, therefore the information that he was deceased was actually false.  This reminds me of when Michael Jackson died.  The news programs broadcasted that he had died, but I was not sure whether I should believe that it had actually happened. 

Notice that the name of the "Breaking News" was "Something Happened in Haiti."  This is a good representation of news broadcasts because they have no idea what is going on.  They know that "something" is happening, but they do not know if it is good, bad, or even important for that matter.  The people may have been hoisting a soccer player in the air, shooting Don Abrams, or cooking.  Like real news programs, the viewers don't really know what has happened until a few days later when the program shows the "Breaking News" once again and confirms the true story.

 

After watching the reflection and turn out of that news clip I was so confused I didn't know what to think. I did think about how ever the case in which the reporter could not give an overall direct statement of the happenings in hatti but gave the news reporter on the air something to run with, If you listen closely they pick up lines and jump back and forth to allow the over all assumption of the target audience to get a general shocking apperance. Though if you watch the whole thing you still would not be able to get the where and who? Though that broadcast I am not sure you could get even that much. They went from quote, " having an election, to a soccer victory, to having a picnik." That is not valid information if you ask me. Though the reporter at the actual event was stating what he thought he say the reporter at the station made the image so much bigger, though false. So what line would you tell your friend if you were giving at least six different statements about hatti in 2 mins?

The Tribune-Review has praise for SUH's performing arts center:

Laurel: To the region's newest arts center. The curtain went up this week on Seton Hill University's $21 million performing arts center, which adds significantly to downtown Greensburg's cultural district. Aside from what the long-discussed facility will offer Seton Hill undergraduates is the richness it will bring to the city. And the fact that 60 percent of the center's funding came from private donations underscores its support. Bravo!

Looking at that comic did make me laugh because it is something that would be on a skit from "Saturday Night Live." That being said, when people are poking fun at situations like that, blowing it out of proportion can be an issue.

I agree that in some instances news reporters are just looking for a story and a reason to point the camera somewhere.  I do not agree that this happens all the time because generally the reporters are pointing the camera's to a place of significance to the story.

I did not expect to feel that way when reading the comic but for some reason it bothered me that it was assuming all news reporters act in that manner.  After all, reporters do not get to a scene until the situation is over; so, for the viewers sake they will show what they can to give us the satisfaction.  I don't see anything wrong with that.  I want to be informed and enjoy when the reporters actually CAN get to one of those places; even if the occurance is already over.

As for when the reporter supposedly looked at Wikipedia to tell the viewers if the famous person was good and what they did, I have never seen that happen.  The reporters quote other famous people and other people who knew them to get the information.  I just don't see the issue with this situation.  News reporters are "reporting." That is what they do and they do it to the best of their abbility.

Newswriting.

The new center is absolutely beautiful, easily 10x better than the space the performing arts students had been using previously.

The building, with vibrant multicolored interior walls and ground-level instruction rooms designed to complement state-of-the-art performance stages on the first floor, awaits 250 Seton undergraduates at the corner of West Otterman Street and Harrison Avenue in downtown Greensburg's cultural district. --Bob Stiles, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Touring the new performing arts center last week brought back a lot of memories. I took a handful of theater classes as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, and I had a number of part-time and summer theater jobs (ranging from swinging hammers to designing billboards to writing press releases).

My 7yo daughter has expressed some interest in acting in community theater. If she gets cast in a play, it's likely I'll be the one to take her to rehearsals, and if so I suppose I might as well be Villager #3 if there's a costume that fits. 

Of course, my daughter has also variously announced intentions to be an astronaut artist, a police officer, a soldier, a princess with seven babies, and a research assistant in her brother's viral intervention therapy laboratory. So we'll see how serious she is about acting.