Frontline’s, “Digital Nation”

The Frontline video, “Digital Nation” we watched last week in class gave me a very different perspective on how technologically savvy, dependent, and advanced our society has truly become. I think the producers did a fantastic job of highlighting digital technologies and explaining to the viewers what these technologies are, who uses them, and how to go about using them.

However, what I think made the video so captivating was how it described our technologically advanced society. Until I watched this video, I was under the impression that digital technologies were really only affecting the world of newspapers and journalism. This might be because everyday, people all around me lecture me about how the world of journalism is quickly changing.

The other day, I was at my local HSBC bank branch and the teller asked me what I’m majoring in. When i told him journalism, he looked at me like i was nuts. He said newspapers are going to cease to exist and that newspapers are going to be online. He then sarcastically wished me good luck in finding a job in print (which is what I would like to do) upon my May 2010 graduation.

Frontline’s “Digital Nation” did a great job of showing how digital technology is affecting our every day lives. One part of the video that stuck with me was in the beginning, when a woman was explaining how her family is all in the same house, but because of computers and technology, every member of her family is in a different world. This to me is scary. How is this going to impact our family lives or our face-to-face interactions?

What I found most interesting in the video was when it showed how technology is causing teachers to change their teaching methods. I could not believe that there are schools that require students to have laptops and complete all of their assignments on laptops! Technology has definitely come a long way since I was in elementary school taking notes and completing homework assignments in my marble notebooks or on looseleaf pages!

What Are Fantasy War Games Doing to Our Workforce?

As great as all of these digital technologies are, it is a little concerning. The video mentioned how some people have become so obsessed with fantasy war games that they have quit their jobs to play them! What are these games doing to our workforce? To our face-to-face social lives?

Finally, I have to raise one question that the MIT student study about multitasking got me to thinking. Is multitasking going to be a job requirement? Are job postings going to require potential applicants to possess the ability to type, work in teams, speak in front of large audiences, and multitask?

What To Gain From Twitter….

I never realized how many people actually have Twitter accounts until I created one myself. Initially, when I plunged into the world of Twitter, I was looking to get quicker and more detailed updates on what is going on in the world. Sure, the news sites I have downloaded as applications on my BlackBerry provide me with news headlines, but I wanted to see if I could find a more interesting and immediate way of getting up to date news.

Once I started exploring the fascinating world of Twitter, I realized I could follow almost anyone or anything that interests me. Hard news no longer became the only reason I used Twitter. I soon realized everyone from celebrities, to athletes, to clothing designers have accounts on Twitter!

While I am using Twitter to gain a more detailed, concise, and immediate understanding of pressing events happening around the world, I am also using Twitter to follow events that are not so important, such as the latest Boston Celtics game or sales for my favorite clothing designers.

Twitter’s short blogging format is teaching its users to write more concisely because of the character limit. This forces its users to get right to the point. I am able to obtain a great deal of information from one “tweet.”

Below are the top ten people I follow on Twitter:

Wall Street Journal

I have the Wall Street Journal application on my BlackBerry, so I started to follow the newspaper on Twitter as well. I like following it on Twitter because it gives me updated news in a sentence or two and also provides me with links to read more about a story, if I want more information.

Paul Pierce

Paul Pierce is on my favorite basketball team, the Boston Celtics. I follow him on Twitter because he gives details about upcoming games, events the Celtics are going to appear at, and chances to win tickets to the games. He also talks about practices the team has, providing me with insight and information about my favorite basketball team!

Lady Gaga

Lady GaGa is one of the most popular and talked about artists right now. She cannot be ignored, her music is constantly playing on the radio and she wears the most outlandish outfits on the red carpet. I follow her on Twitter because she is very eccentric. Her Twitter posts are about her upcoming appearances, song releases, and what she is doing philanthropically. She is just all-around fascinating.

Anderson Cooper

I watch Anderson Cooper on television every night, so it is only natural that I would follow him on Twitter. He posts very frequently about various news topics, some hard news, others soft news. I have recently been following his Twitter more and more because he has been providing followers with information about the devastating situation in Haiti.

Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs is my favorite fashion designer. I also wear his perfume and jewelry. Unfortunately, his clothes are very expensive. I follow his company on Twitter because it posts information about new clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics. The best part of its Twitter account is that it posts information about upcoming SALES! The Twitter account always posts links to the new items for sale.

CNN Breaking News

I follow CNN Breaking News because it is a great way for me to get the most updated news as possible. It is right to the point which makes it a fantastic source of news. I am starting to like it better than the CNN application on my BlackBerry because I do not need to read through an entire article to find out what is going on in the world. It also provides me with a link to a  longer version of the story.

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is on many magazine covers, owns her own boutique, is a model, has a television show, and dates football player, Reggie Bush. I follow her on Twitter because I find her to be an interesting person. She posts quotes she likes, information about clothes she is wearing, updates on her boyfriend’s football team, the New Orleans Saints, and different charities she is donating to. I never know what I am going to find when I read her updates!

Campbell Brown

I watch Campbell Brown’s television show, “No Bull, No Bias,” on CNN every night. Her show is very to the point and she gives great political commentary. I follow her on Twitter because she is very to the point when she Tweets. She also gives her feelings about events which shows she is a real person, not just a no-feelings journalist.

Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is one of my favorite musical artists. I started following him on Twitter because he was recently sentenced to about a year in jail. I figured I could find information about his incarceration through his updates. His sentence has been postponed for the time being, so his Twitter is providing followers with information about what he is doing in the meantime, such as recording songs and music videos.

Larry King

Larry King always has such interesting guests on his television show, “Larry King Live.” I started following him on Twitter because I figured his tweets would be just as interesting. King has definitely not disappointed! Not only do his posts update followers on the news and who is going to be on his show, but they provide followers with his thoughts about events happening all over the world, whether they are important or just interesting to read about.

Google Jumps On the Social Networking Bandwagon

It finally happened.

Google jumped on the social networking bandwagon. This is not surprising since Google is always on the cutting edge of technology. It is one of the top search engines on the Internet, if not the top search engine, has a way to send e-mails and instant messages, and even a smartphone.

On Tuesday, Google announced its newest project: a social networking website called GoogleBuzz. The website can be accessed through Gmail.

How GoogleBuzz is going to look

There are many elements of GoogleBuzz that makes it similar to Facebook and Twitter. For example, it will allow users to share pictures, links, and statuses with people in their network. In addition, those who use GoogleBuzz will be able to extract their activity from other sites like Picasa, Twitter, and Flickr.

GoogleBuzz has similarities to Twitter because it allows users to post blog updates. It is also similar to Facebook because people have to be “friends” with one another to view each other’s content.

Google maintains that the launching of this network was not to compete with other social networking websites. Rather, he suggests that all the social networking websites are becoming “cluttered” and that GoogleBuzz would solve the issue of cluttering.

GoogleBuzz is even going to have voice-recording capabilities! In addition, it is going to be GPS-capable, recording the location that a status was posted!

I think the most clever part of the GoogleBuzz is that it is going to operate  in the same fashion that the Google search engine functions. It is going to get rid of “bad buzz” and suggest “good buzz.”

Haiti and the Stars

In 1985, many famous singers and stars came together to record the song “We Are The World.” The song, co-written by Lionel Richie and the late Michael Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones raised more than $30 million for African humanitarian programs.

This past monday, while many of today’s music superstars were in Hollywood for Sunday’s Grammy Awards, close to 100 stars provided their vocal talents to rerecord the hit song “We Are The World” in an effort to raise millions of dollars for Haiti.

The song’s title was changed to “We Are The World-25 for Haiti.” The song was remade so that it has a faster pace and includes a bit of rap. There were 3-D cameras present in the studio filming a video that was directed by Paul Haggis, who has won Oscar awards for “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby.” In addition, two people in green body suits stood next to Barbara Streisand and the Jonas Brothers while they were recording. These two people were placeholders and will allow people at home to use their computers to insert themselves into the video!

One similarity between Monday’s recording of the song and the 1985 version of the song was that they were recorded in Studio A, located at the Jim Henson Studios in Los Angeles. Part of the reason why this studio became so famous was because of the sign that hung over the door, which read “Check Your Egos at the Door.”

Egos were definitely checked at the door with regards to Monday’s recording. The superstars had no idea who else was going to lend their vocals to this song until they entered the studio. Many of them took pictures with one another and exchanged phone numbers–perhaps for future music-making? Some of the stars included Lil Wayne, Mya, Celine Dion, Carlos Santana, and Nicole Richie.

The song will premiere for the first time during the opening ceremony of the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Those who want to hear the song and see the video for the first time can tune into the NBC network to witness this historical, remarkable, and generous event.

Social Networking: Today and Yesterday

I do not think a day goes by when someone close to me does not make a reference to “Facebook.” Whether it be a reference to a new photograph “tagged” or a reference to a comment on someone’s “wall,” Facebook conversation has become apart of our every day lives. In addition to the Facebook addiction, other social networking sites have become viral. These sites allow users to stay in contact with friends across the globe, inform friends what is going on in their lives, and post their resumes in the hopes of obtaining a job. 

The number of social networking sites continue to grow and replace older ones. University at Albany Senior, Amy Kattan, New Rochelle, New York, has had Facebook since she was a senior in high school. She logs into facebook numerous times everyday. Kattan also has a “LiveJournal” account. In high school, Kattan used LiveJournal to write about her daily activities and to read about what her friends were doing. Now, she uses the online journal primarily to read about what is going on in her friends’ lives. Also in high school, Kattan had “Xanga” and “MySpace” accounts, but recently deleted both of them. After exploring the world of “Twitter,” Kattan decided to make an account. Apparently, Twitter dissappointed Kattan as she deleted the account a day later.

Similarly to Kattan, UAlbany Senior, Krystina Karp, Greenwich, N.Yalso recently created a Twitter account to see what all of the hype was about. While she still has the account, she never “Tweets” or logs into it to see what her followers and those she is following are doing. Rather, Karp perfers to luse the social networks sites, Facebook and MySpace. She has had both of these accounts since she was a senior in high school.

Unlike Kattan and Karp, UAlbany Junior, Neil Fins, Marlboro, New Jersey,  has a Twitter account that he uses to tweet his thoughts on a regular basis. Fins also logs into Facebook  to stay in contact with friends.

Kattan is not the only UAlbany student who has deleted his or her MySpace and Xanga accounts. UAlbany graduate student, Adam Girard, Glens Falls, N.Y. and UAlbany Junior, Amanda Brandoff both deleted their high school Xanga and MySpace accounts. Brandoff has had a Facebook account since high school. While she does not particularly care for Facebook, she keeps the account because all of her friends have one, so it makes it easy for her to stay in contact with them. Girard has had his facebook account since he was a Freshman at UAlbany and also uses the account to stay in touch with friends.

I am not surprised that all of the students I interviewed have Facebook accounts, but I am a bit surprised that not more students have Twitter accounts. Maybe this is because Facebook has created a way for its users to update others on what they are up to in a Twitter-like way. I was surprised that not one student I interviewed has a LinkedIn account. I think LinkedIn is a great social network website that will definitely benefit those who have graduated or are about to graduate college.

Regardless of which social networking sites are being used, one thing is clear: social networking websites are becoming increasingly popular and are here to stay.

How Long Will the Attention Last?

It was reported this week, that the search and rescue of live bodies in the rubble has officially come to an end in Haiti. Yet a CNN.com video shows something contradictory:: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/01/26/cooper.haiti.death.everywhere.cnn.  One of my best friends from high school lost her mother in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I remember my friends and I praying every night for weeks that Nicole’s mother, Grace, would be one of those lucky people who was still living under rubble, soot, and ash. When it was finally announced that the search for living bodies in rubble of the Twin Towers was going to end, we were all crushed–it was one of the worst feelings in the world.

I noticed something in the weeks that followed the announcement that no more bodies would be pulled from the rubble of the Twin Towers: news coverage of the attacks started to slow down and become less and less. Since the earthquake devastated Haiti, I wondered how long news coverage of the earthquake would dominate our news programs. I wondered when news coverage would return to providing us with stories about the failing economy or banks. Today, when I visited CNN.com, the headline story was not about the devastation in Haiti, rather, it was about the gun markets in Pakistan.

I still cannot fathom that the Haiti coverage is no longer the headlining issue. Sure, it was announced that the search for live bodies has ceased, but what about the rebuilding of Port-ai-Prince? What about all the help the nation needs to get back on its toes? What about all the crime and disease that his stricken the city as a result of the earthquake? And what about all the effort other nations such as the United States and Israel are putting forward to help the city rebuild? Over a hundred thousand people were killed by this earthquake that took place a little over two weeks ago, how is it already out of the headlines?

I am really appalled, yet not surprised that this is happening. It seems to be a trend with news coverage. It happened with the coverage of September 11, 2001 and it most definitely happened with the coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I think news coverage is helpful in educating people about the dire situation in Haiti as well as motivating people to donate their time and money to help with the situation.

The bottom line is, even though the rescuing of live bodies may have come to an end, there is so much more to be done in Haiti. The situation deserves the attention of our news networks for more than three weeks.

In the end, we are only human.

I do not think I will ever forget Anderson Cooper’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina on CNN in 2005. Cooper actually broke down on camera and started to cry because of the heartbreaking situation in New Orleans. That being said, it did not surprise me when we watched the video clip in class of Cooper dropping his microphone and rescuing the little boy who was hurt and gushing blood.

Anderson Cooper

If I were in Cooper’s position, I undoubtedly would have done the exact same thing–drop the camera to rescue the injured child. I would not have even had to think twice about what to do. As journalists we are trained to ask tough questions, walk into scary situations, and talk to people who might be going through something horrible. Journalists are supposed to report and act in an almost sensitized way to avoid biases and to prevent changing the story.

When Cooper stepped in to save the boy, he did something a journalist should not necessarily do: he changed the story. The story was no longer about solely about the rising violence in Haiti. Rather, it was about how the escalating violence in Haiti got so bad that Cooper , a journalist in Haiti with the purpose of reporting on the situation, had to step in and rescue a little boy.

It might be AGAINST the rules of good journalism to do what Cooper did, but it FOLLOWS the rules of being a good person. As I mentioned in class on Wednesday, when it comes down to it, Cooper is a human. A good person would not be able to stand idle and watch the violence continue. Rather, a good person would step in and do exactly what Cooper did. I know I could never live with myself if I just stood by and watched this child getting beaten to death. Yes, I want to be an award-winning journalist and get the story that no other journalist is able to get. But, I also want to remain a good person and do the right thing. For me it is a matter of ethics and watching a child die is just not an option, even if it means going against the rules of journalism.

The fact that Cooper stepped in to rescue the child actually adds to the coverage of Haiti. It shows how out of control the situation is there and how much help the nation needs. Cooper’s rescuing of the boy might provoke viewers to donate their money or time to help out the dire situation. I am sure that news coverage like this ((http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/01/22/ac.haiti.new.orphans.cnn)) touches viewers, provides information about the current situation, and makes them want to help out with the rescue effort. However, I truly believe that the video clip of Cooper rescuing the little boy really demonstrates how dire the situation in Haiti is.