Disney thinking about future!

In an age where none of us know where media is headed, not only does Disney dominate the movie, show, and cartoon industry...they are now planning on creating a dominance for online storybooking. They say it will not replace tim snuggled up as a family reading a book, but it will allow children groing up in the technology age to interact with their stories in a very accessible format. I think very interesting! and very future forward of the amazing company and brand!http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/business/media/29disney.html?hpw

Free Speech?

For some reason I am jazzed about our Comms 300 class discussions!

Today we had the pleasure of listening to a guest professor, yes I know it is super lame that I don't know his name, but he was an amazing speaker! He led our discussion about "disruptive speech" and it was fascinating!

It helped me realize where the boudary line is that protects our first amendment rights, and how close you can teeter to that line! Some of the things that people have said, especially by a White supremacist used as an example in class, is appalling but still protected by the first amendment's right of free speech. WHY?

if it weren't we wouyldn't be allowed to freely express religious ideas through missionary work, and we wouldn't be allowed to freely challenge governmental ideas( yes they are imperfect sometimes!)

SO yes, OPPOSITION IN ALL THINGS IS NECESSARY however uncomfotable it may be. THE end.

SO TRUE! an article that hits home.....and your wallet.

This article is very clever, and speaks to many people. I love how reporters think. They tell us that we are not the only ones in the boat, they let us know that we can relate to each other. This article helps us take a look back to the past, and understand that the economic crisis falls in a cycle, and that trends, even like clipping articles, can be seen throughout history. A soft piece that makes us laugh in irony, but helps us relate past, to present and future. These days, (especially in college) we are all trying to save a buck! Life is so expensive as a student, from food, tuition, and clothes, to dating, entertainment, and tickets for trips home...things start to add up. Read this!

A new Angle on the Mp3

This Article, like all good articles should, brings to light a seldom thought about issue concerning Mp3 players. I love that this parenting blog stepped back from the apple craze and took a closer look to warn us.

Ipods are a dime a dozen these days! Almost 1 out of every 2 students walking through Brigham Square is "plugged in". Mp3s afford us with limitless possibilies as far as mobile music goes, but do they pose a danger to children and youth? This areticle helps us see the other side of the Mp3 craze...http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-parenting/2009/09/21/start-early-to-protect-childrens-ears-from-that-mp3-player.html

To go along with the article here are some good and bad qualities of the Mp3 in my opinion!

1. They keep us from interacting with the world around us.

2.Mp3's take your parenting power away: If used too much or in the wrong settings, these devices allow kids to selectively listen, and in effect, selectively obey.

3. Mp3's have a purpose and it's very valuable to us!: They are so valuable, you can run to music, you can ski to music, the possibilites are endless....

4. I somehow can never figure out how to get new music on it....so complicated!

5. They can damage our hearing!

Stories With Pictures

Sometimes I get so preoccupied with myself, and local news, that i forget about the amount of news this WORLD has to offer. And what better way to tell the news than in pictures?

here are some shots by US News and World Report photographer Jim Lo Scalzo... I love is work, he tells stories with pictures. Very similar to what we do as broadcasters, tell news with video pictures.

THOUGHTS ABOUT COVERING TRAUMATIC NEWS

As I was working at ABC4 in Salt Lake this summer, I was faced with the situation of having to shadow a reporter on a murder case. The case involved a house-wife being beaten to death by a burglar in her own kitchen, while her children were in the house.

Objectivity for me was very hard. I was emotionally subjected, I already hated the person who had killed her.

Her neighbors were crying, and her children were being forced to make witness statements, it was "hard to cover news". As we interviewed a teary neighbor, I couldn't help but get misty eyed hearing his story of the last time he had seen the woman taking in her garbage cans the day before.

I wonder, how can you cover news like this day by day and not become depressed or cynical? How do you cover such emotional news? A blog I read today included amazing advice from a New York Daily News photographer David Handschuh who was near ground zero on september 11th. If you wonder the same thing I do read this article, it will help you gain a context for these issues.

Here's a little taste of his experience.

" On Sept. 11, 2001, Handschuh was driving to a graduate-level class he taught at New York University when he heard scanner traffic about a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Handschuh said he called the Daily News and was told to head to the site. He also called the university and left a quick message at home: "I'm going down there. Love you all."

Following a rescue company he'd covered at other scenes, Handschuh reached the towers at 8:53 a.m., about 10 minutes before the second hijacked airliner struck the South Tower.

The scene was "surreal," he said. "I was cognizant of what was going on, but I don't think I was accepting of what I was seeing."

He didn't hear sirens but remembers smells. He didn't register the sight of people plummeting to their deaths but still hears "the sound as they were hitting the pavement."

He recalls the "Kodachrome-blue beautiful sky" overhead moments before the South Tower collapsed in front of him, tossing him about a block. His right leg was shattered. "I thought I was going to die face-down in the gutter," he said. A group of firefighters from Engine 217 in Brooklyn hauled him to safety."

During my time at ABC I shadowed reporters on many hard stories, 8 year old kid falling into fast moving ditch and dying, innocent housewife killed by burglar, ATV accidents, boaters dying on Utah Lake....it's a hard world out there! But we need to warn everyone else to be careful, and be thankful for the life that they are living.

In Handschuh's own words on helping to deal with traumatic events, "We need to work as a community," Handschuh said. "It took a 110-story building falling on my head for me to realize how short life is. Appreciate life. Appreciate every day. Appreciate the little things."

AM I ALLOWED TO SAY I MISS HIM? : )