Shea and son, Caysen.

 

An artist is often stereotyped in a couple different ways.  Some visualize a broke, hippy, getting in touch with their inner feelings, and putting it on a canvas. Others think of fine wine, and arrogant artists in a New York City gallery. However, an artist does not have to be either or. At least not for Shea Hartman-Hodges.

“I knew I wanted to be an artist around the age of 25,” Hodges says. She goes on explaining that, she had lost her job at the bank, had three kids, a husband and had already tried lots of things. She says, “At this point, I didn’t care what I did, I just wanted to enjoy what I did.” Therefore, she began studying at Morningside College, to earn a degree in studio art and creative writing.

Hodges says, “Most people told me I couldn’t get a degree in art or writing. Especially writing, because I have dyslexia. That was all more reason for me to prove them wrong.” Today, Shea sits in her downtown studio in Sioux City. When you meet her, she is happier than ever to talk about anything. Her long brown hair is down, and she is dressed in jeans and a crochet sweater. Her smile she gives is always more than welcoming. Terry McGaffin, a professor at Morningside, says, “I was set up to be her advisor for art classes. She made a strong first impression, a very positive force. Her confidence and self knowledge just leaves you in awe.”

Shea talks about what it means to be a modern day artist. She says, “When I’m asked what I do, and I reply that I’m an artist, they say, ‘OK, but what’s your real job?’” She laughs and says that she usually tells them she also bartends downtown. “People look at art like it’s just a hobby,” explains Hodges. She feels this is why it is so financially hard to keep up. Most people in the area do not buy professional artwork. You can’t buy paint and supplies to continue to do art, when no money from your work is coming in. Other struggles she has found include, finding places to show her work and knowing how to promote herself. “The huge thing I learned in school was confidence and how to take criticism, but no one taught me how to promote myself to the public” she says.

McGaffin feels that one thing Shea does best is keeping herself informed. Sitting on Shea’s desk is a copy of “I’d Rather Be In The Studio,” a book on self-promotion. She looks at it and says that its ‘her bible,’ with a large grin on her face. She does not ever regret her line of work choice. “I love my job. I don’t have to make excuses for being eccentric. Most of all, I can show my kids no matter what, you can go after your dreams,” says Hodges.

Artwork done by Shea Hartman Hodges

Lunatic- 12/6/12

December 6, 2012

Lunatics

I thought this article was kind of funny. It shows how bored lawmakers are, which is why I have to agree with Texas congressman, Louie Gohmert. It is a little crazy to worry about a silly little word like “lunatic,” when being called “crazy” or “insane” can be just as demeaning. We are so worried about hurting peoples’ feelings and being politically correct that we don’t focus on more important issues.

This is a newsworthy story, I guess. It would probably be considered more of a filler story. People like to keep up with whats going on in congress and legislation, but words being banned are not at the top of peoples’ list to read about. This could also be used as a filler broadcast story. It’s short, simple and to the point.

Feature Story- First Draft

December 6, 2012

When you think of an artist, people come to many different conclusions to what an artist is. Some visualize a broke, hippy, getting in touch with their inner feelings and putting it on a canvas. Others think of fine wine, and arrogant artists in a New York City gallery. However, an artist does not have to be either or. At least not for Shea Hartman-Hodges.

 

Shea is a 32-year old artist, who not only has studied fine art, but has been working as an artist for the last couple years. “There are many struggles with being an artist, especially a painter,” Hodges says, but still she feels it is an amazing career.

 

Even with the difficulties, Shea still manages to do her artwork, work a second job and raise her family. She feels it’s a constant balancing act, “You want to produce as much art as possible to sell, but you still need a steady income. That’s where bartending comes in for me,” she says.

New Laws for Technology

This was an interesting article for the week. There is a new law that for law enforcement to look into technology based information (i.e. social media profiles, the cloud, phones and other electronic devices) they must now have a warrant from a judge to do so. It’s odd that this law wasn’t passed before.

I feel like now that this is being passed, maybe citizens weren’t really getting the privacy we deserve in previous years. I think this new “rule” will be beneficial in giving U.S. citizens more privacy. I also agree that this will not hinder law enforcement in doing their job. They are required to have warrants for everything else- why not this? I would say this is a newsworthy story that many people would be interested in.

Texting- 11/15/12

November 15, 2012

Texting

This was a very cool “fun fact,” I thought. Despite our world of technology based everything, its odd to see something like texting diminishing. Unfortunately, it is too bad that it’s not diminishing because people realized how much better actually talking is. Instead, like always, we are trying to move on to the next bigger, better and cheaper thing.

Though seeing a decrease in texting is odd for our generation, it makes sense when phone companies are charging out the ‘wah-zoo’ for data plans, calls and texts.

I suppose this is newsworthy. Its not necessarily a major story, but a filler. People like to keep up on technology; what’s hot and what’s not. It probably would never make broadcast because it’s easy, but boring for radio or television.

Broadcast

November 15, 2012

BroadcastFinal

 

 

Script:

This is morningside news, I’m Jennifer Noel.  Hurricane Sandy has given the East Coast quite a shock. Here is (name) with the story.

 

Fierce floods and 80 mile per hour winds, hit the East Coast on Monday. Even though it was weakened, Hurricane Sandy still gave New Jersey a punch. By Tuesday, the rainfall was slowing and the storm was now a post-tropical cyclone. As a result, from the storm at least 16 people across the East Coast are dead.

 

Atlantic City and Lower Manhattan are just a few places the storm has caused damage. The streets were flooded into rivers 13 feet deep. Much of Manhattan’s skyline power faded. At the end of Tuesday, still most places were unsafe to travel and interstates were reduced to 45 miles per hour.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hurricane-sandy-causes-evacuations-closings-throughout-east-coast/2012/10/29/8eac52ba-2162-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_story.html

 

 

Recently Siouxlanders came together for the annual event, Pink in the Rink.  (Name) has more on the event.

 

 

Sioux City’s Pink in the Rink was a big success for Breast Cancer Awareness. On Saturday, the Sioux City Musketeers wore pink for the fifth year in a row. The event rose up to forty seven thousand dollars for St Lukes’ imaging and breast screening center.

 

Over thirty-eight hundred people showed up at the Tyson Event Center for the event. Each ticket generated three dollars towards the cause. To keep the support going, t-shirts and pink ducks were sold at the game as well.

 

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/briefs/pink-in-the-rink-raises-k-in-sioux-city/article_523ebe00-9baa-5341-93c0-109834239028.html

 

ME: This year’s election has brought up strong feelings for student voters. Sioux City students had a chance to vote early and many for the first time. Here is (name) with more to the story.

 

Early voting came even quicker for college students in Sioux City. Students came from every secondary school to cast their vote. Emily, a student from Morningside, who voted, thought there was a lot of pressure this campaign to be apart of the election. Emily says,

Many students were voting for the first time. Most felt like it is an important event that students and young adults need to participate in. Jamison, a first time voter from morningside says, “blah blah blah.”

DINOSAURS!- 11/8/12

November 8, 2012

Dinosaurs

I thought this was cool. Rarely anymore do we hear about finding fossils. So it’s exciting to hear about discoveries like this. This is definantly newsworthy, because it is a piece of ‘living’ history. Well, ‘living’ in the sense that we can touch it. People like to hear about this because it’s proof of creatures that were hear before us.

This is something unique that would be cool to put in broadcast. However, the scientific names of dinosaurs would be way to difficult to pronounce. Therefore, I wouldn’t suggest it for broadcast to avoid tongue twisters. Unfortunately, they would need all those hard names to tell the complete story.

Three Stories

November 8, 2012

ME: In today’s news Hurricane Sandy has given the East Coast quite a shock. Here is (name) with the story.

 

NAME: Thanks Jen,

 

Fierce floods and 80 mile per hour winds, hit the East Coast on Monday. Even though it was weakened, Hurricane Sandy still gave New Jersey a punch. By Tuesday, the rainfall was slowing and the storm was now a post-tropical cyclone. As a result, from the storm at least 16 people across the East Coast are dead.

 

Atlantic City and Lower Manhattan are just a few places the storm has caused damage. The streets were flooded into rivers 13 feet deep. Much of Manhattan’s skyline power faded. At the end of Tuesday, still most places were unsafe to travel and interstates were reduced to 45 miles per hour.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hurricane-sandy-causes-evacuations-closings-throughout-east-coast/2012/10/29/8eac52ba-2162-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_story.html

 

 

ME: Thank you Jane. Recently Siouxlanders came together for the annual event, Pink in the Rink.  (Name) has more on the event.

 

NAME: Thanks Jen,

 

Sioux City’s Pink in the Rink was a big success for Breast Cancer Awareness. On Saturday, the Sioux City Musketeers wore pink for the fifth year in a row. The event rose up to forty seven thousand dollars for St Lukes’ imaging and breast screening center.

 

Over thirty-eight hundred people showed up at the Tyson Event Center for the event. Each ticket generated three dollars towards the cause. To keep the support going, t-shirts and pink ducks were sold at the game as well.

 

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/briefs/pink-in-the-rink-raises-k-in-sioux-city/article_523ebe00-9baa-5341-93c0-109834239028.html

 

ME: This year’s election has brought up strong feelings for student voters. Sioux City students had a chance to vote early and many for the first time. Here is (name) with more to the story.

 

NAME: Thanks Jen,

 

Early voting came even quicker for college students in Sioux City. Students came from every secondary school to cast their vote. (Name), a student from Morningside, casted her vote and says, “blah blah blah.”

Many students were voting for the first time. Some feel that there is a lot of pressure with the election being a close one this year. A student from WITT, (Name), says, “blah blah blah.”

 

 

(I need to do some interviews, so that is why I have “blah blah blah” and (Name)).

Ex-Morningside College Worker gets prison sentence

This is great local news. People love to hear about crime. It is also a good broadcast story and probably was one somewhere. People can easily listen to it on radio or television. Its short, sweet and to the point. I do wonder if this hurt Morningside College at all. I mean they hired an embezzler. That has to make them look bad to some extent.

The content was written in an inverted pyramid style. However some of the sentences are pretty long. The writer could have probably condensed at least some.

Science Story

November 1, 2012

Farmers Cause Earthquake. Story Here: ScienceStory

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345937/description/Spanish_quake_linked_to_groundwater_pumping