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Yesterday, merely three hours after her wedding, Laurette Brunson, was shot. Around five o’clock the police were called to 617 Jackson Street. The police suspect Laurette’s husband, 50 year old Richard Brunson, of shooting her with a .22-calibre handgun. The groom was gone when the police arrived on the scene. According to Vicki Holmes, one of the Brunson’s neighbors, everything was fine earlier that day. Police are still looking for Richard Brunson.
And here’s vicki: New Vicki
Sarah Palin decided to contribute to the idiotic “slams” aimed at President Obama. The Gawker‘s Neetzan Zimmerman explained it perfectly: “You didn’t seriously think Sarah Palin was going to sit idly by and let Donald Trump and Ann Coulter troll America without joining in on the fun, did you?”
Palin called on Obama to stop his “shuck and jive shtick”. “Shuck and jive” is an old term that usually referred to slaves or African Americans. According to Urban Dictionary, “‘Shucking and jiving’ was a tactic of both survival and resistance. A slave, for instance, could say eagerly, ‘Oh, yes, Master,’ and have no real intention to obey. Or an African-American man could pretend to be working hard at a task he was ordered to do, but might put up this pretense only when under observation. Both would be instances of ‘doin’ the old shuck ‘n jive.'”
Palin’s racist comment has landed her in some hot water. With election season coming to an end it is important for readers to be conscious of these comments and think objectively. Comments like these really attest to Palin’s personality and it surprises me that a former V.P. candidate would act like this.
I think this is newsworthy because it is relevant to readers. As I stated earlier comments like these shouldn’t be made by a person who is in the spotlight, let alone someone who could have been a representative of the United States of America.
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace allow individuals to interact with each other constantly throughout the day. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that all this socializing may be bad for you.
Have you ever sat in the back of a college classroom? If you have you know why it’s the most distracting seat in the room. The laptops of fellow students display a circus of images on the glowing screens. Many students use lecture time to roam Facebook and keep up on friend’s tweets. This continuous contact with the Internet community has the American Academy of Pediatrics concerned.
Large amounts of exposure to social media sites have been linked to symptoms of depression. The American Academy of Pediatrics has called this phenomenon “Facebook depression”.
Susan Sorenson, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, calls the interaction on social media sites “pseudo-socializing”.
“The interactions users have online, through a computer screen, are not actual interactions.”
Mrs. Sorenson believes this type of socializing is actually leaving people feeling lonely and cutting them off from the rest of the world. When I asked Mrs. Sorenson what types of symptoms the American Academy of Pediatrics were most likely finding. She believed isolation was probably a very common symptom for people with “Facebook depression”.
Hank Binnebose is a manager at Best Buy, who is majoring in Computer Science. Binnebose believes that the accessibility of technology may be contributing to this over-socializing. He said,
“Our generation relies on social media a lot. It’s just so easy for me to get online whenever or wherever because of my smart phone and almost everyone has smart phones now.”
Having the ability to access these sites at all hours of the day may be a contributing factor.
“There’s no reason people ever have to get off (social media sites). While you’re grocery shopping you can Skype your mom. While you’re out with your friends you can be Facebooking your other friends.”
Social media sites also leave users vulnerable to bullying. It is no surprise that bullying can be very damaging, but the impact it can have is multiplied when someone is feeling isolated.
Johanna Munoz, who has spoken with students about cyber-bullying, explained that before the technology craze people could “escape bullies”. She said,
“You knew where they were and the places you could go to avoid them. Now there’s no escape. People can reach you anywhere, anytime. To add to it, bullying on Facebook is very public, which is super embarrassing. Everyone can see it.”
Although Munoz had never heard of Facebook depression, she wasn’t surprised to hear that there was a possible link between high use of social media sites and depression.
“People liking pictures and commenting could definitely lead to self-esteem issues, at least.”
She spoke with me about a popular application that used to be on Facebook called Hot or Not. Hot or Not permitted users to judge pictures of their Facebook friends. A picture would be displayed on the screen and the user would choose whether their friend was Hot or Not. “Feeling like you’re being judged by people is not a good feeling.”
Most college students already spend a good portion of their day on the web. Students can easily access the Internet through their phones or computers, which makes them a target for excessive use. Most college students already have profiles for social media sites so they can keep in contact with friends and family back home.
Many students are settling for fictitious socializing that may be causing them to distant themselves from others. Social media sites leave users open to bullying and humiliation. In addition, the easy accessibility to these social media sites doesn’t allow students a chance to escape.
So what can you do if you want to reduce your likelihood of getting “Facebook depression”? Susan Sorenson believes that limiting the amount of time you spend on these social networking sites is key.
911 operators are overwhelmed by the number of calls they are receiving. According to a report done by The Daily 40 out of every 100 calls are butt dials. 100 million accidental calls were made just last year. Responders have to stay on the line just in case of an emergency. This leads to slower and less efficient response times.
I thought this was newsworthy because this can directly relate to everyone. If a friend or family member needed help we would want them to receive the fastest response. If each reader could learn one thing from this article it should be that we need to lock our phones or keep it in a better place, where butt dialing wouldn’t be an issue.
Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and WordPress are all forms of social media. Social media allows individuals to interact with each other through websites. Large amounts of exposure to social media sites, specifically Facebook, have been linked to symptoms of depression. Social media sites have become a very popular way for college students to communicate, but throughout my interviews only one people had heard of what the American Academy of Pediatrics call Facebook depression.
Johanna Munoz is a college student and frequent social media user. When Johanna was in high school she spoke at WITCC about cyber-bullying. When I asked Johanna what she thought social media was she said, “Social media is made up of social websites like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. It’s big networks you can use to communicate with people from all around the world.”
Sue Sorenson, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, calls the interaction on social media sites “pseudo-socializing”. “The interactions users have online, through a computer screen, are not actual interactions.” I asked Sue what types of symptoms the American Academy of Pediatrics were most likely finding. She believed isolation was probably a very common symptom for some of these excessive users. Sue’s advice was to limit the amount of time you spend on these sites.
A manager at Best Buy, who is majoring in Computer Science, believes that the accessibility of technology has contributed to the popularity of social sites. He said, “Our generation relies on social media a lot. It’s just so easy for me to get online whenever or wherever because of my smart phone and almost everyone has smart phones now.” Having the ability to access these sites at all hours of the day can lead to excessive use. “There’s no reason people ever have to get off (these sites). While you’re grocery shopping you can Skype your mom. While you’re out with your friends you can be Facebooking your other friends.”
Easy accessibility to these websites has contributed to an increase in cyber-bullying. Johanna, who has spoken with students about cyber-bullying, explained that before the technology craze people could “escape bullies”. She said, “You knew where they were and the places you could go to avoid them. Now there’s no escape. People can reach you anywhere, anytime. To add to it, bullying on Facebook is very public, which is super embarrassing. Everyone can see it.”
Although Johanna had never heard of Facebook depression, she wasn’t surprised to hear that there was a possible link between high use of social media sites and depression. “People liking pictures and commenting could definitely lead to self-esteem issues, at least.” She spoke with me about a popular application that used to be on Facebook called Hot or Not. Hot or Not permitted users to judge pictures of their Facebook friends. A picture would be displayed on the screen and the user would choose whether their friend was Hot or Not. “Feeling like you’re being judged by people is not a good feeling.”
This could affect college students for a number of different reasons. Most college students already spend a good portion of their day on the web. Students can easily access the Internet through their phones or computers, which makes them a perfect target for excessive use. Most college students already have profiles for social media sites so they can keep in contact with friends and family back home.
Catarina Migliorini, a 20 year old woman from Brazil, is auctioning off her virginity for charity. It was not said what charity this money would be going to, only that the money would be used to help impoverished families. Migliorini’s virginity is currently priced at $190,000. In a little over a week the auctions will end. The stunt has been carefully crafted to make sure that no laws are broken.
Readers may find this information useful if they are regular donators. People may feel differently about donating to charities that take this money. People may think twice before becoming involved with charities.
For some readers this information could also serve as a friendly reminder to watch what their loved ones are doing online.
This story is about a bicyclist from New York who receives a ticket for not riding his bike in the bike lanes. He tried to explain to the officer that riding in the bike lane was not always the safest option, but the officer was adamant and insisted that he only ride in the designated lane. From then on the cyclist only rode in the bike lane, despite the trash cans, pedestrians, or vehicles.
In class we talked about why we don’t follow laws. Someone said it was about convenience, someone else said that we don’t follow laws because we know we can get away with it, most of the time. What if the law, like in this case, was hazardous? I think that’s what makes this a newsworthy story. I’m not saying we don’t need to follow the law and uphold our portion of the social contract, but shouldn’t the law have our best interest in mind? The biker didn’t make his choice based on convenience, he made his decision based on what was the safest choice. Isn’t that what’s important? If this story would have been published maybe he would have known how to react to the officer and what he should have said to state his case.
I set out to find two strangers who would let me take a picture of them. I headed to Lewis Hall and found myself in Stacie Hays’ office. Stacie is a Career Counselor in the Guidance Office. Stacie is roughly the same height as me. She has a very petite frame, but she still has an athletic build. She has dark hair that covers her shoulders and very kind eyes. She was wearing a navy blue athletic jacket and khaki pants. I told Stacie about my assignment and asked if she would be willing to help me. She said sure and then set out to Shari Benson’s office.
Shari Benson, who is the Director of New Students, is all smiles. Stacie lightly knocked on the door leading into Shari’s office and politely asked if she would be willing to take a picture with her. Shari rose from her chair, which revealed the rest of the blue fun print on her jacket and her knee length mint green skirt. Stacie walked around the circular table in Shari’s room and put her arm around Shari’s waist. My phone was already in my hands, so it took only a few seconds to snap the picture.
As other students started to funnel into the Guidance Office asking for other random favors. We stood and chatted with Shari about Pinterest. Shari explained that she was a Pinterest addict. She said, “Last night I was pinning, pinning, pinning!” 
On Monday Salon published an article about “creeper extraordinaire”, Silvio Berlusconi, the owner of an Italian magazine called Chi. Berlusconi dedicated TWENTY-SIX pages to a topless, sunbathing Kate Middleton. The duke and duchess of Cambridge had just filed a lawsuit against Closer, a French magazine owned by the same publishing company, when they heard the news about more pictures being published in Chi. However, the Chi editor, Alfonso Signorini, doesn’t seem frightened by the thought of a lawsuit.
I found this article newsworthy because I was surprised by the information. People that are in a constant spotlight, like Kate Middleton, shouldn’t be out tanning topless because someone will get a glimpse of it sooner or later.
This story is larger in Europe right now because it has more relevance. However, this article can serve as a lesson, not just for the parties involved, but also for anyone who reads it. Snapping pictures of naked ladies probably won’t help your career and tanning topless, most likely, won’t help you appeal to an audience.
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