JRN 320: Rockin' the Vote

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2008-05-21T09:42:00.001-04:00

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My 320 Final Project

2008-05-15T08:16:00.004-04:00

My project is focused on the Craft Center.
I was planning to do an elevator story but the video came out so bad that I had to change the topic last minute with a permission from Adam.
I had a video footage from my other journalism class but I decided to have a different focus, which is on the Craft Center.

First of all, my video covers how students enjoyed the Street Fair at the SSK Festival with couple interviews. I included my voice over to explain the video better.(Street Fair was sponsored by the center)

And my photoslides include some pictures of the Craft Center. Also some from the Street Fair.

My main bar is on the Craft Center based on the interviews with the director and the graduate assistant. (How the center works. What kind of difficulties they face. How many students at the center so on and on)

The last but not least, my side bar story is on how art/crafts can help you maintain mental health and little bit on art therapy!!

I also tried to put some links to enhance the interactivity among readers/viewers through out my posts/entries.

Good luck on your finals and have a good summer!! :)

2008-05-14T23:50:00.002-04:00

Roosevelt Redevelopment

2008-04-29T17:30:00.003-04:00

For the last year or so there has been a considerable amount of redevelopment in Roosevelt quad. Directly adjacent to circle road, or better known as the outer loop to campus residents, is a hindrance called construction. A new dormitory is being built the spot where the old Roosevelt Cafeteria once stood. Due to constant construction, surrounding buildings often have no hot water and students’ living environments are constantly being disrupted. I plan to report on the status of this redevelopment project and the problems it has caused for the residents of the surrounding dormitories. I think some good sources might be campus housing officials, construction workers, building managers, Roosevelt quad director and students. I plan to answer questions such as: What is being done to speed up the construction, how are students being comforted for living in such harmful and annoying conditions, are there plans to make more space for parking, etc. I think my findings will deliver some type of argument from both sides of the spectrum, both university and students. My side bar will most likely be a profile or human-interest story on someone greatly affected by the ongoing, never-ending construction

Stony Brook recycling

2008-04-26T11:25:00.006-04:00

Over the past year there has been a large push forward by Stony Brook to increase awareness about recycling.

My story will focus on Stony Brook recycling efforts. I will be covering Recycle mania and Earth stock.

The story will also focus on Stony Brooks efforts in the past. My sources include but are not limited to Mike Youdelman plan the manager of Stony Brook's recycling department. Enthusiast on campus and event coordinators. Not all students are satisfied with Stony Brook's efforts and say the university could be doing much more.

Campus Safety

2008-04-25T22:35:00.005-04:00

In the past three years, Stony Brook University has seen an increase in burglaries/thefts and weapon crimes on campus, according to the Stony Brook University police website. The number of stolen laptops, textbooks and other valuable personal belongings have increased. There have also been more instances where disciplinary referrals were issued to armed persons on campus. Although the alleged gunman incident on campus this past February was concluded to be an inaccurate report, it exposed the troubling problems. Some students I have spoken to believe that the police on campus did not control the situation properly and did not make them feel any safer on campus. Other’s were worried that professors were not prepared and were unaware of what procedures to follow in the event that there was an actual threat on campus. As a result of the increasing number of crimes, the university is planning new ways to crack down on these growing trends. I will talk about new plans, hirings, meetings and crime prevention systems. I will interview the following people for this assignment:

Doug Little, the Asst. Chief of the University Police
Robert J. Lenahan, the Director of Campus Emergency Management (hired Jan.10th of this year)
Neil Sluiter, Captain Training & Special Events Coordinator.

I will also interview students, professors and others, who make up the 40,000 people, who frequent the campus daily and get their reactions to new changes and proposed future changes to ensure campus safety for every individual and his or her own property.

Starbucks on Campus

2008-04-25T21:30:00.002-04:00

My final project is going to be about the Starbucks that just recently opened on campus. I will focus on the popularity of the new name brand coffee shop and compare it to other coffee houses on campus. I see if Starbucks has any effect on the business of the others.

I want to also incorporate why students choose Starbucks over other coffee brands on campus, such as Seattle's Best. From what I see, students are overwhelmingly choosing Starbucks over Seattle's Best. Perhaps it is the fact that Starbucks is a well-known brand or simply more people prefer the taste of Starbucks over others.

The people I will interview will be students who purchase Starbucks and other coffee brands and staff members at Starbucks and other coffee houses around campus.

Campus buses

2008-04-25T20:50:00.002-04:00

For my news package, I am planning on detailing the new upgrades to the campus buses. There are over nine buses that run daily on campus from as early as 5:30 a.m. to as late as 11:45 p.m. There are ten routes throughout campus, including the outer loop, inner loop, hospital and express routes. The buses currently run on Biodiesel. “Biodiesel is a domestic, renewable fuel for diesel engines derived from natural oils like soybean oil,” according to biodiesel.org. The university is planning on improving the air emissions even more in the next few years and I plan on finding out exactly what they will be doing. I will be interviewing James O’Connor, Director of transportation and parking services, the Stony Brook chapter of NYPIRG, Michelle Pizer, the President of the Environmental Club, and Daniel Knopf, a professor in the atmospheric sciences department specializing in atmospheric chemistry, microphysics and chemistry of atmospheric aerosols, heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry and kinetics.

Roth Regatta

2008-04-25T20:35:00.002-04:00

Every year at Stony Brook, there is a boating event at Roth Quad pond. It is the Roth Regatta. Organizations/clubs on campus, residence halls, sometimes even academic colleges, team up and build a boat for the regatta and sail it on the pond.

From the past regattas I've been to, the scene is always vibrant. All kinds of people show up, and some boats are extremely creative.

I want to cover this event. I figure it'll make a good video component and a colorful narrative piece. I can talk to an organization/club about how they're constructing their boat and write something colorful about that.

Did I mention that the boats can only be made out of cardboard and duct tape?

The story would detail how many boats are going to be competing this year, how many people are expected to attend. I'd like to go into the history of the Regatta and answer questions like: How long has this been tradition? Who started it? Why?

So you should let me report this. Cardboard and duct tape always make a good story!

College Students & Caffeine

2008-04-25T19:45:00.002-04:00

My project is about college students and caffeine or any stimulants.The stimulant Adderall, which is used primarily to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, is taken by students who use it to stay up for all nighters and crame for tests. Other stimulants i want to use for my project are energy drinks like- red bull, rockstar and explore the amount of caffeine in starbucks coffees that students drink several times a day. Since the Starbucks is on campus, there will be plenty of people to interview and shots of Broll. The SAC also sells energy drinks and there will be students i can talk to there also. I really want to find out all the effects that caffeine does on the body and its reprocussions- same with students taking the prescription drug adderall. I'd like to set up interviews with doctors, students, maybe a social worker on campus who deals with issues on drug abuse (about students abusing adderall). It's goint to take alot of work, but i'm excited about the topic!

Let's Get Ready To Rumble!!

2008-04-18T22:25:00.007-04:00

Wednesdays Democratic debate between Sen., Barrack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia started out friendly, but quickly grew into a 12 round bout going to a decision. But who won?

Obama was questioned about his pasture and about his loyalty to the United States, while Clinton was questioned about her credibility after she misspoke about her trip to Bosnia.

Clinton was asked about the polls done by ABC, which the moderator told her that, “about six in 10 voters that we talked to say they don’t believe that you’re honest and trustworthy.”

This was the opportunity for Clinton to put this question to bed with a strong and truthful answer, but it seemed as if she danced around the question and bit her tongue to avoid putting herself in a bad situation. She apologized for it and said that it was a mistake, but did not really say why she said what she said. Obama was asked about what he thought about the incident, but rather than attack Clinton, he decided to take the high road. It seemed that he knew that it would soon be his turn on the hot seat and hoped that by having mercy on Clinton, she might return the favor. He was wrong . . .

When asked by a voter about his decision to remove an American flag pin during his campaign. Obama responded:

“This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and, once again distracts us from what should be my job when I’m commander and chief, which is going to be figuring out how we get our troops out of Iraq and how we actually make our economy better for the American people.”

The bell sounded and Clinton wound up for a jab, pointing out Obama’s continued friendship with William Ayers, a professor who was part of the group known as “Weather Underground,” which attacked the Pentagon and other government buildings in the 1970’s and spoke out against the U.S. after the attacks on 9/11.

Obama ducked, evading the attack and countered with an uppercut, replying,

“I don’t think she would make it, since President [Bill] Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me.”

Down Goes Clinton!

Clinton picked herself up, as the moderator reached an “eight count.”

The attacks were held to a minimum for the remainder of the debate as the candidates voiced there policies on topics such as, Iraq, NATO, Social Security taxes, the right to bear arms and gas prices. The democratic candidates even shared a laugh after hearing Republican candidate, John McCain mispronounce “audacity.” (Watch from 7:50-8:17 in the video below.)

Oh no, McCain’s turning into George W. Bush.

Debate/Fight results: Obama wins by decision.

2008-04-18T20:17:00.003-04:00

A new poll by Associated Press-Yahoo news found Sen. Barack Obama more likely to beat Sen. John McCain in the general election than Sen. Hillary Clinton. The Poll has been collecting data since November 2007. In November, Clinton had a 63 percent chance of beating McCain compared with Obama’s 14 percent.

Clinton’s lead steadily declined over the last several months and April marked the first month where Obama passed Hillary by a 13 percent margin.

The analysis explains as Americans learned more about the once unknown Illinois senator, his supporters have grown. Clinton, widely known since the early 1990’s has been struggling with changing the minds of those who have been skeptical of her campaign since the beginning.

Since January, Clinton’s ratings in the honesty, likeability, and ethics categories have decreased whereas Obama’s ratings increased.

Obama may owe this to his winning streak in the primaries. Clinton still held the lead as the stronger nominee with 56 percent of Democrats — ahead of Obama’s 33 percent.

However, voters note Obama does have his flaws. Since the fall, the category rating him as “not at all honest” jumped nine percent. This jump coincided with his connection to his former pastor who has been criticized for anti-white remarks.

The poll was conducted with more than 1,800 randomly selected adults whose opinions are rechecked every few months.

A bitter Obama

2008-04-13T15:39:00.004-04:00

Senator Barack Obama came under criticism Friday after some poorly-chosen words. According to USA Today, the Illinois Senator made some comments in private during a fundraiser in San Francisco, California which described some Americans who are fed up with the current economy status.

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or anti-pathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," said Obama.

After acknowledging his previous remarks in California could have been better phrased, he added:

"The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us. But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to."

The Clinton camp is using this opportunity to jump all over her opponent. The camp handed out buttons with the words "I'm not bitter" printed on them and held a conference call of Pennsylvania mayors to denounce the Illinois senator.

Where's the Love?

2008-04-11T22:47:00.004-04:00

In a very competitive campaign where the Democratic Race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it appears that Clinton has a new opponent. Her husband Bill Clinton has recently brought up what many refer to as the “Bosnia incident,” 12 years after he says that his wife misspoke.

In 1996, Hillary Clinton spoke about her trip to Bosnia saying that the plane “landed under sniper fire.” She later retracted the statement after video was released of her walking calmly off the plane when she arrived in Bosnia. Now 12 years later, she trails Sen. Obama by 157 delegates in a very close Democratic race, the incident has resurfaced complements of her husband.

As many expected Hillary Clinton did not want this incident to be brought up again. In Alexander Mooney’s article, “Hillary to Bill: Knock it off on Bosnia,” the reporter writes, "Hillary called me and said, "I misstated it, you said I misstated it, but you got to let me handle it because you don't remember it, either.' ... I said, 'Yes, ma'am,' " Bill Clinton said in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Hillary Clinton has stood by her husband during the Monica Lewinski incident, which led to his impeachment from office. Clinton, now has the opportunity to become the first female President of the United States, which means that her credibility is very important to her. She no longer has to only worry about what Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama say about her, but what her own husband says as well.

2008-04-11T21:37:00.002-04:00

Sen. Hillary Clinton, and former President Bill Clinton are making very direct arguments to Democratic superdelegates, insisting that Sen. Barack Obama,cannot win a general election against Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Sources with knowledge of the conversation between Sen. Clinton and Governer Bill Richardson, prior to the Governor's endorsement of Obama say she told him , "He cannot win, Bill. He cannot win." This is essentially Clinton's third or fourth endorsement of McCain over Obama. This is Hillary at her worst point...if she can't win...she will sure as hell bring obama down for the count. The odd thing about all this is why would she endorse a candidate like McCain, when Obama has very similar viewpoints as her??? What is she looking to be president in 2012??????

Another Clinton a liar? Im not shocked...

2008-04-04T21:56:00.005-04:00

Hillary Clinton a liar??? A politician oh no!! lol well it's not that shocking, Hillary Clinton has been exposed for lying about her trip to Bosnia back in 1996. "I remember landing under sniper fire," she said in Washington. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
.Clinton has described it as an international experience that makes her tested and ready to answer a 3 a.m. phone call at the White House on day one. News footage of the event however showed her to have been wide of the mark, and reporters who accompanied her stated that there was no sniper fire. Her account was ridiculed by ABC News as "like a scene from Saving Private Ryan". When Clinton was exposed the could be president blamed her embellishment on "exhaustion." Yeah Sure!! It's funny to see the videos of her greeting a young girl at the airport and casually walking around with her daughter chelsea- greeting more people and soilders. It's a situation that makes the public, as well as myself, very weary. Why would she embellish this story on several occassions- especially with it being videotaped? UMMMM Hello! If she lied about this situation, she can lie about others....any as we all know, the Clinton's are infamous for lying. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman..." YEAH RIGHT

SHOW THEM THE MONEY!

2008-04-04T21:34:00.007-04:00

According to the New York Times, the income of both Democratic Candidate, Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill, the 42nd President of the United States have accumulated a shared income of $109 MILLION! While many people have spoke out against the Clintons’ for the Monica Lewinsky situation and their positions on certain issues, it appears that more people have contributed an overwhelming amount of money to the family's campaign.

In, “Clintons’ Income Topped $109 Million,” Mike McIntire and Lisa Tozzi report that, “Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton earned a combined $109 million between 2000 and 2007."

As of Jan. 2001 the Presidential Salary was increased, according to the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act (2000):

[[Page 113 STAT. 478]]

Sec. 644. (a) Increase in Annual Compensation.--Section 102 of title
3, United States Code, is amended by striking ``$200,000'' and inserting
``$400,000''.
(b) Effective Date.--The <> amendment made by
this section shall take effect at noon on January 20, 2001.

Considering the yearly income of a President, it would take 25 years to even equal Hillary Clinton's book income, which reached $10.5 million. While the Clintons' have earned a massive income, the New York Times article also points out that over the last eight years, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton have donated over $10 million towards helping the people, who make up the charities that the Clinton Family Foundation.

Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?

2008-04-04T21:30:00.005-04:00

So I did a New York Times search on Obama to read something and get an idea for this blog.

And I did.

Anyway, I stumbled on this great article that just opened my eyes to the election in a different way. Here's a quote:

Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online.

On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.

The article delved further into the personification of the two websites. Barack's website, it concluded, was more "youthful" and Hillary's is more "regal." And strikingly enough, the differences seem to carry over to their supporters.

And I think this article offers fresh insight into the campaign...and websites, in general. How much should personal websites emulate the owner's personality? And how successful are they, if they do?

Here's the article: Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?

Polls show Obama supporters more optimistic

2008-04-04T19:38:00.004-04:00

A new poll, conducted by the New York Times and CBS News, found supporters of Sen. Barack Obama and supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton thinking differently about the future.

Both groups agree our economy is not getting any better. But supports of Obama are more optimistic the next generation will live better. The polls were conduced with data from a telephone interview, conducted Mar. 28 through Apr. 2 that questioned 1,368 adults throughout the U.S. Of the adults questioned 1,196 were registered voters.

In the Clinton camp, 35 percent of people said the next generation will live better than we do today, 31 percent said the standard of living will remain the same and 30 percent said it would decline.

Obama’s supporters are more optimistic. Of citizen who said they will vote or have already voted from Obama, 50 percent said the next generation will live better than we do and only 23 percent said they would live worse.

This could be caused by the demographic both camps are attracting. Obama is pretty much racking up the youth vote and by plastering his message of “change” all over the place, he may be attracting in a more energetic crowd with high hopes for the future.

Clinton on the other hand, is attracting a mix of youth and baby boomers. Therefore maybe her supporters are more realistic and realize the country can’t turn around after the last eight years and do a complete 180 right away. It will take time.

Bill "Headlock" Richardson

2008-03-28T23:16:00.017-04:00

Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) the nations only Hispanic governor has publicly endorsed Barack Obama. "Barack Obama will make a great and historic president," said Richardson.

Richardson dropped out of the presidential race in January and has been waiting ever since to apply his next political headlock.

The endorsement gives a major boost in the race for super delegates for Obama and came as a shock to the Clinton campaign.

For those who don't remember, Richardson served as ambassador to the U.N. and as Secretary of the Energy Department under the Clinton administration.

Although Richardson has very close ties with the Clinton's he felt that Obama was the better candidate. "My affection for Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton will never waver but it is now time for a new generation of leadership," said Richardson.

Still in play in the super delegate race are John Edwards and Joe Biden who so far have remained neutral.

I bet you thought there was only one Richardson headlock pic...

Stop the Fighting

2008-03-28T20:00:00.003-04:00

According to a survey recently done by CNN it seems that Democrats on either side of the Clinton v. Obama struggle are getting fed up. The survey reports that 16% of Clinton supporters say they will not vote in the general election if Obama gets the nomination. A similar amount of Obama supporters say they same for Clinton. CNN points out that this will greatly effect the Democrats turnout in southern states. A large majority of African-American Democrats in the south could stay at home if the threats against a Clinton nomination are true.

While the Democrats fight it out between each other and create further tension between party members, the Republicans are in the shadows, for now, able to regroup the troops for the general election. More of an emphasis needs to be placed on unity when it comes to the Democrats. The longer this fights ensues the deeper the convictions of both sides will become. But the Democrats need to remember not to push or bully Clinton the wrong way. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

There has been a recent outcry from Obama endorsers for Clinton to drop out of the race. I just hope they know what they are doing- she is one woman I wouldn't want to deal with in the future.

STOP THE VIOLENCE!!

2008-03-28T17:45:00.012-04:00

The Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean has recently warned both Obama and Clinton to come together in unity rather than become adversaries of one another. In an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Dean said, "One of these two candidates needs to win. We're not going to win unless we divide ourselves and that, we cannot do."

Throughout the Democratic race, arguments between Sen. Barrack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have grown heated. Instead of focusing on what position either Democrat takes on the health care, housing, the economy and other major issues in the United States, the 2008 Presidential has become a Political Jerry Springer Show. There is far too much focus on what Hillary Clinton’s husband Bill does or what her daughter says. It’s wrong to look at Mrs. Clinton in a negative way for what Bill Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky or whom her daughter believes will make a better President. It’s ridiculous! Obama has also received negative attention. After all of his hard work to gain the trust of many Americans, in his pursuit to become the first African American President of the U.S., many are ready to forget the good that he has done because the Priest of his church says that he hates America. Yes, it can be seen why it is relevant, but he is not his priest and just because his Priest may believe the US is bad, it does not mean that Obama does, too. Reverend Wright has chosen the religious path, while Obama has chosen his own path, to lead the U.S. and make positive changes along the way.

With all of the negative attention from the private lives of the candidates and the unnecessary disputes between candidates of both parties, which take away from important issues, there is only one question that remains . . .

WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

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Hillary on Health Care

2008-03-28T10:53:00.003-04:00

Recently, Sen. Hillary Clinton has said in an interview if she was to be elected after the election, she would want a universal health care plan that would limit what people pay for health insurance to no more than 10 percent of their income.

Clinton has favored a cap on premiums from the beginning but has not gone into detail about what exactly she would do if she was president.

I think this is something that many Americans will like, even if they aren't supporters of Clinton. Personally, I don't she can be trusted to follow through with this plan but I guess we'll have to just wait and see.

Chelsea on the defensive

2008-03-27T13:33:00.004-04:00

This week Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Clinton and Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, swatted away a question about her mom's credibility during a talk at Butler University in Indianapolis.

“What I said was, I just wanted to know your opinion (if) Hillary showed weakness during the Lewinsky scandal and she might not be a strong enough leader," said Evan Strange, a reporter for the campus newspaper.

Clinton's reply set off a debate as to whether or not she should be forced to answer these types of questions.

"'Wow,' Clinton told Strange, 'you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business'."

Does she have a legitimate argument to not have to answer this question? Did he pose a legitimate question?

I can see both points of view.

His side brings out the journalist in me. We aren't paid to ask what the weather's like, we are paid to ask tough, down-in-the-dirt questions. I feel as a journalist he was doing his job, but I'm not really sure his question was worded correctly. I think he should have explained more about reason for asking the question. Why is Hillary Clinton on trial and her credibility in question because her husband had an affair? If Strange meant because Hillary Clinton didn't properly address the affair when it happened, he should have said that. He should have been clearer.

However, I can also see Chelsea's side. She's not a professional journalist, she never asked for this life where her parents are always in the spotlight. Has it benefited her? Probably. But think if your dad had an affair and the entire world knew about it and years later people are still brining it up. It would be embarrassing for any child. Chelsea is no different.

I bet she doesn't even want to be campaigning for her mom. But it is her mom so she has to suck it up.

The ironic thing is Evan Strange is a Clinton supporter...for now.

Primaries

2008-03-14T14:47:00.022-04:00

John McCain is looking down from his place on top of the political world and is now searching for a running mate.

There is speculation that among the possible choices are Gov. Tim Pawlenty, of Minnesota and Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio but neither has been named as of yet.

Ohio has the potential to be a major battleground this election and that would make Gov. Strickland a valuable addition to the McCain campaign.

Barack Obama increased his delegate lead over Hillary Clinton this past week as he won the Mississippi and Wyoming primaries.

He now has a lead of 131 delegates overall as the two head toward Pennsylvania for the April 22 primary.

For Senator Clinton, Pennsylvania may be her next “last stand” before conceding the race to Obama.

The democrats are in the midst of a nomination fight that has every indication of lasting until June while John McCain has moved forward and is now in the next phase of his fund raising efforts to prepare his campaign for the victor.

my reaction to spitzer

2008-03-14T12:54:00.003-04:00

First of all, I am disgraced at his behavior. When I first heard about it I couldn't believe it. I think the media has been doing a good job covering the scandal as well as giving the public more information about Spitzer's call girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

When we were assigned to go around and ask Stony Brook students their reactions on the Spitzer scandal, I was shocked to find out how many people were in the dark about it and had no idea or interest in what was going on. I mean, it's hard to avoid considering it is on the front page of all major newspapers and is the top story on most news broadcasts.

All in all, I think by resigning Spitzer is doing the state of New York a favor and apparently he isn't fit for the job of governor.

Streaking Their Way to the White House

2008-03-14T11:28:00.027-04:00

From Feb. 9th to the Vermont polls on March 4th, Sen. Barack Obama won 11 straight states. Sen. Hillary Clinton countered by winning the following three polls that day, which included the states of Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. Now, Obama has won the last two primaries held in Wyoming and Mississippi. After the Mississippi polls closed on Super Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama won his 27th state out of the 43 states that have held primaries up to this point. Obama won the state of Mississippi earning 61% of the votes, according to the New York Times.

Barack Obama now leads Hillary Clinton by 106 total delegates (1,586-1,480), according to the Washington Post's, "Democratic Party Delegate Tally." The table also shows that, while Sen. Clinton trails in the total delegate count she remains 32 super delegates ahead of Obama. While Obama leads the democratic race, it is far from decided. At the rate that this race is going, it will take until the final primaries on June 3, in order to decide the true winner. For now, we will have to wait 39 days until the Pennsylvania primary to see whether Obama will win a third consecutive state or if Clinton will begin a new streak of her own.

Student reaction to Spitzer

2008-03-11T20:21:00.001-04:00

By Rohma Abbas

As the evening draws to a close in the emptying halls of the Frank J. Melville library, students react to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s recent prostitution ring scandal.

“He’s an idiot, that’s my reaction,” said Usman Naqvi, a senior sitting in a group of friends in the library commuter lounge. Some disagreed.

“People do stupid things,” said Victor Valentinyi, a junior sitting at the table. “I just think it’s stupid he took it across the state.”

Jennifer Chee, a junior, took a more calm approach. “I’m sure there’s tons of people that are married that do this,” she said.

“I support it as long as the girls are happy with it,” joked Riz Younis, a junior sitting across from the three.

“He might get impeached,” said Naqvi.

“So what?” respond Chee.

But some students were not aware of the Spitzer scandal.

“I have no clue about that at all,” said Jackie Song, a senior. “I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Outside a lone freshman sitting at a table is surprised by the news. “The only thing I have to say is that I’m shocked because he hasn’t even been in for a year and he already has something against him,” said Amira Soliman.

But others are angry.

“I think he’s a douche bag,” said Geraldine Blanco, a sophomore. “I think he should resign his position. I think our government is just…crazy.”

She continued, “If I were his wife, I wouldn’t stand by him.”

“I’m a little bit disappointed,” said Erica Valdivia, a graduate student. “If the man’s fighting wrongs in society, why would he do that? Especially if he’s a public figure.”

Others echo Valdivia’s sentiments. “I think he should resign,” said Alan Lepinksy, a junior sitting at a table near the center exit of library. “People look up to him.” But Erik Martinez, a sophomore sitting across him said “I’m virtually unaffected.”

Outside, Emily Colbeck, senior, finishes off her cigarette. She said that Spitzer’s personal life has no relevance to his political career. “How does that have anything to do with politics?” she said. “I don’t think it really matters.”

SBU Students React to Spitzer's Call Girl

2008-03-11T20:12:00.004-04:00

"It’s a microcosm of national politics at large,” Lino A. Medina Mendez, a student at Stony Brook University said when asked about his reaction to Governor Eliot Spitzer’s connection with an international call girl ring based in New Jersey. “It is a great example of double talk straight out of 1984. It deepens my complete frustration with the political system.”

“I found out at Starbucks where I work,” Merve Yazicilar said as she paused from her homework for a moment. “I’m from Albany, so I’ve seen him. He has a wife and kids. I couldn’t look at him the same way after this. It’s like if he was my father. I wouldn’t be able to look at my father the same way if he did this. He should resign because no one will take him seriously anymore.”

“Why do they trust politicians anymore?” Joe Cottone asked. “Don’t trust anybody. Spitzer should resign, not because he cheated on his wife, but because he used taxpayer’s money to perform illegal acts.”

While the majority of students felt that the actions were immoral and an apology was owed to the people of New York, not everyone felt he should have to resign.

“If he was someone else no one would care,” Stony Brook student, Felix Ceballos stated.

“He shouldn’t resign. What you do in your personal life shouldn’t affect your career. He was elected by the people and should stay for the rest of his term. He won’t be re-elected. Who has morals anyway?” Julio Yarce explained.

Feelings were mixed and opinions varied, but one thing was certain and that was the concern over Spitzer’s promises to Stony Brook University.

“It sucks,” Felix Ceballos said. “He was talking about making Stony Brook a flagship university. It’s unfortunate. He was building a legacy. It is just a corrupt system.”

“He disappointed New York,” Merve Yazicilar continued. “Forty-three hundred dollars on one lady.”

“People in public office should not be caught with prostitutes,” Markell Watson, an offensive tackle for the Stony Brook football team said. “He shouldn’t have to resign, but it is in his best interest to. He took a severe hit to his morality with this incident. I don’t know why he was caught with a prostitute anyway because his wife is pretty hot.”

What will happen to the flagship?

2008-03-11T20:11:00.002-04:00

During January’s State of the State address, Governor Spitzer announced plans to make Stony Brook a “flagship campus” in the SUNY system for higher education. Now three months later, Spitzer is entangled in a prostitution ring and faces resignation.

If Spitzer is forced to resign, Stony Brook’s flagship status could suffer.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Felix Secbalos, a Stony Brook student. “It hurts because he was trying to take Stony Brook to the next level and build a strong reputation as an ethical politician. But he is still a politician.” Secbalos hopes the university will still achieve its flagship status even if the governor resigns.

As Attorney General, Spitzer vowed to prosecute more violent crimes. He is responsible for breaking up two prostitution rings during his reign and harshly criticizing those involved.

Many students don’t think the university should worry. “I don’t think it will affect Stony Brook,” said Meagan Bordon. “But it doesn’t look good for our state. It’s pretty crazy for someone with so much political power to do something so stupid.”

The governor openly apologized to his family and constituents yesterday in a press conference. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”

Still others feel Spitzer did not cross the line. “They all do bad stuff,” said Sandra Rizkitz, a junior. “Some get caught some don’t.” Rizkitz does not think Spitzer should be forced out of office.

Bordon disagrees. “Its kind of a big deal,” said Bordon. “It’s such a silly thing to get caught on.” She believes the governor should resign.

If Spitzer does resign, Lieutenant Governor, David Paterson, would step into the role of Governor until the next election. Paterson would be the first African-American to hold position of Governor. He is legally blind

Still other students sympathize with the escorts of the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., the high-end escort service involved in the scandal. “In some parts of the world, people have no ability to make money,” said Hee Sang, a freshmen at Suffolk Community College. “They must expose their instincts by other methods.”

SBU Student reaction to Gov. Elliot Spitzer

2008-03-11T19:41:00.002-04:00

After news quickly spread about Gov. Elliot Spitzer's involvement in a high priced prostitution ring, the reactions of many were those of disgust, while others were not in shock at all. According to some SBU students Gov. Elliot Spitzer is already the former Governor of New York State, after it was learned that he was involved in a prostitution ring.

"On one hand I was surprised at what he did because he seemed like he was a good person, but then again a politician is a politician," said Anita, a Math major. "I think that he should resign."

The positive image that Spitzer once held in the eyes of some students was tarnished by his poor decision making ability. Many believed that because he chose a powerful decision that he receives credit for all the good that he has done, he should accept the negative attention he has recieved recently.

"I think that the Gov. Spitzer should resign because as a public figure, he has a lot of responsibility," said Merve Yazicilar. "I just think that if his own family can't trust him, then how can we."

"What he did was illegal," Lauren. a multidisciplinary major said. "He is a U.S. citizen just like everyone else and has to abide by the same rules."

While some were some wanted Spitzer out of office, others said that it is simply his personal life.

"I don't think that he should resign," Ali Fadhil said. "I don't think that his personal life should effect his job. We should judge him solely on what he does as governor and not his personal life. Most people cheat, If we throw everyone that cheats out of office, then we won't have anyone in office."

Some students are waiting for more information from the investigation.

"It is bad and illegal, but I'm not sure how much he was involved," Jennadi, a History major said. I don't like invading his personal life, but if what he did was wrong, then he has to resign."

Stony Brook Reacts to Spitzer Scandal

2008-03-11T19:21:00.013-04:00

Students at Stony Brook University had harsh words for governor Spitzer a day after his sex scandal headlined network newscasts across the country. With the intense media coverage over the past two days students are sounding off on what they believe is a breach of trust created by the scandal. The shock of Spitzer's actions is a direct contrast from the squeaky clean image he portrayed in public and the tough standards he set for all in public office.

The no non sense former attorney general of Manhattan made his career on imposing record fines for the securities industry and other white collar crimes. In 2006 Spitzer was elected governor and since then has had a controversial first term in office the last of which was an executive order to grant drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Before the allegation surfaced Spitzer was in the prime of his political career. Now he finds himself in the precarious position of scratching and clawing to stay in power. Fresh on the heels of Albany day students are still digesting the fallout of the scandal.

On average students were outraged and had feelings of disgust for Spitzer. The opinions although mixed ranged from calling for the governors resignation to those who were more accepting of his actions. Some students tried to put aside the scandal as a personal matter. "It's his personal business , but it's still wrong. Now do i think he should be fired, no." said Pete Giovanello, 19, Business major. Giovanello feels that Governor Spitzer's private life should be kept seperate from his career.

Other students had harsher words for the governor. "I think it's disgusting, I hope he gets fired," said Liz Burbidge 22, Theatre major. Burbidge believes that politicians should walk a straight line in their personal and professional lives. "I do care what the governor does in his private life," said Burbidge. Students such as Ling Lam, a 26 year old Economics major have little sympathy for Spitzer. "He's a disgrace, I say he should resign." Lam says he thought the governor should have resigned yesterday. "What is he waiting for?"

Stony Brook Students React to Spitzer Scandal

2008-03-11T19:21:00.012-04:00

Governor Elliot Spitzer has been reportedly involved in a prostitution ring. According to sources familiar with the investigation, he has been linked to at least 7 or 8 "call girls" for several years. Calls that were wire-tapped revealed this information that now has the governor of New York facing the possibility of resignation. His resume is impressive, with having attended both Harvard and Princeton.

All over the country, especially in New York state, people are outraged and disgraced at the governor's behavior.

Jason Ryu, a international exchange student from China, said "He should resign. It isn't right."

A junior at Stony Brook University, Delmira, had strong opinions about the topic. "I personally think this is more than him being involved in a prostitution ring. It's more like sex slavery than prostitution." "It seems like he is covering up much more that we don't know about yet."

However, some students at Stony Brook University have no knowledge about the scandal and have not been following the news.

"I don't really know much about what is going on with Spitzer, only that he is involved in some prostitution thing," said Diane Decker, a junior. "I'm sure people are pissed though and from what I know it sounds like he's in a lot of trouble."

Junior, Munirah Hasan had an opposing view on the situation. "Even though it's wrong, it's his own business. We shouldn't be prying in his personal life just because he is a politician. "It's not causing us any harm and I don't know why we always put politicians on a higher standpoint," Hasan said.

As far as resigning, an ultimatum has been made for Spitzer to either resign or in two days the minority leader of the New York State Assembly will introduce articles of impeachment.

"I think the whole thing is a bit ridiculous because his initial platform was all about honesty and being ethical. He has a beautiful resume and I really feel bad for his wife," said Lynn Hseich, a journalism student.

The future of Governor Spitzer is looking bleak. In the following days, the governor of New York will be forced to make the tough decision of either resigning or facing impeachment.

Bush Endorsing McCain Could Lead to Trouble

2008-03-08T13:30:00.011-05:00

Sen. John McCain continued to show his dominance in the Republican race on March 4th, winning the states of Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont. McCain has not lost a state primary since the Feb. 9th primary in Kansas. Nearly a month after he lost a poll, McCain has won 12 consecutive polls on his way to accumulating 1,289 delegates, according to CNN.

Now as the Republican party's nomination for the upcoming election, McCain has recently received an endorsement from President George W. Bush.

It might be seen as a major honor to some, to receive the support of the current President of the United States. However, it is important to remember that . . . it is GEORGE BUSH! While some may support him, especially those from southern states, many Americans are opposed to the current Commander and Chief because of a few reasons:

He has yet to capture the man responsible for the Sept 11th attacks, Osama Bin Laden.
He has the United States involved in the ongoing war in Iraq.
Last, but not least, he can barely finish a sentence without making up a word and looking like a fool!!

If Ya Can't Beat em Join em...

2008-03-07T19:41:00.005-05:00

Democrats who can't decide between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton saw the possibility Wednesday that they could end up with both.
Clinton said,"That may be where this is headed," She made clear she was thinking Clinton-Obama if anything.

Obama did not rule out teaming up with her..."I think it is very premature to start talking about a joint ticket," he said.

It would be the Democratic dream team if they decided to pair up ,however, I can see it now...Obama's wife "ripping Bill Clinton's eyes out," Bill & Hillary forming their own click and Obama being the nice but silent guy stuck in the corner.There colaboration could either be spectacular or just a clash and a major mistake for the United States. I could also see Bill making his way into hill's job, just the way hillary did to Bill when he was president.

Still sometimes politicans can get it together and get down to business for what needs to get done!

Imagine that? Bill, Hillary, Michelle & Barack...all under one big roof! haha...wow, kinda scary!

Florida and Michigan

2008-03-07T16:25:00.009-05:00

The democratic race is so close every single vote counts.

Therefore, leaving out states such as Florida and Michigan make it impossible for Obama or Clinton to get the amount of delegates needed to win the election.

I understand the Democratic party felt the need to reign in these states after they openly defied the party. The Democrats had to assert their authority and this drastic measure was a way to do that.

But now that the race has become so close, the party needs to realize upholding this rule is hurting the candidates, not helping them. They run the risk of having the public so fed up with this on-going battle that they will loose interest in the "move for change." However, the fact that Americans are embracing Obama and his message for "change" with such open arms leaves me to believe it really won't matter how long the battle rages on because come election day, a Democrat will be on top.

Of all the reasons for not re-scheduling the primaries, "well, we don't have the money" should not be one of them.

Find some.

Make the candidates split it themselves it they have to.
Hold fundraisers. If both states chip in, the party chips in, congressman and legislatures chip in, and the candidates themselves chip in, they can make it work.

A Clinton Nomination Puts a Rebuplican in the White House

2008-03-07T09:37:00.003-05:00

This is the most historical primary in the history of our country. A woman and an African American are vying for the democratic ticket for the first time in our countries- almost- 300 years of existence. The sad part is that, while we've made leaps and bounds as far as equality is concerned, we are still not quite there. The simple truth is that if things continue to shape out the way they are we could see a racial divide between democrats and a sure republican victory come November.

If Obama controls the popular vote handily, but does not clinch the democratic nomination due to back-door Clinton/Super Delegate deals, we will see a "Los Angeles" type outcry from the African American population of this country. Clinton winning in such a way will guarantee an easy victory for McCain come election time.

If the democrats want to take a seat in the oval office they best get their act together and avoid a primary decided- not by the people- but by super delegates.

Primaries

2008-03-01T02:02:00.005-05:00

It couldn’t get any closer in the democratic primary as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton scratch and claw for votes in Texas and Ohio ahead of the March 4th primaries. Hillary has had a busy month raising about 35 million dollars while Obama has been equally busy though has not released the details of his campaign’s fund raising for this month.

On the Republican side John McCain has all but secured his nomination yet Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul remain in the race. The republican party got a nice boost as Ralph Nader decided to join the race for the presidency. Nader--who is seen by many as a spoiler for the democrats—lashed out at the democratic candidates this week.

Meanwhile the Vermont and Rhode Island primaries are being virtually ignored by all the candidates as delegate rich Texas and Ohio take center stage.

2 points!

2008-02-29T22:03:00.007-05:00

Let me begin this post with mentioning that I've finally made up my mind between Barack and Hillary.

In a recent New York Times article titled "In Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama" the nation is worried about Obama's safety. The article cites the assasinations of MLK Jr. and RFK to justify citizens' fears.

One thing that struck me out of the ordinary was this:

"Before Mr. Obama decided to run for president, he discussed his safety with his family. His campaign employed a team of private security guards before he was placed under Secret Service protection. Since then, he has grown fond of the agents who surround him, inviting them to watch the Super Bowl at his home in Chicago and playing basketball with them on the days he awaits the results of an election."

He plays basketball with his Secret Service?!

Anyway, the article didn't elaborate on who gets more protection. Bummer.

"The Secret Service does not discuss details of its protection, including whether Mr. Obama is receiving more protection than Mrs. Clinton.

But my point with this little detail is that it is so telling. It humanizes him and paints a picture that feels like home.

For some reason, when I think of Hillary's meaningful detail, all I can think of is that stupid scene of her crying after being asked a question along the lines of "How do you do it?"

Puh-leaaaaze.

"The gay vote"

2008-02-29T19:57:00.013-05:00

At the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold! ...Well for Clinton and Obama that is! Both are fighting for the "gay vote." But as Clinton has been a favorite to the gay community (for example her walking in the gay parade in 2000) alot of the gay community is crossing over to Obama. Both Clinton and Obama oppose same-sex marriages while supporting civil unions.A major difference between the candidates is that Obama supports full repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a law signed by Bill Clinton -- under pressure from a Republican-dominated Congress -- that prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages and permits states to do the same. Hillary Clinton wants to roll back only part of the law.Hillary is also tied to the "Don't ask don't tell" which reversed a campaign pledge he made to allow gays to serve openly.So it all boils down to the Texas and Ohio primaries...Obama has full-page advertisements in gay publications in Texas and Ohio.Clinton's campaign started a statewide committee this week to undertake efforts in gay areas of Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus. Even though Clinton has a long relationship with the gay community, it may not be enoough to out weigh Obama's success and popularity. Clinton better cross her fingers...

Bring On The Ads

2008-02-29T19:56:00.003-05:00

This week the attack ads are out in full view. With four days to go until the Texas Primaries, the democratic candidates are taking swipes at their apponents with new ads designed to make Americans uneasy. First Hillary released an ad showing a house at night with sleeping children and asked "who do you want answering the phone in the middle of the night?" Her add:

Obama retaliated by saying this ad is much like others that have come before it in trying to put fear into the american people.

However, several hours later, Obama ran an extremely similar ad.

Obama's pitch during a rally today claimed that Hillary's ad is legitimate, but the focus shouldn't be on who picks up the phone, but rather what that person will do to address the situation. A valid point.

It seems Hillary is now ready to gamble with ads such as this one to try and attact voters in the last push before the next primaries. If she was ahead of Obama by a landslide, she probably would not be resorting to these types of tactics.

If she looses, I blame her management. They underestimated Obama from the start and she should have tried to attract more voting groups such as youths and women. Many people in the beginning felt she was a shoe-in and I think Camp Hillary did not aggressively go after voters in the beginning.

Her campaign started out slow while Obama's started out running and hasn't looked back.

Is the Clinton Campaign Getting Desperate?

2008-02-29T18:53:00.010-05:00

Since Feb 9th, Sen. Barack Obama has swept everyday of primaries in the Democratic race, winning 10 consecutive states. Sen. Hillary Clinton now finds herself trailing Obama 24 to 13 in state primaries won. According to the projected Democrat Delegate Account from the New York Times, Obama is projected to earn approximately 92 more delegates than Clinton. With the odds starting to amount against her Hillary Clinton is looking to do whatever she can do to regain the lead in the Democratic race; including commercials:

It appears that Clinton is getting desperate and is taking to the offensive to get her name back. I think that this commercial is absolutely ridiculous. The commercial says that, "you want someone, who has already been tested to lead in a dangerous world." The one question that I have is, I thought this was a Hillary Clinton commercial, not a Bill Clinton commercial. Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States and could therefore be the only Clinton that has been "tested to lead in a dangerous world," not Hillary.

The Obama campaign made a response to the Clinton commercial (shown below), pointing out that Obama did not support the war, while Hillary Clinton did. I really liked this response by the Obama campaign because Hillary Clinton is going to regret making the commercial with a message that could be easily countered. I think that this is now Obama's race to win or lose after not only embarrassing her in recent polls, but using her own commercial against her.

Obama Campaign's Commercial Response:

website critique-

2008-02-22T00:23:00.007-05:00

Ask.com- Much like its competitor, Google.com, Ask.com is very plain. It provides just the bare basics for its users on its homepage. It has a very clean look and the layout is easy to navigate, even for those who hardly ever frequent the web. Once you start typing, the real fine qualities of Ask.com become apparent. When you start typing a search entry, the website will give you closely related searches based on the spelling of the word you type. Let’s say I type in “bl-“, the search engine will give me a list of searches underneath the toolbar. This brings up searches like: blonde jokes, blue book, and blog. It is a convenient way of searching for something you don’t quite know how to spell.

Once typing in a search, Ask.com pulls up a wide range of useful information. Broken up into three columns, Ask.com lets you really dig into the vast amount of information the internet provides. On the right-most column Ask.com lets you scroll through some related video, pictures and even music- if you searched for your favorite band. On the left-most column is a guide to help you narrow or broaden your search.

One of the coolest features provided by Ask.com is the binocular feature. This feature allows you to take a quick peek at the websites listed. All you have to do is scroll over the little binocular picture located next to the web-link and a screen shot of the homepage of that website shows up. In case you remember what the website looks like, but don’t exactly remember the name, this feature is a great help.

Wikipedia.org- Totally forbidden by academic teachers, Wikipedia offers a very accessible encyclopedia for those looking to grab a quick idea of what something is all about. This website contains user generated material. This user-based material worries many teachers and professors across America because much of the information is not verified; therefore making it at times, unreliable.

In the time of this new digital revolution, something like Wikipedia fits right into the mindset we have started to develop as creatures of the web. We enjoy sharing information with those around us and listening to others opinions and ideas. What was the most viewed video from the tragic events at Virginia Tech? It was a video taken by a student on their cell phone.

People are capable of being the watchdog over the information they consume, like that provided on Wikipedia. If someone notices an error on a page they just notify the people who run Wikipedia and ask for a correction or do it themselves if they have an account. It is a self governed- user provided website that is easy to use.

At the bottom of ever entry there is a list of related links and sites to further your understanding of whatever it was that you searched. Wikipedia comes in many languages, making it an international site that connects the knowledge of everyone interested in contributing.

TMZ.com- This online gossip magazine has more traffic than it knows what to do with. There are many reasons why this is true. Number one is the content they provide. It seems people these days love to read about the stars and all the gossip that comes with them. With the look of a blog, this celebrity news site is easily navigated. The stories are short and sweet and always contain some photo or video. They provide the information in the way that the reader wants to consume it. No one wants to sit at their computer for a half-hour reading about Britney Spears getting arrested. They want a quick blurb of what happened and a video or picture of her in her jail-cell best.

Another great innovation that TMZ provides is something people in the business call, “convergence”. They provide multiple media outlets covering the same story. An example of this is the various links TMZ provides linking you to videos found on the web and outtakes from their television show. The site provides a little entertainment, as well, giving the browser a variety of games to play- giving the site multiple hits and keeping those viewing the site, on the site. TMZ also has links to other blogs, which furthers the continuous traffic going in and out.

All three of these sites have a common theme and that is a clean, easily navigated homepage. These sites look to provide the most information in the fastest, most easily manageable form. They do not look to confuse the browser. All three websites are very user friendly- even those who are not that computer-literate will have an easy time searching these pages.

Another similarity between all three websites is that they look to provide a wide variety of media forms- video, pictures, sound clips, etc. The real aim of these websites, and any well designed website, is to keep you on their site and provide everything for you. They do their best to create their own little Wal-Mart. They don’t want you to have to go anywhere else for information.

I think all three websites are great examples of successful sites. It is clear that there is a format that works online. There is a standard that most websites look to closely follow if not duplicate. Everyone knows the saying- "Less is more"- and all three sites try to abide by this golden rule- especially Ask.com. The only other website with the same amount of @#!$ as Ask.com is Google.com and Google may do it better. Going on name recognition alone, both websites are able to really get down to the bare minimum and streamline their site for the cleanest and easiest look.

Website critique

2008-02-21T23:20:00.001-05:00

1.Print website-

Upon my first arrival to the website it is very noticeable that the homepage is very evenly distributed and sectioned giving the viewer the ease of navigation. Its layout mainly consists of three columns. The center column divides the newest stories by its content topic. Those topics are also accessible at the top of the page just underneath the banner. The very first thing I notices about the layout is a link for subscription on the banner at the head of the page. This is important as magazine websites must implement technical strategies to keep circulation of their print editions fairly substantial. A standout visual element is the use of a slideshow to display the biggest stories for Inside the US News & World Report. Usnews.com also offers some of the key Web 2.0 features such as RSS feeds, podcasts, mobile versions, reporter blogs, email and subscriptions. The site offers plenty of video and also the ability to subscribe to a US News video RSS feed. The ability subscribe to feeds such as podcasts and RSS, along with the ability to sign up for email alerts make the site very delivery customizable.
One of most important criteria for evaluating the Website is the available means of consumer participation and customization. Usnews.com seemingly has a void that is left missing the feature of user commenting. Users cannot comment on articles or even blogs. However, the site does attempt to fill that void with the use of user friendly blogs such as “The Paper Trail”, which is a blog dedicated to stories surrounding college campuses. The Paper Trail blog links to stories from campus publications written by student journalists. Overall, Usnews.com does not seem to have many commonalities with its print version. “Breaking News” and “The News Desk” sections make the site appear to be its own species. Consumers are able to subscribe to the print edition and even subscribe to the web-based digital edition for the same price. The implementing of a digital edition shows that usnews.com serves mainly as a relative alternative to the print edition.

2.Broadcast Website-

CNN is one of my favorite sites to visit because of the amount of content available on the site. The home page is very clean and has minimal amount of advertisements on it. It is sectioned off into three columns, which is very typical. There is a poll on the home page which serves as a good way to get extra hits. CNN does a very good job at making this site as similar to its broadcast network as possible. They do this through the endless amount of video content on the site. There are options that allow you to watch live videos and there is a whole section of the site devoted solely to video. The site is customizable because it allows you to select the regular CNN site or the CNN international edition as your homepage. There is also a section on the site called CNN tv that gives plenty of attention to its broadcast programs. It lists the schedule and lineup for it television programming and serves as a perfect supplement for broadcast and it directs viewers to stay at home with CNN. The site offers delivery through the use of podcasts, RSS and email alerts.

3Blog-

Deadspin.com is a blog devoted to sports. It has a very unattractive physical appearance because it is very bland. It pretty much has a one column set up that most blogs are known for . Nothing about this site really makes me want to stay on it. There are no cool photogaraphs or anything appealing on the homepage. All it really has to offer is what blogs are known for, its content. This site is highly user interactable. Users are able to comment on all articles and voice there opinions. There is not much more to say about the site because there is not much more on it!!

Critique

2008-02-21T22:20:00.005-05:00

MSNBC.Com www.msnbc.com
LOS Angeles Timeswww.latimes.com
Gossip Blog:www.couturecandy.comwww.couturecandy.com

MSNBC is an online news organization.
On the MSNBC website there is one featured story that has a red border and labeled “breaking news in world news.” It is the primary focus on the homepage but it you scroll down a little the Honda Accord advertisement is a much bigger picture then the featured story. The left hand side has categories about world news, politics, health, science, business, entertainment, travel, sports, technology and other tabs. However if you scroll down, the categories are showing horizontally with articles underneath. Each category has its own multimedia section for videos. Ironically CBS has the same format. CBS also has a featured story but it’s advertisement on the right side (in the same place as MSNBC’s advertisement) is also bigger than the featured story picture. The columns are horizontal and marked by categories. Each column has articles to link to and multimedia with RSS feeds. They both had a section for crossword puzzles and comics on the left hand side. The CBS news website had fewer advertisements than the MSNBC site, with less clutter and more stories. The MSNBC had a bigger masthead then CBS and embraced their rainbow colors that brand their name. CBS also did not put up times for when they revised or updated a story. So I never knew what time an article was published, unless I did an estimate from the times when users left comments. The cool thing about both news sites is their wide use of multimedia. Both sites use RSS feeds, podcasts, email and mobile updates.

The Los Angeles Times online newspaper website has its typical paper font (almost identical to the NY Times font) used on the website for the masthead. The categories were on the right hand side organizing the news into science, sports, business, entertainment and so on. I like the fact that the NY Times categories even have sub- categories. For example, Underneath the Arts category is links to books, movies, music, television and theatre. They really break it down and make searching for things very accessible. If you scroll down the page it’s also available in a larger font, incase if your eyes glaze over the categories. The large, centered photograph distinguishes the article as the featured story. There is another advertisement in the same section as the MSNBC and CBS websites. However the LA Times advertisement is not bigger than the featured story photograph. I feel the LA Times website is cluttered and my eyes tend to wander. The LA Times site has a section on the right side for the most viewed and most emailed, but the NY Times sight has almost the same sidebar labeled “most popular.” It contains the articles that were most emailed, blogged and searched for. It’s hard to compare any newspaper to the NY Times, because they’re the most credible and reputable new organization. There is just no comparing! The NY Times advertisements are even considerably small and disassociated with the website off to the lower left hand side. The NY Times has made such a name for themselves that the advertisements don’t own them and over crowd the website. My favorite thing about the NY Times is it’s expansive archive and the tabs on top of the masthead. If I missed the day before, I can click on today’s paper and scroll down to the calendar and click on any day to find out all the headlines. It’s so accessible! The LA Times search engine is nothing in comparison. Oh, another cool thing- The Times reader, which is a digital newspaper that reads like the real thing!

Finally…The Gossip Blog CoutureCandy.com
It’s So similar to its rival PerezHilton.com! When I logged on the page, that was my immediate thought. There is a big difference between them though; the couturecandy website has a sidebar next to every picture of a celebrity, which has an advertisement for clothes that look like what the celebrity is wearing. This is perfect for the fan obsessed with looking like their favorite celebrity, and it’s a great way to advertise. The couturecandy website also copied Perezhilton with the type written over the photographs. However the couturecandy page had nicer things to say about the celebrities then Perezhilton. Both websites are a fan of pink….hmmm, don’t know why? But it has become the color to brand perezhilton into the top gossip blog. Perezhilton is a fan of using advertising for the website back drop and not afraid of throwing them all over the website. I actually liked the style of the Perezhilton page, and I like the big masthead that has the Perezhilton font look similar to the Hollywood sign in California. Wow and some of the ads on Perezhilton are quite provocative. There is an adult sex dvd advertisement and a sex toy ad. Both sites allow comments, but (obviously) Perezhilton has comments for photographs that range in the hundreds. The site has become very popular and therefore more users are on it interacting.

In observing all three news/blog websites and their competitors, I noticed how similar all these sites look. The column set up, the colors, the placement of advertisements and use of similar fonts. It makes me wonder…why do we sometimes always go to one website over another?

Website Critique

2008-02-21T22:11:00.001-05:00

The internet has countless numbers of websites that anyone can access pretty effortlessly. Some websites are more organized, credible, and easier to navigate than others. The choices are endless when it comes to finding a site to provide information one is interested in. Search engines like Yahoo and Google, enable one to find a website based on the information they want. These search engines give the internet user a huge variety of sites to choose where they want to get their information from.

One website I go to frequently is CBS. When you first go to the site, you are bombarded with moving images and colorful ads on the side and top. Although these images are a distraction, they are essential because it is a television website and it wouldn’t attract as many people, minus the images of the television shows. As for the ads, they also are a distraction when you go to the site. However, CBS needs these ads to function for the most part and make money to stay up and running.

The website is very interactive, with videos that users can watch of their favorite shows and forums to join and communicate with others. There is also a “Mobile” section, which one can purchase ringtones and games from TV shows that are sent to their cell phone.

Another function the site offers is “web exclusive” videos, which I think is strength. The main reason I think this website does so well is because it is very interactive and the television shows that are aired by this network are constantly accessible to the public. You can also access news and sports videos that are broadcasted on TV.

In my opinion, the biggest strength this site has is that it offers free viewing of full episodes of all of the most popular shows aired on CBS. I take advantage of this feature and I’m sure it is something that is responsible of the amount of traffic. All in all, CBS.com is easy to navigate and organized to find what you are specifically looking for.

The second website I chose was mediabistro. This is a website that is intended for writers and people in the journalism field. It offers job opportunities, blogs, news feeds, and the top media news of the day. When you first go to the site, you see a huge advertisement at the top of the page. There are also distracting ads on the right side that blink.

This site’s overall web design in my opinion works very well and is organized so one can find what they are looking for with ease. As for the interactive features, there is Mediabistro on Demand, which allows users to watch speeches, tutorials, and panel discussions between writers. I think this is one of the website’s biggest strengths and is an attractive aspect of the site. However, there is a downside to this function. You can only preview the videos and you have to pay to watch the entire video. Even though it’s unfortunate for users, without this mediabistro would most likely not be able to maintain the site.

The final website I chose was the Washingtonpost site. While analyzing it, I couldn’t help but to compare it to the New York Times website. The two are very similar, pertaining to web design, layout, and ad placement. At first glance, there are few images and a lot of bold text and headlines. I don’t think the site needs a lot of images, considering it is a newspaper organization. All of the top stories are the first thing you see and all of the different sections of the Washington Post are available at the top bar. You can click on any category and the stories that are relevant to the specific category come up.

As you scroll down, there are different blogs and photo galleries. At the top right side, there are the most viewed stories of the day. That is a feature that is strength to the website because people often read stories that are the most popular before anything else.

Some, not all, of the top stories of the day also have videos that correspond to the story. The videos are from other major news outlets, such as CNN and CBS news.

The internet serves as an infinite source of information. Some websites are more credible and organized than others. The most successful sites are easy to navigate, have interactive features such as images, video, and blogs, and have a good layout.

Top 3 Elements Need to be Crowned the Best Rapper Alive

2008-02-21T20:48:00.007-05:00

Theres a lot of controversy in the hip-hop world these days over who is the "best rapper alive." While there are many artist who are on the grind and moving units, there are many factors that can determine who actually has what it takes to be deemed the B.R.A.

TOP 3 FACTORS

SWAG -Swag is basically someone’s whole demeanor, what makes them unique. It includes everything from a rapper’s fashion to their ad-libs and lingo on the microphone. The leader in this category right now has to be Lil’ Wayne Weezy F. Baby is well known for his reverberating voice, ad-libs, and his country slur making his swag on the mic top-notch. He has elevated from the status of your average rapper to become a diversified rock/pop/hip-hop icon.

MARKETABILITY-A rappers marketability is greater when they are able to capitalize on current pop-culture trends. Other factors, such as good looks and lyrical content also make an artist more marketable. Marketability determines the potential revenue that an artist will bring in. Past trend have shown that rappers who are able to step outside of the typical hardcore, gangster rap mentality and make songs that have commercial appeal have been more marketable. Soulja Boy is the leader in this category. Soulja Boy has capsized on the "song and dance" craze that has been gaining momentum in hip-hop music. His youth also helps his music reach out to a broader range of hip-hop’s most prized consumers.

LYRICAL CONTENT/MESSAGE -Lyrical content/ message is what the rapper is actually saying in their songs. This includes wordplay and the actual context of the song. It is hard to choose one person for this category. Jadakiss, Jay-z, and Nas are the obvious favorites for this category. But right now I would have to say that my lead vote getter is none other than Mr. Cool himself, Lupe Fiasco. Lupe’s strengths are in his lyrical message. His songs have the elements of a classic poetry slam. He is a new artist but his lyricism and diversity has made his rise to pop-culture stardom fairly quick. He has topped both the hip-hop and pop charts with his latest album The Cool.

Top Five

2008-02-21T20:22:00.006-05:00

My Top Five Musical Artists

Here is a list of my favorite artists as of this month, from five to one:

Arcade Fire-
They are really just awesome. The two lead singers are married. They came out with an album not too long ago, Neon Bible. I went to their show in the Bronx—ZOMG.
Spoon- An all-time favorite. First time I ever saw them was at Sirenfest with my first boyfriend back in high school. We broke up, but I still love the band! Spoon’s most recent album was Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Feist- She’s making it big on the scene right now. For those who don’t know, she sang that “1, 2, 3, 4…” song in that I-pod commercial. I fell in love with a Bee Gees cover she performed recently of Inside and Out. But, the “1234” video is pretty good.
Beirut My best friend is studying in Florence this semester. I went to her Myspace page not too long ago and listened to Beirut’s Nantes. Now whenever I hear it, I think of her and how much I miss her.
Death Cab For Cutie- Favorite. Band. Ever. No questions asked, please. New album debuting sometime this spring. I = stoked!!

My Top 5 TV Shows

2008-02-21T20:21:00.003-05:00

Three really good rock bands

2008-02-21T20:20:00.017-05:00

Though it's hard to narrow down all the great rock bands of the world into a top three, I can name three bands that are really good.

The Rolling Stones

Since the 1960's they have been cranking out the hits. The Stones were formed in London and to date have released 55 albums. They were ranked no.4 by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

The Doors

The Doors were formed in Los Angeles in 1965. They were considered very original for their time because they didn't use a bass guitar while playing live. Instead, keyboardist Ray Manzarek would play the bass notes with his bass keyboard that had been newly invented. Manzarek was also known for his ability to pound an organ into submission. After taking the rock world by storm, the bands run was cut short on July 3, 1971, when Jim Morrison was found dead in his apartment in France.

U2 was formed in 1976 in Dublin Ireland. After quickly gaining a huge local following, they began picking up steam throughout the late 1970's culminating into an international sensation by the mid-80's. In 1987 they released The Joshua Tree, an album that would later vault them to super stardom.

Top Five QBs in '08...

2008-02-21T20:17:00.011-05:00

The 2007 NFL season will always be remembered as a season of “almost” perfection and career resurrections. It was a season laden with parody and one too many sound bites from the always out spoken and at times obnoxious, Mercury Morris. Heading into next season there is one thing for certain and that is that you can’t be certain about anything. There are no sure things as we look to the future, but I will do my best and predict who the top five quarterbacks for the 2008 season will be.

Tom Brady- After the greatest season we have ever seen from a player at this position, Tom Brady, 30, is only entering the prime of his career. The patriots will return with Moss and Welker heading the best receiving core in the league and who knows what other weapons they will pick up with a top ten selection in this years draft. The sky is the limit for this offense’s future.
Peyton Manning- Arguably the greatest quarterback of all time and he is only 31 years of age. He completed a great season with 31 touchdowns and a QB rating of 98.0, all of which he did without the presence of his number one receiver, Marvin Harrison. With Harrison back and the rest of this prolific offense healthy, it is only a matter of time until Manning is back on top of the league.
Carson Palmer- It was a disappointing season for this Bengal, but he will only be hungrier for next season. The problem last year with the Bengals was defense and it affected the offense’s play dramatically. With a defensive-minded head coach on the hot seat for next season you can be sure that the defense will not hinder the performance of this maturing quarterback.
Eli Manning- With a Super Bowl ring and the city of New York off his back- now behind him all the way- Eli has the confidence to cash in on a great season. With a piece like Jeremy Shockey to shop around with and maybe the best running back trio in the game, the Giants have only scratched the surface of their potential. Look for Eli to really come into his own and play a full season like the number-one pick that he is.
Brett Favre- After an inspirational season and another year of experience for the youngest offense in the NFL, Brett Favre will be back for yet another entertaining season. Now that they have found a running back in Ryan Grant, the offense is finally multi-dimensional. Favre will not have to rely on his arm from day one and will have fuel left in the tank come the end of the season.

My Top 5 Retail Stores

2008-02-21T20:15:00.006-05:00

My Top 5 Retail Stores

H&M
J.Crew
Anthropologie
Urban Outfitters
Banana Republic

My TOP FIVE ...

2008-02-21T20:13:00.011-05:00

My TOP five favorite drinks

Soju, Korean alcohol
Yager bomb
Redbull & Vodka
Cosmopolitan
mojito

top five list

2008-02-21T20:00:00.020-05:00

Top Five Movies This Week:

Jumper
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Step Up 2 The Streets
Fool’s Gold

*
Definitely, Maybe

2008-02-21T16:47:00.007-05:00

Assingment #1

We live in a digital environment where instant information is everywhere. The start of living in the information age was launched by the Internet, which let people to disseminate ideas and information. The Internet seems to be driving the history.
Recent trend of the websites represents the transition of the newspaper, adjusting to a new demand. The internet became easily accessible and faster than the printed media. People demand more information at a faster rate and the Internet satisfies its demand.

Three web sites that I’ve chosen, demonstrate both strengths and weaknesses of the web.

New Jersey Herald is a local newspaper that serves Northwest New Jersey and some parts of New York and Pennsylvania since 1829.
Despite its reputation of the paper, the site is in very poor condition.
Their contents and design are awful. It doesn’t demonstrate any advantages of the web.
When you see the first page, it doesn’t look like newspaper website.
They only have two top stories of the day. Their homepage should be treated like their front page of the newspaper. But here on NJ Herald, their homepage seems very empty with little pictures. Their contents are so empty that interests none of the readers.
In addition to that, this can be my opinion but their background color of green is too bright that sores my eyes.
Plus, they have too many ads on both left and right sides. Disturbing! Compared to their two top stories, the site has total of 13 ads on the first page.
Most importantly, the site does not provide any interactivity space for readers, which I think of it as the biggest benefit of the web.
The Internet has more than just getting information at a faster rate. It can enhance our experience and provide more than the story itself. It gives an opportunity to experience a behind scene of the news. It can provide the full package of news including the links, video, audio and many more, which will widen the view of the readership, letting the readers into a different level that the printed media can’t provide.
However, NJ Herald failed it. They missed the point of having a web! My opinion: they should be looking into hiring more trained web journalists.

CBS is a national TV news channel.
Like its reputation, their web is well organized out of my choices.
Their contents are all up to dates and the design of the web is flawless.
In addition to that, their contents demonstrate the channel’s character. Since CBS is TV based, the site has many videos along with news stories. On the left side, they actually have both video and podcast category along with RSS feeds. It shows that their site is benefiting from the Web 2.0.
Their special features are very easily accessible for users. Log-in system is barely required. Navigating through their web wasn’t hard at all.
The site has some ads but not disturbing as NJ Herald site. It was more like one or two on the page.
Their most strength was that each story has more than the story itself. The links on most stories take readers beyond the news. Those links help readers to get more attached and engaged into stories. Most of the links help readers to understand better.
On the other hand, their major weakness wasn’t found however, it would be nice to see some interaction among readers.
Although the site gives opportunities to leave comments and share their thoughts, the interactivity is rarely found. Comments on blogs and stories weren’t active as other few sites that I know of. This clearly shows that the users aren’t really engaged even though the site gives them a chance to play a better role in participating and interacting through web.

Slate.com is an online news and culture magazine. It is created in 1996 and covers politics, arts, sports, culture, and news. It is ad-supported and is available free since 1999.
The site is decent/moderate. Their contents are well organized and easily accessible. However, their first page (homepage) was exceptionally long that you have to scroll down a few times to finish looking at it. First page should be treated like their face but I though it was too much to look at all once. It could have been more simple looking than the current one.
However, their search engine was very helpful in terms of navigation. It helps you to find what you want on their web. For the first time users, it is easy and quick to use.
The site has a few ads since the site runs through supporting ads. But they are not disturbing. The numbers of their ads are moderate compared to NJ Herald and CBS News.
Since it is for online based magazine, the site seems like most online friendly out of my choices. It looks like it has used many advantages of the Internet.
For example, it gives readers to rate and recommend whatever they read and watch.It also offers the list of most emailed and most viewed. In addition to that, the site has own blogs and discussion boards separate to ensure the interactivity among the readers/viewers.
Lastly, Slate.com is more visualized than just black and white newspaper. At the same time, it also mediates the constant flow of information between the readers. It doesn't just throw chunk of information at your faces.

Website Critique

2008-02-21T16:20:00.031-05:00

Television News Website:
The MSNBC webpage is well designed, providing the viewer with just the right amount of information. The first thing that the viewer is attracted to when the page opens up is bright colors that make up the MSNBC logo, located at the top of the page. Arranged neatly across the horizontal bar, are drop down menus for different TV shows found on the MSNBC channel. The Today Show, Nightly News, Dateline, Meet the Press, MSNBC TV, MSNBC Sports. This is a convenient feature to the website because it allows viewers, who missed one of the shows when it was on television, to either read the story or watch video clips from that show. There is also a search bar located above the shows for viewers looking for a specific story or topic.

Another convenient component of the polished web design is that it allows the you to "Personalize Your News". Simply by clicking the edit button, viewers can enter the state and zip code of their residences and receive local news and weather updates once they open the page. That’s not all, the viewer can also follow personal stock information, click and view the winning lottery numbers by state, and even view his or her own horoscope. There is also a chart for sports fans located below the horoscopes. Now, let’s say you are only interested in professional baseball, basketball, and football. If you are a fan of a team that resides in another state, you often have to search for news on separate team websites, right? Well, not anymore! MSNBC’s personal news sporting section includes categories broken down by sports. Below each sport there is a list of every team, simply by clicking a box next to the team you like, allows you to receive any news on the team. If you only want to receive news on certain teams then just select them. If you would like to see news and scores from all of the teams, then just click on all teams.

Below the Top stories of the day, which include pictures and stories, the website provides the viewer with an easy-to-use category bar, showing each section of news. Just to the right of the category bar, there are also color-coded sections containing the top stories in their respected areas. You can read the stories, view photos and even watch video, under any category of your choice. A really helpful feature that is also included is the use of red update tags. By simply moving the cursor over the red box that can be found next to the name of a story, the viewer can see when the update took place (ex. “Updated 38 minutes ago”).
The website equally balances its page between written stories and pictures. By dividing the page right down the middle, there are story links of each category on the left and located on the right side of the same box are picture and video links. There are enough pictures to attract the viewer, but not too many, which may ultimately hurt the viewers eyes and force them to leave the page.
As you scroll to the bottom of the page, there is the same attracting bar full of colors that is found at the top of the page, only this time, it contains different links. There are links that allow the viewers to subscribe to get alerts through instant messaging, email and straight to their phones.

Newspaper Website:
The Orlando Sentinal web design on this webpage is not as eye catching as MSNBC’s website, the most obvious reason for this is the funding. MSNBC pulls in much more money and can therefore spend more money on its website, while the Orlando Sentinel is operating its website with less funding. Despite having less funding, the Orlando Sentinel has created an easy to use news website using multiple sources of technology to tell a story.

The Orlando Sentinel uses Google maps that place arrows on different locations in Orlando, where crimes have taken place, according to Florida police. The advantage of this is that viewers can see if their neighborhoods are safe. If their neighborhood is safe then it is reassuring to viewers, who know that they live in a safe place. If there are multiple crimes in a certain area it will help police find areas where law enforcement is lacking.

The vertical navigation bar showing links to all of the different websites is in very small type and is pushed to the far side of the webpage, which could be troublesome to viewers that don’t have the greatest eyesight. The other location of the other areas in news along with top stories is located halfway down the page and is listed vertically down the center of the page. It is a different approach than most newspaper websites that have these categories closer to the top left portion of the page. The only problem with the location of the top stories is that it is kind of smushed between the video player and the advertisements.

This brings us to technology, which the Orlando Sentinel does a fairly good job at keeping up to date with. Besides the google crime map mentioned above, the website also has a video player on the homepage that will play the top videos of the day is and provides attraction to younger viewers. There is also a poll that viewers can take, which allows the viewers to participate in and ultimately helps keep the viewer on the webpage longer. This is beneficial because if a viewer becomes accustomed with spending a lot of time on a webpage because there are many things to do, then they will return for more.

The advertisements on the page are moving ads and are actually pretty large in size. The problem with this is that while advertisements help pay for the paper, they take away from the stories, videos and pictures that are provided by reporters and the page designers. There is also the possibility that the viewer might like the advertisement, then click on it and leave the page.

General News/Blog Website:
Viewers that wish to put up any articles, pictures, or videos that they find interesting and allow other to view it and comment on it use Digg.com. It is a way for viewers to learn about the news by looking through posted video, news stories and pictures posted by others. You can see what your friends are looking at and what they are interested in and they can do the same to what you see. The benefit of this is that you can always find the most popular stories that are important to most people, as they are searched and brought straight to you. Viewers can simply click on the link and be directed to the source that produced the media, which is beneficial because viewers can be shown websites that could be educational and helpful to them. If you find a story that becomes popular to many people it can be posted on the homepage.

According to the site, “Once a submission has earned a critical mass of Diggs, it becomes “popular” and jumps to the homepage in its category. If it becomes one of the most popular, it qualifies as a “Top 10”. If a submission doesn't receive enough Diggs within a certain time period, it eventually falls out of the “Upcoming” section.”

The Website is set up in the same kind of way that YouTube is, where the most popular items are shown on the homepage. The only difference is that there are news stories along with photos and video. While it might be the case that the top story is somebody acting stupid with a video camera, there is also news that finds it was to the homepage. It is a good way for young viewers to see what is going on in the world and how it might affect them.

The website does have a large amount of stories, picture and video, but it is fairly easy to navigate. There are two navigation bars; the first is what type of media you are looking for (e.g. Print, video, photo, podcast, etc.). Just below that are categories including technology, world & business, science, entertainment and sports. The viewer is able to easily navigate to whatever it is that he or she is looking for. When the viewer clicks on a category of interest, for example, “politics,” then as the page opens the most popular political news, photos and video will be available to view. There will be a number to the left of the link to the print, video or photo that shows how many people “dig the video.”

This website allows the viewers to choose what they think is important and post it and comment it themselves. In a way they are becoming editors to the type of news that their friends and family see. They are able to determine what is important and show friends and family may have not seen in the newspaper or on television.

Website critique

2008-02-21T15:55:00.066-05:00

I evaluated the websites of the NY Times, MSNBC and US News. Each site had its advantages and disadvantages but they all seem to address the general needs of their audience.

The New York Times

The main strength of the NY Times website was their immense amount of content. The overall web design works well for their demographic because it’s less focused on graphics and thus seems more serious.

The homepage is void of color using one main picture and one video. Just about all the articles can be shared through sites like Facebook and delicious, a definite strength. The site focuses less on pictures and video, instead giving the reader a wealth of stories to choose from.

There are six main folders at the top of the page. The problem is they are so small that you really have to look for them to notice them. I found the usability to be good in the sense that it takes into account the desire for a simplified layout.

I also enjoyed the interface. Navigating pages between different contents was quick and once I found a story it was in large 14 pt. type that was really easy to read. One weakness of the site was the small size of the headlines which fails to bring attention to the major stories.

There is a My Times folder that is personalized and allows for news and blog updates. The next folder over is the Today’s paper section that contains jump tags. There is even an enlargeable template with a NY Times paper layout to simulate a printed paper.

All the pages on the site are extraordinarily long and stuffed with plenty of content. Depending on your reading comprehension you might be there a while if your planning on reading it all.
The next folder over is a video folder containing 773 videos most of which are about 5 minutes in length each. I found this to be an overwhelming strength. There was a wide variety of video topics and it was obvious that the NY Times is sending out drones of diverse reporters to cover all kinds of interesting stories.

One weakness I found was the folder called Most Popular. I found the majority of those popular stories just too much of a mix of random favorites. The articles were unorganized and it was hard to find any interesting stories because they weren’t my favorites they were the favorites of other readers.

MSNBC

MSNBC has its main folders located on the left side of the homepage. At the top of the homepage are links to their flag ship shows such as Dateline and Meet the Press. Readers can rate the articles, email them and participate in blogs.

There seems to be an overwhelming amount of AP wire stories on the site. It’s quite a contrast from the NY Times website, though I realize they aren’t direct competitors. The wire stories just don’t have a personal feel to them.

The site uses tables with thick colorful borders to break up the pages. It makes the NY Times website look cramped. I don’t feel as directed to one most important story because they use two main stories on the homepage.

The pages load erratically at times and can be slow. I would say that MSNBC’s interface is a weakness. MSNBC makes use of dhtml with its drop down menus, something the Times and US News don’t use.

They have a section where by using a map you can click your state for local news . My query turned up news from Queens and Long Island. Another section, named "community" is basically a news aggregator.

MSNBC has a disable fly out feature for those who don’t like certain aspects of Web 2.0. It took quite a while to find a story written by a staff member of MSNBC but eventually I found one. Tucked into the Tech & Science section was a story written by the senior editor of that section.

Within the U.S. News section are several interesting folders such as Race ,Faith ,and Weird news .
They seem like very thought provoking sections that seem to be geared toward a fanatical following. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen folders like this on any news website. One draw back to the site is its ads. I found it hard to be reading any part of the main pages without peaking at the ads.

US News

US News has a combination of pictures, video and ads. Their layout is similar to the NY Times site in that it is less Web 2.0 oriented. A rotating photo banner located on the homepage is probably the biggest stand out of the site. A viewer cant miss it changing every five seconds with a picture, a headline, and a short descriptive sentence.

I found that the pages loaded slowly, much slower than MSNBC. A definite downside was that despite lacking many Web 2.0 features, the pages loaded much slower than a more basic interface like the one employed by the New York Times. One strong point to the US News site was that it allows the reader to share the story with up to 16 other social networking and news aggregator sites.

The ads are spaced out but are plentiful and therefore very distracting. Interestingly the US news site doesn’t seem to support all browsers. A few searches from different computers at different locations yielded inconsistent navigating. Pages either worked, loaded slow or couldn’t load at all.

Final verdict

Overall MSNBC had the most advanced website considering the project guidelines. Even though the interface has some issues, MSNBC proved to be the most interactive. The NY Times was the most simple and consistently quick loading site examined but it lacked interactivity. The US News site proved to be the worst site, even though they are as interactive as MSNBC because of their buggy interface and their browser compatibility issues.

Here is a video about Web 2.0

Website Evaluation Project

2008-02-21T13:24:00.004-05:00

Sites chosen:
NY1- News channel
AM New York- Free local in the city
Gawker- Gossip blog

The three sites are all based in New York City.

NY 1

NY 1 is a local TV news channel aired in the five boroughs, with some sister stations upstate. The channel began not too long ago and has recently acquired a larger audience.

The site is a mess. As you scroll down, you notice all the large ad art on the sides. There are two of the same ads on this page, with the same message prompting NY 1 watchers to buy NY 1 gear. I find that odd. I don’t find that on most TV News websites, i.e.: CNN doesn’t prompt its viewers to buy CNN gear.

The ads are an eyesore, and aesthetically speaking, the entire website looks cluttered and claustrophobic. The tabs are located on the side. They are links with a basic, unprofessional font. The top of the website is pretty much dominated by a large, flashing Nissan ad. And below it is the company’s masthead. It’s a very bad place for a masthead—the logo is in the left corner. When you’re first looking at a website, your eyes naturally gravitate towards the center. Overall, not very good layout.

To make things worse, their top story is “Chickens Cross the Road After Tractor Trailer Overturneds on BQE.” They spelled “overturned” wrong. The story below it is about the campaign, and further down, “Man Who Wounded NYPD Officer in 1986 Shoot-Out Is Killed in Prison.” Either two would make a better top story than chickens crossing the road.

But, the website isn’t completely terrible in terms of multimedia. The site has a separate video scroll down option, where you can click through videos of weather, sports, live audio, etc. It prompts you to choose between dialup and broadband video, which is helpful for people who have slower connection speeds.

Another strength of this website is that the sidebar has a tab for the five boroughs. People in Brooklyn can click on the Brooklyn link and get localized news for their area. That’s a helpful feature—it is also a feature unique to NY1 and it speaks volumes about thei demographic of their audience.

Overall, the site’s strengths are the localized city news content and the multimedia. The weaknesses lie primarily with its interface and aesthetics, and also with their news play.

AM New York

AM New York is a free daily paper circulated throughout New York City—mainly within the subway stations and trains. This newspaper is a part of Newsday.

The first thing you notice about this website is its art. It is rich in pictures and most of them are the same size. It is visually pleasing. The ads are low-key, and they don’t flash like NY1’s Nissan ad. The masthead for AM New York is crisp and easily identifiable.

Another feature this website has is the “popular stories” box, where people can click on the “most viewed” and “most e-mailed “stories. There was no such feature on NY 1’s website.

The page also sports multimedia and blogs, with videos, and photos. The different tabs are on the sidebar, similar to NY 1, but much crisper in appearance. There is also a link to the paper’s PDF of the actual front page for the day.

The main art on the page is similar to Newsday in that it automatically moves from picture to picture, resting on each for a few seconds. This feature gives you a glimpse of what’s in store for the day—it’s useful in helping the viewer choose which story to read.

There is a daily poll to engage the viewer. The question for the day is “What do you think? Are you spending more money on food?” Pretty much anyone can relate to that, so I would assume most people would click on the link.

Further down, the website has different categories, similar to an actual newspaper. There are visible, prominent sections: sports, entertainment, nation/world, real estate. My only qualm with the site is that the national/world section is at the very bottom of the page, preceded by music/clubs, New York food, and the Yankees and Mets. It is also right next to the daily crossword puzzle and Sudoku.

The overall strengths? The website has a healthy multimedia section with distinguishable links, establishing the paper’s overall identity pretty well. The weakness is, similar to NY1, its news play. Is entertainment really more important that national news?

Gawker

Gawker is a media and gossip blog based in New York City. It is known for its snarky content that is both mean and witty.

Aesthetically, the site has a very clean-cut look. There are large white spaces between the blog posts which make the site, in my opinion, more readable than most other websites. Looking at this site, you would never guess that there were 67 posts in the last 24 hours. The content is managed efficiently.

The art on the site is a bit lacking. The ads in general are larger than the pictures accompanying the blog posts. But then, comparing this website to the others evaluated would be unfair because it is a blog, and not a news website.

Another thing about Gawker is that there is a visible community amongst the readers. One of the blog posts accumulated 109 comments. Obviously, the content is not only favored by its readers but compelling enough to warrant feedback.

The site is playful. The titles on the blog posts establish the personality of this blog pretty well. One section titled “Gawker Stalker Sightings” is especially noteworthy and unique to the blog. It is a display of various important people spotted around New York City—a picture of them and a brief paragraph of where they were spotted.

The masthead is not as prominent as it should be, because there is an ad right next to it. The letters could be larger. There is no multimedia on this site aside from pictures.

Another thing about this website is that there is a notable log in box for users. It is right above the masthead. It seems that one of the primary goals of this blog is to cultivate community—and they do a pretty good job at it.

So overall, this website averages fairly on aesthetics, though the masthead could be more prominent. Another strength is its community-based readership because of its also compelling content. And all this content seems to managed cleanly.

Assignment #1

2008-02-19T23:59:00.028-05:00

The digital revolution, and more importantly the Internet, allows users to access immeasurable amount of information with just the click of a button. This easily-accessed wealth of information caused newspapers, magazines and television stations to create and staff their own Web sites in order to keep up with the viewers demand for content.

The ability for Internet users to surf the web through search engines such as Google and Yahoo, allow them to scan the vast amount of information available quickly and focus in on a specific topic. This ability forces news outlets to make sure their Web sites are up to date with the latest content.

Some users automatically feel loyalty to a specific Web site, such as The New York Times, which is called branding. Unfortunately, many sites do not have the kind of following the Times does and must therefore rely on Wed 2.0 features such as video, pictures and other interactive features to attract viewers.

Different media outlets structure their Web sites differently. The television station ABC News’ home page is structured very differently from the Florida newspaper the St. Petersburg Times, which is structured differently from the strictly web based site Digg.com

Television station’s sites, such as ABC News have more videos than other media sites because they can easily lift material from their broadcasts. The articles on ABC News.com each have a corresponding video attached to them, unlike many newspaper sites that either have to link to video from another site or send out a separate team of journalists to shoot and edit video.

ABC’s home page is easy to use. The site’s background is black fading into grey, which provides a drastic but pleasing contrast to the white text box. The site is easy to navigate with helpful tabs right under the masthead directing users to sections such as Politics, Entertainment, Travel, Law, and More. The site’s tabs also redirect sports fans to ESPN Sports, which keeps viewers on the ABC page, but educates the reader then content there are viewing is from ESPN, not original reporting from ABC.

The ABC site also allows viewers to click on News Brief. A section that brings them to an easy to read page of all the top stories of the day, displaying just that particular content; with just one ad for the entire page.

ABC’s home page includes a photo banner that rotates 16 times before it repeats. The photo banner on the left side of the page is just as large as the ad on the right side. This is distracting to a viewer because it also rotates. There are three ads on the entire home page which places content way above ad space. The ABC layout is very similar to CNN.com.

The home page is also littered with photos. Each major section below the photo banner is accompanied by a piece of art. Even a feature story on back pain provides a picture of a woman rubbing her back.

Some of the more prominent features of Web 2.0 include RSS feeds, podcasts, e-mail newsletters and mobile alerts. ABC offers all of these services with links at the bottom of their home page.

The St. Petersburg Times home page provides a stark contrast to ABC’s. The background is a dull grey and the site overall lacks color. The top of the page contains a large ad for tampabay.com and the masthead of the paper is buried in small black type below. It takes a viewer about six seconds to locate the paper’s name.

The site home page contains only three ads. However, stories can contain up to five. The video content is minimal and links to the video are buried within the stories. The video is also directly from the AP Online Video Network. This content is not shot by the newspaper staff itself.

The site is similar to ABC News with tabs at the top allowing readers to easily search for specific content by breaking it down into specific sections.

One unique aspect of the St. Petersburg site is in the left hand column there is a link to print out a copy of the paper’s front page in a PDF file. Directly under this link is a drop down menu to search for your own local section of the paper.

The Digg.com Web site offers a mixture of both. The site is a page for users to post different news stories they thought were interesting and the more people that view the story, the more hits it gets, the higher up the story moves until it is the top story. This way of organizing the news is different from ABC or the St. Petersburg Times because it allows the public to decide what is news. This can be scary for larger news outlets because the top stories on Digg can receive hits into the thousands.

Since the site does not report any news itself, it runs the risk of the news links being provided could be false. However, the blog attached to each story allows viewers to add their own comments and could help monitor the accuracy of the content.

The site’s layout is similar to ABC News at the top of the page. Both sites do not sell this space for ads and instead leave it for the page’s name and tabs to better navigate.

Digg’s downfall is the lack of artwork on the page. Many of the articles are just text with an extremely small thumbnail picture.

The ads are also rather loud compared to the lack of graphics on the site. One ad, on the right hand side is so long, it stretches the length of five headlines.

Although this site is dull due to lack of graphics and flashy content, it is the easiest to navigate. Each story link is posted right below the other allowing the reader’s eye to jump from one article to the next with ease. ABC’s site is more hectic with articles posted next to, diagonal and underneath each other and separated by rotating video and pictures creating heavy clutter.

The St. Petersburg site also contains a lot of content but the page is literally divided up into four columns which helps keep the content organized.

Each site maps out a different way to organize content. However, ABC’s site, due to its resources, is the most content rich and eye catching. Although the content is vast and overwhelming, the use of categories and tabs allows a user to search through all the video, pictures, audio and articles to find what they are searching for.

Each site manages their material differently because there is no right answer. The Internet is still evolving and sites are still trying to determine which layout is the most efficient. In the future there may be a concrete formula for determining the layout of a Web site, but until that is found, each site is left to the staff’s creativity to find what Web 2.0 features and layout design generates the most amount of traffic on their site.

Henry: My top 3 on a deserted island

2008-02-19T20:10:00.002-05:00

The first item on my list that would be of need on this deserted Island is MS. CHRISTINA MILIAN I think the reasons I need her are more than obvious. She's young, beautiful, and she will go great with my other two items. I think we make a perfect match dont you?

The next neccessity is a STEREO. Music is a huge part of my everyday life and I would go crazy if I couldn't bump the latest tunes while I'm patiently waiting for the world to come to an end!!! Hopefully I will be able to get a signal wherever I am stranded but wait....I've got a back up!!!

R. Kelly: 12 Play This is one of the greatest albums of all time and I'm sure Chrissy would just love it!!

If I Ever Get "Lost"...

2008-02-19T20:04:00.003-05:00

If I were to get shipwrecked on a deserted island these are the three things I would want with me to ensure my survival:

Duct Tape- The versatility of this material is second to none. Many consider duct tape “the ultimate material.” Duct tape is a well-traveled material. Astronauts have used it in outer space during emergency situations, like that of Apollo 13. If it’s good enough for NASA, then it’s good enough for me.

A Backpack Full of Assorted Military Issued Survival Knives- knives can be used for many different activities. Whether it is building shelter, hunting for food, or just shaving your face, knives are essential to survival in the wilderness.

Evangeline Lilly- Now duct tape and knives are definitely essential to survive the wilderness, but no man could live alone on a deserted island. Who better to get LOST with?

Three things I would bring with me to a deserted Island

2008-02-19T19:52:00.026-05:00

Three things I would take with me to a deserted Island are an I-pod, an entire water tower and a lifetime supply of pizza. With all these essentials I can hold out indefinitely for rescue. usnews

I'm going to need an entire water tank, lets face it, its gonna be hot and I'm already thirsty just thinking about it.

If I could only have one kind of food everyday, it would have to be pizza. While I'm stranded, my plan is to soak up the sights then try to make contact with dolphins. Eventually, when I learn to communicate with the dolphins, I will send them off to flag down a fishing boat.

2008-02-19T19:38:00.017-05:00

To a deserted island I would bring three things. These three things are:

enough cereal bars to last me the rest of my trip for food
the new squab car that can drive under water so I can leave the island when I want to
my laptop so I could stay in contact with everyone. Since this is my story, I will be able to receive wireless Internet on my island despite the lack of routers in the vicinity.

2008-02-19T19:24:00.024-05:00

IF I was deserted on an island, there would be three things i would bring with me......

an IPOD
- to listen to my music.

My BLACKBERRY PHONE to make sure i can communicate with people, so i can get out!

Ohh and my

MASCARA....Gotta look good!

2008-02-19T19:24:00.021-05:00

If I was deserted on an island...

First of all, I would bring my dog.

Then, I would bring my cell phone.

Lastly, I would find a boyfriend and bring him with me. hehe Let him do all the hard work...

2008-02-19T19:19:00.017-05:00

Three Things I Would Bring on a Deserted Island:

Gallons and gallons of water
Playing cards
Candy

Three things that I need on a deserted island

2008-02-19T19:12:00.012-05:00

A watch Lighter
A knife
bottled water

Shooting at Northern Illinois University

2008-02-14T19:11:00.013-05:00

Click above for more pictures from the scene

Reaction from Stony Brook students
Photos	Photo timeline
Maps	Videos

LATEST UPDATES ON THE SHOOTINGS AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY:

8:14pm: Chief Grady said, "the gunman is not a student that we know of here [NIU]."

8:05pm: According to the Northern Star, the NIU college newspaper the student, " “a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on” the geology class at 3:05pm.

7:53pm-Three of the the victims have been discharged from Kishwaukee Community Hospital.

-According to the NIU Chief of Police, Donald Grady, Five people have been pronounced dead, including the shooter, who fatally shot himself.

Click photo to view more
-There were 30 shots fired and all 18 victims, who were transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital (shown right), according to the Northern Illinois website.

-According to the Chicago Tribune, a gunman shot 18 people in the Cole Hall Auditorium at 3pm. The shooter was armed with a shotgun and a handgun. The identity and motives of the shooter are unknown.

-According to the Chicago Tribune, Chief of Police, Donald Grady said, "there is, "no reason to believe" it was related to threats found on a bathroom wall on campus in December."

-According to the Chicago Tribune, The shooter left a set of messages,

"The first set of messages, found written in black ink in a women's restroom, includes a racial slur and reads "ME / OUT . . . Die Sem Burr 10th . . . Hmz Sdn Cr" in what officials believe are references to Dec. 10 and the Holmes Student Center. Underlined letters also spell out the word "WATCH."

"The second entry, which appears to be in different handwriting, reads, "What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter . . ."

Composed by Shawn Brown and Ryan Famulari

Students discuss campus safety in the wake of Northern Illinois shooting

2008-02-14T19:10:00.003-05:00

By Jesse Cozzetti and Joe Incantalupo

Around 3 p.m. Thursday on the campus of Northern Illinois University, a gunman dressed in black killed opened fire in 600-seat lecture hall- killing at least six people and injuring at least a dozen more.

Upon hearing the news of the shootings. Students at Stony Brook University expressed their feelings concerning school safety. Students felt the SBU campus lacked appropriate security measures.

“Anyone can walk on campus, the doors aren’t locked. People have visitors stay by letting someone in the back door,” said Tina Petitti, an 18 year-old Psychology major.

Certain students are concerned about in class safety as well.

“Anyone can walk into a classroom on campus and pose as a student,” said Matt Curiano, an 18 year-old Liberal Arts major.

Both Petitti and Curiano are student residents in the H-Quad dormitory who claim there are not enough emergency phones in their surrounding area.

“The path from the H-Quad to 7-11 is about a half mile with no emergency phone in the middle or the end of the path,” Curiano said.

While concerns exist on the campus 27,000 attend classes, not all students feel unsafe on school grounds.

“Well there is always some uncertainty, but for the most part I feel safe,” said James Shea, a 19 year-old Liberal Arts major.

SBU has explored options to keep students safe, such as the SB Alert System, but so far the system has only been tested.

SB Alert is a comprehensive notification structure used to alert the campus community in the event of a major emergency. The system includes a message alert for those students who have signed up. Messaging includes texts, emails and voicemails.

Some students say the university’s safety precautions are lacking.

“I got contacted about the recent gas leak, but not about the accosting. It seems that the news crews end up knowing before we do,” said Curiano, referring to a recent incident on campus.

Other students say the system is flawed because not all students own a cell phone.

“They sent it to my email because I don’t have a cell phone,” said Amanda Schlehuver, an 18 year-old Liberal Arts major.

School officials say improvements to SB Alert is an ongoing process. But in the meantime, the Northern Illinois shooting is a reminder of what’s at stake.

CNN Video Coverage and WGN Local Chicago News

2008-02-14T19:10:00.001-05:00

Here's some video from CNN:

Campus gunman dead

'Stay in your room'

Video from WGN local news.
"Gunman shooting like out of a Movie"

Composed by Rohma Abbas and Henry Danner

Maps of DeKalb, Illinois

2008-02-14T19:10:00.000-05:00

View Larger Map

Hey Hillary! Let a Woman Speak...

2008-02-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

How many have seen Michelle Obama speak? Well I think if you haven't, you need to. Here is a woman who speaks from the heart. Someone who is honest and realistic. We are at that time in the election year where candidates are giving their best performances, trying to get that last second nod for an Oscar nomination; all the acting and over the top rhetoric just spewing out of their mouths at every speech they give. It's refreshing that the wife of one of these struggling actors, someone who is so close to the artist, is able to stay so level headed and is really able to connect to the everyday sentiment of the everyday people. She calls it like she sees it. Or in the words of Brian McNamee, "It is what it is." We often laugh at the seemingly "uneducated" speech of President Bush, but we forget that this quality was a major advantage when facing the dull- pretty much boring- Al Gore in the 2000 election. It was Bush's ability to connect with the typical American that made him so popular in the beginning. Now by no means does Michelle Obama sound "uneducated" when she speaks, but it is through her thoughts and beliefs that she is able to come across as down to earth and thus connect with the "Joe Schmo" in all of us.

Yes We Can

2008-02-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

One of the most interesting things about this election year is the surge in activism by the youth--and their role models. My boyfriend and I were watching Larry King on CNN a couple of days ago. The guests? America Ferrera, from "Ugly Betty," Will.i.am, from The Black Eyed Peas, and John Legend, noted R&B singer. Here's a bit of the transcript:

Larry: What got you out this year, America?

America: Well, you know I think I, along with all young voters this year, realize that this is one of the most important elections of our lifetime.

America, a Hillary-supporter, went on to explain that this election year marked the first time she became heavily involved in any election. And she is not alone. Super Tuesday's youth vote statistics were shocking, as reported by VH1:

"According to the results of CNN's exit polls and tabulations from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, young voters turned out in record numbers in more than 20 states. In practically every state holding a primary or caucus Tuesday, youth turnout increased astronomically, doubling, tripling and even quadrupling the turnout in the 2000 and 2004 electoral seasons."

But back to my point. The CNN clip was about will.i.am and Legend composing a song and music video based on Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. My boyfriend made me watch the song on Youtube. It's pretty riveting. I'm attaching it on the bottom so you can all watch it.

Here's what Will.i.am says at the end of the clip:

Will.i.am: The most powerful people on the planet right now is the youth. And they have to know that and believe that. So that's what that speech did to me. It made me believe again.

anything you can do I can do better

2008-02-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are back to pointing fingers again.

This time, Hillary pointed out Obama’s proposed health care abandons 15 million Americans and his economic plan falls short of ending the foreclosures caused by the sub-prime mortgage fallout.

Obama hammered back, attacking Clinton on claims she is partially to blame for the economic woes of Washington. He also included John McCain in this attack.

“ ‘It's a Washington where politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for a war in Iraq that should've never been authorized and never been waged -- a war that is costing us thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars a week’ that could be used on infrastructure, job training and health care, he said.” --Newsday

How long is Obama going to use the same line of just because he didn’t vote for the war he can not be held accountable for it? We are Americans, isn’t our entire country in this war together?

I think Obama represents change and so far his campaign reflects that. But just because he hasn’t been in Washington as long as Clinton or McCain and therefore there is less for his opponents to criticize him about, doesn’t mean he is better than Clinton. He just has less of a track record to pick apart.

Hillary on a Down Hill....

2008-02-13T18:22:00.000-05:00

Hillary Clinton has been on a down hill and has made every attempt to grab anything to pull her back up again.... In a desperate attempt to try to even come sorta close to match Obama's campaign funds of $32 million for January, she puts in $5 million of her own money. She also fired her longtime campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, replacing her is Hillary’s White House chief of staff, Maggie Williams. She’s African American...hmmm could this be to up her game and get black voters?? In an election about race, Hillary is playing up the race card by causing division amongst races...black vs black. She lost the Maine Democratic caucuses to Obama in a landslide...which was quite funny because alot of people thought she would win ( sorry NYTimes Editorial department) because she had the backing of the governor and his political organization. And Obama's vistories continue as he gained support in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia! As for Hillary...it's all just down hill from here! So keep crying....

Democratic Race Looks to be a Photo Finish

2008-02-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain broke out the brooms, sweeping Tuesday's primaries held in the Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Obama now leads the Democratic race by 25 delegates, according to Newsday's website. It was only a week ago in the 24 state primaries, where Clinton led by 176 delegates. Now that most of the crucial primaries have already come and gone, Clinton has started speaking out against Obama, saying:

"I don't know how you have an economic plan without taking on the problem in the housing market," Clinton said. "I have an aggressive plan to end the foreclosures and freeze the interest rates. He does not."-Newsday article, "Clinton steps up criticism of Obama," by Keith Herbert.

Herbert explains in his article that Hilary said this during her campaign in Texas, which is another significant primary for both Clinton and Obama. After a devestating turn of events, as Clinton slipped into second place in the Democratic race, it can be expected that her number one priority is to win Texas, to reclaim the lead as soon as possible. In such a close race that continues to be getting closer, it appears that many will have to wait until June for the final outcome.

With his success in 16 states, McCain extended his lead in the Republican race, reaching 821 delegates, according to the Newsday.com latest delegate count. After Gov. Mitt Romney's withdrawl from the Presidential race, Sen. Mike Huckabee remains the only threat to McCain in the the Republican race. Despite Huckabee's decision to continue to contend with McCain, it appears to be an uphill battle for him because McCain has been victorious in some of the most crucial states, including: California, New York and Florida. As of today, McCain holds a 580 delegate lead over Huckabee, who needs 47 delegates in order to pass Romney's delegate count.

2008 Elections

2008-02-13T12:02:00.002-05:00

Even though I am not big into politics, I have been following this year's election. So far its really interesting because of how close the race is. Barack Obama has been doing awesome, which I am very happy about. In a recent poll, it shows that Obama is leading Clinton 45-41.
Hillary Clinton hopes to win the Texas primaries, held on March 4th, so she can get ahead of Obama. Texas has a large Latino population, however Clinton is known to do well with that group of people.
As for the Republican candidates, John McCain is leading Mike Huckabee with an estimated 812 delegates compared to Huckabee's 217.
At the Potomac Primaries, Obama is ahead with 1,215 delegates compared to Clinton's 1,190.

Potomac primaries

2008-02-12T23:53:00.000-05:00

Voters went to the polls Tuesday for the Potomac primaries in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. When the polls closed it was Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama who emerged victorious. McCain has increased the likely hood of his nomination as he all but likely ended any chance for Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee says he needs a miracle and delegate rich Texas should prove to be his last stand. On the Democratic side, the delegate lead has officially changed hands as Senator Barack Obama rolled through the Potomac primaries. Senator Hillary Clinton had a worse than expected showing and is reportedly concentrating on Texas in preparation for the May 4th primary.

Breaking news: Snow update

2008-02-12T17:07:00.000-05:00

Class is on. Call me if you hear otherwise. But I'll be trying the snow hotline while I'm in traffic.

Drive safe.

Critique assignment:

2008-02-12T15:28:00.000-05:00

Using the theories we've discussed in class, I am asking you to critique three Web sites (choose from a TV news Web site, newspaper Web site, blog or general news Web site). Please step outside the box and really explore some sites we DID NOT discuss in class.

For each, point out the site's strengths and weaknesses. If you'd like to reference to a competitor's site during an evaluation, that's OK.

Again, I'm stressing you stick to the ideas we have discussed about Web design, the interface, usability, etc. In your actual write-up, please incorporate markup tags we have been working on in class.

As for length, I'd like you to be thorough, but stay on track. Looking for a word count? You should aim for at least 1,000 words.

How will I grade this? Well, before I tell you that, I will remind you this is 10% of your overall grade. I'm looking for a few things: Your thoughts, grammar, presentation and whether or not you accomplish the goal of this assignment.

When is it due? February 21. That's a Thursday and it must be by 11:59 p.m. One minute late and it's a no-go.

You will file on our class blog.

Best,
Adam

Polling and primaries

2008-02-12T10:20:00.002-05:00

According to this New York Times article, for Hillary to have a substantial shot at the Democratic nomination, she must win Ohio and Texas.

Speaking of Ohio, in my Voters and Elections class today, we discussed at length polling methods, sampling error, and why Ohio was kind of a big deal in 2004 between Kerry and Bush.

At 1:00 PM, November 7, 2004, exit poll numbers showed 50 to 49, in favor of Kerry, with a sample size of 644.

At 3:15 PM, 51 to 49 in favor of Kerry.

At 7:30 PM, 52 to 48, in favor of Kerry, but with a sample size of 1,963.

But this was not enough to voice for certain who had won. Networks were reluctant to confirm anything, probably because of the Florida 2000 scare.

This is something to keep in mind when watching the primary results pour in, though for now, we haven't had any major polling faults.

-Rohma

Writing to come

2008-02-11T20:43:00.001-05:00

This One's for the Big Man

2008-02-08T00:49:00.000-05:00

I thought this would totally make our blog.

Elections

2008-02-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

As I look back at the biggest primary in our nations history I notice something that has remained constant through our nations history. Trends are trends because they stand the test of time. If we look back to the 1976 Presidential Election we see the case of the dark horse candidate and the significance momentum plays in the victory of the underdog. Our underdog, in this election, is Jimmy Carter. With hardly any name recognition nationally, Jimmy Carter managed to pull off one of the greatest upsets in primary history. After winning New Hampshire handily, Jimmy Carter rode a wave of momentum to the Democratic nomination. This trend says a lot about the American people and the way in which they cast their vote. While John McCain is one of the most well known Republicans in our nation, he still was under the radar as the primaries drew closer. If we look back a few months ago I don't think there is any question that the two front runners were Giuliani and Romney coming into the New Hampshire primary. After McCain's big win in New Hampshire, though, Republicans saw a horse they could ride. By the time Super Tuesday came around many people had made their minds up and knew they would cast their vote for McCain because he was the man on top. This is the same story we saw in the playground growing up. Everyone had that kid during recess who never played kickball and just sat in the corner, wasn't the real social type, right? But there was that one day when Charlie was sick and your team was down a man. You looked around and everyone else was already playing. The only person who wasn't committed to a game was little Timmy sitting in the corner. You went over and coerced him into playing, promising to give him your Snack Pack at lunch the next day. After a few innings it was finally his turn up at the plate and your whole team could barely watch. You had to squint between your fingers because you were too afraid to witness the embarrassment that was about to take place. The shear humiliation you were about to have a hand in. But sure enough when Timmy's foot hit that ball you would've thought he was Babe Ruth. It flew over the fence and into the street, hitting a car for good measure. From then on Timmy was the first kid picked at recess. Americans still have that same mind set when it comes to voting. If the population sees a candidate who may have that "golden foot", who might be the one to take them to the promise land, they'll be anxious to jump on the bandwagon. In the case of John McCain, he got hot at just the right time. I equate it to the Giants run in the playoffs. The Republican Party is hoping that McCain is their Eli Manning and that he will be the one to lead them to a Super Bowl victory, or at least the White House.

joe

2008-02-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

even though I put money in the meter I still got a ticket

The Boss

2008-02-07T19:35:00.000-05:00

I am a football player. A year ago I wouldn't have been able to say that. Well I could have said it, but unfortunately I would have been lying to your face. It was the spring of 2007, after months of pestering the head football coach of Stony Brook University, when I was offered a chance to walk-on the team. Here is the "flattering" picture of me from the team website as proof of my acceptance on the team.

EIC

2008-02-07T19:31:00.002-05:00

I don't really do cool things, but the coolest thing to happen to me this past week was a promotion to editor-in-chief of the Stony Brook Independent: www.sbinews.org. I've been with the paper for over a year, and a bulk of our staff is graduating in May (including the current EIC), so the promotion was inevitable.

Part of the cool thing about being an editor, even of a college newspaper, is that you get to make decisions and demand things from people. But it's not easy, because you always have to be two steps ahead of everyone.

Coolest thing that I have done this year

2008-02-07T19:31:00.001-05:00

I skied in Vermont with my friends for four days.I stayed at my friend's house that was only 15 minutes from Oneonta Ski Resort I never tried it before, but I learned that the most important thing to know is, how to stop? It took me half-a-day to learn to stop and I realized that I was crashing less.

surfingggg

2008-02-07T19:31:00.000-05:00

I learned how to surf over the summer during a vacation to the Jersey Shore.It took a super long time to get it down but after 2 hours or so I was hooked. I had always wanted to learn how to surf and get good at it and now I can't wait to do it again next summer. Hopefully one day I will get a chance to surf in Hawaii.

Jesse Cozzetti

2008-02-07T19:29:00.002-05:00

The coolest thing-but most painful thing i have done in the last month or two was go to NYC to watch the ball drop...yeah it was really cold! Never again!

2008-02-07T19:29:00.000-05:00

blah

In one month I will be able to drink -- legally.

Super Tuesday...

2008-02-07T18:40:00.000-05:00

I haven't really been following the Super Tuesday media explosion, but I had to prepare an analysis for my POL 317 class on Illinois' exit polls. As you may know, Barack Obama won Illinois Democrats over. Here's the New York Times breakdown for the Dems:

"Mr. Obama claimed a key victory in his home state of Illinois, carrying nearly demographic group, according to early exit polls. African-American voters chose Mr. Obama by nearly 9 to 1, those polls showed. Mr. Obama edged out Mrs. Clinton even among white voters and by 2 to 1, women chose Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton. Illinois and Georgia were two states in which Democratic voters said that Mr. Obama would make a better commander in chief than Mrs. Clinton. Interest was high in the state, where Mr. Obama is often referred to as a favorite son and where he served in the state Senate. Mrs. Clinton herself was born and grew up in Illinois. Nearly 500,000 more people were registered to vote in this year's open primary than in 2000. The state's 185 delegates were considered key to Mr. Obama's chances. Hoping to help Mr. Obama, the chairman of the state Democratic Party last year led the push to move the state's primary up from its usual date in mid-March."

Too bad I slept through my class :(

In other news, Mitt Romney dropped out. Wise move? Probably. A bunch of my friends went down to DC yesterday to cheer him on before he dropped. Haha, suckers!

Super Tuesday

2008-02-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

At the end of an eventful Super Tuesday John McCain became the Republican front runner while Mike Huckabee legitimized his campaign and remained the proverbial thorn in the side of Mitt Romney. Romney then bowed out after giving an emotionally charged speech about not quitting. Romney had a worse than expected showing and then it got worse when McCain was about one step away from ceremoniously playing taps for him, after a solid week of mud-slinging. Maybe not enough mud was hurled after all to ruin a chance for an alignment between the two as the election approaches. The Republicans realize McCain isn’t considered conservative enough to win the south. That is of course unless some one like Hillary is on the other side of the ticket.
Clearly, Mike Huckabee has no plans to bow out, although his wins in Alabama and Georgia would have been a welcome addition to McCain’s campaign had Romney edged out Huckabee. But he didn’t, so now Huckabee, who might have the best last name in any presidential campaign since they liked “Ike”, looks to reel in all the Christian conservative votes he can while McCain tightens up his tie and starts thumbing through the bibles in his hotel rooms from stop to stop. And how can we leave out Ron Paul. You gotta love a guy working on a shoe-string budget based largely off the internet, who can then pull off 20 percent of the votes in some states. He's Ralph Nader without the accomplishments.

In what’s shaping up to be an epic struggle on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama exchanged blows with Obama making the primary tighter than most expected. Hillary winning Massachusetts was a shock given the widely publicized endorsements of the Kennedy family, while Obama winning Connecticut right out from under Hillary was equally shocking. The Hispanic vote is proving to be huge in this election and it remains to be seen which candidates on either ticket can lock up the majority.

With Romney out, is the Republican race already over?

2008-02-07T15:19:00.000-05:00

After the dust settled and all the delegates were tallied after "Super Tuesday," Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barrack Obama are now only separated by a mere 176 delegates. While the Democratic race is far from over, the Republican side is everything but over.

According to the New York Times, "Primary Season Election Results," Sen. McCain only needs 1,191 more delegates to win on the Republican side. Today, Mitt Romney, who many considered the biggest threat to McCain, has officially withdrawn his name from the hat and dropped out of the Presidential race. Now, the only contender to McCain's race to the finish line is Mike Huckabee, who is currently 533 delegates behind. Unless Huckabee has major success in the upcoming polls, McCain's lead seems to be insurmountable.

Super Tuesday (My Thoughts As of Now)

2008-02-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

In my opinion, although race is an obvious factor in this 2008 Primary Election, I fear that the young Democrats may lose sight of the most important factors besides skin color. Gender, Race and ethnicity have a huge emphasis and the youth vote is another imporatant aspect to this years Primary election. "Obama held 61% of the votes under the age 30." The platforms of both Democratic candidates are very similar but are young people only focusing on the black and white differences or are they really paying attention to the facts? If you ask a college student what each candidate stands for, the biggest platform they could recall would probably be healthcare. When a black college student says "I'm voting for Obama!" Do they say this because they feel he is the best candidate or because he's black? When a female college student claims to support Hillary, is it because she is properly educated about what Clinton stands for or because she sees an improvment in gender equality within society? When it all boils down, the issues that each Democratic Candidate stands for is what should really count. Realize this, both candidates stand for similar beliefs, however, who would be a better fit to carry out those promises? Young people should take other factors into consideration when voting. Stay away from propoganda and think about factors such as past expreience, and who is better prepared to fix George Bush's mess that he left behind in the White House!

the media and the horserace

2008-02-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

ABC has approximately one minute and fifty seconds to bring the nation up to speed on the campaign trails of the presidential candidates. What do they lead with?

“Romney’s ads attack McCain”

Welcome to mudslinging in American politics. Lets move on

Instead of focusing on the candidates inconsistent voting records or their outright failure to vote at all, the media feels the need to focus its attention on the name calling aspect of politics. Leaving Americans shortchanged.

Walk into a store tomorrow and ask anyone to name three positions their candidate supports. They will look at your with a blank stare.

The majority of Americans do not seek out information on political candidates. They say “I’m not interested in politics.” End of discussion.

But once every four years they have to care. This is one of those years.

Candidates try every tactic in the book, from plastering their name on blimps (Ron Paul) to sending fake holiday greeting cards from your favorite Mormon. Why do candidates resort to such absurd tactics? Because they get air time.

Every little dirty trick candidates pull the next day ends up on the first page of the New York Times National Report. So Americans can tell you who bullied who, but they can’t tell you one issue a candidate supports.

Shouldn’t the media be trying to educate the public? Shouldn’t we be trying to print easy-to-read tables and charts comparing different candidates’ viewpoints? They are out there, but it takes effort to find them. I do want to mention that Newday’s coverage apparing in Sunday’s paper was impressive with an entire page dedicated to each candidate.

The more stories the media airs about mudslinging, the more they fuel the fire. If you limited space in which to reach your audience and convey to them something useful, wouldn’t it be better to tell them where Hillary stands on the Iraq War than of her possible emotional relapse?

Eat your heart out, Diddy

2008-02-01T20:25:00.000-05:00

Friends,

Here is our blog. Let's make Diddy proud.

By the end of the semester, Stony Brook will be coming to you for political insight.

For now, we'll keep it simple.

I'd like you to keep an eye on the hoopla that is Super Tuesday. When you feel like you've formulated some thoughts about the spectacle, fire off a blog entry sharing them. We'll discuss on Thursday.

And, remember, have some fun. But be insightful.

Have a great weekend. And, if you can, vote on Tuesday!
Adam