Mini-Movie

**Music courtesy of freeplaymusic.com.

Our mini-movie was based off of the movie "Fanboys," in which a group of boys face a lot of obstacles to see the filming of Star Wars. For "Fangirls," as we dubbed our video, a group of girls face a lot of obstacles to see the premier of "Twilight."

This project taught me a lot of things. First, I learned how to pitch a project idea, and then I learned how to write a script and format it correctly. As for editing, I speed up and slowed down a couple scenes for the first time ever.

There were not too many stumbling blocks during this project once we were able to film. We did have some problems trying to get together, but that was a scheduling problem, not a Film Cut or Flip Camera issue.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the video turned out, and I hope you enjoy it, as well.

Headline mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes. Unfortunately for journalists, our mistakes are quite public, and sometimes they are in 72 point font.

Yes, the journalism devils seem to strike most often in headlines. For some reason, errors can be the most hard to catch for journalists when they are in huge font. But once the reader sees the print copy, many times the errors are quite glaring.

Take this gem from the English FAIL Blog for example:

Though this headline is quite incriminating, I do not think the people at the paper are illiterate. (I believe that, even if it's just because the article says that Mississippi's literacy program is working.) In fact, the journalists are probably quite the opposite. As I said, the journalism devils like to play tricks on unsuspecting copy editors. If they see any moment of weakness, they will strike.

And strike they do! As found on the Professor Cornbread Web site, here are some other great headline mistakes:

Queen Mary is having bottom scraped.
Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over.
NJ judge to rule on nude beach.

Enraged cow injures farmer with ax.
Two Soviet ships collide, one dies.
Two sisters reunite after eighteen years at checkout counter.

Never withhold herpes from loved one.

Cold wave linked to temperatures.
Something went wrong in jet crash, experts say.

Ads that didn't translate so well:

“Bite the wax tadpole.” Coca-Cola as originally translated into Chinese.
“Pepsi bring your ancestors back from the grave.” Pepsi ad slogan ‘Pepsi Comes Alive’ as originally translated into Chinese.

Obviously these previous examples underscore the importance of careful editing. Editors must scrutinize headlines from every possible angle, in addition to making sure they are grammatically correct and accurate.

But as I've said, horrible headlines will still slip through. (I plan to share one of my most painful headline moments in a future monologue.) So in the end, journalists must have good humor. I can imagine the people who have written some of the above headlines find their mistakes just hilarious nowadays. And while they probably experienced physical pain when they discovered their bad headline, I also like to believe that they learned their lesson and moved on to write smashing (or even more funny) headlines.

Queen of Odd Jobs

After being inspired by this week's release of "Adventureland" -- a movie about one of the worst and first jobs one guy has working at an amusement park -- the creators of MSN's Wonderwall decided to feature some of the oddest jobs celebrities had before becoming famous.

Just as the Wonderwall peeps were inspired by the opening of "Adventureland," I am inspired by their Celebrity Summer Jobs Photo Gallery, and I will now proceed to compare some of my crazy jobs to the celebrities' summer jobs as listed in the photo gallery.

Eva Mendes: worked at a mall Hot Dog on a Stick. (Pictured at right; Photo taken from Examiner.com.)
Me: I served out my obligatory food service job at both Pizza Ranch and Subway.

Miley Cyrus: scrubbed toilets.
Me: I scrubbed toilets for chores at home but also got loo-cleaning experience at both Pizza Ranch and Subway.

Tina Fey: worked at a snack bar at a swim club.
Me: I also worked at a snack bar at the AdventurePark at Wild Water West.

Steve Carell: delivered the mail.
Me: I was going to deliver the YellowPages phone books before I was offered a temporary job in a hospital laundry room.

Steven Spielberg: whitewashed fruit trees to protect them from insects.
Me: I detasseled corn plants so they wouldn't cross-pollinate (or something like that.)

Madonna: served as a cashier at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Me: I had the distinct priviledge of ringing people up at Subway, and I was an official cashier at Target.

Brad Pitt: considered the king of odd jobs, as he drove limos, moved refrigerators and dressed up as a Giant Chicken.
Me: I think I could give Brad a run for his money. I have sold vacuums (so did Kelly Clarkson), guarded a gate at the Sioux Empire Fair, babysat, issued credit cards at Wells Fargo AND dressed up as a Giant Chicken during my stint at Pizza Ranch.

Extraordinary uses of Facebook

Some people are using Facebook for more than just catching up with old friends and staying up to date with acquaintance's lives. According to the BBC, the social media site is being used to save lives, catch criminals and even end marriages.

I became privy to Facebook's revolutionary powers when I noticed today's headline, "UK teenager 'saved by Facebook'" on the British news site. According to the article, a British teenager messaged a girl in Maryland, saying that he was going to kill himself. The girl's mother called local police, who placed a call to the White House, who called the British Embassy, who contacted local police in Britain. The boy was found semi-conscious in his home after a drug overdose. After a hospital stay, the boy made a full recovery.

After reading that BBC article, I noticied another that mentioned an unusual Facebook use. According to the story "Facebook campaign to find rapist," a Manchester man made a group to try to find the man who raped his fiancee. He posted a grainy police photo of the attacker on the page and created the group in hopes that someone who knows the man will come forward.

While some are using the social media site for good purposes, others are just being ridiculous. According to the story "Marriage end 'posted on Facebook,'" Emma Brady found out her six-year marriage was over after her husband changed his status to read, "Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady." Of all the ways to be dumped, that might be the worst. If it's any consolation to Ms. Brady, I think she is better off without a man who tells his Internet "friends" that his marriage is over before he even tells his wife.

So all in all, Facebook has uses, both good and ridiculous, beyond my wildest dreams. Who knew that a site affectionately known as Stalkerbook could be so versatile?

Israel papers remove women from picture

Culture definitely affects how newspapers cover the news. Israeli papers showed an extreme example of this by removing two women from a picture of Israel's new cabinet.

Originally, I was extremely outraged when I first read the BBC headline, "Papers alter Israel cabinet photo" and subhead, "Two ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspapers have altered a photo of Israel's new cabinet, removing two female ministers." I thought that these two papers were discriminating the women with no due cause.

In a way, the papers were discriminating the women unjustly, I think. However, after reading more of the BBC article, I sort of understand the papers' decisions. According to the article, ultra-orthodox Jews think that publishing pictures of women violates their female modesty. Since both the papers that altered the photos serve ultra-orthodox readers, I can understand that if they had published the original photo, they would have outraged their readers.

Still, the way one of the papers went about omitting the women was extremely strange. While one of the papers blackened out the images of the women, the other replaced them with two men. To me, the second option is unacceptable, because now some of that paper's readers might think those two men are actually on Israel's new cabinet. Instead of not offending their readers, now that paper has confused its readers.

So even though I don't like the fact that either paper removed the women from the picture, I think the first option is more accurate and fair. By blackening out the women, at least the readers know that women are serving in the new cabinet. By replacing the women with men's photos, readers are misled to believe that only men are worthy for Israel's cabinet.

Here is a copy of the original photo vs. the photo with two men inserted in the women's places, taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7982146.stm:

When the news hits close to home

Turner County has been making headlines in the state lately, and neither time has the news been good.


Photo courtesy of: http://pix.epodunk.com/locatorMaps/sd/SD_12999.gif

First, a Turner County deputy was shot and killed outside a Marion home. Now, a rural Chancellor/Tea resident has been found to have drugs and a stolen vehicle.

Both times, these news stories hit a little too close to home for me. The deputy killed was a classmate to my brother. The criminal resident, who is also suspected of starting a meth lab, lives only a mile-and-a-half from my parents. Yikes!

As someone who writes news, it's always a little strange to be on the other side of the equation, or in this case, have an association with the story. So many times I empathize with the people I'm writing about and think, "Man, I'm glad that didn't happen in my neighborhood." Well, now I'm on the other side of the fence, thinking, "Man, I wish that hadn't happened in my neighborhood."

Still, I think the experience is a good lesson for me. It reminds me of what it's like to be involved in the news, not just be a removed third party. I can experience the emotions of people involved in the stories, which has reminded me that it is good to try to understand these feelings as you try to interview people for emotional stories. So, even though the past weeks' events have disheartened, saddened and freaked me out, they have in some ways shown me that empathy is a good trait in a journalist.

Foolin' Around

Oh, April Fool's Day. The perfect day for regular people to turn into mischievous pranksters and for respectable news sources to make up some gripping stories.

A CNN story credited the tradition of news outlets creating outrageous stories to the infamous '50s BBC report, which claimed that Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop that year. Several people fell for the crazy report, which also featured pictures of farmers harvesting spaghetti from their trees, and called in asking how they could get their own spaghetti trees.

The April Fool's fake news tradition has stuck. The Collegian made an attempt at a humorous April Fool's Edition, and a couple years ago, the Argus Leader had a fake sports story. The Argus piece said that an eighth grader was going to be the next big thing in basketball. I believe he was said to be freakishly tall and an amazing shot, and NBA scouts were already recruiting him. The final paragraph of the story exposed the hoax. It told readers to look at the first letter of every paragraph; the letters spelled HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY.

According to CNN, one of this year's pranks involved the popular site Twitter. A paper in London claimed it would be the first newspaper to deliver its news exclusively through Twitter. I think the paper should have included a link in the paper to a fake Twitter account that just said:
OMG, U just got pranked by a "dead" medium. LOL!

ROTFL, G2G.