Introduction

As members of the ‘Green Team,’ we have recognized that global warming is a serious issue that affects all of us. Our focus for this assignment is the impact of global warming on our lives and how we as students can take action and combat the effects of global warming. Throughout the term, this Writing for the Media Professional class has introduced us to a new and vital form of communication – blogging. As we each agreed that blogging is a great way to express our ideas and views on a particular issue that concerns all of us, we decided that we will present our group project in the form of a blog. This will allow other bloggers to communicate with us as well as indicate how they feel about global warming and the issues that we raise. By choosing the blog as our form of presentation, we were then able to present our research in different ways.

Whilst we have discovered that there are many student groups at OSU who have joined together to raise awareness of the effects of global warming, there are also a number of students who know very little about how their actions and daily choices are affecting the future of our environment. A particular student group that we have chosen to focus on is the Solar Vehicle Team. This group has designed and created a solar powered vehicle to compete in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. We interviewed members of the group and they provided us with a number of positive reasons why such a project is just one example of the ways students at OSU can get involved and promote the benefits of a green environment. We decided that our interviews with various members of the SVT would best be represented as a documentary and so Lindsey chose to accelerate her passion for film production and should be credited for her filming and editing skills.

We then decided that it was important to learn about global warming from professors who have a particular interest in this issue. Jake tried to interview Nicholas Drapela, who is known for his outspoken opinions on how and why global warming does not exist, however unfortunately this did not work out. Hannah spoke to Steve Cook, who confirmed that global warming is a problem that we must address. This feedback provided us with an interesting perspective on the issue in its entirety.

Finally, we decided that it was important to collaborate the research that we found individually to create a ‘how to’ guide on conserving the environment and saving energy. We hope you enjoy our presentation and gain as much from the information we have provided you as we have!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Introducing members of the Green Team and how they have contributed to this project:
Lindsey Pierce:
My name is Lindsey Pierce and I am 21. I transferred from Linfield College to Oregon
State University after one year. This is my second year studying New Media Communications at OSU. My focus is on video production. I grew up in Tualatin, Ore. with my parents, older sister, and younger brother.

How I came up with my story:
I was researching on the Oregon State University Web site to find environmental clubs. The most interesting one that I found was the Solar Vehicle Team. The team was a good example of students making positive choices to help the future of the environment, which is the topic of our project. This type of club also seemed to lend itself to a visual medium, so I decided to make a documentary about the club.

Hannah Boekemann:
My name is Hannah Boekemann and I am a senior in New Media and Communications. I am 21 years old and I am currently studying at OSU on a six-month exchange program. I am from Sydney, Australia and I will be finishing my journalism degree at Charles Sturt University at the end of this year. I have always had an interest in writing and the communications industry and this Writing for the Media Professional class has enabled me to explore my passion even further.

I feel that my strength is in writing and so I have aimed to work on my writing and reporting skills throughout this group project. However, I did enjoy learning about how to use the camera equipment as well as uploading video footage onto the computer. I chose to work with the green team because I know very little about global warming and how it will effect our future. Speaking to students from the solar vehicle team as well as a professor in geosciences has certainly improved my knowledge and understanding of this topic. Whilst we have chosen to speak to a number of different people, I interviewed Steve Cook in order to find out his opinion on global warming as well as to find out some ways that we can begin to combat global warming before it’s too late. I therefore used the information that Cook provided me with to write a mini profile story on him and the truth about the current global climate. I also asked him some tips on how to save energy and conserve the environment. I also did some research on global warming so that I could form a ‘how to’ guide on ways that we can all save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Jake Lowden:                                                                                                          My name is Jake Lowden; I am a New Media Communications option.  I am finishing my third year at Oregon State University.  I am twenty-one years old and I have lived in Oregon City, Oregon my entire life.  I am most interested in the video production part of the New Media spectrum.  In this project I contributed in the filming of the video documentary about the Solar Car Club.

Coming into this project I was sort of skeptic of Global Warming in regards to whether it is true or not.  After listening to many of the members of the Solar Car Club express their opinions, I found that even if Global Warming is only a theory, it can’t hurt to make the necessary positive steps to fight Global Warming and improve the environment.

Going Green

After pitching ideas to Brass Media employees our group began to connect our ideas and figure out somewhat of a definite plan.  After seeing the Brass Media Show, I think it inspired the Going Green Group to do a video segment, and gave us a  lot of ideas of how we will go about doing our video segment. 

Reader Response

The Future (We Hope) of Journalism (full text)

 

            This article was interesting but very hard for me to follow at first.  The whole alien metaphor threw me off but I began to realize what he was referring to later on in the article.  This article brings up good questions referring to digital media.  I think that NewsTrust.net is a very solid step in establishing credible digital media.  The financial part of it is still up in the air.  With digital media becoming more dominant news distributors will have to get more creative in how they are going to gain revenue.

Reader Response

NewsTrust.net

This is a very cool website in the fact that it is a lot like our class blog.  This website reminds me of when Theresa Hogue mentioned if journalism switched to blogging there would be a huge loss.  In this case I do not see the loss.  The individuals organizing and providing this information are all very credible.  I think when credibility is lost then that’s when journalism will experience a huge loss.

 

Beat Journal

 

All three potential Presidents of the U.S. have put major focus on Global Warming.  The Oregonian has posted an article titled “McCain joins Democrats on climate issue.”  In this article it states that McCain’s steps toward slowing Global warming a less aggressive than his potential presidential opponents.  But his main plan is to reduce emissions.  In delivering his speech about this plan he neglected to mention many other negative results of reducing emissions such as the cost of electricity and natural gas.

            I think this was an interesting story to publish, because it is very biased in the fact that the whole basis of the story is about a theory that is not fully proven factual.  The way the story is written it makes the reader think that Global Warming is a fact. 

            NPR covered the same story on npr.org. in which they did a much better job of covering the story.  They highlighted the speech McCain performed in Portland Oregon, and then broke it down in to sub-categories in which McCain claims he will do to slow Global Warming.

Reader Response

Elizabeth Edwards Essay

I agreed with Mrs. Edwards in many aspects of this piece. I think that the Democratic primaries are a huge deal because the elected candidate will make U.S. history. But because of this other political figures are not being covered, and if they are being covered these types of articles are not making front page headlines and getting the same amount of hype as the Clinton or Obama articles.

Reader Response

In Zimbabwe Jail: A Reporter’s Ordeal

This was a very interesting article. When Theresa Hogue visited us she said “At heart you have to be a storyteller.” This is exactly what this writer did, I think this is the main reason it was so interesting and easy to follow.

This article also made me think how good we have it. We have been talking about blogging and how it gives unaccredited individuals the chance to practice journalism. In Zimbabwe that is what they were arrested for even though it was not even a law.

Beat Journal 3

Results of Hazing

I found an article in the Oregonian, titled; “Molalla teammates get more jail for assault”. This article referred to five former teammates of the Molalla High School basketball team. They were charged with assault for hazing another teammate while they were at an away game in Sisters, Oregon. This caused much humility for the victim to the extent that he had to switch to a private school.

The actual acts the convicted players committed are listed in the article and they reflect very negatively on the convicted players. The writer Jessica Bruder, does a very good job in stating the facts in a way that the story puts majority of its attention on the convicted players, and analyzing their penalties that they will serve. She did this in a way where it took the heat off the already embarrassed victim. She also does not reveal the victims identity.

Then I researched the topic on KTVZ.com which is the local news in Central Oregon. This article was a little different than the Oregonian article. In this article it explained the charges and penalties of the players, but it also included some direct quotes from the players, which in result gave the convicted players some mercy. With quotes such as this one, “I thought they were just getting pantsed – they were all getting pantsed, not just the victim” the former player said. This quote makes the convicted players seem like the crime they committed was more harmless than it actually was.

After researching more I found that Molalla High School had a news blog on wordpress, just like us! These blogs were much more thorough and seemed to have much more information than the individual news reports. I feel this is because of two reasons, one they are the local news and probably receive more information, more often. The other reason is because it is a blog, they are able to read all the major articles on this subject and combine all the information they find into their entrees in their blog. Very similar to how we are doing are beat journals in this class.

Theresa Hogue

Theresa Hogue feature reporter and podcast editor of the Gazette Times visits Oregon State University’s New Media Communication’s Writing for the media class on Tuesday April 15, 2008. Theresa Hogue is a Portland State graduate and has worked at the Forest Grove News Times, The Daily Vanguard, and the Sandy Post before she started working for the Gazette Times in July of 2000. Along with her position Hogue also has a blog titled Reality Bytes. In Hogue’s visit the main topic of discussion was journalism. She expanded on her job in the journalism world, but the more emphasized topic was how journalism has evolved in the past years with the increase in technology. The even bigger question was where will technology take journalism, and will it be a positive change? At first Hogue began to talk about journalism in general, and gave the students a basic explanation of journalism by referring to some of her real-life experiences. Eventually Hogue in a short statement summed up what is needed of a reporter in the journalism business, and she stated, “At heart you’re a storyteller.” Then the topic of discussion ventured on to new technologies in journalism that Hogue has dealt with and has learned to utilize. The first technology is podcasting. Hogue introduced podcasting to the Gazette Times within the last two years. Hogue states, “Podcasting is good for putting music and interviews online.” With Hogue’s ambition to use this technology Lee Enterprises, the owner of the Gazette Times invited her to attend their course held in Iowa called Online University. This is a program that teaches employees of Lee Enterprises technological skills so that the newspapers they work for can evolve hand in hand with the advances in technology. The other technological advance that was emphasized was blogging. Blogging is becoming a very popular tool used on the internet today. Anyone with internet access can operate their own blog. Blogs are opinionated pieces of writing placed on the internet. They are a form of journalism, but they cannot be held entirely credible. In talking about blogs the conversation of what will happen to the newspaper when there are technological advances such as blogging developing. In highlight of this topic Hogue states, “Bloggers cannot replace journalism, if it does there would be a huge loss.” This “huge loss” can be anything from credibility to financial loss. The fact that Theresa Hogue is reporter, where her reputation is very important in establishing her credibility, and that she also has blog in which she states her personal opinion, became a controversial topic. Twenty-two year old Matt Warden stated, “I thought it was really cool how she is able to balance out the whole blogging situation, as long as she separates the two making a clear distinction.” In contrast, twenty-four year old student Sarah Foster stated, “Yes the blog is interesting, but it also puts her credibility as a reporter in danger by letting her opinions and biases available to the public.” The event coordinator Pamela Cytrynbaum had similar reaction when referring to the blogging situation, she stated, “It makes me nervous, that she has a forum to express opinions, because I think that can come back and bite you.” It was quite a privilege for Oregon State University’s writing for the media class to be able to hear the thoughts of a professional in the industry. When event coordinator Pamela Cytrynbaum was asked why did you chose Theresa Hogue to come speak to this class she claimed to be a fan of Theresa Hogue’s stories and stated “She is a flexible, thoughtful reporter the industry demands.”

Reader Response

Average person spends more time using media than anything else

The broad idea of this article was of no surprise at all. It was some of the little details that interested me most. For example people ages 18-24 spend the second least amount of time on the internet. I would have thought the total opposite, that the youngest adults so caught up in pop culture would be using the internet the most.
I could understand that television is the most used medium in media. I think it is the most used medium because it is the most available medium. I think in the near future the internet will surpass the television. I think that the internet will over take most of the mediums in media and be almost the primary medium, and definitely the most powerful medium. It will replace newspapers and magazines, eventually it will replace television as well.