By: Katie Schaefer
I'm not talking about your facebook or how you feel for the day, but I'm talking about your social or celebrity status. Being a celebrity or someone with a higher status, can get you out of things that most regular people can't.
How many times has Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears hit other cars or were out in the clubs underage? Just because of who they are, gets them out of trouble.
Kobe Bryant, a LA Lakers basketball player, was found innocent of rape because he is really rich and he paid the girl off. Well I guess I shouldn't say he paid the girl off because that was never disclosed, but it's an educated guess. Two former University of Iowa football players are not as lucky as Bryant was, though.
The football players have pleaded not guilty on the account of sexual assault. Due to the fact that the University has flaws in the way they handled the case, the players may get off anyways. The school didn't protect the alleged victim from people saying things to her about what happened that night, so the school is in a lot of trouble for that.
Another thing is that everyone has a right to a fair and speedy trial, so why has this trial taking over a year to take place? I realize some trials take a long time, but this one should have taken place by now. It happened in October of last year.
It's mostly just celebrities that we find getting off for things that most people get in a lot of trouble for. Being in Iowa, though, a good athlete at the University of Iowa is enough to keep you out of trouble sometimes.
By: Callie McBroom
The New York Times TV Decoder is reporting that MTV has cancelled the once very popular show "Total Request Live." The top-ten countdown for music videos, has been on the air for ten years now. Dave Sirulnick, the executive producer of TRL told the Associated Press that it feels like the right time to pause in order to celebrate and reward the last ten years.
"TRL" peaked just a year after it debuted with 757,000 people viewing the show daily, according to Nielson ratings. Ever since, the show has been losing ground slowly. MTV claims that the show is not permanently eliminated but just taking a breather.
Many current famous celerities got their first exposure on "TRL." Now, the television show is hoping that the same celebrities that helped make TRL a hit will come back for the final 2-hour special. The last show will air in November.
By: Allison McNeal
Free viewing of online news organizations may soon become non-existent to the public.
The Financial Times recently introduced a new registration and subscription model to their Web site for daily viewers. This new method is trying to show that the media is not going to be free, like it has been in the past.
The Internet has been struggling to keep up with other media organizations because these companies have subscribers and funding from large corporations. With more and more large companies buying advertisements on media programs, the Internet is falling behind and has little, if any, money to support itself.
Since 2005, many Web sites have tried to turn their slump around and impliment a plan of charging customers. According to webmarketinggroup.co.uk, a survey conducted by "the UK Association of Online Publishers, showed that 63% of their members charge for online magazine content, up 5% from 2004".
Even though this survey was taken in England, it shows how the Internet is slowly gaining subscribers.
Advertising director, Rob Grimshaw, said that even though the Financial Times has more free subscribers than paying subscribers, revenue has grown from these non-paying users. Also, private corporations have also started helping out with the production of this new tactic.
This poses an interesting problem: How will these online media sources compete with other large corporations that lay a heavy hand on society?
Online newspapers and media sources will have to get out the word and keep pursuing other larger companies or privately owned corporations to help with the subscription process. Since there are many smaller corporations located around the world, they could influence these Web sites and give them a huge boost.
Individuals need to take this new subscription seriously and know that if they want to receive information online, they will need to start subscribing or paying to use these sites. Many people might not have a problem with subscribing to online media sites, especially if they do not subscribe to an actual newspaper.
With technology increasing each day, the general public will need to decide if online subscriptions will start to catch on or if they will get lost in cyberspace.
By Austin Bates
A lot of debate rages constantly about whether newspapers have any place in the future. Some think they do, but in more limited form. Others think they may have little to no future at all. I have to believe they will survive.
Without a doubt, newspapers will change how they work, how they're distributed, how they're read, how they're formatted, and how popular they might be. But I do not believe that those neatly bundled collections of folded together recycled paper will go the way of the dinosaur. News outlets that own print newspapers will have some serious changes to make, but doing away with newspapers altogether may be too extreme, and end up alienating a lot of readers.
I am the kind of person that will ALWAYS enjoy the feel of a paper book in their hands much more than sitting stiffly in a mildly uncomfortable chair while I strain my eyes into a too bright monitor and have to wade through a miasma of links, information tags, and scroll bars in order to read the same thing. Besides, it's not like you can take a computer, even a laptop, everywhere you could a book. Same goes with newspapers; I think they're easier and more enjoyable to read.
I'll admit, I read most of my daily news online, mostly from MSN. However, I get my news from there when I'm in a hurry or doing something else and something just catches my eye. When I'm trying to relax, and have time to do so, though, I enjoy opening a newspaper and casually scanning through the pages for interesting pieces of information.
Now, of course, many of newspapers's most faithful readers will be older generations, especially those that have yet to figure out how a computer mouse works, and, objectively, it is wise to worry less about them than the future generation, where your money will be coming from. But losing print newspapers altogether could still end up costing newspapers a good chunk of change and might not even solve all their problems anyway.
I believe that in the future, the print newspaper will become more of an elective novelty type item, more like a novel, than a needed source of news. More likely, newspapers will become weeklies only, serving to wrap up, in detail, the major stories and events of the week on Sunday, the source of most revenue for print papers. For daily news, readers will know to turn to the Internet, and this will most likely be automated through small fee subscriptions that automatically send the daily issue of the newspaper to your inbox every morning.
Newsprint has a long way to go before it ever really dies, and I do not believe that day is anytime soon.
By: Kathryn Lisk
While the presidential polls between candidates have leveled out since the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin is still attracting quite a bit of media attention.
With so many controversial issues surrounding Gov. Palin, including her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, her 5-month-old, disabled son, and the fact that she is a woman who will be on the final presidential ballot, the media is still having a field day.
It could be that Americans still don't know enough about Palin, since she was an unexpected vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party. Or it could be that she has more baggage than Joe Biden does. Regardless, everywhere I look, whether it's on newspaper Web sites, magazine covers, or blog sites for my BNR entry, Sarah Palin dominates.
Palin is mentioned in a story in The New York Times because she drew 4.9 million people to one of Fox News' shows on Wednesday night.
The Huffington Post covered a story about how an unknown group hacked into her Yahoo e-mail account and posted her personal e-mails onto Wikipedia.
Finally, all three newspaper Web sites I checked, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Des Moines Register, each have a story involving Palin on their home page.
As someone who is very interested and informed in politics, I have been equally intrigued by Sarah Palin. It's important to know what she stands for and her political experience.
But I've hit my limit. I know more about Palin than I need to and the media needs a new story.
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