Internet videos: Not just for college students anymore

by Peter Merchlewitz

It seems that being a news reporter just isn't enough anymore. According to Beet TV, the Wall Street Journal is now training their new employees to not only edit, but also produce videos for their online version of the paper. As of June 2008, the Wall Street Journal has trained 185 print journalists to produce such videos.

These acts of journalism in the Internet Age just further emphasizes the importance of multi-platform journalists being able to produce news through different mediums.

I can't help but give kudos to the Communications Department at Simpson for having the hindsight to update their curriculum in the direction of new journalism abilities, thus helping students gain more experience to make them become more desirable when looking for a career in news writing in the real world.

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Media Madness

By: Kelsey Knutson

A recent Fox News article reported that most of the McCain coverage in this election has been negative.

The report showed that 57% of the media coverage of McCain is negative while only 29% of the media coverage for Obama is negative. Is this right? Or does it actually matter?

Statistics like these lead people to believe that certain media groups are biased one way or another to a candidate. Especially with 24-hour news coverage of the candidates and their campaigns we begin to see opinion and "not so objective" viewpoints coming into news reports. However, you get different bias' with different media outlets and stations.

For example, Fox News is considered "more conservative" where as CNN is considered "more liberal." Does this actually matter?

I say no. I say the media plays a large role in how people view candidates; however, I also feel as those people who actually care enough to watch certain news channels to listen to what is going on in the campaign are also people who know what bias' they are hearing. 

People already think what they think and know what they know. Which channel or station they choose to watch (that has which ever bias it has) just reinforces already existing views. 

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Halloween scare

By: Kayla Miller

I was clicking on practically every link on the Des Moines Register Web site (once again) when I came across a link that I had to blog about.

Well let me ask this. What or who would you want to be for Halloween this year? A cowgirl? A pumpkin? Heck no, you want to dress up as a superhero, right? I can tell you are dying to be either a Hillary Clinton or Sara Palin superhero! Yeah, I could say that's not really what I was thinking either.

I went to search out the new and funny Halloween costumes, and I can most definitely say I ran across a "funny". I would have never thought of dressing up as a politician.

How is this news? Well, people love to see different, new, and funny things. People like me do anyway. Crazy costumes of lady politicians will make the news considering it is election year.

All I got to say to the ladies (or men-- if you choose) is if you choose to be Palin, be sure to wink and most definitely wear those glasses.

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Tweeting Journalists

By: Callie McBroom

Journalists now have a new tool to use in their reporting. Twitter. This is a rapidly growing social media service that provides a way to stay connected and communicate with others quickly and frequently.

One website describes the twitter experience as "an ongoing Headline News version of what’s happening in the minds and worlds of people you know or find interesting." This can be good for helping journalists engage personally with people and spreading news quickly.

Amy Gahran suggests using twitter on beats. She says, "Beat reporters can use Twitter on an ongoing basis to give their communities a window into, and opportunity to assist with, reporting projects -- as well as spread the word about their work in order to drive online traffic and spur public discussion."

Twitter can also be very useful when combined with blogging. Which as we know as become very important to the news industry. Maybe Twitter can add to this and help out the industry even more.

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Kids vote for Obama

By: Alex Jones

Nickelodeon, a popular television station for children held an election recently that only kids can get involved with.

Accessing Nickelodeon's Web site kids are able to vote for their pick in president. This year over 2.2 million viewers voted. Naming Barack Obama as the kids' choice for president.

Nickelodeon has held this mach-election for kids every election year since 1988. Viewers have picked the next president of the United States correctly 4:5 times. 

Kids were able to vote online from October 12-20th. The network sees the mach-election as a chance to get kids involved and excited about the voting process. More viewers turned up this year to vote than ever before.  

This process is incredibly important for kids. They are able to get involved, get informed and therefore are more aware of the voting process when they are old enough to vote. 

This method also keeps the younger generations who aren't yet old enough to vote, interested. Obviously it's working, check out the voting numbers!   

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Where do these rumors come from?

By: Gabe Gilson

Earlier this week, my favorite football team, the San Francisco 49ers, fired their head coach Mike Nolan. The firing was not something that anybody did not see coming as the 49ers slipped to 2-5 and have been having a lot of problems offensively.

Since the firing, Mike Singletary has been named the interim coach, changing his role from the team’s assistant coach. Singletary is a good short-term fix but everybody in the media knows that he will be just that and will most likely not be the head coach at the end of the season.

Because of this, the rumor mill all over the NFL and college football is lighting up. Many people try and speculate who will be the next coach based on what makes sense. One man that makes sense to fill this void is another Mike, Mike Holmgren (side note: the NFL is filled with coaches who are named Mike. It is really odd how many there are named Mike) Of course, Holmgren says he will stay away from football next year and does not want to coach for awhile.

Another man that would be a good fit according to those in the media is current USC head coach and former NFL head coach Pete Carroll. Bad thing for the 49ers, Carroll will decline to comment on the coaching situation. This basically means he knows he is the head of a college football dynasty and will not leave there anytime soon.

Here is how easy I think it is to start a rumor like this. Bill Cowher, who is a former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, might be the next 49ers head coach. He has been out of the league for a couple years, wants to coach again, and could possibly be a good fit.

The rumor mill in the NFL is worse than any other professional sport just because of situations like this. In all likelihood, Singletary might be the coach of the 49ers next year. Is he the best fit? 49ers fans may not think so. The media might not think so but, maybe instead of formulating opinions on who the next coach might be, they could just talk about how poor my team is.

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