Social media nearing election day

Let me be perfectly clear. I love most things about politics. Political ads, rallies and elections just make me warm and fuzzy inside. Along with politics, I really do consider myself a big fan of social media. Particularly Twitter. And with The New Hampshire opting to wait a full day to make sure it can have as much action-packed election coverage in one night, I am really excited to see the world of social media and the world of politics collide in a way that we have never seen before.
Now we have already seen that this election has been shaped by the influence of social media. The coverage of the debates through social media hit a level I don't recall ever really seeing back in '04 or '08, the two elections I remember most fondly. But just what will we see when it comes time to vote. What influence will social media have on the ultimate decision? Especially with this to be a close race, what will we see from social media when things come right down to the wire? It is something that I am excited to see, and look forward to seeing how this all unfolds as I sit at my desk and follow the election with Twitter.

Why the news can be overrated.

Since I am still having Hurricane Sandy – also known as SuperStorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Sandy – I figured it would be interesting to note exactly how I got my news during the lead up to the hurricane’s arrival.

For the most part, I did not get my news relating to Hurricane Sandy from anything traditional, such as newspapers, radios or television, but I also did not get any of my news from Twitter or any other form of websites. I got my news from good ol’ fashion word of mouth, as well as the University of New Hampshire.

Now initially I was disappointed by my lack of information relating to Hurricane Sandy during the first few days, after all as a journalism major I feel as if I should know a lot more about the hurricane than your average citizen, but at the same time this method of gathering information was helpful for me to cope with the storm. What I mean by this is that I, a 19-year old boy who moved from Iowa due to his fear of tornadoes, absolutely despise severe weather. So the more information I know, the more freaked out I get.

So not knowing what was fully going on was actually reassuring to me. It helped me realize that, for different people, not knowing the news at all times is actually perfectly acceptable. To think that everybody needs to be fully aware of what is going on everywhere is just implausible, and would cause some to become a little more nervous, at least in some situations.

The New Hampshire: Hurricane Sandy Edition

So this past weekend presented one of the biggest challenges I have ever experienced. I am, of course, referring to putting together today’s – October 30, 2012 in case you are unaware – edition of The New Hampshire with Hurricane Sandy looming in the distance. It was a frighten experience to say the least, as the idea of a major storm slowly progressing towards Durham while my counterparts and I were racing to gather stories and lay out the pages before we lost power and before the staff in the MUB kicked us out of the building. It was a real test, to say the least, and it helped me – at least in my mind – as an editor as my co-sports editor and I were tested to make sure that we produced I high quality product as fast as we possibly could.

Well I am proud to say that we were able to get it all done – in less than four hours, which was even more exciting – and that the paper turned out alright considering the circumstances. I just hope those who pick up Tuesday’s paper appreciates the amount of effort put in to producing something like that in that sort of situation as it truly was a major challenge.

ENGL 621: Story Assignment

Taxpayers may be seeing an increase in their taxes soon, as the Portsmouth School Board proposed a change in policy that would require students with disciplinary problems to return to school for a Saturday session.

The issue came up at the School Board’s meeting Monday evening, when board member Time Stele made a motion to approve this new policy.

With this change in policy, as Steele proposed it, the session would run from 8 a.m. until noon several weekends throughout the year for students. In order to fund this change, Steele estimates that an additional allocation of about $3,000 per year would be required to staff the session.

Immediately debate rose at the meeting, with some parents being concerned that a new session would only lead to higher taxpayers and additional hassle for parents on the weekends.

“I work six days a week – including Saturday morning – and it’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday,” Peggy Bacon, a parent who objected to the proposal, said. “Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well? Why do we need to change?”

According to Steele, the School Board has proposed this new disciplinary measure with in an effort to reduce the number of in-house suspensions.

Under the district’s current policy, in-house suspensions are given automatically to students caught smoking inside or outside of Portsmouth High School. In 1995, the number of students who received these in-house suspensions – which require students to spend an entire school day away from classes under the student of a faculty member – was 154.

Currently students are not allowed to make up any of the class work they have missed during their in-house suspensions, and under the proposed change students would not miss any class time.

“I know this isn’t good news for parents, but I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules,” Steele said in reference to parents concerns.

Steele was not alone in viewing this policy change as something the school district needed. Local resident Bob Farley said he was in favor of the change, and hoped that this effort would get parents to take responsibility for the actions of their students.

“Parents can whine all they want about this, but maybe it’s time for parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids,” Farley said. “That’s the whole problem – parents aren’t teaching their kids any discipline, so the kids have no respect for rules. Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start to wise up.”

Five students from Portsmouth High School attended and meeting and addressed concern about the proposed policy. One issue they felt still stood out was the actual enforcement of the policy.

“I think [the proposed policy is] just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week,” Lisa Gallagher, a senior at Portsmouth High School, said. “Anyway, what if someone skips the session? What are they going to do, make them stay all weekend?”

Steele explained that, in that situation where a student skips a Saturday session, “he or she would not be allowed to return to school until the detention has been served.”

Steele also noted that one of the primary reasons for this proposed policy change is deter students from smoking at school.

“I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms,” Steele said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one.”

After about 30 minutes of discussion, the board voted 5-3, with one member abstaining, to table the issue until its next meeting on March 7. At that time Steele was instructed to return to the board with figures on in-school detentions that have taken place so far this year.

Even with the delayed until further notice, this has certainly shown to be a polarizing issue for parents and students.

“I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it – in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays,” Peggy Bacon said.

A slight clarification.

Allow me to clarify a few things. I feel over the past couple of blog posts I may have – and that is me putting it lightly – been harsh in regards to the idea of inclusive with my news consumption. I have championed the idea of niche news, mostly to distract from the fact that I am really just an uninformed college aged student who simply wishes he had the time to sit down with an issue of The Boston Globe or any other newspaper for that matter and just read.

In fact that is something I have made an effort to try and do at least once per week. With time permitting I attempt to read an issue of any kind of newspaper I can get my hands on, such as The Wall Street Journal for instance and try and catch up on what is going on around in the world. Or, if that is not at all possible for some reason, I try my very best to sit down and sift through various news websites – a find it hard to just stick to one – and consume as much news as possible.

I hope that clears things up a bit, and stops me from coming off as some sort of exclusive individual who only reads what he wants to read. With the rise of Twitter, it has just become the norm for me to pick what I feel is most relevant to me at any giving point in time.

What is going on?: Obama's gap begins to grow.

I’ll admit it, I have not done a whole lot to change the way I consume news. And to be frank, I simply don’t have adequate time to do it any other way. I have gotten into a routine, if you will, of scavenging through my Twitter feed a couple of times a day and picking out the news stories that I feel are most pertinent to me and my little world and I have no problem with that.

Because even if I may not grab onto everything that one particular individual finds newsworthy – such as, for instance, the state politics and other happenings of a state like Massachusetts or the death of a baby panda – I still feel that I have a relatively solid grasp as to what is going on in the United States at this particular point in time.

I just tend to specialize is all.

For instance, I know from all sorts of reports that have popped up on my Twitter feed – examples being The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and CNN just to name a few – I have been informed that the gap between President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney continues  to widen in favor of the incumbent. At the same time, I am also aware that some conservatives are skeptical of the polling that has come out showing Obama having significant leads in crucial swing states.

This is what I mean by specialization, and I feel as if that is perfectly acceptable of me as a journalist.