InDesign, my friend

Design. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And, personally, one of my favorite parts of working for The New Hampshire. I say this because, as I type this, I just wrapped up designing all three pages for the sports section within Nov. 27’s issue of TNH. It was a pain, but also one of my favorite parts of my evening. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Why do I love designing so much? Well first off there is the challenge of trying to either a) get all of your content to fit on a page, while simultaneously making it look good or b) trying to bullsh*t your way into having a full three pages even when your content is screaming for you to just relax.

Then, of course, there is the aspect of trying to enhance the rest of your content. It is amazing what a picture, or a graphic can do to draw the eye’s attention to a story over a subpar headline.

Just a few tid bits though, to point out after yet another successful edition of The New Hampshire.

Recording troubles

So, according to an article published by the online publication Tech President, a BBC reporter in Uzbekistan caused a stirred after secretly recording an interview using her iPhone. Now, I am not about to get into the little tiny details of this story, but if that is what you are looking for feel free to take a gander, but instead I would want to focus on what has caused the entire ruckus in the first place.

Technology is constantly evolving, and more and more journalists are finding that it is an integral part of their work. I know, as an editor and reporter for The New Hampshire, that I utilize a wide variety of technology to do various aspects of my job. Part of that is recording, which I often use a voice recorder for the job. But recently I realized that I could download an application on my cell phone and use that instead.

This is all fine and dandy in my line of work, as you won’t ever see me be interviewing people who aren’t aware or would object to me recording them. But this recent incident is just another reason to remind journalists that they need to be wary about what they are doing out their in the field. Because in certain areas, you couldn’t get away with sneaking a recording, like New Hampshire for instance where you can get into some legal trouble if you record somebody without their consent.

This could cause some significant problems in a more professional setting as well, as I could imagine that certain publications would not take to kindly when a lawsuit comes there way.

Just something to be aware of, of course, as we wind down the semester here at the University of New Hampshire.

Remember to be thankful...

Thanksgiving break for out-of-state college students is, for the most part, a drag. Especially when the home state requires one to drive a solid 22 hours, or participate in two hours of air travel – which we all know actually means like five to seven hours of travel time, just because you have to deal with the possibility of delays and, of course security – just so you can be home for a few days.

Because then, when you crunch all the numbers and look at the cost, you realize that a four-day vacation could cost thousands of dollars.            

Makes for quite the happy holiday, right? Well, not exactly. ‘Cause rather than fork out my entire life-savings to see mom and dad for a few days, I played the role of the orphaned college student and crashed on an air mattress for a few nights at a friend’s house during this most recent long weekend.

Now I have no intention of complaining, my hosts were extremely kind to me over those few days and I could never thank them enough for having me. The only gripe I may have is due to a stiff back, which came about after sleeping on a slowly deflating air mattress for four nights.

All I want to do, with this post, is to remember to be thankful for being within relatively close proximity to your friends and family. While I am fully aware that it was my choice to attend UNH, so thus I have no valid excuse for whining, I always like to remind people to be thankful for their friends and family. Because for out-of-state students, and especially out-of-state students, such as myself who are way to far away from home to even fathom making the trek back, getting to see our family is a luxury that only comes a few times a year.

The Divided States of America

Easily one of my favorite fallouts from the 2012 presidential campaign has been this sudden desire from a small group of individuals in over thirty states who want their states to secede from the United States of America.

In one of the most ridiculous stories of the year, approximately 36 states have seen petitions been started to try and politely ask President Barack Obama if they can become their own separate nation. All that is required of these citizens is that they acquire 25,000 signatures – which, if you think about it, is an exceptionally small number to accumulate considering how large most states are these days – over the span of 30 days.

Obviously I have a few problems with this whole idea. First and foremost, the idea that people would be so disturbed over the election results that they would want them and those who live in the same state as them to secede from the union. I mean I can understand if you no longer want to be subject to the federal government’s rules and regulations, but to force other people to share your viewpoint is just complete short-sighted and lacks a logical basis.

Then of course there is the simple matter that the president reviews these petitions, and then he ultimately decides upon what he wants to do with them. Does anybody signing these petitions really think President Obama is going to be known as the president who lost states during his administration? I mean come on people, where is your common sense.

Now of course this is a fun little story that people like me can scoff at, but it does address a larger concern for the overall state of the United States of America. With this level of discontent within the union, how long until we see our nation plunge into an ideological civil war? My guess, give it 15-20 years. The wedge this election seems to have made within our nation, backed by the Tea Party movement and the overall extremism push that seems to be growing on the right (and, on occasion, the left as well) is something we as citizens need to be conscious of.

‘Cause if we are not, these petitions may lead to something far more serious.

Audiovisual experience

One part of the assignment I recently turned in for Newswriting required me to edit some video together in order to make a short little video to supplement the small bit of writing my group wrote up. It was an exercise that was supposed to resemble something a little more realistic to what would be asked of us, as journalists, in a modern newsroom.

Well I can certainly say that my first venture into video editing – while not exactly groundbreaking or revolutionary – was, overall, enjoyable. I got to try something that I do not think I would have ever gotten to do before and that is something that I find very exciting.

Hopefully this will not be my last audiovisual endeavor of my collegiate career. With the resources available to me here at the University of New Hampshire, I think it would be a shame to waste them on just one sub-minute video.

Attached is the video, in all of its brief glory. A brief synopsis of what the story was about: after a small poll of several students around UNH, my classmates and I found that a decent amount of first-time voters went into the experience went into the polls uninformed. The video captures that.

Elmo's World

In one of the most bizarre yet frightening stories over the last 36-hours or so regards world-renowned puppeteer Kevin Clash. Clash, who is most known as Elmo from Sesame Street, was recently accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor. This was shocking enough for me as a fan of Clash, as he was the subject of an excellent documentary that I watched regarding his life entitled Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, but what added an interesting twist to this whole story was how not very long after these allegations were made against Clash they were instantly recanted.

More detail on the subject can be found at an excellent blog post from The New York Times, but what I want to focus on is how this bit of news seemed to have been shoved to the wayside. This is somewhat understandable, seeing as how we just finished up a presidential election last week and then there was the latest developments regarding the CIA official who resigned. Lest we forget all of those American citizens who opted to secede from the union rather than endure another four more years of President Obama. But think about this for one second... one of the most iconic figure's in children's television, Elmo, was undergoing a massive scandal and it almost seemed as if nobody cared. Perhaps this had something to do with the possibility that nobody wanted to believe this, but that still does not hide the fact that this should have been considered a bigger issue.

It just causes me to wonder what exactly we prioritize as a nation. Are we more concerned with the latest sex scandal, or what our children are watching every morning? I'm happy for Clash that these allegations were recanted, and I hope his name gets cleared. But it is something that I think we should ask ourselves moving forward, something we should have in the back of our conscience.

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.