The Daily Show rocks

Young people your age are watching Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" instead of traditional network news anchors. Duh. Here's a story about this trend in the United States. But you already knew this, didn't you? The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/gail_shister/20070513_Young_adults_eschew_traditional_nightly_news_for__quot_The_Daily_Show__quot_.html

Do a news piece for Current, will ya?

Viewer Created Content

We discussed this in class. Here are video instructions from the Current site via News U:
http://access.newsu.org/index.php?v=2&id=166

Marketing the Berlin baby polar bear

Hundreds of people come to see this little guy every day at the Berlin zoo. Now it's time to cash in.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=116533

Irish Public Service announcement: Dangers of cars, speed

From Ireland's Road Safety Authority and Northern Ireland's Department of Environment; watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZOODBmM2Zc

NYT reports on TV exercise bike for kids

In TV Games, Preschoolers Learn as They Pedal
By WARREN BUCKLEITNER
Game controllers come in many forms — so why not an exercise bike? The Smart Cycle from Fisher-Price is a child-size stationary bicycle that hooks up to a TV. The idea is to get your preschooler off the floor and pedaling to drive over letters on the screen while avoiding potholes.
Once the bike is assembled — four D batteries are required — it is plugged into the audio and video inputs on a TV. A child can steer down a virtual street, matching letters, numbers or shapes, or steering into a pit stop to play one of six early learning games with the onboard joystick. One game, called Number Fields, is like whack-a-mole with numerals, while Letter Creek involves zapping letters as they flow down a stream, spelling out words.
The bike will be available this summer for $100 from major toy retailers. Additional software cartridges ($20) will feature Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob, Hot Wheels and Barbie.
While the Smart Cycle’s music and graphics are quite simple compared with a typical computer game, any toy that can blend TV with mental and physical education can only be a good thing. Perhaps there will be a version for grown-ups. (April 26, 2007)

Student tells UNC administration to come clean about use of mug shots

We discussed this topic in class, and a student has written about the use of mug shots of those not welcome on campus in the UNC newspaper, The Mirror: http://media.www.uncmirror.com/media/storage/paper972/news/2007/05/02/Editorials/Unc-Administration.Needs.To.Come.Clean-2891539.shtml?reffeature=textemailedition

Bush 'bans CD' not true

Check out this publicity stunt printed in an English-language Swedish newspaper. This staff fell for the fake press, would you?
http://www.thelocal.se/6625/20070307/

Rats at restaurants don't hurt chains' profits

See the New York Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/business/worldbusiness/02yum.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
Here are the first paragraphs:
''Despite back-to-back public relations disasters — first an E. coli outbreak at its Taco Bell franchise, and then a widely publicized rat infestation at one of its restaurants in New York City — Yum Brands yesterday reported strong first-quarter earnings, as surging overseas sales and growth offset reduced business in the United States.
The restaurant chain, which operates KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, said that net income increased 14 percent in the first quarter, to $194 million, led by a 31 percent increase in operating profit in the China division and a 25 percent increase in other overseas markets.
In the United States, the story was different. Operating profit at the company’s domestic restaurants declined by 11 percent in the quarter as company officials battled to restore consumer confidence. At Taco Bell, where both the E. coli and rat incidents occurred, same-store sales declined by 11 percent.''

Jon Stewart talks about the 'blame game' and Virginia Tech

See the video clip from his show last week: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml

GodTube: A video site for the right wing

Media Guardian has the details at http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/comment/0,,2068695,00.html
Here is a quick overview from the article:
''GodTube ("Broadcast Him") is part of the conservative Christian counterweb that now runs in tandem with the wider online world: Conservapedia and Creationwiki.org look just like Wikipedia but are free from the unpleasant left- liberal bias that tends to accompany the truth. There's even a "Christian MySpace Alternative" called DittyTalk (the explanation for the name is longwinded and unconvincing - surely it's designed to ensnare surfers who type "dirtytalk" too quickly?). Here, everyone who signs up gets at least one friend: Jesus.''

University of Montenegro students, faculty visit Dubrovnik

Obavijest I Poziv Studentima!

Students and faculty from Monte Negro and Croatia have created a partnership for exchanges on topics in the media. Above are photos of University of Dubrovnik students at the April 2007 conference in Croatia. This was the first time students from Monte Negro visited Croatia; last May (2006) students from Croatia visited the Monte Negro university. Topics discussed and presented in April ranged from controversies about embedded journalists to Judith Miller and her role in WMD reporting to sensationalism in the news. From May 11-13, a group of Croatian students will visit Podgorica to discuss ''Globalization or Localization of Media.''

Asian Americans call for firing of radio jocks

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/25/BAGG7PFKAJ3.DTL

What's what with this Virginia Tech photo?

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003577358

Lithuania creates unique recycling campaign

From Advertising Age: Published: April 26, 2007
"EMP is a new concept in Lithuania, an electrical goods recycling firm that will come and collect your old TVs and fridges from your home. The low-budget media campaign to launch the company needed to show people just how irritating it was to be stuck with old appliances. Old TVs were placed on seats of public transportation, and specially built outdoor boards topped billboard messages with a collection of redundant TVs. EMP could hardly keep up with the incoming phone calls."

UNC posts photos of the 'unwelcome'

My university received national coverage this week for its posting of names and photos of people who are not welcome on campus. If anyone on campus sees any of these people, they must notify the university police. Listen to the interview with a student newspaper editor on the national public radio station: http://216.35.221.77/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9847309

Here is the story from the school paper: The Banned Bunch: http://www.uncmirror.com/news/2007/04/27/News/The-Banned.Bunch-2884993.shtml?reffeature=textemailedition

The actual Web site: http://www.unco.edu/police/banned/index.html

How do you get your favorite music?

More and more young people in the UK are downloading their music illegally. See if their reasoning about WHY they do this matches your reasoning.

Published: Wednesday April 25, 2007, at MediaGuardian.co.uk
"More than a quarter of young people in the UK are prepared to illegally download music and films because they distrust the entertainment industry, according to research.
A survey by PR group Edelman found that 41% of 18- to 34-year-olds do not trust the entertainment industry to provide value for money, and 34% do not trust companies to respect the rights of those who do pay for digital content.
The research found that 27% of young people have already downloaded content illegally or would do so.
Resentment over the perceived high cost of digital services and usability problems, such as incompatible formats - for example iPod users only being able to play music downloaded from Apple's iTunes - has contributed to this distrust."

Your thoughts about Professor Dorde for my article, please!

Don't forget!
I am writing an article about Professor Dorde Obradovic. I will interview him, of course, but I would also like to include his students' comments. If you would like to be quoted in my story and have something to say about the professor, please e-mail me with your comments (leeanne.peck@unco.edu) or come to the office (E03) and I will take your statements. Thanks for your help. You may also post your comments to this blog.
Posted by Lee Anne Peck, Ph.D. at 11:39 AM 0 comments

UNC student-musician writes, sings VT tribute

One of my journalism students in Colorado, Tyler Ward (who is also a musician), has written a song as a tribute to Virginia Tech. Listen to it here.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2023892254
Also, a story from my university's school newspaper (published Wednesday, April 25) covering a candlelight vigil for VT students on Monday, April 23:
http://www.uncmirror.com/media/storage/paper972/news/2007/04/25/News/Candle.In.The.Rain-2879133-page2.shtml
Also, a site created at my school just for VT: http://www.unco.edu/vtresponse/

Brazilian city bans billboards

A city without billboards! What will happen to a society without outdoor advertising?
http://www.adrants.com/2007/04/sao-paulo-purges-ads-no-were-not-kidding.php

Network had to do some ethical decision-making

NBC News received the VA Tech gunman's videos and writings. What to do with them? Lots of pondering. The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/18/AR2007041802791.html
Then CBC (of Canada) says NBC was wrong to do what it did!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/about/burman/letters/2007/04/a_story_of_victims_and_issues.html What do YOU think?
More ethical pondering from the Global Ethics weekly newsletter: http://www.globalethics.org/redir/nl.html?d=4/23/2007&id=04230720534696
Free-lancer says NBC was correct to air Cho video
http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/post_31.php