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