Most of the project honestly wasn’t surprising, at least to me. I know a lot about eating and exercising right and the interviews with the nutritionist and exercise health teacher were very informative however. I learned a lot about when to exercise and what to eat when and how to eat even better than most. What surprised me the most about the project was how well everyone worked together. We had a couple long nights editing but everyone worked together well and everyone’s idea were credited and incorporated in some way and it just worked well. We as a group had a good time and could joke about things and have fun. It was a great experience and I think we all added our own little flair to it to make it enjoyable. That was the most surprising thing about it, it was fun!

The main skill that the project helped me enhance was the use of different programs to contribute to the final product. I learned more about Final Cut Pro. Things like creating cool titles for the people we interviewed as well as just some different editing techniques that can be accomplished with Final Cut. I also learned how to record the screen of a computer using a program called VLC. It was a very cool and interesting experience. I had to watch some tutorials off YouTube but I figured it out. I was happy with what I accomplished. Those were the two main skills that I was able to enhance during the project.

We worked pretty hard on the project to create a short little informative documentary about nutrition and exercise and how important they are. I tried to do the best work possible and make whatever I did in the project look good so that it would enhance the final product. I think we did well with the interviews and the questions we asked. I really thought they were strong questions and the interviews answered some things that are important and may not be well-known. I thought we also did a very good job in adding relevant B-Roll and not just throwing stuff in there to cover up the interviews. My role on the team mainly consisted of editing, camera work, helping others and creating ideas for the project. One thing that I would have done differently would probably to spend a little more time on it than we were able to, and add some more cool graphics and effects, but none of us really had enough time to do all because of conflicting schedules, so we did the best we could with the time we had and I think we created a great looking final product.

The next thing that was notable about NPR was the way the hosts report the information to the listener. They use a very monotone at times voice and express very little to no emotion while reading parts of a story that would naturally spur an emotion out of a regular person. This can be boring but it is a solid way of delivering a message without conveying ones own personal views.

There is a lot of thought behind what is put into NPR and the order it goes in. They recognize what is important and catchy and what people may hesitate to listen to. So therefore they structure their program in a way that will captivate and hold peoples attention. It held my attention but I soon got bored. I think they need to stick with shorter segments because the minute they talked about something for more than a couple minutes I was bored. They do a good job of trying keep those segments short for the most part.

New media follows the same pattern as something like DNA testing. It is always changing and evolving and will always be put to a useful purpose. It can help free people form their boring worlds or immerse them into a whole new one. It can free them from prison or put them there. Many many things can become of what new media offers because of its’ diversity and ever-growing array of capabilities.

In Exploring the uses and effects of the Internet in the 2008 election the article talks about the study of the Internet in elections. It follows the lines of whether it is a credible source and what motivations there are to use the Internet as a campaign tool. Well the use of the Internet as a campaign tool is very clear because there are so many young people who use the Internet foe whatever. If your stuff as a candidate is out there in the web in as many places as possible people will more than likely find it. As a candidate this only improves your chances of reaching a potential voter. It is a smart way to reach the demographic with the lowest total votes on average every election year; the young people. Put your stuff in as many different media outlets and social networking places as possible and it will get recognized.

The article To Tweet or Not to Tweet was kind of funny article. A reporter sat down with the creator of Twitter to see if he was as annoying as Twitter is. It turns out that the creator Biz Stone is a very nice guy and although he avoided many of the questions thrown at him said a lot about the site. As it turns out he doesn’t know half of what is being posted on Twitter or who is posting it. Big surprise there with how much it has grown. He likes to comment on what people post but doesn’t really pay much attention to it.

This seems like the case every year with all the new technology and stuff being put out there. Creators intend it for something other than what it is being used for. Maybe one of these days these sites may be used for what they are intended to be used for.

This video is very accurate in what I think would happen if someone actually met one of their online friends. They would be totally confused and embarrassed if someone they only knew online came to their house and started harassing them basically. It also does a very good job of portraying the reality of the stuff we put into the electronic world. We may not always realize what we are putting into the electronic world until it rears its head in the real world. These things can have very real consequences like loss of job or girlfriend or being embarrassed when your mom finds drunk pictures of you. Everything that is put onto Facebook and into the electronic world can be seen. It can be found and seen by anyone of your friends, friends who then can pass it on to their friends and so on until it makes its way to somewhere you don’t want. The point is be careful about what you put out there!

In the article “Calvin College Student Suspended Over Lewd Facebook Message” a student was suspended for a degrading remark about an ex-girlfriend he posted on Facebook. Again we are brought back to the point of someone getting in trouble for what they post on the internet. The message continues to be the same, people are monitoring these sites more and more since the emergence of new media. They have ways of finding them and they will. One other thing that was interesting was that the college had a rule of basically internet usage for derogatory things about other students. It is nice to see that new media is being acknowledged and that it also needs to be monitored to protect others. This is only the beginning of what may need to happen in the future because of the rapid growth of new media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and others.

This video is interesting because he makes very good points to defend Facebook. Facebook does everything in its power to protect you and make sure your private stuff is not leaked. But once again you the person putting the stuff up is responsible. When hackers doe steal and sell your stuff Facebook sues them. The main point of the video however is I think the point that one media is trying to slander another to attract more readers. They do this so that people come to their site or blog and click on the ads so therefore the site owner makes money. This is terrible because there is a lack of trust and authenticity when this happens. It is bad for everyone involved and everyone who reads it because now the reader believes something entirely false. Come everyone can’t we all just get along?

http://www.edelmandigital.com/blog/2009/03/social_media_is_like_a_buffet.html

Social Media is like a buffet table. There are so many choices that regular people don’t know where to start. This can create problems because how are people supposed to know which ones are good and connect with most people and which ones are not. How do we learn to use these sites? We wonder around and put every possible app on them to make them attractive even if it has nothing to do with us. She makes a very good point about this in her article. Because social media is such a new phenomenon businesses don’t know where to start and who to reach.

Just the fact that businesses are trying to reach people through social media announces that new media is here and needs to be recognized. People need help with it because they don’t have a clue how to work it half the time. Just the sheer amount of media that is out there is a lot to handle so we must work together young and old to help each other learn an ever-growing field of social media within new media.

Article: Students Sue Prosecutors in Cellphone Photos Case

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26sextext.html?_r=1

Within this article it is very clear that whatever is posted or saved in the digital world can and most likely be found someone you don’t want to find it. Sexting is the primary issue within the article and man feel that it is not okay and that the people doing should be punished with jail time. The girls involved with the whole thing sued the prosecutor because he violated their first and fourth amendment rights by threatening them.

I believe that it is a total invasion of privacy to go through someone elses phone and look at their pictures. Like the article said confiscating the phone and going through it are not the same. This does however show how easy it is for your personal stuff that is in the electronic world to fall into the wrong hands and how easily it can be perceived as the wrong thing. The point of the article is to be careful about what you are putting in the electronic world because many different kinds of people can interpret it how they want and accuse you of a whole number of things.

Article: The Kindle 2 Won’t Save Newspapers

http://gnbuzz.com/2009/03/01/the-kindle-2-wont-save-newspapers/

The Kindle 2 is a very unique devise that allows all the newspaper subscriptions you want to be delivered electronically. There is good content within the papers that are delivered via Kindle 2 and great bookmarking and side notes features. However the categorization of a real newspaper is not there. Top stories are not listed first they are buried down the list. Also there are no pictures within Kindle 2 especially from papers that are renowned for their great photography. It is still not the easiest thing to navigate.

Kindle will eventually take out newspapers and possibly even books but that is way off in the future. Newspapers are more likely to diminish because people like having it right at the palm of their hand all the time and don’t have to carry around a bulky newspaper. Kindle also uses no paper and that will be a focal point in the near future as our population continues to grow. But until Kindle can offer some kind of categorization of stories and pictures I don’t think it will become that much more popular than newspapers. So newspapers are safe for another couple years anyway.