Wednesday, March 24, 2010

How Time Flies...

It's crazy to me that we're already over halfway through this semester. It never fails, every semester and year in school I have ended up saying, "Man this semester/year/marking period flew!" It's almost scary how fast time is going. Before I know it I will be graduating with a degree and hopefully a job and then comes an apartment, a house, a family, and old age. I've been told by many adults to enjoy this part of my life, because everyday is exciting and new and you don't have all the responsibilities that you do as an adult. I just hope it doesn't go too fast, because I'm certainly enjoying being young :)

Opinion Pieces

I enjoy reading opinion pieces in various media outlets, especially my local newspaper. I find it interesting to see what other people think about certain subjects and I like that different from typical news that tries to be objective, opinion pieces are...opinions! I have always loved to write and have thought about doing an opinion piece or two myself. It is always eye-opening to me to read what is going through other individuals' minds about subjects that range from everyday and somewhat mundane, to strange and timely. I like talking to people about what I read as well, to try to start a conversation about the topic.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Group Project

What do you think of your group project so far?

I think it is going fairly well. We had a slight delay in getting our brief completed because the person we needed to contact was on vacation, however this morning we were able to speak to him and received good information. He seemed like a very down-to-earth guy and was very helpful. We have a good idea now about what the company is about and what he wants to achieve with our help. I'm optimistic that the rest of the project is going to go well.

ABC & Cablevision's feud

Yes, I think fear of negative PR influenced ABC’s decision to continue having its programming on Cablevision until they work out their contract. According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, “Walt Disney Co. and Cablevision Systems Corp. struck a last-minute accord late Sunday to restore Disney's blacked-out ABC stations to millions of New York-area homes just minutes into ABC's Academy Awards broadcast.” The blackout had lasted about 21 hours and was the result of financial disagreements over monthly subscription fees. Both Disney and Cablevision drew consumers into their feud. Consumers were well aware of what was going on between them, and I’m sure the blackout caused a major stir. ABC made a good decision to put its programming back on, especially in time for the Academy Awards, a program that reaches millions of viewers. The backlash that they would have gotten had they left ABC blacked-out would have followed them for years, and nobody wants that kind of negative PR. People are very devoted to TV, and would definitely cause a stir had the programming they’re used to seeing gone black forever.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The media

What scares me the most about working with the media is pitching the wrong thing to the wrong person and having them and my supervisor think I'm totally incompetent. I think that I am afraid that as much research as I'll do, I will still end up wasting someone's time and my own. And I know how precious time is, so I do not want to do that. I'm sure this will happen at some point in my life, at least once, but I want to try my best to avoid it. I guess it is something that you get better with over time and after building your media list, you will know exactly who to go to with what. But at this point, I can't imagine being completely comfortable with that.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Something you never knew about March

Happy March 1st everyone! March...the month of the start of spring, of the last bits of snow (hopefully), and Women's History. But I looked up March and I found out something else about the month that few of you probably know about. Apparently, March 14th is Save a Spider Day. Really...I'm not kidding. Now this may just cause some of you to chuckle or go "hmm", but for me, it's horrible. I am literally petrified of spiders. So much so that I have written research papers about my fear, given presentations about it, and can't focus on something when I know there is a spider in the room. If I see one, I need someone to go into the room as I wait outside it, get it off whatever it is clinging to, and dispose of it either outside or altogether. But not just that, I need proof that it is gone so that I can relax. It's nuts, I know and the weird part is, I'm not sure how this started. I don't remember anything happening years ago that caused me to have this...phobia. And that's definitely what I have, a phobia: an IRRATIONAL fear. I want to get over my arachnophobia, but I know that I can't at this point in my life because I have too many other things to focus on. Anyway...just wanted to let you know about my phobia and inform you to save a spider (if you want) on March 14th.