Reviewing a Classmate's blog: Ally Hansen

http://journalism1ah.blogspot.com/2016/10/recordings-and-how-it-effects-us.html
  Ally Hanses has many positives and negatives within her writing. The paragraphs did a very good job dividing the information and her opinions. There are 4 paragraphs all with their own purpose: one is an opener, one for technology, one that ties everything together, and one for her opinions. But, the sentences are a little choppy and the vocabulary is not very high. Most sentences aren't very complex and that is something I would fix as well as fixing the vocabulary level. I did think Ally presented the information in a way that makes me know she understands what she is writing about and I enjoyed reading her blog.

Reviewing a Classmate's Blog: Kyra Johnson

http://theindependentperspective.blogspot.com/2016/10/comment-on-topic-discussed-in-class.html
  I really think Kyra did a very well job grasping my attention and laying out the blog very nicely. I like the way she started the blog with several rhetorical questions, had the middle paragraph be all the information, and the last paragraph be her opinions. This allowed for the reader to understand the blog’s purpose and its focus. The information in the middle paragraph was a little choppy and I wish that it flowed a little better, but Kyra still packed a lot of information into a single paragraph very easily. I previously did a blog on the same topic but structured it differently, but I personally believe Kyra's layout was presented better. I like how in the last paragraph, her opinions paragraph, she still included facts to back up her claims and included several different opinions. Overall this was a very well written blog and I really like it, but if I were to fix one thing I would restructure the middle paragraph to make it flow easier.

Class Discussion: Transition from Radio to Television

  When television was invented, radios were impacted in a very negative way. Radios used to have anything from soap operas to music to live streaming news events. Radios would play things for children in the morning, something for mothers during the day, and family related broadcasts at night. The broadcasts would usually be some type of drama or kid friendly show, but when television came along stars left to be in the television business. This is because popular television stars thought “why not have my face be popular as well as my voice?” When the stars left radio the audience left and when the audience left the advertisers left, leaving radios scrambling to figure out a way to demassify and stay in business. Since television took all of the radios’ ideas such as soap operas, radios would need to find something television producers would have a hard time selling. Radios decided to start focusing on 2 things: playing music and hosting talk shows. This allowed radios to keep having income because not many people liked to watch people talk or play music; the radio could be played and all the viewers would only hear voices.
   Before this discussion, I was not aware of all the topics radios covered before the 1950s. I assumed radios always played music and talk shows, which I now know was definitely not the case. I think it was interesting that radio stars left for television when only 1 million people had television in 1948 compared to 40 million having radios, although by 1952 20 million people had televisions. The risk of switching from radios to televisions seemed to pay off in my opinion as by 1977 97% of the United States has televisions. Personally, I'm glad radios demassified to only music and talk shows; I prefer music over television dramas any day of the week, and there are so many music stations on the radio that there is always music playing on at least one of them. This discussion was very informational and I don't know about other classmates, but for me I had a lot of “woah/wow/really?” moments.

Keeping Up With the Courier Journal: Daughter of Olympian Tyson Gay Dies in Shooting

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2016/10/16/daughter-olympian-tyson-gay-dies-shooting/92198172/

   Trinity Gay, the daughter of the track Olympian Tyson Gay, was killed by a gunshot to the neck in Lexington, Kentucky in the morning of October 16, 2016. Although this is sad, it is not very newsworthy (yardstick) or make the important interesting (element). Many will mourn the loss, but it will not have a lasting effect on a large amount of people. In the same realm, it is not inclusive because it makes this deal bigger than it actually is and does not respect a family's privacy. It also doesn't not  include fairness (yardstick) because it does not have any input or direct quotes from Tyson Gay or any others from Trinity's family. This article was not a top story in my opinion, yet that is where it was found.

Class Discussion: Movie Theaters

  In class we spent the first few days in the 2nd 6 weeks talking about why people still enjoy and go to the movies when so much is available to them in the comfort of their own homes. I didn't realize how little money the theater actually made out of ticket sales; most of their revenue is from food sales. I also learned the 3 main reasons why people still enjoy movies: the social experience, the expensive technology, and the need to be first. I was taught not only the financial side of movie theaters, but the history of them as well. It started with Edison’s phonograph which was the scratching of a needle in aluminum to Berliner’s gramophone (similar to the record player). That led to film cameras that involved the evolution of a few types of film- sturdy or flexible. Then there were mics which were referred to as “talkies” and lastly in 1927 people were amazed by the way people could experience the combination of film and sound. Theaters started to pop up all over the U.S. and by 1945 people were having marathons for 25¢ a piece leading to 90 million tickets being sold a week. Although that is not still the case, the majority of people enjoy going to the movies on a Friday night in 2016. I was amazed by both the history and financial aspects of movie theaters and this allowed to me to greater respect theaters. I believe more people need to have the background knowledge I now maintain to understand the value of movie theaters still thriving in today's age.

Keeping up with the Courier Journal: University of Louisville Swapping Crawford for Belknap

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/10/12/crawford-gym-gone-u-l-build-old-site/91938002/

 This article is about the University of Louisville tearing down historic Crawford Gymnasium to replace it with the ‘new-and-improved’ Belknap Academic Center. There is a video that explains the history of the gym- the 1980 and 1986 National Championship Louisville teams that both practiced here as well as the noon pickup games played in the gym everyday since the 1960s. The article goes on to explain the future plans about the gym’s destruction and the academic center’s construction. Although the article is, for the most part, well written, it does violate a few of the yardsticks and elements; loyalty and verification are not visible in the writing.  There are no sources in the article to allow readers to know that it is 100% factual as well as the journalist shows no sympathy for all being lost for many that are attached to the gymnasium. The article also violates the yardsticks of context (similar to verification) and enterprise. I believe enterprise is not included because there are no conversations or other evidence that shows information is coming anywhere besides what the journalist happens to hear. The journalist isn't being an active reporter in the sense that he/she didn't involve any dialogue between themselves and those involved. I do believe the article does a nice job of centering their writing around the element of watchdog and the yardstick of civic contribution- the University of Louisville is very influential to many people and several care about what the school is perusing.

Keeping up with the Courier Journal: How Likely Are Kentucky Drivers to Hit Bambi?

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/2016/10/12/how-likely-kentucky-drivers-hit-bambi/91937036/

 Since my family is subscribed to the Courier Journal and I’m so busy, I opted to keep up with the Courier Journal statistics. I am writing about today’s main news and an outlier from the main focus- “How Likely Are Kentucky Drivers to Hit Bambi”. Most of today’s news was about Haiti or Hurricane Matthew’s effects and this article does not belong with the group. This article on ‘Bambi’ is anything but focused. The writing is about you and your chances to hit a deer in Kentucky, but it also includes statistics from other states/areas and even a claim estimate of the damage that doesn’t belong with the other text. The writer of the article is a Kentucky resident trying to help her fellow citizens, but personally I was more distracted by the statistics of your 1 in 18,955 chance of hitting a deer in Hawaii. I first read this article and got the different statistics confused- I couldn’t even find the one pertaining to us Kentuckians. The article even refers to deer as ‘Bambi’, the Disney movie star. We have looked at 5 newspapers/online data that the courier journal produces and this writing is simply not up to par. It is unfocused, not very relevant, and childlike. I do think the writer did a good job convincing the audience that is common to hit deer anywhere in the United States but ‘paradise’ and the cost to fix the damage is anything but cheap. The author didn't do a very good job making the important interesting, but so far within this project Courier Journal usually has high standards for their journalism and I look forward to catching up on the news every morning.