Team B 4:10 Newscast

I was very pleased with the way our newscast turned out today. Although I woke up this morning feeling extremely stressed because no one had story ideas, we ended up producing a very worthwhile six minutes of news in my opinion.

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Producing the second time was much easier. I felt more on top of things as I better understood the ENPS layout, how to use ABC Newscall and how to properly print scripts.

My reporters were Natalie McGurn and Eric Silverman. They did a great job of letting me know what they were doing throughout the day. Both turned around two interesting stories. Natalie produced a wrap and Eric reported live in studio.

My anchor was Emily Knox. As a first time anchor, I think she did a great job. Getting a foner was somewhat difficult at first, but as soon as she got someone on the phone, the ball really got rolling. I have found we work really well together.

My favorite part about today's newscast was how organized the stories were. Everything was connected and I had fun choosing where the stories should go. Content wise, I wouldn't say the stories were riveting, but they were all important. We incorporated lots of SOTS within the newscast to keep things lively.

I was also proud of how the timing turned out. Although I was nervous about finishing on time and told Emily to skip the tease, I decided during the commercial we had enough time for the kicker. She did a wonderful job of fitting everything in without getting flustered. We ended with one second to spare.

Dibinga talks to Fowler HS students

Omekongo Dibinga introduced himself to about 400 Fowler High School students by rapping about what his life could have been and what it is. He mentioned how he could have been a stone cold killer, could have bragged about the number of women he's been with, could have been drenched in diamonds from head to toe, could have told them "school was whack" and they should drop out and rap. He then tells them he never did any of those things. Instead, he never smoked weed, never raped a woman, never hit his wife, and is studying for his PhD.

Dibinga is a motivational speaker, a poet and a rapper. He spoke to students about how he came from a poor family in Boston, Mass., failed the seventh grade and stayed back. But he was able to turn his life around; by the end of high school he was in the National Honors Society.

Dibinga's message to the students was clear: he did it and so can they. He told them to succeed they need to G.R.O.W: give, release, overcome and win.

He spoke to them about the genocide in Congo. He said students in the U.S. might think they have problems, but at least they have a choice in their future. He asked, "when you think about what you're dealing with right now, are you dealing with that? Do you wake up every day with those types of worries? Do you wake up every day right now thinking that someone might make you a child soldier? That someone might come kill your entire family?"

Dibinga told students if they have electronic equipment they might be helping the cause. People in the Congo are being killed because of resources to make electronics. He said people need to know they are connected to the genocide. "It's one thing to say it's just those Africans over there fighting, that's what they do," he said. "But it's still different when you're talking about many of these issues are still happening so we can have electronic equipment."

Dibinga also spoke on a Genocice Awareness panel at Syracuse University today at 5 pm, will speak at Take Back the Night at 7 pm and will be interviewed tonight on a local radio station. His music can be found on itunes or on his website.

**Picture taken from Omekongi Dibinga's website.

Gas prices continue to rise

Gas prices in Syracuse continue to rise a few cents each week due to an increase in imported oil, causing the average price to be around $3 a gallon, according to Syracusegasprices.com.

Gas station owner Saif Jaber says this is not new, and that he expects prices to keep climbing. Jaber owns a Citgo in Dewitt and says business is OK for now, but that an increase in oil prices means increased gas prices for consumers.

"If they keep going up, yeah it will affect us," says Jaber. "It affects our purchasing, it affects if i roder something for delivery they start adding surcharges or increase prices so it'll be a trickle down effect."

However owner of Lakeland Minimart Jy Patel says it could be worse.

"More than $3, yes, that hurts business and it hurts the people but under $3 is not bad, it's not going to hurt anybody."

However, according to a report by AAA, the national average price of gas has increased more than 50 cents over the past year. If these trends continue, paying $3 or more for a gallon of gas will become more common.

Team C 4:20 Newscast

I was very pleased with the overall turnout of my newscast. I started off the day having no idea what any of my reporters or anchor was doing, to having plenty of worthwhile content, especially for such a slow news day.

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I had three reporters, Flavia Colangelo, Ivory Hecker and Simon Rosenwasser and Aaron Ortega as my anchor. Because I had so many wraps, I felt like I could take more time writing each story as tight as possible. I wasn't stressed out until the last thirty minutes of class, when Ivory and Simon were still not finished with their scripts. In the end though I was proud of all the hard work everyone put in. Flavia did a nice wrap about gas prices and found a car to get her to a gas station. Ivory made contacts for two possible stories and ended up interviewing a handful of people for her story about tea party protesting. Simon did a nice job running around town looking for people to interview about his story about tax help. Lastly, anchor Aaron Ortega did a really interesting foner about a controversial showing of The Birth of a Nation in Rome this weekend.

While I had to run around at the last minute getting all the scripts together, the broadcast was pretty smooth, with only a few bumps. The script I gave to director Ryan Rogers had two stories out of order, which made for a little confusion. Also, Ryan played one of Simon's sots too soon, while Simon was still talking. We skipped the tease, just in case, but came back from the break with 30 seconds, so I had Aaron read the kicker, the short weather and the short goodbye. Aaron was a little flustered when he only had ten seconds to finish up with the weather and goodbye, but we ended two seconds early, which was nearly perfect.

Team D Newscast: 4:30

If I had to describe today's newscast in one word, it would be stressful.

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It was a very slow news day today, so it was difficult for reporters and anchors to find good stories. Greg and Jessica were reporters and we all kept in touch discussing our story ideas.
Greg and I thought an update on the demolition going on on State Street was a good story. He went to the site near I-81, but wasn't able to get sound bites from construction workers. He said the construction workers aren't allowed to talk to the press and that the person who is allowed wasn't there at that time. Greg found a man who lived near the demolition site and talked to him about how the demolition is affecting him. It turned out to be a great wrap and Greg did a great job of finding another story and not quitting when the first idea didn't work out.
Jess also had trouble finding a story. We were in touch throughout the day and she told me she would do a story about high retail sales. She went to the Chamber of Commerce, but was not able to talk to anyone. She contacted a professor from the Whitman School of Management and was able to make a good story on time. Like Greg, she did a great job of not quitting when what she had planned didn't work.
Jesse was our anchor and he did a really great job. His foner was about the North Syracuse school district's budget vote tonight and his anchor act was very informative. During the newscast, Jesse's delivery was very impressive. He's normally a quiet speaker, but during the broadcast, he sounded confident and made the stories he read comfortable to listen to. Professor Nicholson complimented him after the broadcast and said it was his best delivery so far in the class. I also thought Jesse and I worked well together preping for the broadcast.
The actual newscast went pretty well. Right before we had to get in the studio, Jesse noticed one of our copy stories was very repetitive to Jess' story that came right after, so we decided as a team to cut the copy story. We were light coming out of the commercial, so Jesse and I decided to use a 10-12 second floater. After the floater and the kicker, we were still a little light on time, but Jesse read the medium weather and the long good-bye. He did a great job of filling extra time at the end. We ended about 9 seconds early, but I didn't think it sounded bad at all.
The second time producing was definitely harder than the first time. I had a really hard time helping my reporters when they were stuck with their stories. Since I'm normally not a good quick decision maker, this was very stressful and I don't think I did a very good job in this aspect. Jake was really nice and tried to help me think of another angle Jess could take with her story, but I wish I'd known how to help her myself. In my opinion, I had to ask Professor Nicholson for help too many times. I like the feeling of accomplishing many tasks, and I feel as a producer, that's what you feel. I thought I did a decent job of writing stories, using sound bites from other classmates and ABC. I thought the rundown was difficult to construct, but I felt good about it afterward.
I still enjoy producing, but I was disappointed in my performance as a producer. I think I will learn from this and hopefully next time I produce a newscast or show, I will do a better job. Producing is a decision-making job, and I hope if I keep producing other newscasts or shows, I will get better at making big decisions.

Controversial Silent Film at Capitol Theater

D.W. Griffith's controversial silent film "A Birth of a Nation" is scheduled to be shown at the Capitol Theater in Rome this Saturday. The Capitol Theater has been showing silent films since 2002. However, the theater's decision to show this particular movie has some people upset who say the film positively portrays white supremacy.

Since the decision to show this movie was announced, those people have voiced their displeasure. Despite the controvery surrounding the event, the Capitol Theater Director, Art Pierce, says he hopes to make this into an educational opportunity.


"We are acknowleding there are racists aspects to the flm and we need to address those," said Pierce. That's why we're doing the pannel discussion and the public comment section afterwards, because we do want to treat it as an education event."


Pierce said that the reason for showing this film has nothing to do with the fact that it is racist film, but rather because it is a landmark films in terms of its character techniques.

"It's an extremely important film, so we knew at some point we'd have to address the issue of showing it," said Pierce. "We've had a lot of requests for showing it. Both black and white people by the way."

Although he is not expecting any kind of problem from people who go to watch the movie, Pierce has hired a professional security firm to keep things under control. Members of the Rome Police Department will also be a presence at the theater.


Picture from: http://venusoo.egloos.com/2294114

Vera House launches Clothesline Project

The Vera House of Syracuse hosts the Clothesline Project his week, an exhibit of T-shirts made by victims of domestic abuse that represent their feelings of pain, anguish and hope.

The Clothesline Project is part of the Vera House's educational programs that help support and rehabilitate survivors of domestic abuse. Volunteer Jane Henirich say's the project allows survivors to share their stories and feelings with the community.

"They feel it kind of raises awareness between their friends among the community and I think probably too they feel a kind of comradery," says Henrich.

Henrich says she has seen an increase in domestic violence cases, and that programs like these help the community realize the severity of the issue.

"For spectators it really bears witness to the sexual abuse and violence in our neighborhood," says Henrich. "It's extremely moving, it certainly motivates me to continue what I'm doing for Vera House."