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Greg Jones had two rings with him last Sunday; one for winning the Super Bowl, the other for his girlfriend, now fiancee, Amanda Piechowski.
He proposed at the finish of the game while the team was still celebrating.
It’s a good thing the Giants won, otherwise the proposal would no doubt not be nearly as special.
Congratulations to the engaged couple!
It looks like Apple found yet another way to reinvent the iPhone apps to make life even easier. There are apps being created now to help people find jobs.
Fox News investigated and found that more people are beginning to use these apps to find jobs in the poor economy.
Blogs are important because they help the audience better understand an issue going on in the news. They tell stories in a simple fashion and offer other resources for the reader to do their own investigating on the topic.
Some important things to keep in mind when writing a blog are crowdsourcing, open-source reporting and pro-am journalism.
Mark Briggs says that crowdsourcing is “community power on a specific project and demonstrates how a group of committed individuals can outperform a small group of experienced (and paid) professionals” (Briggs, 69).
There are some instances in which trained professionals are necessary, however having the general public participate in something is very important because it shows how meaningful something may be to them. It also allows new and different perspectives of the general population to be put into action, which may make the community’s best interest be a priority.
Open-source reporting is the design, development and distribution of a product and its information.
New things like blogs and Twitter help journalists distribute smaller headlines of news and market themselves. Which, finally leads to pro-am journalism and talking to the audience.
Pro-am journalism is when the readers post on professional journalist’s websites and can comment about the content without being filtered.
The readers are then able to contact the journalist directly as well as discuss articles and news with other members in the community or from all over the world. This also provides new outlooks on topics and, once again, new perspective.
In the end, it is important to know what the audience wants to read as well as letting them get involved. One of the main reasons someone may turn to sources such as Twitter, Facebook, or blogging could be that they find the interactiveness appealing.
The United States FBI is trying to figure out how they were hacked by a group called Anonymous. The fifteen minute phone call was recorded by the hackers and released to the public.
CNN Money recently published a list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For”.
Google takes the cake being listed number 1 company to work for, however the site does not explain in great detail why these companies are so great.
There are also lists categorized by the largest companies as well as top paying and the best perks.
Each year I look forward to the new Super Bowl advertisements on TV. In fact, they are probably my favorite part about the day (other than the feast of wonderful foods).
Hulu has compiled all of the best advertisements of the game into one convenient section. They even have funny ads from years past documented on their site!
My favorite was the Sketchers ad with the French Bulldog.
Enjoy!
This is just a fun little story I found about a student trying to find love and begin his career of filmmaking 🙂
Read Luke Kelly’s story here!
Read my @Storify story: “Modern Family is Coming to a Close” http://sfy.co/XY6 #storify
Joel Achenbach was the very first blogger for The Washington Post.
He wrote an article about the future of journalism and online journalism. He believes that although print writing may be dying down a little, online journaling is going to be very popular because of its immediacy.
He explains that although much of the news in the print papers is old upon arrival, that online news is new and fresh. It can be uploaded instantaneously, which makes it a very valuable form of news.
He later goes on to talk about the importance of getting news out, even if it is not popular or good news. Achenbach says that readers need to be informed about what is going on in the world and that online journalism is the best tool to do this.
Achenbach writes that
“There’s a favorite saying in the news biz: “Nothin’ but readers.” Meaning: That’s a story that readers are going to devour. A water-cooler story. We used to discern such articles through gut instinct. The best editors had a “golden gut” for news.”
He is making the point that people will read what they find interesting and the headlines that catch their attention.
As a blogger, you need to find creative ways to make yourself stand out and make people want to read what you have to say.
One really interesting thing about this article on The Washington Post‘s website was that Achenbach sectioned off different points with asterisks to make his story easier to follow. When blogging, it may not be a bad idea to have similar ways to make the portions of a blog easier to focus on.
He ends with a note saying
“Here’s a proposition: News outlets will never get anywhere if they’re obsessed with chasing readers. They can, however, collaborate with them. And therein lies a hopeful future for the business.”
Achenbach realizes that by trying hard to gain an audience, he may not be getting his best points across and that he should write in a way that tells a story and reports on a topic, rather than finding the less important stories that viewers may just find fun reads.
In conclusion, if you write about things of importance or that mean something to you, you will be more successful than trying to make everyone happy.
“Blogs have forever changed the way that information is shared in our society. They’re fast. They’re interactive” (Briggs, 42).
The second chapter of the Journalism Next book is all about blogging.
Mark Briggs recommends every college journalist start a blog, as it is great practice for the real world of journalism.
He says creating a blog is a great tool to:
Blogs are great tools for anyone to share their opinion with the world. They help show different perspectives, share ideas and quickly give out information instantaneously.
There are blogs on any subject matter you may be interested in. Go to Technorati.com to see the top 100 blogs.
There are different terms that bloggers use in their writings. Here are a few of the most common words that Mark Briggs found important:
To begin creating a blog, Briggs recommends using a site like WordPress or Blogger. He says they are both fairly simple websites that offer tutorials on how to start your blog.
The next step for a new blogger is to come up with a creative name for their site. When doing this, the user will have to come up with a domain name for their blog as well as a title to go at the top of their page.
Finally, to finish the setup of a blog, you must choose a theme that is visually appealing and goes along with the type of blog you are creating. There are simple themes already set up or you can customize your page.
Mark Briggs then goes on to talk about gaining an audience for your blog. He says that it is imperative that a blogger “knows what readers want and can clearly and effectively communicate an idea, news or analysis quickly” (Briggs, 55).
Content and immediacy are key for a successful blog.
Here are a few tips Briggs gives when beginning your writing as a blogger (these can be found in more detail on page 60 of his Journalism Next book):
Mark Briggs also emphasizes the importance of posting daily to keep the audience coming back to your site.
He also says it is important for the content on your blog to relate to the audience, meaning you will have to investigate what is going on in the community. Nothing makes a person want to keep reading more than a story that they can easily relate to.
Lastly, to gain a larger audience, make sure to comment to other people’s blogs, signing off with your blog name. People who read the comments may be interested enough to go see what your blog is about. Link other blogs to your own posts; you never know if the author will repay the favor.
Happy blogging!
Mashable Gizmodo