The World as I Sort of Know It

[lizaanderson181]

Week Seven: Is the Media Corrupt?

CNN is saying that Hilary Clinton is the one who came out on top at the most recent Democratic Debate, (also hosted by CNN). However, even CNN’s own polls suggested that it was Bernie Sanders who won the debate. CNN allegedly took these polls down. CNN is owned by Time Warner Cable, which is one of Clinton’s biggest donors. So is it possible that CNN is skewing its own media to try to influence the public to vote for Clinton? This is a major issue that we have discussed in our journalism classes. Journalists need to stay unbiased in order to perform their duty correctly. But how can they be unbiased when these larger corporations, who own most of media outlets, have their own political agenda? It goes to show that we can’t always believe what is said in the media, and should really research the candidates ourselves to decide who to vote for. 

[lizaanderson181]

Week Six: Mental Health

For my journalism class I am doing my story on mental health in comedy. It is often surprising to people when they discover comedians suffer with mental health issues. While doing this story I have also become more aware of my own mental health situation. I have recently been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and it has been very difficult to deal with. I have taken the right steps towards recovery, going to the MU counseling center and starting a new medication. However it is a battle that I struggle with everyday. It is hard to get out of bed in morning, resulting from me missing a lot of my classes in the past couple of weeks. It’s going to take some time but I have had a really good support system and some people aren’t that lucky. So if you or anyone you know is suffering from any sort of mental health issues please reach out to someone or reach out to those you think are having a tough time. 

[lizaanderson181]

Week Four : Audio

This week for my project on Mental Health in Comedy I interviewed Chase Newman, the Vice President of MU Improv. MU Improv is an improvisational troupe at the University of Missouri and it is an open group, meaning there are no tryouts and anyone who wants to do it can. Chase was a very funny guy, (obviously, he’s in improv) but was also just very sincere. I recorded an interview with him with the audio recorder provided to us by the J-school and I was very impressed with the quality of the sound. In class we learned how to use the program Audacity, which is a sound editing program. (And it’s free, so that’s cool) I’ve been playing around with Audacity and still trying to figure out how to do a few things here and there. But I am creating some cool overlaps with Chase’s voice and sounds that I recorded at one of the Improv shows. I am very excited for how this project is going to turn out! 

[lizaanderson181]

Week Three: This week in class.

This week in class we started to go over audio. For our project we need to gather audio using the recorder from the journalism lab. We need to gather all kinds of sounds. Natural as well as ambient sounds add to the overall effect of our project. I am very excited to start conducting interviews with people from Mizzou’s Improv team so I can further research how comedy affects our mental health and why comedians often deal with mental issues like depression or bipolar disorder.

[lizaanderson181]

Week Two: National Suicide Prevention Day

September 10th is National Suicide Prevention Day. It’s a day to bring mental health to light. Topics like depression, anxiety, and suicide are rarely discussed and often stigmatized. NSPD encourages people to reach out if they are suffering, and to reach out to friends or loved ones who you believe may be suffering. 

All week long Mizzou has been putting on events for suicide awareness. On September 9th MSA showed the film “To Write Love on Her Arms”, a story of a girl suffering from bi-polar disorder and trying to overcome her drug addiction. It’s based off the true story of the girl who sparked the creation of the organization To Write Love on Her Arms, which raises money and awareness for the treatment and recovery of those dealing with mental health issues. 

On September 10th Mizzou’s Suicide Prevention Coalition held a memorial service on the Francis Quadrangle. 

With a $5 donation participants could release a butterfly in memory of a loved one lost to suicide and for people currently struggling with mental illness. The envelopes holding the butterflies had “Living is Conquering” printed across it. 

It was quite a beautiful experience really. The event organizerJulia Schroer said that she hopes the event brought peace to all those who participated. Mental health needs to be talked about more, especially with college students who undergo huge amounts of stress. People need to know that they are not alone. 

[lizaanderson181]

Week One: Taking Pictures is Hard

Anyone can take decent pictures with their iPhone or point and shoot camera. I didn’t think it would be too difficult to do the same with our Nikon D700 camera we use in our journalism class. But then we started throwing around terms like aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. I was confused.

I didn’t realize there were all these different aspects that go into taking a picture. It really is a craft you specialize in. It takes me quite a while just to set up the camera to it’s basic setting, let alone adjusting for my subject. 

So let’s see what I did sort of learn.

Aperture is essentially how much light you decide goes into your camera. Measure in f/stops, the bigger the hole the more light you let in, and the smaller the less. 

ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to light. The lower the ISO the less sensitive and the higher the ISO the more sensitive. You want your subject to be properly exposed to the light source. 

Lastly shutter speed is the amount of time the a camera’s shutter is open allowing light to pass through the lens. 

All of these aspects make up the delicate triangle of photography!

Hopefully with more practice I can get the hang of all this...