Logann's thoughts spew here. @logannepleysays - Tumblr Blog

The Unheard 36%

Today is the day to vote in primary elections in Nebraska. Some people don’t think that is really that important, but I disagree. Primaries are the time we can weed out who we don’t want to represent us and leave more airtime to candidates people support. Sadly, in Nebraska, I can’t participate in this important democratic process because I’m registered Independent. Since Nebraska has a closed primary, only those who are registered to a party can participate in the primary. This is unfair and undemocratic. Over 36% of Americans are not affiliated with a major political party. This plurality of Independents is growing, but presently, Independents are being treated like second-class citizens.

Unless independent voters are allowed to vote in primaries, our representation will continue to become more polarized. The candidates who advance to the November elections become more and more extreme when only diehard party loyalists are allowed to pick them. This explains why the picture of party division in Congress looks more like a dumbbell when the citizens’ political leanings would be best diagramed as a football. Congress does not represent the makeup of average Americans. One route to amending this (if only partially) would be letting Independent voters participate in ALL democratic processes.

In a democracy, every citizen should be allowed to voice his or her opinion, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, socioeconomic standing, or party leanings.

#primaries #nebraska #neprimaries #independent party #gop #equality #democracy #democrats #independents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yz4dLdiMao&feature=youtu.be Final video project. I produced this video and was inspired by real life accounts with my friend, Ander. This is all fictitious, but was so much fun to make!

Manipulation

One of the videos we watched in my JOMC160 class talked about manipulation. Every story has some degree of manipulation At first glance, this seems like it’s endorsing biased coverage, I mean, isn’t that the kind of journalism we’ve all come to hate? The kind that makes us turn the channel and to try to forget about the talking heads that masquerade as news. But I’ve come to realize that there is no way to change manipulation. It is a constant. The same story coming from two different mouths will be different, hell, even from the same mouth 20 minutes later it might be different. I think it is worse to avoid this manipulation in journalism than if we just embraced it. We know there are different perspectives to most stories, but it just doesn’t make sense to be “balanced” by quoting a scientist who believes in global warming and a guy who thinks it’s a hoax from the backwoods. It isn’t fair; it’s deceptive to readers to present a problem as 50/50 when in reality it’s at least 90/10. Fairness is important, but facts are what we have to cling to. We don’t need the manipulation of facts to make something a juicier story with conflict. We need the kind of manipulation that shows the story of real people who can’t get married because of ass-backwards laws. We need the kind of manipulation that shows what it’s like to be homeless because the bank took everything. We need this stuff, because in our crazy, high-paced world, nobody is going to give a damn unless you make them care.

Today, we need to be prioritizing what we are saying. We, as journalists, need to go back to the days of investigative journalism when they spoke out against the bad and unjust. Nowadays, there seems to be a whole lot of speaking out, but against what? Can we even remember four hours later? If we are just talking or writing with no purpose other than ratings, no good will come of this effort.

The thing I loathe most about companies like Fox News is that they are fake. They pretend that what they are saying is breaking news all the time, when in fact, 23 hours of their 24 hour coverage is quasi-news and commentary. If they fessed up to that, and their viewers were aware that this is opinion, people would be less likely to believe every word coming from Sean Hannity’s lips (I’m looking at you Grandma). Having a broadcast isn’t enough to make you credible anymore. Every 14-year-old girl with internet connection has a blog and a YouTube channel. This doesn’t make her credible. In our day, it takes more for people to trust you.

We need to care. We need to be honest. We need to be people. We need to help. The Unitarian model of thinking says, “Do the greatest good for the greatest number.” We need to get back to that place. We need to tell that story.

#jomc160 #rant #journalism

Another video assignment was to follow a subject from one location to another. We decided to be unconventional and follow a ball.

#jomc160

My next video project for JOMC160 required six 3-second shots. The video is so long because it also required 30 seconds of bars and tone at the beginning and 10 seconds of black. Such is the bureaucracy. Enjoy "Cravings."

#jomc160

My first video project with Austin

The only stipulations on the assignment were the angles we had to get, so we decided to do it as dramatically as possible with a silent soap opera.

This JOMC160 assignment was to showcase action, reaction, and emotion. I attended a Husker girls tennis against Air Force for the project.

#jomc160

One of my photo assignments for JOMC160 was to follow someone and do a day-in-the-life. I followed City Councilman Roy Christensen to capture the mundane, yet interesting, aspects of his job.

#jomc160

The assignment was to take photos based on a song that someone else in our class gave us. I was given "It Had to Be You" by Harry Connick Jr. So, logically I made Ander and Alyssa model for me. I think it turned out pretty well!

Photo project for JOMC160. I went to Everett Elementary School to take some photos illustrating different concepts.

sandandglass

Diane Ravitch on The Daily Show.

only-halfcrazy-deactivated20161

Ravitch is the queen. If only the government would listen…

fishingboatproceeds

We would also address poverty directly. We would increase the minimum wage and make post-secondary education cheap or free, and we’d improve improve unemployment benefits and offer free job-training to the unemployed.

Poverty is one of the few social ills where throwing money at the problem really does seem to work.

These are not radical, liberal ideas. In fact, in Europe most of them are associated with the more conservative parties, and many of them were associated with the American Republican party in the 80s. But the United States’s political climate is so different from anywhere else in the industrialized world that I fear we will just continue to get farther behind in education (and in % of people living in poverty) until we decide to make some big domestic investments.

JOMC 101 Class Review

It's the end of the semester and it's time to review my JOMC101 course at UNL. My class was taught on m/w/f by Gary Kebbel. Overall, it was an enriching experience which taught me a lot about journalism and social media.

I found that the assignments given in JOMC 101 were very exciting and challenging to me. I didn’t have as much experience with video or location based social media, so those projects were especially fun for me to try out. I found I was fairly successful in my projects, and the requirements allowed me to explore my own interests within the context of the assignment. My favorite assignment was probably the PR assignment where I made a press release for my dad’s training company, Epley Training Systems. I really got to flex my interviewing and writing muscles again for that project, which I really enjoyed. I learned a lot about social media and how it’s rising in popularity. I was also really interested to learn all of the ways journalists can use social media for sources and content. Being in this class was a really fun learning experience that reinforced my choice to go into journalism.

If you're interested in seeing any of the projects I talked about, they're all right here on my blog!

#jomc101

Power Point Presentation on location based media, comparing what Yelp and FourSquare have to say about two Indian Food restaurants in Lincoln.

A sample of my PR capabilities. Epley Training Systems is a company based in North Platte, NE that focuses on individual training and goals. The release focuses on the company's construction of an outdoor obstacle course, set to be completed in Summer 2014.

#epleytraining #north platte #nebraska #training #press release

After a day at the Lincoln Children's Museum, I wondered what we would each do if we never had grown up. What adventures would you go on if you weren't "a bi...

"So, who ARE you?"

Hi. I’m Logann. I’m a girl, which confuses some people. It actually surprised my boyfriend’s parents the first time they met me (they were expecting a platonic new guy friend; I knocked at the door instead). I like to think I’m as unique as my name.

I’m a first-year journalism major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where I’ve wanted to go my whole life. When I was about 12, I wanted to apply to Princeton University—not to go there, but to turn them down to be a Husker. I’ve just begun a new leg of my journey to “having it all.”

I’m a Nebraska girl through and through, but I want to see the world someday. I love reading and telling stories because they allow you to experience something we may not have otherwise. Stories open our world up. They lead us to empathize with things we never knew existed. Stories can lead to change. I want to tell good stories.

I’ve loved writing since I was young. I even produced my own newspaper, The Pencilton Prophet, in the fourth grade. Pencilton, PA was the fictitious town I created for my pencils and pens to live. I named them all. I organized lists of what their characters did, which led to my little weekly four-page paper about them.

I promise I’m a well-adjusted young woman; or as well-adjusted as one can be at 18.

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Logann's thoughts spew here.