[news-writing-com102]

COM-102 Reflections

I've learned a lot this semester in taking News Writing. Most importantly, I've learned about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and reporter. I’ve found that, through the various forms of reporting exercised in the class, my strengths lie in the writing of news, rather than the gathering of information with which to write.

The COM-102 class for Spring 2015. (Photo from @NewsCom102 Twitter)

I was surprised at how much easier it was to write in reporter-esque style as opposed to a more novelistic/essay type of style, like I had been taught for so many years. It was not hard for me to write in a journalistic way, and I enjoyed doing so very much. I would not be against the idea of continuing to write this way for any future journalism practices that I may delve into.

Photo of Nick and I from the beginning-of-the-semester scavenger hunt.

Despite my lacking to do so on occasion, I also enjoyed tweeting AACC-related news on a joint Twitter account. I found it rewarding to find a unique piece of news or to be the first to tweet about something that I thought would have already been tweeted about by one of my classmates.

Some of my favorite tweets included:

#AACC shows support of Charlie Hebdo victims with "Je Suis Charlie" rally http://t.co/hTZ4yx6Gq6 (via: AACC) #rs pic.twitter.com/dLAMSQngNT

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) January 30, 2015

Come see "The Vagina Monologues" this Thursday, March 12, at 7PM in the Kauffman Theater! #AACC #WomensHistoryMonth #rs

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) March 9, 2015

Don't forget to pack an extra cape, today (3/24) is Superhero Day! #AACC #SpiritWeek #rs

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) March 24, 2015

Happy Earth Day! Free flowers are being handed out in the cafeteria! #AACC #EarthDay2015 #rs

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) April 22, 2015

The Phantom of the Opera at AACC closes Sunday! See Broadway's longest-running musical before it's too late! Check AACC's site for info. #rs

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) April 24, 2015

AACC sent this alert out to all students this afternoon regarding the #BaltimoreRiots. Stay safe, everyone. #AACC #rs pic.twitter.com/rg6W9PjB1y

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) April 28, 2015

A small fire by careers, probably from cig butt, was promptly put out by campus safety around 3:20PM today. #AACC #rs pic.twitter.com/XdDd7PnudN

— Com102 AACC News (@NewsCom102) April 29, 2015

While there was not much of the class that I did not enjoy, I will say that the workload, while I expected it to be larger than it turned out to be, was still overwhelming at times, and that I wish I had prepared myself mentally to be more proactive when it came specifically to gathering information and conducting interviews for time-sensitive articles.

The most challenging assignment I completed was the entirety of the jobs fair article. While the writing of the article was not so difficult in and of itself, having to conduct interviews at the event while writing down information and composing tweets at the same time proved to be more challenging than I had assumed.

Photo from the AACC jobs fair, which I covered and live-tweeted.

I also found the news quizzes to be more difficult than expected, due solely on my inability to properly study for them. I thought they were interesting, nonetheless, and I appreciated how they made the class actively seek out information about what’s going on in the world. I wish I had been able to more fully commit to them.

All in all, I am glad that I took the News Writing class and gained the experience I did while doing so. As a communications major, I think that what I’ve learned over this past semester will help me greatly in whatever career path I choose. This class has given me more motivation to pursue communications, as I really did enjoy the journalism writing aspect of it. I could see myself doing something along the lines of the work done in this class as a job sometime in the near future. I definitely recommend this class to any fellow communications majors, or anyone just looking to gain a bit more writing experience.

[news-writing-com102]

Two Gunmen Killed in ‘Draw Muhammad’ Contest Attack

Exercise in free speech turns deadly in Charlie Hebdo-esque attack.

In Islam, it is considered blasphemous to depict the prophet Muhammad in physical form. A contest held in Garland, Texas on Sunday was based entirely around this fact.

The “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” invited around 200 guests to view over 350 depictions of the prophet from around the world, according to the American Freedom Defense Initiative, who organized the event.

Chopper footage following the attack on the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” in Garland, Texas last Sunday.

At around 7PM, just as the contest was coming to an end, two men pulled up in a car and open fired, according to CNN.

The men were quickly put down by the over 40 additional police officers that had been stationed at the event, at the cost of $10,000 to AFDI.

The exchange lasted about 15 seconds, police said.

Police spent hours searching the two men’s cars for explosives.

While none of the attendees at the event were hurt, one unarmed security guard was shot in the ankle and swiftly rushed to the hospital, but has since been released.

Security was very tight throughout the event, said police.

According to Vice News, Pamela Geller, co-founder of AFDI, posted statements regarding the attack on her website.

“The war is here,” said Geller. “The war for free speech is a shooting war. Will the US fight or surrender?”

Pamela Geller, Co-Founder of AFDI, who helped organize the contest. (Photo Credit: Newscom/Mariela Lombard)

Geller even went so far as to say that the two men were “clearly attempting a Charlie Hebdo-style jihad massacre in Garland, Texas.”

Less than five months ago, a group of gunmen shot 12 people dead at the Paris office of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, infamous for their outrageous cartoons and frequent attacks at Islam.

Thousands gathered outside the Charlie Hebdo offices in support, following the deadly attack last January that left 12 dead.

The event, organized as an exercise in free speech, according to AFDI, has only fueled the fire, in Geller’s eyes. She accused the media, via her website, of being cowards for not publishing photos of the cartoons at the exhibit.

“The cowardice of the enemedia has reached monstrous proportions,” she wrote. “They will stop at nothing to appease bloodthirsty jihad terrorists.”

The attack has been condemned on social media by Imam Zia Sheikh, an imam within the Islamic community in Dallas:

Shots fired at Pamela Geller event. The community stayed away from event. Seems like a lone wolf type of attack. Just what we didn't want.

— Imam Zia Sheikh (@ImamZia)

May 4, 2015

[news-writing-com102]

The Families of 43 Missing Mexican Students Rally in New York

Prove peaceful protest still possible.

Coverage of the events in Baltimore over the past few days may have prevented the message of the family members of 43 students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, from being widespread. 

I had not heard anything about this, and decided to investigate by looking at several articles on the Internet.

On Sunday, about 300 people marched from Washington Square Park in New York City to the United Nations building in efforts to “put pressure on the Mexican government to reopen investigations into exactly what happened to their loved ones,” according to Reed Dunlea, photographer for Vice News.

The march served as the final event in a week’s worth of actions in the city, but this was by far the first time attention has been brought to the cause.

I found that demonstrations in Mexico have been a bit more intense, including a truck being set on fire outside of the capitol building in the Mexican capital.

Thousands of demonstrators marched in Mexico City over the missing students in November of last year, but since then, little has been done on behalf of the Mexican government to alleviate the minds of the demonstrators.

The students, who went missing over seven months ago, are alleged to have been attacked by Mexican authorities (at the order of the mayor of Iguala, Guerrero) while on their way to participate in a protest. They were then said to have been captured and handed over to a local criminal organization who the mayor and his wife had ties to, who killed them and burned their remains.

The Mexican government has repeatedly denied these accusations, though the family members of the students are demanding answers, asking for the United States government to get involved.

It sickens me that nothing has been done to help the families and that no answers have been given to them. I wonder if it will take another seven months for justice to be brought to light.

The group heading the march has taken to using #Caravana43 on Twitter, allowing people all over the world to voice their opinions on the matter:

"If there isn't justice for the people, there won't be peace for the government"#Caravana43 pic.twitter.com/3lrU0aG6H5 #Ayotzinapa7Meses RT

— Norma ❏ ♕ (@normarsolis2) April 26, 2015

"Police brutality has no borders!"-sign here at #Caravana43 march in #NYC! #Ayotzinapa pic.twitter.com/OgNQSQHXDU

— Ash J (@AshAgony) April 26, 2015

#caravana43 desde NY Square pic.twitter.com/4JT5ikruLU

— MANUEL REVUELTAS (@REVUELTASManuel) April 26, 2015

[news-writing-com102]

[View the story "Michael Brown's Parents Sue Over Son's Death" on Storify]

[news-writing-com102]

Police Hopped Up Over Easter Bunny Meth Bust

Most people expect to find chocolates and a few plastic eggs in their baskets on Easter morning, but Oklahoma police got a little bit more than they bargained for this past Friday.

Police in Tahlequah, located in Tulsa County, intercepted a FedEx package containing one stuffed Easter Bunny at the residence of Carolyn Ross, according to Fox News.

The Easter Bunny and its package.

“We’ve intercepted narcotics in the mail before,” said Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King.

A hole was found cut into the bottom of the rabbit, and inside laid over one pound of methamphetamine, with a street value of over $30,000.

“There were two condoms stuffed with meth and stuffed inside the rabbit,” said King.

Two meth-filled condoms were found inside the bunny.

Tahlequah police were alerted to the package by Tulsa County deputies, who knew that the package was en route to Ross’s home in Tahlequah.

One officer, posed as a FedEx delivery worker, went to Ross’s home and served her the package, followed by an anticipatory search warrant.

Officials said that Ross confessed to knowing the drugs were in the mail, saying that she was supposed to redistribute them to someone else.

Photo of Carolyn Ross, courtesy of Tahlequah Police.

The bust gives more relevance to an increasing problem in the Tahlequah area, and investigators are saying that this is just the beginning.

“It’s not the prize egg that we want in Tahlequah,” said King. 

Ross is being held on $75,000 bond at the Cherokee Detention Center.

The strange occurrence caught national attention, with Twitter posts multiplying almost as fast as rabbits over the past few days:

Police in OK found a bag of meth in an Easter bunny toy. I guess you could say that bunny was....hopped up *cue CSI Miami theme song*

— laura salty (@laura_salty) April 5, 2015

THE EASTER BUNNY IS CURRENTLY STRUGGLING WITH A METH ADDICTION

— FACTS IN UPPERCASE (@UPPERCASEFACTS) April 5, 2015

Woke up to some meth! Thanks Easter bunny ❤️

— laur (@laurasner) April 4, 2015

OPINION: I think it’s crazy the lengths that some people will go to break the law, even going so far as to ruin the image of a holiday character. Meth is a problem all across the country, and I am glad to hear that law enforcement are making strides in preventing its spread.

[news-writing-com102]

Coca-Cola Seeks Brand Unification

The Coca-Cola Company announced recently that it plans to roll out two new branding campaigns over the next year.

These branding campaigns will demonstrate the company’s most recent endeavor to unify the various beverages they produce under the globally-recognizable ‘Coca-Cola’ logo.

“With this new approach, whichever Coke you choose, you’ll have the iconic Coca-Cola brand in your hand,” said Javier Sanchez Lamelas, Vice-President, Marketing, Coca-Cola Europe. “It extends the iconicity of Coca-Cola advertising across the entire portfolio, promoting all Coca-Cola variants with the power of the original brand.”

Currently, Coca-Cola’s products rest under slightly different brand identities, with Classic Coca-Cola being red, Diet Coke being grey, Coke Zero being black, and the newest edition, Coke Life, being green.

Not every country will be getting the same treatment, however.

Twelve countries will be receiving the new Monocolor look (pictured below), which keeps the unique colors of the original designs, but use the same label layout, font, and iconic swoosh.

Spain, in particular, will be the only country to have the “Split” design, in which two thirds of each can is red and the rest keeps the current color of each product.

The United States will be getting a slightly less-noticeable adjustment, with the Monocolor style coming to Coca-Cola, Coke Zero, and Coke Life, but sparing Diet Coke, who will maintain its current appearance.

(Photo Credit: The Coca-Cola Company)

I find it very interesting whenever a company decides to change their branding, however large the change might be. Being a Coca-Cola enthusiast and collector for the past six years, I am excited at any and all news that Coca-Cola diverges. I anticipate seeing how these roll-outs take place, and how much the general public will notice the change.

[news-writing-com102]

ISIL Gas Attack ‘Highly Likely’

Events of the last two weeks in Syria and Iraq have United Kingdom chemical weapons experts concerned for public safety.

According to Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer at the Joint Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Regiment, Islamic State militants returning to the UK could launch chlorine gas attacks in very public areas.

Gordon said that the last two weeks in Syria and Iraq have seen more chemical weapons activity since the 1980′s Iran-Iraq War.

ISIL has, evidently, been putting time and resources into training its jihadis to use chlorine as a weapon of terror - specifically its use in improvised explosive devices.

While this should be of concern to the United States as well as the UK, the current state of things across the pond is that “up to 90 tons of chlorine can be purchased without any licenses,” said Gordon.

He added that, because of this, a chlorine gas attack is “highly likely.”

“This could happen on a train or tube or even at a big football match.”

Methods for the weaponization of chlorine gas are simple enough that even the smallest attack could have disastrous results.

Attacks are preventable, says Gordon.

“Undoubtedly, and hopefully, the CIA, FBI, MI 5 and 6 etc. will be taking a very close look at returning jihadis and in particular anybody buying toxic chemicals.”

It is my opinion that the US government should definitely take large motions to prevent any sort of chemical attack occurring here. Hopefully legislation will change in the UK to prevent such large amounts of chemicals being bought with no certification or licenses needed. 

(photo: Justin Tallis, AFP/Getty Images)

[news-writing-com102]

Charges Made in the Largest Email Hack 'In the History of the Internet'

What do an Enterprising Canadian, two tech-savvy Vietnamese citizens living in the Netherlands, and the marketing website Marketbay have in common? Well, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice last Friday that they all link to a 2009 hack being hailed as 

"the largest data breach of names and email addresses in the history of the Internet."

The two Vietnamese citizens - Viet Quoc Nguyen and Giang Hoang Vu, reportedly hacked into the networks of eight email service providers across the US, and are said to have made millions of dollars doing so.

But how did they turn over a billion useless email addresses into profit? 

The answer points to the Canadian, David-Manuel Santos Da Silva, former owner of the now-defunct Marketbay marketing website. 

Da Silva hired Nguyen and Vu as marketers around May 2009, and between that time and October 2011, the two spammed email inboxes whose addresses they obtained through hacks, all of which contained links to Marketbay.

Da Silva reportedly cut Nguyen and Vu a slice of whatever money was gained from sales on his website due to this traffic, amounting to the exchange of approximately $2 million between them.

Vu and Da Silva were arrested in 2011, yet Nguyen fled from authorities, and is still on the run as of March 9, 2015.

This case has made recent headlines due to the arraignment of Da Silva, who pleaded guilty to commit money laundering on Wednesday. His case is still ongoing, as the charges brought towards him are only accusations until proven true in a court of law.

Vu, on the other hand, has pleaded guilty, and is currently awaiting sentence.

The Department of Justice just now releasing all of this information, causing some uproar from the internet in response, given the news' entirely late coming.

It is my opinion that anything that involves the public's safety, be it physically or financially, should be made known to them at the earliest appropriate time. Four years to wait for this information to surface is quite a fair bit of time, especially when it involves what is claimed to be something so humongous as this. I have confidence that swift justice will be brought to these men, albeit a bit after-the-fact.

(photo credit: ABC News) 

[news-writing-com102]

Military Selfies from Space

The Pentagon is currently working on creating small disposable camera-like satellites that will enable ground troops in the military to take high-quality, overhead selfies.

The project, officially called 'Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements', or SeeMe, seeks to launch 24 water cooler-sized satellites into orbit around the Earth, each containing a 10-inch telescope.

These satellites will enable soldiers across the globe to quickly get updated high-resolution photos of their surroundings within 90 minutes of requesting them via their military-designated mobile devices.

Aside from allowing troops to bypass the slow process of traditional military image requesting, the project will also accomplish something that the Department of Defense has wanted to do for the past decade: break away from single, large, orbiting spacecraft.

Having even a dozen of these satellites, each of which could cost a mere $1.5 million to put into orbit (rather than the average $225 million the US government currently pays for space launches), would allow for wider coverage, increased accuracy, and swift replacement upon damage or failure.

To top it all off, the small size of these satellites virtually removes the current problem of space debris that plagues the upper atmosphere today, since the satellites would completely burn up upon reentering the lower atmosphere.

The prospect of nearly real time satellite imagery has always excited me, and I am very eager to see how this project develops. With the emergence of commercial space ventures, I believe that there is incredible potential for this technology.

Who knows - maybe some day we'll be taking orbital selfies, ourselves!

(Photo Credit: RCB / Flickr)

[news-writing-com102]

Dashcam Records Cop Turning Camera Off While Officers Allegedly Beat and Tase Teen

A newly-released video from April 2014 showing the traffic stop of a teenager is causing quite a stir in St. Louis courts.

The video, which was released Monday, shows one Cortez Bufford, 18, being beaten and tased by over six officers, but the main point of contention comes from what happens immediately before the end of the dashboard camera's recording.

Following the beating, an off-camera officer is heard saying:

"Hold up. Hold up, y'all. Hold up. Hold up, everybody, hold up. We're red right now, so if you guys are worried about cameras, just wait."

The footage then cuts to black, after the recording is turned off, presumably by the same officer.

According to Bufford's lawyer, who filed a lawsuit against four of the officers in January, "red" is a police slang term for a camera that is active and recording.

Bufford claims that officers continued to beat him, resulting in nearly $6,500 worth of medical bills. 

This news comes from a year that saw much hostility towards the police force in America, with the Ferguson riots happening just three months later. It is, of course, not good news for the police force of Missouri, was tensions have only potentially just now began settling throughout the state. 

I am of the personal opinion that officers should always have cameras on them. For an officer to knowingly and cautiously turn off a camera should result in them losing their badge, since at that point, their integrity is entirely compromised. I am not sure if the alleged beating occurred or not, but I do know that the officers involved have shown that they do not have the respect that they should have as officers towards those that they are watching over, and for that, they should be reprimanded.

For more information, check out the VICE article here.

[news-writing-com102]

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Taiwanese commercial flight with 53 passengers aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into a river in the island's capital of Taipei on Wednesday morning.

[news-writing-com102]

Jordan Vows "Earth-Shaking" Response to ISIS Hostage Burning

On Tuesday, a video was released by the Islamic State showing the murder of Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh, whose plane had crashed in Syria in late December of last year. The video shows Kasasbeh standing in a black metal cage, as he is completely engulfed in flames, leading to his death. Rubble is then thrown at his still-burning corpse and the video ends.

Jordanian army spokesperson, Colonel Mamdouh al Ameri, claimed that the nation's revenge "will be as big as the calamity that has hit Jordan."

Read the full story here (via Yahoo News).

[news-writing-com102]

Here's a neat VICE article!

[news-writing-com102]

What am I hoping to learn?

I'm hoping to hone my writing skills in this class to make them better suited for the world of business - a world that I hope to enter into at some point in my future career.

I also would like to learn how to properly conduct an interview, gathering as much information from the interviewee as possible, while being as swift and thorough as I can be.

It also will be interesting to read others' reports and stories, so as to see their unique styles of journalism and how they change over the semester.

This semester is going to be full of hard work, but very rewarding!

[news-writing-com102]

This blog is going to feature stories and opinion pieces from my News Writing Communications class, which I am taking at Anne Arundel Community College for the Spring 2015 semester.

Expect loads of interesting things here in the future!

Reed Sigmon