Facebook gets facelift

Big Changes Coming to Profile Pages on Facebook

Basically, Facebook held an hourlong meeting with the media to announce changes that will come to profile pages on its site. Read the story here.

More to come...

Athens water quality

The recent boiler order affecting thousands of on-campus residents left many people wondering how clean was the water they consume.
Through these photos, I dispel the rumors that urge consumers to drink only from a Brita filtering device. The water in Athens, although threatened from aging pipes and potential exposure to chemicals, is currently safe to drink.
This slide show comes just in time for the summer heat!

Click here to view flickr slideshow


Click on photos to see captions.

MTV to revive print journalism?

Here's hoping MTV can help make newspapers cool again
by Chuck Barney

God bless Amanda Lorber, a senior at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., who says “Journalists are the most important part of the world.”

Oh, a woman after my own heart. Say it loud and proud.

Amanda is editor-in-chief of the Circuit, an award-winning student publication that serves as the setting for MTV’s new reality series “The Paper” (10:30 p.m. EDT Mondays).

You heard right. A school newspaper. On MTV.

The show marks a real departure for the youth-centric cable network. It’s not “The Real World,” or “Laguna Beach,” or “The Hills.” Rich, hot-looking kids aren’t making out in Jacuzzis. They’re not slamming shots in some raucous club. They’re not prancing about in skimpy bikinis on spring break.

Instead, the show just focuses on smart, normal kids going to class, sacrificing large chunks of their social lives and pouring their passion into a ... newspaper.

Excuse me while I clear the lump in my throat.

And now permit me to ask: Can MTV actually help to make print journalism cool again? Oh, one can certainly dream.

Read the full story here.

Interviewing Stefanie Klaus

On the Sunday of Ohio University's annual mom's weekend, fifth-year senior Stefanie Klaus spoke with me about her mother's battle with breast cancer. Just seven months ago, Karen Klaus died after fighting six-years to beat the disease. This interview was the first time Stefanie spoke in great detail about her experience.

Journalism Day

The panel I was fortunate enough to attend on Wednesday was called Widening the Net: Political Campaigning and New Technologies. The gist of the discussion was how political candidates utilized alternative methods to combat opponents.

Rosemary Palmer and Anthony Fossaceca opened the panel with a review of Palmer's 2008 campaign for congress, which began as an idea when she lost a son to the Iraq war.

Palmer knew her political experience would be critiqued from the get-go because her only previous experience was at a local office in New Jersey. This put her at a serious disadvantage, especially against incumbent Dennis Kucinich.

But Palmer and Fossaceca had an idea that seems to match the slogan, "go big or go home." The Palmer campaign went for Kucinich and held nothing back. They ran campaign ads similar to the one below (*this part amended thanks to Fossaceca's comment below).

Kucinich campaign



It was this ad and others like this that brought attention to the previously unknown candidate. She became a name among bloggers-- a sign you really know you've made it big. Fossaceca also said that soon after donations-- small, but frequent-- entered the picture and Palmer became a player in the campaign.

They had money to create devices like this...
Bus video


But what is even more notable about the Palmer campaign is she allowed her constituents to guide her. Using You Tube and the Web she listed two potential Super Bowl advertisements and asked for users to vote for a favorite. She then wrote that if a few thousand donated only $5 each, the ad could potentially run during the Super Bowl.

Palmer didn't acquire the amount she needed for a spot during the football game, but her innovation did get picked up by television media and they ended up broadcasting the winning video.
Super Bowl Ad #1


Palmer lost the congressional campaign by a few votes, but in her mind she perceived the campaign as a victory. She is now known as the "Internet candidate" for the techniques she used and the precedent she set.

Journalists restricted on Internet

In a move designed to protect the Internet operations of its 32 teams, the pro football league has told news organizations that it will no longer permit them to carry unlimited online video clips of players, coaches or other officials, including video that the news organizations gather themselves on a team's premises. News organizations can post no more than 45 seconds per day of video shot at a team's facilities, including news conferences, interviews and practice-field reports.

See article here

Assertiveness workshop