A Discussion With Eric Athas

My first impression of Eric Athas was that he very could have been another student in our Multimedia class. Clean cut, and armed with a Mac Book Pro, he seemed to blend in well with the rest of the journalism students. There is one major difference between Eric Athas and the masses of journalism hopefuls at UMass Amherst: He’s made it.

By ‘making it’ I don’t mean that Athas has a six-figure salary and is friends with celebrities; I mean that he has a successful career. A successful career to a college student seems like a far off entity that we are constantly chasing until we finally graduate and then….wait for it….we’re living at our parents house to pay off student loans.

Athas struck me as a student whose brain never really seemed to turn off. Before graduating in 2008, he had a number of accomplishments in the journalism field at UMass Amherst. He had the brainchild that would turn into what is now know as the Amherst Wire (link) and was a liaison to the western Massachusetts publication known as masslive.com. Hearing these achievements made me envious, but after further explanation Athas made it known that it wasn’t impossible for students to get involved in these types of publications, you just had to have the right amount of determination.

Noteworthy news seemed to shape Athas’ early career. As a student he followed a story of a student who had allegedly committed suicide in India (link). His coverage and investigative reporting led to negative comments by her friends but ultimately there was more to the story than meets the eye and Athas was apart of that for the duration of the publication. The theme of ‘wearing your journalism hat’ continued later in his career as well. As a homepage editor at the Washington Post, he was one of the first on the scene to a murder at a Lululemon Yogashop. With his journalism hat intact, he was able to break the story that turned out to be much more than a simple homicide.

Another point that was stressed in the discussion with Athas was hard work and networking. He provided countless examples of times that he has been put in contact with people by chance. Athas found his new job at NPR by befriending someone at a conference in Toronto, and many years later it landed him a job. The importance of networking seems to be essential to landing a successful job in the modern journalism field. Patience is another factor. One does not simply graduate from college and land in an amazing job, you have to work your way up the ladder to get where you want to be. Athas is a prime example of a student with a curiosity and love for journalism and a fantastic work ethic. He stuck to his beliefs when he covered stories and always worked hard to uncover the truth. Having Athas speak to us gave us an insight into the world of hard working journalists, and it became apparent that everyone needs to always wear their journalism hat.

Reactions to Post Superbowl Expulsions

New England Patriots 17 -  New York Giants 21
Soon after the Patriots second straight super bowl loss to the Giants, students from the University of Massachusetts flooded into the school’s South West Residence Area to demonstrate their discontent.

Giants fans were sprinkled throughout the crowd, and the antics of the crowd soon grew destructive. Video evidence from the scene depicts fights, disorderly conduct, and destructive behavior.

Police officers moved in soon after the mass of students formed, and 13 people were arrested.

The initial arrests were not the end of the legal action against students. Just days after the incident, the University of Massachusetts Police Department released photos of student ‘trouble makers’ who were identified from numerous videos of the incident.

“They were really looking for people that were doing something. Not just people who were standing there and were unlucky enough to be caught on video,” said Student Government Association Speaker Jared Rose.

Identified students faced punishments including either expulsion or suspension. According to Ed Blaguszewski of the Office of News and Media relations at UMass, these consequences were determined almost immediately.

SGA Attorney General Kyle Howard questioned whether the University should be pursuing these individuals for an event that has already passed.

“The time for arrests has passed in my opinion,” said Howard. “It would be unfortunate for them to start identifying people out of the blue.”

Furthermore, he stressed that those who were arrested were given the right to due process.

“They will sometimes take a police report as indisputable fact,” said Howard. “It is really important that both sides get their facts heard,” which would prevent students from wrongful punishment for a situation that he sees as no body’s fault.

Raucous gatherings are not a new concept for UMass, instances like the previous World Series championship wins and last years death of Osama Bin Laden have resulted in these uproars.

Both student leaders and administration alike are trying to shed the image that these commotions bring.

“People think [rioting] is part of the UMass experience,” said Blaguszewski. “Ultimately I think it’s foolish.”

And it would seem the SGA agrees with him as well because the Monday meeting after the gathering featured a recess, or an uncharacteristic break from formality in which students were able to voice opinions on the issue in an open setting.

Profile Interviews

Here is an interview with Felicia Cohen, a sophomore at Umass Amherst.

Examining Peak Oil Websites

The internet is such a vast, unforgiving animal that diligent students need training on indentifying information that is actually valuable, or information that isn’t valuable and is just spewed out on the internet. John R. Henderson has a tutorial that is a series of exercises that train students to sift through information on the World Wide Web. Peak oil is a hot-button topic that has such a large impact on the economy and the well-being on the planet. Henderson’s exercise gives us five websites to observe and decide whether the information is credible and which information is not.

The first website was an article about the peak oil situation. The layout of the website seemed juvenile, even though the website was an .org, which merits some legitimacy, I had doubts on how credible this website is. While there is an RSS feed on the sidebar, the rest of the website is simple. Simple colors of black and burnt yellow and a list of links on the left sidebar was suspicious, I don’t want to brag but with a few hours I might be able to create the same exact website. I did not find the information to be credible.

The second website, was a website that posted topics about the dangers of peak oil. Smack dab in the center of the page was a chart that showed the BCD comparison. Charts! Everyone loves charts! However, I was still skeptical. It seems like the website is designed solely to take down the oil business, making them biased. The sidebars include a blog roll and a button to donate, I did not find the information at this website to be valuable.

The third website had a 404 error message. Alas, errors. Based on the previous two websites, I probably wouldn’t have found this information credible.

The fourth website, was a news article. Brilliant! Some information I can actually find valuable! The Huffington Post article was written to educate readers about the danger of peak oil. The reason I found this information valuable was because it came from a credible source. Any sort of publication whether it be the New York Times, Huffington Post, etc has to be valid because people are being paid to write these stories, and not to plagiarize. Also, the content is for the world to read, not for someone who accidentally stumbles upon a website.

The fifth website, was another article. However, this article was from the information-clearing house, which doesn’t seem like a credible news source to me. The website layout was less attractive than all of the other websites. There was the article posted in the center, and there was no information on the sidebars for navigation. It almost seemed like another persons blog. Even though this article seemed to have boundless information and was inundated with statistics, I just couldn’t find the information credible. Especially not with one of the titles of the website saying “news you won’t find on CNN”. Is that because it isn’t actual news?

Henderson’s exercise was helpful, journalism students need to be well versed in spotting information that might not be valuable or credible. With all of the social media websites and regular people having access to a wealth of information at their fingertips, correctly identifying quality information is paramount.

Would American Forefather's Be Proud Of SOPA?

A few weeks ago, SOPA, the stop online piracy act exploded onto the Internet in the form of protests. Average people going on websites would find a black screen with a SOPA emblem explaining what the act actually is and why that specific website is blocked from view. The SOPA was passed in legislation to stop the trafficking of intellectual property and counterfeit goods. With the Internet having essentially no rules or regulations regarding what is traded and viewed online. Massive Internet shopping websites are what we think is Internet trading, but in reality there are millions of other websites that illegally traffic goods all over the world. 

The outrage over the SOPA act was most notable on Wikipedia. Personally, I use Wikipedia for almost everything, which is a little embarrassing to admit but it’s a wealth of information at my fingertips. On January 18, 2012 websites like Wikipedia blacked out their entire pages for the day. SOPA essentially wipes out the freedom of speech for bloggers like me. So if you like free speech, and student blogs, protest the SOPA act. Over 160 million people allegedly viewed Wikipedia’s homepage, and Google had organized protests and boycotts in New York City. 

This act is going to become a serious threat to search engines like Google. Domain names to internet websites will now be blocked off and the information that is flowing through powerful search engines like Google will slowly but surely be bled dry until there is no current information free flowing at all. I mean think about it, how do you find the answer to your questions? Google. How do you find out where you are? Google maps. How do you find an image of someone using only a few vague words? Google. This is what’s at stake, the ease of finding information is going to be completely erased and us as students are going to be forced to look things up in encyclopedias! 

That’s an exaggeration, but it is ironic that this SOPA act drawn up by the American Government is directly violating one of the core constitutional amendments: the right to freedom of speech. In my opinion, we are starting to limit what other people are saying just because the Internet is the modern equivalent to the Wild West. If there were just some small rules or more secure networks in place to regulate certain sites that this stolen intellectual property and trafficking of goods will probably cease to exist. Instead of trying to black out the entire Internet, legislation should focus on the small things rather than spoiling the wonderful invention of the Internet for everyone. 

To be honest, I don’t think the SOPA act will stick; I think it is one of those passing legislations that are there as a scare tactic rather than something that will actually solve issues of the Internet. Instead of everyone becoming paranoid of ‘big brother’ blacking out their favorite Internet sites, they should be concentrating harder on their everyday lives.

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my Journalism 397 Multimedia Blog. This blog will feature assignments given in my Multimedia Journalism class which will include video, audio and writing.

This blog will be used to express my opinions in many subjects such as sport, travel, and world news. My twitter feed is located on the right hand side, constantly being updated with free flowing thoughts right from my fingertips. Blogs I have found interesting are also located on the right hand side, including such blogs as Rolling Stone and BBC news.

As a journalism major, quality writing is my main goal. While my professional interests include working on radio and potentially doing sports broadcasting, writing is where everything starts. My writing needs to be critiqued and analyzed, and there is no better way to go about it than to set up this blog. 

As journalism constantly evolves, us students are now being trained to use all sorts of new tools to try and provide a constant flow of information to the hungry public. Websites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and  are at our fingertips ready to be called into action at a moments notice. So never fear readers, you will be informed. Quickly.

To all of the readers who stumble upon this blog (either accidentally or on purpose): I do hope you enjoy the content constantly posted.

Dylan Merry