Final Project- Spring Dip

Video Project II

There are many health issues that occur to students who are newly introduced to the college life, or happen to be under a lot of stress or work.  With hectic schedules, students can get caught up in unhealthy behaviors.  

                According to a website for the “Science Daily”, the 2007 College Student Health Survey Report traced a series of health problems including Menningitis, Obesity and sleep deprivation. 

One of the most important to a healthy college life it what your diet consists of. Many college students resort to cheap items such as Ramen Noodles or any other boxed processed food.  Eating “food” like this is a fast way to increase your blood pressure and also increase your chances of having a heart attack. 

Obesity is a continuous problem for America today, especially among college students.  Studies from UNH (in 2007) showed that about 1/3^rd of their 12,000+ enrolled undergraduates were either overweight, or obese. 

The first step any college student can go to is taking a look at the Food Guide Pyramid.  This Pyramid is an outline of what to eat each day based on the “Dietary Guidelines.” 

The bottom of the pyramid contains the largest proportions (6-11 servings), containing foods such as bread, cereal, rice and pasta groups.  As you move towards the top of the pyramid, you have your veggies, fruits, milk yogurt and cheese, and right at the top at the smallest amounts you have fats, oils and sweets. 

                Even though dieting is a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle, exercise is just as important. Contrary to making efforts to eating healthy, many college students seem to stay on track with working out and going to the gym. 

Our group randomly surveyed ten people on the Lyndon State campus, and six said that participated in some sort of exercise at least 3 times a week, whether it was going to the gym, or running.   Now even though we only surveyed ten people, it already shows that students up here in Northern Vermont are making an effort to live healthy.

The gym is a great place to go and get your exercise needs, but for people starting off, they need to have an idea of what they are doing.  They need to make sure they have a routine so their body can continuously recognize what it’s doing. 

It is also important to remember to not work the same body part two days in a row. For example, if you lift arms one day, focus on legs the next, or take a day off from lifting and go out for a run which helps your cardiovascular endurance.

These are just some small tips for anyone who wants to boost their college lifestyle in the healthiest way possible.

Video Project- Hobbies

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-774378

“A hobby is an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation” according to one dictionary. Another dictionary describes it as an activity someone does in their leisure time for pleasure.

A hobby can be virtually anything: playing video games, sports, cards, cycling, collecting items or even reading (yes, some people may like to read). Most people find hobbies in their younger years and end up sticking with them throughout their lifetime.

The most common hobbies today are playing sports. When children are young, either: their mother, their father or older figure gets them into sports because it is a great way to make friends at a young age.

Sports are great hobbies because they reflect your personality, when playing active sports you exhibit: dedication, passion and teamwork.

Although sports are great, they aren’t for everyone. One of the more popular hobbies on the Lyndon State campus is playing video games. Many of the students (mostly male) like to play video games with fellow students. Not only does it help create friends, but it also fills a competitive need that most college men seem to have.

A hobby isn’t something that you have to do all the time or something that everyone else does. It is simply something that you enjoy and do it because you love it.

Yesterday, (Tuesday, April 10), there were a couple students on campus demonstrating a “new” hobby of theirs…slacklining.

Slacklining is an activity where a 1” wide nylon rope is tied to two anchor points (trees in this instance) and you use the said rope as a balancing exercise. You can essentially do whatever you want when slacklining: jump on it, do flips, use it like a balance beam or even do yoga on it.

The versatility of the activity is what makes it so addicting and fun, but there’s no doubt it takes some practicing and getting used to to.

Another common hobby that LSC students have on campus is trading card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering. Without getting into too much detail, these games have thousands of different cards in which you make your own deck (usually 40-60 cards) and you use these cards in an effort to get your opponents “lifepoints” down to zero.

These games can actually be very complex because there is so much strategy behind the cards, and each card has its own different effect.

Audio Slideshow Project 2

Being a News7 reporter is certainly no easy task. Right when you begin your shift down in the newsroom, there are expectations of you. No matter what, the first thing any News7 reporter needs to accomplish is finding a story. This can either be done by the reporter himself, or by searching through “INews” to see if the producer has a story ready for the reporter.
Once the story is found, it is up to the reporter and his partner, the photographer, to go out on the story, and of course making any appropriate calls. The location of the story has to be done within the “squiggle”, which is an outlined area the covers much of northern/eastern Vermont and a small portion of New Hampshire. The reporter’s main job out on in the field is to interview and ask questions to supplement the video of the story.
Back in the newsroom, the footage captured out in the field will then be revised in the “editing bay”. The reporter needs to find the best quotes and “sound bites” to use for the finished version of the piece.
In the course “Local News Gathering” (prerequisite), you are asked to create a Finder Binder. This binder holds an enormous amount of information that can help you spruce up your stories. Finder Binder material ranges from the definitions of newsroom lingo to profile sketches of politicians to everyday tips of being a reporter.
In the newsroom/editing bay, the station personnel use words that aren’t everyday jargon but are common while at work. Not only are some of these words bizarre, there are also about three other synonyms per definition.
For example, an OTS is an over-the-shoulder graphic. Also called a: box, topic box or OSG. Then you have a Vo/Sot, which is a more common term in the edit bay. It is simply an easy way to say “voiceover-to-sound on tape.” Which is further defined as the anchor reading a script as the video is transitioned to the television, and then the interviewee’s voice and picture is shown.
Evan Coughlin is an alumnus of Lyndon State College and the Electronic Journalism Arts program. He had a lot of great things to say about News7 but he also said you need to make sure you are ready, time management is key and you need to have your priorities straight.
Coughlin later went on to say that the transition from the classroom to the newsroom is difficult and scary, however, you learn quickly. He also stated that the three hardest things about News7 are: meeting deadlines, finding story ideas and getting interviews. (He did not ever mention technical difficulties).
The media might not be for everyone, but everyone can appreciate what it has to offer. There is an exhilarating feeling when you barely meet a deadline then you see your story on the news.

Audio Slideshow Project Two Synopsis

For our second audio slideshow project, we will be conducting an interview and taking many pictures of Phil Alexander, essentially making it “A Day in the Life of a News 7 Reporter.”

We will be specifically taking pictures of what he does throughout the day down at News7, so people can get a general idea of what he does, or accomplishes in a complete shift. Some examples of photos might be him going out on a story, or him editing/shooting his footage.

We plan on using an iphone camera for the photos (the quality is adequate) and for the voice we will be interviewing him, but not including our voices in the slideshow, so it will just be Phil talking the whole time, but feeding off of our questions.
This will be an interesting project because not everyone fully understands what people go through down at News7, and this will give them a pretty good idea. Our intended audience is college students, but particularly underclassmen in the EJA major who are not down at News7 yet.

Audio Editor: Daniel Weiner
Interview/Synopsis/Story: Alex Farnworth and John Kazar
Photos and Photo Editing: Jianchun Zheng

CBS Atlanta FB Page

After looking at the CBS Atlanta Facebook page, I saw that it was very informational when it came to its information. The details about the station were well written and informative.

However, the stories were mostly open ended opinion questions and not hard news. When you have all questions and no hard news, it can leave the reader misinformed because they don't have the same good news stories, and talk about "4 dollar a gallon gas" instead of a murder that happened, because it can get more likes and comments instead of informing the reader.

Audio Slideshow Project

Lyndon State College freshman Dylan Chase is an avid sports fan and loves to play as much as he loves to talk about it.

Chase was a self-taught basketball player and has come extremely far from where he started. This New Hampshire native only started playing basketball so he could fit in with his friends.

Moving on to high school ball, Dylan said he was always the second best player on his team. The former New Hampshire All-State player said his favorite part about basketball is playing defense and that is what he works on the most.

Considering he went to a small high school (only 22 in graduating class). Lisbon Regional won the championship in his senior season despite being knocked out in the first round of the tournament in recent years.

After going through the competitive stage in high school, Dylan wanted to take a more lackadaisical approach and try out intramurals at Lyndon. The reason for playing he said was just to stay in shape and have fun.

Although it is only intramurals, Dylan said he still likes to bring his competitive edge. He is a very passionate and grateful athlete, he mentioned that he loves intramurals and doesn’t take it for granted because other schools might not offer them to students.

Keep in mind, we aren’t talking about high school, or college varsity basketball, we are taking about intramurals. Although Chase is grateful to have intramurals, he still feels there could be improvements made.

The referees are the focal point of what Dylan is talking about when he says improvements could be made. No one is solely to blame; it is because of both the referees not making the calls and the players not being respectful.

Dylan is a classy athlete; he plays hard, gives it everything he’s got and he does not argue with the officiating.

We asked Dylan who he felt he represented as a player, he jokingly said Dwight Howard. After spectating a game, I suggested he plays like Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls. He chuckled and said in a humbled voice “I like Luol, he’s a great player.”

Only a freshman, but Dylan is one of the most skilled basketball players in the intramural league. He said he is going to stick to intramurals and has no intent on playing for the varsity team.

Like most players, he is in it for the sheer fun of playing.