Inauguration madness

*Out with the old, in with the new*

Election Day and Inauguration were field days for the media this election season. So in order to not repeat what you've already seen a hundred times, Obama's speech, or who wrote it, and so forth, I thought I'd share some inaugural stories from a young journalist.

Today I experienced the horror of any journalist, technical difficulties. I covered two events at two different schools with no photographer and because I have a camera-- I'm obviously being facetious-- I was supposed to take my own photos. That I did, until the end of the second event when my camera flashed the dreaded red screen reading "card error, to reformat card, press OK." DO NOT PRESS OK.

I know better because it erases the pictures, the only problem is getting the pictures requires data recovery and all other sorts of things a daily newspaper doesn't have time for. So plan B and C were set into motion and I managed to get photos from parents, teachers etc., but I'm sad that the little kids holding "hope" and "dream" posters, and the young woman crying while holding an American flag listening to Obama's speech are trapped hostage in my camera. It's beyond frustrating.

My other point of madness occurred when a Jersey City cop gave me a ride from one school to the other and the proceeded to ask me out. Are you serious? Wait, hold on, again, are you serious?

That all being said, I'm happy I spent the inauguration at a high school where today meant so much to so many.

*Pictures pulled from the Huffington Post

Social media sites

Internet News posted an article about the role social media sites have in breaking news.

Do sites like twitter and facebook do a better job with breaking news? Possibly, only in that, if an eyewitness sees a plane crash and immediately updates their status on facebook seconds after the crash, well then, he broke the story, but that's it. There's no "who, why or how" to it. Maybe there's the answer to "where the incident occurred?" because he saw the event occur, and sure maybe he answered "what occurred?" simply by describing the event, but we all see things all the time,... that doesn't mean we always know the answers.

I think these sites are important to the news industry and to some degree helpful, but I still think news sites, AP bulletins and so forth do a better job reporting the story. But citizen journalism should not be discouraged. With the downfall/major reorganization of the news industry we're going to have to start relying and falling back on the everyday people. Because honestly, the news industry doesn't have the man power it once did. We can't be everywhere and anywhere. But people are everywhere and anywhere and if they see something amazing, terrifying, incredible happen, well, then, I'm glad they've taken it upon themselves to inform the rest of us.



My advice is don't discourage news via social sites, but always skim with skepticism when the poster starts explaining things he didn't see or when he starts assuming and drawing conclusions from thin air. Just look on, but look carefully.