Hip Hop Mogul loses $1M to Rapper

My article was a pop culture article in the Hip Hop industry about the Hip Hop mogul, Diddy (on right), gambling and losing $1 million to rapper Rick Ross (left). I found the text of the article to be strong because it gave the readers the full story as to what happened in this gamble over what seemed to be pocket change to these Hip Hop giants. The video was a strong form of media in this article because it uses a popular form of social media. It’s also strong because it draws the viewers in with the appearance of celebrities. It gives the audience something they want to see: the way celebrities act in their down time. The ability to comment on the article is very effective because it lets readers leave feedback and share their thoughts on the story. It also lets other members comment or like comments left by previous members leaving potential for short term discussions. All together these three media were prominent in grabbing the audience’s attention and keeping them interested. If I could change anything about this article it would be the video that was used. I would have personally wanted to make a video and possibly interview the two about the bet. The video used in the article was not made by the article writer but provided by them by using one ofthe rapper’s social media accounts.

I am not responsible for what other people have commented.

http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/diddy-apparently-lost-s1-million-to-rick-ross-in-a-dice-game-news.7250.html

Colorado Flooding

              Over 170 people are missing in the devastating flooding in the rocky mountains of Colorado.  At least four people have been killed as well. Over thousands of civilians were evacuated, as the flooding could get worse over the weekend. Many civilians are also trapped in the flood while others are stranded. With no electricity or power, it makes it even worse for people unable to contact one another.

              In the text, the emergency responders were doing their best work to help as much as possible. Over 160 civilians were evacuated on Friday by air to a local town that wasn’t as bad as the others. Over 140 roads were closed to ensure the safety of others headed to Colorado. In one county, their were 46 medical rescues on Friday and continued throughout the weekend. Emotions were sparked since many were missing or in a terrible situation. One woman was stranded in her apartment with her 1-month-old baby and her no way out. Thankfully the National Guard arrived and when asks how she felt she replied, “It just really felt God came down and rescued us.” Another woman named Catherine Smith had heavy water and mud falling through her roof and she simply replied, “It was terrifying.” The strength of the print to me is how it’s telling me the situation these people are in and I can picture them in my head. Also it’s telling me how these weather conditions can damage almost everything.

               In one of the videos in the article, a family had to travel on foot to get to safety. The father seemed relieved that he and his family got to safety. He also said the scary part about this is the loud noises he heard from the water and wind crashing in.  His daughter was the brave one, saying nothing was scary and just wanted to get to the destination. In the other video a woman name Katie Farmer said her mom’s house was completely destroyed by the storm. Katie knew where her mother was but also sounded worried because the two haven’t spoken in a couple of days. The strengths of the videos are telling the viewers what position the victims are in. Also, the emotion these victims’ expressions feel depressing because these guys are missing there loved ones and lost their property.

               The viewers commenting on the article feel terrible as well. The majority of the comments gave out their condolences and wishes everyone to be safe. I saw one comment saying the National Guard should be recognized because they’re putting their life on the line. The strength of the interactivity encourages the victims to keep positive and everyone has their backs. I wouldn’t change anything; I want to hear good news about this disaster.

Congress returning to business as usual

With everyone still abuzz on whether or not President Obama plans to invade Syria has been the talk of the nation for the past few weeks, but Congress has started to deal with the domestic issues, like the proposed defunding of Obamacare. (Buzzfeed has done a great job explaining the situation, like only they can.) If any of you reading this aren't familiar with Buzzfeed, you should probably try and fix that. The website covers a variety of interests, from movies, politics, and debating over the redesigning of female super hero costumes (as you can see here).
Buzzfeed uses screenshots from the twitter account of Justin Amash, a Republican representative on what he thinks about the defunding of the proposed “Obamacare” saying “I do not support the #hocuspocus plan that defunds #Obamacare”. The video, coming from the popular movie “Zoolander” is Will Ferrell saying “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” was linked originally by a GOP aide, which they said accurately described Congress right now. This article has a lot of strengths, one of which being the use of social media like Twitter and Youtube to show that this has become a cross generational form of communication.

The article not only addresses how Congress has put aside the political differences to come to the consensus on what to do with Syria, but it also talks about how the government is trying to get back to its normal job of dealing with domestic issues, like the threatened defunding of “Obamacare”. The way that the extra forms of media work with the text makes it very easy to follow along with the article, and the comment section also comes with a place that you can rate the article, going on a system that is very specific to this website, which goes from “Epic!” to “Trashy” and “WTF”.

I feel that the article would work a little bit better would be if they included more statements from the people in Congress, or had a video showing that Congress was on the way back to dealing with domestic issues. At the same time, the informal feel the article has puts a new spin on the way that most people view politics, making it easier for someone younger to get a feel for the article. The other thing about the website in general is that it has the interesting and related links on both the bottom and the side of the page, giving you the option to click on them if you’re actually interested in reading them, but not being so large as to take away from the experience of the initial article. 

James Wan and the Classic Horror Movie

Movie reviews have always been a turn off to me because I like seeing the movie and formulating my own opinion.  But this one about Insidious: Chapter 2 director James Wan seemed very interesting.

I usually don’t read film reviews and hype articles for upcoming movie premieres, because I like going to the theater to watch a movie and deciding myself, whether I enjoyed the movie or not, especially if it’s a movie I really want to see.  However, these pieces on movies that I have stumbled upon in the past, have been great examples of journalism on their own, especially reviews online which can include many types of media on one movie/story.  This was the exact case for the article I found on Yahoo! Movies, “’Insidious: Chapter 2’ Jolts Expectations With $41M Haul.” 

          The different forms of media used in this great article are print, video, and interactive.  To start, the writing of this review and financial update is very informative, as it should be, but it also gives the reader enough context and backstory to possibly want to, in this particular case, see other films by the same director.  At least this is how it affected me.  And although I have not seen Insidious Chapter 2 yet, I intend on seeing it because the director, James Wan, also directed The Conjuring.  I had seen that movie and thoroughly enjoyed it and the style in which Wan approaches the horror genre.  A link is provided in the middle of this article to another one on The Wrap, another online news source but one that is mostly focused on entertainment, where Wan’s horror movie expertise is better explained.  The name of this article is, “How ‘The Conjuring’ Propelled Director James Wan From Torture Porn to Vin Diesel.”  It reads, “The movie — which stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as married ghostbusters brought in to investigate strange doings at a rickety house – steadily builds tension, scaring people with visual and aural trickery. The camera movements and music are as chilling as any stabbing could ever be.”  And that’s exactly what I enjoy about Wan’s take on horror; something that keeps you on edge just enough to be looking all over the screen for things in the background or biting your fingernails, can most certainly be as scary, if not more, than seeing a gory, murderous, act.

            As the original Yahoo! article moves on, it merely reports the past weekend’s earnings of other movies playing that weekend and compares a few to how much money was spent to make it.  After this however, there is a video relating back to the original story about Insidious Chapter 2.  The video shows a few quick clips from interviews done with members of the cast and crew, montaged along with various clips from the upcoming film.  And even though I am planning on seeing it anyway, these few clips and short interviews actually got me even more excited to see it. 

            This piece of journalism was actually very informative and better than I expected when I think about movie reviews and articles, especially because this is the first one that I’ve probably read with a purpose and enjoyed it.  I love the horror genre and the background info about the director and everything else I was able to access on this one page article was helpful in getting different perspectives and information about things related to the main focus of the piece.  

Disappearing Octopus

Unbelievable footage of this amazing creature!

It's safe to say that Nemo and his underwater friends aren't the talk of the ocean anymore. Marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured an incredible scene of a new discovered Octopus who truly is the ocean's master of optical illusion.

Just seconds before the amazing octopus disappears, this image looks like a normal open water shot. But, just wait!

Literally seconds after the above image was taken this shot had marine biologist screaming as soon as this appeared on his screen.

MMJ Assignment #1

Kassandra LopezThe article that I chose is from the New York Times. The incident, which happened onlyyesterday (Saturday, September 14) included two women wounded due to lack of police aim,while firing at a man. The article described the man as being “agitated”, and witnesses claimedthat the man was running towards cars and running about on the streets. What caused thepolice to fire was not the person, but the fact that the man mimicked the motion of taking a gun.However, this ended wounding two women, from which one is in bad condition.The article was very interesting. It has three medium which are very useful to me while readingarticles on the web. For example, it has an interactive section, in which you can either print,email or share this article.Although I was looking for a comment section, surprisingly enough,this article did not seem to have any.The article also includes pictures, which are cleverly put on the side so as to avoid distractionswhile reading. I’m unsure however, on whether to like this idea of pictures on the side or not.When I read, I prefer to have the pictures as I read, instead of trying to look for them all over thepage.A video is also included on this article, though it was hard for me to find at first. Usually, when Iread an article, the video is there, right on the page where all you have to do is click and watch it.Sometimes, the video tells the story for you without needing to read the article at all. However, Ifound it curious (and I was a little frustrated) to notice the video was linked to a youtube page. IfI hadn’t gone back to the article, I probably wouldn’t have noticed where the video link was.Although I was somewhat annoyed by the lack of immediate video/picture footage, I think this issomething that I can get used to. I haven’t seen many (or any articles) where pictures are on theside or videos are linked out of the page and I think this is a good thing. You’re concentrated onreading the article, sometimes its good not to get too distracted, to get the most out of it. I likedthe text and that the story went right to the point.As for media coverage, I don’t think I would change anything, as I thought the writer did a greatjob at explaining the situation. I hope that when they update (if at all), we know more of the twowounded women.


Article:

New York Times Article

Photo of wounded lady/Twitter of uploader.

The Future Is Here!

Recently I came across a freaky article about a real life Vulcan Mind Meld -