AUTOPSY--- TV show

The other day, my boss gets this phone call from a woman from New York. She explains that she is a TV producer and is interested in doing a documentary series on people who do private autopsies such as my boss. She had found his name in some kind of directory. This all sounds kind of crazy. My boss tells the woman that there probably wouldn't be anyway, they would be able to film in our morgue. The woman persists in asking questions. The more my boss got to talking about how him and I package pecans at Rosalie Pecans and run a pecan farm to leaving and going to the morgue for an autopsy. She thought it was a fabulous idea. She wanted to know more. So asked us if we would make a video of ourselves. They are looking for people who have personality. So today was our first day of filming our own video. This past weekend we got bogged down with 5 autopsies. So we brought our camera to the morgue and carefully filmed around the body that was laying on the table. We got to show some of the things that we do to prepare, and just what exactly goes on during our days in the morgue. My boss told the woman that I was a communications student and she loved it. She seems very interested. I plan to film and edit our video. Then maybe we can be the talk of the town. Its a rather weird job but I love what I do. This sounds morbid, but its fun!

Once I find out more info on the documentary series, I will post some stuff on facebook to let people know if we are going to be on it or not!

LIVE VIDEO-- from your phone?

Yes thats right! Its a pretty cool concept I played around with last night. I graduate in a couple of days and I am completely upset that my sister, who lives in Florida, will not be there to watch me walk. We talked about filming it but its just not the same. So I wandered if there was a way to stream live video from my phone to the Internet. And...its possible. I first googled it. I got an article that came up that talked about this website called Qik.com. It had an Iphone app. So I was all on it. I downloaded the app, signed up for it on the computer and began playing around with it.

I found losts of problems with it. First, it was VERY slow. The video was taking forever to be processed onto the screen. However it worked. Once it is filmed then it has to buff from your phone before it is able to be watched. So is it really live? Not really. It lags and is not very current. Im not giving up on trying to film my graduation for my sister. I plan on playing around with it a little bit longer before I feel that its hopeless.

Maybe one day it will be perfected and we will be able to do this more efficiently. Skype works pretty well, but not everyone has cameras on their computer. I just think the concept is really cool.

My OBSESSION: YouTube...finding new talent....

About 3 years ago, I really got into youtube. There were these viral videos that were going around and everyone HAD to see them. I have always had an interest in music. I started watching music videos but I needed something more. I was bored with it. So then I started searching " me singing _________" and then the name of the song I wanted to hear. I realized there were hundreds of videos of people singing my favorite song.

Then I got bored. So I started searching " ___________ covers" and I would put the artist I wanted to hear. This made me discover channels. Channels are peoples profiles of youtube. They put their upload videos, information, and other channels they subscribe to. So I then started finding these people who were really good. I'm talking about people who I think should have record deals with major record labels.

So how has this become my obsession? I live on youtube. I live on it more than I do facebook. When I sign on facebook, I read my news feed and then get on youtube. I have become obsessed with listening to these people sing. Over the years, their performances have gone from singing in front of their computer, to playing their own musical instuments, to making their own music videos. I follow several different people who do collaborations with other people I follow.

I think this is a great way for independent artist to get known. Many artist love music because they love to perform. Some do it for the money but some do it because people watch. The people that I follow have milllions of people who watch their video. Thats more than someone would have at a concert. I just think its amazing how talented people are. I love all music but I get bored with mainstream music and therefore I have converted to watching youtube videos. :)

Here are just a few people I follow that I am super obsessed with:

Tyler Ward



Julia Sheer



(and YES that was Tyler Ward playing guitar with her)

ILLUMECI



Lucus Teague




Thanks for watching! I hope you go and subscribe to my favorite artists on youtube!!

Social Bookmarking....What is it?!!

During our CMC class, we were assigned to a group project in which we had to discuss our given topic. Our group was given social bookmarking. I actually had no idea what it was. I could have read all of the definitions to help me understand what it was. But the best way for me to figure out what social bookmarking, was to actually explore it. An accessory of social bookmarking is this voting aspect. Social bookmarking is a website where people can post news articles up. It normally involves a headline related to the article and a short description of what the article is about. Then each article is voted by the people who read it. So before reading a story that might interest you, you are able to see how other people view the story. So if the story was uninteresting, it may have very few votes.

My group found out there were several different bookmarking sites. Some were good....some were bad. It all started out with delicious.com. I found this website to be the most dull and the most boring. I then checked out yahoobuzz.com. It was actually a pretty good website. It was colorful with readable text and small pics relating to the story. My favorite was fark.com. Not only does it have a comical name but each article was characterized by a word, such as humorous, funny, stupid, dumb, etc. It is super biased but the description leads to which way the biases lean.

The social bookmarking has actually benefited me in writing my three research papers this semester. I was able to go on to those websites, search for the subject I was researching, and it would give me news articles that pertained to my subject. Most of the articles came from reputable sources such as cnn.com, msnbc.com, and foxnews.com. It helped me gather more sources to better the information in my paper.

Here are the links to my favorite social bookmarking websites:
FARK
YAHOOBUZZ
DIGG

Steve Jobs is THE MAN!!!

So, in my media history class, we were assigned to write a paper on something that deals with media history. My mother made me watch the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. Just like she said I would, I became fascinated with Steve Jobs. He had this theory of changing the world. He was not interested in making millions of dollars. He wanted to develop a personal computer, that everyone could have in their home. He wanted it to be simple and he wanted it to revolutionize the way people thought.

Steve Jobs did two commercials that jump started his career. His "1984" commercial was aired at the most watched time of the year, The Super Bowl. The concept came from George Orwell's book 1984. In the commercial an athlete woman is being chased by these futuristic warriors. She runs into this room where these people are all dressed the exact same watching this world leader on a screen. The athlete throws this big sledge hammer into the screen and the screen blows up. This commercial symbolizes a lot. During this time IBM was in control of the computer world. Computer were not like they are today. They were very expensive, extremely large, had no screen, and were really used by engineers or scientist. IBM were conformist. Their company was simply about making products that were expensive. Jobs on the other hand has a different view. The athlete symbolizes Apple, in that the company was breaking through this monotony culture and was going to change things. Jobs wanted this commercial to get people pumped up about his new Macintosh. The Macintosh that used graphics and was accessible.



The other commercial of Apple's is my FAVORITE! The Apple company had been struggling. They were losing money and going through CEO's after CEO's. They needed a face lift, and needed some advertising. Jobs hired on an advertising agency out of L.A. Their team of creative professionals wanted society to see Apple as visionaries. So they made a commercial and then took the images from the commercial and placed them as visuals all over NYC. The slogan became "Think Different". The commercial consisted of people who made an impact in the 20th century. People like, Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, Thomas Edison, Muhummad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Emilia Earhart, Jim Henson, and Pablo Picasso. As you watch the video, listen to the words: its legendary!!! Hope you like!

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. It is the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Addicted to Texting: Guilty as Charged

Texting----Did we ever think it would take over our lives? Well it has. And if it hasnt taken over your life, it has taken over someone you knows life. This video shows mostly teens that develop this addiction of texting but I know in my 20s, I have an addiction and several of my friends do too. It is not nearly as bad as these kids, but its bad.



This to me is insane. And Im falling for it too. My texts have gone well over 100o in one month. Since I got my iphone it has increased by a lot. The iphone texting format has it set up like an instant messaging box. I dont always send everything I want to say in one text. For example:

Kylee: Hey Kim
Kim: Hey Kylee!!
Kylee: Whatcha doing?
Kim: Well....
Kim: I've been trying to type this paper but I can't seem to get motivated.
Kim: and I've been having so many interuptions...
Kylee: aww! Im sorry!!

I feel the need to always have my phone. Sometimes if I dont get a text after a couple of ours I text someone and initiate a conversation with them. When I do leave my phone at home, I feel lost. I normally have to go back home and go get it. Its sick how addicted I am to my phone. I wouldnt even know how to quit texting as much. I have friends that I TEXT only with. We dont talk on the phone at all, we just text. None of my conversations are important and I dont think its the actual texting I am addicted to. I am addicted to the constantly being in touch with someone else. It is constantly having someone making conversation with me. It feels like I am getting attention.I know it sounds crazy but its reality.Texting has become such the norm. I even have classes where I can pull out my phone, send a text, and put it back in my booksack. Teachers dont really say anthing anymore. As long as I am not texting all throughout class it seems to be ok.

We also have campaigns and commercials encouraging people not to text while driving. In the past few years people have killed and gotten killed by people who were texting and driving. They have made laws about texting and driving.

Is society falling into this danger? Is our world really coming to this? Will it get worse? Will texting ever end or is this a fad? Its scary.....very scary.....

The Social Network- A Movie Review

As an assignment, we as a class went to go see the new movie about the creators of facebook, The Social Network. I thought it was a really great movie. After the movie I did some research and found out that majority of the movie was true. I thought the actual structure of the movie was interesting. It was not told in a chronological order. It starts off very forward but then these scenes of their depositions keep coming in. It was developed in a unique way which made the movie more and more interesting.

Now on the to the CMC part of the movie. Mark Zuckerburg was quite an interesting character but a genius. Although he stole the initial idea of forming this website, he can take full credit for the development and the popularity of facebook. Mark and Eduardo were a perfect team together. In the first scene, Mark was talking about how bad he wanted in to this Phoenix group. I did not totally understand that group. I wasnt sure if it was like a secret society or a fraternity. Either way Mark wanted to belong. This facebook theory was a way for him to belong. The exclusivity made the facebook feel like it was its own secret society.

As he formed more and more of facebook, it took off. They were opening it up to other ivy league schools. After the twins rode in thier crew race, a man came up to them and said his daughter had seen a video of them losing on some website. The daughter was from another school in another state. This really had showed that this website had gone national. It was setting up what would be one of the top most used websites EVER!

Sean Parker was also an interesting character. Although he was a complete A-HOLE, I think he could definitely take credit for helping the company really fly. Sean Parker knew all of the people to get in touch with. He is the one who made facebook become a corporate company.

This movie was a great way to see our CMC really change. In less than 10 years, a simple idea of haveing a social online network has become one of the largest and most successful companies!

CAMPAIGNS, CAMPAIGNS, CAMPAIGNS....not political ones...

These video's are what I want to be a part of one day!!!



If you watched this video, this is a great example of just some of things public relations does. A group of people got together to market, advertise, give an image to a company. The came up with having an icon that was tangible, something you could interact with. They came up with the rubber band ball. Not only did this rubber band ball become the guiness world record, they made it a part of their company. It was their logo, it was a part of their company. This campaign gave them lots of news coverage. The woman said she got onto her yahoo.com and their story was right next to Britney Spears. Then she turned on to CNN and they were talking about Office Max and their rubber band ball.

I get a huge passion for this because not only would I love to work for an agency where I would get to do that all the time, but non-profit organizations reach out to PR agencies too. I would love to help Susan Komen or AIDS, or even United Way. These people get to use their creativity, their strategic planning, and their motivation to make a bigger and better company. These people are hands on. They get to develop a plan and then make it happen.



Another great video, Dove's campaign about women and self esteem. This video shows that our perception of beauty has been distorted. They have developed a self-esteem fund. Their campaign is encouraging women to have good self-esteem. They have a new slogan saying, "Beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety." This campaign is designed to reach out through all different types of media. They have sponsors who endorse dove and their "dove movement". They have made videos, blogs, and really encourage people to become involved in their campaign to help women and children with their self esteem. Its really amazing how important these campaigns are in the world. Campaigns send out messages, good messages to people who can make a difference. Only the people can make a difference and I want to be a part of the team that makes it possible!

"Houston, we have a problem"

Over the weekend, I was invited to attend the Southern Public Relations Federation conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Going into the conference, I had absolutely no clue as to what specialization I wanted to go into in my major. My major is communications but unfortunately LSUA does not have a program where you can specialize into anything.

During the conference, I went to a panel where 3 women talked about their experience with the Gulf Oil Spill. The first woman was from the Restaurant Association in New Orleans, the second lady was one of the press secretaries to Bobby Jindal and the last woman was the Vice President of Public Affairs at Southern Mississippi. Hearing those 3 women speak made me realize what all they do and go through. Their jobs seem very stressful but they mostly deal with the press during a crisis. These people are the ones that have to come out and tell the public what is really going on. They have to be open and honest.

The woman who was on the Restaurant Association had to clear up with the public that no restaraunt woud be serving contaminated seafood from the gulf. So many businesses were losing business because they did not want to get sick and die from the oil. The woman who was the press secretary of Jindal was the gatekeeper of the media. She recieved all the press relaeases and picked through them to which ones would be printed and which ones would stay out. She had stories that were so untrue that she was glad to be able to throw them out. The last lady had a really cool job. She was called in by all these national broadcasting companies to plan  interviews with big people like Katie Couric. She would get her top researchers to speak to the press about the oil spill.

This panel really excited me. First reason is all of these people got to be on TV. Being on a national news outlet is probably the 2nd thing that I would love to be a part of as a profession. These 3 women got to deal with the press on the phone and in person. To me that is quite exciting.  Secondly these women had important jobs not only to the public but also to the government. Their jobs were so important to keeping the public calm in a crisis. I enjoy writing and I enjoy speaking too.

I am interested in so many fields of communication. I am really open to any job that I can get. I love TV, radio, marketing, advertising, public relations, and broadcasting. I would love to develop a campaign and do strategic planning. All of that excites me and I have developed a passion for it all.                                                     

the FIRST blog

This is my last semester to be in school and I am super excited! I entered into a computer mediated communications class and so far I have had good experiences with the class, including this assignment. I have never had a blog before, but I love to write.

Communications is my major and I am currently looking for a job that will allow me to do public relations or will get me into the field of public relations. I have found that I have a huge passion for planning and organzing. I like to network and I love putting together things that become a success.

I have a few expectations for this class. One is that I hope to learn things in the CMC world that will help me in my professional world. I want to know how to use certain mediums that are out there and I want to be able to show other people. I want to know which sources are most effective for what I may be doing in a certain job. The 2nd expectation I have for this class is to learn how CMC will change the world. Will it change for the better? Will it change for the worst? How do I know that some of this CMC is not brainwashing me? Lastly my 3rd expectation is to have fun! I hope this class will be hands on will allow me to explore through these CMC medias.

Thanks to my teacher Ms. Wu for letting us start blogging!! Maybe even after this class, I will continue to blog (not about CMC stuff though).