This is almost all of the magazine that I did this year. Unfortunately, one page of ads has been lost somehow, so it's incomplete.
View magazine
Friday, June 7, 2013
"Spare Change" Magazine Notes
This was probably the most stressful assignment of the year, because I ended up printing a nine page magazine by myself, which is a lot when you have to format everything and make sure it all fits. It was a real eye-opener to how actual magazine editors and writers work, with multiple well-researched articles, adds, small charts, and photographs. In the end I got it done, but not before going through at least one late-night work session, several mental breakdowns, and ten minutes of nervous terror as I tried to find the finished copy for my teacher on the day it was due. This magazine was definitely a test of work ethic, formatting ability, and mental stability.
History of Journalism Prezi
A Prezi that's about the history of journalism, specifically the Watergate Scandal and how it continues to affect the way today's news is delivered to us.
History of Journalism Prezi Notes
This was a beginning of the year assignment on the history of journalism, specifically the role of scandals in modern news. As I got into the topic, I realized that the culture of scandals originated in Watergate, so that's the direction the Prezi took. It was an interesting assignment, but relatively mundane because I'd made a Prezi before, so I didn't take a special enjoyment in learning something new. It was still a cool topic though.
Famous Photographer Prezi
This is a Prezi on the photography of Roman Vishniac. All the information is there, but if something is unclear please keep in mind that this was made to be presented live with me making comments.
Famous Photographer Prezi Notes
The interesting thing about this assignment was that instead of really doing something myself that was journalistic, I analyzed photographs. It was an artistic assignment that required some research, but it ultimately taught me the basic elements of photography, and how to use image to convey theme. This information came in useful later when I made a Photojournalism Essay, so it was another stepping-stone sort of assignment.
Documentary
This is a documentary I made about teachers, their jobs, their responsibilities, and their students.
Documentary Notes
This is the first project in journalism that I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted. I intended to have three interviews instead of just two, but scheduling conflicts with teachers (the subject of my documentary) made this impossible. I really had a message I was trying to get the viewers, hopefully other students, and I feel that while that message comes through, it's not as strong as it could've been. The assignment though was fun, even if it was time consuming and nerve-wracking, what with deadlines and all. But overall, I felt this was another project that I really had a lot of good ideas for and a really strong theme, but with this project it just didn't come through as well.
Photojournalism Essay Notes
This was possibly my favorite project, because it allowed me to completely explore something through images, by taking eight photographs of it. As it happens, the subject was me, and I though a lot about what deserves to be photographed in my life. But, I realized that the interesting things isn't what to photograph but how to photograph it. Photography is meant to convey a single image and a set amount of emotion, and to make eight pictures flow together you really need a theme, and a tone to it all. I loved dissecting my subject, and thinking about how to best represent it. In the end, it wasn't what I photographed that mattered, it was the mood it set, and the way I ended up portraying the subject. Regardless of the fact that I was subject, I enjoyed that sort of aesthetic thinking and I was very pleased with my finished project.
Project Evita
This is a podcast that I made this year about the iconic Argentine leader Eva Peron. Regardless of whether or not you think that she was a good person, please keep in mind the primary focus is that it's wrong to deem a woman a slut because she did some seamy things out of necessity.
Project Evita Notes
One of my absolute favorite assignments this year was the podcast assignment, where I made a podcast on the topic of my choice in the style of my choice. I decided to do a persuasive essay style podcast on Eva Peron. Throughout the podcast, I delivered information punctuated by points in my argument that it's wrong to call her a slut because of earlier aspects of her life. I won't get into it really, but it combined my love of history, burgeoning feminist bone, and style of speaking/writing with learning how to record myself, be to the point, and still remain interesting. While I must admit I failed on that last aspect, it was still an immense learning opportunity, and a a great stepping stone into the next few projects.
Journalism Midterm Essay
Critical Lens Essay
Jimmy
Breslin once said “Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I
have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers”. This quote accurately
reflects the motivation for many journalists in the world, because what it
essentially means is that journalists write to inform the public about what’s
going on in the world, and more specifically, what’s wrong in the world. This
line of thinking is what the basis is of muckraking, investigative journalism,
and other articles meant to inform. Examples of each of these could be Lewis
Sinclair, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and even John Steward to an extent. Anger
over some sort of dysfunction within society led these people to write, and
what they wrote led people to realize something, and society changed because of
it.
In the
beginning of the 20th century, working conditions for many factory
workers was atrocious. Bad lighting, dangerous machines, a noxious atmosphere,
and low pay all contributed to a period of time in our nations history where
the average factory worker was abused. One journalist, Lewis Sinclair, noticed
this, and got so angry that he wrote about it. The Jungle was the book
he wrote, and it really opened America’s eyes to the treatment some people were
receiving for a small amount of money. His rage at the way things were led
Americans to take a stand against the owners of the factories and other big
businessmen, heralding in an era of unions and labor rights activism. Lewis
Sinclair saw something wrong, got angry, and told everyone about it. That was
his purpose; to tell the American public a story it needed to hear and he did
out of pure rage.
President
Nixon hired men to break into the headquarters of the Democratic National
Convention in order to help his reelection campaign. Today, most Americans know
the story of Watergate, but when it first happened, it was initially
disregarded. When the truth began to come out, or not come out rather (seeing
as Nixon refused to give up the evidence linking him to the crime) two writers
wrote articles that alerted America to the great wrongs of their president.
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodard told the story of Nixon and his criminal
actions, and they did it because they saw that the president broke the law.
They were outraged, and that outrage spread to the public because people read
their articles and took notice. From a moral standpoint you could say that when
Nixon resigned, he did it out of disgrace for his actions. From a realistic
standpoint, you can say that he resigned because two angry men exposed him for
who he was and what he did.
John
Steward runs an entertainment show, but it’s part of the media and to a certain
extent, he is a journalist. He may exaggerate the facts for comedy, but people
hear what he says, and it affects the way those people think. During the recent
presidential election John Steward ran a number of shows where he made fun of
the Republican candidate Mitt Romney. John Steward was angry with some of the
things that Romney said and did, and so he made fun of him publicly. People
might not take John Steward seriously all the time, but there is an
undercurrent of fact to what he says, and I personally learned some true things
about Mitt Romney from watching the Daily Show. His comedy informed the public
about some of the things Romney said, for examples “binders full of women” was
a well-known one. I didn’t watch the debate where Mitt Romney said that, but
when it was reported to me by John Steward, that’s when I got mad. Other
Americans got mad too, and Mitt Romney lost because of it. Mitt Romney lost the
presidential election because he angered journalists and those journalists told
the public about every single thing that Romney did wrong, and that’s an
important reason he lost.
Angry
people influence other people, and angry journalists influence the public.
Journalists write because they’re angry, more specifically because they want
things to change or they want their opinion expressed and accepted. Anger
motivates people this way, and it influences society to act as well, and to a
certain extent that’s the point of journalism: to tell a story of a wrong, and
hope the public rights it.
Midterm Essay Notes
The first half of the year was partially about understanding the journalist mentality, and so at the midterm my class wrote essays about what journalism really is. We all were given a list of quotes, and we had to use one of them to explain what journalism was, and it really made me think. You can read what I thought about in the essay above, but let it suffice to say that I thought it really was a constructive midterm, that was a lesson into itself because of the question it asked, and the answer I came up with.
Newspaper Article 1
Should Forgetfulness by Punished?
by staff writer Ben Zuegel
Each new school year heralds the arrival of new school
rules, and we got a fresh batch, as usual. This year though, one of the new
rules is that after leaving the building after dismissal, you cannot re-enter
the building. Many people think this rule is pointless, but is it?
Last year, some students vandalized the school by
spray-painting the front of the building with permanent paint, not paint that’s
easily washed off. This event was a shock to many, because such an act of
vandalism hadn’t been committed on school grounds in a long time, if at all,
and this had repercussions.
This year, the school is determined to
not let something like that happen again, and that’s how we get stuck with the
new rules. What is the real point of not letting us re-enter the building
though?
The administration believes that people that re-enter the
building after dismissal are the people that will loiter around the halls and
cause trouble. There is a lot of logic in this, and to that extent, the rule is
good. But, there are other people who are affected by this rule than the
loiterers and vandals.
Forgetful people are some of the biggest victims of this
rule. What if you leave something important, like homework in school? Some
teachers are forgiving of this, but you can’t take the chance that they will
be. Homework, projects, lost articles of clothing, all these things are
important, yet as soon as you step outside, they become inaccessible to you
until the following day.
Should people be help culpable for their forgetfulness?
That’s disputable, but sometimes you leave something behind by accident, and
you desperately need it.
Sophomore Artemis Markakis was one such person who
unfortunately forgot her orchestra music inside the school. “I had a concert
the next day, and I couldn’t get my music. I didn’t know what I was going to
do. I appreciate the administrator’s job of keeping the school safe, but maybe
the school could consider revising the rule just a little.”
The administration and their rules come from a good place,
but some of their rules have unintended consequences.
Some suggestions I
got from students, such as Artemis are that maybe, the person guarding the door
from people re-entering the school could hold someone’s ID while they fetch
their lost object, which would be returned when they returned. This way, if the
person didn’t come back, the administration would know whom to punish. If the
person didn’t come back after five minutes, the door-guard could leave and the
next day the culprit could be punished.
Rules are good if they achieve their goal; therefore this
new rule is a good one. However, unintended side effects are to be avoided if
possible, so maybe the administration should consider a quick revise of their
new rules and policies, just to make sure these side effects don’t trouble
forgetful people.
Newspaper Article 2
Musical Opportunities
By staff writer Ben Zuegel
Peter
Pan was an immediate hit, with talented actors, superb costumes, elaborate
sets, and excellent music. Everyone who came on opening night was charmed and
raving about it the next day. Andrea Zuegel “Most SOTA musical’s are good, but
Peter Pan made me want to recommend it to all of my friends.” But, so much more goes
into a musical than singing and acting.
Actors
are important in a musical, obviously, but so are customers, musicians, tech
people, and just busybodies to do an assortment of small tasks for the
director. So much goes on in a production that it’s hard to not find a spot
somewhere in the show to help and participate.
Costumes
at SOTA are always elaborate and very well made. They also take countless hours
to make, and mend if the occasion calls for it. Mrs. Olender makes nearly all
of the costumes for all the productions, because they would cost too much to
buy. Even though she spends all year doing it though, sometimes she needs extra
hands for all the work. So if you can sew, one way to work on a show is to help
Mrs. Olender put together all the costumes. Believe me, she’ll be grateful.
Another
seemingly small task is building the set for the show. The theater tech majors
pitch in to help build the backgrounds, props, and furniture, but painting it
all is a monstrous task. Almost anyone can hold a brush, so if you want to make
a small but important contribution, talk with one of the theater tech teachers (Mr.
Myers or Mr. Canfield) about coming in to help them paint.
What’s
a crucial part of a musical? Music. Who makes most of the music in a musical?
The pit orchestra.
Pit
orchestra musicians are an integral part of any musical, and work very hard to
know every single song, cue, and piece of background music that comes their
way.
The
pit orchestra starts rehearsing almost as soon as the cast members, but they do
it in the morning before anyone gets to school. But still, several pit
orchestra musicians such as “insert quote here”. So if you have some talent with an
instrument, ask one of the music teachers if there’s a part in the next musical
for you, because you’re needed.
Musicals
are complicated things to organize, and all of the various directors need help
doing something. If you don’t want to paint, can’t sew, or play a musical
instrument, just ask one of the teachers if there’s anything else they need
done. They all have a lot on their plates and could surely use extra help, so
why not offer it?
Anyone can participate in the school musical,
because there’s so much that goes into its production. Actors only make up part
of the crew, and while they’re essential, they couldn’t put on a musical by
themselves. So, if you want a job, ask around because there are so many
opportunities for those who know
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