Category: Class blog

Examining our future of walls

In an increasingly divided world, The Washington Post’s, A New Age of Walls offers an extensive insight into the lives and perspectives of those most affected by the changing global political climate.

The interactive series is effective dually, both in its biting critique and in its presentation.

Each of the three episode in the series are filled with haunting black and white clips both of personal perspectives and topical news clips, accompanied by a soundtrack that in its sum is somewhat reminiscent of Schindler’s List.

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In addition to the touching videos, interactive data sets visualize information in a clean and easily understood fashion.Screenshot (16)

In total the project cleanly provides information, but more importantly gives the information feeling. It makes the news relatable and personal, in a way that can connect with the audience unlike a standard news story.

CNN makes content easy to absorb on YouTube

In a world where visual information is beating out written, CNN is publishing primary sources of news directly to YouTube.

On top of posting clips taken directly from the station’s many shows, CNN often posts videos of original news sources, (clips of actual events without a reporter digesting the information for the audience), to YouTube.

One example is the recent Larry Nassar trial, where a distraught father attempted to attack Nassar in the courtroom. The incident was caught on video, and uploaded to YouTube by a variety of news outlets, including CNN.

The video uploaded by CNN went viral, reaching YouTube’s trending video’s page.

Many internet viewers do not want the hassle of watching a 30 minute long television program in order to get their news. Information in its most digestible format is the preferred method of the internet.

And what is more digestible than a direct link to the source.

Keeping America honest: NPR fact checks State of the Union Address

Fact checking is an important mechanism for holding accountable those in authority, especially so in an era built on “fake news.” NPR took at look at Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address and found the data to back up, or disprove claims made at the speech.

One of the first disputed claims came as Trump offered his sympathies to those affected by the season’s hurricanes. While the words are sweet, FEMA the executive branch organization that takes care of disaster relief, recently announced it would be halting direct aid to the affected regions, but would still provide help to nonprofit groups in the area. An update came the next day that the decision by FEMA had been reversed.

Claims of a 2.4 million increase in jobs “since the election” made by trump were corroborated by NPR. However, while the 2.4 million jobs added show a continuing uptrend in the economy, it is a smaller increase than the previous years 2.7 million under Obama.

Tax cuts would provide “tremendous relief for the middle class” according to Trump. However data has shown that the majority of the tax benefits will be reaped by the top 20 and top 1% seeing 65% of the savings and 20% respectively.

Now more than ever is keeping an eye on what is true and what is false an importance to Democracy. Luckily there are still a few devoted to the cause of keeping authority honest.

SnapChat supports news organizations

Social media has become a very large part of people’s lives. Newspaper sales are decreasing every year, But news agencies that utilize social media has given them a bigger platform. SnapChat  has become one of apps increasingly used.

One of the most used news organizations on SnapChat is DailyMail. It’s a British tabloid newspaper published in London. It’s the United Kingdom’s second- biggest selling daily newspaper.

Daily Mail has a section on the SnapChat where they have plenty of news resources. Daily Mail upload mail that happens daily from celebrities, murders, viral videos and random stories. Every day is a new news story.

One Daily Mail news that has happened today (Monday, January 29) was a story about Jay-Z and Beyonce “WE FOUGHT FOR OUR LOVE”.  Daily Mail put up the interview Jay-Z had with CNN talking about how hard he tried to save his marriage. He spoke out about cheating on his wife and going through some big challenges with her.

 

This is a screenshot of what the Daily Mail looks like on Snapchat.

 

 

MLive database: A place to find salaries near you

Many people look into salaries when looking for a  job or picking a career to choose in college. MLive database of state employee salaries is a great data set to look at when gathering information about all of the salaries for state of Michigan employees.

This database provides all the  information you would need when looking into salaries, and  the database narrows it down to only Michigan. It’s better then giving you an average salary in general.

MLive is based on salaries in Michigan but does not include any other benefits. This website is made very simple for people to use. All you have to do is type in a name and click the employee you are looking for or you could simply click on the job title you want and it will show you the amount that position makes.