Author: Cassie

Gypsying 101

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When I tell you what I’m about to say, you’re either going to think I’m stark, raving mad or I’m going to be your hero. Personally, I think I’m a little of both. In 12 long days I will embark on a journey of epic proportions. We’re calling it a “Gypsy Trip” — we being my best friend Amanda and I — because we are going to gypsy our way across the country. Sadly, we will not be hitching up a horse and wagon, but we will be pitching a tent almost every night of the trip and camping our way through some of the most beautiful spots in the good ol’ USA. And we might even have to do some fortune telling along the way to pay for gas. I know what you’re thinking. Camping? Really?  Yes. Pitched tent, sleeping bags, s’mores and all. Our reasoning is simple: Camping is much cheaper than hotels. Sure we won’t have air conditioning. Sure, we’ll be dealing with bugs and spiders and creepy crawlies of all kinds. …

Reporter receives award for video confession

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Well, even though I’m the worst blogger in the short history of bloggers I thought I’d try to get in here and post something.‬ After writing a story about the Naples Daily News staff’s coverage of the investigation into the violent murder of a mother and her five children, I’ve been following the case of Mesac Damas, husband and father of the victims and the man charged with their deaths.‬‪ In 2009, Stephen Beardsley, with camera rolling, simply asked Damas if he killed his wife and children. Surprisingly, Damas answered, “Yes, I did.” The confession was recorded as Damas was being extradited from Haiti, where he had fled after allegedly committing the crimes. Beardsley had followed the story to the island with fellow Daily News staffer, photographer  Lexey Swall.‬‪ Beardsley won a first place award for breaking news video in the 2010 Florida Society of News Editors journalism competition. The Naples staff won first place for online breaking news for its coverage of the Damas tragedy. Swall also won first place for a non-deadline video …

Better late than never ….

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If I was a reporter covering breaking news and the Northern Kentucky Forum was my assignment, my editor would have fired me last Thursday. Between work and midterms and class assignments, my blog got neglected. But I’m back now. I went to the Northern Kentucky Forum at NKU last Thursday evening, “News in the Information Age: What happens to democracy if the presses stop?” According to displaced journalist Dr. Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, now of Princeton University, several things happen: overall voter turnout decreases, incumbents are re-elected easier, fewer candidates run and candidates spend less on their campaigns. However, his research wasn’t well received by the audience. One problem was with the narrow scope of the study. Schulhofer-Wohl said he used information from the 2004 and 2006 elections as a baseline to compare with 2008 election data. Based on this information, Schulhofer-Wohl said there was less voter turnout in the suburbs, but added that they were not able to study every community. He also only used one election to study the effect of going to a one-newspaper …

Intimidation

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You know the scrawny kid in “Little Giants” who uses an alka seltzer tablet to foam at the mouth? That’s what I think of when I think of the word “intimidation.” And intimidating is exactly what blogging does to me. I’m not sure why blogging is so difficult for me. Usually I can churn out words easily, whether it be a quick news story or an essay for an international politics class. I think it might have something to do with writing about me and what I think rather than something that’s happening and what other people think about it. So, without actually doing anything rememberable (yes, I know that’s not a word) in this my first blog entry, I’ll leave you with a little video from youtube. And maybe next time I’ll go off some more on how much plagiarism annoys me, I’ll rejoice that a student newspaper won an open records lawsuit against their college, or I’ll get into the extent of Twitter’s ridiculousity. (In answer to the question at the end of …