UMass Students Study Local Climate

Geoscience student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst took their class outside last Wednesday to conduct a hydrology experiment.

Led by Professor David Boutt, the class prepared their experiment in the Crop Research and Education Center in South Deerfield, next to the Connecticut River.

“Today we have been doing a ‘stress test’ where we remove water out of the ground and measure how the system responds,” Boutt explains. “Whenever you pop a well next to a river, you will be drawing the river flow into the well. It is a nice site because the wells are shallow enough for us to do the experiment well.”

Mark O’Malley, an UMass student majoring in earth systems explained the importance of such experiments.

“If we are taking water out of here to use for drinking or to water the crops, this experiment will let us know how much water we can take out without damaging the surrounding areas.”

In addition, hydrology can also be used to measure climate change.

Timothy Randhir, an associate Professor of Natural Resources Conservation at UMass, has been researching climate change on the Connecticut River.

“Hydrological processes could be used as a mechanism to understand the before and after changes,” Randhir explained. It can allow scientist to document the shifting temperatures from climate change.

Randhir’s research was sparked off by the desire to localise climate change and create better understanding.

“My research attempted to downscale the global predictions. We get a lot of abstract talk about global climate change but it always comes back to ‘how is my water supply going to be affected’ and that is an important question.”

Randhir’s research took global data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and combined it with his research in order to focus on the Connecticut River fluctuations.

The 2007 IPCC synthesis report says, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level.”

An Interesting Response

The April 2 blog on Inside Iraq offers an example of interactivity at its prime. Leila Fadel wrote an article on April 1 based around the human effects of the latest violence in Baghdad. She went to the Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City and interviewed several of the injured.

Fadel wrote in her article that the U.S. military was going after armed people in the area and that these people were not targeted, but victims caught in the battle.

There are, however always two sides to a story and this was voiced by "her friend in the military." He explained in his email the dilemna these officers face. They are under order to attack back if fired at. They have an obligation to do so in order to protect their troops.

This post shows the interactivity of blogs. Within a day of writing the article, the reader can view another point of view and also link back to the original article. They then have the opportunity to comment and offer their own viewpoint.

Campaign 2008: An endless cycle

Tibeten violence draws local reaction in Northampton

Photo by: Gurinder Osan/Associated Press


Protesters are uniting today for a global day of action in support of improving human rights in Tibet, which falls on the same day as the Olympic flame's arrival in Bejing, a symbolic day on the Olympic calendar.

Tension in Tibet has been ongoing since the outbreak of violence on March 10. This day has been described by many as the worst violence seen in Tibet since 1989. It fell on the forty-ninth anniversary of the failed uprising against communist rule. Beijing said 22 people have died in the clashes.

The Tibetan tensions have also hit close to home.

Following four days of protests in over 20 major cities around the world, local Tibetans and supporters gathered at Pulaski Park in Northampton to hold a protest in solidarity on March 18, beginning in morning and ending with an evening vigil in support of the continued uprising in Tibet. The protests continued into Sunday, March 23.

"Every day, we hear more disturbing news from the revolts inside Tibet," said Tenzin Dolkar, New England regional coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet in a statement. "We demand that the United Nations send a fact-finding delegation to Tibet to investigate the status of detained protestors and confirm the number of deaths caused by Chinese forces. We heard of school children being arrested and beaten in the revolts in Eastern Tibet as well as house-to-house searches, arbitrary arrests and killings."

Students in Tibet are also speaking up. On March 17, Tibetan students staged a sit-in at the National Minorities University.This is the biggest kind of event staged by students since the 1989 protests.

The students sat in a circle on the campus and made their presence clear in a peaceful manner: sitting with their heads bowed, surrounded by candles.

In a similar public display on March 24, protestors tried to block the torch runner carrying the Olympic flame into the Athens stadium as a sign of protest to China's involvement with Tibet.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also voiced his opinion and recently called for China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama over the protests.

"Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet," he said to the media.

When asked whether he supported a boycott of the Olympic opening ceremony, Sarkozy said he would "not close the door to any possibility."

The Olympic Games is expected to attract 500,000 tourists this summer. China is eager to cap negative coverage and restore the confidence of major political figures like Sarkozy.

However, on March 26 through 28, Chinese authorities arranged a trip to Tibet for a selected range of international media outlets. This trip was intended to show journalists that calm had been restored.

It did not turn out that way. When taken to the temple, 30 monks started screaming about the injustices under which they felt trapped.

Emily Connell, a student majoring in sociology, thinks it will be interesting to keep an eye on the political movement in Tibet.

"I think it is only a matter of time before this issue will have to be addressed. The recent protests have shown a deep unrest among many Tibetan people."

With the lead up to the Olympic Games in full swing, journalists are setting up base in China. Faced with restrictions, many are aggravated by their lack of access to Tibet and have begun documenting their anxiety.

"None of us can enter Tibet, which is off limits to foreign reporters without a permit," wrote Tim Johnson, the Beijing bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. "I know of only one foreign journalist, James Miles of The Economist, who had the good fortune to be in Lhasa as events unfolded over the past few days."

"The Chinese government must allow independent media access to all areas of Tibet," said Kunsang Kelden, a member of Students for a Free Tibet's International Board of Directors in a statement. "Tibetans and people of conscience worldwide will continue actions supporting the global Tibetan Uprising until the Chinese authorities withdraw military forces from all cities in revolt."

Boston is holding two events for "global day of action." One is on Park Street, and the other in Harvard Square. These marches are taking place worldwide, with 15 occurring in the U.S. alone.

Filtering blogs, is this the new "endless cycle?"

Jill Lawrence and Mark Stencel discuss the changes technology has brought to campaign 2008

The most interesting thing I got from the "Campaign 2008: An endless cycle" was listening first hand to those who had been covering the elections process for years have changed their journalistic practices.

A lot of technological advancements can happen in the four years between elections and I think the speakers really brought this point out well. Jill Lawrence, the national political correspondent for USA Today spoke of her political blog and the speed in which she can document events.

Blogs bring speed and audience interaction but they also pose dilemmas for some in the newsroom. I found it interesting to listen to a perspective from someone working inside the newsroom as it offered a fresh example to blogging.

Lawrence explained that there are now so many blogs on USA today it is impossible to have them all proof by someone other than the writer. There is just not the staff numbers or the time to do this. This means mistakes will be made and inaccurate information sometimes posted.

Lawrence argued that it is impossible for her to answer all of the questions blogged. Sometimes an article can generate over 2,000 comments; a reply number even superman would struggle to fit into his daily schedule.

It was also interesting to see the added pressure an election campaign can bring to a journalist. Mark Stencel, deputy publisher of Governing magazine, talked about the national narrative and the structural drive that journalists follow to stick to this narrative.

“If you are on a bus or plane and are following this candidate around, you have to file a story…and one of the first lessons that you got taught in your news class is that news is what’s new. So there is this narrative drive that takes over the process.”

During elections, Stencel argues journalists are on an endless treadmill to face the narrative.”

It was fitting that while these speakers spoke of their experiences with technology, Journalist students from UMass put their skills to the test. Journalism lecturer BJ Roche "really got a big kick out of it."

"All the students were either taking pictures or video taping it or using their audio thing so im really thrilled that students are going all in on the multimedia track."

Jennifer Jean-Baptise practices what she has learned in class


This conference was held on Wednesday March 26 and featured a panel discussion by Jill Lawrence, national political correspondent for USA Today, Mark Stencel, deputy publisher of Governing magazine, and Mary Carey, political reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The BBC multimedia package

Convergence

Convergence is described by The Missouri Group as providing a variety of outlets to a variety of audiences. Multimedia packages have to offer both convergence and interactivity to remain competitive in today’s market.

Based on this description, I found BBC News to offer a fairly successful multimedia package.

Video

“Nurse guilty of killing patients” was the top BBC story on Monday, March.3. To compare the content of text to video, I viewed both versions. Both the article and related video used Stuart Hall as a source and used the same quote.

The first 33 seconds of a police announcement video by Det Ch Supt Chris Gregg was also directly quoted at the end of the article. This means I went from reading the direct quote in the text to viewing it on video. I had consumed the same information twice.

Despite repetition of information, my combined viewing did broaden my knowledge. The video report showed Colin Norris’s interview with the Police before he was charged, a source only available through the video report.

The video also allowed me view the full police announcement instead of just reading quotes from the first 33 seconds. The most important thing gained from combining formats was context. The text chronologically set out events and the video complemented it with footage of police announcements and interviews.

Design

The BBC has the potential in place for an excellent multimedia service. The design of the site is clean and clear, an important technique when many multimedia options are available.

The main news story commands the middle of the screen. The features, views and analysis are further down in a shaded box. This visually distinguishes news from features and makes the sections accessible to readers. It also allows users to keep their viewing relevant to their needs.


Interactivity

The scope of options in the video and audio section is impressive. There are 50 video and audio reports on one page that are all available in one click.

The move towards interactivity is also evident. The “Have Your Say” section has a site for the UK, Europe/America, Africa, Asia and Middle East. This allows many opinions to be voiced, a key part of interactivity. Users are also encouraged to send in their pictures.

Quality

The foundations for a great multimedia service are visible but there is one aspect that is letting the site down – the quality of video and audio. The video quality is pixilated, is slow to load and can mostly be viewed in a small box. The accompanying sound is poor quality and out of sync with the video.

I have now switched my UK news source to Sky, because it offers a much higher quality of video footage. It is a shame that the BBC, a site with such potential for multimedia interaction, fails to meet competitor’s standards in this area.

Olympic officials refuse basic questions

Photo from McClatchy:China rises blog

Blog Layout

The Blog: China rises posted an article on March 7 about the new olympic village.

I thought this article was enrichened by the pictures.

It offered a visual aid to the desrciption given of these "beautiful " facilities that will hold the "16,000 athletes and officials will stay during the Games".

Opportunity to reflect

The blog used the uncovering of these facilities as a means to report on the anxieties felt by
journalists.

Minute details are being given about consturction and environmental measures but answers to the questions people really want to know are not being provided.

This point is backed with an example. The Sunday Times reported a couple of months ago that 10 workers had died during construction of the “Bird’s Nest” national stadium. Olympics officials did not respond for days.

Although the example was important, it would have been good if it was in-linked within the blog so I could have read the full article for myself. This is an aspect I thought this article lacked.

Authenticity

All of the McClatchy blogs have a sidebar box featuring:

• The bloggers name and some personal information.
• A link where you can send in your story ideas
• Ability to email the blogger.
• A link to read all of the bloggers online web writing for McClatchy.

The Obama phenomenon is struggling in Israel

Reading a US election campaign article written outside the US media network offers you the chance to broaden your opinions.

US Perception

Obama has been winning over the voters with his charismatic personality and confident speech delivery and the US media have been lapping it up. Only recently, after Clinton accused the media of being overly critical towards her, have reporters began to self-assess their work.

The recent court case of Tony Rezko, has allowed the media to critically examine Obama's connection to Rezko. Having been involved with Rezko over his personal real estate dealings, Clinton's campaign released a statement urging Obama to confront the issue.

Had I typed Obama and Rezko into a Google search a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't have achieved the same amount of links as I can now find. The media has put it firmly on the agenda, arguably off the back of Clinton's complaints, and this could be an issue that comes back to haunt Obama.

Israel perception

The checkpoint Jerusalem blog article highlighted an issue that is beginning to creep through into US media and could start to become crucial in the next stage of this campaign.

It will be interesting to come back to this topic in a couple of weeks and compare the amount of articles that appear in Google. On March 7, the search "Obama viewed with suspicion in Israel" generated 142,000 related results.

Obama is generally viewed within Israel with suspicion is the topic discussed in the blog.

There are a couple of US mainstream media companies that are beginning to pick up on this issue. The blog links you to an example.

Scaremongering

Scaremongering is always used in politics, especially within a presidential campaign and I think this technique will begin to push this topic further into the mainstream media.

It can already be seen to be trickling through. The blog allowed had in-linking to Obama's opposition scaremongering techniques.

McCain has had to apologize for two members of his party for deliberating using Obama's full name Barack Hussein Obama and deliberately trying to provoke controversy.

The drudge report claimed that the picture of Obama in traditional African tribal dress was slipped by Clinton staffers. If true, this is another example of how quickly a topic can be grabbed by politicians and media and used to their advantage.

Photo from Chicago Tribune

Is UMass violence spiralling out of control?

Pictured left:UMass, Amherst campus

The reputation of UMass Amherst is in dispute after a recent run of violent events. Within a couple of days, several incidents occurred.

On February first, there was a fight that resulted in eight players from the lacrosse team being suspended. The next day, reports of assault and sexual assault were filed. On February third, there was a violent attack in one of the halls, which resulted in the injury of three men.
Emily May, a sophomore BDIC in Music Therapy student thinks UMass gets a bad reputation because people speak out more here.

“It is such a big school so when something bad happens at UMass, everybody is talking about it. At the end of the day, a lot of the violence-related problems are caused by alcohol and UMass is not the only school to have this problem.”

The Journal of Studies on Alcohol Supplement (2005) found that 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes. These figures highlight the scale of this problem throughout college campuses.

The Times higher education 2007 world rankings report placed UMass number 175 out of the top 200 world universities. Their position has fallen since 2006 when they were placed 124.

The Journal of Studies on Alcohol (2002) found that About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.

Increased binge drinking could be one reason UMass has fallen down the board. Emily Reynolds, a junior in journalism, thinks the move towards all-freshmen dorms are a bad idea.

“In my freshman year, I enjoyed having older students living around me because it allowed me to learn from their experience.”

University officials say that the rowdiest parties tend to occur off-campus, where the university has little control.

Property owner, Patrick Mastey has added a new stipulation to his leases that requires all college-student tenants from St. Cloud State University to enroll in the universities alcohol education awareness program.

Obama's journey inspires Kenya

Photo: Reuters

The "somewhere in Africa" section on the blog page I am following has recently posted a blog on Kenya and the ongoing developments.

The recent trouble in Kenya was a topic that received wide coverage when the riots and fighting occurred. This issue has now dropped off the media radar in mainstream US media.

Despite the small international coverage, February 21 was an important day in Kenyan history. The day began with tension occurring over the position of a new Prime Minister post.

There were fears circulating that further trouble would spark further protests from Odlinga's party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

However by the afternoon, Kenya's political leaders "largely agreed" on the structure for a coalition government. The chief mediator Kofi Annan said that there was "finally light at the end of the tunnel."

A leading political columnist in Kenya, Onyango-Obbo, thinks that if Obama can come from nowhere and force change, then so can Kenya.

This shows the appeal that Obama has. He represents, and indeed uses it to his full political advantage, the notion of change that he represents. He became a senator in 2005 and is now a leading candidate in 2008 elections to become the president of the United States.

How can you tell whether information provided by a site is reliable?

I decided to focus on a search engine other than Google because I am so accustomed to using it. By focusing on Yahoo, I hoped the differences would become more apparent.

However, I found myself falling into the ‘Google trap’ by using its search engine to search for a search engine! This shows how much of a monopoly Google has in my daily internet use.

The familiar red ‘Yahoo’ logo reinforced to me that I was on the right search engine. My eye is drawn to the news bulletin’s headline and picture in the center of the page. Once clicking on the story, I find the Associated Press logo at the top of the article. This confirms that the source of news is reliable.

There are many icons down the side of the page for the user to visit. When clicking on ‘Yahoo maps’, I was given the option to view ‘The Holiday Inn’ locations and the network area of ‘Sprint ahead’. These companies were also, not so surprisingly, running a medium sized advertisement down the side of the page.

This shows that there is vested interest at bay here. Whilst looking on the map for an area to visit, you may see the advert and decide to look for Holiday Inn hotels within that particular area. Although you may be receiving additional, possibly unwanted information, the reliability of the map can not be undermined.

Using ‘Yahoo’, I typed the word ‘smoking’ into the search engine and from there, found one website and one blog to analyze. The first website that caught my eye was americanheart.org. The .org suggested to me that this website would be credible.

Once clicking onto the site, I saw a professional looking logo. This was another factor that suggested credibility. It also had a copyright label at the bottom of the page suggesting this web site has been properly registered.

This organization has an annual report which can be viewed online. One of the reports had been jointly researched by the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Heart Association. This joint relationship with another registered organization gives validity to the report.

The American Heart association also has TV/radio commercials and print ads. By branding their name in various media outlets, the credibility of the website increases. Your viewing of the TV ad may entice you to click on the Web site for further information. The association also holds scientific conference, another indicator that the information on the site is likely to have been well researched.

To find a blog, I focused on the same topic and came across cigarrestblog.com. I analyzed this blog to allow a contrast to the above Web site.

It is apparent by the layout that this is not an organization sponsored blog page. It has no logo and has no copyright label at the bottom of the page. Instead, it says ‘stop smoking today with CigArrest!’ The blog comments do refer to statistics and surveys however the author of the blog is named as ‘admin’.

Being unable to determine the author of the blog poses several problems as we are not able to determine whether they have a bias. For all I know, ‘admin’ could be a member of an anti-smoking campaign or an employee of the top cigarette brand in the US.

The issue of anonymity is a topic that has recently surfaced after The New York Times used anonymous sources in an article about McCain. The anonymous source told the Times that McCain’s top advisors had to intervene "to protect the candidate from himself" from getting romantically involved with a female lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

If this statement is true, it could do a lot of damage considering McCains past record. However, the use of any anonymous source undermines the reliability of the source and the Times have been heavily criticized for their use of it in such a highly publicized story.

Iraq from the inside

The reason I wanted to review a blog from inside Afghanistan or Iraq is because you get an insight into the real life of the people.

I have recently read "The sewing circles of Herat" and "The bookseller of Kabul", two books that are excellent in showing a side to Afghanistan that is often concealed by the day to day media reports.

What I liked about these books is that it reported from the perspectives of the real people that are going through real suffering. A blog, in some respects, can give you that same insight.

The report on Febuary 12th, "Logic" discusses the new plans by the US to allow local reidents defend their own neighbourhoods.

"When the Americans decided in away or another to depend on the local residents to defend their neighborhood, they knew for sure that they had made a very difficult decision because they were 100% sure that some of residents if not the majority are members insurgents groups and they have their own ideologies which might not agree or meet with the American ideology in any way."

I was struck with how powerful the words "When the Americans" were when put in this context. By viewing things from the perspective of somebody inside Iraq, the writer is posing you to situate yourself in their situation and observe things a little differently than the mainstream US media would otherwise portray.

A tragedy Iraqis will never forget

I did not find this article on the blog that I am planning to follow. I stumbled across this site, almost by accident and it has left a memory with me that I will remember for a long time.

The blog, titled "old stories of the war" describes a tragic event 17 years ago in Iraq when an American pilot obeyed orders to drop a bomb and consequently burn a thousand people to death. This order was due to claims that the building was hosting meetings of high ranked military personnel.

I had never even heard about this event previous to reading the blog so it really shocked me to find out about this holocaust.

I think the pictures on this blog offer a great example of how photojournalism can be just as powerful as the accompanying text.

Personally, I found the pictures to stir up more emotions as they were so shocking and striking to the eye. I think those images will stay with me for a long time.

A basic summary of the events are as follows:

Three bombs were dropped into a shelter where about 1000 people were sleeping.

The shelter was thought to be filled with mostly women, children and elderly.

Ironically, they were using this shelter to protect themselves from the American bombs.

Everybody in that building except six burned to death.

Here is a quote the blogger got from one of the survivors. I found this to amplify just how tragic this event was.

‘My son was only 5 days old. I don’t even remember his face. I don’t have a photo of him. I can’t even proof that he ever existed.’

These people lost their lives in circumstances that are painful to imagine - Over a decade on, stories like this are unfortunately being repeated.

Blog of choice

I am going to follow the blogs run by the "McClatchy company." It is a blog that is updated by journalists working for McClatchy newspapers in Iraq, Jerusalem, China, the Middle East and Africa.

These blogs are first hand accounts of the experiences the journalists encounter whilst out reporting in these countries.

Obama's clean sweep puts all eyes forward to March 14th

The primaries of February 12 have left Barack Obama in a strong position. He swept to victory with a large majority in Washington D.C, Virginia and Maryland.

McCain also had an impressive victory on the Republican side, gaining 68 percent of the vote in Washington alone, according to The New York Times.

The biggest surprise of the day was the scale of Obama’s lead in Virginia. He picked up 64 percent of the vote while Clinton struggled a little more, only receiving 35 percent of the vote.

Virginia voters do not register by party therefore voters were free to choose a candidate from either party. This could have been one factor that led to Obama’s lead as this system appeals to independent voters.

Obama had a lead in every demographic except white women. Clinton held her lead in this category by 10 points in Virginia and 13 points in Maryland, and Obama won 90 percent of the black vote in Virginia.

It seems that Obama’s thorough campaigning in these states paid off on the day. His grassroots approach was evident in Washington, with almost 1,000 volunteers turning out on the day to encourage voters to go to the polls.

In addition, another 150 students from Howard University were out supporting him. TV Ads were also run in Washington for a week before any of Clinton’s TV Ad campaigning began, according to the washington Post.com.

Half of the voters in Maryland and Virginia listed the economy as their top concern. This highlights where candidates need to concern their focus in order to gain further support.

Mike Huckabee, who failed to win any states, has said he has no intention of dropping out the race. “The nomination is not secured until somebody has 1,191 delegates” Huckabee said, according to cnn.com.

Tuesday’s primaries in Washington, Virginia and Maryland have made it clear that neither Democrat can win the 2,025 nominations without the backing of the superdelegates. This fact has begun to shift the focus of both candidates according to the washingtonpost.com.

Tuesday’s election have put anticipation towards the March 14 Primaries in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. Until then, the political spin will continue.

(Three news sources for this article: New York Times, Washington Post, CNN)

Will Google kill Journalism as we know it?

There are those who will snarl at any new development in media. TV was supposedly going to kill radio, Internet was going to kill Print.

But we only have to look at our present situation to see that this has not happened. No media platform has yet to crash and burn but instead has adapted itself to the environment in the best way that is possible.

The idea experimented with in Epic 2015 that google could Buy out the New York Times may not necessarily mean print journalism will die out. Google could combine its internet skills and future mobile outlets with the reputation and knowledge of the New York Times.

An acquisition of the New York Times could therefore be viewed as a way of expanding the options through which news can be accessed. It may also help to counter act the 70% decline in value that the New York Times has witnessed over the past five years.