Bear Cat Chronicles

Our webpage is really coming along. Today we typed up our menus and looked for music.

I will be missing some class due to my health and future testing and meetings with my oncologist. I will be working with my group on Monday to shoot footage. I do know that I will be taking pictures of the restaurants we have spoken to this week. Michelle will be shooting our video and editing it. David and Mel will be helping with input on how we will edit the pieces as well as putting the website together.

I am excited to see the final project completed.

Between First and Central will be an awesome site for downtown dining tips.

Today we learned Dreamweaver. I really enjoyed it, but it was very confusing. I hope that I will be able to catch on with it. I really think that with a little bit more practice, I will be able to code our web page for our final project on Phoenix food and drink specials for students. I am very excited to see what my group and I will be able to show local ASU students, so they can save money.

This afternoon I took the opportunity to walk around ASU Downtown Campus and tried to find random objects to take a picture of. I finally decided on a subject: a parking meter. How could you not be interested in parking meters? Honestly, I did not believe the pictures I took and how different I thought they would look.

Take a gander and let me know what you think! We are also learning some new effects in Adobe Photoshop, I hope you enjoy.

Monkey's are my favorite animal. So I thought it was fitting!

This week in the news, Salon.com top stories are about Sarah Palin. She is targeting beluga whales. Obama is being blamed for the stock market crash. Plenty of newspapers are filing chapter 11. And there may be a possible lead in the death of Chandra Levy.

AZcentral.com’s top stories were Charles Barkley is getting jail time for his Scottsdale DUI. Eleven burros were shot and killed and found by a lake. The stock market took a major hit today. And Thomas said he wouldn’t go after people caught by speed cameras.

The Irish Times talks a lot about Slumdog Millionaire who won eight Oscars last night. There is also a cool audio slide show of the night at the Oscars.

Today Salon.com said that the stimulus plan was announced prematurely. Also, there was news about fake photos that were released about R and B singer, Rhianna. Also, the mother who just had octuplets, is starting a website in order to ask people for money.

On AZcentral.com, I was shocked to see that GoDaddy.com is losing massive business because of their ads that played during the Superbowl. A study is playing up to $750 for people to quit smoking. I am very interested in this information. The bus driver who was involved in a collision Tuesday with METRO Lightrail has been cited after a witness said he saw the Orbit driver run a red light.

The Irish Times- It’s 4 degrees Celsius in Dublin currently. Trade Unions are going to hold demonstrations this Saturday around the country due to the economy. Schools with teachers who teach students who special disabilities will be cut, due to education cutbacks.

I was unable to find any audio slide shows on my websites, but I did find an awesome one on Reuters. Please check it out and tell me what you think about it. It’s a mixture of video, photos, and commentary from the photographers. It’s beautiful.

Beijing Olympics 2008

Mark Hinojosa, director of new media at the Detroit News spoke to students of The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Monday. Hinojosa, who has been in the business for 30 years, said he is in charge of creating new media that will help older folks become more tech savvy.

Hinojosa also said he has witness three cyclical downturns in his career, but the current economical situation is the worst he has seen. At the Detroit News, he said they do not want to lay people off, so they will cut down their circulation, the size of the paper, and they will cease daily newspaper home deliveries three days a week.

Many newspapers around the country, like the Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Rocky Mountain News, to name a few, will not survive these hard times due to debts. Before Hinojosa was working for Detroit News he worked for the Chicago Tribune, but was laid off due to a $12 million debt the paper had acquired.

“The industry will die, but journalism will survive,” Hinojosa assured future graduates of the Cronkite School.

www.Huffingtonpost.com

I feel that this is a reliable source because it looks very professional and so far I have not found any misspelled words or improper grammar. Also, on the bottom of the page it does have information on how to contact Huffingtonpost.com. Also, it has links to well-known newspapers around the world.

www.Drudgereport.com

The Drudge Report is a mixture of everything, it seems to me. I have never looked at the site before, but it seems like there are links to other newspapers and of course there are links to contact Matt Drudge, but it does not seem all to professional. If you were to use The Drudge Report to connect to other news websites, I do not think that it would be too bad.

www.thedirty.com

The Dirty is a really funny site to look at if you are bored. It is definitely NOT a good place to look for any reliable information that you may need for an article or a scholarly paper.

www.Salon.com

It is updated everyday and even had information about The Super Bowl fiasco with the new ‘Nipplegate’ scandal with ComCast. I think that Salon.com is interesting and informative. It also has contact information and an about us section. Salon.com is one of the websites I am blogging about this semester.

www.Whitehouse.gov

Is a very reliable source. This is a government site that talks about The President and other things that are going on in Washington D.C. I would definitely use this source if I were to write an article about politics or anything that would be going on in D.C. With this site being so structured, then it pretty much follows all of the criteria on my top 10 list.

Top 10 List

1.  Always read the URL (domain). If it ends in .gov, .edu, .org, etc. Then it should be pretty reliable. It must be coming from a government, educational, or legitimate entity.

2. Trusted news sources such as CNN.com and FoxNews.com are reliable because they are reporting the news.

3. Scholarly sources like LexisNexis are also good sources because they are educational and have journals and magazines you can research.

4. Also, check to make sure that the site you are checking, looks professional. You do not want to get information from a site that has words misspelled, grammatical errors, or is bright and flashy.

5. Check to see who is writing the information, if it isn’t easy to figure that out, then it may not be so reliable.

6. Also, find out if the information is neutral. You do not want to use bias information, all you want are the facts.

7. Do not use Wikipedia. It is a good starting point, but since anyone can write on it, then it may not be accurate.

8. Make sure that you do not go to someone’s personal website which will contain their opinion.
9. Look for other signs, like (About Us, Contact Us, Careers, Background, Biography, etc.).

10. Make sure to check that the information is not outdated.

Sources that were used to compile this list:

http://websearch.about.com/od/referencesearch/a/evaluatesource_2.htm

http://online-student-resources.suite101.com/article.cfm/wikipedias_credibility

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Welcome to my very first blog!

My name is Lindsey Castro and I am a senior at Arizona State University. I will be graduating from The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May of this year. I am very excited to finally be done with school, but it did seem to go by quite quick.

I hope that you will enjoy reading it for the next few months.