Final Project Video

http://summerdiscovery2013infotainment.blogspot.com/2013/08/e-news.html

Catfish

Being "cat-fished" is definitely not fun! In class, we watched the documentary, "Catfish" and saw how much of a toll it took on a particular man's life. To answer the question, "How would you feel if you were being cat-fished?", I would respond by saying how much of a disappointment it would be to find out that someone I had been building a strong connection with, had been a fake the whole time. I also agree with A.O. Scott, the author of a New York Times review of the film (NYT Review) when he describes how intriguing the subject is and how while watching the documentary, you always wanted to find out what would occur next.  

Amanda Bynes Update Video

I'm sure most of you are aware of the recent events involving Amanda Bynes. She had returned to Los Angeles and just this past Tuesday, Amanda was taken in on a 5150 psychiatric hold. Medical professionals and law enforcement officers have the ability to involuntarily place someone in a psychiatric hold for up to 72 hours for examination and for determining whether further treatment is necessary. This occurred because she apparently started a fire in a stranger's driveway with gasoline and cloth. I truly hope that she will be able to get the help she needs and to become a stronger and healthier women. 

Amanda Bynes Video      

Compiled Interview Data

In class, we compiled all of our data from last week's interview. The results were not as diverse as they were when we did the social media interview, but were still interesting. Some results that I found interesting were that most people thought that celebrity gossip is not considered news and that ongoing criminal trial coverage is news. Another result of the questioning was that most people didn't know how to define infotainment. Most people responded with an "I don't know." While we were interviewing the people, I thought about how there really wasn't much variety in the different people's answers.

Interview Response

For our news/infotainment class, we conducted a survey at the Bruin Bear. We asked questions like what people's favorite news stations were, if they use social media to obtain news, if they are affected by celebrity endorsement, etc. From the people my group interviewed, we saw that most people utilized online options to get their news. I also found it interesting that more people said that celebrity gossip was not considered news. One more statistic that I found intriguing was that when asked to, "Define the word infotainment", 6 out of 10 people could not.

Response to Cause of Cory Monteith's Tragic Death

This past Saturday night, I was leaving a restaurant in Las Vegas, while I was on a trip, and looked down at my phone. I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. Cory Monteith had died. I started watching him as Finn Hudson on Glee a few years ago and absolutely adored him. He was such an inspiration to everyone who watched the show and anyone who saw him would instantly fall head over heals in love with him. Unfortunately, he had been struggling for most of his life with substance abuse. He had checked himself into rehab recently this past year and seemed to have been doing great. It's so sad that he worked so hard and after one mistake, his life was taken from him. (See cause of Monteith's death for the details.)

Introduction to News and Infotainment Class

For the second half of the summer, I'll be learning about News and Infotainment. Our first assignment is  to decide on a theme and Natalia, Lesley, and I will be discussing celebrity gossip. Check back in later for more!