REVISED: Magazine/Multimedia Project: Review And Graphic Extra

A COMMUNITY COLLEGE POW WOW

One of the loudest events I ever went to wasn’t even a rock concert…it was a Pow Wow held inside a gym at San Jose Community College on May 2, 2009.

With constant drumming, chanting and dancing amplified by multiple BOSE speakers inside the college’s gym, there was very little talking at this event, as it should be. After all, this was a revered exhibition to be experienced, not discussed.

The general purpose of Pow Wows is to allow different Native American tribes to reconnect with each other, the Earth and the Great Spirit. Dancing, singing and ceremonies are still performed the same way as their ancestors did before them.

This year, the American Indian Council for Higher Education (AICHE) of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District held its first college Pow Wow. Their own goal is to increase Native American student enrollment while still engaging in the traditions of their ancestors. Master of the Ceremonies, Richard Charging Eagle, offered his opinion about promoting higher education, “Casino work should not be young Native Americans’ only career choice.”

There was no fee to enter, but I bought a Pow Wow t-shirt for $15 at the gym entrance to support the AICHE. The proceeds from the t-shirt and food sales support scholarships for Native Americans attending local colleges.

Outside, a mere dollar could buy either a freshly cooked Indian-style taco, a soft drink, or a typical American hot dog. The cooks worked tirelessly all day but still had time to smile and say hello to their customers. Since food was not allowed in the gymnasium where the ceremonies were being performed, participants and spectators ate and socialized outside on the college’s grassy areas.

Inside, the feverish beat shook both the walls and the ground, making film shooting and simple transactions with vendors a little challenging but do-able. Using simple hand gestures to indicate dollar amounts, I bought a Native American rattle for $8 (a black tortoise hand-painted on a dried gourd with seeds inside): I thought it was a good price for a unique keepsake I’ll probably have forever.

In fact, all of the hand-crafted items were accessible to view and touch, and both cash and credit cards were accepted by the quiet vendors.

In one corner of the gym, three women silently beaded jewelry at a long table, rarely looking up. Close to the dancing arena, there were three tables pushed together where volunteer babysitters sat with plenty of crayons and coloring books to keep the little ones busy. All seemed oblivious to the constant, rave-like beat.

Though I went to my first “inside-style” Pow-Wow without great expectations, my ears were still ringing and my heart was still beating hard to the rhythm of the drums when I left with my shaky footage, Native American rattle and Pow Wow T-shirt. I was energized for hours.

SJECCD’s first Pow Wow was an experience to be seen, felt and heard and not overanalyzed. If you missed this May event, don’t worry: rain or shine, another
heart-pounding Pow Wow is planned for next summer.

Magazine/Multimedia Project: Video Broadcast And Script

A COMMUNITY COLLEGE POW-WOW

-60 Seconds-

(ANCHOR/VO)

THE LOCAL AMERICAN INDIAN COUNCIL OF HIGHER EDUCATION HELD ITS FIRST EVER POW-WOW TODAY AT SAN JOSE CITY COLLEGE.

FOR ELEVEN HOURS, SPECTATORS WERE INVITED TO-

EAT FRESHLY-COOKED NATIVE AMERICAN FOOD...

OR PERHAPS BUY HAND-CRAFTED JEWELRY...

CLOTHES...

OR CEREMONIAL ITEMS...AND LISTEN TO RITUAL DRUMMING...

AND OF COURSE, TO WATCH THE EXCITING AND COLORFUL INTERTRIBAL DANCING!...

THE COUNCIL'S MASTER OF CEREMONIES SAYS THE PURPOSE OF HAVING A POW-WOW AT COLLEGES IS TO MAKE THE YOUNG ONES REMEMBER THEIR HERITAGE WHILE ENCOURAGING THEM TO ACHIEVE A HIGHER EDUCATION.

(-End-)

Topical Blog Post #3

City of Alameda settles lawsuit filed by San Jose doctor's family

By Peter Hegarty

Bay Area News Group

San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 05/07/2009 02:25:09 PM PDT

Updated: 05/07/2009 02:25:10 PM PDT

The city of Alameda has agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle a lawsuit with the family of Dr. Zehra Attari, the San Jose pediatrician who died after she drove off a boat ramp into the Oakland-Alameda Estuary more than three years ago.

The family initially was seeking $11 million, arguing the city was negligent because it did not install adequate safety measures at the ramp, which is at the foot of Grand Street and slopes directly into the estuary.

"The settlement agreement is very specific in that both parties do not admit responsibility or negligence," City Attorney Teresa Highsmith said Wednesday.

The 55-year-old Attari vanished on a rainy evening in November 2005 as she was driving from her Oakland medical office to a conference on Bay Farm Island in Alameda.

Investigators found her submerged gray Honda Accord 43 days later, after they received a tip that someone matching her description was seen near the ramp.

At the time Attari disappeared, just a sign with the word "End" and a blinking red light warned motorists that the street was about to end.

The city later installed a temporary barricade.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is Justice Really Blind?

While there might have been a road marking deficiency at the Oakland-Alameda Estuary, that does not absolve a 55-year-old physician from driving off a boat ramp in the middle of the night.

Holes in the story:

1. The person was a middle-aged female physician (she was very educated and had extensive driving experience).
   
2. She was headed to a night conference at Bay Farm Island (an affluent neighborhood physically divided off from the rest of Alameda, not a professional site).
   
3. The ramp she drove off had the typical "End" sign of a dead-end street with a flashing red warning light (both of which she ignored).

Though the death of this doctor is horrible, it was completely preventable. The city of Alameda had correctly identified the road condition. The doctor was responsible for choosing to drive through a dead-end street with two warning signs "to stop."

Even those who own boats have to be very careful when backing their own boats and trailers down boat ramps. If they reverse too far and submerge their own vehicles, they are responsible, not the owner of the boat ramp.

Yet, the doctor's family sued the city of Alameda for negligence, and after three years settled for $2.25 million.

I seriously doubt that there would be have been any financial settlement had the driver been an average person with a substandard education and lacking the ability to obtain expensive legal counsel. In that situation, like most boat ramp accidents, the cause of the incident and subsequent injury or death would have been negligent driving, and thus, the driver's fault.

Justice might be blind, but like most sightless people, can still feel the difference between a $1 bill and

a $100 bill.

Revision: Focus Story Structure

Sixteen-year-old Pete Stenhoff is permanently disabled from a football injury last year.

During a high school game, Stenhoff blocked the rival team's ball carrier with his head. That impact cracked the vertebrae in his spine, leaving him confined to a wheelchair and unable to graduate with his Chula Vista High School class.

"I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football," Stenhoff says, then adds, "I wish I would have known just how bad it could be."

Apparently, the risks are high: of the 20,000 high school football injuries every year, 2,400 result in permanent disabilities. More than one-third of those disabilities are caused by injuries to the head and neck.

Steinhoff is currently taking correspondence courses to complete his high school diploma.

Online News Writing Exercise

Exercise 1: Go to a news web site and see if it measures up to these criteria for online writing:

SF Gate, Home of the San Francisco Chronicle

1. Do the news items reflect immediacy? No, not on the home page: the stories there are dated. Right now, the current wildfires and major evacuations occurring just 400 miles away aren't even mentioned on the home page. One has to choose the Bay Area & State link in the index on the left to view the page where that current story is published.
   

2. Does the site try to help readers save time? Yes, there is a shaded box page-link index on the far left on the page, where a reader would intuitively look.

3. Is it quick and easy to get information? Yes, by clicking once on the aforementioned links, we can quickly locate the stories of the hour. Page load times are fast, so readers are likely to wait a few seconds to read the page.

4. Does it provide both visual and verbal information? Yes, almost every major article link had a graphic image that was relevant. Today on the web version of the Chronicle, there was the same financial chart used about bank equity needs as there was in its print version. The chart was almost necessary to correctly summarize the story for the public.

5. Do the stories contain lists and bullets to make them easier to scan? Lists, no. Bullets are used often in fast-facts boxes and article subheadings.

6. Are the stories broken into "chunks"? Yes, most of the articles are "chunked" for readability. Only very complex stories are written in longer forms, which is preferable for print.

7. Do stories provide hyperlinks to additional information? Most of the stories in the web version are final and do not contain additional links.h)

8. Are there opportunities for readers to "talk back"? Yes. There is an index link to the opinion page to enter comments as well as the opportunity to comment and discuss the stories at the bottom of every article.

9. Does the site use multimedia to enhance understanding and add appeal? Yes. Perhaps the e-edition has more, but the free San Francisco Chronicle website edition has live views of traffic, weather patterns, updated home sales, movie trailers and advertisers' images and video clips.

Topical Blog # 2

Self-publishing has become increasingly more popular in the past decade.

However, most self-published books don't make the best seller list, and, because of marketing costs, don't even make it to the major distribution centers like Barnes and Noble or Amazon. Even hiring a publicist can't make a "fair" book a "great" one.

Not that vanity publishing is a terrible idea by any means. But, to be clear, large publishing houses are for-profit businesses and thus demand professional writing and editing. The guidelines for vanity publishing are not as rigid.

Recently, an acquaintance quickly published a book of her own poetry (which I believe to be a difficult genre to publish at any rate.) At first I believed she paid a large fee to be published, which is the most common scenario with vanity publishing, but I was wrong. There was no fee.

Since it seemed odd, I perused the publisher's legalese that's available on its website: I have only determined that the publisher forever retains all printing rights to any book it publishes.

The publisher doggedly claims it is not a vanity publisher. Since I have yet to see an actual contract it distributes to its clients, I am currently unaware of any "loopholes" that might be in the fine print there.

Still, I can't help but be suspicious that the publisher is exactly what it claims not to be: a vanity publisher, in disguise.

Please feel free to view the publisher's website: X

What do you think?

Focus Story Structure

Sixteen-year-old Pete Stenhoff is permanently disabled from a football injury last year.

In an attempt to block the ball carrier with his head during a high school game, the vertebrae in Stenhoff's spine were cracked. The injury left him confined to a wheelchair and unable to graduate with his Chula Vista High School class.

"I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football," Stenhoff says, then adds, "I wish I would have known just how bad it could be."

Apparently, the risks are high: of the 20,000 high school football injuries every year, 2,400 result in permanent disabilities. More than one-third of those disabilities are caused by injuries to the head and neck.

Steinhoff is currently taking correspondence courses to complete his high school diploma.