This semester we are supposed to be divided up into groups and do reports on a topic of our choosing. We will do weekly updates but at the end of the semester we will present a presentation. Aj Ortiz, Caleb Jones, and I will were put into a group, and we decided our topic would be on consumer electronics. We picked this topic because we felt there would be a plethora of sources to choose from. Apple has new iPhones coming out. Also, in November Sony and Microsoft will be releasing their new gaming consoles. I will be purchasing my own iPhone 5c here in the next few days so I will be a direct source for this assignment. I hope to learn more about consumer patterns and public opinion of consumer electronics from this assignment. We originally planned to do technology but decided against it because we thought that would be too broad of a topic.

This week I had the assignment of interviewing three people. I was to walk up to random people on campus and ask about their opinion of the new iPhone 5s. I asked each individual “what do you think of the new iPhone, and will you buy it?” This was a new experience for me, because I’ve never interviewed people  before and it wasn’t something I’m really comfortable doing. But, after interviewing three people I became more comfortable doing it. Here is what they said.

David Knight ” I haven’t heard much about it but I doubt if it’ll be that much better than mine now.”

Ciara Nicole “I heard that it has a new finger print thingy, but I don’t really know what it does. But, yeah, no I won’t be getting one.”

Phillip Carr ” There’s no point of me getting a new one this year. The one I have now works just fine.”

My assignment is to read an article from the Lariat and find an example of where they use quotes in an effective manner. The article I used is called “BU to honor years at The Case.” I didn’t really know what the article was about until I read the first quote, which was: “We wanted to honor the teams and players that have come before,” after reading this quote I understood that they are doing a program to honor Floyd Casey Stadium and the players who have played in it during the years. “We came up with the idea last spring just as a way to commemorate previous players and say goodbye to The Case,” this quote reinforced what I already knew.

I was also asked if I would want to be quoted in a newspaper, to which I will respond “no.” I wouldn’t want to be held responsible if I gave incorrect information.

The Huffington Post is a website with all blogs. I’m guessing the majority of the readers are younger people who actively use technology. The articles were well written.

The first big article is called “Obama takes on Coal with First Ever Carbon Limits” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/obama-carbon-limits_n_3958693.html

Obama is pressing the new coal powered plants, which will help with carbon emissions. Carbon emissions being one of the major pollutant.  The proposed rule will note have an immediate effect, but will eventually force the government to restrict current power plants.

I’m a huge Breaking Bad fan so this article was really entertaining to read. WARNING, this blog has spoilers. Here is the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-ryan/breaking-bad-ozymandias_b_3931402.html

The writer starts off by saying how hard the episode was to watch. Breaking Bad is nearing its end, the show only has two episodes left in the series. The author usually watch each episode twice so that they can absorb all the details, but after this particular episode they could not watch it twice. The episode is called ”Ozymandias” which is actually a poem in which, the episode was based on. Hank and Gomie died with in the first five minutes. The episode continued to become darker and darker as the show progressed. The famous “we’re family” scene really hit home to the author.” A long time ago, around the end of Season 3, I recall writing that the characters of “Breaking Bad” would never make me cry. I could not have been more wrong about that.”

The last story I covered is called “7 Features of iOS7 That Will Change Your Life.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/ios-7-features_n_3953256.html?ir=Technology

1. Block unwanted calls and texts. So, for the first time you can easily block someone from contacting you.

2. See what text were sent and received.

3. Get new Ringtones. After only having a limited amount of ringtones for the iphone for so long the new software finally brings introduced new ones. Now you won’t be constantly confusing your phone with your roommates.

4. Use your phone as a level. Now tasks such as hanging a picture are easier than ever.

5. Control Center controls everything. “In the Control Center, you’ll be able to quickly access the flashlight, alarms, calculator and camera. You’ll also be able to adjust your device’s brightness to save battery life; pause, play, or skip a song you’re listening to; adjust your WiFi; and more.”

6. Listen to iTunes radio. This new radio is like Spotify or Pandora. You can access iTunes radio through the music app.

7. Update apps in the background. Your phone now has the ability of upgrade your apps in the background while you use your phone for other tasks.

I went to the Dallas Morning News website for this assignment.  http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/2013/09/dez-bryant-not-practicing.html/

1. “Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant is not practicing today.” This was the very first sentence of the article and it demonstrates writing rule number five: getting to the point quickly.

2. “Bryant walked onto the Valley Ranch field wearing a hooded sweatshirt, shorts and cleats. He worked on the far side of the field, stretching and jogging with a trainer during the portion of practice open to the media.”  This was the longest paragraph in the whole article which demonstrates writing rule number seven: having short paragraphs,

3.”Bryant, who injured his back Sunday in Kansas City, was at practice on Wednesday but not in pads.” There are no advanced words in this sentence so I think it does a good job of writing rule number two: using short words.

4.”Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant is not practicing today.” This is a good example of writing rule number one: using short sentences.

I recently had an assignment where I had to write leads in an inverted pyramid style. This was harder than I thought it would be because I kept trying to make a headline, while writing headlines and writing leads are different things. Now when I read newspapers I can find the lead in the article and how they constructed their lead.

I evaluated The Washington Post on 9/11/13. The front page was completely devoted to stories on the Syrian crisis. I believe the audience for this news sources would be education adults living in America. The Washington Post is a respected newspaper and well resound worldwide.

“Obama Takes Syria case to the public in White House address” was the main front page article I will be covering. “What kind of world will we live in if the United States of America sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas and we choose to look the other way?” Obama said during his address Monday night. While the vote by congress on whether or not to strike Syria has been thrown to the back burner for now, President Obama insisted that military action would be necessary if Syria does not offer their chemical weapons up to Russia promptly. The last 36 hours or so has seen a lot of change in the situation so even this piece might be not up to date by the time it is posted. While Syria has agreed to hand over their chemical weapons to Russia, a good portion of officials insist that this is just a pause in the action. These officials do not believe Syria will actually give up their weapons. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-takes-syria-case-to-the-public-in-white-house-address/2013/09/10/11b5356a-1a36-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html

Their post about the new Iphones were a good read “Apple’s New Iphone: 5 Things to Know” Apple announced two new Iphones at their event in Cupertino yesterday. One version is the 5C which is the new cheaper model that will be priced at $99. This phone is essentially the same as the Iphone 5 except it now has a plastic covering instead of glass. The other phone Apple announced was the Iphone 5S. The 5S is the same physical design as the older model but with a beefed up processor, new dual-flash camera, and fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint scanner seems to be the big selling features on this phone, although it brings up issues off privacy. https://socialreader.com/me/content/ErylT?chid=3782&_p=trending&utm_source=wp&utm_medium=Widgets&utm_campaign=wpsrTrendingExternal-1-opt

Another article I found interesting was:” E-cigarettes Raise New Questions About Smoking.” People are switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes; electronic cigarettes come in a variety of shapes and models, but most consist of a battery, a heating element, and a liquid that contains nicotine, propylene glycol and flavorings. The smoking of these new electronic cigarettes is called “vaping.” Studies have not yet been done so the amount we know about health effects is limited. The electronic cigarettes prevent users from the traditional bad carcinogens that are found in cigarettes but may offer new carcinogens that weren’t previously found in cigarettes. Because you can adjust the amount of nicotine you receive from each puff there has been reason to believe that electronic cigarettes may actually be able to help smokers quit by slowly lowering the level of nicotine until the level of nicotine is zero. But still, there hasn’t been enough research to give a definite answer. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/e-cigarettes-raise-new-questions-about-smoking/2013/09/09/7283e968-0f19-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story_1.html

I evaluated the New York Times on 9/4/13. The front page is devoted to top American news stories and world news stories. The top headlines on the front page from this issues were: “Drawing a Line on Syria, U.S. Eyes Iran Talks,” “President Gains McCain’s Backing on Syria Attack,” and ” U.S. Feels Chill In Its Relations With Russians.” So since Syria is one of the nation’s biggest issues right now it is the most heavily covered story.

One of the top stories was “Dreams, but Little Consensus, for a New Detroit.” In this article, the big issue is what to do with Detroit? The city once had 1.8 million residents, but is now down to just 700,000. Detroit recently declared bankruptcy and is in need of a dire plan to reshape the city. A large portion of the city is abandoned and crime is everywhere. There have been multiple ideas of how to reshape the city, all of which will take a long time and a lot of money. Some of the ideas included: tearing down buildings and creating a farming community, creating a new technology community, or even building a new bridge to Canada to increase trade. One thing everyone agreed on was that something big needed to be done in order to save Detroit.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/us/dreams-but-little-consensus-for-a-new-detroit.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Another interesting article I found was ” Sharks and Nature Cooperate For Solo Cuba-to-Florida Swim.” Diana Nyad swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without stopping.The 64 year old swimmer finally made the trip with escorts on Kayaks. This was her 5th attempt. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/sports/nyad-completes-cuba-to-florida-swim.html

Another interesting article I read was “Rodman Returns to North Korea to See Kim.” Dennis Rodman is a retired basketball player who has received a lot of attention lately for his trip to North Korea to hang out with Kim Jong-un. Apparently, Rodman visits North Korea only to visit his friend and quote “I’ve come out here to see my friend,” he said. “I want to talk about basketball.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/world/asia/dennis-rodman-says-he-is-returning-to-north-korea.html?src=mb

I believe the audience for The New York Times is all American adults, because it has gained such a great reputation over the years for being a reliable news source. The New York Times appealed to me because the article appeared to be well written, gave you the information you needed, and didn’t drag on for way longer than they needed to be.