Archive For The “Videography” Category

Comm 620: Visual Storytelling I — Audio (w/Visuals)

May 2, 2016 ejeanmyers American University, Education, Photography, Videography

Immigrant Debate Takes To Literature With New Book

Tanya Marie Golash-Boza, Author
Listen: Golash-Boza – Eric’s Story

The nation in a heated debate over immigration policies and the relocations of thousands of Syrian refugees. In the lively bookstore, Politics & Prose, the debate continues amid demonstrations at the White House gates. Today, author Tanya Golash-Boza introduced her new book “Deported: Policiing Immigrants, Disposable Labors and Global Capitalism.”

Following Golash-Boza’s previous book, “Immigration Nation”, which covers the policies involved in immigration, “Deported” develops a human rights perspective from interviews with 147 deportees. From these interviews many factors are thrown into the debate: commercial restructuring of communities, neoliberal reforms, and the unequal criminalization of people of color.

So over the past few decades, trade agreements have facilitated the movement of capital across borders. And these trade agreements have not facilitated the movement of workers across borders. –Tanya Golash-Boza

“Eric’s story allows us to consider the connections between individual migration stories and larger economic trends, such as outsourcing, economic restructuring, cutbacks in social services, the enhancement of police and the privatization of public services,” says Golash-Boza. Eric’s story began with his mother migrating to America for better wages in order to provide a better life for Eric. The story details many disadvantages of migrant workers, including lack of benefits, longer hours, lower wages than American citizens. Golash-Boza says, “As an undocumented worker, Eric’s mother was less likely to challenge her low pay and lack of benefits.”

“Deported” delves into the capitalization of deportations and the U.S. prison system. Golash-Boza says, “Once arrested, Eric was placed in a private prison, and privatization of public services is another key economic trend, as is the profitability of prisons. So over the past few decades, trade agreements have facilitated the movement of capital across borders. And these trade agreements have not facilitated the movement of workers across borders.”

Eric was able to gain work in Guatemala, where he was deported to from the United States. However, his wage is not enough to bring his wife and children to Guatemala. The American corporation that operates the call center in Guatemala where Eric works is able to keep a steady supply of low wage workers deported from privatized prisons. The company is able to obtain low-wage bilingual workers, familiar with American geography, products and lifestyles. This gives Eric priority at hiring, but the American company will close U.S. operations, paying $400 a month to a deported immigrant to secure larger profits.

“The heavy policing of poor neighborhoods predominated by people of color made it much more likely that Eric would be arrested, even though he had in fact not committed a crime,” says Golash-Boza. These stories explore the bias and racism of mass deportations in the United States. The Secure Communities Act from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was repeated throughout the presentation as a condemning policy that allows racial profiling of people of color.

We have this vast apparatus of laws and regulations and policies that most people know nothing about. –Linda Rabben

According to the ICE website, the Secure Communities Act, replaced by the Priority Enforcement Program in July, states that “Secure Communities was designed to reduce the potential for racial profiling. Under Secure Communities, the fingerprints of every single individual arrested and booked into custody, including U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, are checked against immigration records – reducing the risk of discrimination or racial profiling.”

There are American citizens who believe more immigration reform is necessary. The process for accepting immigrants, especially refugees is strenuous. Several Americans are worried that terrorists will slip through cracks in the refugee resettlement program and that there are no controls in place. Associate Professor at University of Maryland, Linda Rabben, says, “Immigration is already controlled in the United States. We have this vast apparatus of laws and regulations and policies that most people know nothing about.”

Numerous Americans are responding to televised media coverage of recent terror attacks, crime and policies and opinions, from opinionated pundits to candidates running for president. Rabben says, “And if you rely on what the media tells you, then you’re going to get a very distorted picture of how the system works.”

Additional Media

November 21, 2015 ejeanmyers American University, Education, Photography, Videography, Writing

Exercises Part I: Embedding Content & Part II: Using Google Fonts

January 22, 2010, was an electric night for music at Mike’s Down Under in Jefferson, Georgia. Yepo headlined the show. A quartet of friends creates the rock and country sounds of Yepo. Andy, lead vocalist and guitarists describes the band as “always local”, mentioning that tonight they were a Jefferson band.

Location of Yepo

They don’t want to be classified as a sound because they play a little bit of everything. At one of their concerts, there is a list of various genres, ranging from country to rock. You really never know what you will hear at a Yepo concert.

We Play Some Songs

Is there anything they don’t play? There’s only one band that won’t make the request line.

We Don’t Play Any…

Prepping the stage for the leading band were two performances that really made us do a double take. Daniel Victorio, as a single musician, had ears perked. His mellow voice echoed to a nearly silent crowd. No one could take theirs eyes away. Also, no one went for a beer during his session.

Daniel Victorio

After Victorio, Michael+Matt+Zak+Michael took to the stage and performed a number of hits. However, from concensus of the applause level, “Cripple Creek” seems to have been the favorite from their roster.

Cripple Creek – Michael+Matt+Zak+Michael

Soon, Yepo took the stage and blew everyone away with their sound. The four friends rocked the night away with hits like “Low,” “Ring of Fire,” and “Copenhagen.” It all settled down to their long hit “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” which fades into “Psycho Killer.”

Mary Jane’s Last Dance/Pyscho Killer

October 15, 2015 ejeanmyers American University, Education, Videography, Writing

Traditional Journalists Must Diversify Skills

Traditional journalists have already noticed the changes in journalism, as it applies to new media and social media. Trends in communications affect the media in which a journalist would have to diversify their skills. One assistant professor at Kennesaw State University agrees the diversification of skills could produce additional opportunities for a modern journalist. Mr. Matthew J Duffy of KSU attributes the following trends to the evolution of journalists:

1. A push to video
2. More Data Analysis
3. Freelancing
4. Online Education
5. Non-Profit

Push to Video

Points 2 Through 5 About Digital Journalism

A traditional journalist would now have to diversify their skills, becoming a one-man band, so to speak. A hybrid-journalist, meaning they are able to create, edit and produce their own packages, has the advantage in the marketplace. This is based on the fact that hybrid journalists, also known are preditors, are capable of producing news content, acting as the writer, the editor and the publisher. In addition, they now have to act as a videographer, producing visuals to accompany their stories. Video also acts as a verification of the news package. It resembles the phrase I hear amongst younger social media users, ‘No picture. Didn’t happen.’ Mr. Duffy attributes social media to the rise in video production, as supplemental to the news package.

Another trend that stigmatizes a lot of journalists is math. The amount of data that supports a news stories doesn’t always come clean and broken down for a journalist. This is where analytical skills come into play, a skill many journalists do not have. The running joke is that students go into journalism to avoid having to do math. A Columbia Journalism Review article expounds on the stereotype that journalists are bad at math and analyzing data. Journalists are no longer able to have their team of number crunchers in the new room. They now have to be the numbers cruncher. They have to now perform data analysis, do the math and be able to explain their math to their readers/viewers. Additionally, they are accountable for the analysis they are presenting.

Being able to stay mobile, arrive to the scene, and produce a story in a timely matter provide many opportunities for freelancers. A journalist, with hybrid skills, and a passport, could make a substantial living off of freelance gigs. Freelancers are not tied down to one news desk or organization. They are versatile and can blend in with any news organization. Truly independent freelancers can make a name for themselves and have no true obligations to any one particular news source if they can use their preditor skills and mobility to continuously create quality content.

Online education has drastically increased the convenience of becoming a journalist. Traditional brick-and-mortar schools are offering more and more online courses to compete with online colleges and universities, such as University of Phoenix. In addition, these facilities, as well as UoP, are competing with even lower costs certification programs, like those of Coursera, EdX and Udemy. Those traditional journalists who learned the basic of reporting, are now able to educate themselves, obtain training, to upgrade their qualifications into hybrid journalists.

Mr. Duffy also noted a trend to quality over quantity journalism in for-profit communications organizations, as well as an increase towards non-profit organizations entering the arena of multimedia and social media for communications. He references Kaiser Permanente as an example of the progress of a for-profit going with quality. The insurance company has gained media recognition for their journalistic progress in communications. Kaiser has gained recognition in radio, television and social media platforms for their contributions to medical journalism, analyzing the data and going globally with their reports. This also brings us to a point made by Mr. Duffy about jobs that were not available or thought of in journalism prior to the evolution of social media.

He sees differences in the jobs that are around now. Certain positions didn’t exist five years ago and yet, will continue to spring up as more industries will see a need for media skills.

Jobs That Weren’t There 5 Years Ago

While Mr. Duffy doesn’t specifically know what’s in store for digital journalism, he does know he has read about it. He referred to an article he browsed on The Awl. The article pertained to wealthy California venture capitalists looking for the next big media thing. He does see more fact-checking in our future, especially when it comes to the 24-hour news channels. However, he see bloggers as a push toward the future of journalism. Also, more content management systems for journalists will be among the multitude of programs that will arise with needs from the media.

Mentioning of The Awl

Criticism of 24-Hour News

Move to Fact-Checking

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