Podcast Interview

This project had to be my favorite project of the entire year. We were assigned to do a podcast and for my podcast I chose to do an interview with my father. Not only do I love my dad very much, I think he is very funny. I chose to do this project because I felt my father had some very interesting things to say about politics and other societal issues.

Here is the link to my podcast interview:

Photo Essay

After watching the movie on photojournalists who died while trying to capture life during war, we were assigned to make our own photo essays on a topic of our choice. My topic was the evolution of downtown Rochester, NY. With my father's Nikon D5000, I captured the true essence of downtown in the midday. I took many picures of building that either I found truly amazing or conveyed the theme of the decay of Downtown Rochester. With this project i tried holding the camera at  new angles to encourage my audience to look at the picture in a different way.

Here is the link to my photo essay:

"Dying to Tell the Story" Essay Response

In class we watched a movie called "Dying to Tell the Story". This movie focused on a photojounalist named Dan Eldon who died while photographing warzones in the Middle East. We were assigned to write an essay responding to this movie.

Here is my essay:

News, not the Newspaper

            Since the 18^th century, Americans have been reading the newspaper and considering everything it says to be factual news. A.J. Liebling was dead on when she said, “People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.” This quote can be related to many events in history in which government control has taken over the press or news has been altered just to seem more interesting to the public. Several examples can be used to prove that the press is supposed to be using true facts in their papers and magazines but that’s not what always happens.

            Organizations such as Reporters Without Borders concentrate on countries in which there is not much freedom of the press or freedom of speech in general. These countries are the most likely to have falsified or doctored stories being printed as the news. In China, a group of reporters recently had a peaceful protest outside of their workplace because they wrote an article about the government and made all of their final changes to it and when it was printed in the paper the government had completely changed what the article said. In China there is a very big problem with the government controlling the press. If a reporter wanted to print something bad about the government or exploit a government official for abusing his power, the reporter would not be able to. Most people in China do not even know that the articles have been changed and what they’re reading is being doctored on a daily basis to make the government look as good as possible.

            Celebrities have hard enough lives as it is with their every move being watched by the public. These days with the press and expository magazines, good news doesn’t necessarily have to be true. Many magazines are known to print lies and stories with facts altered just to make them seem more interesting. Magazines and newspapers have been printed about aliens landing and celebrity couples breaking up that aren’t even having marital issues. In times of war, newspapers were often printed with screaming headlines to make the opposition look bad. In WWII, papers had screaming headlines about the bombing at Pearl Harbour giving the Japanese derogatory names such as “the Japs”. Many Japanese people were targeted as being spies or terrorist due to propaganda all caused by newspapers printing false information about their race.

            In conclusion, news has often served as a major intelligence for the American people. These days even social networks serve as news for teens and even some adults. Last year, an online newspaper printed an article about Jackie Chan being dead and many people believed this story and started to mourn his death when he wasn’t actually dead in the first place. The place of news has become a major part if our society but this threatens our intelligence level because just like A.J. Liebling said, “People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.”

Magazine Project

For this project, my class was assigned to create a magazine with at a certain number of articles to have in the magazine. We also needed pictures and ads. The purpose of the magazine project was for our class to create a magazine that could be paralleled to a real magazine.

World Wildlife Foundation PSA project

One of the biggest project we did this year in Creative Journalism was the PSA. I felt lucky because i had done a PSA this previous summer so i would have some sort of experience working in this area. My class was very priveleged to use mac computers as a part of come of the resources for these project throughout the year. On the man there is a program called iMovie that we used throughout the year. This project was the first time I had ever used iMovie, but as the year went on I learned how to use this tool increasingly better.

The first part of this project was the press release for the made up event we were having as a fundraiser for the Rochester World Wildlife Foundation Branch. 

Here is the press release:

Contact: Frances Brown or Damarys Miranda World Wildlife Foundation Phone 5854568916 Fax 5859669172 Frannyb14619@yahoo.com

129 Flanders St. Rochester, NY 14619

World Wildlife Foundation

Press Release

Gathering for WWFCome Hang out with us in support of a new center for World Wildlife Foundation.

Rochester NY, November 25, 2012: Attention students of Ms. Gamzon’s Creative journalism class! We are having a public gathering for the World Wildlife foundation center that is opening in Rochester, NY. To celebrate this Grand Opening we are having a large banquet honoring our sponsors and beneficiaries.  Come visit our party on November 25^th at the Town Hall at 5:00. BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!  This program has been created by Frances Brown and Damarys Miranda. The Rochester division of the World Wildlife Foundation supports sending money to the major corporation in support of saving endangered animals like polar bears and Water Elephants. 

The next part of the project was submitting a budget invoice to demonstrate how big this fundraiser might be and what type of events might take place there.

Here is the budget invoice:

	INVOICE
Rochester Branch World Wildlife Foundation WWF for a living planet	INVOICE # 1 Date: November 19, 2012
45 Prince St. Rochester, NY, 14619 Phone 585242SOTA Fax 5852566580 Frannybee97@gmail.com

To

SOTA 10th Grade Journalism Class SOTA students 45 Prince St. Rochester, NY 14607 484242SOTA Customer ID 111

salesperson	job	payment terms	due date
Frances Brown	WWF Fundraiser	Due on receipt	11-21-12

qty	description	unit price	line total
10	Black Round Tables	$65	$650
10	White Table Cloths, WWF Symbol Inscribed	$24	$240
50	White Foldout Chairs WWF Symbol Inscribed	$15	$750
1	Projector	$75	$75
60	White WWF T-Shirt for guest	$10	$600
3	WWF Banners 12 ft. each	$25	$75
15	Boxes Chocolate Chip Cookies	$2.50	$37.50
10	Bottles Fruit Punch	$2	$20
70	White Plastic Cups WWF Symbol	$.10	$7
20	White Balloons with WWF Symbol	$.10	$2
4	Gym Space	$20 per hr.	$80
		Subtotal	$2536.50
		Sales Tax	$202.92
		Total	$2739.42

Make all checks payable to Rochester Branch World Wildlife Foundation

Thank you for your business!

The last part of the project to submit was the public relations campaign in which we just need to explain the purpose of the World Wildlife Foundation's objectives for this fundraiser. In the public relations campaign we explained the goals that we set for our branch and how we expected our branch to improve in a time span of  one year. 

Here is the Public Relations Campaign:

Rochester Branch World Wildlife Foundation Public Relations Campaign

Objectives:

Goals:

1.     To earn money to send to WWF workers in these countries, in order to more fund their work

2.     To grow support dedicated to the World Wildlife Foundation

3.     Increase percentage of WWF supporters by at least 5%

4.     To increase the amount sent to WWF workers in these countries

Audiences	Desired Action	Research Findings
Citizens	To become more aware of the places where they may volunteer or donate money and/or resources to WWF	People do not know where to donate; the largeness of the campaign becomes unattractive because people think there are already enough people donating
Volunteers	Gain more support from fellow citizens have more time to volunteer and contribute to fundraisers and events	Not enough people have time to volunteer their jobs hold them back from being involved in fundraisers

Themes and Messages

The Rochester Branch of WWF will raise money for the larger WWF in support of all endangered animals that we support.

Action Plan

The WWF Rochester branch will communicate with all of our subscribers and volunteers to engage them in what we are currently working on.

Course Correction

In one year we will reassess the amount of followers we have and will change our goal to meet our new needs.

Hisotry of Journalism Prezi

This project was one of the first projects that we were assigned. Early in the beginning of the year, September to be exact, we began researching the history of journalism. With Damarys Miranda as my partner once again, we chose to researched the first amendment and did our project on the subject of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Our prezi focused on the history of freedom of speech and freedom of the press not only in America but in other countries as well. We also included incidents where people were put in danger because their country was very strict about what was printed in the newspaper. 

Here is a link to the prezi:

http://prezi.com/meds1nn1dfs1/

Zoriah Prezi

We were assigned to make a prezi on a photojournalist of our choice. I chose a man named Zoriah Miller because at first glance he looked interesting and his work with children caused me to feel great emotion. Zoriah specializes in getting pictures of the other side of war. In this assignment I chose the six pictures that i liked the most and explained to my fellow students what they meant to me and the message that they gave. This was one of my favorite projects because I got really involved with Zoriah's work and this led to several after school web searches to learn more about this man and what he has done for small countries such as Lebanon, Kenya, and several countries in the Middle East.

Here is the link to the prezi:
http://prezi.com/nhzbx89a2zq3/