John Diamond, the Executive Director of External Affairs for the University of Maine System came to visit our class for the Public Relations group.  Diamond is a UMaine grad., who then became part o the journalism faculty here at the university.  He then became Director of University Relations, and now is in his current position, working for the Chancellor. On and off, Diamond stated that he had been with the university either as a student, or faculty member for 35 years.  Diamond also informed us that he had written for the Lewiston Sun Journal  and also worked for MPBN doing different shows.

Diamond’s position that he  now holds involves a small staff at the University of Maine System office in Bangor where their purpose is to position the University with three key groups: the public, the policy makers, and the opinion makers.

What I found most interesting about John Diamond’s visit was his personal philosophy: “Always tell the truth and hope you get caught at it.”  So many times in society today, the leaders that we look up to are found to be nothing more than lazy and untruthful.  It was so reassuring to hear that a leader in our community holds truth to be so valuable.

I also found his interest in what we think to be problematic at this University to be really reassuring as well.  It feels good to know that people are working hard to change what needs to be changed at the University of Maine, because often times students don’t feel like they have much input into what changes here.

Recently two employees from channel 7 news came to speak to the class. Tony Consiglia and Cindy both work at the station but do multitudes of very different jobs. I found not only their background information that they were willing to share interesting, but also took to heart much of the motivating advice they shared as well.

Probably what I found most interesting about what these two professionals is that they both came from such different backgrounds. Tony took a more traditional approach to his career by attending Emerson College, and working his way up in the ranks there, and then came to Maine where he again worked his way up to the position that he is at now. Cindy’s story was much different. I found it fascinating that someone who has such a vital role in people’s day to day lives had little to no formal training in her profession. She really is quite an inspiration to go after what you want, a mantra that both of them were very passionate about.

Another intriguing part of the presentation was the fact that both of them, mainly Tony, hold multiple positions in the station. As someone who was not interested in going into broadcast I had completely written it out as anything I wanted to do as a career, however, hearing all of the input that the two of them have on their work interested me a bit. Working for such a small market definitely has its advantages.

Yet another thing that was interesting to hear was the ethical issues that lie within their job. As journalists we try to convince ourselves that everything we do is for the news, but their honesty about this portion of their job was really refreshing. I don’t know how many times I have seen journalists interviewed, and heard them say that what they do is solely for the information of the public and for nothing else. In reality these news outlets run as a business and sometimes have to report things or work things into a report, that aren’t necessarily what is most important, and I personally appreciated them telling us this realistic view of the business.

Overall I found these guest speakers to be not only interesting and entertaining, but also informative. I thought I knew about broadcast and knew that it was something that I definitely didn’t want to do, but after hearing them speak about what they do on a daily basis, I am a little less hasty to deny myself that opportunity.

Nate Stormer, a specialist in rhetoric and language effects, came to our class as the first in a series of guest speakers on Monday. His presentation was interesting, informative, and at times overwhelming, but only in a good way.

Perhaps what I found most interesting were his thoughts on metaphors and word choice. He stated that “all words have metaphorical power,” a statement that I found really complex and hard to grasp. This was an important thing to realize however, and a very interesting way to look at words in their barest form. We also talked about the use of complex language in our writing, and when it is most appropriate to use it which I found very helpful as a writer. He pointed out that if all complex words are switched out of articles they may lose some of there power, and in order to keep them in a story a simple explanation or comparison is necessary. Stormer also suggested that we “don’t pollute a story with big words,” something that I know I have to work on as a news writer.

Our conversations on specific examples from Brian’s story were also interesting. We analyzed the words slumping and sluggish and tried to come to a conclusion as to which would make the most sense when referring to the economy. This process was something else I found very fascinating, and a great template to use for my own word selection in the future.

This process was also used when trying to resolve sexist language in the phrases ‘lobstermen’ and ‘fishermen’, a difficult task that two members of the class had to deal with in their last story.

Stormer’s advise on how we as writers can not control how a reader perceives our writing was also a very interesting concept covered. The viewpoint that we are only a piece of the barrage of information that people receive is something that seems so obvious, but is something that I never really thought to deeply on.

My overall reaction to Nate Stormer’s visit, is that I came away from it with another way to view my writing; A more complex and thoughtful way to use language as a tool in my writing.

Arts/Culture/Humanities/Medicine

I chose this beat category because it is the area of news that is the most interesting to me, and that I feel I will be able to write about for the rest of the semester.  I feel like I can cover more sub-topics in this beat topic.

“The original sense of news was ‘new things’; this is long obsolete. Since the 15th century it has been used to mean ‘tidings, the report of recent events, new occurrences as a subject or report or talk.’
The adjective new goes back to Old English.”

-askoxford.com

” A Definition of News- News, then, is anything that happens in which people are interested.  The best news is that which carries the most interest, significance, and importance for the greatest number.”

-Writing for Print by H.F. Harrington

Newsprint writing is changing at a very fast pace, and personally this has caused me to change what I had thought would be a great career. For a very long time I have always wanted to be a print writer, and when I chose this I took the appropriate steps to become successful at it. This included going out for a high school newspaper, and eventually becoming editor in chief, and reformatting the way that the paper was run. However as I began college I realized that this medium that I had devoted so much time to was becoming more obsolete. Newspapers are having to shift from traditional methods of news writing to more modern methods such as online publication, which requires a varied style of writing. This style is something that all writers have to learn and perfect in order to present news in todays society.

However quickly this change is going, I still feel that print has a place. I would rather pick up a newspaper , then go online to cnn.com or googlenews and read.

As an advertising major I find myself getting drawn in and analyzing a lot of advertisements. There are many that just bore me to tears, but this was one that really captured my attention and did a really great job of providing insight into the product, giving a great stylistic view, and targeting the correct audience. Acura is now trying to establish itself as a luxury car, and this commercial does a great job of presenting that. Watch the 30 second spot and let me know what you think!

Something that has always interested me about the advertising field is the kind of effect it has on children. This gives great insight to the effect that advertising highly sexualized toys, music and television programs can have a young girls.It makes you wonder what laws and statutes are in existence to protect children from these types of advertising(to come).

VP Debate

Both candidates performed better than expected. biden was far more controlled than he usually is, and even when he had opportunities to correct palins inaccuracies, he didn’t. Palin SOUNDED more versed on the topics of discussion, whether she actually knows about all that she was speaking is a different question. She kept answering questions as if McCains advisers had typed her up a script or something, often using the same answer for many questions in a row throughout the night. However, I feel like the two candidates answered the questions in a way that I could understand, a stark contrast of their running mates. Repeatedly I find myself dazed and confused when listening to McCain and Obama using their political speak. However when Biden and Palin were on last night they used language that the average American (whatever that means) could understand. I was thoroughly impressed by Biden though, and thought he was the clear victor in this debate. He answered questions with well informed responses, spoke smoothly and held a good front for the Obama campaign. His closing speech was touching and poignant, and numerous time throughout th3e debate viewers got to see a different side of Biden than they had seen before.

Most Important News Story of the Week:

The most important or relevant news story this week was by far the presidential debate. Leading up to the debate both candidates had many things to prove to the voters. Just days prior Obama and McCain had been in talks with President Bush over the bail-out plan for all of the closing banks that have been plauging America within the past three weeks. That was a heavy topic within the debate, as well as strategies for the wars in Iraq as well as Afghanastan, healthcare was a topic, as well as budget issues within the country.

This event was so important because the election is fastly approaching, and solid opinions on these issues had not yet been heard, particularly from Obama. Also, this type of interaction had not been seen between the two candidates yet. And most importantly a clear definition of who each candidate is was presented. Obama made his objectives clear, a step that needed to be taken by the Illinois Senator. McCain didnt come out of the debate too well however. His cold demeanor and failure to keep his agitation and anger in check were noticed.

University Relations Director, Joe Carr

“I was bitten by that broadcasting bug,” Joe Carr, Director of University Relations, explained when talking about how he came to work in Public Affairs for the University of Maine.

In his position he is responsibile for marketing communications and generating news about the university as well as releasing it to the media. He also has many other duties dealing with the public view of the university.However, his current position isn’t what Carr always thought he would do.

Carr attended Providence College, getting his bachelors degree in political science. “I had done that in hopes of becoming an attorney,” he explained, “but while I was there I began working for the student radio station, and I was bitten by that broadcasting bug, you could say.” Carr then went on to Emerson College where he got his masters in journalism, leaving his dream of a career in law behind.

Later, Carr returned to Maine and his hometown of Hermon, where he began working for WABI-TV. At WABI Carr got to experience working in the fields of radio and television and when asked which he preferred working with, Carr replied, “Radio. In radio the announcer has most of the control over what they are saying. It’s great for control freaks.” Carr continued to work at WABI for almost nine years through the mid 80’s and into the 90’s.

In 1993 Carr began his career at the University of Maine. As the son of two UMaine alumni, Mr. Carr had always known about the university, but it was through covering it during his previous job at WABI that he became really interested in the university as a career opportunity. Carr took over the position from John Diamond, a personal hero of Carr’s; “He’s one of the smartest people I know, so it was an honor working with him. It was a great learning experience.”

Carr and the Department of University Relations, a total staff of 14, are responsible for handling the public view of the university and have made some steps forward to bring the university to a modern light. In addition to the other tasks mentioned above the department is responsible for maintaining the umaine.edu homepage as well as releasing UMaine Today, the university’s own magazine, a publication that Carr is very proud of. “We have a great group of people here. We have a lot of fun [and] everybody demonstrates quality.”

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