"Feeding the Beast"

1. In this video, I would argue that the "beast" is simply the news or news media outlet.

2. The news outlet needs to be fed information which can then be turned into news for people to consume. "Feeding the Beast" is essentially people bringing news into their respective news outlets to be turned into consumable news for the public.

3. Compromises definitely need to be made during the 24-hour news cycle. As the video said, many assumptions need to be made at a news outlet. For instance, several people featured in the video mentioned that they simply assume that the readers or viewers trust what is being put on the news. Additionally, not everyone can receive the same amount of credit on a story. This compromise mostly comes from a time constraint. It isn't feasible to include the names of every single person involved in making a news story a reality. Readers just need to assume that the work is being done, even if it's not all by the reporter whose name is in the byline.

Press Release Story

Brent Lindquist
11/14/07
Second Life story

Linden Lab announced on Monday that the virtual social network Second Life now includes 3D voice technology licensed from partner company Vivox.

Second Life is an online program in which users create their own avatars and interact with others in the “Second Life Grid.” Second Life previously featured only Instant Messaging and text chat functions for communication.

"The addition of voice marks a natural progression in the ongoing evolution of Second Life," said Joe Miller, Vice President, Platform & Technology Development at Linden Lab. "We believe voice is a transformative technology that will change the way Residents communicate, and will lend more immediacy and dynamism to their interaction with others.

The new option features a spatial recognition component that integrates distance and direction of sound in relation to the speakers and listeners. It requires a headset and microphone to operate.

Secondlife.com editor Brett Atwood made the announcement. He anticipates new applications to arise out of the 3D voice technology.

Atwood said several companies are exploring Second Life and its 3D voice technology for use in virtual meetings and conference calls. Companies utilizing Second Life for corporate use include Cisco, IBM, Armani, Adidas and American Apparel.

Atwood also anticipates use of Second Life in the classroom.

“Universities at all levels, as high up as Harvard and Princeton, even local here at WSU are using Second Life here in the classroom,” Atwood said.

Users of Second Life can purchase microcredit in the form of “Linden dollars” that allow transactions within the virtual world. Users can purchase different items to customize their avatars and portions of land for themselves with Linden dollars.

Landowners in the Second Life community can choose to disable the 3D voice chat if they wish. Owners of private islands in the virtual world can enable voice chat on their land if their subscriptions permit it.

Atwood took the opportunity to announce that Second Life recently reached the 10 million-user mark. He said this means that 10 million users have registered and logged in since the release of Second Life.

Formerly called “Linden-World,” Second Life was developed by San Francisco-based company Linden Lab. Former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosendale founded Linden Lab to create a revolutionary 3D experience. The company opened Second Life to the public in 2003 after a period of beta development.

Many groups have found innovative ways to use Second Life for their purposes, including virtual concert performances and even a CSI: New York episode centered on the Second Life Grid. Second Life also recently appeared in an episode of NBC’s The Office.

Feature Story

Brent Lindquist
10/29/07
Jarvis feature profile

To say that Dave Jarvis knows music would be an understatement.

An associate professor of music at Washington State University, Jarvis has directed, played in and written for numerous bands, composed published music and taught at WSU for 20 years.

He was born in Detroit and lived there for 19 years. He found a great deal of inspiration in the city’s Motown scene.

Jarvis began taking private piano lessons at age 10. He taught himself how to play percussion using a drum set brought home by his brother and the music-reading skills he gained from the piano.

He continued to teach himself to play by listening to music and gaining inspiration from it. He looked at music books and asked his brother for technical help when needed.

Jarvis’ primary percussion inspirations of the time were Buddy Rich, Mitch Mitchell and Ringo Starr.

“Listening to a lot of recordings and listening to a lot of music taught me also to have a great ear for music,” Jarvis said.

He would set his stereo up next to the drum set and play along with the music to gain a feel for the instruments. He played jazz in high school and found more inspiration from Jimi Hendrix.

Jarvis continued piano lessons for 10 years and began private percussion lessons in college. He began college in Detroit and eventually earned a bachelor of science in music education at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

He first came to WSU in 1977 to earn his master’s degree before returning in 1987 to begin a career as a teacher.

Jarvis has taught many different courses at WSU including history of rock ‘n roll, history of jazz and many other music education courses.

“One of my colleagues once said that he feels that I probably could direct or teach just about anything in the department,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis currently plays percussion with the Dozier-Jarvis-Young Quartet. He said that although the front man changes from time to time, the Dozier-Jarvis core of the group has played together collectively for about 24 years.

Horace Alexander Young is also an associate professor of music at WSU. He plays the saxophone and flute with the Dozier-Jarvis-Young Quartet and also sings on a select number of tunes each set.

Young and Jarvis have known each other personally since 1995. Young said they met at the airport and Jarvis asked if he would like to play with the Dozier-Jarvis Trio.

“Dave is a very dynamic drummer which is the heartbeat of the band,” Young said. “That accounts for every type of musical situation in which he plays. He is a real sparkplug regardless of the style.”

Jarvis and Young play together in the Dozier-Jarvis-Young quartet frequently at Rico’s in Pullman. Young said Jarvis is one of the best percussionists he has ever played with.

“He not only plays drum set exceptionally well but his tympani and mallet playing skills are on par with any orchestral professional you will find anywhere.”

Young and Jarvis worked a semester apart as graduate teacher’s aides in the music department in the early 1980’s. Young sees Jarvis as a very dedicated teacher.

“Dave is as passionate of an educator as he is a performer,” Young said. “It is his love for music and life that he brings into his classroom. Any student of his walks away with more than just what is written in the textbook.”

Jarvis is also a composer with five published works including a marimba solo, percussion ensemble pieces and chamber percussion pieces. He will take his latest work to C. Allan Publications in Columbus, Ohio, this week with hopes of having it published as well.

Story #2

Brent Lindquist
10/10/07
Halo 3 release

Dozens of rabid fans line the wall outside the giant retail store. Many have endured hours of the bitter autumn cold of the Palouse waiting for midnight to come. Some of the more hardcore followers began anticipating this for almost three years.

The moment came at 12 a.m. on Sept. 25th when Halo 3 finally became available to the public. The Xbox 360 game, developed by Washington-based company Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios, broke records and sold $170 million on its release date.

Several stores around Pullman and Moscow held events where consumers could buy the first copies of the game at midnight on the release date.

Wal-Mart assistant manager Chris Rust said about 115 people lined up for the release outside the Moscow Wal-Mart, some as early as 4:30 p.m. Wal-Mart did not take pre-orders, so the event was strictly first-come, first-serve. The last person left at about 1:30 a.m.

“I didn’t think we were going to do as well,” Rust said, “But I was pretty surprised.”

Rust began helping his department manager plan the Halo 3 release event almost a month ago. He helped in setting up a promotional display and figuring out the logistics of the event.

He said that the event was an occurrence at Wal-Marts nationwide. The managers were free to get creative with the release as long as they followed corporate guidelines.

“You can set up your own event to make it even better than what [the home office] had planned.”

Halo 3 released in three different editions, each with a different price. The standard edition of the game costs $59.99 and the limited edition costs $10 more. Wal-Mart did not have any of the $129.99 “Legendary” editions on-hand.

The standard edition only includes the game itself. The more expensive limited edition includes the game itself, a metal case, a bonus disc and a hardcover book providing more information on the game’s story. The Legendary edition includes the game, the book, three bonus discs and a Halo-themed helmet for storage.

Rust said the store had about 50 copies of the limited edition in stock, all of which sold out by closing time on the 25th. The rest of the copies sold were standard editions. Wal-Mart sold about half its supply of the game on opening day.

“If everybody waiting in line [at midnight] had bought a game,” Rust said, “we probably would’ve sold out.”

Moscow retailer Hastings also held a midnight release event for Halo 3. It included a Halo 2 tournament and free pizza for those playing. Hastings managers were unavailable for comment.

Simon Gordon, a junior computer science major at WSU and former game tester, attended the Hastings event. He estimated that about 300 people attended.

Instead of lining people up outside, Hastings stayed open until the employees sold the last copy of the night. The employees set up one line for people who had not pre-ordered the game. They set up the remaining lines based on last names and the editions each person had reserved.

Both Wal-Mart and Hastings experienced shipping problems with the limited edition of Halo 3. In many cases either one or both discs came loose during the shipping process, causing visible scratching. Hastings offered a free disc cleaning for anybody experiencing problems with the game.

In-Class Assignment: 10/29/07

64 percent of those polled in a recent survey said children with AIDS should be allowed to attend school with children who do not carry the disease.

Communication students from the University of North Carolina randomly polled 598 adults from their state by phone. The poll had a 4 percent margin of error.

54 percent of the high school dropouts polled said they would allow children with AIDS to attend school with children without it. 68 percent of those with a college education said they would allow it.

“More and more people are recognizing that AIDS is not transmitted casually,” said Kathy Kerr, a health educator with the AIDS Control Program of the North Carolina Division of Health Services. “You certainly don’t get AIDS by sitting next to someone in class.”

In-Class Assignment: 10/24/07

1. According to the FBI’s website, the WSU Pullman campus had six violent crime cases, four cases of forcible rape, two aggravated assaults, 200 property crimes, 30 burglaries, 167 larceny thefts, three motor vehicle thefts and three arson cases.

Comparisons are difficult to make because of the vast differences in enrollment numbers and the areas in which these schools are located. WSU appears to be about middle-of-the-road. University of Washington has more cases in each general category, but WSU beats out Western, Eastern, and Central in most categories.

2. Troy Kelley was the House candidate with the most donation money ($305,599). Christopher J. Marr was the Senate candidate with the most ($565,880).

In Kelley’s case, the Washington State Democratic Party donated the most ($42,974). In Marr’s case, the Washington State Democratic Party was the largest donor as well ($46,615).

The Gun Owner Action League of Washington is the anti-gun control organization with the most contributed dollars. The majority of its money is going towards the Republican Party (78.77% of its total donations).

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company was the largest contributor in the insurance company category across Washington and Oregon. Most of this company’s money was given to Ballot Measures, not a specific party.

Anheuser-Busch was the largest contributor in the beer, wine and liquor category across California and Arizona. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the candidate who received the most money from this company.

Harrah’s was the largest contributor in all of the U.S. in the gambling/casino category. They spent the most money on the initiative titled “Rhode Islanders for Jobs & Tax Relief.”

3. For the bio, I decided to search for my mother, Vicki Lindquist, just to see what came up on Google. Her work page pops up several spots down on the page. It basically tells where she graduated from, where she has worked, her family, and her current job as secretary of my high school.

Story #1: Final Revision

Brent Lindquist
10/8/07
Network violations

Washington State University utilizes an extensive security system spanning several departments to prevent violations on its online network and to catch those who commit them. With technology changing constantly, keeping up with new ways to break the law seems like a daunting task.

Tom Ambrosi, an information security officer in the information services department, regularly faces new challenges in regulating student network use and violations.

“[People are caught] almost every day when classes are in session, most days when they are not in session,” Ambrosi said.

The IT Security Office monitors the network for security and copyright violations. These include everything from viruses, worms, copyright infringements, illegal file sharing, and anything illegally-obtained through the WSU network.

Ambrosi said penalties for violations of this sort depend on the number of offenses an individual commits.

“For copyright infringement under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), a first time offender is required to attend a one-hour copyright seminar presented by WSU's copyright officer,” Ambrosi said, “to have all infringing materials removed from their computer, and to have the computer verified as free from offending materials.”

A second offense results in a four-month ban from use of the university-provided Internet. If a particular student commits a third offense, the consequence is a network ban for the remainder of his or her career at WSU.

Ambrosi’s department utilizes special software to detect and prevent network violations. However, he said the best way to prevent offenses of this sort is through education.

There are other divisions involved in regulating the WSU network. Josh Adams is the helpdesk coordinator for Student Computing Services (SCS), a division of Information Services.

“When a student's network access has been temporarily disabled,” Adams said, “it is SCS that typically handles the scanning, patching, and verifying of the student's computer.”

When SCS catches a student violating the network rules, the department requires that the student bring the detected computer to the helpdesk. SCS disables the student’s network access, and scanning begins. The helpdesk employees wipe all offending material from the offender’s computer.

“Afterwards, if applicable,” Adams said, “an offender is signed up for our monthly copyright seminar and instructed to read over and sign WSU's network use agreement. After the steps are completed, network access is granted.”

Both Adams and Ambrosi said bandwidth use can be an indicator of a violation.

“If a student is using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth,” Adams said, “the other people in the residence hall or network's personal access may be negatively affected.”

Adams and Ambrosi said that education is important in preventing violations of this sort.

“It is also the responsibility of every user of WSU's network to understand WSU's policies and procedures concerning the use of WSU resources,” Ambrosi said, “and to use these resources responsibly.”

“There is no absolute way to prevent bandwidth violations. WSU's primary way of ‘preventing’ bandwidth or file sharing violations is through education,” Adams said. “Detailed information on what is ‘disallowed’ is provided inside the aforementioned network use agreement. WSU employs a full-time staff of IT security professionals that, beside handling all bandwidth and abuse cases on our network, work to educate students on how to be safe on our network.”

Narrative Lead

Here's my narrative lead:

"Feathers fly as nine enormous birds barrel down the 100-yard track. More than 1,000 spectators cheer as one bird, seven-year veteran Sylvester, pulls ahead. He puts 25 yards between himself and the second-place bird before crossing the finish line."

I'd follow this lead with a nut graph explaining the specifics of the event.

Around the Web: Examples of Special Leads

I found my first example at the New York Times website. It's a narrative lead in a story with the headline "The Garden Needs a Warning Label." Here it is:

"As the legend goes, it was years ago, aboard a sleek family yacht, when Charles F. Dolan asked his executive crewmates an earnest question: What about Jim?"

I believe the second one I found is a contrast lead on Yahoo. It contrasts the ideas of a conventional truck in the first paragraph and a self-driving vehicle in the second paragraph.

"Sitting high in the cab of the hulking lime-green TerraMax truck, a driver can be excused for instinctively grabbing the steering wheel.

There's no need. TerraMax is a self-driving vehicle, a prototype designed to navigate and obey traffic rules — all while the people inside, if there are any, do anything but drive."

Reworked Hourglass Story

For this assignment, I took the existing story provided by Brett and basically reworked it from an inverted pyramid format to the hourglass format we talked about in class. I wrote my own transition/"turn," cut and pasted quite a bit and added Peterson's story account into the middle, added some attribution where needed, and finished the story off with some more important information. Here it is:

There was a protest on campus Friday, and 22 people were arrested. Three university police officers were also injured.

More than 200 demonstrators—most of them students—were on campus during the Board of Regents meeting. One of the items on the regents’ agenda was the university’s plan to require a class in cultural diversity for all faculty.

The protest was organized by two newly formed campus groups, Students Against Racism and the American Student Organization.

All of the 22 arrested were students. Twenty-one were taken to County Jail. Their attorney, Susan J. Keegan, said that she expected bail to be set at $500 apiece. The 22nd student, a 17-year-old high school senior, was released into his parents’ custody.

All of those arrested were charged with trespassing on state property after they refused to disperse. Twelve were also charged with resisting arrest. Ten were charged with assault after they allegedly threw rocks and bottles at university police officers.

University Police Chief R. Barclay Peterson said the two groups began a rally at noon. He gave this account of the protest:

The regents had been meeting since 8 a.m. and were on their lunch break in the Student Union from noon to 1:30 p.m. The first item on their afternoon agenda was the class requirement. Currently, students must take a class in diversity, but faculty do not.

At about 1:15 p.m., protesters from both groups started marching to Regents Hall, where they hoped to meet the regents at the steps as the officials returned from lunch, Peterson said.

They never made it to Regents Hall.

Peterson said he called in the extra officers at about 1:20 p.m. because “the demonstrators just got too loud and rowdy. We asked them several times to disperse and go back to the fountain, where the rally was to be held, but they would not. They shouted at each other even louder, and some of them began throwing things.”

Until extra officers were called in, there were a half dozen officers watching the two groups. They were about 25 yards away.
Peterson said that the protesters were stopped midway between the fountain and Regents Hall, near the Liberal Arts Building.
He said that officers using bullhorns ordered the demonstrators to disperse.

Peterson said that the demonstrators refused.

By 1:25 p.m., the demonstration was at its worst, Peterson said. That’s when most of the protesters started shouting directly at the police and began throwing things at them, Peterson added.

Officer Wilson was hit in the head about that time, Peterson said.

He said that by 1:30 p.m., most of the demonstrators began to back off. Those who did not were arrested, he added.

Peterson said he did not call extra officers in until the protesters started marching. Then, about 60 police officers, two of them on horseback, started toward the demonstrators.

Peterson said that the two officers on horseback were used to push back the crowds.

“The horses worked well,” he said. “The demonstrators were not afraid to push police officers, but they couldn’t push the horses.”

“They should not have come at us,” said Jonathan Walterson, president of Students Against Racism. “We would have remained loud, but peaceful. We were doing what we believed in. The university must do more to promote diversity.”

Walterson, a junior journalism student, was one of those arrested. He was charged with assault, resisting arrest and trespassing.

“It just got out of hand,” Peterson said. “First they were gathered around the fountain at Central Mall. One group was chanting, ‘No more racism’ and the other was saying ‘Stop diversity.’ Then they started marching toward Regents Hall, where the regents were meeting. They were disrupting classes. When they were asked to disperse, all hell broke loose.”

Peterson said that his three officers were injured when they were hit by stones or bottles.

Officer Andrea Wilson was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital with a gash on her forehead. She was the first officer hit, Peterson said. Officer James Nelson and Sgt. Jerico Turner were taken to Community Hospital with bruises they received from thrown items, Peterson added.

Peterson said that the protest delayed the beginning of the afternoon session of the regents meeting. The regents stayed in the Student Union until about 2 p.m. and then returned to Regents Hall, he said.

The regents did not take action on the new requirement. They decided to study the matter more and discuss it again at their next monthly meeting, which will be held May 16 in Regents Hall.

“We will continue protesting until the regents vote to mandate faculty training,” Walterson said. “We’re done negotiating with them. Now it is time to cause trouble.” Walterson said that there will be more rallies, not only at the next regents meeting but before then.

“We’re not against rallies,” Peterson said. “They can hold them all they want, as long as they get a permit from the university. But we don’t want them to get out of hand. We don’t want our officers hurt. They can rally, but other peaceful students also have the right to attend classes without being disrupted by shouting and violent demonstrators.”

The regents refused to comment on why they took no action Friday. “Until we make our decision on faculty training, we will not discuss it,” said regents president Clifford Eisel.

Brian Allen, a senior biology student and president of the American Student Organization, said his group will continue protesting, too.

“We’ll do whatever it takes to keep the regents from caving into every demand that comes along,” he said. “Our faculty do not need additional training in diversity. Many of our faculty aren’t even from this country.”

Allen was one of the students arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest and trespassing. Thirteen of those arrested were from his group.

“The two groups never began fighting, but they kept screaming at each other as though they would begin a brawl at any second,” Peterson said. “There never would have been a problem if they simply would have moved back when we asked them. Instead, both groups decided to gang up against the police.”