Samantha Yeh

In the world of journalism graduate schools and social media, I am remarkably relevant today.

I love reading gym magazines and seeing names like this inside! @samanthaxrachel #alumni #motivation

Our redesigned graduate student news blog for the Division of Graduate Studies at SUNY Oswego. Take a look!

onaissues:

Attending SXSWi? Here are Poynter’s top picks for sessions. Are there other sessions that you’re excited about? 

ONA’s Jeanne Brooks and Jen Mizgata are going. Say hi to them at the Awesomest Journalism Party. Ever. III. on Saturday night.

Two major news organizations, The New York Times and TIME, both exhibited graduate school student projects on their websites today. 

‘Shoot One. Please,’ a short documentary about a 15-year-old boy’s first deerhunt, is Ken Christensen’s senior capstone project. Christensen is credited as a “recent graduate of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.” 

And although it was originally posted in February, today I stumbled across one of TIME’s LightBox photo essays by a first year graduate student at Ohio University in Athens, Sara Naomi Lewkowicz. Her photos, titled “Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence,” documented the abusive relationship between an ex-con and a mother of two. 

Graduate projects being showcased at major media organizations? I’m feeling a little more encouraged about the skills a j-school graduate education can teach you and the possibilities a degree can open.

It’s pretty incredible that a career change of this nature can happen apparently seamlessly. Zeleny reportedly told TV Newser that the decision to transition to The Times was easy, since he “hasn’t worked for a newspaper for quite awhile.”

The New York Times is undoubtedly a news organization to be respected and revered, but if they can’t catch a break in this climate - who can?

The biggest jaw-dropper? The fact that Zeleny can pull of a career change like this - from one of the most famous print publications on the planet to one of the largest news stations - seamlessly. In fact, he considers it to be a breeze. 

This news is only further proof that the media industry is converging. What originally appeared to be three separate tracks (print, broadcast and online journalism), is now merging into one. The do-it-all journalist whose skill set includes adaptability and AP Style, on-air comfortability and web design, Final Cut Pro and multiple social media accounts, with traditional traits like news judgment and the ability to work on deadline.

So if this is the new normal in the journalism world, how does the current system educate the journalists of the next generation? When a program offers its students the option between three tracks, are they really dooming them to fail in today’s climate? 

If I want to be the best, and the best can do it all, then where do I go to learn it all?

Today, it seems like your best bet is to teach yourself and hope you come out alright.

buzzfeed:

20 Photos That Could Change Someone’s Mind About Gay Marriage

I believe that one day, the generations of the future will look back at history and see gay marriage the same way we reflect on women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement.

“It frustrates me that intellectual, high-level academic material — like the kind of juried, peer-reviewed articles published in various journals like JSTOR — are not available to people outside the academic community. Since none of us gets paid for writing this material, I feel that it should be in the public domain.” - Caryn Stedman, 57, a professor at Central Connecticut State University

It will be interesting to see if this will be the spark to ignite the battle against overbearing copyright rules. I really need to vent about this - more coming later.

Merry Christmas Jenna and Alberto!

Since its my first holiday working full time, I picked two names off the tree.

If I had an iPhone I’d make this a cool picstitch but I don’t so whatever. This is the giving tree in the lobby of where I work - it has the names of kids whose families are having a hard time making ends meet.

If you hate it, you’re jealous. If you love it, you’re shallow. Tuesday night marked another battle for womankind against womankind in the form of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

It’s flooded Twitter feeds, Instagram profiles, Facebook news feeds. Every woman (and some men) seem to feel a very urgent need to voice their opinion about the #VSFashionShow.

Last year, the annual event was the topic of discussion in the opinion writing class. One seemingly clueless girl presented in front of our fiercely feminist professor the reason that girls everywhere should idolize these women and participate in the constant showering of adoration they receive this time of the year. Our professor thought not.

They are the standard of beauty, the girl stressed. Why would we punish them for looking the way they look naturally? 

They are unrealistic, said the professor. Why would we want to hold girls up to an unrealistic standard of what is beautiful?

And here lies the struggle - do we, as intelligent, understanding, sophisticated women accept or reject things like a lingerie fashion show? 

In accepting the show, we are also accepting and encouraging this societal acceptance of beauty. We are telling ourselves and each other that the way your boobs look is more valuable to society than your thoughts on Syria. We are telling each other that beauty is defined by a low body weight, long legs and push up bras. 

Right?

In rejecting the show, we are saying that buying things like lingerie are for men. We are saying that these women who accept their sexuality are wrong for doing so. So many times we praise women who accept and flaunt being themselves and being secure and confident - why shouldn’t we accept those who do fit the exclusive societal standard? 

And then come the assumptions about the opposition - if you hate the show, it’s because you’re jealous. You are envious of these women. You don’t appreciate fashion. With those values, it is assumed you don’t wear makeup, or do your hair, or do anything that can be confused its origin is to please a man. 

If you love the show, you are shallow. You hold yourself and others to a standard of beauty that is seemingly unobtainable by the average woman. With values like that, it is assumed you care more about sequined underwear than world issues.

Instead of assuming these traits about each other, or starting social media catfights, why don’t we treat our opinions on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show the way we treat discussing politics and religion? Stay neutral and reserve it for your friends - and I don’t mean the 500 you have on Facebook.

nbcnews:

BREAKING: Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad’s order

Photo: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking Wednesday, Dec. 5, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government was ‘inevitable.’ (Kevin Lamarque / AFP - Getty Images)

The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

Read the complete story.

huffingtonpost:

Peace’s death is untimely but not unusual. The two turkeys Obama pardoned in 2010, Apple and Cider, were both dead by the next Thanksgiving. They developed respiratory infections soon after arriving at Mount Vernon, according to Aloisi, and then a foot disorder that made it hard for them to walk and escalated into joint problems.

Turkeys bred for eating just aren’t built to live long, so the presidential pardon is simply an extension on the death sentence carried by birds too fat and big-breasted to reproduce naturally.

While turkeys in the wild grow to about 18 pounds, the demand for 40 million big, juicy birds this time of year has produced a farm-raised turkey of different proportions. When Obama pardoned Liberty and Peace last Thanksgiving, the 19-week-old birds weighed 45 pounds each. They lost some weight after arriving at Mount Vernon, which may have helped keep them mobile, Aloisi said.

The only redeeming fact that its dark by 5 p.m.

This spring, the Human-Computer Interaction and English departments are working together to create a brand new international course; Trans-Humanism, the study of relationship between humans and robotic technology. Students will study robotics with Dr. Damian Schofield of the HCI department, science fiction with Patrick Murphy of the English department and virtual environment and digital media with Lisa Dethridge and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. 

A select group of students will have the opportunity to travel to Australia after the spring semester with Dr. Schofield to continue working on a robot/virtual exhibition event. In the words of the professors, “it’s going to be awesome!”