Month: November 2015

URL trick causes lots of ReTweets

Last week a story was published from ‘The Tennessean’, a Gannett paper suggesting that the National Guard round up any Syrian refugees who have been resettled in Tennessee. The story got many re-tweets the URL that the story led to was not the one approved by the paper. 

One thing that the paper didn’t know is that anyone could could plug in anything in the SEO keyword part of the URL. No other elements were changed and there was no hacking, coding, or other skills required.

This seems crazy simple in order to do this much damage to the name of a paper. This makes me realize how easy it is to change things online and let them keep expanding.

Obviously this is a huge glitch and it has been fixed but it is interesting to think about how many other news sites have been set up in this way.

 

Why One Journalist Carries a Gun

Most journalists be advised not to carry arms because it might undermine their status as an observer. But one crime reporter is open that he carries a hand gun with him everywhere he goes. He works for ABC Color in a Paraguayan city that boarders Brazil. This town is a major hub for drug trafficking and smuggling and after over 20 years of reporting on the matter he is a target.
He is receiving The Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in New York this month. This specific journalist is not alone in this matter.
Several other journalists that have won the award have been shot and killed. These journalists have gone through all of this just to get the news to the public so they understand just how serious certain topics are.
It is so interesting to see how dangerous it is for reporters in other countries around the world. This is something that I never took into consideration when choosing this career. Even though these cases are somewhat rare there is an inspiring aspect. As a student it is amazing to read these sad stories to see just how passionate some people are about news.

Cute Animal Posts, Not So Cute Anymore

We all see these hilarious memes where there us a cute animal doing something silly. Animal videos are so popular that it is about nearly half of video postings internet users make. But one thing that I know I had never thought about is how someone took that picture and what the circumstances were.

OtterLast month one video of a group of boaters poking a sleeping otter tweeting, “When someone wakes you up before your alarm clock.” I honestly saw this and thought it was funny. But when a marine biologist came across the video he pointed out that pestering an otter is illegal due to the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Without this background information the video seems so innocent and harmless, even cute and funny. But just becoming more aware will help the treatment of these animals and the shares of the abuse on social media.

There are hefty fines for this type of behavior but on social media we are promoting it. I know that this will change the way I view these posts and I hope it will for others as well.

Photo Archives Connect with Readers

As we all know the entire print world is struggling with readership. But a few newspapers down south have come up with a new way to get readers more interested. Staff members have started digging through photo archives and printing interesting old photographs.archive-body-2.jpg

This is such a great idea and a unique way to get readers interested in the seeing the history of a town through photographs. I know that I am very interested in old photos because they are just so fun to look at, I am sure this is the case for many other people too.

‘The Herald’ in Alabama is not only trying to display the old photos but give the audience a look at how times were back then. One employee explained that she will go in there looking for a photo about something and end up finding 3 photos about something completely different but equally as important.

I am so glad to see that they are making use of all the photographs that they have kept for all of these years. It is neat for specific communities to see how they gave grown over the years but still appreciate the past.