Richard Branson. Lots of things come into my mind when I hear his name, but up until a couple weeks ago, "Space Tourism" wasn't one of them. When I pause to think about it though, he would be the guy to pioneer this venture. It just seems a bit odd to me this endeavor is moving forward - fast - right now, during this slightly whacked-out economic time. This whole space tourism thing, which will cost around $200,000 for a group who would like to take a 2 1/2 hour journey into outerspace for approximately 5 minutes of weightlessness, could have a negative impact: people are spending this much on a trip to outerspace while people down here on the planet can't event afford a $2 meal, highlighting the great disparity between the rich and poor. Or, this could be a symbolic endeavor of inspiration: "The U.S. and world may be in one of the worst recessions, but we can still put people - your average (but wealthy) citizen - into orbit."
While this point isn't included in the Newsy.com story, The Dawn of Space Tourism, that I helped produce last week, it could definitely be a discussion in and of itself. As of last week, however, there weren't enough perspectives to to effectively illustrate any discussion surrounding this hidden controversy.
Another story I helped produce for Newsy.com was All Eyes on Iran, which discusses whether or not the U.S. and major world powers should place further sanctions on Iran over the country's pursuit of its nuclear program, despite international opposition.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
(Week of 12/7 Post) : Getting it all together...
...that's basically what Melissa and I are doing during our final days as undergraduate students at the Missouri School of Journalism. It seems there are a million little loose ends to tie up: making sure graduation information is complete and accurate; turning in minor and multicultural certificate forms; studying for the GRE; completing take-home tests; preparing for our At the End of Slavery capstone presentation; meeting with professors, mentors and friends before heading home for Christmas; and lots of other random little things.
It's all good though! As my dad continues to remind me: I don't have to do all these things; I get to do all these things. As stressful as they may be, I get to be stressed about the details that come along with the privilege of attending and graduating from university - and specifically, the best school of journalism in the world. As cheesy as that may sound, it's true, and this is something that I don't want to take for granted. I am very, very blessed.
It's all good though! As my dad continues to remind me: I don't have to do all these things; I get to do all these things. As stressful as they may be, I get to be stressed about the details that come along with the privilege of attending and graduating from university - and specifically, the best school of journalism in the world. As cheesy as that may sound, it's true, and this is something that I don't want to take for granted. I am very, very blessed.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Running the Graduation Gauntlet!
Well, Thanksgiving break is over and I have officially TWO WEEKS until graduation!! Right now, I've got lots and lots and lots of things to get done - from grad school applications, to final project presentations, papers, blogs and plenty of other miscellaneous activities in and outside of school. In the midst of the madness, I'm learning that having a positive mental attitude is key... So, I've decided that I'm grabbing Mizzou "by the horns" and am going to conquer this place until Friday, December 18th! Very exciting. : )
As far as At the End of Slavery goes, Melissa and I are taking a closer look at the Google Analytics results for ateos.com and ijm.org to find correlations and draw conclusions on the work we've done in the promotion of the documentary this semester. It's all pretty interesting and we're coming across some very positive results thus far. Our PowerPoint presentation is coming together as well, so it's a good feeling to be on top of the game!
I've also been having an increasingly positive experience with Eurokulture - the European pop culture blog I've been contributing to for Clyde Bentley and Monika Fischer's journalism class.
One of my posts, France's Workout Plan, has received a pretty significant amount of comments, including one from the woman whose fitness companies and books I featured. I'm learning that it really only takes one post to make a successful and/or popular blog, so I'm considering starting a different kind of blog sometime graduation for some experimentation.
Until then, I'm focusing on getting one thing done at a time, step by step, enjoying each moment. As my Dad always says, "Cinch by the inch, hard by the yard."
Monday, October 19, 2009
Post for Week of 10/12 and 10/19: ATEOS Update!
Here are a few updates:
1. We have our "What does your community know about modern-day slavery?" video posted on the site. Yay!
2. The SoundSlides presentation is waiting for approval from our supervisors in DC. It's the story of rescue and restoration of a young boy, Viswanathan, and his family in South Asia. The story is incredibly encouraging and the images (taken by IJM on the ground) are great!
3. Blog Tour: This is GREAT! We've already heard back from at least 7 of the 22 bloggers we contacted about making a post on ATEOS, and they've signed up for specific dates. I was surprised by how much work actually goes into making contacts with other bloggers. I realized how intentional we have to be in making specific comments about their work as well, so they can be sure our requests are not "spam" and that we're sincere in asking for their help. ALENow.com already posted about ATEOS on their homepage and Facebook page, so we reciprocated the link last week as well. We have at least one blogger signed up for each week leading up to the "Weekend to End Slavery" on November 14.
4. Discussion Forum: Melissa and I are wondering what's been going on with that. At this point, we think it may be more effective to continue to make all of our posts to the News/Updates site and enable "comments", including those posts specifically addressing those hosting house parties and/or church screenings.
5. New Timeline: Melissa and I have created a new timeline so we can be most effective with our time and resources leading up to the Weekend to End Slavery. Basically, we will be posting "What's in the News?", original content, blog tour updates and house party info on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as appropriate.
We're looking forward to connecting with our supervisor soon, as circumstances out of our control haven't allowed us to have a proper catch-up/re-orientation conversation.
1. We have our "What does your community know about modern-day slavery?" video posted on the site. Yay!
2. The SoundSlides presentation is waiting for approval from our supervisors in DC. It's the story of rescue and restoration of a young boy, Viswanathan, and his family in South Asia. The story is incredibly encouraging and the images (taken by IJM on the ground) are great!
3. Blog Tour: This is GREAT! We've already heard back from at least 7 of the 22 bloggers we contacted about making a post on ATEOS, and they've signed up for specific dates. I was surprised by how much work actually goes into making contacts with other bloggers. I realized how intentional we have to be in making specific comments about their work as well, so they can be sure our requests are not "spam" and that we're sincere in asking for their help. ALENow.com already posted about ATEOS on their homepage and Facebook page, so we reciprocated the link last week as well. We have at least one blogger signed up for each week leading up to the "Weekend to End Slavery" on November 14.
4. Discussion Forum: Melissa and I are wondering what's been going on with that. At this point, we think it may be more effective to continue to make all of our posts to the News/Updates site and enable "comments", including those posts specifically addressing those hosting house parties and/or church screenings.
5. New Timeline: Melissa and I have created a new timeline so we can be most effective with our time and resources leading up to the Weekend to End Slavery. Basically, we will be posting "What's in the News?", original content, blog tour updates and house party info on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as appropriate.
We're looking forward to connecting with our supervisor soon, as circumstances out of our control haven't allowed us to have a proper catch-up/re-orientation conversation.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
DC Premier: ATEOS
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca was one of many key influencers who attended the DC premier of IJM's documentary, At the End of Slavery. Some of his comments were featured in one article from the Christian Post, which highlighted the importance of rule of law as the most effective tool to smash global slavery, country by country, community by community.
This week, Melissa and I will be finalizing and posting a video showing a series of interviews with college students on modern day slavery. We're also producing a SoundSlides presentation of a young Indian boy named Viswanathan, which will be posted sometime next week.
On the "getting the word out" side of things, we're creating a template to send out to key bloggers in the human rights world to publish a post on At the End of Slavery, and will also be tapping into influential social networking sites as well.
Lots has been happening, schedules are being tweaked and we have a few other projects in the making that we're trying to figure out how/when to present on the site over the next few weeks.
This week, Melissa and I will be finalizing and posting a video showing a series of interviews with college students on modern day slavery. We're also producing a SoundSlides presentation of a young Indian boy named Viswanathan, which will be posted sometime next week.
On the "getting the word out" side of things, we're creating a template to send out to key bloggers in the human rights world to publish a post on At the End of Slavery, and will also be tapping into influential social networking sites as well.
Lots has been happening, schedules are being tweaked and we have a few other projects in the making that we're trying to figure out how/when to present on the site over the next few weeks.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Capstone Course Progress
Here is a great example of a story from IJM that highlights the hope in the middle of the depressing statistics we so often hear in the news.
The trailer to At the End of Slavery is also in the early stages of being distributed online. Very exciting!
This week, Melissa Urscheler and I laid out a tentative schedule for the content we will create and produce to keep Attheendofslavery.com fresh when the site rolls out this upcoming week. Also, we are in our preliminary research stage where we're learning what the most effective multimedia tools are in order to get people interested in a story or piece of information. This is just one of the several things we're focusing our research efforts on at the moment.
We're looking forward to getting the wheels of this project turning!
The trailer to At the End of Slavery is also in the early stages of being distributed online. Very exciting!
This week, Melissa Urscheler and I laid out a tentative schedule for the content we will create and produce to keep Attheendofslavery.com fresh when the site rolls out this upcoming week. Also, we are in our preliminary research stage where we're learning what the most effective multimedia tools are in order to get people interested in a story or piece of information. This is just one of the several things we're focusing our research efforts on at the moment.
We're looking forward to getting the wheels of this project turning!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Hope
If I had to choose just one word to describe what I took away from working with International Justice Mission this Summer, that would be it. Hope.
Each day, I heard heart-wrenching stories of girls as young as 5 stolen from their families and trafficked into brothels to be sexually abused; stories of entire families forced by evil men to work as slaves in brick kilns and rice mills; stories of corrupt leaders accusing people of murder and throwing them into prison cells to waste away in silence. But the beautiful thing is that none of these stories I heard at IJM ended there. Each of these stories ended with God using simple human beings to bring rescue and restoration to the hearts, spirits and lives of those who desperately need it.
So, why do we never hear these stories on the nightly news?
As far as I can tell, this is why I’m studying journalism at the University of Missouri. If you had asked me 5 years ago where I’d be going to school, I probably would’ve told you somewhere out on the East coast, West coast or Colorado. And if you had asked me what I would be studying, the answer definitely wouldn’t have been journalism. Honestly, the journalism industry (at least in the mainstream) frustrates me more than it inspires me. But, since I was a little girl, something I remember my dad continually saying was, “People gotta have hope. You gotta give people hope.” And this is what God has pressed into my heart throughout the different experiences He’s blessed me with over the last several years – and it’s as if God has used this experience at IJM to capitalize on my dad’s words.
So, that’s encouraging! But, I really have no clue how that’s all going to look…and I’m learning that that’s actually okay! To be honest, this can definitely be frustrating (especially for people like me who would like to figure it all out), but right now it’s making me laugh. We don't always need to know exactly where the next stepping stone is; sometimes all that is required is the step, and the rest figures itself out.
As Gary Haugen writes in his book, Just Courage, “Deep within all of us there is a yearning to be brave. And like all of our deepest, truest and best yearnings, it comes from how we were made. Courage – the power to do the right thing even when it is scary and hard – resonates deeply within the original shape of our soul. Why is it so beautiful to see someone do the right thing when it is hard? Why, on the other hand, should there be such shame about our cowardice? Why should it matter so much to my inner being that I do the right thing rather than the safe thing? It’s a mystery. But there it is, pointing relentlessly to the nature and delight of the One who made me. In fact, the beauty and goodness for which we were fashioned by our Maker is more glorious than we dare to imagine.” (p.103)
So, this semester and for the rest of my life, I want to take hold of the beauty and goodness for which I was made. And maybe more importantly, I want to shine light on the beauty and goodness that exists on our planet in order to give hope to a world bogged down by the weight of depressing, immobilizing facts and figures. There is SO much hope -- it just needs to be highlighted.
"Wise shall be the bearers of Light"
Each day, I heard heart-wrenching stories of girls as young as 5 stolen from their families and trafficked into brothels to be sexually abused; stories of entire families forced by evil men to work as slaves in brick kilns and rice mills; stories of corrupt leaders accusing people of murder and throwing them into prison cells to waste away in silence. But the beautiful thing is that none of these stories I heard at IJM ended there. Each of these stories ended with God using simple human beings to bring rescue and restoration to the hearts, spirits and lives of those who desperately need it.
So, why do we never hear these stories on the nightly news?
As far as I can tell, this is why I’m studying journalism at the University of Missouri. If you had asked me 5 years ago where I’d be going to school, I probably would’ve told you somewhere out on the East coast, West coast or Colorado. And if you had asked me what I would be studying, the answer definitely wouldn’t have been journalism. Honestly, the journalism industry (at least in the mainstream) frustrates me more than it inspires me. But, since I was a little girl, something I remember my dad continually saying was, “People gotta have hope. You gotta give people hope.” And this is what God has pressed into my heart throughout the different experiences He’s blessed me with over the last several years – and it’s as if God has used this experience at IJM to capitalize on my dad’s words.
So, that’s encouraging! But, I really have no clue how that’s all going to look…and I’m learning that that’s actually okay! To be honest, this can definitely be frustrating (especially for people like me who would like to figure it all out), but right now it’s making me laugh. We don't always need to know exactly where the next stepping stone is; sometimes all that is required is the step, and the rest figures itself out.
As Gary Haugen writes in his book, Just Courage, “Deep within all of us there is a yearning to be brave. And like all of our deepest, truest and best yearnings, it comes from how we were made. Courage – the power to do the right thing even when it is scary and hard – resonates deeply within the original shape of our soul. Why is it so beautiful to see someone do the right thing when it is hard? Why, on the other hand, should there be such shame about our cowardice? Why should it matter so much to my inner being that I do the right thing rather than the safe thing? It’s a mystery. But there it is, pointing relentlessly to the nature and delight of the One who made me. In fact, the beauty and goodness for which we were fashioned by our Maker is more glorious than we dare to imagine.” (p.103)
So, this semester and for the rest of my life, I want to take hold of the beauty and goodness for which I was made. And maybe more importantly, I want to shine light on the beauty and goodness that exists on our planet in order to give hope to a world bogged down by the weight of depressing, immobilizing facts and figures. There is SO much hope -- it just needs to be highlighted.
"Wise shall be the bearers of Light"
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