Google Maps Project

The map we created shows 8 campus crimes that were reported to public safety within the last week. We discovered that 4 out of the 8 crimes took place in the freshman residence hall Whitelaw. What is this saying about who is committing the crimes on campus? Are there just an abundance of unruly freshman, or have the upperclassmen just learned how to work their way around the system?



View Crime on Campus in a larger map

Story-

A recent Google Map of Lyndon State’s campus crime shows that approximately half of a weekend’s worth of criminal activity took place in the freshman residence hall Whitelaw.
This map was only based on the dates of September 17-September 20 but still the amount of underage drinking and illegal use of marijuana raises some red flags. There was a smoking violation, two counts of underage drinking; one of those counts was accompanied with the marijuana use, and there was also a student who suffered dizziness due to a reported head injury. The creators of the Google Map began to wonder, what was the cause of this apparent unruly behavior in the freshman that doesn’t seem to show as much in the upperclassmen?
“It’s quite interesting [living on the first floor of Whitelaw],” remarked Matt Drew, a freshman electronic journalism arts major, “I would assume it’s because we have a new found sense of freedom.”
Drew went on to explain an average weekend in the residence hall, “the other night kids were up until like 5 in the morning. Someone called public safety on them. When they [public safety] came the whole suit reeked of weed. They just told the kids to go to bed.”
Go to bed? That was all the action that was taken? Well when public safety can’t actually pinpoint who did the crime no one can fairly be punished. This raises a new question; how much crime goes on that never gets reported?
“Wow I didn’t even know kids got busted that often around here!” said Georgia Cully, another freshman who lives in the residence hall, “I just assumed they all get away with it because there are still so many people doing it.”
Do these new freshman have no fear? Cully thinks that perhaps students feel invincible because they are finally off living on their own, mom and dad aren’t around to punish you anymore. With that being said is it something the first years will grow out of?
Drew thinks so, “I’ll be interested to see how many of these people actually make it back next semester… this is the sort of stuff that weeds out the bad eggs. The students that keep going clearly show more responsibility.”
This notion could be a plausible answer to the question brought up by the map’s creators regarding the behavioral differences between freshman and older students. The students who have stuck around semester after semester may be the ones who avoided such rowdy behaviors in their earlier years at the college, and still chose to abstain from such misconduct now.

CBS Atlanta VS. Fox 44

Alright it isn’t always easy to compare writing, especially if both sites are supposed to be on professional levels, but after reading a few articles from each I would say I enjoyed CBS Atlanta’s more. I feel like their writing was sharper and clearer on the facts where as with Fox 44 I was sometimes left trying to make sense what I read. In all fairness I only read 3 stories on each site, maybe they just weren’t lucky picks for Fox 44. While I’m on the topic of writing quality I figure this is a good spot to just mention that when it came to local coverage both sites did their job. I obviously found Fox 44’s local news more interesting because it’s VT based and closer to the demographic I fit in.

The videos on both sites were pretty good. I think I enjoyed Fox 44’s editing a little better it was smoother Id say.  It was also nicely paired with the writing. CBS Atlanta’s wasn’t bad, the content was there but the stories I watched, one on a dog being thrown into a dumpster in particular, were really choppy in regards of editing shots and sound bites and I wasn’t to impressed with it.

CBS Atlanta definitely wins my vote on having better slideshows. They have a whole page devoted to it; all I could find on Fox 44 was a slideshow of 80 some odd pictures in the upper right hand corner of the home page. It was small and I could hardly make out the pictures. It also wasn’t sectioned up into multiple slideshows based on the stories each was covering, which was the way CBS Atlanta had theirs and I found it much easier to navigate.

I would honestly just assume CBS Atlanta has the larger staff because their site seems more put together and organized. Usually organization requires a team to maintain.

nsnsports.net/nek Critique

The first thing that caught my attention on the homepage was the slide show of photos from the sporting events paired with a quick highlight of the game and a “read more” link that will take you to the full story. The stories are written well in my opinion. You get all the exciting and most interesting parts of the game in the first paragraphs, which is how sports articles should be written.  

Next I noticed their streaming schedule which is really neat and easy to follow. I happened to check the website as a live stream of a woman’s soccer game was going on and the quality was much better than I would have expected.

The last thing on the homepage that obviously catches your eye is all the Vermont based business ads. They aren’t overwhelming and they are professional looking so they don’t bother me the way some ads do.

When you’re done with the homepage and you want to look further into the website they have drop down boxes at the top of the page that are really good for narrowing down your search. You can go to a specific sport, high school, or college. They also have archives of old games they streamed. You can click from a list of games or you can search for a specific one. You can also shop their online store for DVDs.

There is another box you can click on that says blogs/columns where you will find just that, blogs. The writing in blogs can be more opinionated and I find that entertaining. It gets you thinking about your own opinions.

All in all there really isn’t much I’d change about this site. It really fulfills the task it sets out to do which is provide the public with local, regional, and national sports coverage.

Pimp My Blog

Alright so I didn't get too snazzy with my blog because I like things to be neat and not overdone; you could say I'm a strong believer in the idea that less is sometimes more. Anyway, I first went into the template designer and chose fonts and colors that I thought were appealing to the eye but also easy to be viewed. Then I went and found some fun little gadgets to add; note my adorable turtles and pendulum clock along the right hand side of the screen. I also added a photo of myself and filled in a little about myself and voila my blog is complete!

Writing Exercise 2

Accident At Subway Central

A 59 year old man suffered a fatal heart attack today after a car crashed through the window of a restaurant in the Roaring Creek Community. Poliece say the driver of the car's breaks faild as she swirved to avoid a pedestrian.


School System Restaurant

The Eatery on State street will be closing its doors at the end of this school year. The Ticonderoga County school system, responsible for operating the facility through its special-education program, will be saving around $20,000 to $50,000 with the cutback.

Writing Exercise

10 Commandments

A legal battle ensues over a display of the Ten Commandments in the Ticonderoga County Courthouse.

The defense argues that the plaintiff in the case has no grounds to sue considering he is not even a resident of the county and has only visited the courthouse once.

Dog Bite

A Midville dog strikes again, this time attacking a six year old child.

The dog’s owner, Gordy Jamison, is being ticketed for the dog’s second offense, the first offense took place a year ago.

CBS Atlanta Critique

One of the first things I notice when I look at this page is how organized it is. My attention will go everywhere if something isn't neatly put together. Articles are placed in specific groups like most popular stories, national and international news, daily lifestyle, entertainment news, etc etc. It makes it easy to narrow down your search.
There are also lots of videos and photos to click through that are also put into categories.

It wouldn't be a good website for this day in age of it didn't have a way to connect to social media! You can connect via Facebook, Twitter, smart phone, and email.

Something that really bothers me about the site is that I can see the same ad four times without even having to scroll! I get the point you want me to check out Health watch MD and I understand that ads help fund the site but the colors along the edges fo the screen distract me from the actual content in the middle.

 There is a small box where you can fill out your information and submit a news tip. This is a great way to get the community involved with the news.

I also like that they have an up to date community calendar.

All in all I find it to be a great and resourcful wabsite.

FitSugar.com Critique

 I absolutely adore this blog! It has everything from celebrity news, fashion, beauty, pets, sex and love life, entertainment, food, money, and so on and so fourth but of course my favorite part is it's health section! You can find anything so easily, the page is very simple to navigate. There are a lot of things happening on a single page yet it is still really neat and organized. You can read about celeb diets, watch videos of workout examples, pick up some healthy living tips and so much more. Also, like most other blogs these days, you can connect to other popular websites like facebook and twitter as well as being able to email interesting posts to your friends by simply clicking a share button!
They are clearly making their money off of their ads, but unlike some other websites where I totally disregard them these ads are actually things I would be interested in, it is more specific to the audience (typically younger women who care about their appearance) Check It Out!