The start of "Halloweek" (a term describing Halloween week in a college atmosphere) has been ultra-busy and eventful! It started off with sleeping in after an exhausting Homecoming weekend, and if anything, has been a week of a lot of journalism, business and ethics realizations.
Wednesday afternoon, I received a text message to go to the New Student Center. A coke vending machine was crowded with probably 50 students, and I couldn't tell what they were staring at. Coke was doing a promotional event for happiness at this one machine where there was a man in the vending machine. You inserted $1, chose which Coke-brand soda you wanted, and it fell out of the machine per usual. But then, a surprise came after. Some of these surprises were cookies, candy, free t-shirts and Mizzou and Coke merchandise, a two-liter bottle of a Coke product, a Polaroid image of your face as you received the second gift, and Kansas State football game tickets!
I obviously was incredibly excited and went to the machine twice. I got Sprite both times, with candy as my first surprise gift and a two-liter Sprite as my second. But as happens with State Farm Insurance promotions earlier this semester and more, why is Coke spending their money branding us when they already have business? What was their goal while instigating happiness? As much as I hate to say it, no business just wants to throw away a ton of money getting some University of Missouri students who were in the right place at the right time to favor their brand. It bugs me that I could not discover their intent. It would have been cool if the dollars (since mine was given back the first time) were donated to a cause to promote happiness, or if the gifts were donated, but I realized by asking and that was not the case. So if you happen to be a business owner or large company reading this or campaigning on a college campus, inform students of your mission so it actually comes across!
I sat in the Student Center for a few more hours studying and chatting with Kate and Sherman, when I got a call (which ended up being a rumor, but) four people were shot in Mizzou's Virginia Avenue Parking Structure. The University Hospital was on lockdown, which is on campus, and people began to freak out. There was no alert sent by the university but MU Alert and the Columbia Daily Tribune, as well as KOMU News (our NBC affiliate TV station) began to post live updates by the minute. No other campus buildings went on lockdown, but this was the first news event where I followed the entire story on Twitter. The term "University Hospital" became a popular trend on Twitter, with Mizzou and its plethora of news outlets and journalism students on Twitter taking over the world with both this and Mizzou College Gameday becoming a trend last week. That's pretty cool that we have so many people informing the world that we're being trended!
It was a great way to follow the updates and it was discovered that what really happened was a gunman shot four people in Callaway County, who were sent to University Hospital in mid-Missouri. The gunman was on the loose and since only three of the four had died, rumor had it he was around to "finish off the job." The parking garage came nowhere into this besides its proximity to the hospital, but KOMU and some other news outlets refuted this by serving their duty to the news and driving through the garage and around the locked down hospital to discover and share the truth. That evening, my journalism news class had our tour of the KOMU news station where we watch the live 6 p.m. broadcast and see all the equipment, and it was a great night to attend because of all the breaking news. It was an awesome experience to see the studio and part of me made me wish I worked there, although I am glad with my choice of going the strategic communication sequence.
The next morning, for the same journalism class, I had to attend one of Missouri's Master Honor Medal speakers. This is an award given to exemplary publications, editors and more, each of whom gave a presentation about their career of publication. I attended ZETA Weekly News Magazine's presentation, which is a magazine published in Tijuana, where Adela Navarro, one of its directors, discussed drug-trafficking. ZETA is known for giving in-depth coverage and does not have many competitors due to fear of covering such topics in Baja California, Mexico, but has a strong presence both there and in southern California.
Her presentation was actually given in Spanish, so I understood most of it, but a translator was present with a thick British accent, making it almost equally difficult to understand him. She discussed the ramifications of covering the truth in such a dangerous area, and said that 44 journalists have been killed on the job in the past four years. Wow. Imagine following your passion so much that murder is a prevalent daily consequence. I was interested in working for ZETA while I was at Project Mexico (this was the ideal life situation for summer 2011), but feel that my parents would never let me pursue this risk even if I could. I interviewed Adela after her presentation and asked her a few questions in Spanish. Since I feel I'm invincible, I asked if they offered internships, but that would only be possible if I enrolled at one of Mexico's universities. Their passion and in-depth reporting still amazes me, and with a vote on the legalization of marijuana next Tuesday in California, the future of drug trafficking has a lot to hold. After attending this event, I will be following the story and interested in its outcome!
With two exams in marketing and accounting this week, time to go study!
No comments:
Post a Comment