Warning: Google reads your emails

There are few things more embarrassing in the business world than forgetting to attach a document to an email. In Google's effort to take over the world, they are trying to correct human error too.

Check out this notification I got on Gmail yesterday: 

I don't know how long these have been active, because I usually write emails on Apple mail and not on an internet browser. But I'm pretty impressed. The fact that pure scripting and search codes can track the text in your email moments after shocks me. Who knows what's coming next! 

Pay attention to phone use

Having an iPhone for almost 10 months now, I feel like I can't even distinguish when I'm using my phone and when it's away. With so many young adults, students and teachers using iPhone during the day, there is barely a delineation on when we're using our phones and when we're not. When they are in use, are we texting? Using applications? Searching information online? Responding to email? Or...actually making a phone call?

With journalism classes, meetings and assistantship work filling up business hours, responding to texts, calls and emails is like autopilot Monday through Friday; I don't even take note of the pace I'm moving. Living on the same floor as five of my closest friends at Mizzou, I find myself making a lot less phone calls to those friends than I have the past three years of college, since we can talk in our apartments. So I felt like I was using my phone less for actual usage purposes and more for data and email, and wanted to check this perception.

Out of curiosity, since I don't have a phone bill mailed, I called my Sprint account information code yesterday hear a account summary of my monthly phone usage. Surprisingly enough- this perception was pretty inaccurate. It's probably a rare case compared to other college students, but here's what I learned:

• Between Sprint to Sprint, anytime and night/weekend minutes, I've used 1300 cell phone minutes in the past 20 days. I know I like catching up with people on the phone, but this averages to 65 minutes/day. Looks like I'm going to need to assess how much I'm on the phone and when that time is - because apparently those hours are adding up! 

• I used 430 text messages in the past three weeks, averaging about 20 text messages a day. Not bad, or alarming, especially compared to the volume of people I'm in touch with for work on campus.

The takeaway here: Don't live so automatically when making calls, sending texts and using data. Then, I might start to realize what I'm doing for an hour per day on the phone. Is it while I'm walking back and forth from class, or is it taking away time from homework? Am I calling recruiters for the Career Fair, or family and friends from home? When other college students and I start to pay attention to these things, maybe we'll be more productive or assert more thought into what we're doing. 

A new kind of Homecoming

Each Mizzou Homecoming has been special. Freshman year of college, it was the fascination of the campus decorations, campus-wide spirit and watching all of your hard work and "pomping hours" pay off. Sophomore year, ESPN Gameday came, Mizzou beat Oklahoma and we rushed the field. Junior year, it was the Homecoming Centennial, bringing thousands of alumni back, and I had the opportunity to serve on the committee and celebrate with my family. So how could all of that be topped this year? As a senior, technically 1st year grad student, I can't say I was very involved in the preparations. I didn't pomp or put boards up all night for house decorations. It was my first year watching the parade instead of being in it. And I haven't been working since last March with preparations for Homecoming weekend like I did last year.

But Homecoming gained a special meaning this year; it was the first time alumni that I'm close friends with all came back. All of my best friends at school's families come into town and tailgate together, and my mom was able to come in too. I got to meet up with my Mojo team who I spent so much time with last semester, sorority sisters and other friends from activities who I now realize I won't get to see too often in the near future.

Me, Chris, Lexi and Natasha having a Mojo reunion at Big 12

All of this makes it one of the best weekends of the year. It's nice to break apart the phrase and think about it literally: all of the alumni and families come home - to see their friends, kids, alma mater. Everything else is just the icing on top of the cake- with the tailgating, house decorations, parade and nights at the bars- facilitating all the fun. I look forward to coming back next year and seeing not only campus, but my best friends and their families!

Mom and I tailgating before the game

Twainers and families in town at the tailgate

Convergence Final Project

Now that we are done with the upfront work in my convergence class, we end the semester with a final project applying all of the multimedia lessons learned. For this project, I am in a group of 3 students that will produce a multimedia project on a story topic of our choice. As we approach the end of the semester, here are my goals for the finished product:

• Keep all reporting with a journalistic purpose. In class, we have been talking a lot about having a journalistic mission. While multimedia reporting, it's easy to get distracted from the story's purpose and acquire the best footage. Therefore, I aim to keep each multimedia component of our story on track. 

• Improve my video recording skills. Video reporting was particularly difficult for me- especially filming sequences. I hope to practice this and walk away with some solid video. 

• Shoot photos and capture good moments. After learning a lot about photojournalism during the beginning of the semester, I hope to apply these skills and really contribute some good visuals to our project. Both of my partners' strengths are in video filming, so I really see this being somewhere to take charge. 

• Be a patient reporter and team member. I'm working with two international students, and English is their second language. Because of this, I am not only producing a project, but acting as a liaison between our sources and my teammates. Sometimes, they think of a word or description in their native language, but can't think of the phrase in English. Usually, once we discover the message intent, it's something great that will really help our project. Knowing how our group meshes together will be a driving force for patience and an excellent completed project. 

I'll measure how I attain these goals at break points the rest of the semester to assure they are being accomplished. After we field report once, twice and start creating the website are good check-in points to measure the status on these. Wish me luck!

Video reporting

In my convergence journalism class, we put together our first broadcast stories in video package form. Multimedia reporting was a lot more difficult for me than I ever could have expected, because you can't redo events if what you filmed isn't exactly what you want for the video package. My first package portrayed the impact of children's theater in Columbia, with interviews from a theater dance teacher and two students who have acted in many local musicals.

The biggest thing I've learned and will do differently in the future when compiling TV stories is referencing. Referencing is when the verbal narration of a piece is aligned with what visually appears on the screen. This is especially important in broadcast journalism because it is common for TV viewers to look at the screen but not fully listen to what's being explained. When they do choose to tune in, the narration must match the visuals so viewers understand the news and digest it accordingly.

One way to counteract the issue of referencing is to acquire as much "b-roll" film as possible, with a variety of shots. Then, you can set the scene with a good variety of shots and reference each one. Therefore, in my future video projects, I will set the goal of getting as many shots as possible so I can reference what's going on when I put together the package.

What do you call members of society?

In my qualitative research class, we are currently discussing when to use certain labels for the audience. The audience refers to people in a society, but the way they are depicted has a huge impact on how we envision who they are.

Is it an audience or consumers? Consumers or media users? Audience or "the public"? The public or the masses? Citizens or people? Readers and viewers and listeners, or users?

All of these conscious labeling decisions are important for semiotics and word selection in writing. Each term carries implications and definitions of who the term incorporates. While some choices might be easier than others, it's rare that one is wrong--but vital that the word you choose is most accurate and representative of who you want to portray.

The simplest choices are describing an audience as readers, viewers or listeners because those refer to the manner in which something is consumed. But deciding whether an audience is a consumer or a user becomes tricky. I encourage you to think about how you reference people in your writing, especially in media, and how it influences the holistic meaning of the piece!

Journalistic video: A crowded Mexico City prison

On Time.com's video stories, I came across a news video story titled Inside Mexico's Overcrowded Prisons. After learning about good qualities of journalistic video stories in my convergence coursework this week, I paid attention to the video's attributes to analyze if the correct types of shots were retrieved, how the interviews are framed and if using multimedia for the story contributes something new to the stories that photo, text or radio cannot add alone.

I think this video is a good example of TV journalism because it takes the viewer on a journey through the jail. The reporter takes viewers through the largest penitentiary in Latin America in Mexico City, discussing how its 12,000 inmates are crowding the property. Video reporting allows various parts of the story to be told and portrayed- such as the overall atmosphere, exercise therapy, and the different programs and recovery classes that the Mexico City prison has. A variety of wide, medium and tight shots are used wisely and work together to portray the story of an inmate's daily life inside this packed prison. While a photo slideshow would also be powerful, the background sound as we observe the prison and interviews contribute to the significance of this prison and its newsworthiness.

There are more than three interviews, and the interview shot framing does a good job of focusing on the sources. The interviews showcased are not just thrown into the story, they add detail and personal stories to the package by discussing the inmates' situations, explaining how one man has not seen his son in years.

One way I observed that the video could have improved upon was using a tripod to film shots. Some of the film was bouncy - meaning someone carried the camera around instead of keeping it still on a stand - and it diminished the story's credibility.

Check it out yourself: