10/15/2008

So I have having a dilemma with my project about the Town of Durham. I kind of realized after my interview with Sandy this week that there is no real good ending to the relationship between the town of Durham and the University. So I have been thinking about possibly switching my topic this week, but I haven't been able to find anything good.
However, in the interest of still trying to complete the assignment for this week, I went to the Sarah Palin speech at Dover High school today and did some interviews and recorded some things with numerous people there. I also took a few shots with my cell phone, the only camera I currently have that is working. I put the best one on my blog already, directly below this post. I met a bunch of interesting people there. One lady, her husband was a Geology teacher at the university for more than 30 years and died on September 11th. He was on the second plane that crashed into the Twin Towers. She was certainly inspirational and interesting to talk to. I also spoke to another lady who was holding a Veteran's Mama for Obama sign outside of the speech (the lady in the picture below). This was the first time she had ever done anything like this, as she felt it was her civic duty to make sure McCain and Palin did not end up in the White House. I also spoke with a t-shirt vendor from St. Louis, MO., a man who felt 9/11 was an inside job, and plenty of other protesters along the way. Each had their own views on why they were there and why they felt it was important. I even voice recorded the entire Sarah Palin speech, which lasted about half an hour. I am hoping that these interviews on the presidential elections could possibly provide a new sort of story or angle for me to follow.
Lastly I wanted to discuss the technological aspects of being a journalist. I have always worked in the direction that almost any of these programs you can figure out for yourself. It actually kind of makes me enjoy the profession more. The more frequently that you work with each program, the better the multimedia projects I feel I could produce. I just think that the class has struggled with a lot of this technology because it is the first time we are using it. It is good to get our feet wet in it, but to be truly proficient, we need more experience.