The Life of a News Reporter

WASHINGTON - The 'Make America Kind Again' movement was handing out over 8,000 marijuana joints Friday morning in Dupont Circle in an effort to rally for legalized marijuana nationwide.

A local group called DCMJ, which stands for DC Marijuana Justice, passed out free joints to anyone over the age of 21 with an ID. They hope to see marijuana legalized nationwide, soon. 

I

Q starts his day by researching the story he is assigned to or the one he wishes to pitch.

Q McCray, reporter from LA, working on one of his first stories for WJLA-TV.

Q McCray anchoring a newscast.

Q McCray, reporter from LA, working on one of his first stories for WJLA-TV. This picture was taken on our way to the scene. 

Scenery on our way to the pot protest event taken place on 4/20.

Add Photographer, Mike Johns, getting prepared for the day.

Q and Mike on the way to the protests.

Add Q McCary preps for his liveshot for the 4o'clock news.

Add The protest consisted of people giving out hand rolled joints to people who worked for the government.

"I did nothing wrong” said Adam Eidinger, organizer of the marijuana advocacy group DCMJ.

Police block off the area Eidinger was arrested.

Jonny "G" poses for the media. 

"G" lights his joint on the streets of D.C. 

Margret Strinker, also a avid member of DCMJ, hands out joints. 

Q McCary interviewing "G" for the 4 o'clock news. 

Mother advocates for the legalization of marijuana saying "it saved her daughters life."Her daughter struggled with seizures her whole life until being treated by medical marijuana.  

Another advocate being arrested. 

Police were not short of being very aggressive and forceful with the arrest. 

Danny Solomen stands with the flag to express his right to smoke the "tree". 

Portrait of advocate mother. 

Police begin to look concerned with crowd increasing. 

Overview of the streets near Dupont Circle, Thursday. 

Locals took part in the rally. 

Q told me his names wasn't actually his name--a stage name for reporting.  

Q at his desk finishing up his work after we returned home. 

The Social Networking Sickness: Studies Suggest Social Networking Sites May Lead to Feelings of Loneliness, Depression, or even Lack of Self Worth

New studies introduce the idea that young adults who frequently use friend networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can correlate with feelings of depression, loneliness, and lack of self worth. Although it is not a proven fact that over consuming social networking sites does cause depression, there is evidence that social networking usage can result in teens showing signs of depression.

According to an article in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, the first social networking site originated in 1997. Although it did take time for social networking sites to grow, it did reach it's peaking point around 2003 (Myspace) and accelerated even more rapidly with the release of Facebook in 2006. As these sites expanded, so did the concerns. Could such a frequent immersion into friend networking sites be beneficial or harmful to today's youth mental health?

• Researchers have found that with increased usage Facebook can lead to declining levels of life satisfaction due to self comparison with others; otherwise known as "Facebook Depression" 

Facebook depression has been defined as a depression that develops when a person spends an excessive amount of time on social media sites and starts to develop signs of depression. The study found that "The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt the next time we text-messaged them; the more they used Facebook over two-weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time. Interacting with other people “directly” did not predict these negative outcomes. They were also not moderated by the size of people's Facebook networks, their perceived supportiveness, motivation for using Facebook, gender, loneliness, self-esteem, or depression. On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it." The more frequently people found themselves using Facebook, the more discontent they came. 

The problem with users that frequently use Facebook is the consistent exposure to other peoples lives and most of the time not even consciously knowing one is comparing oneself with another. A survey conducted between 32 University of Maryland students only enhanced the reason to believe that people mostly use social media too see what others are doing. Out of 32 students, 28 percent of the students claimed they use social media to follow up on what others are doing. Zero students reported to use it just for communication, while 72 percent of the group said they use it for both. Another 63 percent of the students admitted to comparing themselves with others when using social networks. Multiple students also responded with the answer "hurting self confidence" and "self comparison" when asked what are the risks that partake in engaging yourself with social networking.   

According to Professor Julia Felton, Ph.D Director, Master's in Clinical Psychological Science at the University of Maryland, depression is associated with self comparison with others; she also find that depression is an increasing common case within youth today because many changes personal changes happen within a adolescent's life. 

• Cyber bulling, and Sexting on social networks have played a huge part in causing depression and lack of self worth due to harassment and cruel words by users 

Cyber bullying has also been an additional issue found within social networking usage today. According to the PEW Research Center, "95% of social media-using teens who have witnessed cruel behavior on social networking sites say they have seen others ignoring the mean behavior; 55% witness this frequently." Hundreds and thousands young adults are tormented and even lead to suicide due to this issue. According to Dr. Stephanie Sarkis, a psychologist and contributor to Psychology Today’s blog. Cyber bullying is particularly damaging, “rumors can be spread within seconds via text, email, chat, and social media updates.These type of rumors never go away.  Anything posted online stays there forever, even if it is deleted. Online harassment is conducted swiftly and anonymously”. Fear of getting caught or facing any consequences is greatly reduced when a person anonymously posting cruel and mean things all over these networks instead of in person. Even in cases where the person is not anonymous the sense of still being "hidden" behind one's computer leads to this same sense of fearlessness. 

The problem of sexing also arouses when using social networking sites. Sexting is when one person sends an explicit or proactive picture though the internet or a cell phone and in many cases, they end up on these social networking sites. Dr. Liwei Hua, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan tells of a story of a girl named Tess, who posted a “sext” that a boy had sent her as her Myspace profile picture. The boy was completely humiliated even to the extent where he wanted to take his own life. With that being said, he ended up reporting the situation to his school and Tess ended up being convicted of child pornography. This predicament was harmful to both parties; these types of concerning cases occur far too often, which adds to the bad reputation already perceived by social networking sites.

Other researchers suggest social networking isn't all bad and in contrast argue that it could be a confidence booster

Although social networking has been cast in a negative light by some, researchers such as Ashwini Nadkarni, beg to differ.  In a recent study, Nadkarni suggests why media users use the site Facebook and why it is used. He found a positive correlation between the use of Facebook and narcissism or self promotion. Whether it's putting up a good photo, receiving like, or having someone write on your wall, the study shows of how higher self esteem is very highly correlated with feelings of life satisfaction. 

The argument of positive correlation between life satisfaction and spending time on Facebook, of course, varies. It also showed how Facebook use intensity had reduced the students perceived levels of loneliness, though it may not be anywhere else but online. Facebook and many other types of social media are a way for people to stay sane almost, for people to feel some type of belonging or interaction with others and maybe even a little bit of an ego boost.

All in all social networking has its positive and negative attributes depending on how you use and rely on it. Depending on the person and the interactions you face within networking, one could either end up having a bad experience or an uplifting one.

Visual ID teams 1-14

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/04/19/how-massa-recovered-to-tenth-from-the-pits/

I found this interactive data chart and I think it had a few good parts and a few parts that needed work. As far as the negative parts of the chart the headline isn't very descriptive and neither is the chart. Is the numbers in percents? meters? inches? All in all its very confusing and doesn't give enough information for a average person to decipher what exactly the chart is trying to explain. The positive parts about this chart is that  it allows you to choose the individual's stats you'd like to see. Each lap ( bottom numbers ) correlate with the side numbers to show the individual racers position.

JOUR PROJECT PROPOSAL

Studies Suggest there could be a Correlation Between Teen Usage of Social Media Sites and both negative and positive affects for mental health

• 22% of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day,
• IS SOCIAL MEDIA ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED OR DECREASED SOCIAL SUPPORT?
• Facebook depression 

"Do you feel  usage of Facebook/ social media has a negative or positive affects on students?" 

emailed a professor in the psychology department ; Julia Felton, Ph.D.

Director, Master's in Clinical Psychological Science

http://link.springer.com.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/article/10.1007/s00038-014-0647-6/fulltext.html

Old Media Theories Explaining Social Media and the Effects of it on Us Today

Today, the media is dispersed from the internet, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and many other different services. When listening to the news, posting your first status on Facebook or even deciding what news article to read off of the top of the CNN news website. They're many different old media theories that explain why or why not you might be more interested in certain topics, what news is most relevant, or just why you're involved with social media in the first place.

The study of uses and gratification, plays a very important role in explaining the use of social media today. This theory explains the increasing amount of sociological and psychological  dependency we see in people today in regards to using social media. The theory itself suggests 3 different claims:
1. People use the media actively for their own purposes. 2. People know what those purposes are and can articulate them. 3. Despite individual differences in media use, there are basic common pat-terns among people. In a recent study done by Ashwini Nadkarni, suggests why media users use the site Facebook, and why. He came to the conclusion that Facebook is satisfying this "needed purpose" or dependency through fulfilling the psychological need to "belong", to be a part of something and the need for self presentation-which is exactly what the uses and gratification theory states. As far as self presentation one study examined the positive correlation between the use of Facebook and narcissism or self promotion. Whether it's putting up a good photo and receiving like, or having someone write on your wall. In the study it suggest how self esteem is very highly correlated with life satisfaction; if Facebook is boosting our self esteem that could definitely be a reason for consumption of it. It also showed how Facebook use intensity had reduced the students perceived levels of loneliness, though it may not be anywhere else but online. Facebook and many other types of social media are a way for people to stay sane almost, for people to feel some type of belonging/ interaction with others and maybe even a little bit of an ego boost.

Another theory that helps us understand today's media would be the political economy theory. Over the years, political economy scholars examine how media ownership frames our media environment along with the status quo; how big businesses decide what kind of media it shown, for whom, and in what way. We see examples of this theory all throughout today. Take Fox news for example. The founder and CEO of Fox News are both conservative. Fox news is one of the biggest media outlets known today, but is definitely known for their outright leaning towards conservative news and reporting. One could argue that Fox news reports for conservatives, and only shows Republican standpoints in a positive light. In saying that, another theory that should be paid close attention to is Agenda setting. In the 1970's Max Mccombs and Donald Shaw explained how media basically picks what news is significant and seen as important. To put it more simply people tend to see more issues as more important the more they are shown on the news. Issues that may be repeated daily on the news are the ones people are likely to be more passionate and aware of verses the news telling someone what to think they are telling them issues to think of. For example, take the study done by Mccombs and Shaw in the 1986 Presidential campaign basically touches on how the media focused on certain important "voting issues" and the people who they asked who were undecided for voting concurred with the same voting issues made relevant by the media. More recently, another study done

Stefano DellaVigna was done on Fox news media bias and voting. The study states "Between October 1996 and November 2000, the conservative Fox News Channel was introduced in the cable programming of 20 percent of U. S. towns. Fox News availability in 2000 appears to be largely idiosyncratic, conditional on a set of controls. Using a data set of voting data for 9,256 towns, we investigate if Republicans gained vote share in towns where Fox News entered the cable market by the year 2000. We find a significant effect of the introduction of Fox News on the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000. Republicans gained 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the towns that broadcast Fox News"(Vigna). The media most definitely plays a role in peoples' opinions today and this is again another example of how these old media theory's still apply presently. Agenda setting can also be witnessed today through social media through sites such as twitter or Facebook. On each site, they have trends which basically is the most popular news of the day. The more people hash tag or talk about the trends on each site the more popular/ relevant the issues become. Though trends may be set by default (media companies), sometimes the users it still relates back to the Agenda theory in that the trends are chosen by popularity therefore the more people that click on it, the more relevant the issue becomes on social media leading to eventually making the trend board for everyone to see.

The theory of encoding and decoding is also another proposition that should be taken into account when reflecting on today's social media. Developed by Stuart Hall in the 1970's, he claims media producers come up with a message which they encode and the audience decodes the meaning of the message.The audience has 3 basic for when they are decoding. First, is dominate decoding which means the audience understand the direct concept the message was intended to give. Second, is the opposition reading in which the audience can recognize the message but put their own meaning to the media product. Lastly, the audiences may choose negotiated reading which basically has the audience agreeing with the dominate message, but adding some variations with it. For example, take a report on violent attack during a public demonstration; another could argue it was the demonstrators fault or one could argue it was the person who caused the violence. It all depends on the encoding of the way the news team reports the message and the way the audience reacts and interpenetrates this message. Another example could be advertisements; take checkers commercials with the hot girls eating the cheeseburgers. On one hand, a person could be watching this commercial and totally want to go eat some checks, but on the other hand some may be offended by the sexualization of women.

All in all these old media theories definitely do connect and help to explain why social media plays such a big part in today's society and how we even play a part in what media is displayed for us.

Hello! My name is Skylar Jahangiri and my major is Broadcast Journalism in the University of Maryland. Some things that interest me are sports, politics and fashion. My goal in life is to become some type of either sports broadcaster or a journalist for something to do with politics.