Homework 7

      My plan to do good work in my field once I graduate is to be unbiased and thorough.  It is important to be unbiased as a journalist because it is about reporting facts and not reporting my opinion.  Journalists have gotten a bad rep for being biased so I want to steer away from that stereotype and do what journalism really is.  I also want to be thorough when reporting the facts.  I want to do as much research and interviews as possible to be able to give all aspects of the story for readers to form their own opinions.
     I wonder about people most of the time.  I'm a nosy person so I like to people watch and wonder what is going on in their lives.  It's interesting to me that everybody has a different story and different experiences that have made them into the person they are.  When somebody does something I always think about what their motives are, whether they consciously or subconsciously did it, and what might have happened to them in their lives to cause them to act that certain way.  This ties in with psychology which I have considered switching my major too, but I'm sticking with communication.
     I came across a post on Facebook yesterday of a couple that had a photo shoot with a burrito, making fun of couples newborns photo shoots, in a sense.  I think this is really interesting for people in the class to see because it's actually hilarious and I love Chipotle.  Here is one of the photos

     I think that I am in my ideal geographic location for journalism.  That is why I chose Mason.  I want to go into political journalism and Mason was the perfect location.  I grew up in a very small town so I didn't want to go to college/live in the city and be culture shocked.  But I love being able to visit the city whenever I want.  That is why I chose Mason; for the location to DC and for internship opportunities.  I also want to live in this area once I start my career so I am in the perfect location.

     I mostly follow my friends online.  They contribute to my success because they motivate me by studying in Fenwick and the JC with me until the middle of the night.  I also follow Tomi Lahren online, who is a republican journalist.  She inspires me because we share some views and I aspire to be successful like her (I see her pieces on Facebook a lot).  Lastly, I follow my family.  Specifically, my mom and my brother inspire me to be successful.  I want to be successful like my mom and I want to be successful so I inspire my brother.

     I can't think of any examples where I complain about others work within my own.  I guess sometimes I subtweet about people or text my friends/boyfriend/mom to rant about people but that's I don't think I include it in my work.

Project 3 Colored Page

I chose to color this flower because spring just started and I wanted to make it spring colors. 

Homework 6

     Writing what you know can lead to terrible stories because you are only giving your opinion. When you write what only you know, you are writing with information that you have been given and formed your own opinion on/.  Therefore, what you write will reflect your opinion on the information you know.  In order to write objectively, we must think outside of what we know and use information from outside sources or people.
     In my major, it is essential to use outside sources and information when writing.  I am majoring in journalism and journalists are supposed to be objective when writing articles.  In order to be objective, we use facts, interviews, and information from trustworthy sources to write.  Unfortunately, most journalists these days don't write objectively.  The media has gotten a reputation of being biased, on one side or the other, especially when it comes to politics.  Journalists and news outlets have started putting their opinions into stories and sensationalizing stories just to get people to read them.  Journalism needs to get back to what it's purpose is; to inform and write objectively.  I can change this by not writing what I know or how I feel, but instead conducting interviews and finding facts about a story.
     I'm torn when it comes to writing physically versus digitally.  On one hand, writing started physically and I think it should continue that way.  Computers aren't very trustworthy and work can be lost in an instant.  But at the same time, it's much easier to write on a computer.  If you have to write a lot physically, it hurts your hand after while.  And when I type on the computer, I find that I can get my thoughts all down before I forget them because it's much faster.  Sadly, mostly everything has switched to digital writing.  Newspapers and magazines are switching to online because not many people read physical writing anymore.  Most professors will only take typed assignments.  The world has switched to digital writing, and I have to admit that I am guilty of this as well.  I wish that I could physically write, but in this day and age, digital writing is much more practical.  Of course, there are pros and cons to each, but digital writing has won out.  I think the computer takes away from the writing process because it's so easy to get distracted.
     When I procrastinate I usually use my phone, watch Netflix, or hang out with friends.  Occasionally, I will procrastinate an assignment by working on another assignment that isn't due until much later than the assignment I should be doing.  I do this because I see one assignment as easier or less tedious than the other.  My phone, Netflix, and my friends do not tie into what I do/study, so it's not very smart of me to procrastinate with those.  But procrastinating with other work isn't as bad.  I am getting work done, but I should be doing the work that is due soonest.  Procrastinating only causes more stress.

Project 3 Blank Page

I chose an owl because when I was looking at coloring pages online there were a lot of owls that inspired me.  It seemed like something that was moderately simple to make, but not too simple that it didn't challenge me.

Homework 5

•      I think something is worth stealing when it inspires me.  It isn’t fair to take someone’s work completely without giving it a new meaning or changing it enough so it should inspire you enough to give it a new meaning.
• ·         I think this text relates to postmodernism because it addresses many modern examples.  But it also has quotes and examples from people before then so I think it applies to every era.
• ·         When we first learned about it in class it was kind of depressing.  But I think the author of Steal Like An Artist really puts it into a good perspective and makes is more freeing. 
• ·         I think creative hoarding is taking ideas but not doing anything with them.  I think collecting is taking things that inspire you and putting them all together to hopefully create something of your own.
• ·         He means that art is too big of a concept to grasp.  We should focus on individual artists because they’re all different and there’s no way to understand all art. 
• ·         Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe wrote a book about two kids wanting to be artists.  These friends moved to New York to pursue this dream and became artists by pretending to be artists.  They went to a park and dressed up as artists.  This made people think they were actually artists.  It did work for them because an old woman thought they were artists but her husband didn’t.
• ·         Plagiarism is copying something word for word, exactly how it is.  It is trying to pass someone else’s work as your own.  Practice is copying people so that you learn how they thought and seeing like them.
• ·         Imitation is copying someone.  Emulation is when you copy someone but turn it into your own thing.

Because I am a writer, I don’t know very many artists at all so I chose an author as my creative thinker hero. It was really hard for me to choose just one.  But the author I chose is F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I love his work.  It’s hard for me to find who inspired him, but I think his daughter and wife really inspired him because he wrote very nice letters to them and seemed to influence his writing.  But what inspired him the most wasn’t people, it was the culture.  He wrote a lot about the roaring 20’s and social issues going on in that era.

My major is communications, concentrating in journalism.  I love to write.  With creative writing, Kleon’s thoughts are very true.  Most ideas have been done and it’s hard to find a book with a very original, never been done before plot.  As far as journalism, the subjects are new because we write about current events.  But a lot of news sources report the same events so it isn’t original.  When it comes to writing, we’ve all been taught by many different people and teachers so how we write and our writing style is just a combination of all of them.

Project 2

For my photoshop project I wanted to make it literal and figurative.  For my background I used a simple, but not too boring black and white pattern.  I didn't want my background to take away from the colors and letters but I also didn't want it to be boring.  I took letters from the logos of my favorite apps, restaurants, brands, movies, and tv shows to spell out favorite.  There are two letters for each letter in the word favorite.