Race on Campus

Many students are drawn to USF for not only the strong academics but the exceptional diversity. In fact, according to the Princeton Review USF ranked number 15 for the most ethnically diverse University in the country. Within this diverse population there is a large presence of students who are multi or biracial.
For a school that boasts about its diversity, many of the students who do not identify with one race feel that USF has not done much to acknowledge them. Twenty-five out of twenty-five multi/biracial students said that as freshmen they were never encourage to join a race related group or organization on campus. They also agreed that they would not feel comfortable joining such a group due to the fact that they are not “enough of one race.” Jessica Reihanifam, a Black and Persian student, says “I feel like groups that focus on one nationality makes me uncomfortable and that they are not accepting.” She believes that the answer to this problem would be a club, organization, or sorority designed to cater to people of mixed descent.
However, Ariana Johnson, a biracial student, joined the BSU her freshmen year and still actively participates. Johnson sought out the BSU at USF because of her prior involvement in high school. “I don’t think a group focused on many cultures is a cohesive one,” Johnson says.
Biracial student Jessica Perry says she would like to see a place for mixed people in the USF community. “I see people of the same ethnic descent congregate on campus and I’m not quite sure where that leaves me,” says Perry. Ashley Jones, a multiethnic student, agrees.

Future of Newspapers

Last week I had my first, much anticipated, visit to the Chronicle. I entered the building which seemed to be lively and full of people who all knew each other- almost like family. Then I exited the 3rd floor elevator doors to find a florescent lit room full of tired-looking newspaper staff who did not seem to be too excited to be there. Most, if not all, of the staff I talked to made a comment that now was not a good time to get into newspapers. They were making major cut backs on staff at the Chronicle and everyone looked over worked and tired. Maybe I put the Chronicle on a pedestal, but this was not the work place I imagined.

And, we had a guest speaker today in Advanced Reporting who agreed to leave the Chronicle and take the buy-out. I think it's fair to be skeptical about my future career, especially in the time of this economic crisis.

Ethical question of the day

Today I visited the San Francisco Chronicle with my photojournalism class and we decided to take a walk around the downtown and snap a few photos. We shortly made our way into the Tenderloin and I immediately stopped taking pictures. Was it okay that I was taking pictures of the less fortunate, who have very little, so I can learn how to take a good photo? Snapping a fancy digital camera into their face didn't seem right. To say the least I took a few good photos but I did have to question whether it was right of me or not.

Multimedia Timeline

I was browsing Poynter Online and I came across a timeline of multimedia progression starting from 1969 until 2008. You can click on the year and it will give you the history of every major multimedia innovation during that year, I thought it was really cool and a great way to track the advances of media. I would suggest just looking through it, there are some cool things on the timeline. I'll post the link below, or you can just click HERE

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75953&sid=26

Sociologist Michael Omi visits USF

With Senator Obama up for Presidential Candidacy it seems relevant that USF Professor’s of Davies Seminar: Mixed Race/Legacy, Rodriguez and Sundstrom, would press for a guest speaker on multiracial identity. Legendary Sociologist Dr. Michael Omi gave a speech titled “Multiracial Identity, Colorblindness, and the Post Racial Society,” Wednesday. Here's a clip from his speech-

(volumes kinda low so turn it up as loud as your computer can go, it's also sideways)

video is below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlcXhg1prfg

Hypothetically speaking...

If you were a reporter covering this Friday's upcoming Presidential Debate, how would you evenly present both sides of the debate in your story? Putting aside your personal bias how would you cover this story?

I'm just curious to hear what people think.

Photojournalism at its finest

I am in Journalism 3: Photojournalism this semester at USF and my professor Brant Ward showed us a slide show of the pictures he took while working on a beat story about homelessness in San Francisco (For the Chronicle). Since we are all covering beat stories in Journalism 2 I thought this might be apropriate/relevant. Anyways, here is the link- these are some pretty emotion evoking pictures.