Category Archives: Uncategorized

Recently, UMass announced they were cutting ties with Bill Cosby, after a series of rape allegations came forward from numerous women. Cosby served as the honorary co-chair of UMass Amherst’s capital campaign, and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to … Continue reading →

You have had to be living under a rock to not be aware of the ongoing situation going on in Ferguson, Missouri. They controversy has been the most polarizing subject nationwide wide for the past several months, and every person … Continue reading →

A couple of days ago, this picture was what greeted me on Facebook. Because of the outrage and rioting that followed the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown, you may not be aware of the identities of the other three boys, … Continue reading →

In our last class of the semester, we discussed flaws within the education system. This is something that college students feel more passionate about than anyone, because they deal with those flaws every day. When I was originally looking for … Continue reading →

Among this years’ media trends was that of feminism, spearheaded by the likes of Emma Watson and Keira Knightley, who wished to increase awareness and equality for women. This feminist wave also gave rise to an interesting phenomenon, the Free … Continue reading →

The paper titled “Students as Neo-Liberal Subjects: A Guide to How Millenials Learn Eighteen Talking Points” was very eye opening and interesting in my development of maturing and my college experience. While reading the document I noted many of the … Continue reading →

Social media, like other forms of entertainment start off in society having a common purpose. When it comes to social media, there are no exceptions. Social media is prone to society’s influence regardless of the creators intended goals. With that … Continue reading →

In 2013, a Youtube phenomenon circulated its users, this video subscriber was titled, “Surveillance Camera Man” and his impact was massive to those who looked past the basic concept of the videos and saw the message he was trying to … Continue reading →

I stumbled upon this video on my Facebook page. Although it may not be from a very professional source, it toys with the notion of perspective, particularly in regards to those who are in favor of abortion and those who … Continue reading →

Eleven-year old Marquis Govan digs deep within the dynamics between police aggressors and their victims. When asked why none of his fellow classmates aspire to be policemen, he breaks it down plain and simple, “From the beginning we’ve felt abused … Continue reading →

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Budweiser beer has become an afterthought among young consumers: according to Budweiser’s parent company Anheuser-Busch, some 44% of 21 to 27-year-old drinkers have never tried Budweiser (an obvious dilemma for the brand). … Continue reading →

How often do you walk around looking at your phone with your head down? Chances are it’s pretty often and according to a new study, it’s killing our backs and necks. New York spine surgeon Kenneth Hansraj recently published a … Continue reading →

  “A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Huh? Eli Pariser remembers growing up in Maine, where a connection to the internet … Continue reading →

If you’ve even glanced at Twitter the past couple days, a new tweeting trend has erupted (in between posts of Kim Kardashian’s photoshoot): the Starter Pack Kits. Overnight, accounts have been created like @ItsStarterPacks, @thisstarterpack, @TheStartrPack, and @StartersPack, posting similar, … Continue reading →

I don’t want to see Kim Kardashian’s butt – but today, it covered my news feed. No matter where I clicked I couldn’t escape it. It’s trending on social media, and major news outlets are writing about her nude photo … Continue reading →

Advertising agencies love the military – because Americans do. Among average Americans, there is a characteristically pro-military sentiment. Americans love watching sappy military homecoming videos, and advertising agencies have been capitalizing on this for years. Yesterday was Veterans Day, and … Continue reading →

In class on Tuesday, one of the last things we discussed is how useless a necktie is. It doesn’t keep you warm, cover any part of your body, or serve any real purpose. People – usually men – wear ties … Continue reading →

Just as we discussed last week in class whether or not we should know when and where the cameras are that can record us, it seems as though another local school is in the news for the reason we discussed. … Continue reading →

In one of last week’s readings, “How Hip Hop Failed Black Americans”, Questlove brings up an interesting question that I found myself wanting to further investigate. The question is: Why haven’t any current cultural figures completely and successfully replaced the … Continue reading →

As most of you know, today is the mid term elections. Out of curiosity, I have asked some of my peers if they were going to vote or not. A lot of them say they “don’t really care”, while others … Continue reading →

After watching the Ted Talks in class last week about governments mining data through cell phone records, as well as the revelations of Edward Snowden and the NSA surveillance scandal, I began thinking about the nature of privacy in the … Continue reading →

Last week, there were multiple hate crimes committed on our campus. Only one of them were deemed serious enough to have an e-mail sent out to the entire student body. This incident happened over the weekend when a student, who … Continue reading →

Can you survive a week free from all technology? I’m talking about no phone, no video games, no computer, no TV. You might be saying, “Yeah, no problem!” or you might begin having panic attacks the moment you think about … Continue reading →

Let’s talk about What the Internet is doing to our brains. Ironically, as I was watching the video, I looked away at my television screen, where Bruce Almighty was playing (Love that movie!), and then I couldn’t remember that one scary/thriller movie … Continue reading →

After reading Jeff Jarvis’s “Public Parts,” I began to think a lot about my own social media image in comparison to my fellow UMass students. Am I an avid user? Moderate? I suspect that we as journalism students could potentially … Continue reading →

If you don’t read the news you 1) should really consider a different major and 2) need to know that white kids rioted at the annual Keene New Hampshire pumpkin festival for no reason at all this Saturday. That’s right. … Continue reading →

I am not using this post to satisfy my class requirements, but I think it fits in nicely with the discussions we’ve been having in class. Watch Slavoj Zizek in this sort video talk about reality and ideology.

Our discussion about babies and technology today really got me thinking about the risks that all the new technology is posing to babies and toddlers today. Just like a lot of people in class I too have seen babies using … Continue reading →

As established consumers of it, I think it’s safe to say we all have some sense of entitlement to the Internet. Don’t we deserve to use it? Shouldn’t it be for everyone? The U.N thinks so. In 2011, the U.N. declared Internet access … Continue reading →

Over the long weekend I got to spend some time in Florida visiting my brother who’s a student at UTampa. For most of the weekend, he was working on a lengthy analysis of an article called “Marge Simpson, Blue-Haired Housewife: … Continue reading →

On the front page of The Easton Journal, my hometown’s newspaper, this past weekend, was a story that immediately intrigued me because of its relevance to news that has been circling around the University of Massachusetts Amherst over the past … Continue reading →

Last night I watched a documentary called “The Central Park Five.” This documentary was about how five black and Latino teenage boys who were wrongly accused of assaulting and raping a white woman jogging in central park. The night of … Continue reading →

As everyone knows, technology is expanding every day. Hand in hand with these improvements are new forms of social media. Chances are if you are under the age 50 you participate in some form of social media whether it be Facebook, … Continue reading →

In today’s world, we see that Internet crime is one of the leading types of crimes occurring in the United States. There have been several national cases of cyber bullying, most notably the story of nearby South Hadley student Phoebe … Continue reading →

Last week we brainstormed and created a list of the various titles we assign to men with guns. We learned that with each title comes positive or negative associations that are everything but unbiased. We emphasized the responsibility of the journalist … Continue reading →

As a photojournalist I’m always drawn to pieces on the craft and journey of photographers. One article caught my eye, but it was less about the journey of the photographer and more about the journey of the photograph. “The War … Continue reading →

It’s 2014, a new day and age where almost everyone has some type of online profile. Think back 30 years ago, before most of us were born. How did people meet? Through Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Tumblr? No, they went outside … Continue reading →

Last week’s readings discussed at length how the way information is transmitted has drastically changed because of advances in technology. Paul Grabowicz explains in “The Transition to Digital Journalism” that journalists have resorted to a “web-first” or “web-centric” approach to … Continue reading →

Security forces vs. police officers vs. insurgents vs. soldiers vs. terrorists vs. fighters vs… How do you refer to people with guns while also remaining objective in your reporting? That’s the question we grappled with in Thursday’s class discussion. At best, there’s no clear, good answer, … Continue reading →

In class on Tuesday, we discussed the role that the Amherst Police Department had in the riots that surrounded the famed celebration of “Blarney,” an Amherst tradition that occurs in the weekend leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. It was … Continue reading →

If meaning lies in media representation, we might as well toss the fight for equal pay in the trash. The Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill initiated in 2012 to protect equal pay for women, was rejected for the fourth time … Continue reading →

Something that came across my stream of news headlines recently was a public opinion poll done on St. Louis County. The Ferguson situation has obviously been going on for a long time. But what does ‘going on’ really mean? To … Continue reading →

It’s possible I overworked my brain in class on Tuesday, continuously thinking about Douglas Martin’s obituary for Yvonne Brill and Stephen Colbert’s ‘humorous’ comment about Asian Americans. Obviously, no one found Douglas Martin’s obituary comical or even cute as he intended, … Continue reading →

One of this week’s readings that I found particularly interesting was the NPR article, “People Wonder: ‘If They Gunned Me Down,’ What Photo Would Media Use?” by Bill Chappell. A blog called “Which Picture Would They Use?” displays a variety … Continue reading →

To begin discussing technology and some different ways in which it affects our education, I searched some general articles that indeed show how our education is affected by the increase in technology. Some may argue that it brings up so much information … Continue reading →

Please feel free to jump right in and post something – a question, a link to an interesting article + a comment, a thought, etc. By now, many dozens of Media, Technology & Culture students have published posts in this … Continue reading →

So much of what we discuss in class is about technology and how it’s affecting the journalism field. This class has taught me to really think about my own life and how much of a significant role technology has played. … Continue reading →

In class last week we had a discussion about older people using new forms of technology and watched a few clips about this topic. During this discussion I thought about one of the readings we had in class “Aging and New … Continue reading →

Recently, I have been writing a paper for my African Law and Society class and found myself writing about some of the questions we confronted in class. While I still haven’t taken a stance on the issue of female genital … Continue reading →