Staying Jolly today, tomorrow, and the next day

Rumors on the Apple’s newest addition to the iPad family are flying around the internet as Apple’s March 7 media event approach.

One leak to come out lately might have debunked the possibility of an “iPad 3”.

Gizmodo.com, the tech blog known for revealing the iPhone 4, is reporting that the next iPad could possibly be the “iPad HD”.

This reveal is according to part listings from accessory manufacturers Griffin and Belkin, which show their case descriptions with the “iPad HD (3)” listing.

Apple, who is known for being super-secretive about their products, withholds information from the manufacturers until the last minute, only giving out specifications of the product.

All these rumors, must be kept with a grain of salt though as similar rumors where slating the iPhone 4S to be the iPhone 5. We will have to wait until March 7 to find out the truth.

Small is the New Big: Microblogging

Blogging is one of the many ways in which the aspiring journalist can publish his or her work. It is also one of the ways at which professional journalists can better cover their beats and post their opinions on their lives or various topics.

With the new social websites like Twitter.com and Facebook becoming an increasingly prominent source of information, a new type of blogging has come out of the wood work, microblogging.

Briggs, in chapter four of “Journalism Next”, defines microblogging as a “service [that] allows users to publish brief text messages, usually no more than 140 characters, with links to other Web sites, photos or videos.”

Though these sites offer a limited amount of text to be typed out, they still offer great ways to distribute quick bursts of information.

With Connect2Mason.com, an online only, student news publication, we utilize all sorts of microblogging to distribute news stories. Other times, we post photos or videos with text that offers interactivity with the user. These are the best “backdoor” entrances to our site and the easiest ways our readers have to connect with our stories.

The internet and social technologies have enabled readers the convenience of instant information.

The journalism world serves as a way to get reliable, truthful information for these increasingly informed users. Readers can now contribute to these journalism publications through new collaboration tools made available to them.

The three methods outlined in chapter 3 of Brigg’s “Journalism Next” are crowdsourcing, open-source reporting and pro-am joruanlism.

Crowdsourcing is the process of bringing together multiple people under a single topic and compiling that information together for one source.

Open-source reporting is the process by which stories can be written and compiled using the reader for help. This is evident in websites such as Storify.

Finally, pro-am journalism is the process by which readers have the ability to publish and shares stories that have the potential to be used by news pubs. This is being done by big publications such as CNN with the i-Report.

Out of all of these collaborative tools, I find that pro-am journalism does the best. While crowdsourcing allows you to get information from your readers, the readers have the same passion if not more than the journalist on their topic. Though that may be an issue with bias and leaning toward a particular stance on an issue, it’s the best way to generate interest and content.

The Apple vs. everyone tablet wars continue with the latest development on the iPad line.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is working on a “tablet with a smaller screen” with their technology suppliers overseas.

WSJ states in the article that the testing of this new iPad is being done to compete with tablet rivals Samsung and Amazon with their Galaxy Tablets and Kindle e-Readers respectively.

Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs has stated his stance in the past on the screen size of the iPad should by around the 10 inch range, saying that it is “the minimum size required to create great tablet apps.”

Gizmodo picked up on the article recently and shown disdain on the possibility of the “8-inch iPad”. They have reported on rumors in the past about the different size devices Apple has had in the prototype stage, even touching on several big iPhone 5 rumors.

A personal account on taking photos and videos at George Mason University

My time at Mason is almost coming to an end. I am a last semester senior who will miss this campus very much.

Many people know me as “Jolly J” from the photography and videography I’ve done around campus at various events. I’m fine with the name, but at the same time, I’m just another guy with a camera and a passion.

I’ve been to a lot of on campus events and made a name for myself with my Facebook page Jolly J Photography and recently, Connect2Mason.com.

JJP has been up since late 2010 and since then, has gained 1100 followers. How this happened, I don’t exactly know. What I do know is that it shows I’m doing something right. It’s allowed me to explore my talents and find out what I’m good at.

Why do I do what I do?

Because it makes people happy.

I found that though I take all these photos and videos, though it gives me experience, I don’t do it all for myself. Working the long hours, editing all the videos together, as long as people laugh and are happy with what they see, then that makes everything I do worth it.

While I’m still here, I want to keep making people happy. Most of all, I want to keep living my dream.

Be the best person you can be, and good things will follow.

Profile on Gizmodo.com, a Gawker media tech blog

There are two things that “click” with me. Video games and technology.

I love both of them and try and stay fully up to date on news about the two. For me, Gizmodo is my answer.

Gizmodo, which started up in 2002, is a tech blog that features news on electronics, nerd interests and techie rumors. They post short briefs with long two-page stories that feature either photos or videos on the topic.

As Briggs described in “Journalism Next”, a good blog is controversial and interesting. The Giz has experienced plenty of it.

You may have Gizmodo as the news outlet that revealed the iPhone 4 back in 2010. They broke news by posting revealing photos of a “lost and found” prototype iPhone 4 which Apple seized from them later on.

I mostly pay attention to the video and photo news, but the other stories they publish are just as entertaining. Gizmodo truly feels like a great example of the balance between “info-tainment”.

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

Blogs are becoming a very important and prominent source of news for many news consumers in today’s online world.

Just like many things on the internet, a majority of users have access to these blog platforms. There are little to no barriers to entry for those who want to blog. Simply have an idea, sign up for one on any of the various blogging platforms and get to it.

Chapter 2 of Briggs’ “Journalism Next” teaches the online journalist about vast world of blogging. From starting a blog to search optimization, the chapter gives useful information and tips for being successful.

One essential part of the chapter describes blogs as a voice for not only the casual users, but also professional journalists. News organizations like the New York Times and CNN were examples for prominent blog sites.

There are many tools at the bloggers disposal like widgets, advertising, and templates to make the blog interesting. None of that matters though unless the blogger has something interesting to discuss or publish. Blogs can be as interesting or boring as the blogger makes it.

Though blogs are accessible, they must be enticing for those reading them. There are many types of blogs that can be interesting for the user. In this day and age, vloggers or video bloggers have become a big part of the blogosphere. Though that is only one type of blog, the blogger must be creative and innovative to be well received.

A blog is first and foremost all for the reader. If you can provide relevant and interesting content, you will be able to attract an audience.

Back to the Basics

Mark Briggs’ online journalism textbook “Journalism Next” was written with a specific audience in mind. For those journalists who’ve been in the field for a long time and are just starting to switch over.

In the class’ case, there are those who haven’t learned the online journalism skill-set they need to succeed. Briggs’ book is perfect for this demographic as well.

The first chapter gives the reader a very rudimentary introduction to basic tools available to the online side of the news, whether it’s creating or reading it. It touches on the internet, RSS, file transfer protocol and basic web-design.

For me, most of this information I’ve experienced through a class at Mason or through people showing me.

RSS or “really simple syndication” is something that people see everywhere on news sites, but it wasn’t until I read the text that I understood the information service.

It essentially is a “back door” online newspaper. Companies or news organizations can send out stories or information through the feeds, sending them to those who subscribe to the feed. I honestly don’t see myself using RSS, but I’m glad that it’s available to journalists.

Web design, as I’ve experienced before, is a very difficult monster to tame. There is memorization of HTML tags, (text commands that serve different functions), and lots of time that goes into designing a page. Web pages, using this internet language, can be very complex or very simple depending on the tags you use.