iReport Critique

iReport Critique What I liked about iReport was the fact that once I created my account, it brought me to the main page where it displayed several reports that were favorited by the website, allowing iReport users to view and read them. These were the recommended stories. Users are also allowed to share their own news on the website. For beginners, there is a link at the top of the main page that gives a tour of the website and how to use it. I also liked that this website allows you to upload your own news stories through video.

Soundslide Interview Project- Jon Huber

Jon Huber: A Hardcore Musician at Lyndon
A LSC senior shares his involvement in a unique kind of music

Jon Huber, a Senior Music Business Industry major at Lyndon state, explained that he has only been playing hardcore music for two years.

When Jon first arrived at Lyndon, he joined a SKA band called Defeat the porpoise. The second band in which he still records with is a hardcore band called Perceptionists.

Jon was first inspired by hardcore music in high school when he started going to a lot of hardcore shows. He met a bunch of other guys in college who were into the same music and interested in the idea of starting a band with him. That’s when Perceptionists started.

Huber explains how it has been hard booking shows for hardcore music at Lyndon. “Public safety doesn’t support the dancing involved in hardcore music,” said Huber. Hardcore music shows have become a little more popular in the last couple years. Perceptionsists have found quite a few shows in the last year.

The instruments Huber uses in his band are two electric guitars: an Ibanez RG series and an Ibanez Ironlable 7 string, along with and an acoustic: Martin 6 string acoustic. The Sheffield cabinet and Behringer head are both amplifiers. Huber explained that the Behringer is used when the band plays their music live.

The band records most of their music at their house. Their recording station is set up in one of their rooms. It includes two speakers, two computers screens, and other equiptment. They have also used the recording studio on the college campus.

Jon is still making music with Perceptionists. “We’re just going to release our recording as a studio band right now and see if they pick up any attention.” Huber said about his band.

“I think hardcore music will be in my future,” Huber adds about his plans for the future. “I’m a senior MBI major, so I’m definitely planning on being in the music business for the rest of my life.”


Contributions to this slideshow/interview are as follows:
Band Photos: Ashley Heath
Other photos: Diana Herlehy
Audio (voices): Chris Moriarty (interviewer), Jon Huber
Audio (recording): Audacity.
Music: “A man, An Image” by Perceptionists (intro) and “I Lead the Horse to Water and it Drown” by Perceptionists (outro).
Slideshow: Soundslides

Band interview- audio slideshow project (synopsis)

For the audio slideshow project, Chris and I will be recording and taking pictures of a past band group. This group of boys happens to be Chris' roommates. Our goal is to capture the style of music in which they enjoy creating. We will interview a member of the band and ask him some questions about the band, like what instrument he likes to play and how long he's been playing, or why he and his band decided to stop playing in the first place. The pictures involved in the slideshow will be of the band or band members themselves, playing their instruments.

Chris and I will be using a recorder for the project to record their answers and maybe a little bit of their music. If we are not able to use a recorder we will just use Chris’ IPhone. We will also use some music that the band members like to listen to. Chris and I intend this project to be directed towards an audience that has a passion for music. This will be very different from the other group who is also interviewing a band from Lyndon state. The band we will be interviewing focuses on playing hard-core music, whereas most bands around this campus plays folk and indie music.

Slide shows and storytelling

The slideshows that I found were all relevant to my biggest interests.
The first slideshow I found had audio included. I went to Vimeo.com, because I've always gone to that website to look at all kinds of videos. I started searching for slideshows of topics I am interested in, like yoga. I eventually found a slideshow that told the story of a woman's 10-day journey practicing yoga while teaching and enjoying accompanied by the natives of Nairobi, Africa. The concept of this slideshow was inspiring to begin with. The photos of African children and adults were very well taken and colorful making it entertaining to watch. The African-themed music accompanied the pictures to give the viewers a good feel of what the woman's experience in Africa was like. Without the music the slideshow would not be very interesting to watch.

The second slide show I found was from a website called Dwell.com, which was originally created to display architecture and design. I was interested in finding a slideshow about travel on this website. The slideshow I eventually found a slideshow that displayed pictures of all different aspects of the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, with the purpose to give people insight on what else Honolulu has to offer, other than the obvious beautiful ocean fronts and tourist areas. This slideshow does not include audio, only pictures of local Hawaiian's hand-made goods, the chinatown market area and many other fascinating features of the city. The slideshow did a good job of giving each slide enough time for the viewer to observe the picture and read it's caption. There was about 6 seconds between each slide. The pictures were professional and captivating. The lack of audio was appropriate for the slideshow because the captions told the story of each picture.  

The photo gallery I chose was one incorporated in my friend's tumblr account. This tumblr page is a collection of photos of all different points of interest (live and let live). It is mostly based on fashion trending these days. There are also pictures of different celebrities, foods, quotes and animals. This tumblr is very diverse. It contains some pictures that are shocking to the eye whether they be some what revealing or just simply strange, but the purpose of the gallery itself is a representation of expressing oneself of being care-free and fun. The pictures are so intriguing and flamboyant that the gallery itself does not need audio.

Each slideshow and photo gallery each represents something in their own way. The first slideshow with audio clearly described a story with its pictures and music. It was easy to follow the story. The second slideshow did not necessarily tell a story, but was still interesting because each slide had words to describe the pictures captivity. Music does help a slideshow become more interesting to watch, especially to people who are more attracted to sounds and music, but that does not necessarily mean a slideshow needs audio in order to tell a story. Actually, sometimes a slideshow without audio can make it easier to focus on the photos and be able to visually understand what story is being told. The photo gallery was of all different images, letting the viewer to perceive it however they please. However, a photo gallery can tell a story quite easily. Consecutive photos in a gallery can show someone a certain sequence of events which all together tell the story.

headline here...

NewsLINC critique

NewsLINC Website Critique

I enjoyed exploring through the NewsLINC website. I like that it is simple and easy to Navigate, while still using nice colors and design to make it appealing for students, faculty and other members of the North East community. The website displays informative news coming from the surrounding towns of the NorthEast Kingdom including Burke, Danville and Lyndon. Along with talking about news in the NEK, the website also talks about whats happening in other parts of VT and NH. The site includes an 'about us' section that explains the purpose of the website and it's association with the Electric Journalism Arts department at LSC.

I did not find anything I didn't like about the website. I think that it is overall a good way for the students involved in Electric Journalism Arts to get experience in finding news on their own and reporting it through the media.

Audio blog project - what is it like to live off campus?

In our podcast we talked to each other in a discussion about how we felt about the transformation of living off of campus at Lyndon state and the overall pros and cons of the matter. We also talked about the rules one needs to abide when living or thinking about living on their own in an apartment.

We used a recorder to record ourselves for the podcast. It was easy to use, but we made a lot of mistakes when recording, which made it a little more difficult when we edited and finalized the podcast in the end. The podcast started off with an introduction of what Chris and I were going to be discussing, after that we shared a reasons why we enjoyed living off campus rather than in a dorm room. We both agreed that the freedom of living on campus was a nice comparison to living in a house with RA's back at school, but we also explained that you still need to consider obeying the rules of a landlord when renting an apartment.

Chris and I gave a little insight on some of the rules you need to play by when renting an apartment, such as paying your rent on time and maintaining a well kept home in general. We gave some information about certain rules that landlords in Vermont hold towards their fellow tenants, such as eviction information. We found this information from the CVOED Renting in Vermont Informational Handbook for Tenants and Landlords. We both thought that this would be useful information for anybody who was new to living in an apartment in Lyndonville or anywhere else in Vermont. The information we found was a good addition to the podcast because it made it informational along with being opinionated with our beliefs of living off campus.

Chris and I focused our topic mostly on the responsibility of renting an apartment as a college student. Not only did we spend the time talking about tenant’s responsibilities, we also talked about the responsibility of the landlord. Again, this was something we thought students might find useful to hear, because if a student is interested or already is living in an apartment in the area, they very much deserve to know their rights as a tenant, in case they ever get ripped off for some reason in the future.

In the end we put all of the audio on the computer. We had to convert all the recordings into a WAV format in order for us to be able to use it on Audacity and create our podcast. Converting took a little bit of time but once it was done the process of editing the audio clips was simple. Chris and I were proud of our podcast and think that students will find it informative and also entertaining to hear, especially if they are curious as to what living off campus is like, and what significant aspects to look out for when looking for an apartment.