Assignment 14-1

With the increasing environmental and economic harm caused by America’s use of fossil fuel (oil, coal, gas), it is more urgent than ever that we break this addiction to fuel and move towards a more eco-conscious and health supplement. Wind power. Wind is one of the safest sources of power for our environment and people. It is renewable, produces no emissions, and according the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, it is good for our economy, since wind energy creates much-needed manufacturing and technical jobs. And unlike coal, oil or gas, wind power is a local Maine product.

The visual impact should also be considered when talking about adding wind power into our state. There are a number of places in Maine that would not be appropriate for wind turbines— Mt. Katahdin, Cadillac Mountain, Mt. Spencer, and Tumbledown are obvious examples.

A recent poll conducted by Portland-based Critical Insights shows that 90% of Maine people support the development of wind power as a source of electricity. Nearly nine in ten Mainers agree that wind power can improve energy security and reduce Maine’s dependence on fossil fuels, and eight in ten agree that wind power will produce jobs and other forms of economic benefits.

“The level of support for wind power is huge,” said NRCM Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim. “Maine people want clean power and clean energy jobs, and they see a big opportunity through wind power to improve energy security and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Assignment 15-1

Laura Levesque

CMJ 236- Final

With the increasing environmental and economic harm caused by America’s use of fossil fuel (oil, coal, gas), it is more urgent than ever that we break this addiction to fuel and move towards a more eco-conscious and health supplement. Wind power. Wind is one of the safest sources of power for our environment and people. It is renewable, produces no emissions, and according the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, it is good for our economy, since wind energy creates much-needed manufacturing and technical jobs. And unlike coal, oil or gas, wind power is a local Maine product.

The visual impact should also be considered when talking about adding wind power into our state. There are a number of places in Maine that would not be appropriate for wind turbines— Mt. Katahdin, Cadillac Mountain, Mt. Spencer, and Tumbledown are obvious examples.

On May 5, 2010, Governor Baldacci signed legislation that will help cut air pollution by reducing the sulfur level allowed in heating oil and related oil products used by industry. Improving air quality continues to be a top concern in Maine. The legislation was a priority for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, and the Environmental Priorities Coalition, and will improve public health, reduce haze pollution, and save Mainers money.

Currently, coal, oil, and nuclear power provide 60 percent of New England’s energy. NRCM (Natural Resources Council of Maine) worked hard for a statewide commitment to boost Maine’s use of wind power for electricity production to 2000 Megawatts by 2015 and 3000 Megawatts by 2020

A recent poll conducted by Portland-based Critical Insights shows that 90% of Maine people support the development of wind power as a source of electricity. Nearly nine in ten Mainers agree that wind power can improve energy security and reduce Maine’s dependence on fossil fuels, and eight in ten agree that wind power will produce jobs and other forms of economic benefits.

“The level of support for wind power is huge,” said NRCM Advocacy Director Pete Didisheim. “Maine people want clean power and clean energy jobs, and they see a big opportunity through wind power to improve energy security and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.”

The poll also reveals that 77% of Maine people want Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to support federal climate and clean energy legislation. Only 13% believe that Maine’s two senators should vote against the legislation, and 10% remain undecided.

References:

http://www.nrcm.org/kibby_mtn_slideshow.asp

http://nrcm.typepad.com/nrcminsider/2009/10/see-the-kibby-wind-power-project.html

http://www.mainewind.org/

http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/astate_template.asp?stateab=me

http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2010/05/06/opinion/commentaries/doc4be2e3e6c0f57698301211.txt

http://www.journaltribune.com/articles/2010/05/06/editorial/doc4be2d330ebc7e893161140.txt

http://www.tmcnet.com/viewette.aspx?u=http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/05/03/4765638.htm&kw=0

Assignment 9-1

Laura Levesque
9-1

On February 9th, 2010 there was a seminar held on the University of Maine campus for incoming students who are interested in the new minor in robotics engineering that is going to be available in the fall of 2010. There has now, also been an increase in the amount of robotics classes being offered to more than a dozen. “Mechanical and electrical engineering has offered a robotics class and students who took it wanted more, and we see robots becoming more prevalent every day” says Chet Rock, associate dean of the College of Engineering.

The major is designed to give students the fundamental understanding of robotic operation and preliminary training in design and use of robots. Students will have access to classes in mobile walking robots, robotic vision, robotic surgery, surgical micro-robotics and robot statics, kinematics, dynamics and control.

However, this seminar did not really get interesting until after the briefing when I got to speak with some of the students and professors that attended the meeting. I came across an Arts major and we began talking about the size of the engineering department versus the size of the other departments. This student brought up her concurs with the advertising major being dropped because of lack of funding, but there was enough money to fund another engineering minor. “ I hope that one day UMaine decided to only teach engineers because it is unfair that they only concentrate on that one department when there are so many other ones available.”

Assignment 10-1

During disasters like hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, and earthquakes there are a lot of people that are going to either know or want to know what is going on. Before there were social media sites like twitter and Wikipedia it was not very likely that you were going to be able to get minute by minute coverage on what it going on in these disaster areas.

As a first time user of Twitter, it is clear that, although geared towards people interested in media, it is very accessible to the average person who may not be completely enthralled with the new technologies. This allows for the information posted onto these sites to have a very broad spectrum of topics and coverage of disasters.

When searching around for news sites that had coverage of disasters, there were a few key ones that seemed to show up more often then others; AidNews, Breaking News, and the American Red Cross. These groups are “followed” by people connected to the website where they can communicate back and forth about the goings on in the world.
In times of disaster these sites are great for keeping people in touch with other people in different parts of the world and country. Topics consisted mostly of information about these disasters typically in this particular order:
First, if it is certain that the disaster is going to happen, the topics revolve around what is expected to happen when the disaster hits, and what is pre-emptive actions are being taken to soften the blow of the disaster.

Once the disaster has struck the forums all seem to be buzzing with every detail of what is happening in the effected area. Topics including what is being done in the immediate future to help victims to safety, what are the effects of the disaster, including total of deaths, injuries, homes destroyed and the like.

After the disaster, there are endless posts about people wanting to collect supplies for the injured, how to donate money and time to the people effected by the disaster, the actions that are being done to now rebuild the area, and how the people that were affected are doing.

8-2

The State of Maine Department of Labor issued a release late last week describing the first in a planned series of reports on the green economy sector in Maine. “Green Economy” is defined as a variety of industries and occupations engaged in activities that reduce the use of fossil fuels; encourage development of renewable energy sources; reduce pollution; increase energy efficiency; and minimize waste of natural resource. The release, “Maine’s Green Economy,” describes the scope as focusing specifically on the industry that comprises the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in Maine.

The Maine Labor Commissioner noted there was a wide consensus that the growth of the sector would provide opportunity for workers and businesses.
“The availability of good data helps workers make informed decisions about career and training options, helps businesses identify opportunities in new markets, and helps policymakers, educators, and economic developers in shifting resources to where they are needed most,” said Fortman. “This report sets a baseline for us to move forward on a more definitive analysis of employment data and identify trends within the sector.”

Although recent employment estimates for renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors have varied, it is said to depend on the definition of “green jobs” used and the way the jobs were counted. Because the jobs are spread across a range of traditional and new occupations, it makes it difficult to tell the amounts of jobs and range of people which they would be offered to due to the knowledge that needs to already be known about the topic. The Different industry segments that are comprised by The Green Economy are:Research, Design, and consulting services, Manufacturing, Renewal energy generation, Governmental and Regulatory Administrations, Energy Efficiency

Maine House of Representatives (House District 5 of Bangor, ME) Adam Goode, when asked how he feels the “green economy” was going to affect Maine, he said “…Green economy in Maine is going to do nothing to hurt it, that is for sure…” He continued to say how he is extremely excited to see everything “when it really gets going. Where Maine is really getting into environmentalism and the ideas are catching like wildfires I believe it will only bring prosperity”. As a part of the environmental organization committee for District 15 Adam truly seems excited to see where these ideas are going.

This same “go green attitude” is spreading quickly all over Maine in other ways as well. Many local businesses are contributing to a greener community producing all natural products. Everything from Natural Clothing stores like “Follow Your Bliss” in Hodgdon, to sustainable furniture at Moose Pond Arts + Ecology in Norway, and a wind powered fiber mill in Hope. Hopes are high that this is only the first step in change and this positive attitude will carry out all over Maine.

Maine Government News. (2010, February 11). Report Examines Scope of Green Economy in Maine. Maine Department of Labor. Retrieved from:
http://maine.gov
Center for Workforce Research and Information. (2010, February 10). Maine's Green Economy: An Overview of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Sectors. Maine Department of Labor. Retrieved from:
www.maine.gov/labor

Assignment 7-1 edited

Laura Levesque
Assignment 7-1

The State of Maine Department of Labor issued a release late last week describing the first in a planned series of reports on the green economy sector in Maine. “Green Economy” is defined as a variety of industries and occupations engaged in activities that reduce the use of fossil fuels; encourage development of renewable energy sources; reduce pollution; increase energy efficiency; and minimize waste of natural resource. The release, “Maine’s Green Economy,” describes the scope as focusing specifically on the industry that comprises the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in Maine.

The Maine Labor Commissioner noted there was a wide consensus that the growth of the sector would provide opportunity for workers and businesses.
“The availability of good data helps workers make informed decisions about career and training options, helps businesses identify opportunities in new markets, and helps policymakers, educators, and economic developers in shifting resources to where they are needed most,” said Fortman. “This report sets a baseline for us to move forward on a more definitive analysis of employment data and identify trends within the sector.”

Although recent employment estimates for renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors have varied, it is said to depend on the definition of “green jobs” used and the way the jobs were counted. Because the jobs are spread across a range of traditional and new occupations, it makes it difficult to tell the amounts of jobs and range of people which they would be offered to due to the knowledge that needs to already be known about the topic. The Different industry segments that are comprised by The Green Economy are:
Research, Design, and consulting services
Manufacturing
Renewal energy generation
Governmental and Regulatory Administrations
Energy Efficiency

This same “go green attitude” is spreading quickly all over Maine in other ways as well. Many local businesses are contributing to a greener community producing all natural products. Everything from Natural Clothing stores like “Follow Your Bliss” in Hodgdon, to sustainable furniture at Moose Pond Arts + Ecology in Norway, and a wind powered fiber mill in Hope. Hopes are high that this is only the first step in change and this positive attitude will carry out all over Maine.

http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/green-economy-report-released-at-kvcc
https://www.maine.gov/labor/lmis/publications/.../GreenEconomyReport.pdf

Assignment 7-1

Laura Levesque
Assignment 7-1

The State of Maine Department of Labor issued a release late last week describing the first in a planned series of reports on the green economy sector in Maine. “Green Economy” is defined as a variety of industries and occupations engaged in activities that reduce the use of fossil fuels; encourage development of renewable energy sources; reduce pollution; increase energy efficiency; and minimize waste of natural resource. The release, “Maine’s Green Economy,” describes the scope as focusing specifically on the industry that comprises the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in Maine.

The Maine Labor Commissioner noted there was a wide consensus that the growth of the sector would provide opportunity for workers and businesses.
“The availability of good data helps workers make informed decisions about career and training options, helps businesses identify opportunities in new markets, and helps policymakers, educators, and economic developers in shifting resources to where they are needed most,” said Fortman. “This report sets a baseline for us to move forward on a more definitive analysis of employment data and identify trends within the sector.”

Although recent employment estimates for renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors have varied, it is said to depend on the definition of “green jobs” used and the way the jobs were counted. Because the jobs are spread across a range of traditional and new occupations, it makes it difficult to tell the amounts of jobs and range of people which they would be offered to due to the knowledge that needs to already be known about the topic. The Different industry segments that are comprised by The Green Economy are :
Research, Design, and consulting services
Manufacturing
Renewal energy generation
Governmental and Regulatory Administrations
Energy Efficiency
Agricultural and Forestry

Assignment 6-1

Laura Levesque
Assignment 6-1

[Laura]
Hello. The University of Maine is holding a conference that will surly be a great opportunity for students and members of the community who may be looking to get their foot in the door of the fashion industry.

[CG: Innovation Center, Universtiy of Maine]
[TRT: 0:15]
This seminar is going to be held Wednesday February 17, 2010 from 4:00- 5:30pm at the Bion and Dorain Foster Center for Student Innovation on the University of Maine’s campus.

[Laura]
There are going to be a few local business owners and designers from the Bangor and Orono area answering questions and giving advice on how to go about starting a business in fashion. The artists are:

[CG: The Studio, Orono, ME]
[TRT: 0:10]
Jessi Sader, the owner of The Studio in Orono and designer of FXDressed.

[CG: Teen Vogue photos]
[TRT: 0:10]
Mallory Bruns. Designer of Sophoronia Designs jewelry, and she has been featured in Teen Vogue and

[CG: Bella Luna, Bangor, ME]
[TRT: 0:10]
Heather Van Frankenhuyzen, owner of Bella Luna in downtown Bangor.

[Laura]
This seminar is open to anyone who is interested and is free to the public.

Assignment 5-1

Laura Levesque
Assignment 5-1
Tyler Grossman, a junior at The University of Maine, was arrested in October of 2008 for trafficking ecstasy at “harvest fest” in Harmony Maine.
Tyler and some friends arrived at harvest fest, a local music festival, with the intention of making a little bit of money and having a lot of fun. Little did they know, the Maine state DEA was also at this festival looking for people who were selling drugs. Tyler decided to pick up some ecstasy and try to sell it. When he found someone that was looking to buy the drugs, he and his friend Jordan Raven, another junior at Umaine, went to a corner of the festival where the “buyers” said to meet them. When Tyler and Jordan arrived at the meeting spot they quickly found out that these seeming harmless partiers were actually under cover cops. They were surrounded buy the police, put into hand cuffs, and brought to the local jail. Meanwhile, back at their friends’ camp, people started growing more and more worried because they could not get in touch with Tyler or Jordan at all and it all happened so fast that not one person even knew what had happened.
Tyler was held in custody for 48 hours until his bail of 3,000 dollars was posted by his, now, ex-girl friend. A few weeks after he was let out of jail his girl friend at the time got very mad at him because of what happened and decided to call the cops on his and tell them that he was breaking his bail and immediately there was another warrant out for his arrest. Tyler, obviously not knowing what exactly to do, decided to avoid the cops and head for his parents house in Southern Maine. About 12 hours after the warrant for his arrest was posted, he decided to turn himself into the police, and he was immediately arrested and put back in jail for the next 24 hours.
Since then Tyler has gone to court and was charged with the possession of a Class A drug, 20 ecstasy doses, 7 prescription drugs, and a paraphernalia charge. He will have to go to jail for about 6 weeks in the summer, so not to miss any school, and has to complete 300 hours of community service. “It is probably the hardest lesson that I have ever learned, but I can honestly tell you that I will never be in that position again. I have learned there is no easy way to make money” says Tyler.

Assignment 4-1

Laura Levesque
Assignment 4-1

In the article about Zachary Carr, an 18 year old from Bangor Maine who is appearing in court for shooting and killing John “Bobby” Surles last week there were a few things in the article that would have made it a lot more effictive.
In class we talked about different ways that you can make a leading paragraph catching to a reader and make them want to carry on reading the article, and unfortionatly this article did not do a very good job with any of the ways. Leading off with a quote, in my opinion, can be very effictive, it is a great way to catch the readers attention and really let them know what is going on or going to happen in a sentence or two. This article starts off
Bangor- 18 year-old Zachary Carr remained silet in court Monday, although, he did motion to who friends that came to support him.
“He would not just murder someone in cold blood, he would not. It’s just messed up that he’s here and Bobby’s dead,” said Chantel Nielsen Ashby, a friend of Carr.
Although this dies give the reader a little bit of information, it is not gripping. There could have been something about why he was in court or at least an overview of what happened so that someone who was not following the story cuold know what was going on.
There are also a few places in the article that had some funky things going on with their wordings. I found “Carr has been chared with one count of murder for the shooting death of 19-year old John “Bobby” Surles last week” to be a weird sentence. I am not sure if the journalist was trying to dress up the sentence, but if anything, it made it sound wordy and not well writen.
There were also a few spots in the article where their word choice was not very well. They were using the same wods a lot to describe something and the sentences I found really short and choppy.

Assignment 3-1

*Just as a side note, I was looking up some different ways that reporters tend to write columns and i came up with some interesting stuff. I thought that I would try to write this assignment in the style that I found to be most effective for me, a style where the reporter almost spoke to me personally. It was not casually written per say, but it was a little less formal, and i thought with a topic that was more of my opinion it would be fitting.

January 28, 2010

Is the world going towards journalistic convergence or consolidation? For some reason, in the back of my head, I want to scream “NO!” and give you a billion reasons that we should not be moving in either one of those directions… but the hard truth is that we are.
Convergence is described as “the approach towards a definite value, a definite point, a common view or opinion, or a towards a fixed or equilibrium state.” (www.wikipedia.ore/wiki/convergence) This means that everything is constantly changing and evolving to get more streamline and able to fit into every ones fast pace life. If you think back to about 10 years ago, technologically, everything was extremely different. Logging onto your e-mail was not the 1 minute process that it is now, where I can log into my email, see what is in my inbox, and log out in under 3 minutes…multiple times a day. You were not connected to your wireless network all day so there was not that quick access log in. There was dial up. You had to log onto your account and listen to that awful static and beeping combination while you slowly connect to Internet explorer. Then, you had to patiently wait second after second for your page to finally load and allow you to read your spam.
Internet was only the beginning of it. Telephones, something made strictly for calls, turned into something made for calls anywhere, the Internet, making videos, taking picture, playing games, playing music, even finding all the “Thai Restaurants” in the greater Bangor area. That is 6 different gizmos all put into one to make our lives easier. And we love it. This technological convergence really thrives on the shifts within industries, cultures, socially, and how we interact with the technologies that exist.
There are a few down sides however. When an appliance is made for a specific function, then you add on other things that it is supposed to do, those add on functions never seem to work quite as well as if they had been made specifically for that function. For example, if you try to play a DVD in an Xbox consol there seems to be way more issues then if you had just used a DVD player.
As far as consolidation, or getting rid of forms of media and combining them all into one, I have to say that this is not going to happen in my lifetime or yours more than likely. I do believe that there is going to be a time when news papers are not printed and everyone just goes online to read the news, although it would take just about every person in the world having some sort of smart phone (Media Convergence!!). People like to be connected and know what is going on, and until everyone has a hand held device that will allow them to do so, there will always be the printed-paper.

Assignment 2-1

01/20/2010
Pictures of Missing Baby Released
CNN News
Nancy Grace

Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of eight month old Gabriel Johnson, was indicted with intent to cause custodial interference, kidnapping, and child abuse in mid January, 2010. January 20, 2010 CNN ran the story about the missing child and their suspicions when photos came to light literally hours before his last credible sighting on December 26, 2009 in Miami, FL.
“Why is she taking these photos? Is it because she wants to remember her child? Not likely” Says Michael Boar (WOAI news radio).
When I started to critique this story, and thinking about the components of stories, I immediately thought that the most important factors would be focus, balance, completeness, and accuracy. Although the focus was clear, concise, and the story itself was well written, I found that there were a good handful of components that were not taken care of how they should have been.
The introduction of the story was vague, and for someone that had not been following this story very much, I was quite lost. There should have been more of a brief background to recap what had been going on in the case or at least a brief overview of who everyone involved was (ie. Elizabeth Johnson, the mother, Logan McQueary, the father). As the story progressed I began to think that it was also a little unbalanced. Although the mother had been indicted already, Nancy Grace, the reporter covering the story, was very one sided about what had happened. She seemed sure that Johnson had not only been one hundred percent at fault for baby Gabriel’s disappearance, but she seemed almost sure that she had killed him even though that had not been confirmed. “In my mind, telling the biological father that you smothered the baby, concealed his body in a dipper bag, and threw him away in the trash is reason to suspect the child is dead… agree or disagree?” (The police had said that this statement received in a text message was not believed to be what happened).
The only other problem that seemed to stand out in this article would be the accuracy of some of the things that Nancy was talking about in reference to the ‘adoptive parents’ in this case. Upon doing a little research of my own on other news sites, I began to find about that the people that Nancy was calling Gabriel’s ‘adoptive parents’ were really not that at all. Tammy and Jack Smith were attempting to adopt Gabriel after randomly befriending Johnson at an airport although the baby’s father had just attained legal guardianship. I thought that it was a bit confusing referring the Smiths as Gabriel’s parents when they have no legal president over him in the slightest.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2010/01/20/ng.baby.pics.cnn?hpt=T2

Doctoring Photos.

Should journalist, or more specifically photo journalist, be able to doctor photos to more effectively push the ideas behind their stories? Should it be ethical to manipulate photos to better support the article it goes along with?

My immediate reaction was to just say “NO WAY!” that there were no exceptions to photo editing other than the basic techniques to make the photograph a little sharper or just lighten things up a bit, but the more I think about it, I am not sure if all manipulation is completely immoral.

If you think about it, if every major news paper manipulated different major details in the same picture… you would never really be certain of what was happening in the story. Doctoring photographs is sort of the same idea as finding out facts in a journalism story and then purposefully changing them to something completely different just to get people to think differently about the topic. This is not telling the facts and it is not allowing people to make informed, intelligent opinions about what is going on in the news.

I would say the only time that I would think that it was one hundred percent allowed to do photo manipulation in photojournalism would be when doing a photo story about nature or things on that topic. Georgia Okeef is known for a project that she did where there was the skull of a cow in a lot of her pictures. Although Georgia herself put the cows’ head there, I do not think that this caused any harm or changed public opinion in any way.

Welcome Blog

Hey Everyone! I am Laura Levesque, a 4th year in the New Media Department. I am graduating in May and hoping to get into advertising and start my own buisness selling natural, Green, clothing.
Although I am not in the journalism department I think that this class will help me with advertising in a way. I am hoping to just get more knowledge in the general field, and I think that this class is going to be quite interesting.

1/11/2010

Today was the first day of class!! Woo!