Slideshow and Photo Gallery Critique

One of the slide shows and the photo gallery are in Chinese. Hope you guys can understand.

Website #1 slideshow without sound http://news.qq.com/a/20120226/000570.htm#p=4

This slideshow tells a real news that is fiercely discussed now by the whole Chinese nation. It's a great shock. A young man, who is the son of a government official, disfigured his girlfriend, who is only 17 years old, after he was turned down by the girl. There are 16 pictures in total, each one with explanation written in Chinese beneath. It's pretty explanatory together by the pictures and texts. I was shocked and attracted by the first picture, which shows how the girl looks like before and after she was disfigured. The case is still under investigation. The webpage has quite a lot good functions, like full screen display, slideshow display. You can also comment and share it to Chinese twitter.

Website #2 slideshow with sound http://www.miamiherald.com/slideshows/

This slideshow definitely tells a story. This audio slideshow covers the big earthquake occurred in Haiti in 2010 by a journalist from the Miami Herald. The length of each photo perfectly matches the audio, explaining how  the victims suffered from the earthquake and cherished hope to rebuild their nation. The second photo shocked me the most, showing a dead woman body which was pushed by a bulldozer to a hole. There were just too many people who died in the earthquake. This slideshow tells better story than the slideshow without sound, especially to those who can't read. The voice of the journalist is very deep, which pulled readers into the story instead of being distracted by other things.

Website #3 photo gallery http://bbs.news.qq.com/t-1014871-1.htm

This photo gallery also tells a story, but not as good as the slide shows. It shows people's life in the poorest village in China's south western's Yunan Province. It mainly focus on children's life—they have to work when they are very young in order to make a living. It has no pavement there, all under their feet are either wood or dirt, and they don't have shoes. A new bridge was built to replace the dangerous ropes. In the mountainous area, kids like to see  fireworks and eat rice dumplings once a year, which are very common in other parts of China. The photos are not in order, but they show different perspectives of people's life in that poor area. I was touched by the photos.

Duk Byrd

Duk Byrd is a big guy here, who is a jack of all trades at Lyndon State College. Not only is he a student but he is also a very talented basketball player and most of all a skilled rapper.

Born in Hartford and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut, Duk has been rapping and balling his whole life. Byrd transferred from Holy Cross High School and attended Cathedral High School (Springfield, MA) and played basketball for the team. He graduated from Cathedral in 2009.

With dreams of playing Division I basketball not being fulfilled, Duk attended Lyndon State College as a Music Business major. Byrd played on the basketball team his freshman year but he has taken this current year off in order to take care of his academics.

During his year off from basketball, Duk has released his mixtape "Still Chasin" which you can find on many hip-hop websites and he has just recently started working on his newest project which is untitled. In January Duk performed at Higher Ground, a venue in Burlington, Vermont and many people from the Lyndon State student body made the trip to support. 

One thing that makes Duk special is his character. I know the rapper on a personal level and he is about as humble as one can be. Whether it is in the Dining Hall, the classroom, a dorm room or even on the basketball court, Duk is always willing to help people out.

There is a sense of karma in his philosophy; with all of the kindness and sincerity he presents it all seems to come back to him with the amount of people that support his music.

If you talk to Duk you will quickly find out that he is ambitious; the feedback and love he receives drives him to keep making music. With everything he has to offer, Duk is definitely one of the most intriguing students that attend Lyndon State.

You can download Duk's mixtape "Still Chasin" at 

http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/duk-still-chasin-mixtape.32912.html. 

You can also stay updated by: following @Duk203 on Twitter or 

Facebook.com/duk203

Test

Outline of the Podcast Team Project

For this project, Alex, Daniel, John and I chose an interesting student—Duk to do our interview.

About the interview, we will have two topics: one is talking about him as a rappern, like his performance in Burlington sometimes; the other is talking about him as a basketball player for the Lyndon basketball team.

For each topic, we have a bunch of questions, like how coming to Lyndon helps or hurts his rap aspirations, where he has performed, how many mix-tapes/albums he has, how he found his  talent of rapping, his plans on playing next year, etc.

We are going to interview Duk in the VIC (the room about the theater) at 7:30pm, Tuesday.

Podcast Critiques

CNN News Update


The first podcast I chose is CNN News Update, because I like CNN in general and I like listening to breaking news.

It's a two-minute hourly update from CNN with news from the U.S. and around the world, which means the news will be the very latest ones.

I like it because it's very convenient for me to quickly grab  headlines and general information that is related. If I'm interested in some news, then I can decide to search in-depth information. 

Also, it's only two-minute long, so listeners won't be bored psychologically while listening. It's very concise, straight forward and attractive.

I do dislike some aspects of this podcast. Since it's hourly update, some news and information overlap a lot. I don't blame it, because it's very common that no big news occur between hours.

I will keep listening it, especially when I don't have much time to read news carefully, but I may not put them in my player. I will just listen it through my laptop.

60 Minutes

The second podcast I chose is 60 Minutes of CBS. I like it long time before I came to the U.S.

Contrary to CNN News Update mentioned above, 60 Minutes usually probes into the very heart of  news. Also, topics it chooses are pretty intriguing and fascinating.

For example, the latest one I watched is the interview of the new Defense Minister Leon Panetta. The host Scott Pelley followed Leon Panetta to his house, on his private plane, listening to him playing piano and talking about his father other than his work as the Secretary of Defense.

It has both audio and video. I like to watch its video version, because I learn from Scott Pelley about how to  

build up good relations with the interviewee. 

One thing I don't like is that it's 42 minutes long. It's not I don't like it, but I can't focus on it the whole time. I need to take breaks.

I will continue listening it on my MP4 and watching it on my laptop. It's a such a good program.

World Story of the Day

The third podcast I chose is also about news—World Story of the Day.

This podcast lies between CNN News Update and 60 Minutes.

It only reports international news. It picks the story from the day's international coverage from Morning Edition, All things considered and other award winning NPR programs.

It's likes neither CNN News Update, broadcasting a couple of different news from both domestic and international, nor 60 Minutes, talking about one hot topic in 42 minutes. It only covers one international topic in four to six minutes. 

When I feel I have some free time, but not very much, I will listen to this podcast. For the reason that it only covers one topic, the information it provides is pretty in-depth and it won't let you wait a long time.

I don't really dislike anything about this podcast, it's neat and concise. I will try to keep track of it on my laptop.