Nicole's Life

Nicole Panza was born on January 13, 1993 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When Nicole was two years old her sister Jordan was born. Nicole and Jordan got along well as little kids, but began to argue with each other as they became teenagers.

  Nicole has lived in Watertown her whole life with her sister, her mom Rosemary, and her dad David. Her mom works as a grant administrator at Boston College, and her dad helps out special need kids. Nicole comes from an Irish(mom), and Italian(dad) heritage. 

Nicole has been playing field hockey since she's been in third grade. This is her favorite activity because she thinks it is fun.

When Nicole was five she went to the Cunniff Elementary School in Watertown, MA also that year she went on a surprise family vacation to Disney World which she considers her funnest memory to this day. Her favorite part of this trip was Magic Kingdom, because of the rides she got to go on. Nicole's other fun trip was she went on a West Coast road trip where she ended up going to Arizona, Nevada, and then California. Also Nicole owns a cottage in Harwich, Cape Cod where she visited every summer until 2007.

A peek into the life of James Dunoyer

On June 10, 1993, James Dunoyer was welcomed into the world at Beth Israel Hospital. He has lived in the small town of Watertown his whole entire life. James currently lives with his mom, dad and little sister. A lot of his family still lives in France and he has been to France to visit them four times. James started skateboarding and film editing in his middle school years and he pursues those activities. Lucky for him, if he ever gets hurt skateboarding, his mom

can help him because she is a nurse. Also, if he ever runs into any trouble on a film project he's working on, his dad can help him because he is a film editor. James has combined his skills in both of those areas and has even made several skateboarding videos. He is currently a junior at Watertown High School. He plans on going to college to major in film editing. So what is he doing now? Well, he's sitting in his media class writing a mini-biography on me. 

click here to see his videos

written by Kevin Phu

The Life Of Despina Najarian

On November 30th, I interviewed Despina Najarian and asked her a few questions about her life. She started off my telling me where she was born. She was born in Malden, MA on May 26, 1993. Despina went to Hosmer Elementary School in Watertown Mass. She has two older brothers, one that is 27 and the other one is 24. Her oldest brother has a daughter, she was born May 25th, 2009 ( a day before Despina's birthday) her name is Dessie. Despina is currently living in Watertown, MA attending Watertown High School. 

Despina lives with her father and her mother. Her mother is Greek and her father is Armenian. They are both working people, her mother works at CVS as a beauty advisor and a cashier. Her father is an auto man and he fixes cars. Her mother was born in Athens, Greece and her father was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. I found it very interesting when she shared with me that she lived in Greece from the age of 14 months to age 5. Also she goes back to Greece every summer. She can also speak Greek fluently.

Despina also has a cat named Alina, she got her in march of 2009. She is addicted to a couple of things: make-up ( like almost every teenage girl) and facebook ( like whole world). Despina also has a best friend by the name of Sarah Shin, which she met  in fourth grade and has been very close friends with ever since. When Despina gets older she wants to become a nurse or an obstetrician. Not only is she very connected to her culture but she embraces it.  

By: Farrah Dornevil

Shane's Life

Shane Fitzgerald was born in Newton, Massachusetts on February 9, 1993.  When he was two years old his brother Cory was born.  That same year he got his first pet, Snickers.  Snickers is a Beagle Black Lab mix.  At the age of five he started attending the Cunniff Elementary School in Watertown, MA.  After elementary school he went to Watertown Middle School.  Shane loves playing and watching sports, especially football and basketball.  

 He has lived in the same house in Watertown his whole life with his parents and brother.  Shane's father owns a bar (Fit-z 's) and his mom works in sales at a painting company.   Shane enjoys traveling and has been on many trips.  He has been to Florida four times and also has been to California.  In fifth grade Shane traveled to Ireland for a wedding.  He was able to see where his family is from.  Now Shane is a junior at Watertown High and plans on on going to college.

By: Nicole Panza

ANIMOTOS and AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

HOWDY CLASS:

If you haven't finished your ANIMOTO and blog about Animoto vs. Final Cut PLEASE DO SO.

If you have finished then please begin creating a rough draft of your AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Create the file in GOOGLE DOCS....BE PREPARED TO HAVE A ROUGH DRAFT WHEN WE ARE BACK IN CLASS ON TUESDAY....OR ELSE...

Make sure to start with your birth and end with death....just kidding...end with where you are now in your life. If you have ideas beyond the LIFESTORY then please include that too!

I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THEM!
HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND!
MS. V

Animoto

Animoto is a very interesting site.  I like how it makes the video for you and how the music flows with the pictures.  I would rather work with Final Cut because it gives you more choices of how to make your video and what to incorporate into it.  With Final Cut, you can choose how your video should be presented.

My video is more about my culture and what the most important aspect of it is.

Today in Interactive Journalism we used a video creation site called animoto.com. I liked Final Cut better because you can add better features and better music. Animoto was an alright site but I feel that it can be upgraded in quality. I also think that this was very easy. All together I think Animoto is alright, but not as good as Final Cut. 

Animoto Video

I have made a video in Animoto and I can't post it on the blog.
I basically like making videos on Animoto, it is good because you won't to always have to import your own music, videos, and pictures; they have defaults on the website itself. It's also good for those who don't know how to edit videos because the website will do it for you unlike Final Cut were you would have edit, there would no way around it. One thing I don't like about Animoto is that takes too long to render the video while it's done, guess I would have to wait if it's also self-editing.

My Life in a Nutshell

I used Animoto to create this brief video about my life. It was simple and easy. A lot different from Final Cut, in good ways and bad ways. For the good part, it takes the frustration out of the editing because Animoto simply does everything for you. That's bad in some ways too because you can not incorporate your own ideas into the video and you have no way and controlling how the video gets put together. The only control you have is of the sequencing of the image/videos. I like Animoto though, it's a quick and easy way to put a nice little video together.

Here's my video

Animoto

I thought Animoto was a very interesting website.  It makes making a video easier and quicker.  The selection of photos was small but I uploaded photos from other websites.  The way they synchronise and use the photos you choose is very cool.  I prefer final cut because it allows you to be more creative and make the video on your own.  I also prefer the time line on final cut and how you can view what you have completed so far.  Animoto is a good tool for slide shows or short videos but I would would rather use final cut for a longer or more detailed video.   

I would rather work with final cut because it seems like you can do more specific things and get into detail more than you can with Animoto. I do like Animoto though because they have a lot of cool footage on there. The quality of the footage on Animoto is really great and I would never be able to record that on my own. I think that on final cut its easier to make the video personal and you can finally tune your video but in Animoto its just like putting a bunch of clips together. I also like how you don't have to edit to the beat in Animoto it just does it for you.

-Ben Sampson

Animoto

Animoto is an interesting website and i can see its values for sure. There are too many videos on the internet made by amateur editors that are painful to sit through. For these people animoto would be a great tool because they can easily make a sequence look presentable.

However, it does undermine good editing and take away from a lot of the creativity, especially since they already have plenty of archive footage and music available. Somebody who has never even edited before create a video without knowing the first thing about editing or without even gathering any footage.

Overall, I'm alright with Animoto. Its not like a professional editor could make something on animoto and succeed on passing it off as original. If you already know about editing then its fun to check out and move on, if you don't know jack about editing you can put together an interesting presentation without having to buy expensive software or put in the time and hard work to learn how to edit well.

Growing Up Online

The video "Growing Up Online" was very interesting.  I like how they interviewed teenagers and asked them their opinions of the internet and what they post on it.  One girl interviewed, Autumn Edows, explained her situation and what she does secretly.  I can understand that she had no friends and was made fun of, but I don't think posting pictures of herself half dressed would really solve her problem.  It's interesting though that she felt more better of herself and didn't hate herself as much while she would post them.  I think her parents did the right thing having her delete all her files.  It was very sad when the story of Ryan, the boy who hanged himself, came up.  It was disturbing to know that he was being told hateful things by another boy he was talking to on the internet. 

Overall it was a good video because I can relate to it.  I'm always on the computer, and if it's not homework I'm doing, I'm talking to my friends.  I don't see myself getting into bad situations on the internet like this these people were in because I know my boundaries and what is appropriate and what isn't.

Burden Of Innocence

The video i picked to watch was called Burden Of Innocence .I picked this video because it was the title that caught my attention. The video was about different men that were wrongfully accused of rape, murder, etc. These man spent up to 10-20 years in jail when they didn't even do anything. Also, in the video they explain their experiences in jail and their life after they get out. Just knowing that you didn't do anything and your the one put in jail, i could only imagine how they felt wasting all those years in jail knowing that they are innocent but are accused of something that they didn't do.Until years later after serving 10-20 years in jail, they finally took a DNA test that proved that the people they had in jail wasn't who they were looking for. They also were interviewed after they get out, their lives changed completely and some left jail to come home to nothing.
I think that that is wrong. I think they should of took the DNA test when they were in trail or on the edge of going into jail, i think its wrong and they should sue the government for that. But it can take years to get a response back to see if you can ever sue the government for that. I think the video was a great video; it was also very sad because innocent people got a big chunk of their lives thrown away for no reason, i don't think they deserve that, no one does.

Merchants of Cool

This 2001 frontline video is about how marketing business' go after teenagers to sell more products. These companies try to make their product more cool by asking kids about what's in and what's out.

Later door by door to visit kids also to find out what they like. This video also talks about how companies that sell to teens hire Mooks to get more viewers, like Viacom hiring Tom Green, and Howard Stern. The other type of Mook is the Mildriff which is a Mook but a girl. The Mildriff consists of girls that try to look good even if it means minimal clothes. Although it is not getting in trouble like Mooks instead they dress slutty.

In the next part they talk about how the Mildriffs get hired to play popular teen shows like Jessica Biel on 7th heaven. Also in this part they talked about how certain television shows conflict to more of a teen level by talking about sex. Thsi part also talks about how MTV went sexy by shaking there butts in bikinis on spring break, and people making out and having sex on the real world.

Later the video takes place in Detroit for a popular concert of rap rock mix band Insane Clown Posse or ICP, which attracted teens because it lets them be them selves, like Limp Biscuit.

I like this video because I can somewhat relate to it, like I like to watch, listen, and do whatever seems cool like the teens in this video.

Growing up Online

This Frontline video is about how teens are using the Internet to much. Some teens use it for bullying, some for taking pictures, and some just to keep involved. Whatever the case was these teens spent way too much time on the Internet. 

One case was Jess or Autumn. She was a young girl who got picked on growing up in school. So when Jess was 14 she changed her Internet identity to Autumn Edows. As Autumn Edows she was a goth model which was completely different  then who she really was Jess.

Another case was a 13 year old kid named Ryan. Ryan was constantly bullied at school and on the web. When Ryan would get home from school he would go to in the Internet and get bullied which unfortunaly led to suicide.

The last kid was in High School and was on the computer all day, whether it was spark notes or facebook  he was never off. In one case he went on an educational site so his parents thought he was learnin when really he was on facebook.

Growing Up Online

When I watched this video, I thought of how some of the kids are growing up in a digital age and the parents don't even know about the Internet that much. It always seems like one generation grows up with something that the previous generation hasn't even learned about until they were adults. The same thing must have happened with cell phones, the internet, and e-mails for some people. Above, I have a picture of the earth, which symbolizes that anything you put on the internet can be seen all throughout the world, literally. This is what I think about this video.

Growing up online

I like the video that  James picked because I can relate to it. I use the computer a lot and I'm always connected to the media somehow. When I'm not at my computer I'm texting and my parents always get mad at me for it. Thy aren't as protective as some of the parents in this video. They have never asked me for passwords or only let me use the computer when there in the room I have a laptop so I use that in my room. It is very true that all the kids use the internet but I've never been cyber bullied. 

Hunting For Cool

There is a Frontline video called "Hunting For Cool" that aired on February 17 2001. This video is about what kids think is cool and what companies will do to target the kids. Kids are one of the most targeted demographics to companies because they have the money and will buy a product if they think it will make them seem cool. There is a man named Douglas Rushkoff who had a couple kids sit in a room with him and he asked them all sorts of question to find out what they wear, eat, listen to and watch.

Companies want to target young kids on things like television and other media sources because they have a lot of money to spend freely and will most likely see the advertisements. Anywhere they go there is a marketing message and teens on average see 300 discrete messages in a day and 10,000,000 by the time they are 18 years of age. 75% of teens have a television in there rooms and 1/3 have personal computers. On their computers teens spend 2 hours a day on the internet. Because there are so many channels marketers are able to specify age demographic and have demographics for one year age differences.

Trying to find out what these kids like is called hunting for cool. Marketers are trying to find out what all of the cool kids are doing or what they could be doing in hopes for their followers to follow them. 20% of the population will influence the other 80% to buy things so they influence those 20% and they will do the rest. The people who try to find these things out are called culture spies. Culture spies perfectly describes these people because they are trying to find out what is "hip" in today's culture. They walk around with cameras, do research on the internet, watch videos, and have interviews with other people, which are all things that companies cant do so they hire these "culture spies" to penetrate these boundaries. The goal for the culture spies is to find out what the trends are before they get popular because once all of the marketing companies find out about whats popular it will no longer be popular.

-Ben Sampson

Media Matters

Yesterday I went to UMass Boston with a few of my classmates for "Media Matters." Media matters was a conference for high school students that talked about the media and all the different angles. For the first seminar that I went to it was called "Sports Stories- How to Get Your Angle." Bill Littlefield who hosts his own radio on WNPR called its only a game. His show is not a talk show because he says that he doesn't like it when people will call in and say ridiculous things like "ya i think that the Bruins should put two people in the goal cause that way nobody will be able to score." I found his stories very interesting and he talked about how sometimes a nobody is more important to talk to than a big star such as Rodger Clemens. The second class I went to was by a guy who writes for the Globe and he shared his stories about how he began to write. He writes for the  arts section and he said that he likes writing for the arts section because not many newspapers have good art sections.  The other two that i went to were on how to make a good press conference and about how racism is in the media and how it has changed over time. I found the conference very interesting and I would definitely go again if I were able to take different classes.

-Ben Sampson

Media Matters: Writing Conference

Yesterday I went to the Media Matters conference at UMass Boston with four other Watertown high students. When we arrived we got a string backpack. In it was a chocolate bar, notebook, pen, brochures and teen newspapers. There was also a book which had a short bio on all the guest speakers.

First I went Sports Stories--How to Get YOUR Angle. THe speaker was Bill Littlefield from WBUR show "Only a Game". He talked about stories he had written. He talked a lot about how football is a popular and powerful sport in the U. S. but it is very dangerous. A lot of football players have brain damage and die younger. He said it is hard to write a story against something so popular. Then he went on to say that athletes get tired of reporters. A reporter has to find a way to break through. Sometimes you have to risk asking a stupid question to get a good story. Although I thought his stories were very interesting he never really answered the question of how to get the angle.

Next I went to From Iowa to the White House. Derrick Z. Jackson, an associate editor for the Boston Globe, spoke about his experiences following the campaign trail. First he showed pictures of Obama that he had taken himself. The pictures looked professional and very close up. He said a speech Obama made on race helped him win the election. He said that if Obama had made one mistake in the wording of the speech he may not have been President. He said one of the hardest parts about being a political colomnist is not letting personal opinions get in the way.

Next I went to Investigative Reporting: From Documents to Door Knocks. Ric Kahn, Coordinator of Boston Teens in Print and former Boston Globe reporter took us step by step through the process of writing one of his articles. When we first walked in everyone was handed a laptop. The story was about a homeless woman who had died of a herion overdose. Suprisingly she was from the wealthy town of Wilmington, MA. We went of the Wilmington town website and found her house. This gave information about how many rooms were in the house. Next he said to go to the house to ask the family questions. Calling would make it to easy for someone to hang up. Unfortunately this family was not willing to give out much information so he turned to death certificates, marriage licenses and police reports. He said the more information you have the more people will give you. At the end of the class Ric Khan made everyone ask a question before we could leave. This was my favorite class because it was interactive and really interesting.

Abortion Clinic

Watch the video!

The video "Abortion Clinic" is a video on PBS Frontline, which was first aired on April 18, 1983.  This documentary was filmed at the Reproductive Health and Counseling Center in Chester, PA.  At that time, the city had a 30% unemployment rate.  During their five months at the clinic, the producer's of the film met with hundreds of women.  Two of those women, Barbara and Helen, have their abortion's filmed.  It is a struggle for both of them, emotionally and physically.  Two decades later, it remains one of Frontline's most powerful stories ever told. 

I'm hoping you all know what an abortion is. If you don't, then let me explain it to you.  An abortion is when a pregnancy is terminated, in which the fetus is sucked out of the mother's uterus.  This documentary is divided into six chapters.  Chapter one gives and overview of the women who visit seeking for abortions, and also the towns anti-abortion activists.  Chapter two and three tell the story of Helen, a seventeen year old who visits the clinic to get an abortion, and shockingly, this will be her second one.  Chapter four discusses the alternatives to abortions such as adoption and keeping the child.  Dr. George Isajiw and his wife are mentioned in this chapter, who both have counseled and supported over 500 women who decide to carry their babies into term.

Chapters five and six introduce Barbara, a seventeen year old women, who visits the clinic to get an abortion.  She has had a difficult and sad life.  She would get beaten by her boyfriend.  She managed to have a two year old boy named Michael, but now feels that her life is in a difficult situation to have anymore kids.  As her abortion is being showed, it is clearly visible that she is an a lot of pain and has a hard time with the abortion.

In my opinion, an abortion is a murder.  They should be illegal.  How is it that these mothers don't realize they are killing their babies?  They are denying their own flesh and blood and preventing a life from entering the earth.  Do you know what happens when an abortion is complete?  The fetus get tossed out, like it is worth nothing.  At a certain growth, the fetus can feel pain and if it's life is being terminated, should it be allowed to feel death?  This picture shows what is done to the fetus.  Do you think life should be treated this way?

Ten Trillion and Counting

This front line video that I watched is about the national deficit and how it has spiraled out of control during the past eight years under the Bush Administration. There was a surplus during the later years of Bill Clinton's presidency but it slowly started going down after George Bush took office in January of 2001. When George H. W. Bush was president, he put in order a pay as you go plan that required the government to find a way to pay for everything that it spends. It was extended when Bill Clinton took office but expired eight years later. Just like this graph shows, it will take years (and money) for the government would turn the deficit around into a rare surplus.

About this "pay as you go" plan, George Bush didn't bother to extend it and nowadays, Barack Obama said he wants to have it reinstated again because it requires the government to be more financially responsible with taxpayer's money. If there is something somebody wants either it's a congressman, a senator, or even the president himself that is expensive, they have to pay for it someway by cutting spending somewhere else or by raising taxes; then if this cannot be done, then this bill will be dropped in Congress or the president wouldn't even bring it up to Congress.

Close to Home

Close to Home is a Frontline documentary about the Upper East side in New York City and how it is affected by the economy. Most news channels and documentaries have been focusing on the lower and middle class financial problems. The fact that this documentary was about wealthy New Yorkers made it unique. Another very interesting point of the video that made it unique was that it was filmed in a hair salon called Deborah's. Customers were interviewed while getting their hair done. The idea of the documentary was to capture what Deborah, the hairdresser, heard daily about the day to day struggles her clients were facing due to the economy. Deborah said people often tell her about their economic troubles "Somebodies willing to listen. Somebodies willing to hear the problems that they are facing because of this economic crisis." Many clients had lost their jobs and even businesses. One young couple lost their coffee shop because they were not getting enough customers. There were some people I was very sympathetic for such as a man who had been out of work for months. He had sent out more than 200 resumes and gone on many job interviews. He seemed worn out from the stress. He constantly was attending support groups for the unemployed where members help each other improve resume and interview skills. There were other people who I thought were very dramatic and not thankful for what they still had. One woman was at the salon for a touch up because she was going out that night. She said she had to sell her beloved Porsche to pay for her health insurance. She said giving up the Porsche was harder than getting a divorce. During the interviews the clients were getting their hair cut. This was a different perspective that showed a different side of the upper class.