Author Archives: Shakira Molet

More multimedia is a good thing

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

Most of us are familiar with John Oliver from “Last Week Tonight” and how he tackles prominent issues in our society, such as student debt.

In his segment, he utilizes statistics, interviews, excerpts from government documents and of course, a bit of comedy with a lot of sarcasm.

So why does this matter?

If you were to check how many views the video above has, you would notice that it has more than four million views just on YouTube. Not only does this show entertain those who watch, but focuses on the news and getting information out to the public.

So why is it that these kinds of media get so much more exposure than an article in a newspaper, whether on paper or online? I believe it is because of the multimedia aspect.

When the audience can see footage of what a news story is about, it leaves more of an impression than a boring article. Though many websites do include photos and videos for some news stories, it is still not enough. Reporting needs to make room for more multimedia outlets in order to make reading the news more interactive and bring in a bigger audience.

Covering sexual assault on campuses

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

On Saturday night, a possible sexual assault on Florida International University’s West Miami-Dade campus was reported to police. According to police, the two people involved are acquainted with each other and so far, no arrests have been made.

Although sexual assault on college campuses is a significant issue, there is not nearly as much news coverage as there should be.

Last year, FIU had another problem with sexual assault when a repeat offender would touch female students without their consent, then flee the scene on his bicycle. Despite the fact that this offender made students feel unsafe on their own campus, there was barely any news coverage about these incidents.

It is about time that the news media stops reporting on celebrity gossip and starts focusing on the real issues that has become a rising problem in our society. With more coverage on sexual assault and rape, we can reduce the amount of incidents and make campuses a safer place.

If anyone has any information about possible assault on Saturday, please call FIU police at 305-348-2626.

Why should media cover Ultra?

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

Every year, Ultra Musical Festival invades downtown Miami during the month of March, bringing with it celebrity DJs, crazy parties at South Beach, neon costumes and, of course, electronic/dance music.

But why do news outlets bother covering this three-day musical festival at all? Well let’s look at what else Ultra brings with it other than a good time.

One major complaint residents always have when it comes to Ultra, besides the loud music, is the chaos of downtown traffic. Major streets are blocked off so that Bayfront Park can accommodate the 80,000+ people that attend Ultra, which causes in a drastic increase in traffic for the duration of the festival.

In addition to traffic, Ultra Music Festival also brings safety concerns. Last year, a security guard working at the festival was trampled and was immediately sent to urgent care after receiving severe injuries all over body, especially her head.

Screen Shot 2015-03-29 at 2.58.10 PMOn top of that, many attendees find themselves in need of medical care every year during the festival, resulting in hundreds of fire rescue calls.

It is because of this that Miami-Dade and residents made efforts to prohibit Ultra from returning the following year; however, their efforts proved to be a waste of time when a public uproar convinced officials otherwise.

Like it or not, Ultra has been bringing millions of tourism dollars for years. Though it is true that hosting the music festival costs Miami quite a lot of money and festival organizers pay for much of it, it seems that Ultra, at least for now, will be returning every March as long as those in charge of the event continue to take safety measures and pay for various operating costs.

Though all these issues are indeed worthy of coverage, there is another surprising reason why the media covers Ultra as well as any other musical festival and that is because it gives the public an inside look of today’s youth. For obvious reasons, the media is obsessed with what interests today’s young adults and how this generation continues to change. In response to this, some news and media outlets decide that it is necessary to report what goes on.

Ultra Musical Festival has made Miami its home for 17 years now and with no definite end in sight, it looks like we will be seeing it, and the resulting coverage, for years to come.

Social media spreading false information

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

Recently, a story about a first grader being sexual assaulted by male classmates has been circulating the Internet. Unfortunately, there is one problem with this story. It’s not true.

10418899_10205284393102517_1206042616331315096_nWhile scrolling through my dash in Tumblr, I found this post stating that the girl in the picture had been both physically and sexually abused by three first grade boys in her class.

According to the post, the victim “suffered scarring to the right side of her face from broken tree branches and rocks” while she was being assaulted in the woods.

After reading this, I wondered why this was my first time seeing such a  significant story. I especially wondered why I had seen this on a social networking site, other than Facebook, before it was reported on any news site. So, I decided to do some research. What I found was interesting.

To my surprise, I did not find this story with that exact picture online. Instead, I found another news story about a seven-year-old being attacked by a kangaroo and receiving bruises all over her face in Australia. You can read the real story below:

http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/793373/roo-attacks-girl-at-wyangala/

So what does this prove? Because of the Internet, it has become possible for anyone to report on the “news,” which is an advantage in the way that there is more coverage; however, it is also a disadvantage due to the fact that absolutely anyone with a computer can just make up a story, add a random picture to it and call it an official news story.

Since this power is in the hands of the public, it is our duty as journalists to always check the sources of information for a story in order not to be duped by false information.

Internet changed meaning of feminism

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

Ever since Charles Fourier first coined the term “feminism” in 1837, the public’s view on what feminism is has changed drastically. Most people know that feminists strive for equal rights for women, but if you were to ask a group of women if they were feminists, more than you think would say no. Why would women say that they aren’t a feminist if they believe in the same things?

Unfortunately, the Internet might be to blame.

In the 1990s, many viewed feminists has man-hating women who believed women were superior, but those women were not true feminists. In fact, they were mostly likely misandrists. But no matter whether they were or were not true feminists, that is what many believed feminists were.

Fortunately, many began to question what feminism really is, causing significant role models to step up and clear the air on what feminism really is; however, there are still many who don’t understand what feminism is, but still advocate that their misguided views as feminists views on blogs and other outlets. It is because of these rants on Tumblr, Facebook, and other social networking sites that give feminism a bad name.

As a response to the confusion on what feminism really is and what they strive to accomplish with women’s rights, it is our job to shed some light on this subject instead of just leaving it to the misinformed bloggers.

What we should be reporting at Oscars

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

Last weekend, the media went crazy covering the Oscars. On almost every new media outlet, there was a section on the best and worst looks on the red carpet as well as the winners for each category, but is that what should have been focused on?

Instead of clothing being front page news, it should have been replaced by several aspects of the Oscars that have significant news and social value. For example, when Patricia Arquette won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she used her acceptance speech time to voice her opinions on wage inequality.

In her speech, Arquette declared, “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women.The truth is, the older women get, the less money they make,” she said. “It is time for us. Equal means equal.”

Another example of a speech that touched an important subject was Best Documentary winner, Dana Perry. When accepting her award, Perry dedicated her speech to her son who had committed suicide.

“I lost my son,” Perry told reporters after the speech. “We need to talk about suicide out loud to try to work against the stigma and silence around suicide because the best prevention for suicide is awareness and discussion and not trying sweep it under the rug.”

Despite the fact that wage inequality and suicide are still present issues in our society, there was not as much coverage on these particular speeches as there was about who was wearing what. It’s time that journalism, whether it is entertainment new or hard news, gets its act together and report what deserves to be reported.

Student assaulted at Lynn University

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

About a week ago, the Boca Raton, Fla., police reported that an intruder was somehow able to sneak into a freshman dorm at Lynn University and assaulted young women.

According to police, the man walked into rooms of female students and grabbed them in inappropriate ways while trying to kiss them. He also tried to force himself on top of another girl while pinning her down on her bed.

Though the victims were able to escape and were uninjured, the students are still on edge about the incident and as a result, many are beginning to question the security at Lynn University. If a man who lives close to campus was able to just ride his bike and enter the premises without question from dorm security, what would stop another intruder from coming in and causing a more serious incident?

Once the intruder was captured, he was issued a no trespassing warning, which means he is banned from entering the campus, and was charged with burglary, assault and battery.

When asked for a comment on how the school is dealing with this situation, a Lynn University spokeswoman released this statement:

“We are working closely with Boca Raton police, who responded quickly to our request for assistance. We immediately cited the individual with trespassing which bans him from campus.The university has and will continue to provide support services to anyone who was impacted. Resident Assistants are working with residents to provide training and information about intruder prevention measures.”

The controversy over vaccinations

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

One of the most controversial topics in the past few weeks has been whether or not the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks in the eyes of parents.

Although there are countless medical findings reporting that there is less than a one in one million chance of a person getting a severe or even fatal reaction, there are an increasing number of parents who rather not take the risk and decide to not get their children vaccinated.

When the majority of Americans hear about this rising issue, most people can not believe that anyone would even question whether or not vaccinations are necessary for children, who are more susceptible to various illness, or adults; however, there are several individuals who not only refuse to get vaccines for them or their children, but also blame vaccinations for serious illness such as autism, despite the fact there is no support to make that kind of connection.

It is because of this that thousands of Americans have written articles, posted on blogs, and even commented on Facebook warning parents to ignore this uncommon and, in many views, wrong approach to vaccinations.

Mexico resorts to torturing police

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

A few months ago, students from a local college called la Escuela Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa, were protesting government education reforms that would raise fees, therefore making it nearly impossible for many of the citizens to afford school. The police were asked to handle the situation, which resulted in six deaths and 43 missing students.

Although there is some evidence, such as gang member confessions and identified remains, the case is still open and under investigation. Although reports of the countless protests as well as the Mexican government’s methods of gathering evidence continue to surface, authorities are not much closer to finding those responsible.

It has even been reported by Mexican journalists that, in order to close the case, the government has resorted to torturing police officers in an attempt to gather confessions. In certain medical reports found by journalists, it was said that more than two dozen police officers have been beaten, given electric shocks and “psychologically tortured.”

According to officials, the police abducted these 43 students, then handed the victims to members of the Guerreros Unidos gang. It was suspected that the students were killed and burned at a nearby dump by three gang members and after burning the bodies, the gang members were supposedly ordered to place the remains in garbage bags and throw them in the San Juan River. When searching the river for evidence, one garbage bag was found intact with human remains inside.

Since the disappearance of the students on Sept. 26, protests have broken out all across Mexico. Not only have there been multiple acts of vandalism, but protestors have also blocked roads and tollbooths. The protests have even spread to the capital, where thousands of civilians are demanding that the missing students get the justice they deserve.

The general public has also criticized Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for not taking action immediately after the news of the students’ disappearances spread. As a result, Pena decided to take a leave of absence, but later returned stating that, “what happened in Iguala was a terrible event that has caused indignation and led us to an introspection because such things should never happen again.”

 

Jonas gets down on knee at pageant

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By SHAKIRA MOLET

Recently, Miami hosted the 63rd Miss Universe Pageant, which crowned Miss Colombia as the new Miss Universe for 2015. But the pageant’s winner was not the only one in the spotlight that night.During the pageant’s performance, Nick Jonas stepped off stage to serenade his girlfriend, Miss Universe 2012 Olivia Culpo, while singing his single “Jealous.”

After making his way to Culpo, who was sitting in the front row, everyone watching noticed her panicked face when he knelt down and held her hand while singing.

When asked about her reaction, Nick later explained that Culpo was terrified that he would propose to her on live television when he knelt down on one knee.

“I went down and sang to her, and I got on a knee and approached her, her face was in full panic. She thought I was going to propose on national TV in front of one billion people,” Jonas told The Sun, a U.K. newspaper.

Despite her suspicions though, Nick jumped back on stage and finished the performance without popping the question.

Jonas and Culpo have been dating since the summer of 2013 but, according to the singer, marriage might not be on his mind just yet.

“At some point, it would be ideal to settle down,” Jonas revealed, “but we’re still quite young and we’re going on a journey.”