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Posts tagged ‘news’

Jan 15

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Life Skills: Keeping Up With The News

This post is part of the “Life Skills” series by former MiddBlog editors. 

Creative Commons / Jessamyn

In my previous post on being an active consumer of the news, I discussed how to assemble the sources one needs for a media mix that will keep you informed.  In this post, I’ll  provide advice for keeping up with these sources.

Make Twitter work for you

There are a lot of reasons people stay away from Twitter.  People see it as being too turbo, too nerdy, too much of an obligation for their careers or too superficial.  Twitter may not be for everyone, but I believe most people can find a way to make Twitter work for them.  The key is to assemble a list of followers you find compelling and to think of Twitter as a tool for keeping up with your interests and for sharing.  Twitter can easily become a natural extension of one’s interests and one’s desire to share.

Creative Commons / Matt Hamm

If you’re new to Twitter, create an account and find users to follow.  When looking for feeds, I recommend keeping in mind the Media Mix I suggested: you want a cross-section of news sources ranging from the hyperlocal to the international.  Also, one of the great things about Twitter is that you can follow people and organizations that you’re interested in without getting information through a filter.  If you want the latest on Tebow, go straight to the source.

As you choose whom to follow, it’s important that you assemble a feed you’ll find compelling going forward.  Especially if you’re just starting out, be wary of accounts that are too prolific and don’t double up on accounts that essentially do the same thing.  This means not following too many sources for breaking news, for example.  To keep your feed organized, make lists that create new streams with a combination of accounts you chose, including accounts you don’t follow.  You can also subscribe to other users’ lists.

Many users like to download applications that run Twitter on their computers and mobile devices.  There are many options out there, but the applications made by Twitter itself work quite well.

Finally, Twitter is also about leaning forward and interacting with other users (more on this in my post next week). This friendly introduction to Twitter includes a glossary and will help you get started. Read more

Jan 8

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Life Skills: Developing Your Media Mix

Read all “Life Skills” posts.

This post is by George Altshuler ’11. George, a former lead editor of MiddBlog, just finished an internship with Tikkun magazine in Berkeley, Ca. He’s now living in San Francisco and teaching English at San Quentin State Prison.

Creative Commons / B.K. Dewey

The cliché you hear the most about our demographic’s news consumption is that we get all our news from The Daily Show.  Just to clear up any potential inter-generational confusion: this cliché is most often employed as a genial criticism by people who think we should get serious every morning with our coffee and a New York Times dead-tree edition.

Contrary to the criticism in this cliché, however, most people in our demographic care about the news and do follow it.  But we also understand that we live in an era in which the Daily Show is a good source for news and the paper New York Times is increasingly obsolete (unless you can wrestle one way in Proctor).  In this era, the news doesn’t literally arrive on one’s doorstep, and it’s important to be proactive about finding ways to follow the news.

One starting point for following the news in this digital age is to understand how this era of turbulence for journalism actually makes this a great time to be a consumer of news.  The decline of traditional media (newspapers have lost half their revenue in the past five years) and the advent of new technologies have opened the door to a myriad new news sources and tools for distributing the news.  And, for now at least, traditional journalism still exists. The key to being a good news consumer is learning to take advantage of all that is being offered to us.

In this first of three posts on keeping up with the news, I’ll provide suggestions for assembling your Media Mix — the different types of sources you’l need to successfully follow the news:

  •  It’s good to have at least one source that works like the front page of a major newspaper by assigning importance to stories and exposing you to important stories you may not have otherwise found. Traditional news websites like The New York Times, Reuters, and The Washington Post work well in this role.  Aggregators like Google News and Memeorandum that use algorithms to find and feature the internet’s most popular stories are another option. Read more

Nov 11

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Middlebury Submits Bid To Compete in 2013 Solar Decathlon

Still riding high from their fourth place finish at the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, the Middlebury team has already begun to look ahead to the next Solar Decathlon competition. United States Senator from Vermont Patrick Leahy announced via Twitter early last week that the Vermont Congressional Delegation was supporting Middlebury’s proposal to compete in the 2013 decathlon.

Founded in 2002, the Solar Decathlon is an international, biennial competition to design and operate the most attractive and functional energy-efficient, solar-powered home. At the 2011 competition, Middlebury placed first in Market Appeal, Communications and Home entertainment, placing fourth overall and won the PBS “Sunny Ideas” people’s vote.

Oct 18

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Inside The First Middlebury Quidditch Classic

On Sunday, 20 Quidditch teams from 13 schools across North America gathered on Battell Beach for the first annual Middlebury Quidditch Classic.

Organized by tri-chairs Andy Hyatt ’12, Phil Palmer ’12 and Marianne Guarnieri ’14, the Classic began with pool play and was supposed to transition to bracket play mid-day, but due to a bit of confusion and admitted disorganization, the bracket was ixnayed, pool play continued throughout the day and no Middlebury Classic champion was crowned.

In spite of the unforeseen bracket problems, the Middlebury Classic was a great success. Among the spectators were people from the town of Middlebury, College students and parents of both students and Quidditch players, alike. Noonie’s Deli and American Flatbread were in attendance, selling freshly-made sandwiches and pizza. Middlebury’s own improv groups, Otter Nonsense and Middlebrow, provided witty commentary on the games and atmosphere.

The primary motivation behind the inception of the Middlebury Classic was to make up for the fact that the World Cup grew to be too large for Middlebury’s campus and was relocated to New York City last year. The tri-commissioners, in tandem with International Quidditch Association (IQA) CEO and President Alex Benepe ’09, saw the Classic as a means of bringing the sport back to its roots and giving back to the local community.

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Oct 4

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Irene Recovery: What You Can (Still) Do To Help

Students Assist in Hurricane Irene Recovery (Photo Courtesy of Tiffany Sargent)

As the new academic year began for Middlebury College Community, so did a new chapter in Vermont History – the beginning stages of recovery from the damage of Hurricane Irene. Reports of damage to Vermont from Irene inundated the news in late August as images of covered bridges collapsing and flooding shocked the nation. As Middblog previously reported at the time, Vermont was declared a federal disaster area while the Middlebury locale luckily escaped without any damage.

Students may have noticed road closures on their way back to campus, seen pictures of the incredible volunteer response of Athletic Teams on campus for pre-season on the Middlebury College website homepage, or noticed the incredibly thorough Irene coverage of The Campus’ first issue, on the front cover , staff editorial, and Reader Op-Ed from Senator Sanders. As of September 27th, hundreds of Middlebury faculty, staff, and students had already volunteered over 2,800 hours.

But the recovery is far from over.

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