Bryan Wuest states that two ways queer youth use YouTube videos for identity development and overcoming certain obstacles are visibility and acculturation. He explains that YouTube’s accessibility gives queer individuals a place to see others like them to relate to, especially if their own home life or town isn’t in the best place. The tags make each story more specific, so that one person can find another almost exactly in their same situation. Coming out videos, and videos from LGBTQ+ YouTubers in general,  provide an introduction for gay youth to the culture and stories from different people who know exactly how the individual is feeling, without ever meeting them. The vloggers can become a source of inspiration for the individual watching, helping them to overcome obstacles and find themselves through relating to the stories of others. It creates representation that it not found in other modern media, as it is real people talking about their experiences and identities.

This article discusses the popularization of the feminism movement in recent years and how that effects the ideology. As it is so popular, it can become corporate-with celebrity endorsements, clothing lines, and countless blogs dedicated to it. It argues that popular feminism is much different than what feminism historically is, and doesn’t really “acknowledge intersectionality” and “challenge the very structures of the patriarchy”. It splits thinking of what feminism means into right and wrong based on what’s popular. It also discusses backlash and misogynistic movements meant to counter the rise of feminism. Feminism is there to empower women, but doesn’t really focus on social issues as much as it should due to its’ popularity.

I’ve noticed how popular feminism was becoming as I was in high school and college, but I never really considered its’ popularity as impacting the movement itself. However as the feminism movement became stronger, so did those opposing it-and the internet (primarily social media) makes it very easy to fight ideas behind a screen. Not only fight ideas, but the anonymity creates a place where its’ easy to threaten someone with violence for their opinions (on any side of an argument).

It’s called These are the Days, a podcast about social media, mental health, and activism! Episode one is up now!

Saturday Night Live is a sketch comedy show that has been airing for 44 years and holds an importance place in television history, known for hiring comedians and writers that later become famous (ex. John Mulaney, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, etc.). In this episode, the host is Sandra Oh and the musical guest is Tame Impala.  The cast includes 14 regular actors, with 8 males and 6 females. The cast members include: Beck Bennet, Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Kate Mckinnon, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Pete Davidson, Leslie Jones, Kyle Mooney, Sasheer Zamata, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villasenor. Each cast member had to go through an extensive audition process, and many are known for their other creative endeavors (actresses Kate Mckinnon and Leslie Jones were in the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, Aidy Bryant is airing her own show on Hulu, etc.). Most have been on the show for 1-5 seasons, except for Kenan Thompson, who is performing in his 14th season on the show. Their sketches and “news” element (The Weekend Update) often make jokes about recent events, whether that be politics, technology, scandals, internet phenomenons, or anything else that could be ironic, satirical, or hilarious to a national audience. In fact, their political sketches reached recent infamy as President Trump tweeted his displeasure of actor Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him in several sketches. Saturday Night Live airs at 11:30pm every Saturday on NBC.

 

11:30-Tonight’s cold open is concerned with the Mueller Report and Donald Trump’s reaction. Alec Baldwin returns as Donald Trump and Aidy Bryant plays Barr, while Mueller is played by Robert Deniro. They joke about Trump’s possible criminal connections in the presidency, while Trump tweets his reactions.  Mueller explains professionally that they could not find any connections to Russians with Trump, while also mentioning how many people were arrested due to Trump. Barr is “summarizing” the reports, wording them differently to make Trump look fantastic, while Trump tweets the lyrics to All Star. Bryant and Baldwin are meant to look much less professional than Deniro.

 

11:35-The sketch ends with the classic “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” before the credits roll for the cast of the show and tonight’s host.

 

11:36-Sandra Oh, known heavily for her role on Grey’s Anatomy, enters the stage to give her monologue. She mentions that she has trouble accepting compliments because she is Canadian, and she is a “master of deflecting praise” because she is Asian. She also mentions that she has been an American citizen for one year. Leslie Jones enters halfway through her monologue to joke about accepting compliments and tries to “help” Oh become more confident.

 

11:39-The first commercial of Saturday Night is always a fake commercial. Tonight, it’s a parody of Jordan Peele’s latest horror movie, US, by having one woman (Sasheer Zamata) call the Discover agency for some odd charges on her credit card, while her clone (the villain of the movie, played by the same actress) acts generally creepy. They make many jokes about being clones and the plot of the movie.

 

11:44-The next sketch takes place in a meeting at Fox News. Jessie Smollet (played by  Chris Redd) walks in late saying he was attacked. Sandra Oh, his manager, tells him to stop pretending, while Smollet says his killer left him clues (even though he is still alive). The others in the conference (Kenan Thompson, Kate Mckinnon, and two others) question whether or not he was telling the truth, while Smollet takes 3 Ks out of his bag to insinuate he was the victim of a racial attack. The social commentary is that this popular actor pretended to be attacked in the past.

 

11:48-The next sketch is filmed, and takes place in the Victorian era. Beck Bennet and Pete Davidson play two men about to duel over Sandra Oh, but Davidson cheats by trying to shoot Bennet early and ends up shooting Sandra Oh (twice). Kenan Thompson tries to explain the rules, but the two continue to get confused and accidentally continue shooting Sandra Oh. Oh declares that “this ends now” and, while leaving her leg behind, tells the two they have suffered enough. However, after they give her the weapons, her head gets shot off.

 

11:51-The next sketch stars Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Sandra Oh. Day plays a teenager who hates himself, and then a mirror version of him, ten years older (Moffat) lets him know that his life gets better. Then he introduces his girlfriend (Oh) who is a 47-year old alcoholic. Day questions why Oh is his girlfriend, and the mirror him disappears to be replaced by “the coolest kid in high school” in ten years who says he now works for Day. However, Day is only concerned with the girlfriend and why she’s so weird, and Oh shows up in the mirror again.

 

11:55-In the same sketch, Beck Bennet shows up in the mirror as Day as a 35 year old, saying that Oh is now his wife (and the only girl he ever kissed). Oh plays an outlandish character who reveals at the very end that she owns Samsung.

 

11:58-Halfway through every commercial break, there is a shot of the snl crew setting up the next sketch for the studio audience.

 

12:00-The next sketch is in Russia in Putin’s conference room (played by Beck Bennet). His employees (Cecily Strong, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat) are disappointed when Putin admits that he did not engage in collusion with Trump. They ask him why he’s been making it look like he’s been working with Trump, and thought they all looked cool when they spread that Putin was blackmailing Trump.

 

12:02-Kim Jong Un and his translator (Sandra Oh) show up in the sketch to express their disappoint that he is not blackmailing Trump. They joke about Putin’s level of power and asked about how many people he’s poisoned. The others say they can no longer take him seriously, until Putin heavily threatens one of his employees.

 

12:07-Sandra Oh announces the musical guest, Tame Impala. This is his and his bands’ first performance of the night.

 

12:14-Now it’s time for Weekend Update, as always hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che. At first, Jost jokes that he “no longer feels safe” and then discusses the Mueller report. Che also discusses the Mueller report, and says that he couldn’t believe that he thought Trump could be found guilty for things he most likely was guilty in. They look at a clip of Trump talking to an audience about his innocence, cut to make him look extremely unprofessional (although all of the cuts were things that he did indeed say).

 

12:17-Che discusses that Trump has threatened to close the border because America is running out of space, and Che jokes that there’s full states (Wyoming, both Dakotas) that have nothing in them. Then Jost introduces his first “guest” a Trump supporter and employee played by Cecily Strong. She jokes about how everything in the report was true, including the facts that he is 35 years old.  After learning that Trump might close the border, she falls out of her chair. After hearing about a possible investigation for Clinton and Obama, she falls out of her chair again out of excitement.

 

12:22-Che changes the topic and discusses how Apple basically owns apps for everything. Jost jokes about an athlete who retires, and a woman who gave birth to twins 26 days apart. Che says that an escaped Zebra from a Florida zoo was shot (the joke being the classic “what’s black and white and red all over”) and that Grindr was celebrating its 10th anniversary.

 

12:24-Jost discusses that Nicholas cage got annulled after four days of marriage, and denim underwear. Che laughs and discusses an all-female spacewalk being cancelled due to there only being one female space suit, and welcomes the other female astronaut (Anne Mclain, played by Aidy Bryant) as the next guest. Bryant is clearly upset about not being able to spacewalk but tries to pretend otherwise. She says that there’s been space suits for dogs and monkeys, but not another female space suit for her. Che says that they have a live feed from space, and two astronauts (Melissa Villasenor and Beck Bennet) pretend to be in space and not really care about being there.

 

12:31-In the next sketch, Sandra Oh plays the leader of an office coffee conference. Kate Mckinnon plays an 85 year old woman who’s having a birthday, and when asked if she has any plans, says that her only plans are spending time with them. The rest of them feel bad and asks what Mckinnon wants for her birthday, and she replies with “kiss”. She two other employees, Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson, to kiss each other. They refuse, and she points to Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner and asks them to kiss. They also refuse, but feel bad when she looks sad about it. Bennet, another employee, agrees that people should kiss, and Day and Gardner decide to do it. Mckinnon says it’s not hot enough.

 

12:34-As it turns out, Mckinnon has written plans for everybody to kiss one another. Then she dies. Everybody kisses to honor her, and Mckinnon winks at the camera.

 

12:39-In the next filmed sketch, they parody a commercial for “cheques” in which they use money to live life like a soap opera, and doing things very dramatically, like paying for murder. Then they explain how a check works and finish the commercial by giving it a suddenly normal tone (“get it at Ridgewood savings bank!”).

 

12:42-Their next sketch is a fake PBS show called “Roots of Rock”. Kyle Mooney plays an old record dealer going over his old artists, including Kenan Thompson singing “electric shoes”. Then Sandra Oh enters the stage to commemorate him on his exit and song until Thompson pushes her off to sing an encore. Sandra Oh congratulates him again, signaling the end of the black-and-white show, until he starts singing again. Then this repeats again.

 

12:45-The next performance in the same sketch is from Leslie Jones, until Thompson enters the stage again to continue singing. Kyle Mooney says he sang over 17 encores that night, and it took hours for Leslie Jones to perform.

 

12:49-Tame Impala performs his second and last performance of the night.

 

12:55-In the next sketch, Sandra Oh plays a teacher who’s discussing the SATs. She asked a student, Aidy Bryant, about one of the questions and she gives a very deep and pretentious answer. Oh asks another student a simple SAT question, and this student (Kate Mckinnon, playing a guy) gives another deep and unnecessary answer, and then admits that they can’t read.

 

12:57-She asks another student (Alex Moffat) about a parabola, and he gives another emotional speech. Pete Davidson, another student, does the same. Then Sandra Oh gives an emotional speech about her marriage, and the sketch ends on a dramatic narration from Moffat (“the thing we learned the most was…each other”).

 

1:01-After a commercial break, Sandra Oh announces the end of the show while the cast stands around her cheering and the credits roll.

 

Conclusion:  Almost all of the sketches tonight had to do with politics, due to the announcements of the Mueller report and its concern with Donald Trump and the possibility of collusion.  There was most likely a lot of fast hair and makeup work, especially for Mikey Day and Beck Bennet, since they were in several sketches back-to-back. There were a lot of commercial breaks, as the cast had to do several costume and makeup changes (including old age makeup for Mckinnon and several wigs). There were no mistakes or real laughter breaks tonight (except one from Michael Che, which didn’t impact the episode) and all the lines were either memorized or read off of cue cards, as they are for every episode.

 

 

Saturday Night Live is a sketch comedy show that has been airing for 44 years and holds an importance place in television history, known for hiring comedians and writers that later become famous (ex. John Mulaney, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, etc.). In this episode, the musician Halsey is both the musical guest and the host.   The cast includes 14 regular actors, with 8 males and 6 females. The cast members include: Beck Bennet, Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Kate Mckinnon, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Pete Davidson, Leslie Jones, Kyle Mooney, Sasheer Zamata, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villasenor. Each cast member had to go through an extensive audition process, and many are known for their other creative endeavors (actresses Kate Mckinnon and Leslie Jones were in the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, Aidy Bryant is airing her own show on Hulu, etc.). Most have been on the show for 1-5 seasons, except for Kenan Thompson, who is performing in his 14th season on the show. Their sketches and “news” element (The Weekend Update) often make jokes about recent events, whether that be politics, technology, scandals, internet phenomenons, or anything else that could be ironic, satirical, or hilarious to a national audience. In fact, their political sketches reached recent infamy as President Trump tweeted his displeasure of actor Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him in several sketches. Saturday Night Live airs at 11:30pm every Saturday on NBC.

11:30- Tonight’s cold open is called Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. It has Kyle Mooney, Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, and Kate Mckinnon. They are parodying a political sketch in a professional setting, but the first journalist question is “what do you think Jeff Baisos’s penis looks like?” and only one journalist (Leslie Jones) acts like this questioning is unusual. They relate his genitals to the state of the country and privacy-while also making jokes about newspaper headlines about penis puns. Mckinnon plays an old man, as she often does, from another area and says she likes to “be one of the boys” while drinking a “cold glass of blood” and discuss the art of switching penises.

 

11:35– Aidy Bryant joins later in the cold open sketch, also playing an old male politician in another room. She jokes that every time a photo of herself is posted, it’s flagged as “a d*** pick”, but the sketch is played as a very serious conversation. The sketch is ended by Mooney saying the well-known catchphrase “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”

 

11:37- The opening credits play after the sketch, introducing all of the cast members and the host/musical guest, Halsey. Then Halsey enters the stage to perform her monologue.

 

11:39-It’s customary for the host to perform a monologue at the beginning of the show. This is Halsey’s first time hosting, and she first mentions how she’s from New Jersey. She discusses how she loves SNL and as a child looked up to the women on the show as role models.

 

11:40- The first commercial after the monologue is always a fake commercial, This one is a pre-filmed sketch about a spoof on the show “empire” starring Kenan Thompson as “Darius Trump”.  The show is called “Them Trumps” and makes a joke about being pulled over as a person of color.

 

11:44- During the mid-commercials, there is a shot of the actors preparing for the next sketch.

 

11:45- The second sketch of the night is set at the Virginia capitol, and stars Kenan Thompson. It is making a joke about the blackface scandal involving Governor Northam and several other government employees. Thompson asks if anyone else wore blackface in college, and one (Pete Davidson) admits to dressing up as Mr. T.  Another asks if it counts as blackface if it was a costume, or if it was in 80s (which both the scandals were in). The questions about blackface progressively get odder and odder, with one asking what if his contest won a contest as “blackest face” and wearing blackface as a “black woman”. Halsey asks what if she’s half black, and Kenan assumes she is biracial. However she said she dressed up as Michael Jackson as a child and adult.  When he asks who’s done blackface, everyone in the room raises their hand.

 

11:56-The next sketch has an actor (Mikey Day) presenting an office floor plan to two of his co-workers until his parents call. They say they have nothing important to say and act like they’re just checking in, until he says he has to go and the father (Beck Bennet) mentions he broke all the bones in his leg and then hangs up. When Day calls back, the mother (Halsey) asks him how his new grill is, offhandedly mentions that she was shot, and then hangs up. They act like it’s a big deal when he continues to call back to ask about it, and then offhandedly mentions she ruined her hands in the “fall in the hole in the middle of the house”. His co-workers take an interest in their conversation as well.

 

12:01-In the same scene, Bennet then falls down the stairs and Day says he’s going to fly out the next day to help them out. Then Halsey offhandedly mentions that he has an identical twin brother that she gave up for adoption that’s living with them, and then hangs up again.

 

12:06-Aidy Bryant introduces Halsey for her mid-show performance. Halsey sings her popular song “Without Me” with a piano in the background.

 

12:12-Next is Weekend Update, with hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che. They joke about Governor Northam’s blackface scandal, 21 savage’s deportation, and suggests that Virginia would be better without a governor, just like the oscars. They also discuss a racist Gucci sweater and President Trump. Che breaks a few times during the Weekend Update, laughing a little bit between stories.

 

12:17-They also welcome cast member Melissa Villasenor to the Weekend Update for a segment, and she’s dressed like Lady Gaga. She performs a bit of the song “shallow” while doing an impression of Gaga. Villasenor first became famous from her various impressions. Colin Jost pretends to be confused during her segment.

 

12:22-Che welcomes two other actors in a segment playing a couple who promotes their relationship on Instagram. The girlfriend pretends to be annoyed with him and refers to Che and Jost as “the news boys”. They argue constantly when they are supposed to be a happy couple.

 

12:36-Continuing on Weekend Update, Alex Moffat plays a guest referred to as “The guy who just bought a boat”. He discusses how he recently just started respecting women while making jokes about women.

 

12:33-In the next sketch, Aidy Bryant plays the owner of a karaoke bar. Kate Mckinnon plays a nervous woman coming up to sing, before being interrupted before three girl sorority pledges that say they have to finish a scavenger hunt to get into the sorority, including Cecily Strong cutting a man’s hair and Melissa Vallinsenor giving Pete Davidson a bird and pushing someone’s dinner onto the floor. The sketch ends with their recruitment head not seeing any of it, so they say they have to do everything again.

 

12:39- Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson begin to discuss the importance of representation on the show throughout history, and then Kyle Mooney interrupts to say how important he thinks it is and then tried to “educate” the others about black history.

 

12:44-Halsey’s next performance of the show is announced, and she sang her song “Eastside” while painting a face on a canvas on the ground. Usually this song is a duet, but Halsey sang both parts.

 

12:49-The next sketch is a group of people at dinner, and Kenan Thompson says that he’s been fired from being a mailman but he’s resourceful, and then offhandedly mentions that he’s been doing cam modeling online to the horror of his wife (Leslie Jones) until she sees how much money he’s been making. Then she says that the children should support the fathers “small business”. During the sketch, other men came by the table to mention how much they liked the husbands work.

 

12:55-The next sketch is a spoof of the popular show “Riverdale”. Pete Davidson plays a corpse in a morgue that won’t stop making noises. The director (Kenan Thompson) stops the recording to tell him to stop speaking. So instead, Davidson flops around on the table to try and be an “accurate” corpse. Thompson stops the recording again to tell him to stop, and Davidson reveals he lived in a morgue for three months. Thompson finally agrees to let corpse Davidson do whatever he wants, including scream “avenge me!”.

 

1:00-Halsey and the rest of the cast wishes the audience a good night and the credits roll.

 

Conclusion: I noticed that Kenan Thompson was in almost every sketch tonight, which makes sense as he has been on SNL the longest.  Many of the sketches had to do with politics. Halsey had two separate performances, but as she was also the host and in almost all of the sketches, most likely had to do a lot of fast work in hair and makeup. There were a lot of commercial breaks, as the cast had to do several costume and makeup changes. There were no mistakes or real laughter breaks tonight (except a few from Michael Che) and all the lines were either memorized or read off of cue cards, as they are for every episode.

 

 

 

What is radio?

The definition of radio is argued among scholars because of the radio’s adaptability over time. It began as just sound waves, but was enhanced with more modern technology that led it to be still popular today. The older ideas of how to define radio became complicated as new technologies were involved (social media, television, and podcasts).

What differentiates podcasting from radio?

Podcasting can be considered by some as an “extension of radio”. However, the mode of broadcasting is much different. Since podcasts are centered around specific subjects, they have specific audiences and aren’t meant to cater to everyone (as radio is), so the podcasts can have more freedom with what they say. The broadcast of a podcast depends on the medium it is being broadcast on, while radio has one specific place it airs from. Podcasting is not meant to replace radio, but to work alongside it on different public sites. While there are advertisements on podcasts, there are usually not “commercial breaks” as there are on a lot of radio.

Podcast 1: Views by David Dobrik and Jason Nash

This episode, published on March 9, 2019, was titled “David meets his idol”, and it’s 44 minutes long. I’ve listened to other episodes of this podcast a few times before, because I recognize the hosts (David Dobrik and Jason Nash) from their vlogs on YouTube. In fact, this is most likely how many of their listeners found them as well, as the podcast is advertised at the end of each of Dobrik’s videos, which all have millions of views. Clearly the podcasts aren’t the first priority of the hosts, as they advertise their content on many social media platforms to increase the profitability of their careers. At times, it seems like neither of them really take it seriously and aren’t always concerned with making the most entertaining podcast for their listeners. Their podcasts are mainly based on comedy, while the two hosts tell their stories of being millionaires, going to crazy parties and clubs, and behind the scenes of the videos they produce. Since the hosts are friends, they play off of each other and easily talk about the others’ lives. In this particular podcast, both hosts delve into their personal lives in the form of Nash talking about his children, and Dobrik discussing his past in high school. Dobrik also discusses events concerning his vlog from the past week, and how he had difficulty cutting it down to the correct time (4 minutes, 20 seconds) for him to upload it. There’s no real noticeable technical work except for the about 10 second intro song for the podcast. There is also a segment called “Joe’s teeny weeny podcast”, a 25 second clip starring their friend Joe, which also has its’ own small theme song. This is much different than seeing the hosts on different types of media, such as YouTube, since it is all dialogue instead of mainly using other stylistic elements. Dobrik’s vlogs, which are only 4 minutes and 20 seconds long, are what he and Nash are most famous for. They consist of edited, high energy skits, pranks, and fun adventures with his group of friends. Unlike the podcast, they are very fast-paced. The podcast is still full of jokes, but it is meant to show the calmer, realer side of the people behind the vlogs and their unusual lives.

Podcast 2: And that’s why we drink

I’ve never listened to this podcast before now, but it’s very popular on Spotify and the description states that it covers the topics of paranormal and crime stories-two topics I am highly interested in. I turned on their most recent episode (110), titled “A pretty little monster and a planetary enzyme”, which was an hour and 23 minutes long. It is hosted by two women (Eva and Christine), and like the Views podcast, they have an intro song that runs for about 15 seconds. I thought that it would be more serious than it was (considering the topic) but it wasn’t comedic like the Views podcast either-the genre was more in line with storytelling/entertainment. However, they veered from the topic quite a bit, spending about 15 minutes in the beginning talking about themselves and their Facebook group (which they’re deciding to shut down).  Then they launched into a brand deal (Views also had many sponsors). Every time a brand was read out, a glass clink was heard. It took exactly 18 minutes and 20 seconds before they began talking about anything that the podcast was described to be about (the paranormal, in this case, ghosts in the University of Maryland and the infamous “Goatman”).  It’s obvious that the podcast already has many dedicated viewers, based on their discussion about the large Facebook group and amount of episodes it has. This feels different from other media because it’s almost like having a conversation with the hosts in their casual style. The experience seemed different because it was calm and served as background noise more than anything else-even if some of the topics were interesting, it never took my full focus to listen to it.

Podcast 3: The Daily

The Daily is a podcast focused on news that uploads shorter episodes (around 30 minutes) several times a week. The podcast I played was uploaded on March 8, 2019 and was titled “Reckoning with the real Michael Jackson”. With the new documentary, Leaving Neverland, becoming very popular and discussed in a short amount of time, I was interested to see how the news would report on such a dark and sad topic. Immediately I noticed that the podcast seemed a lot more professional, starting off with an intro song and an announcement introducing the podcast and the topic. The main host (Michael Barbaro) and his guest had audio clips (mainly other news clips) and music mixed with their speaking to dramatically enhance the podcast. They discuss the controversy around the documentary, and their own opinions about the news they present. There were a lot of technical elements when they were presenting the actual news, and less so when they were discussing their own opinions (although when one of the hosts discussed his past listening to Michael Jackson music, sound clips from a Michael Jackson performance plays). It was almost like hearing their own thoughts and the ambiance of the environment instead of just two men talking. It reminded me of listening to a documentary. The hosts did talk about themselves, but it was always within the relevance of Leaving Neverland and the culture surrounding Michael Jackson and his influence. This podcast felt the most similar to other mediums, because it uses the most stylistic elements-the only real difference for me was that I was listening to a show instead of watching it. It was obvious that the hosts were professional (Barbaro is listed as a journalist in the “about” section) so even their opinions came from an educated source, without speculation.

 

It’s my last day making feedly posts, and I have 651 unread articles-with the majority of them (317) coming from CNN. It’s amazing how much I can miss even though I’m checking feedly daily. There’s no way I would ever see how much news there really is. The first article that caught my attention was titled “‘Lava Waterfall’ reappears at Yosemite National Park” from CNN. However after clicking on the article, it only led to a picture of the “lava waterfall” seen in the thumbnail and a short description of the picture itself. It’s frustrating that you can never tell if you will be led to a full article after clicking on the thumbnail, and it makes it difficult to try and find something reliable. The tags also don’t give any clues as to whether or not one will find a full article. There is also a short description under every thumbnail, but all of them lead to the assumption that they are part of a larger article. I decided to click on an entertainment article, a feature that I hadn’t explored yet on feedly, to see how the journalism differs from a political article. This one, also from CNN, was titled, “Kate Beckinsale is clapping back over Pete Davidson”. Already, the language is different, as a CNN article about politics or the weather most likely wouldn’t use the phrasing “clapping back”. The article itself kind of reminded me of an article found on Buzzfeed-they have many articles about celebrity gossip meant to appeal to teenage readers by using informal language and reactionary gifs. The CNN article was short and contained two photos from Beckinsale’s Instagram, and a video of Ariana Grande taken by TMZ. It didn’t give any opinions, as a Buzzfeed article might, but just a few sentences summarizing what is happening in entertainment news and dating gossip for this particular group of celebrities (Beckinsale, Pete Davidson, and Ariana Grande). It was a much quicker read than an article about a different form of news, as it was very picture-based. What I noticed about feedly is that one can find the exact same news if they just visit a particular news site instead of using feedly. The advantage of feedly is that it brings together several news sources of your choosing to expand the type of news that one sees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to a CNU women’s basketball game against the St. Mary’s Seahawks for my live-tweeting event. I haven’t been to a college basketball game in a very long time, and I’ve never been to any CNU sports game, but it was actually really interesting to watch. I was worried that I would have trouble with both tweeting and keeping up with the game, but since there was always something happening, even if I missed something another notable moment would happen seconds later. I talked about the scores/ players in the actual game and my own reactions/opinions. All of the players were really talented, so I mentioned a few players who had good baskets (there were provided papers of all the names of the players of both teams and the game schedules). I also noticed that the student section didn’t have a lot of people in it for most of the time, and the general stands were slowly filling up as the games went on. I know that the men’s basketball is more popular than the women’s, but that’s part of why I wanted to live-tweet the women’s game in the first place: besides working in my schedule for timing, the lack of students also provided less distractions so I could pay attention to the game and tweet. Overall, it was a fun game to watch, and I’m glad CNU won, but live tweeting probably isn’t something I would do in my spare time because it makes concentration more difficult.

Some tweets embed:

tweet 1

tweet 2

tweet 3

Link to the whole live tweet:

My twitter feed

Today I immediately found captivating news in the “most popular” section-that Bernie Sanders was beginning a presidential campaign for 2020. There were actually two article links in the “most popular” section for the story, one for CNN and the other for NPR. The CNN article had the tags “political science” and “politics”. The NPR article had the tags “Bernie Sanders”, “AP”, “Alex Brandon”, “Democratic Party”, “Hillary Clinton”, and “other”. Since this was the first time I’ve seen two articles talk about the same topic on my feed, I decided to compare them too see how the journalism differs. They both describe how, unlike 2016, Sanders is no longer an underdog in the presidential race and has a lot of funding. He is incredibly popular with younger Democrats. However, the CNN article was much longer, even though it discussed virtually the same topics-his monetary funds for his campaign, his political stances, and the possible obstacles of him being elected. The CNN article used a lot more quotes from Sanders and other associates to discuss their points. I didn’t know that Sanders was going to run again until I saw the news on feedly, so I’m glad that I had a place to find it.

Today there are 518 unread articles for my “news” feed, but my actual feed only lists the top fifty or so news stories from today (unless you scroll down to the bottom so that it can load more). Again, I wonder how the news is actually sorted (besides the “most popular” and “today” tag) because it seems impossible to read that many articles. It did, however, provide me with some important news today in the form of the Bernie Sanders 2020 nomination.