MM 2003 - Sydney Wader

  Life of a Photographer:  I have mentioned a few times that one of my passions in life is photography. Throughout these past few weeks or so my photography business has been quite busy. From taking birthday photoshoots for fellow teammates to couple shoots for Christmas cards it has been a blast! Now the weather plays a key roll in shoot times and ideas. Living and working in Arkansas you never really know what the weather will be like. Something that I believe proves this is a shoot I did two weeks ago where it was warm enough for me and a client to get in water for some amazing photos!    This shoot idea was one I had been dying to try out and finally got a client excited for the idea! Funny enough I had to convince her that there were no leaches or giant carnivorous fish swimming in extremely shallow water.  Working with couples is probably one of my favorite things to do as a photographer! I love getting to know clients and their stories. This couples has b...

  Classmate Blog Critique: It comes to no surprise that my classmates have put in the time and work to have successful blogs. However, one stood out to me more than the others as their work and timing was highly impressive. Carley Hale although I haven't had a class with her before she blew me away this semester. Her website has a clean easy to read aesthetic. I like that her articles appear in a preview mode featuring a picture from there article to draw in readers. The main aspect of Carley's blog brings to the table is her level of creativity she brings to the topics. She always tries to bring her own personal flair to her assignments. One of my favorites from the semester was her blog #16 opinion piece on a local issue. She discussed how she formed a friendship with a international student named Giada who was a member of the tennis team here at SAU. She had a personal experience with someone who was effected by the restraints of Covid-19.  By putting her own personal ...

  Mozilla's Pocket App: Technically the app Pocket is a news bookmarking tool but does have a discovery tab where news stories pull up. Users can actually link their personal Twitter accounts and even sync their IOS contacts to share their interests with friends/followers. The description of Pocket on the App Store is as follows "Use Pocket to capture the content that comes at you all day long, and curate your own space filled with only the topics you care about. Save the latest stories, articles, news, sports, and videos from any device, and any publisher or app."  After looking at the their website they try to market their app to people who may find breaking news making them anxious which I can relate to on a personal level. I struggle from anxiety and news around the globe can fuel it which makes news a nightmare. The Pocket app can create a custom news source catered to your needs.  The pocket app also makes sharing articles with friends and family simple. With a clic...

  Issue 1 in Arkansas:  Governor Asa Hutchinson over the past few months has been heavily pushing for Arkansans to vote for Issue 1. This issue is voting yes for continuing the transportation sales tax of 0.5% with the revenue being dedicated to highways, roads, and bridges. That is what a yes vote means a no would mean that the 0.5% sales tax would go away in 2023 as it was created back in 2012. "The Department of Finance and Administration estimated that the 0.5% sales tax authorized by the amendment would generate $293.7 million in revenue based on 12 months of the collections, Issue 1 was designed to allocated in the following way."  They broke this down into 70% going to state highways, 15% to county transportation, and another 15% to city transportation. Before the election I was not quite sure if this issue was going to pass as on social media it seemed as if it was split 50/50 yes or no.  However, the numbers of approval projected that it seemed like the sta...

  Faulkner County Tax Split Proposal:  Just like the major idea of voting Issue 1 here in Arkansas, in Faulkner C ounty the Sheriff's Office is all for this new tax split proposal. This new proposal would give the sheriffs a bigger piece of the county road sales tax funds. Faulkner County Sheriff Tim Ryals is hopeful voters will understand the importance of this proposal and vote yes. "We are extremely frugal and conservative in our spending due to our limited budget. It is good to be frugal, but it can be very dangerous in our line of work. Voting for reallocation will help us keep our growing community safe and protect our citizens through this season without raising taxes."   The tax was originally split 1% sales tax with 60% going to the sheriff's office, 35% to the county road fund and 2.5% to both the animal control department and the 911 emergency response. Now it is split 50/50 between the county road fund and the sheriff's office.  Local farmers, communit...

  The World of Country Music:    I'm always listening to music whether it be doing homework, driving, relaxing, cooking, etc. Any chance I have to listen to music I take it. Which is why I wanted to focus on news in the genre of country music, even though country isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea I listen to it daily. I'm going to discuss hot new album releases the recent CMT awards, and artist drama in this blog so if you aren't caught up in the world of country music you're about to be!  Luke Combs who is 30 years old has released two albums with Columbia Nashville along with ten singles and nine have reached the number one spot. He only started playing guitar at age 16 along with pursuing his music career. His list of awards continues to grow as he took home eight new awards this year including back to back wins at the Billboard Music Awards for top country album. His most recent news is this Friday he is releasing 5 new songs on his Deluxe Album. His ...

  TikTok Trends: TikTok has taken the world by storm and continues to grow in users, constantly setting new trends. Influencers on TikTok are beginning to form groups of friends and popular users then moving in together. This has formed some popular houses like the Hype House, Sway House, Drip Crib, etc.. A lot of these feature users that have become popular whether it be for a talent or girls/boys thinking they are very attractive. Users I have discussed in projects for other courses like Charli D'amelio who is known for her dancing on the app has just reached 94.2 million followers at just sixteen years old. TikTok has flipped many peoples lives and businesses upside down.    Incase you live under a rock or just do not consider yourself social media savvy TikTok is a video sharing app originating in China. There are currently over 500 million active users on the app and continues to grow. The trends are always changing throughout the day whether it be a new dance ...

  Feature News in Africa: In the past I have looked to Africa for presentation and paper topics. Once again I find myself intrigued with the events happening there. Now more than ever I think it is important that young people are aware with things happening around the world whether it be how they are battling Covid-19 or major government decisions. For my feature news stories I turned to CGTN Africa which does online coverage of major events across Africa.    On Saturday October 10 the African Union announced their plan to launch a 300 million dollar fundraiser that will aid in Covid-19 recovery. The fundraisers will be a webinar that will be hosted with the AU and the Afrexim Bank and will take place on October 24th. The Pan African bloc released a statement "Expected to inform and solicit support and contributions from the African private sector, public and other partners, in order to ensure that the continent can respond effectively to this unprecedented global crisis...

  COVID-19 and Numeracy: These days it's hard not to relate any news to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. One thing I know many people around the world are struggling with is trying to decipher the fake updates from the real dealing with the virus. It seems like everyone is trying to find someone or something to blame for instances occurring during the pandemic. The Guardian recently released an article titled "Poor Numerical Literacy Linked to Greater Susceptibility to Covid-19 Fake News"  This article covers exactly what the title entails, surveys were done across five different countries to support the data. Research was led by a group at Cambridge University who believe improving people's analytical skills would change the way many are viewing fake news surrounding Covid-19. "The study found the most consistent predictor of decreased susceptibility to misinformation about Covid-19 was numerical literacy - the ability to digest and apply quantitative informa...

The World of Civics: It has been a very long time since I've discussed and learned about the topic of civics. I remember taking the course back in 9th grade. We learned multiple duties that involved important things to know as a citizen. We even had a mock trial where everyone was designed to teach us about the court system and your role in the judicial system. I believe that teachers should continue to teach students major points in the topic of civics. Civics is defined as the study of rights and duties of citizenship.  I wanted to take a look at the link that Professor Reppert sent out on the young activist who is pushing to lower the voting age to 16. Tyler Okeke is 19 years old and is among a group of young people who have taken the initiative to protest lowering the voting age. For the longest time people ages 18-29 were one of the lowest voting groups but recently that has been on the rise. Especially throughout the past few months these young people (Gen Z) have been pushin...

  Listening Posts: Everywhere Around You  When thinking about listening posts I think of anywhere or way you can gather information. Living on a college campus makes for a broad range of listening posts. Being a student athlete I gain a lot of information from my fellow teammates and friends. Our teammate is very diverse as we have many girls from different cultures Hawaiian, Hispanic, and Samoan. Also looking into some of the student ran blogs that we have access to through the University. I mainly get my information through my friends, teammates, and fellow students for my listening posts.  I spend almost every single afternoon with my teammates and we are constantly talking about things going on around the world. We discuss politics and the recent protest against racial injustice. We have many teammates that are in interracial relationships they often discuss issues like police brutality and issues that affect the African American community. It's interesting for me to ...

  Public Records: Texas Around the United States having access to public records is a way for citizens to stay up to date on arrests, court meetings, etc.. For the second public records assignment I chose to focus on the state of Texas. I wanted to pick a bigger state compared to Arkansas and see if it was just as easy to access their public records. It turns out it is easier to find and access their public records than it was for me to access Faulkner county local records.  On October 6, 2020 a Texas Police Officer was charged with murder after shooting and killing a African American male. The shooting occurred after a disturbance call was made at a local convenience store. Johnathan Price was walking away from police officer Shaun Lucas open fired on Price killing him on scene. He was placed in the Hunt County Jail with a bail set for one million dollars. Upon further investigation his only work experience was working as a jailer and had only been working for the department ...

  Faulkner County Public Records: For my public records blog I decided to focus on somewhere close to home. Faulkner County makes looking at public records a breeze going to their website for easy access. Going to arkansas.staterecords.org allows you to access state, county, and municipal public records. They list some of the basic information for the county like the average income is $43,204.00. Faulkner county is 84.1% caucasian and 11.3% African American. Over 22.8% are homeowners, 49% are married, and 11.80% are divorced.  Having access to public records makes it easier than ever to find information. For instance, you can view the county's budget for the year which includes new grants for COVID-19 relief. They discussed the $62,000 grant given for the election fees. "County Clerk Margaret Darter applied for Faulkner County's funds in mid-September from the COVID Response Grant Program through the Center for Tech and Civic Life."  The grant will aid in early in pe...

  University of Florida COVID News: For my campus hard or feature news I decided to look at the University of Florida. They have a whole website dedicated to their campus news and things happening around the University. Has been operating in Gainesville, Florida since 1906. With a 39% acceptance rate with a 87% graduation rate averaging a cost rate at $8,057 after financial aid. Unfortunately we are still in the middle of a pandemic. This means scientists and people around the world are looking for solutions. COVID-19 does not seem like it is going anywhere soon. So this means news sources even University News will continue to cover the changes happening around the world.  The University of Florida has a group of students and professors that belong to the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World. They decided to turn their focus towards technology to aid with Coronavirus. The group has created ideas with innovations for the pandemic including a wristband that tel...

  Top 5 Most Dangerous Colleges in the U.S.  I decided to take my own twist on campus crime by discussing the top 5 most dangerous colleges in america to attend. College can already be a scary time in your life as you move away from family and basically have to decided what you want to do for the rest of your life.  Having to worry about violent crimes on your campuses though shouldn't be something for students to worry about on a daily basis. However, this is not the case for the few schools I'm going to mention below.  #5 Vanderbilt University:    Vanderbilt University is located in Nashville, Tennessee and is known as a higher level institution. Which makes it very interesting that a private research university that has a 10% acceptance rate landed in the top five. They average around 11 violent campus crimes per year and in 2011 had a shocking 535 larcenies. The University is currently under fire after students were using the threat of police bruta...

  Hometown Feature News: Feature news these days revolve around the same group of issues. Simply put, our world is a hot mess whether it be natural disasters or inequality. The same issues are occurring around the United States how are different places handling COVID-19. The state of Arkansas has reported 616 new cases of Coronavirus reporting over 6,706 active cases throughout the state. Out of those there are currently 97 on ventilators which is 12 more than last week. Over the weekend 15 Arkansas residents died from COVID-19 and there were 59 new cases in Faulkner Country this week. Governor Hutchinson in his weekly coverage stated that "We continue to see good testing numbers in Arkansas. Our antigen testing has already exceeded our monthly goal and our PCR testing is on pace to do the same. The Arkansas Department of Health continues to do outstanding work in identifying and tracing COVID-19 across the state."  Multiple news ideas have been exchanged about COVID-19 preca...

  Hometown News:  The town I grew up in isn't all that exciting I will have to admit. The only reason some may have even heard of Vilonia, Arkansas is the large tornado that hit a few years back that killed over 15 people and President Obama flew in to our small town. With a population of 4,650 there isn't much news to report. With that being said I decided to do a neighboring town that is only about 15 minutes from my house. Conway has a population of 66,426 and has plenty of news to cover.  The Conway Police Department was finally able to find a man who was involved in a string of thefts that occurred August 17th through the 30th. The man was 23 year old Jonathan Tyler Christie who is a resident of Faulkner Country. Once in custody he admitted to stealing a multitude of items including two jet skis, two Honda four wheelers, a U-Haul dolly, and camping supplies. He was caught by Police after they were told to look for the silver minivan shown above that had been spotted ...

  Twitter News Leads   Caster Semenya from South Africa who is a middle distance runner recently lost her battle in court about her above regulation hormone levels. World Athletics has requirements that Semenya doesn't meet as she has naturally high testosterone levels. They have informed her to able to compete in the olympics she will need to lower them. Her statement on the issue "Excluding female athletes or endangering our health solely because of our natural abilities puts World Athletics on the wrong side of history."     A long time running reality television show favorite is ending after their 20th season 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' is finally ending. Comments from E! or anyone from the Kardashian-Jenner clan have not been released except for a short tweet by Kim Kardashian thanking them for being their partner for so long. NBCUniversal said "We'll forever cherish the wonderful memories and countless people we've met along the way."...

  Trending Twitter Topics   There are so many different platforms you can access news from whether it be a traditional news outlet or social media platforms. If I'm interested in what is happening at that certain point in time I go straight to Twitter. With an election quickly approaching the internet and news are filled with politics. However, since the return of sports we get a little breather from the serious stuff.  Taking the spotlight now is William Barr the United States Attorney General. He sat down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer to discuss the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake. Blitzed asked "How do you think African-American parents around the country explain to their kids what exactly happened to Jacob Blake, for example, and why that police officer had his knee on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes?"   Then Barr stated he didn't want to compare the two separate instances as they weren't the same circumstances. "Floyd was subdued, inc...

  What is News?  Everyone has a different definition of news whether it be sports, celebrity, or world events. News is defined as "newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events."  Something I didn't learn until this week is what news is short for, notable events, weather, and sports.  News varies from day to day but all anyone can talk about currently is politics with an upcoming election. The sad truth is that in today's society people around my age don't get their news from news networks. Let's be honest sometimes news can be extremely boring and newspapers are old news. News networks are learning how to adapt into a constantly evolving world of technology.  Video apps like Snapchat and Tiktok are bringing news to the younger generation in a creative way. Some news sources like E! and NBC have both started a snapchat subscription where they go over important events in a quick fashion. I think that NBC's Stay Tuned ...