Opinion Pieces

Generally when I'm flipping through the newspaper every morning I have to pass through the opinion section to reach the horoscope and crossword section and I have to admit that I generally do read what the crazy town people have to say.  Most of the time I think this section of my local newspaper, The Suburban Trends gets over looked since most of the opinions are about when people should be expected to bring in thier garbage cans off the street.  The section can get boring and be slightly annoying since the journalist wannabe's are generally old school but its interesting to read about what actual people in my town care about.  The rest of the paper is usually written either by staff members from who knows where or are just copied from major newpapers so I feel closer to home when reading the opinion section.  I don't think I've really looked at other outlets for opinion pieces...unless the section of magazines where readers write in to criticize or apprieciate articles written in previous editions; I read those everytime :)

I just wish I had TiVo !

I think ABC's fear of bad publicity definitely contributed to their decision to keep ABC programming available for its viewers until the contract dispute is solved with Cablevision.  ABC was expected to be blacked out for Cablevision customers beginning midnight Saturday night.  On Sunday morning I checked to see if ABC was blacked out and it technically wasn't blacked out, it was a screen filled with advice on how to get the channel back.  The screen alternated colors for the next few hours but kept the same message urging viewers to go online and email ABC executives and ask for their programming back.  As a Cablevision subscriber, I even recived an email that said, "Many of you just want WABC-7 back on your television. That's why we are working hard to get WABC-7 back on the air. You can help make a difference by visiting cablevision.com/abc and sending their executives an email expressing how you feel."  Then a few hours later I received another email saying how sorry Cablevision was that their contract dispute with ABC was effecting our regularly scheduled viewing so they were making all on demand movies free until midnight Sunday.  By this time at my house ABC had already resumed its programming and I was watching the Academy Awards as scheduled.  The mix up with ABC and Cablevision is ridiculous.  Cablevision is trying to start issues with everyone's contracts and refusing to pay anymore money but yet its customers bills keep increasing.  Where is all the money going that Cablevisions customers are paying monthly?  Cablevision is becoming a monopoly in my area and its upsetting that they can take away the channels i pay for and not leave me with any other options.  ABC definitely made its channel available for Cablevision customers to save themselves the bad publicity and continue to uphold their reputation as a caring family channel.  If anyone should be receiving bad publicity its Cablevision, not ABC.

I guess I had more fears than i thought!

When I first read this weeks blog topic I had no idea what to write but after thinking about it I realized I had quite a few fears...Starting to work in the media is definately starting to stress me out.  There are constant pressures from all sides of the equation to be creative, accurate, professional, and mulit-talented.  Working in the media industry versus many other professions is scarier since everything you do is on display, if you mess up its possible for people around the globe to get wind of it.  Another thing about the media industry that worries me is the constant need to be networking, I'm usually a shy person until I get to know someone so thats going to be something I have to work on when entering the work force.  PR is all about who you know so what happens if you don't know anyone?  Quite possibly the thing that worries me the most about the media industry is getting started and where exactly I will fit in.  Finding a job I'll enjoy in such a tough market seems virtually impossible.  many companies are cutting out thier personal PR professionals and outsourcing to huge PR firms.  I'm not relaly comfortable just being a number and working for one client then moving onto the next, I want to have a relationship with the company I'm working for.  Writing this all down ow makes me more nervous then ever becasue I guess I never really thought about my fears going into the industry and its alot to soak in.  Hopefully over the course of the next two years I'll be able to cope with some of these issues through knowledge and experience.

March Maddness

So for me March is one of the worst months of the year.  Its kinda snowy/kinda rainy all the time, all of my tv shows are reaching their final episodes of the season and all of the TV's in my house are overrun by my step dad with constant basketball.  After March, if I never hear a whistle again it will be too soon.  The only thing good about this March is that I'll be going away for spring break(hopefully they will still have some snow) and that there are so many good movies coming out.  Last night for free movie Tuesday I went to see Shutter Island. I originally got tickets for me and my 15 year old sister to go but the jerk ripping tickets asked for her I.D. and she clearly didn't have any.  Instead of seeing the movie by myself or just leaving I dragged my Mom  out of bed for the show.  We both enjoyed it but I have to say it was as good as I thought it was going to be.  I think the plot left a lot of loose ends and had a few unnessesary scenes.  Needless to say I would recommend people see the movie since Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley are phenomenal in thier characters.  The other movie im psyched to see is Alice in Wonderland.  Tim Burton has ceased to entertain me with his creative film adaptations over the years so I can hardly imagine anything short of amazing from Alice in Wonderland.  I'm trying to see it opening night in IMAX but who knows if that will really happen.  And last but not least i want to see The Runaways.  The film had mixed reviews at Sundance but that definately won't stop me from seeing it; the only problem is that right now it is only expected to play in limited theaters aka Los Angeles.