Hyperlocal News

Hyperlocal News is not exactly like your regularly scheduled news sources. With hyperlocal news, it refers to the coverage of events and topics on an extremely small, local scale. One example of this I found was the website Airbnb. This website is an online marketplace that connects people who want to rent out their homes with people who are looking for accommodations in that locale. Among my friends and I, we have used Airbnb countless times, specifically for birthdays. According to Investopedia, it currently covers more than 100,000 cities and 220 countries worldwide.

Another website that I have seen frequently is Yelp, a social networking site that lets users post reviews and rate businesses. This is extremely convenient not only for locals but when you go and travel to places that you are not as familiar with. Furthermore, the locals at the destination you are going to would know more about the places around than you would.

Travis Scott Disaster

The NEWSY post I decided to work on was the one regarding the tragic loss and harm people faced at Travis Scott’s concert Astroworld. On November 5th, more than 50,000 people had attended Scott’s concert which resulted in eight deaths – the youngest being 14- and over 100 people injured.

Fan explains the struggles they faced while in the middle of the crowd

Fans stated that shortly after Travis Scott had started his set that the crowd started to push their way closer towards the artist. Quickly, it was getting hard to move and difficult to breathe in the confined space the audience had created. With all of the panic and commotion, fans started to collapse and pass out all over the area.

Travis Scott is now facing several lawsuits against his concert, along with Canadian rapper Drake who had joined the set as well. Live Nation has also been mentioned to be facing lawsuits due to its involvement in the event.

NEWSY.COM

After exploring the NEWSY website, I found it interesting considering it was started up but a group of young college students. When I go on other news sites I feel like I am overwhelmed with the amount of information that is presented right upfront. Because the creators were younger, the overall look of the website has a clean and modern look. I think one of my favorite features about the website is the schedule of the TV shows or stories they will have.

One of the videos and blog posts I read about was the CDC rules for cruise lines. While the video and the blog post both were short, I felt informed afterward about what to know before I book my next cruise. It reminded me of when I was reporting for my high school newspaper. It is short enough to give you all the basic information, but long enough to keep you engaged.

Pitbull Concert

This week I will be attending the Pitbull concert here in Tampa with some of my friends. My friends and I have been looking forward to this concert for a long time and are beyond excited to see him perform.

I would like to make this my topic of choice for my photo journalism. What I think will be most exciting about this is that I will be dressing up as Pitbull him self. I am not just how he looks on an every day basis, but with a bald cap and everything. By doing this I think it will be entertaining not only for me or my friends, but for other people at the concert for a good laugh.

Pitbull performing some of his greatest hits for the people of Tampa is a story worth sharing, especially with pictures. I have never seen him live but I have heard that he puts on quite a show.

Service Journalism

Because of the most recent global pandemic taking place, a lot of changes were made to our everyday life. During quarantine, while covid was a major setback for most people, there were some benefits to the whole situation. Due to all the time stuck at home, projects and cleaning of all sorts were able to be accomplished.

The majority of Americans, including myself, admitted to starting some new hobbies. According to Pew Research Center, nearly a third (32%) of Americans mentioned ways that the pandemic has limited what activities they can engage in or how they otherwise use their free time. One activity that I took upon was coloring and reading. My friends and I had started a virtual book club where we would meet once a week on zoom and discuss the pages we had read that week.

My step-sister during quarantine took it upon herself to do some home improvement. In her eyes, she thought if she was going to be stuck at home for a long period of time, she might as well make it something she loves. She got a lot of her ideas from YouTube and Pinterest and even got to make her dream guest room.

Cover your nose and get off your phone

At the start of this global pandemic, we were all introduced to a lot of new firsts. This was the first and probably the only global pandemic most will ever experience. There are a lot of precautions we had to take and had to think of a lot of new ways to stay busy.

I plan on getting more in depth on how you can prevent the spread of Covid-19 and discuss the overall severity of the virus. On a lighter note, I would like to cover how to stay occupied or busy during quarantine so you do not go absolutely insane (speaking from personal experience).

While cases have gone down since the beginning of the pandemic, the relevance remains due to cases still popping up everyday and death cases are still reported. I feel that this is something not only HCC students will find interesting but college students overall as well. Almost 30% of college students go out and party and/or socialize with groups of people; that is roughly 15,000 students at USF. The chances of a new outbreak of cases coming from that percentage is extremely high.

I would like to find some more data about Covid-19 cases and what has been proven effective as far as prevention and treatment. Not only that, it would be nice to hear the things people have done or planned on doing to stay busy during their time at home. This can be accomplished by simply talking to friends and family directly or posting about it on social media and getting responses that way.

Pre and Post Interview

Going into my interview I had a clear image of what I was going to ask and when I would ask the question. Originally, I had hoped to interview Kurt S. Browning, Pasco County Superintendent of Schools. However, it was quite hard to get a response from him as soon as I had hoped. I then decided to interview one of the teachers I was close with from the high school I graduated from in 2019, Wiregrass Ranch High School. The reasoning behind interviewing Mrs. Swain was because my senior year, I felt that dress code was a common topic in class. Also, I felt comfortable enough with her that I could ask her questions that I was either nervous to ask or nervous for her to answer.

The only struggle I had was trying to find time to stop in and interview Swain. My school schedule during the first half of the week is pretty hectic but I was able to squeeze in some time to sit down with her and ask some questions. I decided to stay after school some of the days in the week to get work done ahead of time in order to free up my schedule.

Interview Questions

Young girls remain sexualized in public schools due to the strict dress code they are forced to comply with. For years it has been made known to the public that the way girls are limited on what they can and cannot wear to school during the week is upright outrageous. Growing up in Pasco County, I have seen and experienced how unbelievably unreasonable the enforcements are, especially when it is more in favor of those who identify as males.

Prior to going into my interview, I have some intriguing questions that I would like to have presented. Some of the questions will set up answers for the following questions. The questions are as follows:

1. Do you feel that a student learns best and is most important when they are present in the classroom?
2. Would you say that events such as assemblies or in-school activities that take students out of class can set back lessons or a student’s work?
3. Have you seen students, specifically those who identify as female, taken out of class and/or sent home due to a dress code violation?
4. What do you feel is the sole purpose of dress coding young women?
5. How long have you been teaching in Pasco County?
6. Has the dress code progressively gotten more strict over the years or do you feel it has remained the same?
7. Do you disagree with any of the restrictions for female identities?
8. Would you change anything about the dress code at this school, if so what?
9. Would you say that this is a way to sexualize young girls rather than educating young boys?
10. It has been noted by young female students that they feel the dress code is enforced to not distract teachers especially males, would you say agree with this in any way?

Interview

I have always had questions on how and why decisions are made or why things are done. Some of these are more of a concern rather than a general curiosity. While I am in college now and it does not affect me, this concept still lingers in my mind every once in a while and not in a good way. 

I would like to take the time to interview the head of the Pasco County School Board, Kurt S. Browning. This is an interview I want to partake in because I can speak for myself and other girls/women when I say that it is an embarrassment to have to go through this in school. Some of the questions I would ask go as follows:

• “Why is the school dress code more enforced for females over other genders?”
• “Do you agree that the dress code sexualizes girls in the public school system?”
• “Do you feel that this should be changed in any way?”

Growing up in the public school system in Florida, the school code of conduct deeply enforced the female dress code. Over the years the strictness of how young girls were allowed to dress seemed to progressively get more infuriating. The dress code was just a way to sexualize girls as young as 11 years old all the way to their senior year of high school. It has been stated that females are distracting to not only other classmates but even to teachers, who at times are men greater than twice the girl’s age

Hope’s Introduction Blog

Hello, my name is Hope and I am taking this course as a prerequisite for my major, digital communications and multimedia journalism. I am currently a junior in college at the University of South Florida. I just graduated from Pasco-Hernando State College with my associate’s degree and will be at USF for the next two years, while taking some classes here at HCC as well.

I am very passionate about traveling and documentation of those said travels. Within the past few years, I have recorded a couple of the trips I have been on from Daytona beach to Galapagos islands. By doing this is allows me to recap the trip not only for myself, but to inspire others to go out there and experience it for themselves.

With my pictures and videos of where I have been to, I hope to turn this into a travel blog. I would love to include the activities I did, the food I ate, the people I met, and much more. Growing up I was extremely into YouTube and still am to this day. After watching travel vlog after travel vlog, it opened my eyes and made me realize that this is something I want to pursue as a career.