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Therapy on horseback

Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center is located on Hwy 163 south of Columbia, Missouri. It was founded by Karen Grindler in 1988.

Situated on Hwy 163 south of Columbia, Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center is a non-profit agency that has served the Mid-Missouri area since 1988. Thirty years ago, the founder Karen Grindler saw something called therapeutic horseback riding on television, from which she found an opportunity to start a business helping people.

Karen Grindler, founder and director of Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center, takes a break in the work gap at Kid Barn on April. 12. She started her non-profit business to provide horseback therapy to people with disabilities 30 years ago.

Lady, one of horses, drinks water in the afternoon April. 12. She improved lots of people’s health condition in the last few years.

Aminah Simon rides on horseback with the help of two volunteers around 3 p.m. April. 12. After she was born, she stayed in the NICU for 21 days and kept unhealthy. When she was three years old, the doctor recommended this therapeutic riding center to her dad.

After 30 years’ development, Cedar Creek now provides therapy to more than 200 riders per year in 8-week Spring, Summer and Fall sessions. People usually get recommendations from doctors to get horseback riding as a component of therapy. Grindler said, “It not only helps people with physical disabilities, but also mental and emotional disabilities.” Many riders are children with bad health condition or who delay speaking. Some are autisitic and some used to be abused.

Sam Williams checks her worklist in the afternoon April. 12. She was one of the barn managers in Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center and enjoyed her work looking after and interacting with the horses.

Jared Zieger, one of interns, handles weeds in the afternoon April. 12. As a health science senior in Mizzou, he chose the riding center to earn credits while helping disabled people.

Grindler’s business is supported by many people. Every year there are hundreds of volunteers helping with the chores of riding center and convenience and safety of riders, which has become a beautiful landscape in Columbia.

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Blog10

After taking this journalism 2150 course, I found that I have noticeably improved in the news reporting skills. I had no media experience in English environment before taking this course, which used to make me feel nervous and anxious. But through this course, I have successfully overcome my fears to some extent to break the language and cultural barriers to collect news, which makes journalism 2150 an extremely valuable experience for me.

Also, through this course, I have learned about my strengths and weaknesses of news reporting skills, which gives me a good opportunity to reflect on and improve. For example, as for strengths, I am confident at my ability of collecting audio. In the audio postcard assignment, I interviewed a mandolin maker and collected rich sound of making and playing mandolin, which helped the final audio to be interesting and high-quality. I am also proud of my story-telling skill because I believe every assignment of mine has a good logical structure to be easily understood. Another strength of mine is interviewing although I experience language difficulties sometimes, taking the mandolin maker as an example again, I designed some good questions to make the interviewee have wonderful answers like how his work adds to the overall joy of the world.

As for the skills I still need to improve, the first one that floats into my mind is writing because writing is really important for almost all kind of news. Although I am good at writing in Chinese, my English writing skill obviously has a long way to go. Because language logic and habits are so different between English and Chinese, the only thing I can do is to read more and write more in English. I also would like to improve my skill of finding stories, now the main way of finding stories for me is searching online and I hope I can step out of my comfort zone to talk more with all kinds of people outside in the future. At last, I also need to work more on various Adobe software. They are really complicated and have so many functions of which I have only learned a small part.

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Real Person Photos

In the afternoon April 3, Patrick Keenan looks at his favorite record “king gizzard and the lizard wizard” at Vinyl Renaissance & Audio. He took the job as a staff there last year because he really enjoyed touching and feeling music in the form of vinyl records.

Susan Koo arranges flowers at Ann K Floral, a flower shop located at 30th street station in the afternoon March. 27. She came to Philadelphia 18 years ago and since then worked with flowers to make a living.

Mario Oropeza works at the information desk as a volunteer at 30th street station, Philadelphia in the afternoon March. 27. After being helped for several times in some international airports, the Philadelphia native decided to do the voluntary job to help others. Responding to people's problems to facilitate their travel made him feel sincerely pleased.

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Blog 9

1.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/world/europe/poland-abortion-women-protest.html

2.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43514965

The news story I choose are “Polish Women Protest Proposed Abortion Ban” posted by New York Times and “Poland abortion: Protests against bill imposing new limits” posted by BBC News. Recently in Poland, Lawmakers from the governing Law and Justice party, who have previously tried to ban all abortions, are making a renewed push to outlaw them. The two photo stories are exactly about Polish women’s procession against it.

Both of two articles consist of three parts of pictures, they are the gathering crowd, aerial view of the city in the rally, photos of politicians supporting this policy, for which the structure and content of the photos are very similar. To be specific, audience can see how crowded it is of the city in the rally to know the scale of Polish procession. In addition, photos from two articles use similar composition to combine rally crowd, slogans and architectures, which creates a good sense of the place.

As for the different part, in “Polish Women Protest Proposed Abortion Ban (Again)”, we can see the focus of the crowd being photographed is a woman holding a hanger in the first photo, while in “Poland abortion: Protests against bill imposing new limits”, there is no obvious central figure in the picture. Besides, the way people express their emotion are different, one is serious and another is angry in the two news.

At last, I believe photos of both the news could have been better if they pay more attention on the details. For example, if the reporter shot photos of some slogans, it would have been easier for readers to catch the point of the article. Also, they can change the subject from crowds to one specific person. It could be the person’s facial expression or actions and would make the photos more compelling and powerful.

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Blog 8

I read Hannah Hoffmeister and Heather Miller’s blog posts and the articles. One is “colored powder files as Hindus Celebrate Holi” posted on NBC NEWS and the other is “The Last Families Living in Tunisia’s Underground Houses” posted on the Atlantic. I choose the latter one to analyze because I believe it’s more organized and compelling.

The lede of “The Last Families Living in Tunisia’s Underground Houses” is a picture in which Saliha Mohamedi, 36, sits with her children in their troglodyte house on the outskirts of Matmata, Tunisia. It really creates a sense of place to compel readers immediately by showing the aerial view of the cave houses, also known as troglodyte houses and the harmonious coexistence for man and nature. The beginning of the text is also a praiseworthy point because it mentions that “Most of theses cave homes can be found around Matmata, which gained fame as a filming location for Luke Skywalker’s home in the 1977 movie Star Wars.” Referring to something that many audience familiar with is obviously a good way to start.

As for the structure of the article, it consists of twenty pictures which relate closely with each other. These twenty pictures show the life of cavemen in all directions includes their existence as tourist attractions, family photos, their daily activities and even cats and shoes. However, there is only a short note below each picture, which makes the transition seem not so good.

Talking about detail images, I believe it’s exactly the best part of the photo story. The detail images of shoes, cats and kids can make people feel warmth from this story. People living in caves are watching TV just like we do, which shows the conflict of beautiful, traditional life style between the fast-paced, convenient modern life style. As the article says at the beginning, “In recent decades, rural depopulation has meant fewer people live in the homes, which are composed of rooms hewn into the walls of an excavated circular courtyard. The few remaining families say they are attached to the homes and the land or see no way of moving.” The photo story gets depth from the combination of text and detail images. Some portraits of the elderly is a good reflection of this.

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Anchor Intro: Fix-it-fair is a volunteer program which helps people fix items originated in Europe. It was brought to Columbia by the Mid Missouri Solid Waste Management District manager, Lelande Rehard. The program was hosted in Westlake Ace Hardware on Saturday, Mar.10 from 1 to 4 p.m. Reporter went there to see how Fix-it-Fair contributes to the community of Columbia.

“We bring expert volunteers who enjoy fixing stuff together, we don’t fix it for them. We kind of guide them to try to fix it. We don’t fix everything but we get people more comfortable. If your thing is broken, it’s ok if you open it up and look inside understanding how to repair clothes, how to repair by yourself, and lots of things honestly they don’t break. They just need a five-dollar core or glue you need to adjust here and there. It just get your confidence to do that.”

Lelande Rehard is the organizer of Fix-It-Fair and this is the second time the program is held. Tammy Froeschner is a tailor and also one of the volunteers of Fix-it –fair.

“I have made skirts and just kind of fixing things and pants, things for sure.”

Tammy has her own understanding of the program.

“I think it just taking something somebody may have thrown away or maybe discarded or bought something new and just bring it back to, it’s life, bring back to and get it used again.”

Lelande’s idea of fix-it-fair goes beyond mere fix items and is similar with Tammy’s to some degree.

“When we think about recycle in our world, it’s reduce, reuse, recycle. So if you can reduce the need of new stuff, you can reuse things you have. Repair is the way you have is better than recycle it.”

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Blog7

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/buddhism-japan-tsunami.html?hp&clickSource=story-heading&WT.nav=top-news&module=Slide®ion=SlideShowTopBar&version=SlideCard-16&action=Click&contentCollection=Sunday%20Review&slideshowTitle=A%20Temple%20Rebuilt%2C%20and%20a%20Young%20Woman%E2%80%99s%20Spiritual%20Journey¤tSlide=16&entrySlide=1&pgtype=imageslideshow

“A Young Monk Finds Her Calling” is a photo story I find compelling written by Hiroko Masuike, posted on New York Times. This story is about a girl who turns to her Buddihist faith to help rebuild her village temple destroyed in the tsunami seven years ago in Japan. At the beginning of the story, there is a picture that the protagonist, Masako Koabayashi, sits on the grass and gazes at the devastated land, which perfectly creates a feeling of immersion for readers.

After showing the first picture and introduction of Masako, there is a 2008-year Masako’s family photograph taken in front of the temple. The family photograph is a good transition between the beginning and body. It tells readers what the temple used to be like and acts as a part of Masako’s growth, which is the core of the story. After this picture, the writer starts to write in the first person, and show more detail and portrait images later.

An excellent portrait in the story is that Masako arranging her hair before a ceremony to enter the priesthood at a temple in 2017. It shows what’s Masako looks like recently after a series of changes. Actually, we readers can see her role changes picture by picture through the careful arrangement by writer. There are other pictures that Masako leads a procession of monks’ march and she shares a laugh with her father, Nobuo Kobayashi, after the ceremony at Chishakuin. All the pictures record Masako’s growth after the disaster well and they are related with each other. Besides, the picture of laugh is a beautiful detail that shows how Masako gets power, happiness and fulfillment from her family and religion.

In all, images in “A Young Monk Finds Her Calling” work together to tell a compelling visual story. The last picture is Masako and her father burn a fire at dusk outside the newly rebuilt Kongoji Temple, delivering the message of peace and love.

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Blog 6

Xinyu Wei is a junior studying in Journalism school, university of Missouri. She is from China and has just experienced a wonderful year in American Campus. Her decision to study in the United States stemmed from a summer camp.

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After that experience, the seed of studying in the United States started to germinate in her heart. When the opportunity really came, she did not hesitate to seize it. Soon Xinyu got a high score on the language test and succeeded to study abroad.

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Xinyu’s next plan is to enter Top 14 law school in America and she is working on it.

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Anchor Intro: Mike Dulak is a luthier at Rocheport, Missouri, whose works are shipped over the world. He has been building mandoilns for more than 20 years and loves what he does. Reporter comes to his studio to get an in-depth look at his world of mandolin.

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Blog 5

1.Hannah Hoffmeister’s review of “Louisiana couple's honeymoon cruise turns into medical nightmare”. MSNBC5 has already used four sources to support this story about the cruise’s medical staff’s misconduct from different angles, but there are other additional sources that MSNBC5 could have added to the news to make it stronger.

In the story, we can only hear the voices of the victim couple, Brant Aymond and Danielle Aymond without voices from the opposite. If sources from the Norwegian Pearl ship’s medical staff added to the news, the news would have been more convincible because audience could have known better about what exactly happened through voices from different people representing different positions.

Another source could have been added to the news is some people managing this cruise. In the news, we can only see a data source from the ACEP’s Cruise Ship Section and a source from the former President of ACEP. However, what we can’t know is how companies put this section into practice and I believe it’s also the point most audience would be curious about.

As for bias or position that could affect the sources’ comments, Aymond copule’s comments might be influenced by their position of victims. However, I didn’t see exact bias from their comments because Brant Aymond exactly had experienced the trauma, which had been clearly proved by the multitude of photos provided of his swollen feet. Comments given by Jay Kaplan, the former president of ACEP, may also be influenced by his position. Because Jay is the former president rather than the current, he might provide outdated views.

2.William Skipworth’s review of “‘Answer Bots’ wasting spammers' time through innovative app”. The first additional source that could have added value to the news is some user of the app Robokiller. In the story, we can only see the sources from the company and private investigator who did investigation on the app. They are like the two extremes of opinion and I believe the only way to make audience really informed is to ask someone an ordinary app user to comment. In addition, sources from communication experts could also have been added to the story because authoritative opinion is able to make the news more reliable and people more informed.

Let’s look at the sources Target 8 has already used. Target 8 team interviewed the vice president of Teltech, who is impossible to say anything bad about the app. His position as the vice president of app development company may make him overlook the shortcomings of Robokiller. Speaking to the private investigator Melinda Kidder, her position as an investigator may make her always focus on the bad aspects of the app.

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Blog 4 Sourcing

TARGET 8: 'Flawed' death investigation highlights problematic coroner system.

The television video news story I choose is about problematic coroner system in Missouri. The story was extended from a ‘flawed’ death investigation of Jayke Minor to how his father Jay Minor, girlfriend Debby Ferguson call for corner system reform in Missouri. Frank Flaspohler, Willie Harlow, Kathleen Little are the other three people, also coroners appearing in the story. Frank is the coroner who drove the critical decision of Jayke Minor, Willie is a coroner holding a seat on Missouri Coroners’ and Medical Examiners’ Association Board who knows well about Jayke’s case and Kathleen is the executive director of Missouri Coroners’ and Medical Examiners’ Association Board.

To begin with, the interviews of major event parties Jay, Debby and Frank contribute a lot for audience to know about the ins and outs of things. Also, audience can understand the necessity of corner system reform by feeling the emotion of Minor’s family and the struggle of Frank’s work. Willie, as a bystander of the issue, can make the presentation of the story become three-dimensional and improve its objectivity. Finally, the interview of Kathleen Little, the executive director, provides authoritative opinion for this news, which obviously improves the value of news.

As for the reliability of sources, I believe Willie and Kathleen are quite reliable because of their identity of bystanders. Also, as members of Missouri Coroners’ and Medical Examiners’ Association Board, their opinions could be convincing and persuasive. However, some information got from Minor’s family and coroner Frank Flaspohler may be not accurate because they are parties of the death investigation and they might tell stories too subjectively.

The reason why Jay Minor, Debby Ferguson and Frank Flaspohler were selected as sources must be they are totally part of the story and without them the story cannot be developed. In addition, Willie and Kathleen were selected to provide authoritative opinions and more perspectives of the story. In all, the news did a good job in selecting sources.

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Blog3

video1 do homework:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f1j5YjxT-g&feature=youtu.be

video2 play video game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBGGrmriL5c

video3 cook noddles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCF4cIYXfF0

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Multimedia Elements

How was Larry Nassar able to abuse so many gymnasts for so long?

“How was Larry Nassar able to abuse so many gymnasts for so long?” is an article that reflects the problem of U.S. sports using the case of Larry Nassar as an example. The news package makes use of video, text and photo package to show and analyze this issue as a whole.

In its video part, judge, victims and larry’s words are fully presented to illustrate the case’s trend and result. It contains judge and victims’ complaints which are powerful and touching people both visually and aurally. Also, the court record of the situation can easily make people have a sense of substitution, so that the audience can feel closer of victim’s psychological and the severity of Larry Nassar’s atrocity. 

Besides, the photo package’s content of this news is also abundant. The moments of victims’ campaigners cheer women after sentencing, Olympic gymnastics team on the podium and emotions of Larry Nassar, victims and Judge Rosemarie Aquilina in court are well recorded by camera. These people’s emotions make readers understand more about the importance of addressing this issue well. However, I think it would be better if the writer chose to use some data visualization way to show the issues’ background combined with these video and photo materials. For example, showing a map which contains places all known victims come from would be amazing.

As for the text part, it clearly explains the case’s process and results, since the start of Nassar’s trial, the president of Michigan State University has resigned under pressure and multiple officials have resigned from USA Gymnastics. More importantly, the text raises a question that “How was Larry Nassar able to abuse so many gymnasts for so long?”. Actually, it’s the passage’s main point and mentality in the sports world that values performance over protection, medals over morals is also questioned in text. Government oversight with hard and fast rules is called to protect athletes. Therefore, in my opinion, the text part which explains these things well is the most successful element in the news.