ADPIdol

ADPIDOL is a singing competition on the lines of American Idol. The BU sorority Alpha Delta Pi is organizing this event which proceeds go fully to the Ronald Mc Donal house charities. Teams of 1-3 people will compete in the contest, singing songs to impress the audience and the judges.
The Judge panel includes Dean Elmore,  a member of the Dear Abby's a-cappella group, the president of the Panhellenic council, a member of ADPI national sorority and the president of the Inter-fraternal council.
This was the first time ADPI had organized this event and it was a success. The Morse auditorium was packed in every order of place and the crowd was very involved and enthusiastic about the great performances like this one


The singers were great and included mostly greek life members and a few a cappella groups. A special mention goes to a solo singer of "Call me maybe" who tried his best to read the words from a sheet of paper but only managed to a laugh from the crowd.
The contest had two winners: the judges choice and the people's choice. The people's choice award saw the Chi Phi trio triumph with their special version of the song "Your beautiful" by James Blunt.
The event kicked off with a video showing what the sisters of ADPI around the US had already done for the Ronald McDonald House Charity.

When I think of McDonald i certainly do not think of charities, but this event introduced me to the great things that the McDonald group is doing for people with severe health issues. At the bottom of the page I have created a map with all the Ronald McDonald House charities in New England with contact information and location.
"ADPIdol 2012 is an event that is bound to be repeated every year" said Meghan Quinn who co-produced the event, "We raised $2,500 which was way more than we expected."
 The greek community at Boston University has recently been under a negative light because of some incidents regarding alleged hazing activities. This event like many others that occur on and off campus every semester are a positive representation of the community work and philanthropy that greeks do on a regular basis. Last month two members of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority were sent to the hospital after what appears to be an alleged case of hazing involving large quantities of alcohol. In another instance, the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity who was suspended from any activity on BU campus since 1995 was found keeping new members tied up together with welts. The police officers who entered the house after complaints from neighbors found 5 people tied up in the basement with all kinds of condiments around them. The national fraternity has indefinitely suspended the Boston University chapter and has stated that "The actions being reported at Boston University do not reflect our fraternity's values or principles of brotherhood."
ADPIdol 2012 is just one of many events that greek life puts together to raise money and awareness for good causes. Two days after that, Dancing with the Sigmas, organized by the sigma kappa sorority brought more than a thousands people around a podium to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association. Their national organization is the second biggest donor to the Alzheimer's Association after the Federal Bank.
That said, my wish is that more people who are not in Greek life go to events like this to see how devote greeks are to giving back to the community.
Im also going to take this time to thank Nick Barber for a great semester of online education and preparation for the real world! This class really helped me and was eye opening in light of future job decisions. I wish him all the best!

ADPIdol 2012

 
View Ronal McDonald House Charity in New England. in a larger map

Farewell GlobalPost

Every good thing has to come to an end.  As the school year is getting close to an end, my coverage of the GlobalPost will also be terminating soon. It all started off as a painful endeavor for one of my journalism classes but it turned into a very interesting investigation into the world of GlobalPost. 
I have seen the website develop and improve, the home page got a very nice polishing and is now clearer to read and easier to find what you are looking for. The GlobalPost is a young online newspaper and it was interesting to see how they developed through these 4 months. I had the pleasure of discussing the news sector with GlobalPost vice president Charles M. Sennott. 
This gave me an in-depth sight of what the GlobalPost was, how it worked and how it got the money to finance its operations. 

With the technology developing as quick as it has for the past years, people more frequently connect to the internet and get their information online. GlobalPost has been at the forefront of online news-writing since 2009 and is really making a push to become one of the most read websites in the world. They are doing a great job. I think that if GlobalPost continues on their track, they have the opportunity to go very far in the news business. One day i would love to have the opportunity to contribute to the newspaper and gain some valuable experience from it.
I am going to try to keep this blog going even when i finish this class. I am interested in the revolutionary way the GlobalPost conveys their information and how they gain support in what they are doing!
I hope y'all have enjoyed my writings so far and are ready for more! I have to thank Boston University for pushing me to create a blog and find interesting topics to write about. 

Chatter

GlobalPost Chatter blog is a daily updated news blog that covers a multitude of news as it happens. It is often very up to date with current issues but certainly doesn't go in depth with the most important and life changing issues that are dealt with in the rest of the online newspaper. The Blog is lead by a team of 5 journalists positioned around the world and mainly presents current snippets of news as they happen. I really like this part of the blog and think it should be given more importance. As it is certain now that younger people get there news from the web, it is also true that they don't spend a great amount of time looking at and reading the news. The Chatter blog condenses all the news that is happening in a page. The writing is very young and enjoyable. The small snippets of every news feature tend to keep my attention more than a long article. 

Front page of the Chatter Blog

The topics discussed in today's Chatter blog are: the failed missile test in North Korea, current methods to maintain the cease-fire in Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron's historical first trip to Myanmar, the summit of the America's most recent discussion on drug legalization and lastly a short account on how smart Baboons are. 

A baboon in the Cape of Good hope (S. Africa)

 All in all Chatter is a great addition to the website and confirms the great strides forward the GlobalPost is making. I would almost certainly say that an avid reader of the GlobalPost is daily given its new feed in a very extensive manner and also can learn of unexpected things around the world.
On a negative point, there are even more advertisements and pop-ups on the website which are normal because this is a free online newspaper but is still very annoying.

A New(Balance) Field for BU

Late this February Boston University announced that the Boston based company, New Balance, would donate  $3 Million toward the creation of a new stadium for the Field Hockey and Lacrosse teams. The New Balance field will be a state of the art facility set to be built on the current Babcock street parking lot. The field should be ready by 2013 to bring the field hockey team back on campus. The D1 team has played on both BC and Harvard's fields since 2000 after a renovation to the turf on Nickerson field that made it impossible to play on. It is unthinkable that such a successful team (5 time America East Champions since 2000) has to play far away from campus making it difficult for students to attend the games. 

BU Field Hockey player in action

The new field will also be useful to attract prospective students and athletes who look at sports as being an important factor when applying to colleges. This project almost doubles BU's already large recreational area. The men's Lacrosse team is set to become a varsity D1 sport starting next year.  The promotion of the Lacrosse team from club to D1 is the first instance at BU since 2004 and has been happily welcomed by current students and alumni.

The existing parking lot on Babcock Street is frequently used by BU staff and others who benefit from this parking space.  The construction of the field will enable 350 new covered parking spots, thus preventing car damage from the neighboring softball field. The field itself will seat up to 1,000 people and will even have a 500 square foot press box. The hope is that the facility will be constructed quickly in order to get the much needed parking space back.

With the field being placed on campus near student dorms, there is hope to create an increased interest in BU sports and school pride.  "New Balance Field will be a major addition to our athletic and recreational facilities" school president Robert A. Brown told BU Today. "I am very grateful to New Balance for its leadership and support and to our alumni who have given generously to make this facility a reality. The field will benefit not only our student-athletes and the greater BU community, but it will allow us to expand our very successful NCAA Division 1 athletics program."

Here's how the field should look

The investment New Balance is making for BU is part of their program to give back to the community.  "As a Boston-based company with a long-standing commitment to promoting health and fitness and giving back to the local community, we are excited to help provide this valuable athletic resource for the Boston University community" said New Balance President and CEO Rob DeMartini. Boston University students are already excited about this new field, which will also act as fields for intramural sports.  One of the problems to consider is the leveling of the parking lot that has a visible slope. This will add on to the cost of the project, which is estimated to be around $24 Million. 

On the 6th of March a task force dealing with the planning of the field gave a final, positive decision to start building.  Construction is expected to finish by July 2013 says Tim Whitney, the project architect. There are many people working on this project right now. Pamela Beale is the chairman of the task force and thinks “It’s all about really making it a better place to live and be a student.”

I am confident the New Balance field will be a great success and will add to the already glamorous reputation held by BU. Every aspect of this new field is being studied in detail to ensure that neighbors and students can enjoy the field without being disturbed. I wish this field would've already been completed in my time at BU but it will certainly benefit the future Terrier generations! The BU administration and New Balance ought to be congratulated for enhancing the campus and making a better use of space. 

New Balance Field Soundslide

Map of Field Hockey fields around Massachusetts

View Field Hockey Arena's in Massachusetts in a larger map

The Toulouse Killer

Toulouse was theatre for a dramatic incident involving an Arab man of the Al-qaeda terrorist group who killed 2 military officials and 3 kids and a rabbi in two separate instances. The man Mohammed Merah, was confined to his room for the past 2 days as French police blocked off the area where he was living and surrounded his apartment.

Mohammad Merah Video

 It was difficult for the police to determine a course of action because the man was heavily armed. When a swat team tried entering the apartment he fired back and injured 2 other officers. This tragedy ended early this morning when the Mohammed launched himself from the bathroom window brandishing a gun and firing continuously towards the policemen outside his house. 

The GlobalPost had a great reportage of this event and tweeted continuously whenever news was uncovered. The article is descriptive and also focuses on the external actions taken by French political leaders to bring this drama to an end. 

The article is complete with an informative photo gallery that shows a few different moments of the story. An upsetting aspect is the continuous pop-up AD that really makes me want to go to another website to read about this story, not only is it annoying, but it pops up every time you want to see a different picture. 


An important coverage has been given to this story around Europe because of the continuous rise of Anti-Semitism and Anti-Semitical acts like this. I was happy to notice how the GlobalPost was constantly on the story and had great updates all along. On the other hand, other important American newspapers reduced the story to a quick update on international news. From this coverage, i can tell the GlobalPost really get a feeling of how important a story is globally and not just in the US. 

21 Jump st.

Homepage Update

Yesterday, GlobalPost changed their homepage. 

This more dynamic and interactive homepage offers the reader more immediate and relevant articles in a "list" style. The new homepage definitely adds sharpness to the website and creates a more straight forward outlook as a whole. The tabs which made the GlobalPost a very expansive news website are somewhat more hidden leaving more space for breaking and trending news.

Under every article it is possible to comment using almost every social media tool. A list of about 20 articles including recent news and more relevant news appears in the front page with a section on global blogs on the side. I really like this new layout because it is easy to find relevant and very recent information. When it comes down to news, people want to know what is happening in "this" moment and the GlobalPost did a great job adjusting to this theory. 
Tomorrow is International women's day and the GlobalPost has a very interesting special report on "Women and Justice in Afghanistan" 




The GlobalPost is stepping up their game and making impressive changes to their website in order to become one of the web's most viewed and read newspapers. I am very happy I decided to follow this website as I always feel up to date with current events around the world. What the GlobalPost really needs now is a way to market their news-site in order to get more readers and subscribers than ever. 

A day in the life of Sarah

A very BU Exhibition

Wanderlust

The Blog feature is well established at the GlobalPost. Blogs about almost any subject can be found in the website. Because of the many international correspondents, the blogs are updated daily and reveal interesting stories about less known matters. 
Wanderlust is a thought-provokinglog about sexually related news that happens around the globe. The GlobalPost, specifically Iva Roze Skoch, takes a funny and controversial approach to this difficult topic. Her blog entries range from relatable human stories to less known facts about the animal kingdom's sexual relations.
I chose to focus on a specific post that Iva wrote on Feb. 28th that talks about social media tools in relation to sexually transmitted diseases. A very effective Aids awareness campaign in Finland suggests using the same geo-location symbols commonly used in Foursquare placed on the genital area to refer to the number of sexual partners at that moment. This eye-opening idea could persuade people to use condoms and other precautions when having sexual encounters. 

Blog posts like this one really help in raising awareness and show readers from around the word how remote countries like Finland are fighting AIDS. I like the relation between such a terrible disease and modern social media devices. I will certainly keep an eye on this blog and suggest y'all do the same! Until next week, be safe! 

The Greenery

One of my personal favorite sections in the GlobalPost website is Green. This portion of the website is dedicated to issues covering everything from clean energy, pollution, climate change, to conservation, ecosystems, wildlife and many more.

Updated frequently, this section really does a good job of uncovering interesting news stories from around the world. The section is divided into 3 subsections : Global Warming, Wildlife news and Energy. With the "green" tab, GlobalPost demonstrates how they are involved in almost every field of interest and show great awareness of the outside world. This is definitely a point in their favor and really helps readers and subscribers to become more aware and conscious of efforts to save our environment from degradation and pollution.
If it wasn't enough, GlobalPost uses extremely reliable sources such as Associated Press  to give further credibility to its articles. 

Tweet Tweet

Twitter is a growing social media engine that lets people post 140 character "tweets" from their account. It's main advantage over other social media tools is its immediacy and almost live coverage on any event happening worldwide. Even the Pope has joined twitter and promised to tweet at least once per day, in this lent period.

GlobalPost has a really good twitter page that counts more than 40,000 followers. Being one of their followers is an amazing opportunity at keeping up to date with all the major events, controversies and news-worthy stories that happen on a daily basis. It has produced more than 16,000 tweets so far. Counting so many foreign correspondents really helps the GlobalPost be a satellite for news coming from all over the globe. What differentiates the GlobalPost from other news agencies on twitter is its use of multiple sources as links related to their tweets. In the past 12 hours they have generated 72 tweets on issues ranging from the terrific train crash in Buenos Aires to the Zanzibar music festival .

The GlobalPost is on the forefront of online news and their twitter page confirms their excellent use of the many media devices that the internet offers to reach many more readers.

OFF Beat

One of the better and more original sections of the GlobalPost is "Off Beat."

This tab is filled up with original stories that always have a humorous and interesting spin to them. 

I think it interesting and positive to have a slightly more amusing and funny section specially when the audience is subjected to so many sad and bloody stories across all news platforms. My only complaint for this section is the fact that the last article dates back to January 25th and there are just a few others in the whole section. 

The Off Beat section

The most recent page presents a power point story regarding the slow decay of the United States as reigning power of the world. The slide show was offered by its author to be published solely in the GlobalPost. If you want to visit the authors full website click here . 

The illustrated book composed of 64 slides is a political narrative done in classical cartoon form depicting what the author thinks was the reason for the recent economic crisis and how he thinks the US is going to get out of it. Using statistics and superheroes to demonstrate the problem Thomas C. Ramey, the author, really gets his message out by making it easy for the audience to acknowledge the problem and agree on his solution. Although the author gave publishing rights to the GlobalPost, it is also possible to buy a printed version of the book on Amazon.

A great feature that has become a trademark on any well respected blog or online website is the Facebook comments. When looking below the site, there are a few comments of people who look at the article and feel the need to post something that will end up on their Facebook. Remember, the Facebook feature is made for you to write on  not to ignore! 

Finding opportunities in direct competitors

The Global Post is an online newspaper that brings information together to create articles and stories regarding international news and conflicts. We live in a time where the information travels fast across the Internet. The audience has an extremely vast array of websites to choose from to get their daily information.

 Speaking to the VP of the Global Post, Charles M. Sennott, I discovered that he is not afraid of its competitors.  Instead, he treats the competition as an opportunity to get different sources for the same news story. In the case of the Egyptian revolution for example, the Global Post collaborated with another news organization to ensure complete coverage of the historical moment.

One of the Global Post's closest competitors is the Foreign Affairs, this news website is very similarly set up but fails to incorporate as much media interaction as the Post. On a positive note, Foreign affairs has a very interesting section focused on classroom activities for I.R &Politics courses.

Classroom section - Foreign Affairs Online

Visiting the Global Post website daily, I have noticed that the section on the Egyptian revolution has not changed. I think this is an interesting choice because although the focal point of the revolution has already been reached, the Global Post wants to keep on track with the story for further developments. New circumstances occur on a daily basis in Egypt, a desperate country  about to have its first democratic elections. Just yesterday 74 people were killed in the worst soccer-related incident in Egypt’s history. An interesting article was published, which included links to blogs that point out the influence of soccer fans within the revolution. 

 Charles M. Sennot offered an interesting antidote to prevent any story from plunging into boring repetition: focusing on one specific person he will see how that person lives their life and how the revolution has changed that life. 

News around the world with the Global Post

The website Global Post is an online US news business that focuses on international news. Launched in 2009, it counts on a large number of foreign correspondents to submit their stories. The first tab on the home page allows the users to search news by regions as well as topics and interests. Most journalists who write articles for this website actually live in the region they are describing, in turn increasing the credibility and feel for the story.

The “Special Reports” section focuses more on one specific topic, with an in-depth analysis and heavy multi-platform use. At the present time, the main focus of the special reports is on the Egyptian revolution. Egyptian Journalists as well as American ones, have contributed to the report by working together on the field.   

You can find a blog on any topic within this website. The photo gallery is stocked with interesting pictures while the video gallery isn't updated regulalry and still refers back to old news. 

 It is also possible to follow the Global Post from Facebook and Twitter.

Global Post Twitter page

Updated on a daily basis, the site offers interesting angles on stories that would not be in US papers, as their coverage focuses on international news.  This does not mean it fails to address important US stories. The news coverage is so vast that one would have to consider it a combination rather than a single TV station or Newspaper.