Imelda Marcos: The Steel Butterfly

Source: http://www.piercemattie.com/jewelrypr/Imelda%20Collection.jpg
Imelda Marcos was born on July 2nd, 1929 in Manila, Philippines. She is known for being the First Lady of the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos was the President from 1965 to 1986. She is also very well-known for her collection of over 3000 pairs of shoes. Not only was she the First Lady of the Philippines, she was also claimed to be one of the most beautiful women the country's ever seen. Former President Ferdinand Marcos' ruling during his term was very corrupt and Imelda Marcos dreamed of a romantic and powerful life which would probably explain her extensive collection of shoes and grand shopping tours to the United States at the time.
Imelda Marcos was born into a very stable and wealthy family with a Spaniard background. Her family wasn't very political though she grew up living close to the Malacanang Palace in San Miguel. Growing up, she became a beauty queen and won several pageant titles. She also had a magnificent singing voice and started to grace many covers of magazines as the Muse of Manila. She began to be exposed to Politics when moved to Manila to live with her cousin in Quezon City.
In 1953. she met Congressman Ferdinand Marcos in Baguio during Holy Week and married him that same year. She had four children with Ferdinand; Imee, Irene, Aimee and Bongbong. Imelda Marcos worked hard to stay in the public eye for the purpose of winning votes for her husband to with the 1965 elections. She graced every magazine cover and traveled a lot to gain the support of other politicians and political figures. Once in presidency, Ferdinand and Imelda corruptly ruled the government of the Philippines and declared martial law to put a hold onto their power. Ferdinand won a second election through buying votes and fraud which kept them in power for another whole term until the Power Of The People Revolution removed them from presidency in September of 1972.

Interview with Imelda Marcos

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHNfqBQbrU0

Questions:
1. Imelda Marcos along with Former President Ferdinand Marcos displayed addiction to power over the Philippines and corrupt ruling to satisfy their own wants. Do you think that this has influenced the Presidents that came after the Marcos'?
2. With the recent death of the non-corrupt Former President Corazon Aquino, her son Noynoy Aquino has taken the incentive to run for President in the 2010 elections. If he wins Presidency, do you think he will continue his mother's legacy of a clean and justly ruling of the government?

External Links:
http://www.marcospresidentialcenter.com/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501040712-660979,00.html
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/imelda/index.html

Essence of Journalism

jour-nal-ism [jur-nl-iz-uhm]

- noun
1. the occupation of reporting, writing editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business.
(As defined on Dictionary.com)


Dictionary.com may have to update it's definition of Journalism because the description above seems to be very vague compared to the action that really goes down in the newsroom of The Toronto Star. The generalization of a print journalist would be someone who reports the news, writes articles and edits them. But that is only the tip of the iceberg for those who work at The Toronto Star. Journalists and photographers have a lot more responsibilities when it comes to delivering news than what they are known for doing. Many journalists not only have to come up with their stories and write and edit their articles but they must also be multifaceted. Many journalists are knowledgeable in more than one aspect of delivering the news. They are not only familiar with  writing, but they may also be responsible for layouts. They have responsibilities of capturing their reader's interest and attention before they even start reading by a visual mean. Photographers also have other responsibilities besides just snapping photos. They are responsible for capturing certain angles to visually correspond with the story that it may be paired with. Those who work in the graphics department are responsible for specifically enhancing photos. For example, making a dark photo brighter and clearer for print or adjusting the colours of the photo to make them look better and realistic on print.
All these attributes of delivering the news must all be done by the deadline. The essence of working in a newsroom to deliver the news to the public is time. Events, issues and developing stories have no end which means that the newsroom has the responsibility of delivering news while it is still fresh, otherwise, it is already considered as old news. One way that The Toronto Star keeps up with delivering the news is by planning ahead. Catherine Pike explained that they already have many news features lined up for the next week or even the next month. Photographers are also very pressed for time when it comes to displaying their photos right away. Richard Lautens said that their photographers usually use their iPhones to capture quick photos that they are able to send right away to be displayed online before the actual photos taken by their camera get uploaded, enhanced and posted.
To become successful in the print journalism business, one must be very versatile because there are a lot of roles to be played, one must also be organized and uses time wisely and most importantly, one must be dedicated and passionate in what they do. 

Town Crier's Brian Baker

(Photo source: http://www.puffingod.com) Brian Baker's piece, "Saucy Words" with James Dewar, informs readers about the city's "literary scene". Specifically, it talks about James Dewar and the origin of his poetry show, Hot Sauced Words. James Dewar had been working at a bank for 23 years before he began to pursue Hot Sauced Words around the city. As with the beginnings of many things, everything didn't run smoothly at first for James Dewar. He had his ups and downs whenever someone new stepped up to his open mic. His next goal was to improve the objective of his show; to make it more interactive and community-based rather than centering everything about performances. In this piece, Brian Baker also manages to discuss Dewar's opinion on the division amongst the city's "poetry cliques" and his stance on the trending style of poetry, Spoken Word. (Saucy Words Article)

What makes this a good piece of journalism is that Baker was able to reach out interest in an array of readers by how he presented this story without giving his own opinion. Whether or not the reader is interested in Poetry, Baker has illustrated Dewar's story in a way that many people can relate. He gave brief background information about Dewar and how before he started Hot Sauced Words that he was banking for 23 years which  is something that a lot of people can relate to or may be inspired by. He also instantly captured the interest of those who are interested in Poetry with the subject itself and by presenting James' point of view when it comes to Spoken Word. A good piece of journalism should capture a reader's interest, allow the reader to relate and question; maybe even debate a certain topic and of course to give general information and Brian Baker's "Saucy Words" did exactly just that. 

Lori Harfenist's Journalistic Tactics

Screen shot of 'The Resident'.

Lori Harfenist: Manhattan's respectfully sarcastic and legitimately informative broadcast journalist and video producer. She is missioning to voice out that low-budget productions are able to produce videos that are highly saturated with worthwhile content; generally all under 2 to 3 minutes. 

(Photo on the left is from The Resident website) Harfenist has definitely, in my opinion, impacted my perspective on broadcast journalism. How she has simplified the process of bringing issues to the public and inputting her own opinions of them creates a significant statement in the media. What appeals to me about how she approaches her stories is that she delivers the news in such a way that an average person would and by doing so, she is allowing her audience to relate or even debate on the issues that she is laying out onto the table. I think what makes her show so appealing to so many people is that she is very concise and she packages her stories in short lengths, meaning that the audience is fully focused on her and what she is saying throughout the whole video rather than the audience being distracted by filler intros, outros, advertisements and sponsors. She also makes her shows very interactive. She asks her viewers on their opinions and what they would like to see and hear about. Unlike mainstream media that filters out what they are going to show on air.



An example of Lori Harfenist's method of attracting and entertaining an audience. (Source: YouTube.com)

Another reason why I think her show is so appealing to so many people is because she adds character and attitude. The way she attacks her stories are sometimes sarcastic; she skillfully uses the tone of her voice to sound positive about negative issues which adds ironic humor to her shows. Humor = entertaining = attracts an audience.