Feature Story--extended blog edited

Title: Anchor, Mentor, Volunteer: The Many Faces of News 8's Paul Brown
Blurb: Join Melinda Valero as she gets to know News 8 Austin's Paul Brown in this web-exclusive behind the scenes footage.

His great knowledge of journalism is just one great quality anchor Paul Brown brings to News 8 Austin. I went behind the scenes in the newsroom to talk to others and Paul himself to find out how else he helps out his fellow coworkers and his community.

Though he is titled "News Guru" by his coworkers at News 8, Brown still feels he has more to learn about the field. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at The University of Texas at Austin. Another goal of his is to conduct research about the news industry, which could serve as a blueprint for younger journalists.

Along with sharing his wisdom of journalism with fellow coworkers and aspiring journalists, Brown is involved with several nonprofits and other community involvement.

He has served as a chairman of the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters, and has judged several journalism competitions.

Along with that, he is a chairman of Texas Hearing and Service Dogs. This organization trains service dogs that help people with disabilities or may be hard of hearing or wheelchair bound. The dogs are trained to help people to do simple things like help people who drop a pen and are not able pick it up.

His interest in animals is also seen in his weekly segment on News 8, Pet of the Week.

Paul is also involved in the Neighborhood Longhorns Program, which creates incentives for those at lower economic elementary and middle schools to learn. Students from UT who go into lower economic elementary and middle schools in Austin to create incentives for learning. With one-on-one mentoring from the students, there is an incentive program that offers tickets to UT sports games for good grades.

To find out how to help out with any of these causes that Paul is involved with, click on the links above.



PROFILE:
Name: Paul Brown
Age: 47
Family members: Wife Dodie, sons Wade, 21, Emmett, 17, and Joshua, 8.
Current title: Anchor for News 8 Austin
Role model in Journalism: Walter Cronkite
Education: B.S. in Radio-Television-Film, Master's in Journalism, and working towards Ph.D. in Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin
First job in journalism: reporter at the Brownwood Bulletin
Twitter: PBrownNews8
Read Brown's profile on News 8 Austin's website to find out more about him.

Check out the videos below with a one-on-one interview with Paul Brown himself and interviews with his fellow coworkers to get their opinion of Brown.

Blog #3: Financial Options for Future Graduate Students

Four years in college costs students (or parents) thousands of dollars each semester. Yet, more and more students are able to get a college education thanks to a vast amount of scholarship opportunities. Even without scholarships, students with a low-income background are able to apply for loans by filling out a Free Application for Federal Aid (FAFSA).

The process changes some once a Bachelor’s degree is obtained and students want to continue on with their education and get a Master’s. While some are able to get their Master’s for practically free with assistantships and fellowships, not all are lucky enough to get into the school of their dreams and get their education paid for.

Scholarships for graduate students are more limited. Federal loans are not given out with as much ease, as undergraduate freshmen are given priority for funds, then sophomores, juniors, seniors, and then graduate students.

Christian Cabazos, senior at St. Edward’s University, is trying to find funds for graduate school.

“The amount of scholarships once you reach the graduate level is a lot more limited than at the undergraduate level and is a lot more specific to the program that you are in,” Cabazos said.

However, there are some tools college seniors may use to continue on to school for at least another two years.

FastWeb is a useful website that provides information on scholarships, internships, and universities in general. Users can fill out information about the school and program they plan on going to and are matched up with scholarships and internship opportunities that fit. See a screenshot of some of FastWeb’s scholarship matches here.

It is also helpful to go to university’s website to get information on funding for the graduate program. University of Texas at Austin provides help for funding your education and lists financial aid, fellowships and awards, and student employment opportunities.

Although graduate students are not given priority for federal loans, it is still important to fill out the FAFSA. If you are eligible for loans, there are loan calculators to help plan how long it will take to pay them off.

An additional two years of tuition may be an expensive option for some, but with the proper research and planning, it may be less stressful.

My Technology Blog

It was hard to keep exact track of my technology use over the past week because I realized that I use it so often. The following are what I used my cell phone and laptop for the most, making me quite dependent on them:

-As an alarm clock in the morning or to check the time throughout the day
-To check emails in the morning on my Gmail and internship e-mail account
-To text frequently (mostly my best friend and roommates)
-To check or add things on my "to-do" list or calendar
-Twitter updates on my phone (from News 8 and the Statesman, mostly for work purposes)
-To check my balance in my checking account
-For homework purposes (reading New York Times, research, etc.)

Within the last week, technology has been crucial in communicating with my sister, who is in Brazil for the week. She sent out a couple of texts letting me and my family know she made it over, and has emailed us a few times as well.

I think the power of texting became evident to me Tuesday morning when I was communicating with about five people at the same time, trying to get some work shifts switched around. My boss sent me a text and immediately I was writing to my coworkers to ask their availability. Within about five minutes I had everything figured out.

In this case, I think messaging should not be seen as negative because it was useful and efficient in my workplace. However, I do think it has taken away from the personalization of talking on the phone. For the past week, I realized I have not talked on the phone to someone for more than a couple of minutes to let them know I was on my way somewhere or to ask them a question.

It was hard to track exact time of my technology use, but on average I think I used over 3 hours a day checking emails, text messaging, "Facebooking," and more.


***I was going to publish this earlier today around class time, but I decided to wait because I used an even greater amount on my laptop and cell phone because of the plane crash in north Austin. After I heard about the crash via Twitter on my phone, I went home to sit in front of my television and laptop with several tabs open: Twitter to get minutely updates, the CNN website, News 8's website, and Facebook.

This just showed how dependent I was on technology during news-breaking events in order to find our more information as quickly as possible.

Technology Takeover: Review of Frontline's Digital Nation

Frontline's Digital Nation appropriately used various cultures and backgrounds to portray what technology has come to be today.

There is no doubt that technology has advanced at a rapid pace in such a short amount of time. Digital Nation portrays the increased use of technology accurately by focusing on the younger generations throughout the world. The elementary schools in Korea that teach young children about Internet use allows the audience to realize what a transformation there has been in response to the Internet's importance in our lives.

The fact that there are signs around the school and a song taught around the Internet emphasize the differences from when we were in elementary school. The lessons taught seem to have moved from learning how to dial 911 in an emergency to how to properly use a computer for communication.

The other cases presented about schools and their increase in using technology related to the audience in compelling ways because it is affecting not only young students but those already in high school and college, and the way teachers present information to their classes.

The reporting in Digital Nation also looked at ways technology has affected other areas in our lives, such as relationships between a mother and son or finding a future spouse. It is important in a story like this to use examples that the viewers can relate to, but to keep it journalistic in the sense that one side is not completely overbearing the other.

Throughout the video, there was not one side that dominated the other. It did lean towards the fact that the overbearing use of technology has taken over our lives in some way, but aspects from the positive use of technology was also presented. Digital Nation allowed its viewers to think about the increase in new technology such as Facebook, Twitter, email, and text messaging.

Chunking Exercise

Unusual Visit in Furniture Store:
A local furniture store had an unusual visitor that was unwilling to leave Monday.

A skunk was on the loose at National Furniture Liquidators for the majority of the day. The acting assistant manager decided to keep the store open for the whole day, but not without informing customers of the visitor.

"Hey, we got a loose skunk in here!" is what customers were greeted with as they drove into the parking lot.


Business as Usual:
Even after being informed of the critter in the store, most customers decided to go in anyway. At first, the skunk was allowed to run throughout the store through its aisles. At one point, employees tried to lure it out with a trail of whole wheat bread crumbs, but that method did not work.

Employees stayed outside more than usual, but other than that, business continued as usual at the store. Dennis Groke, acting assistant manager said he's worked in unusual circumstances before, but never one like this. The store manager was called in to see what he could do and decided on waiting until the store closed to try to spook it out with bright lights and rock music.

After failed attempts earlier in the day to get rid of the skunk, Rich Ulkus of Animal Allies arrived with his expertise to take care of the animal on the loose.


Attempts to Capture:
By the time Ulkus arrived, the skunk had disappeared into hiding in the store. Ulkus got on his hands and knees, shining his flashlight in search for the skunk. He was unable to find it.

Instead he and Goke set up a trap using tuna to capture the skunk.

Austin Offers Free Day of Dance (revised)

Picture courtesy of www.freedayofdance.com

Blurb: Dance lessons of all kinds are being given around the city today for free.

Those who have always dreamed of being a dancer get their chance today to learn some new moves during Austin’s second annual Free Day of Dance.

About 70 hour-long dance lessons are being taught throughout the city for free at six participating studios from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Lessons are available to dancers of all ages and levels. The event is sponsored by Austin City Dance Club, Austin Uptown Dance, Arthur Murray Dance Studio, Esquina Tango, Go Dance, and Rhythmic Motion. Owner and instructor of Austin Uptown Dance Kristy Watson said this is the studio’s second year in participating in the event and looks forward to participating in the future.

“It’s our opportunity to share the joy of dancing here in Austin,” Watson said. “For those who have put off learning, it’s an awesome opportunity for them to see what dancing is really about,” she said.

Ann and Terry Armstrong of Georgetown took advantage of the free dance lessons this morning. They said they are already a part of the Heart Whip Dance Club in Georgetown, which is how they heard of the event. Terry Armstrong said they usually take swing lessons at home but decided to take two-step lessons for a change.

“We’re looking to diversify our dancing here,” Ann Armstrong said.

The Austin Free Day of Dance focuses on the benefits of dance such as stress relief, physical activity, making new friends, increased flexibility, balance and stamina, and improved posture.

Austin resident David Miller attended the event for the second time. He took jitterbug swing and two-step lessons at Austin Uptown Dance this morning to socialize and learn some new dance moves.

“I’m looking forward to learning more swing dancing,” Miller said.

Other types of dance to be taught are belly dancing, country waltz, and rumba.

The city-wide dance lessons give all those in and around Austin an opportunity to try something new out without any restrictions. See the full day’s schedule of lessons here.

For those unable to make it out today for dance lessons, see pricing and schedules for the participating studios [map here with links]:

Austin City Dance Club

Austin Uptown Dance

Arthur Murray Dance Studio

Esquina Tango

Go Dance

Rhythmic Motion

See Melinda Valero's Coverage of the Free Day of Dance on "Top of the Hill News"