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The Online News Association, award-winning multimedia project, It Happens at Midnight, is a detailed show into the revival of midnight movies. Up until the late 1980′s midnight movie showings of cult classic films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Night of the Living Dead were extremely popular.
There’s a great interactive map that list the theaters where the films are viewed, across the nation and also users are able to submit their own favorite movie houses where midnight films are shown. The map is an excellent feature to attract viewers and keep their interest throughout the site.
Another aspect that will keep people viewing content is the timeline. Users are able to receive the history of different cult classic films and the theaters that run them. The timeline starts in the 1930′s and ends at the revival in at the break of the new millennium. Each decade incoporates video, pictures and text. Once again engaging the viewer to continue browsing the information.
Overall the project is very well done. The topic isn’t overdone and is very interesting. You’re given an in depth look into the resurrection of this culture and how vivid the lifestyle can be.
The competive internship is starting to take on a literal sense as described in the Inc. article Want great interns? Hold a Contest by Shivani Vora. In the chance to win a $4,000 scholarship, free clothes, a mention in the magazine Teen Vogue and fashion internship with the popular surfer clothing line O’Neill, high school students were given the opportunity to showcase their designing skills. The challenge, to create an outfit for the clothing line. After a runway show, the winners are picked via text message by their peers.
The program was implemented in 2007, and has been successful since. Students work with designers everyday after school for about three to four hours.
One high school senior describe the contest as a rewarding experience. Even though she wasn’t the winner, she’s able to walk away from the experience will a portfolio of work. She also credits the fashion show contest as changing her mind about her future. Instead of staying in her home state of California for college, she attends a fashion school in New York.
The blog 10,000 Words post 7 Unique and Innovative Maps, shows how multiple websites incorporated interactive maps on their sites. There are maps that range from finding places where the unemployment rates are the highest to mug shot maps. All the maps on these websites are interesting and are used to keep the visitor attention. Here are a few of my favorites
Away We Go
This map was used to promote the film Away We Go. On the website encourages users to document a journey they’ve experienced with a memorable song, that they can place on the map. Though there isn’t a wide variety of songs available the website is a fun way to get people excited about the movie. The map is easy to navigate and you’re able to browse through published memories easily.
Trendsmap
Yes Twitter’s Trending Topics are helpful to track what people are tweeting about, but it’s limited to a few topics. Trendsmap is a real-time tracker of what people are tweeting about around the world. You can track tweets in your immediate area and across the nation. When you click on a topic, the most current tweets are available and are immediately updated once a new tweet is sent. The map is easy to navigate and understand and overall pretty cool!
Tampa Bay Mug Shots
The Tampa Bay Mug Shot map is great for a few reasons. It’s informative, easy to understand and entertaining. Yes, some of the mug shots are funny but the website was primarily designed for residents in the Tampa Bay area to be informed on the people being arrested. Aside from the pictures, there are statistics given based on age, sex and appearance including height and weight. The only element missing, race.
In the traditional sense, your college matriculation usually consists of your freshman prerequisite, your major classes and at some point an internship. During times of economic downtown an already highly competitive internship becomes miles harder to secure with companies making budget cuts. The Editor & Publisher article Newsroom Interns: Helped, or Hurt by Cuts explores the limited number of options students face with companies either reducing the number of internship positions available or what companies are offering internships at all.
The issue is bittersweet because companies offering internship positions are now more than likely unpaid, but interns are asked to complete real work instead of being an errand runner. This aligns with the ideals of one students who sees the unstable economy as more of a gift than a curse for students looking for internships.
On the other hand, theres a vast amount of students who are feeling the brunt of companies limiting their number of interns. The articles talks to a student who believed she secured her internship but was later informed that the position was no longer available. Though she was able to find another internship she discusses that many of her friends didn’t have the same luck.
For some colleges, internships are a requirement for graduation. So with the number of open positions shrinking, the worry from students is growing as they scramble to find an internship.
The multimedia project Black Market by Patrick Brown, details his trip to several countries to investigate their practice of selling animal remains. Many of these parts are used in rituals or as aids. Brown describes the use of the Rhino horn for its sexual powers.
This business is extremely lucrative, through no one working know its exact worth. The stills in his multimedia story vividly describe this trade. I was surprise to see that Brown, was able to go so in depth seeing that this is such a taboo field of work. Even though his photos give a vast amount of detail, if he wouldn’t have narrated the story it would have fell flat.
The inside stories of raids and of him voluntary ingesting the gallbladder fluid of a bear couldn’t have been told with photos alone.
In the Tonic online article, Summer Interns Green Fortune 500 Companies, by Sarah Parsons you learn about 26 MBA students who strayed away from the common 10 week summer internships. Students were partnered with Fortune 500 companies including Dell, eBay and Sony Pictures to research ways the company could save a little green while being environmentally friendly.
One student interning with the company Cisco help to implement a power strip program that helped to save the company over $1.8 millon a year and also saved the green gas emission.
Green internship are becoming more common in cities including Chicago, New York and Baltimore.
The Career Center is a helping hand for students on the search for both internships and jobs. Many career centers on college campuses hold workshops to inform students on many topics that are important in the work force. Glenda Henkel, Towson University Career Center adviser suggest students make use of what the Career Center offers, even if you visit the website.
“There are a number of strategies for finding internships listed on our Web site:www.towson.edu/careercenter. Click on the link for “Internships & Experiential Learning,” then click again on “Finding Your Own Internship,” says Henkel.
The Towson site Hire@TU is available for students to post resumes for potential employers. The site also allows students to search of internships and jobs both on campus and in the Towson area. This tool is helpful for students since they’re able to search and if they have a posted a resume it opens them to employers.
Outside of the website, the Career Center plays host to many events including job fairs and an upcoming event that will be co-hosted with Towson University’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
In the Chicago Tribune article, Internship Opportunities Shrink Amid Recession by Carloyn Bigda, she reports on the changing availability of internships since the recession.
Bigda stresses the importance of students having internships, but the economy is making internship opportunities slim. Students are now having to go extra lengths to stand out among the pack. Rick Hearin, director of the University of Maryland’s Career Center gives are few vital tips that will help students on their search.
With companies cutting internships by almost 10 percent, being prepared is the best solution to ride out this internship drought.
