I wrote on a newspaper in high school, and one of the stories I had was the fact that it seemed as though West Albany High School seemed to receive more, and better, publicity than South Albany High School did. Now, having attended South, I did have a semi-biased opinion on this subject. When I interviewed, I asked people both from South and West the same question, and from what I can remember, they agreed West got more publicity from the Democrat Herald then South did. To further on with that investigation I asked the sports editor of the time, and I don't believe he agreed with that statement. So, getting to the question as to why I would read a newspaper, I would read them if there was fair coverage off all sides of a story. Not just one sided, when it comes to like rival high school sports. That was the biggest thing I had against the DH. I know that I would most definitely read the newspaper if it looked like the one in the TED talk video.
Another reason I would read the newspaper is that if it was more contextually, and visibly pleasing to me. The newspaper is designed as just that, a newspaper. It looks boring, and there is nothing that really draws my attention other than the occasional catchy headline. I do believe that newspapers are very oriented towards the older generation, and it would be nice if it had things like cheap or free weekly or even monthly events catered to people ages 16-25, or right around that age group. That would make it easier for people like me to find, fun, inexpensive things to do around Albany, especially in the summer. I spend a lot of time on the internet looking for things to do in Albany, because I've done a lot of the things in Albany that I already knew about, so I'm constantly looking for things to do. If the Democrat Herald had a section for weekly things to do in Albany, or like a calendar set aside with up-coming dates, or even had ads for smaller businesses such as the Pix Theatre or the restaurant Loafers, I know that I would pay much more attention to the newspaper.
Like I said early, I think that newspapers need to change their demographic. Often times newspapers are catering towards people who want strictly the stories, but I believe that if newspapers had more things that were catered to all ages, then they would be better suited to survive. As my group and I had discussed, there are several things that the paper could do to address these things. IF the newspaper were to try to cater towards parents or families, they could do a family page that has reader sent in recipes, fun craft ideas, or even like a connect the dot for the kids to color while their parents read. This would bring in more family type viewers, because it could help the families find activities for everyone, in the family, plus ideas that they could do together.
A second idea is to have a classified section that is similar to craigslist, where they only have a cheap rate to place ads for jobs and real estate. They should have an ad site that is aimed towards the young adult demographics, such as textbooks for sale, or tutoring services, or even places like somebody looking for someone else to take over their lease. I think that both of theses are important ideas because they would widen the demographic of the newspapers, to apply to more people. Because the more people there are, the more readers they will have.
The blog project that caught my attention was the one done by Slade, because it was about the movie "American Sniper," on that had a lot of controversy surrounding it, and how a few famous figures are dissing on this story based of a true American hero. When it comes to the "American Sniper" movie, although I'm not a veteran nor am I heading down that career path, I believe that people who are saying things like Chris Kyle being a coward because snipers shoot down men behind their backs is nonsense, because I believe that unless you have walked in his shows or experienced something similar to what he did, then you should never be saying something like that about a veteran. They are there to protect us, and his job was to protect his band of brothers, and the rest of America's citizens as well.
I personally have never been involved in anything military, army or anything along those lines, but I find that those careers are often associated with things like post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. I am a firm believer that if you haven't walked into somebody's shoes, especially with something like that, then you have absolutely no right to belittle their situation. Seth Rogan said something long the lines of the "American Sniper" being something that could be the third part of Inglorious Bastards. Which is disrespectful in the fact that Inglorious Bastards is making fun of World War II, emphasis on the fact that Inglorious Bastard MAKING FUN of a war. Another person who criticized the movie, Michael Moore, is feeling the repercussions for their comments, even to the point of being banned from Brann's Steakhouse and Grille.
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