Terrorist Bounty

            Yesterday I famous terrorist, who was responsible for the tragedy in America on September 11, 2001, was killed by the U.S. navy seals. There was a $25 million bounty on him. A question of who is to receive the bounty is in the air. The article titled “Who Gets Bin Laden’s $25 million Bounty?” by Ben Rooney on CNNmoney.com gives information the bounty and to whom it shall go to. The article was chose because the topic of the terrorist has created a big stir in the United States.

            The article starts off by explain the situation and how the United States came to kill the terrorist. The author did a great job explain the history behind the death of Osama. He goes into the task the United States have tried to help obtain him. Then he discusses the bounty that was put on Bin Laden. The next topic is about the Air Transport Association offering an additional $2 million for information on Bin Laden.

            Osama bin Laden has been in hiding for almost a complete ten years now. He is held responsible for the attack on September 11, 2001. On May 1, 2011 he was found and killed by the United States navy seals. There was a $25 million bounty out for him and people are wondering who it goes to. This money comes from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. This was created in 1984 and has paid over $100 million to more than 60 people since then. There were calls made to the APA requesting information on the bounty but the APA did not respond.

            This article was very informative and helped me understand some things that were involved in Osama’s death. The author could have used some quotes and provided some information on where he received his facts from. This was a great article to read and is recommended to be read by others.

S&P 500

This week we have another article from CNNmoney.com the article is titled “S&P's $5 trillion bank doomsday tab” by Colin Barr. The article is about the humongous tab the S&P have created over the past couple of years.  This article was chosen because this seems to be a hot topic in today’s world. By topic we mean the debit that is on the tab.

The article starts off by discussing issues that caused S&P to develop this tab and gives some recommendation on what they can do to reduce it. The author gives ample amount of facts on the issue in the article. The author uses quotes from an anonymous source.  Then the author gives a few more facts about the current issue.

This is a great issue that concerns all of America. It concerns all of America because S&P controls a good percentage of issues that concern money for most Americans. S&P is into the stock market industry heavily and is traded around daily. This issue should be looked into in more detail to help others in America figure out what may be happening to their money in the near future.

This was a well-written article, but there were things that could have been done better. One major thing about the article was credibility. The author did not give the individual whom he quoted name. This takes some power from the quote because it could be from a random person with no real knowledge on the topic. 

Millionaires and Taxes

            This week we have another article from CNNmoney.com the article is titled “IRS cracks down on millionaires”. The article was written by the same author of last week’s blog entry Blake Ellis. This is his second week in a row discussing the topic of taxes. Last week Ellis discussed who the cheaters on taxes are. This week he discusses how the IRS will “crack” down on the millionaires when they file taxes.

            The article first discusses some facts on the taxpayers making between five million and ten million dollars a year. Next it goes over how they rich are able to afford to pay for better tax preparers. Some of the ads on the sides of the article dealt with easiest ways to file your taxes and other articles dealing with taxes and people who cut taxes. The author uses credible sources and highly approved people for his facts and quotes throughout the article.

            The average American is not rich; also the average American does not cheat or try to find small tax breaks in the system. Even though the rich Americans have plenty of money they feel that they should be exempt from taxes or should catch a break. In reality the more money you make the more taxes you can afford to pay instead of trying to make the less fortunate Americans pay.  Do to this the IRS is cracking down on millionaires and billionaires when their taxes are done.

            The IRS will be performing more audits this year to try and catch the people trying to find a hole in the tax forms, these are known as loopholes. The rich are able to pay for better tax preparers, unlike the average American who are limited and may use Turbo Tax or Jackson Hewitt. This issue has become very popular over the past couple of years in the United States. Perhaps this is why the United States is known for its greediness. 

Social Media response

            A presentation on the social media world was given on Wednesday in the JMC 201 class at Samford University. The presentation was given by Alek Pike and Clayton Hurdle, two students in the class. The two students put together an excellent presentation. The presentation lasted about an hour and a half and covered most of the aspects of the social media world.

            The presentation consisted of discussion topics and information on social media. They went into detail on all the different types of social media that are out there. Some of the different types of social media discussed were facebook, twitter, youtube, and myspace. The students presented on how these social medias can help a person communicate with large amounts of people quickly.

            They discussed how twitter has made it quick and easy to communicate with the world. They explained how most people in the public relation industry are using this social network to help their clients and advertise. Also celebrities are using twitter to help their careers and reach out to their fans. Twitter is also used among common people in today’s world to communicate and share news with their friends.

            A power point was used as a visual aid to help show the audience examples of the social media. The presenters also had a group activity where they asked the audience to pull out their cellular phones. During this activity they showed the audience how most of them had a smart phone. Smart phones are used to keep them connected to their social networks throughout the day. This activity was used to show that social media is used in our everyday life now.

            Overall the presentation was great; the group did an amazing job of putting the presentation together. They were confident about the information they had on the social media industry.

Cheaters

            This week’s topic deals with cheaters on taxes. An article titled “Tax cheats: Single, young and male by Blake Ellis. The article can be found on CNNmoney.com. the article discusses the typical tax cheaters, which according to the article is young single males. It includes males under the age of 45 in the young category.

            The article discusses the topic and gives quotes from creditable sources throughout the article. At the beginning of the article it gives some statistics about the cheaters in America. The article has ads on each side of it which deal with refinance rates, oil stock in the US, and mortgage rates. It discusses the things that the cheaters tried to deduct from their taxes. After this it gives more statistics about the cheaters, except this time it is on if they will steal from their children.

Single males under the age of 45 have been found to be the highest percentage of cheaters when it comes to paying taxes. Only 15% of Americans confessed to cheating on their taxes on a survey. 64% of that 15% were males and 35% of those were single and 55% were under the age of 45. Of these males their behavior of cheating on taxes was not the only bad conduct they have. 73% of them work under the table jobs and are most likely to keep the incorrect amount of change given to them by a cashier. Cheaters are most likely to steal money from a child, this includes taking money from a child’s piggy bank.

              This article is important to me because I feel that no one should try to cheat the system. Cheating the system can affect everything in our government. By affecting the government affects all of our lives in the United States.  As a single male under 45 in this country I feel that the “cheaters” are giving males a bad name in the United States. Taxes should not be cheated on because that puts more taxes on the honest people who do their taxes correctly.

Print analysis

            The classroom’s assigned chapter discusses newspapers. Newspapers were the first mass medium to deliver news. America’s first newspaper was published in 1690. The title of the first newspaper is Publick Occurrences. Newspapers were the only mass medium available until 1920 when the radio was introduced to America. There was no competition for newspapers until early 20^th century. The introduction of broadcasting made it easier and quicker for people to retrieve information.

            The newspaper was first used as the voice of the British government. Everything in that was to appear in newspapers was to be approved by the British government. Newspapers printed “Published by Authority” to let the readers know that the newspaper was approved by the government. The newspaper Publick Occurrences was published in Boston, Massachusetts it was the only issue printed. The newspaper upset local authorities and was not printed anymore. The nation’s first consecutively published newspaper was The Boston News-Letter. It was published in 1704.

            In the 19^th century technology advanced and the print industry capitalized on it. Things such as cheaper newspaper, mechanized printing, and telegraphing helped newspapers reach audiences faster. New developments came about because of these new advances. These developments include frontier journalism, ethnic and cultural newspapers, and the alternative press.

            Newspapers were looking for bigger audiences and more profit, so they developed the penny press. The penny press was newspapers sold every day for a penny. Before this newspapers were sold in a yearly advance for $6 to $10. The first penny paper was four pages long and included local gossip and police news. A group known as the newsboys would buy one hundred papers for 67 cents and try to sale them all for a penny a piece to make a profit.

            Future financial success of newspapers depends on their ability to appeal to a shifting audience and meet growing competition. Young readers and women have declined in the newspaper industry. Newspapers are using new features and special sections used for teenagers and women to help stop the slide in readership. To survive newspapers must keep the public informed and stay profitable.

PR response

In JMC 201 there was a presentation given about the Public Relations industry. The presentation was given by a group of students in the class. The students’ names are Bo Morris, Augusta Clark, and Megan Thompson. They put together a excellent presentation that lasted about an hour and a half. The presentation covered most aspects of the Public Relations’ industry. They also covered some jobs in the industry as well.

                The presentation started off great and caught my attention from the start. The presentation felt as if everyone had worked together to create it. The group did an outstanding job on providing ample information on the public relation industry. Each member appeared to have contributed an equal portion of the information provided to the class. They were all well dressed, and spoke loud and clearly throughout the presentation and discussions.

                The group used a power point as the visual aid. The power point was put together excellent. It was filled with information to keep the class informed about the topic of discussion.  There were a couple pictures also used to help the class understand the discussion topics. Unlike most groups that presented they did not use multiple videos in the power point. The power point consisted of just one video towards the end of the presentation. This provided great examples to the audience of how the public relations’ industry has changed since the industry began. The group had a great class activity, which got the whole class involved in the presentation.

                There were some weak spots in the presentation. There were some holes in the presentation. Some of these holes were located in the section of the presentation that discussed the careers in the industry. If there was just a little more information provided on the careers the presentation would have been perfect.

                Overall the presentation was good. The group did a great job putting the presentation together. A couple of simple things could have been changed to make the presentation great. The group came in confident about the knowledge that they had on the topic.