Saturday 20 October 2012

Are concerts dangerous?

Not a very newsy story, but I thought I'd write about something that concerned me a bit yesterday. Last I went to a Down concert at Manchester Academy. What I experienced was several injuries and people passing out. Why?

Down can be a quite heavy band and they do know how to get the crowd going. After being inside The Academy for several hours, after watching two warm up bands, Down finally came on stage. By this time it was starting to get really hot. Many people came running out from the middle of the crowd pouring with sweat. On three occations I saw someone having to get help to walk. Now I don't know whether they were drunk, or if they were about to pass out, but it still looked pretty rought. I also so a girl coming out of the crowd in the middle holding her hand on her bleeding forehead. With the number of people crowd surfing, she could easily have been kicked in the head by someones boot.

I have never seen as many people injured/passed out at an indoor concert before. Is this just a Down thing? I would like to say concerts can be very dangerous, but after being there yesterday, I am glad to say that people actually do take care of each other(even if you know each other or not). When a guy dragged his passed out friend through the crowd, others came and helped him carry his friend and lay him down on the floor away from the crowd. I've had some bad experiences too, for instance when I was in the middle of the crowd at a Machine Head concert. The audience were so excited and everyone wanted to be at the front. This ended with all the people at the front(including me) getting squashed. And because this was at a festival, there was a lot more people pushing than at a normal concert. I couldn't breathe and I panicked. Luckily I managed to get help from someone in the crowd. So the conclusion is that if you become injured or simply just have gotten "too much" at a concert, there is always someone who will help you out.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Trashed on Twitter

After getting into a pretty heavy discussion with someone on Twitter, I decided to write an entry about it. The thing is, I don't mind discussions. I suppose everyone like to discuss things that mean something to them or they have knowledge about. But when you get total strangers accusing you for being a racist and use abusive language towards you, the sudden urge to discuss kind of drops off. Why do people have to be so abusive?

Another area to social media (Twitter) I have noticed is the ability people have to completely trash/spam you. You don't really get that on Facebook, but with Twitter it is so much easier to be spotted. Today I received several abusive messages from someone I have never interacted with before. He had simply spotted one of my tweets, and then completely trashed me, calling me names and all sorts. This is not acceptable! Luckily I have the ability to report and block people like that.

I guess it is the thing you have to expect from online interactions. People who normally wouldn't say anything, have time to think about a response that will just completely destroy the other person. But guess what, calling people abusive names doesn't make you good at discussing things. People would never say what they said to me in real life. #Fact

Presidential election

The US election has been going on for a while now, but it is really starting to kick off. One place you can get constant updates on the matter is of course on Twitter. While many people are hoping that Barack Obama will remain president for the next four years, others have a stronger feeling for republican Mitt Romney. Who has a better chance?


A massive  "tweet war" has broken out after actress, model and political activist Eva Longoria started to encourage people to use their votes in the election. It was when Longoria, who is democratic, started retweeting what the republican supporters were writing. According to her Tweets this was in order to create a discussion, and not because she had changed her own view. "I use Twitter as a platform for all Americans and their opinions. Sorry if people were offended by retweet. Obviously not my words or my personal view. I respect all Americans #FreedomOfSpeech" she tweeted earlier today. She then tweeted "I retweet many people I don't agree with for the purpose of discussion and dialogue, that’s democracy...and boy did this create dialogue!" She received lots of support, but also lots of hate-tweets. Is this what Twitter has become? I thought Twitter was supposed to be about sharing opinion and using your voice. Which is exactly what Eva Longoria is doing.


Are bloggers journalists?

As a response to all the angry people out there who think bloggers are not journalists, I have written my own personal view on the subject(on my blog, of course).

What is journalism, really? Who is to define what  a journalist is and how he/she operates? In my opinion, a journalist is someone who spreads information to a group of people. It can be a large group of people, or a smaller group of people. The information can be called news, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Information is so much more than just news. Both journalists and bloggers publish information in the public. It doesn't matter where it is published, what matters is that someone is reading it. Both comment and analyze content, and both also put a new perspective on certain subjects.

The difference is that professional journalists who for instance write for a national newspaper have certain responsibilities. They have to make sure that what they write is the truth by checking their sources and they shouldn't make the article "poisoned" by their own opinion(which is what some people think bloggers are doing).

I believe that a blogger can be a good journalists and vice versa. What you should consider is the quality of what is written. Some bloggers can't be seen as a journalist simply because their written content is so bad. But for those who are putting time and effort into their writing, good for you. I think you are contributing well, and I don't see why you can't be seen as an online journalist.

For me as a student journalist, having a blog is very handy. Not only can I put my university work up here, but I can also find other stories and write about them as well. I should probably be against those who "think" they are journalists without a degree, since I am paying alot of money to get my journalism degree, but the truth is, I think blogging is great. If you have something you want and need to get off your chest, blog about it!

Stagecoach leaves elderly woman behind

Buses in Sheffield can't always be trusted, that is something I have definitely noticed by now. In an earlier post on my other blog (http://annaburdal.weebly.com/1/post/2012/10/number-51.html) I wrote about how the bus route I normally take is very late and how the bus company don't seem to be able to do anything about it.

Today I am going to talk about a complete different bus route from different bus company. I was on my way home on the number 123 (Stagecoach) which goes towards Crimicar Lane(Fulwood) in Sheffield. The bus wasn't busy at all, and had many free seats. When we came up towards Tesco Express, an old lady was standing at the bus stop and waved the bus in. The bus stopped and she looked so happy because it had finally arrived. She picked up her bag and started walking towards the door. Before she reached it, the bus driver just drove off in a big rush. She was left standing on the sidewalk with a bag in her hand. I have no idea what I just witnessed, but I know it made me feel very angry. Is this acceptable?

New blog

I already have a personal website/blog, but I thought I'd try and make a more professional one as well. This blog will show a more journalistic side of me, even though I will probably still share my opinions and so on. That is just my nature, I guess. We will see how this goes, you never know, I might end up not having anything to write about (not very journalistic of me really).