Hello everybody! Welcome to The Amherst Outlet, an extension of TrueMass, your online media source for Amherst news. I’m Julian Mendoza, an English and Journalism double-major at UMass Amherst, one-third of TrueMass and the sole reporter behind this blog. Although I’m happy you’re here, this introduction is, hopefully, the last chance you have to get a glimpse of me. My hope is that this blog will help you get to know the world in its truest form. With that, I aim to adhere to proper journalistic practice and make sure my personal opinions do not infiltrate my work.
In terms of content, my main focus is going to be putting out stories centered around our technologically-blossoming lives in 2019 America. With Amherst being a college town rife with innovation and development on its campuses, there is no better display of how technology influences life in the modern era. At The Amherst Outlet, I will be keeping you informed on the latest, biggest, and brightest technological developments in the world, while also highlighting the relevance to life here in Amherst and at college. This doesn’t just mean the latest word on iPhones or virtual reality headsets. Expect to be brought outside of the box and see how changing technology affects facets of life such as sports, fashion, and education. Keeping up with this blog will open your eyes to just how many things human innovation and achievement can impact.
In addition to reporting technology buzz and occasionally off-roading with news articles covering miscellaneous topics, The Amherst Outlet website will showcase relevant outside information through imbedded social media posts and blogrolls that include third-party news publishings. While we will always supply fact-based, anti-bias coverage ourselves, we at The Amherst Outlet support the journalistic ethics of establishing a balanced knowledge base through utilizing a wide array of different sources.
Thank you for coming to The Amherst Outlet. Stay woke!
April 19, 2019. The scent of gasoline and anticipation fills the air. Finals week is stealthily creeping up on students at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Time to give the people one last smile. The revving growl of a motorcycle engine swallows the cries of Canada geese fleeing the scene, mud flying through the air in hot pursuit. Red and blue lights dance upon the campus pond, the steady fingers of police officers gripped tight around their radios. The people’s champion surges forward, sure of himself and dauntless in his pursuit of adrenaline. Within a handful of seconds, “The Pond Killer” is on the other side, cloaked in mud and the adoration of four-hundred supporters.
That might have been the scene if everything went according to a plan devised by UMass Amherst undergraduate student Sean Quinn. The aspiring stuntman, who maintains the account “Sean Quinn Hops the Pond” on social media, managed to amass a following of over 300 people through Instagram and Facebook in support of his idea to jump over the campus pond using a makeshift ramp and motorcycle.
“Originally, it started out as a joke. But then I realized more and more as I went that people really rallied behind it. People enjoyed it,” Quinn said.
While daring, Quinn was careful in his preparation. His primary obstacle, he found, was getting the go-ahead from the university administration to perform his stunt. Unfortunately for Quinn and his supporters, university and law enforcement officials did not approve.
“I have been contacted by the administration and the police, and they have told me this pond jump is grounds for expulsion and likely cause me to be arrested,” Quinn wrote in a post on Facebook explaining the decision to cancel the stunt. Dean of Students Cara Appel-Silbaugh was contacted for this piece and declined to comment on the matter.
While the university wouldn’t speak publicly about this situation, there are likely several reasons why UMass frowns upon students not only jumping over the pond, but swimming in it, skating on top of it, and otherwise interacting with it.
In addition to obvious legal concerns, it turns out there are also several environmental and biological reasons why swimming or launching a bike into in the pond would be a bad idea.
“The campus pond is a little bit different in that it’s not a typical swimming area, so there’s probably no information about bacteria levels,” Scott Jackson, Extension Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass, said. “But you could guess that they’re probably extremely high. I think anybody in there would be at risk of gastrointestinal distress, skin problems, ear infections, so it would not be a healthy place to plunge.”
Jackson also detailed how human interaction with the pond may impact not only the human being taking a dip, but the health of the pond itself.
“I think the biggest concern would be that if you have a vehicle that’s in the water leaking fluids—hydraulic fluids, gasoline, oil—you would really have a concentrated source of contaminants that would be not good for life in the pond,” Jackson said.
He also outlined the risks of an increased erosion rate with people entering and exiting the pond or lodging large machinery into its floor or banks.
“I know there’s been efforts to stabilize the banks so that you’re not getting the sediment washing into the water every time it rains, and depending on what happens, you could imagine somebody taking a big chunk out of the bank and then having to come back in […] and stabilize it after the fact so that it doesn’t turn into a huge erosion area,” Jackson said. He also said there isn’t a lot of information about the pond’s floor, meaning that it could be very soft and present a real danger to anyone who may get stuck in it and require rescue.
Daredevils and swimmers haven’t been allowed in the campus pond since 1958, but before that, it was a site of regular activity. After two students built the pond in the 1890’s, the university successfully lobbied state legislators to build a permanent dam, making the pond a fixture on campus. In the early 20th century, students would enter the pond’s waters for annual games of freshman vs. sophomore tug of war and sometimes take dunks as part of initiation rituals. Until the 1950s, the pond was also regularly used to play hockey in the wintertime.
For most who live here, there is no arguing that the campus pond is a beautiful and iconic part of the culture at UMass Amherst. While it would be a neat novelty to be able to swim, skate, or in Quinn’s case, jump over the pond, it doesn’t seem like a realistic possibility to those who regulate it. Still, Quinn remains determined to finish what he set out to do.
“We’re definitely not giving up. I’ve been talking to a couple physics majors about making a better ramp. I’m thinking about seeing if I can go through a permitting process to do it legally. And if not, I’ll probably just find a time to strike where I won’t get caught,” Quinn said.
And what of the danger? “Nothing has really proven to me yet that I’m not immortal,” he said with a characteristic smirk and a shrug. He doesn’t seem concerned about the risk, and all signs point to a second attempt being planned for the fall.
When I first stepped into my role as a multimedia journalist, I entered with a progressive mindset and an awareness that the playing field is evolving. Having worked all semester applying myself by writing, interviewing, filming, and editing videos, I can confirm that this early perception of modern journalism was not only accurate, but necessary as a novice in the field. I am thankful that I was prepared initially to embrace the challenge of stepping out of my comfort zone to produce works of journalism that extend beyond the written word. It didn’t take long for me to experience first-hand the importance of using separate mediums to cover different aspects of a story. It became evident that a good journalist must be prepared to communicate through as many angles a story presents itself.
The work that I produced myself gave me a hands-on understanding of the tools a journalist in the modern day has to have in their toolbelt. Obviously, my newswriting experience came in handy and served as a backbone for my storytelling and organization. While my writing absolutely improved through working on these projects, the most improved weapon in my arsenal has been my skill as a video editor. I bettered my ability to produce content with Adobe Premiere Pro and learned the basics of the Videolicious and Adobe Spark Video phone apps. Apps like these have changed the efficiency of what journalists can produce in the field on the fly. I’ve found that each of these tools are simple to use and I believe that as technology evolves, so will the prominence of mobile-centric journalism.
Seeing the work of other established journalists in the industry gave me insight that I hadn’t had before in terms of how modern technology can be employed in the future of journalism. One particular piece that struck me as incredibly innovative was the New York Times article “Deliverance from 27,000 Feet.” The use of a three-dimensional virtual tour of the Himalayan mountain range was successful in immersing the audience in the story by making the setting easier to envision. Going the extra mile with multimedia techniques like this is important because with them, a news piece has more potential to earn a deep understanding or sympathy from the public. This is crucial when real-life consequences may depend on audience perception of a topic. When journalists are creative in using tools to better tap into how their audience consumes a story, the closer they get to presenting the truth in its purest form.
The most important takeaway I’ve received through my experiences in this class is that multimedia techniques aren’t merely spectacles to make a piece look more futuristic. Rather, these techniques are the vessel through which journalists strive to build a future where the public can use every part of their brain to take in information and form an educated opinion. I feel like my experience as both a content creator and a content consumer was necessary in comprehending the extent to which this is true. Going forward, I hope to contribute to a growing movement in which the wall between the giver of information and the receiver becomes more transparent.
On March 29, University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, 21, was killed by a man she mistook for her Uber driver, throwing the transportation service company into the spotlight. The murder brings into question the effectiveness of Uber’s safety policies.
“Since 2017, we’ve been working with local law enforcement and college campuses across the country to educate the public about how to avoid fake rideshare drivers,” a representative from Uber said in an email to The State in response to the incident. “Everyone at Uber is devastated to hear about this unspeakable crime, and our hearts are with Samantha Josephson’s family and loved ones. We remain focused on raising public awareness about this incredibly important issue.”
But some believe that the efforts put forth by companies like Uber and Lyft to ensure passenger safety haven’t been as strong as they need to be.
“I’ve never seen Uber say anything about, like, ‘you need to do this before you get in the car,’” said Emma Sammuli, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and frequent Uber user.
Even some drivers say that Uber takes overly-simplified and infrequent action in verifying the validity of their drivers.
“There will be a couple times where you’ll go to open up the app and it’ll be like, ‘oh, we need a picture of your face to verify it’s you,’ but that’s only happened to me like once,” said driver Aidan Stanowicz. Beyond those infrequent checks he said that the app sometimes updates its policies and as long as he hits “agree” when notified, he’s good to drive.
While it is widely accepted that the primary way to stay safe using Uber is to be vigilant and cautious as a passenger, some believe that Uber is also responsible for improving their platform to be more inherently safe.
“This is their company. So they have to take the right steps and the right measures to try and ensure that the passenger safety is paramount,” Amherst Police Captain Gabriel Ting said. Along with passengers, Ting expressed a confidence that the technology required to enhance safety already exists, it’s just up to Uber to implement it. Since Uber’s launch in 2009, the company and its competitors have had a decade to adapt to a changing safety climate. In recent years, Uber has publically invested millions towards developing flying cars for use in the near future, so innovating their app to prioritize safety shouldn’t be a challenge.
The Facebook Dilemma Frontline documentary brings to the forefront of the mind what we’re really signing up for when we create and operate a Facebook account. One major issue posed is that Facebook’s algorithm promotes a culture where false information thrives and pollutes how we think. Another concern presented is how the social media service handles user privacy. Just think about how many people don’t read the extensive terms and conditions when making an online account. Now, couple that ignorance with the invasive conditions Facebook fails to detail in these policies. As consumers, it is seemingly impossible to keep track of where our personal data goes, especially when the public is being purposely left in the dark. The documentary explains the several dimensions of danger that can stem from an online presence.
The most basic issue that The Facebook Dilemma identifies is the way Facebook has constructed its algorithm for presenting news to its users. The algorithm prioritizes news stories that garner the most “engagement,” which often leads to shocking headlines and hot takes that may or may not be true taking precedence over important and truthful information. The documentary highlights how these “fake news” stories that are primed by Facebook to go viral can affect public perception of an issue. In addition, it scrutinizes the position Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook staff takes on the propagation of misleading information that they are not responsible as a technology company to regulate the flow of news. To some interviewed in the documentary, Facebook distancing itself from the identity of a media company backs up the disregard Zuckerberg shows for the real-life impact of his platform.
The second main issue talked about in The Facebook Dilemma is the behind-the-scenes management of personal information. The documentary breaks down how Facebook essentially prioritizes revenue over the privacy of its users. One way that Facebook has done so is by dealing with third-party companies known as “data brokers” who use compromised personal information to target an audience’s interests. While Facebook has supposedly stopped dealing with these such companies, it continues to deal with third-party organizations of various sorts. This concerns users because Facebook has no way of regulation the operations of these separate companies. Companies can have any sort of nefarious intent and Facebook has no way of knowing. It becomes apparent that their only concern is the revenue they receive by leaking user info.
This prioritization of revenue seems true when given the context of when Facebook began getting creative with ways to collect real-world info. The documentary brings up how Facebook only started to develop methods to harvest information when revenue began to flatten. When the sale of personal information posed privacy problems later, Facebook always seemed to acknowledge its platform as the solution and not the problem, citing slow response time as the primary fault on their part.
It’s been well-known that online organizations sometimes compromise private information, but The Facebook Dilemma makes the situation scarier by depicting how apathetic, and sometimes malevolent, Facebook can be regarding the issue. The viewer is left wondering where Facebook’s allegiances lie, and in turn, whether the platform focuses more on providing good information and connecting people or connecting people to malicious parties unknowingly to sell their own information.
If you’re an average Amherst resident that happens to stumble across Shiru Cafe while walking downtown, you might be disappointed when they deny your business. If you’re a student or university affiliate, though, stopping by Shiru is a glimpse into the future of coffee shops.
The interior of Shiru Cafe, a popular study spot for students when there are no networking events being hosted.
Originally based solely in Japan, Shiru Cafe has spread its range to include locations in India and the United States. They separate themselves from the everyday coffee shops by proudly broadcasting their mission to be more of a business and internship networking hub than just a simple place to hang out with friends. To carry out this idea, Shiru has partnered with a variety of business sponsors that fund their beverages in exchange, to the benefit of university affiliates who are able to order drinks for free.
Baristas tend the bar, which is equipped with a QR code scanner connected to tablets to take orders.
While the primary draw for many university students, faculty, and staff may be the free coffee, the most unique and innovative aspect of Shiru is how it involves the customer. In order to benefit from their services, Shiru requires people to register an online profile that verifies your university affiliation and includes your individual career interests so that they may connect you to the right networking events hosted in the cafe. The smartphone app that is used to register is also used to order drinks at the bar, with the in-app menu providing a scannable QR code for each beverage offered. To top it all off, Shiru is paperless and does not take cash payment, adding to the futuristic prestige.
In addition to free beverages and networking opportunities, Shiru provides a multitude of power outlets and free wifi to encourage a tech-friendly atmosphere.
The app-dependent, technologically-inclined cafe has the potential to pioneer a new business model as it continues to spread across the world. It wouldn’t be surprising to see other businesses take note and become more tech-savvy, whether it be simply taking orders from a phone app or utilizing an app as a broadcast medium to connect customers to their service like Shiru does with its networking opportunities. The relationship between business and customer is undoubtedly becoming more interactive and multi-dimensional than ever before. Time will tell what outside-the-box innovation will pop up on our street corners following the lead of Shiru Cafe.
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that UMass Amherst is a mixing bowl of different architectural styles that is always changing. Students and faculty share their thoughts on the past, present, and future of buildings on campus.
Putting together this video piece was a milestone, a pleasure, and a learning opportunity for me. Considering that this was my first time using video as my primary storytelling medium, I am especially pleased with how my partner and I executed our vision and polished it into a cohesive, fluid end product. All in all, despite it being my first experience putting together a news piece centered around video, I’m glad that my journalism background and prior experience using editing software made my roles for the project possible.
One of my primary contributions to the piece was my role as an interviewer. I was responsible for interviewing UMass Amherst Chair of Architecture Stephen Schreiber, Amherst College Chair of Architectural Studies Nicola Courtright, and UMass Amherst architecture major Olivia Mol. Fortunately, scheduling these interviews wasn’t stressful since I reached out to my interviewees long before the deadline. I was also pleased by the fact that each person was prompt and enthusiastic both when they responded to my request and when it was time to sit down and have a conversation.
After conducting and filming those three interviews, I shifted gears and used Adobe Premiere Pro to cut out memorable and informational lines from each for use in the final cut. Afterwards, I arranged these clips, as well as footage taken by my partner, into a rough linear order and wrote an outline to help define a clearer direction for the scripted narration that would be added later. The skeleton I constructed was later used as the backbone for the script written by my partner that helped the unify the piece into a more linear finished product. Editing this video myself and observing my partner’s editing process helped me develop a firmer grasp on Adobe Premiere, which I had only used for one project prior.
After the initial editing and rough drafting process, I took to the great outdoors to film some supplemental footage of additional buildings that was later used to fill gaps in the rough draft. Filming with intention and my goal in mind, I was able to better comprehend what my interviewees told me about by seeing the architecture with my own eyes. The architectural similarities and discrepancies became more obvious to me, and in turn, I gained a greater appreciation for architecture as a whole. The growing personal interest made it more important to me to perfect my work and do the topic justice.
Perhaps the greatest pleasure and fortune I experienced working on this project was the collaboration I enjoyed with my partner. Becky Wandel, an upperclassmen with radio broadcasting experience as well as skill in video editing, took to her role of narrating the script with ease and helped greatly during the editing process, both by editing herself and by giving me advice as to what would make my work better. I have found that an in-class working pair in which both partners carry their fair share of the load is hard to come by, but I feel that we achieved that balance as a team. Not having to worry about the apathy of my partner helped me focus on my portion of the responsibility and further develop my collaborative skills.
Overall, I enjoyed every part of this project and I believe that I grew as a journalist from it. I am more confident in my skills as a multimedia journalist, whereas writing was my primary comfort zone before. Being able to tell a story in a multitude of ways will help me communicate to a wider array of people because different people respond differently to different things. I hope that in the future, I can use this newly-strengthened confidence to better myself in yet another medium.
The New York Times article “Deliverance From 27,000 Feet” does a remarkable job employing a multitude of dimensions to supplement a story so that it immerses the audience. The writing is vivid and rich in detail, catapulting into an action movie-like moment and continuing to enthrall the reader as the story goes on. It doesn’t feel like a conventional news story, but rather a creative writing piece that masquerades real-life important details as plot-developing devices. By writing in this way, the piece does justice to the thrilling nature of hiking up Mount Everest.
The article also contains several stills of the climbers written about, as well as images of family members to both give some background and capture moments chronologically in a timeline following the climbers’ disappearances. Towards the end of the story, there are images of the funeral ceremony and grieving process these family members endured, adding strong emotional value and a sense of reality to the story. Without these images, the audience would have a harder time grasping what it looked like to be in the room.
The most magical and unique storytelling elements in the story aren’t found within the text or the stills, though. The article is more than just your everyday news piece: it is a multimedia experience. One powerful and innovative device the article employs is the use of a three-dimensional terrain model created by Jeremy White that gives the audience a visual tour of the mountain, complete with labels that detail elevation levels at different spots. This not only lets the audience visualize the setting, but it highlights the extremity of what climbers face when they take on the mountain.
Another device embedded later in the article is expedition doctor Paul Pottinger’s video of climbers hiking their way across the mountain. This helps the audience comprehend how difficult of a hike the mountain poses, depicting deep snow, steep inclines, howling winds, and a lack of proper trails.
What might be the most impactful, authentic, and revealing additions to the story are the photos and videos taken by the climbers of themselves while they were up on the mountain to keep a log of what was going on in the moment. Aside from putting a voice to the climbers pictured earlier in the article, the photos and videos act as a first-person source for the telling of the climbers’ story. With the climbers speaking for themselves in this way and giving the audience a real-life look into their situation, everything else added to the article is simply content that fills in the blanks and adds context to help the reader fully encompass everything.
News in 2019 should include elements like these frequently to put the audience in the shoes of the subjects of stories. For journalists doing the best they can to make their pieces as accurate as they can, comprehensive strategies like these are to be embraced.
In their most recent study, the Neuro-Learning and Performance Lab at the University of Massachusetts looks to show that despite popular belief, adolescents aren’t as reckless as society makes them out to be.
“The hypothesis is that the adolescents process the given information more truthfully and more down-to-earth, counter to what people normally think about adolescents as risk-takers and irrational,” head of the lab and UMass Amherst assistant professor Youngbin Kwak said.
This study, which is still in the data-gathering stage, involves a multitude of participants split up into three age brackets: 10 to 17-year-olds, 18 to 23-year-olds, and 23 to 29-year-olds, with the purpose of comparing results from one age group to another.
To get inside the heads of their subjects, the lab uses an Electroencephalography, or EEG, cap to record brain waves and electrodes, or electrical conductors, to record eye movements while the subject plays through interactive decision-making games.
“It’s like a swim cap,” lab manager Sami Waterhouse said. “There are 64 electrodes. Each one of the holes in the cap gets an electrode in it. Once we have all that set up, we bring this and all of the electrodes connected to the room with the participant and we’ll cap them. The ground goes in front. And then we take a little bit of gel with the syringe and in each electrode, we put the syringe in, move the hair around a little bit, put in a little bit of gel, and you move it around again. And that’s how we’re trying to lower the impedance to get a good connection with the brain waves.”
An EEG cap at the Neuro-Learning and Performance Lab, partially equipped with electrodes, being filled with electrolyte gel.
The cap allows the lab to take readings from several different sections of the brain. For this study, the readings will be studied to analyze how they change across different stages of development.
Once the equipment is set up, the subject is instructed to play through a series of games in which they make decisions whether to win money for themselves or give the money to somebody else. According to Kwak, the decision to employ these games in the study stems from the success of doing so in similar studies.
Although this technology may seem futuristic from an outside perspective, some on the inside are actually beginning to feel old-fashioned in terms of the equipment they use. According to Waterhouse, the lab is in the process of transitioning from using EEG to using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, technology.
“The point is that EEG is actually very low-tech stuff because the equipment is very new, but the idea is very old,” postdoctoral research associate Michele Fornaciai said. “There is a lot of new emerging technology…very rudimentary for now, but I think that it’s going to be improved and it’s going to be used probably much more in the future.”
Kwak, however, still sees EEG studies in her lab’s future, as well as in the future of neuroscience as a whole. Rather than stray away from using EEG tech, she hopes that her lab can pair tried-and-true methods with cutting-edge innovations.
“By using a combination of these different techniques, one can compliment the other,” Kwak said.
Despite what the future may have in store for her lab’s technology, Kwak’s priority is using the equipment she knows can most effectively produce results. For this study, she hopes that she can use the data collected through EEG to change the social stigma surrounding young adults.
“We see some preliminary data, but we’re not really at the stage of giving a concrete answer to our hypothesis,” Kwak said.
The Neuro-Learning and Performance Lab is still looking to supplement their study with additional participants. For more information, contact the lab at 413/461-0129 or kwaknlpgroup@gmail.com.
Are adolescents really as reckless as we think? Watch this short video to take a look at one UMass lab where researchers are turning to video games and high-end neurotechnology to find the answer. For the full article, hit this link: https://t.co/ZXdHBbSXHkpic.twitter.com/lDUg0ksTKZ
Although there is controversy surrounding the publicity of student-taken footage of the Parkland shooting, not making the videos available for viewing undermines journalistic values and has the potential to impact the public’s perception of the country’s gun problem. The Washington Post’s tagline, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” tells us exactly why people need to see content like this, however graphic it may be. If the public is kept in “darkness” and the visuals of such traumatic yet polarizing events are censored, the emotional stimulation that could factor into taking sides on a legislative matter is lost. It’s one thing to hear about a tragedy happening, but it’s different to immerse oneself in the experience by watching real footage of it happening. For somebody on the fence about an issue like gun regulation, seeing or not seeing these videos could be the decision-maker.
Some argue that the spread of these videos is too disturbing for viewers or that it is disrespectful to the students and families that were affected by the shooting. In cases involving sudden, untimely death, such as the death of UMass Amherst student Manuel Matos last year, the family often opts to withhold details from public release out of personal preference. The basis to do so, however, clouds when the stakes of censoring such information have a potential consequence.
In the case of the Parkland shooting, the potential consequence that comes with censoring these videos could greatly outweigh the importance of respecting the families’ privacy. If the withholding of the videos is the reason that people hesitate to vote for gun control reform and imperfect gun control leads to more shootings, not only will there be more student deaths that could have been prevented, but the deaths of the Parkland students would be in vain in the eyes of many involved. Perhaps even in the eyes of the slain students themselves if they could speak on the dilemma. Journalists could end up having blood on their hands if they prioritize the family’s wishes and influence how the public votes on an issue that holds lives in the balance.
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