Nic Stone

The roof of Eastern Correctional Facility pokes incongruously above the yellowing autumn leaves near the small town of Napanoch, about two hours north of New York City. It is pyramid-shaped, with a cylindrical turret at each corner and doesn’t really belong amid the colorful foliage and gentle mountains in which it nestles.

As you approach the building, it begins to make more sense. Beneath the big, green pyramid are high sandstone walls decorated with barbed wire. Inside, through the metal detector and past a couple of guards is the prisoner meeting room, a large space with some tables and chairs, a few vending machines and yellow lines on the floor that tell prisoners where they can and can’t step. Children run around while their parents talk, a couple holds hands at one table and a pastor studies the Bible with an inmate at another. Still another inmate stands alone in the room wearing prison garb, a doo-rag over the dreadlocks he is growing for charity, and a cheeky grin.

His name is Curtis Tucker III.

Arrested at his cousin’s wedding in Coney Island in November 1988 at age 23, Tucker was convicted of being an accomplice in the murder of a friend and has been in prison ever since.

He has also maintained his innocence the entire time.

But Tucker, now 47, isn’t the only character in this story. This is also the story of his mother, Janice Tucker, who lives in Bushwick Houses and visits her son as often as she can. It’s the story of Nawanna Snipe, his ex-girlfriend, who took a course in criminal justice and administration with the University of Phoenix in 2009 in hopes of helping him. And of retired city police Sgt. Derek Brown, now a private investigator with Brooklyn Defender Services, who also grew up in Bushwick Houses and offers his help free of charge to the family to help exonerate a kid he used to play ball with on the basketball courts off Moore Street. It’s the story of their fight, now entering its 24^th year.

“I haven’t seen the likes of this in quite some time,” Gregory Rheubottom, a Harlem paralegal, said of the group’s dedication. He has known the family for two decades and he, too, is helping them with the case: “Because of their fight, because they fight, I fight with them.”

So do others in the Bushwick Houses community, where Tucker grew up. More than 400 people, mostly from the development, have signed a petition which is continuously being sent to politicians and lawmakers in an attempt to have them review the case. And the Rev. Reggie Bacchus, pastor of Mount Ollie Baptist Church – which Janice Tucker attends – is holding a forum on Nov. 11 to see how the church can help.

“Bushwick taught me family values,” said Tucker from the visiting room at Eastern Correctional. “It taught you that you can go to anybody’s house to eat. There is a togetherness in the projects.”

It is this togetherness that is keeping his fight alive.

*  *  *

When Curtis Tucker III was a kid, his uncle dubbed him “Lep” – short for “Leprechaun” – because he was little and his ears stuck out.

He grew up in Bushwick Houses during the 1970s and ’80s. He owned and went on to run a club on Fulton Street in Brooklyn called “Cat’s Paradise” as well as disc jockeying around town. He was also, by most accounts, quite popular with the ladies.

That’s not to say he didn’t make mistakes. As drugs flooded the streets of Brooklyn in the 1980s, he freely admits, he – like so many others in that neighborhood – found himself wading through the crack epidemic as a drug-dealer, looking to make fast money. This earned him a related weapons conviction, though he didn’t serve any time for it.

“I wasn’t a good guy. I did things wrong. At first I thought I was being punished for that, on God’s own terms,” he said.

“I sold that s—. I messed up whole neighborhoods. And maybe I did need to go away to become what I am.”

But the irony, he insists, is that when he finally did end up in prison, it was for the one crime he didn’t commit.

It was June 20, 1988, and he was heading to a friend’s house to hang out. Out the front of the house he saw Kevin Turner, whose sister he was “seeing” at the time.

They arrived at 684 Monroe St. in Brooklyn at around the same time as a group of acquaintances including two guys named David Smith and Lawrence Moses. The conversation jumped from the New York Knicks, to a cute girl from Manhattan, to Tucker’s club. They also spoke about jail after seeing a news report on the television, Tucker recalled.

Soon, a phone call came through from a guy named Ronnie “Poop” Blackett. He and Tucker had grown up together in Bushwick Houses, their parents took turns looking after them, and they played in the same playpen and on the same basketball courts. Poop, hearing that Lep was there, said he would come over right away.

But when he got there, the conversation changed, Smith would testify later. It turned to money.

When the phone rang again, Smith answered it. But the line was not good, he testified. He hung up, turned around – and he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

Turner shot him in the side of the face, then turned and shot Moses and Blackett dead.

“I just jumped up and ran to the back door to get away,” Tucker said recently, describing his own reaction that night.  “There was a shot guy next to me, so I just ran to the kitchen, but the back door was locked.”

Smith, badly injured but still alive, played dead. He would later testify that he remembered Turner yelling and Tucker running for the back door.

“Maybe I should have been killed or shot,” Tucker would say later in court. “Then maybe I wouldn’t have been here today, facing a serious sentence for a crime I didn’t commit.”

After the incident, Tucker said, he went to his club and sat, shaken, with a bottle of Bacardi. He had just seen his childhood friend shot and murdered. He didn’t call police, because, he said, that was the code of the streets, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t affected.

“I remember him shaking, nervous, scared,” said Janice Tucker who saw him when he arrived home a little while later. “Not the type of boy that just shot someone. Then Kevin Turner came and he said, ‘I just shot Poop.’ He was bragging about it.”

Today, Turner is serving 100 years for the homicides that occurred that evening. Tucker was offered a deal to confess; ironically, had he taken it, he would have been out of prison now. But Tucker never shied away from defending his innocence. He pleaded not guilty, but was convicted by a jury.

The presiding state Supreme Court justice read out the sentence in small bursts:

Robbery and assault…10 to 20 years.

Accessory to murder…15 years to life.

And again, accessory to murder…15 years to life.

After the sentence was read, Curtis Tucker recalls being led away by officers and then simply lying on the floor in the holding cell, looking at the ceiling.

“I was numb. I couldn’t believe I was convicted for something I didn’t do. I was gone. I was there, but not there.”

As of this year, he has spent more of his life in prison than he has outside of it.

*  *  *

New York City Police Sgt. Derek Brown first heard that Tucker was wanted for a double homicide in 1988 when he saw a picture of his old friend on a bulletin board at the precinct where he was then assigned.

“I tore it down,” said Brown, now retired from the NYPD. “I just knew this was not something that Curtis would do. I went to talk to my superiors.”

Brown didn’t hear anything more about the case until 2009, when one of Tucker’s cousins told him about it at a family gathering.

By now, Brown was working as an investigator at a non-profit called Brooklyn Defender Services that serves the needs of the indigent community in Brooklyn. He offered to help for no charge, and is trying to track down the only witness Smith, to see if he will testify again.

“Curtis is still my man,” said Brown. “Not every case you see is 23 years old. There are flaws in the process…He wouldn’t get convicted if the trial was held today.”

His mother also worries that these flaws helped to convict her son.

“No jury ever heard the other side of the story,” she said.

Janice Tucker often makes the trip up to Eastern Correctional Facility to stay overnight in one of the on site trailers, where she can cook and spend time with her son. She says being there is more relaxing than being at Bushwick – like a “little holiday.”

“You will never see a more dedicated mother than Janice,” said Rheubottom, the Harlem paralegal, saying that such devotion is unusual when someone has been in prison so long. “I’ve seen mothers last only two years before they stop sending letters and packets.”

Even more striking is the dedication of Nawanna Snipe, Curtis Tucker’s former girlfriend, who will often head north to talk to Tucker about the case, something she is doing more regularly after finding what she says are a number of anomalies in the trial notes.

Among them:

In testimony, Smith changed details, saying at one point he felt someone take money from his pocket four minutes after Turner yelled instructions to do so, then later saying it was only one and a half minutes.

The prosecutor admitted in his summation that the only witness in the trial, Smith, said, “without equivocation, he didn’t know what part Curtis Tucker played in this incident.”

Snipe is most curious about the role of the judge, however, in relation to the main witness Smith, who was called as a material witness and arrested to testify in the court. The judge said at the time, “I don’t believe the witness was held in custody. Not by me.” But Snipe has a copy of a material witness order that is clearly signed by the judge.

But there’s more:

The floor plan of the room where the murders took place, as entered into evidence, was not the way Tucker described it – he said was sitting in a different place.

Early on in the trial, referring to his previous firearms conviction, the judge described Tucker as a “professional armed felon,” which doesn’t sit well with the family.

With their concerns and Tucker insisting on his innocence, they appealed the case in 1994, with no luck. In 2000, Tucker started saving money and working on his case himself with a view to another appeal. In 2006 Snipe started helping more and soon after started her law-school correspondence course.

The family has also tried to contact Turner, who will spend his life in prison, to see if he will provide testimony to exonerate Tucker. So far he has been unwilling to cooperate.

 *  *  *

The only times Curtis Tucker has been back to Bushwick in the last 23 years have been at the funerals of his father and two aunts. He arrived in shackles and accompanied by two guards. He hadn’t been in a car for so long that he got motion sick on the drive down to the city. And that wasn’t the worst part.

“I can see the hurt in my loved ones, and not just for the one in the casket, but for the one in shackles,” said Tucker.

From prison, Tucker still sends Christmas and birthday cards back to residents of Bushwick. He paints and draws, and designs the logos for family reunions. He finds he really enjoys writing poetry (he normally writes about things like love, he says). He also reads a lot. (He just finished “The Mastery of Love” by Don Miguel Ruiz.)

He helped to raise funds for the victims of the Haitian Earthquake and families of 9/11. He plays for the prison football team. But mostly he tries to be involved in the lives of his family, especially his two children.

His son, Curtis Tucker IV, who was a toddler when his father was arrested, didn’t learn until he was 11 where his father really was. Before that he was told his father was “at college.”

Now 25, the young Tucker, who family members say looks like his father at the same age, is himself studying business management at La Guardia Community College. He is also trying to break in to the world of DJing, just like his father. After recently traveling to Dubai, he thought a good combination of the two would be to try to be a professional DJ and party planner in Dubai. (He likes the slogan “From Bed-Stuy to Dubai.”)

That is not to say there haven’t been tough moments.

Curtis IV recalls crying at church as a boy when there was a father-son event; the DJ played Will Smith’s “Just the Two of Us,” and he sat there alone looking at all the other boys with their fathers.

“It always hurt, but I just knew I couldn’t keep crying,” he said. “I had no one to turn to, but the past helps spur me on.”

That, plus his father’s continued involvement.

“We still speak as much as we can,” said Curtis IV, who recalls having the seminal chat about the birds and the bees on one prison visit. “He is always there for me. I know some fathers that give up, but he never gave up.”

For Curtis Tucker Sr., growing up Bushwick was an important part of learning the values that have seen him still supported by so much of that community.

“I’m feeling great,” he said from the table in the Eastern Correctional visiting room, the specks of gray in his goatee hinting at the passage of the years. “I preach this a lot. When we think positive, positive things happen. When we think negative, then negative things happen. You have to stay positive at all times.

“Just because we are in prison doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of their life. I’m proud of where I came from.

“But I have been in here for 23 years for something I didn’t do.”

Unless his family and friends are successful in their fight, he won’t leave Eastern Correctional Facility as a free man until at least Halloween 2023.

 

In the shadows of Manhattan on Roosevelt Island, a building lies in wait. Insatiable foliage has taken over its walls and surrounds, while inside timber offers support to slouching balconies and scaffolding props up neglected walls. Wind courses through the many holes and openings as the structure succumbs to the resignation of decay, while multi-million dollar apartments and office buildings peer mockingly across the East River at their neighbor.

But there is an elegance and attractiveness about the crumbling building that make it in some ways more beautiful, and in many ways more interesting, than the structures that stare across at it. It is in its abandonment and in its dilapidation that the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island has found a great and unique new role that seems to be emerging in many cities.

Opened in 1856, the hospital on the southern tip of the island was once one of many public institutions built to care for New York City’s unfortunate and destitute. It was designed by architect James Renwick Jr., who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. When it was used to house those suffering from smallpox, the lower floors of the hospital were used for charity cases and the paying inpatients would stay in private rooms on the upper floors. At its height in the late 19th Century, an annual number of 7,000 patients were treated, with an average of 450 deaths. But the patients left and so then did its purpose.

Now, the Smallpox Hospital provides its own interpretations of beauty from its purgatory that provides a welcome counterpoint to garish and grandiose new structures that grow around it.

This type of building, the urban ruin, is a critical new part of the cityscape and is developing a committed and large group of fans. Forgotten Detroit, Abandoned Berlin and Abandoned New York are all groups or people that run websites dedicated to the exploration of the forgotten and falling buildings in their cities. Photographer Ian Ference makes a living from selling photographs of abandoned buildings in New York. He also draws heavily from the work of Richard Nickel, who campaigned for the preservation of these types of buildings in the face of relentless urban renewal in Chicago.

The common reaction to crumbling buildings is to repair them, like a middle-aged person getting plastic surgery and wearing that old dress or tuxedo. But that never seems quite right. What happened to aging gracefully?

Too often these gems fall in to the hands of developers and moguls who would like nothing better than to turn them into apartments. Or better yet, apartments with walk in wardrobes. But the fact that the Smallpox Hospital has remained in limbo is a testament to its beauty and the power that this type of building can have.

The structure today is still is three-floors high, with a main central chamber and a North and South wing. Only the gray exterior and foundations remain; there is no roof, the inner walls have all crumbled and all the windows sit without panes. The building is falling in on itself and the formerly flawlessly carved stone exterior is now covered by small spray-painted jellyfish, yet it exudes peacefulness. It provides a welcome juxtaposition to the modernity around it. There is also a fantasy and mysticism about the hospital, which is best captured at night as yellow spotlights give it an eerie glow that piques your imagination. The evocative nature of these ruins is one of their most treasured characteristics.

As the building falls further into disrepair, it becomes increasingly interesting in a city that is renowned for its phallic pursuit of the sky and ravenous urban development. It stands in defiance and the city should be thankful. The abandoned Smallpox Hospital has taken on this role as a monument to times gone by. A place where the mind can wander and the gothic revival design can be appreciated.

It is not easy to be a friend of decay. Cities, it seems, are constantly looking to update and clean their wounds. The longer the cavernous skeleton of the building remains staring defiantly across the East River to Manhattan, the better. To explore these buildings is a treat.

Imagination, beauty and possibilities are the currency of their decay.

 

Gilad Shalit looked like a boy trying on his military uniform for the first time. The olive green shirt fell off his gaunt, sickly body. The belt looked superfluous; not holding up his pants, just hanging there like a decoration. The badges were all in the right place and the uniform was pressed to perfection, almost mocking the weak body it clung to.

In the procession of absurd images that accompanied Shalit’s release by Hamas back to Israel – officials hurrying him along at the border exchange, his labored interview on Egyptian television – none were as odd as the image of him in his oversized military uniform saluting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Today, Shalit was a national hero, a symbol of Israeli persistence and a reminder that nobody in the Israeli army is forgotten. But he was also symbol of a misguided policy that appears to have more to do with populism and public relations, than a sound strategy for stability in the region – a peg from which Mr. Netanyahu can hang phrases like “I considered, and I decided”.

The exchange of Shalit for in excess of 1000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, many who are convicted terrorists, creates a scenario where the likelihood of similar events happening in the future is increased and it also further muddies Mr. Netanyahu’s dealings with Hamas.

According to the Almagor Terror Victims’ Association, 180 Israelis have lost their lives to terrorists released in previous deals since 2000. Families of victims of terror have expressed vehement opposition to the deal. Several petitions were brought by these families to the High Court of Israel on Monday and rejected.

Despite this, popular support for his release in Israel was overwhelming. According to a poll in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, 79 percent of respondents agreed with the exchange. The Israeli Cabinet backed the release with a majority of 26-3. This was not a close call. But was it the right one?

Part of the problem is the fact that Israelis still have to do three years of military service as young men. During his imprisonment, Shalit became everybody’s son or brother – a reminder of the proximity of military service to all Israelis.

“In opposing the mass release of terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit’s freedom, I felt as if I was betraying my own son,” wrote Yossi Klein Halevi, a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

A few months ago, as part of its psychological war against the Israeli public, Hamas released an animated film depicting Shalit as an elderly gray-haired man, still a prisoner in Gaza. Israelis couldn’t stand it; Netanyahu had an opportunity.

But war has never been a friend to the young; nor will it ever be.

Soldiers die. Soldiers are captured. Bringing one home in exchange for a number of convicted terrorists only appeases the public whim for the time being. It wins popularity contests, but it does not win the fight for peace. It jeopardizes it.

Many see Mr. Netanyahu’s haste in pushing though the deal as an indication that he did not want to miss the opportunity to have the release finalized under his rule. Of course, the photo of a weak Shalit saluting his Prime Minister in that brand new uniform will probably win Mr. Netanyahu many admirers and boost popularity for his Likud Party.

But three years after the Jibril Deal of 1985, when the Israeli government agreed to release 1,150 prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon, Mr. Netanyahu was not so sympathetic. At the time, he explained his philosophy about negotiating with terrorists to CNN’s Larry King.

“We wanted to get our POWs back, and the government, in my judgment, made a big mistake and traded terrorists,” he said.

What has changed? What seems a step towards interaction, a step towards cooperation and a step towards peace, is actually a giant stride in the opposite direction – a perpetuation of the issues that lay at the heart of this conflict. Mr. Netanyahu saw that then, but he seems to have forgotten it in an attempt to win support and appease his people.

When the joy at Shalit’s release dissipates and the happiness that he is home is no longer relevant, perhaps this decision will seem as absurd as the uniform he was made to put on for the cameras when he was returned.

I have decided to start posting more regularly on this blog with ideas and thoughts about the world I inhabit. I am (trying to be) a journalist, so the media and its myriad incarnations will more often than not be will be trending regularly to use the modern parlance. But I will also talk about things that interest me and I feel deserve comment, review things I have seen, heap praise, disparage, remain critical yet fair and hopefully enjoy myself. Everything I write or say will be my own and not reflect any employers or institutions I am affiliated with, both future, past and present. Although, it is highly likely that these words will draw greatly from those experiences and you can blame them if you want.

Feel free to reply to me. Contact me. Abuse me. Love me. All are welcome in healthy doses.

Enjoy…

My first attempt at using storify. Much fun…

[View the story "Slutwalk New York" on Storify]

An audio slideshow recorded at Far Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York.

i like to fish from Nic Stone on Vimeo.

“Here’s the problem: Journalists just don’t understand their business.”

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau

As recently as ten years ago in newsrooms, Journalists were predominantly kept out of the business of media operations. It was as if the business side of things was something to be protected and so were the journalists, almost like Christmas presents being hidden from children to preserve an ideal. But as journalism has matured into the digital age, it is becoming increasingly vital that journalists understand and appreciate this relationship. The old model is simply “untenable,” according to Columbia Journalism School’s Bill Grueskin.

A report into the business of journalism compiled by Grueskin, as well as Ava Seale and Lucas Graves, helps shed some light on the opportunities and shortcomings of a digitalizing media.

 

Name three trends that have significantly changed economic models for news organizations in the digital age. (no more than 500 words total)

The trends affecting economic models for news organizations bring both possibility and restriction.

1. Digital Media disrupts old aggregation models that were profitable for so long. Prior to the advent of online media, newspapers were able to operate an extremely successful collation of news from a variety of genres and areas. If someone liked only sport, they still had to buy the whole paper. Now, someone need simply go to a sport website like ESPN to get all the in depth news they want (there is only wheat online if you want, you don’t even have to think about the chaff). This also means that instead of a News organization telling an advertiser they have 1 million readers and selling advertising accordingly, regardless of what people actually see in the paper, they now work via page impressions, which tells a more accurate story about numbers going to your site and specific sections. Advertisers can now buy ad space for a lot less money, despite booming numbers of customers; a 17 percent jump in readers only yielded a 2 percent rise in revenue in advertising for instance. Newspapers also now have to deal with digital aggregators, who have been very successful in collating online information. As Investor Aaron Kushner said, “your competitor is someone who gives away your content for free.”

2. It is very hard to ensure that digital advertising supply matches the demand, which has greatly impeded traditional economic models for selling ad space. In print, it is easy to offer advertising and even to increase the size of a publication to accommodate more ads. Online, this cannot be done properly and a publisher cannot determine exactly how many pages are going to be produced in any given time period. Huge news stories are often unexpected and advertising cannot be sold speculatively, so publishers tend to undersell advertising. Thus the economic model is now based on underselling, rather than being able oversell advertising space.

3. Digital Media’s ease of access and speed to update make it a referential or lean-forward experience, rather than a lean-back experience like television or a newspaper. Most people will spend about one or two minutes at a website when they visit it, but television and newspapers are normally watched and read for around thirty minutes. This brevity changes the role of advertising. Advertising is not as tailored or advanced. In many instances it is tacky. In Digital, content is definitely, but being able to integrate beautiful and bespoke advertising is proving difficult. This has greatly dropped the amount of money a digital service can garner from advertising, altering the economic model.

 

List up to three advantages that a new, digitally based news company has over a traditional print or broadcast organization. (no more than 250 words)

1. Metrics available for digital media usage can make an organization’s understanding of their reader much better. Whether it is the pages people are liking on Facebook or retweeting on Twitter, an organization can build a better understanding of what is working and what is popular, but also what specifically a user likes to look at. This allows them to tailor content and advertising.

2. You can now access information around the world, immediately, and in a variety of formats. It used to be that if you left you home, you would scarcely hear about what was going on in your hometown, as you had no access to that localized news anywhere but your hometown. Now you can keep abreast of happenings all over the world, immediately, via the web. It also means local news sites can report on wider issues themselves, increasing their potential market.

3. It is the future of news. Digital Media is already the most popular way for people in the age range of 18-29 to get their news. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 65 percent of people aged 18 to 29 get their news from the Internet – for the first time this was higher than television and far exceeded the 21 percent in the same age group who rely primarily on newspapers. With popularity and usage, will come opportunities and investment. News agencies will increasingly put more effort into better online products, giving it an edge moving forward.

 

List up to three advantages that a traditional print or broadcast organization has over a new, digitally based news company. (no more than 250 words)

1. Costs structures are accepted and appreciated, particularly in print. On the surface, it seems odd that you would pay for a service in hard copy, but not online. But print has always charged and so people simply accept the cost of a paper or magazine. Online, paywalls have been executed poorly and people feel online content should remain free. This is a major ideological hurdle the business of journalism needs to address.

2. Advertisers have a better understanding of what works on television and in print, which is hurting digital advertising revenues. Advertisers have said they have a hard time conveying branding online, whereas in a magazine ads are very often seen as part of the content or artistic. These traditional formats, at this stage, just seem much better suited to successful and unobtrusive advertising.

3. When you purchase a newspaper or watch the television channel, you are committing to that particular product as a whole, and generally speaking sticking with it for a while. The average 30 minutes of watching a news broadcast or reading a newspaper allows for a much more immersive experience, which suits advertisers and offers the possibility of more depth for the reader.

1. Name some effective ways for journalists to use social media (no more than 250 words).

Social media gives journalists a raft of possibilities for networking, finding trends, meeting sources, engaging, and publishing that can really develop your craft. It is almost like the Basketball hoops of journalism have been lowered three feet, but you still need to know how to score.

From Dean Sreenivasan’s lecture on Social Media for Journalists I garnered a number of key points. Building networks is vital for Journalists and can be done via Twitter (through use of hashtags and attribution), via LinkedIn through a cultivated presence, and Facebook through the creation and editing of your virtual shop-window and interactions with others. These networks can be useful for finding and maintaining sources or researching and impressing potential employers.

You can also use these sites to follow trends and develop story ideas. Social media is exactly that, social. People share things that may be of interest to them and their community. When events unfold, Facebook and Twitter are a treasure trove of information and comment, which is why Dean Sreenivasan recommends following as many people as possible on Twitter. By using social media adroitly, a journalist can stay at the forefront of information and also be there to break events.

Finally, all journalists have stories. So by publishing yours on social media, you can increase traffic to your work and hopefully even develop some new followers and fans.

 

2. Over a one-week period, you might send out dozens of tweets. Please cut and paste a representative sample of 10 tweets you actually sent out any time after Thursday, Aug. 4. These should reflect the kind of tweets you send on a regular basis.

@NicStone

An oldie but a goodie. Hunter S. Thompson’s job application. And he mentions Columbia. http://bit.ly/b4ZBG5. #cuj12

The great man heads down under: @PRI ‘s Ira Glass as part of #SydneyFestival2012 w/ an Aus tour as well! He has helped changed radio…

Bad that I chuckled? @AP: After Steve Jobs resigned, #Apple stock quickly fell 5.4% in after-hours trading: apne.ws/oRdcaj

I think knee-jerk reactions like banning twitter miss the point entirely, as this erudite piece suggests http://gu.com/p/3xe9k/tw via @guardian

#Earthquake and now Hurricane #Irene tracking to NYC. Is god punishing Egyptians again or something?

Interesting read on the role of a despot’s son in #Libya in @VanityFair. http://t.co/F6cqFwe

Hilarious @mediaite. A Kid steals the thunder at CNN’s Important Kim Kardashian Live On-Location http://t.co/tVl7IXz

Earthquake evacuation in NYC! My first ever quake!

@mumbrella ‘s Battle of the Media: Cinema vs online and DM vs TV j.mp/pXbgPP. Interesting takes on the current media landscape.

New stuff going up all the time now at nicstone.com. #journalism

 

3. Please identify five journalists’ Twitter accounts that you have started following after Thursday, Aug. 4.  List each handle and describe, in a sentence why you are following that person.

@blakehounshell

I started following Blake, the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, after I noticed he was being retweeted and referred to by other people I follow on topics I am interested in, like the conflict in Libya.

@umairh

I found Umair Haque to be providing very thought provoking and likeminded thinking on the London Riots and so after reading some of his work tweeted and linked to by friends, I followed him.

@nytjim

I started following Jim Roberts after his name was mentioned at the J-School as someone I should definitely be watching.

@andersoncooper

As someone new to the USA, I thought it would be important to follow some of the bigger names in journalism in the country, which led me to Mr. Cooper (his tet-a-tets with @piersmorgan also helped).

@brianstelter

Mentioned in @sree ‘s online lecture and someone I thought I would be very interested in following the way they operate on Twitter, not necessarily what they have to say, which was important for me.

 

4. Name some ways your use of Facebook might change now that you are in J-school (no more than 150 words).

I doubt there will be a major change in the way I handle my Facebook account, although I do believe I will be more active with it. One aspect of this will be to create a page for myself and start cultivating it as a place I can post work and ideas. I will probably also sift through pictures and comments that I don’t like being on my page or associated with me and delete them, rather than allowing them to stay online. I will also be more productive in linking with sources and elements of what I am covering via Facebook.

A photo essay taken at Graham Live Poultry Inc., Moore St, Brooklyn, NY.

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