This story aired on CW17’s “Inside Jacksonville”
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Grant Barton- Local Celebrity
After a series of televised dates, four young men from Jacksonville are starting to realize the do’s and don’ts of male and female interaction. Grant Barton, 21, was recently featured on Steve Harvey’s daytime talk show with three of his best friends, Christian, Davis and Adam. Harvey chose the young men when Adam’s mother sent a video to Harvey saying she was worried because her son and his friends could not get girlfriends.
The four young men are self-proclaimed “nerds” who have been friends since junior high school and had trouble getting dates prior to being on the show. Barton says they consider themselves nerds because they like to play video games, read comics and watch anime. Harvey invited them to be on the show so he could help them with their dating lives. They have already filmed two episodes in Chicago and are about to film a third episode, which will include some footage from Jacksonville.
During the first episode, Harvey sent the four young men on separate dinner dates to test their dating behavior. They subsequently went back to the studio to get feedback from Harvey in front of a live audience. In the second episode, stylists gave them haircuts and new clothes to make them more enticing. After the makeovers, they were sent on individual dates that including activities such as dancing and Tai Chi, a form of martial arts. Once again, they went back to the studio to review their respective dates and receive advice on how to do better in the future.
Barton says it was weird being filmed on a date because he didn’t know what they were going to show, how he looked or how he acted. He said he was originally nervous to go on the show because the video cameras would catch anything he did wrong, and they did.
“I remember during the second episode, they caught me stuffing my face when we were eating and I didn’t know I did that,” Barton said. “So when they showed it in front of the audience for the first time, that was the first time I had seen it. It really surprised me and made me realize that they catch everything we do. Everything.”
According to Barton, the show actually seems to be improving his dating life. He is more confident and willing to try new things. The young men showed major improvements when on dates from the first episode to the second.
“On the first episode we did, I was so bad it was really awful, I think for all four of us,” Barton said. “They gave us a lot of tips on how to hold a conversation better, things not to do and how to dress nicer and I definitely try to apply those. We definitely showed our skills more during the second episode, we fixed a lot of the problems we first had.”
Barton says one of the most important things he learned was to ask his date questions and get to know her better, instead of pressing himself so hard to think of things to say. From plane rides and hotels to limos and dates, his overall experience has been enjoyable and he can’t wait to continue with the next episode, which will feature some footage from Jacksonville.
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I did this video for my Multimedia Storytelling class at UNF.
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The posts below are stories I wrote for my Multimedia Reporting class at the University of North Florida.
Taekwondo: From Bullies to Black Belts
Karate America is a taekwondo school where people go to not only learn self-defense, but other very important skills needed in life.
Between violent video games teaching aggressive mannerisms and the media giving false ideas of how people should look and act, bullying among children is increasing more every day. The goal at Karate America is to teach children not to bully others and to teach them self-defense in case someone is bullying them.
Ian Reyes, eight-year-old taekwondo student, says the most valuable thing he has learned at Karate America is self-defense, even though he has never had to use it. Reyes also said that taekwondo has taught him to be more confident and has made him better at making friends.
There is a new lesson every month at Karate America. The lessons include goals, courtesy, loyalty, respect, attitude, perseverance, honor, self-control and integrity. The students learn one of the words at the beginning of the month and each time they come to class they have to say how they have applied the lesson to their life. Moving up to a different color belt requires that the students not only master their kicks and self-defense techniques, but to also document how they have used the monthly lessons to improve their lives.
Another student, Kelly Bagby, said taekwondo has taught her patience, self-control, respect and integrity. “I didn’t have a lot of patience before,” Bagby said, “but because of the repetition and the self-control that you learn, it has taught me to be patient.”
Bianca Castillo is the chief instructor at Karate America. Castillo said that Chet’s Creek Elementary has been having issues with bullies in the school lately and some of the problem students have been referred to Karate America to learn how to respect the other students. One of the ways Karate America teaches students to respect one another is by addressing each student by either “sir” or “ma’am” regardless of their age.
“We want to set a respectful environment for the students, instructors and parents that come in,” Castillo said, “we want to make sure that they respect one another while they’re here, so that they learn to show respect while they’re at home and at school.”
Castillo said that the student’s parents always tell her that the attitudes of the students improve with each class. Karate America not only teaches students how to defend themselves, but to be a leader in the community. The goal at Karate America is to have every student behave with the discipline of a black belt, and to eventually become one. Castillo then quoted the Eternal Grand Master, creator of the American Taekwondo Association, “If everybody had courtesy and respect, we wouldn’t have to learn how to punch and kick.”
A New Kind of News
The New York Times recently set the standard for bringing print to the web. They published an article on their website and included many multimedia aspects, which could very well help shape the future of journalism. “Snow Fall” is the story of an avalanche and the way they put it together makes you feel like you were there when it happened.
“Snow Fall” began as a descriptive well-written story, but when a group of workers from the New York Times incorporated the other various forms of media, the story came to life.
Unlike many multimedia stories on the internet, “Snow Fall” flows seamlessly from text to videos and pictures. The pictures and videos only come up when they are relevant to the story so the reader stays interested and it provides a better multimedia experience. Other multimedia stories often distract the reader and prevent them from reading the entire article, but “Snow Fall” uses elements that go together and are distributed well.
When the reader has to take their eyes off an article to look at a video or picture they may become uninterested, but the way “Snow Fall” was put together helps prevent that from happening. The reader doesn’t have to leave the story for it to be enhanced by the multimedia effects.
“Snow Fall” won a Pulitzer Prize because it is different from any other story. The article has moving pictures that zero in on the mountain where the avalanche took place, which helps get the reader’s attention and shows what happened better than your typical newspaper article.
Critics of this article say it is lengthy and takes too long to get to the point. The lengthiness actually helps the story by building up all of the characters and putting together when and where they were when the avalanche took place. In this case, a slow start worked. It gave the writer a chance to inform the audience of everything that happened leading up to the avalanche.
Critics also question the relevance of the story compared to other news articles. They say that it takes away from what is most important in the news. The newspaper staff has to put so much time and effort into it that they are focusing less on hard-hitting news and by the time it is finished the story isn’t newsworthy anymore. This story reads like a novel and targets a certain audience. The information in the story is educational and interesting, so this makes it newsworthy.
“Snow Fall” turned out well because it is a good human-interest story. It shows the reader what happened instead of telling them. The way the article is presented informs the readers of what happened before, during and after the avalanche, while simultaneously keeping them intrigued. The creators of “Snow Fall” did a great job of repurposing the story so that it is presented in a way that attracts readers and keeps their attention.
Scott Turow Speech- A Novelist Goes to Hollywood
“Writing novels will never die as long as they make movies,” said author and attorney, Scott Turow.
Scott Turow is the author of seven best-selling novels, some of which have become movies. Authors often don’t like the way the movies turn out, but Turow has been satisfied with the movies made from his novels. In his speech, he said when the movie is made you expect it to look exactly like the picture in your head, but there’s no way it could possibly look exactly the same. When the first movie was made from one of his books, he said everything looked pretty similar to how he pictured it except in his head he imagined the camera being on the other side.
“I love movies but my dream was to be a novelist,” Turow said.
When writing novels, the author is completely in charge. They are the czar of the universe, Turow said. When asked if the author can control what happens in the movies Turow said, “Yes. You don’t have to cash the check, but if you do, you basically abandon all hope.”
Turow said it is better to write novels that are turned into books than to be a screenwriter because screenwriters are on the bottom of the totem pole. Everyone tells them what to do and they have to listen. “Now that I know what it’s like to be a screenwriter, I really don’t want to do it,” Turow said.
Turow said people always ask him why the book is better than the movie. The answer is because if they film everything from the book, the movie would end up being about 14 hours long. The length of the movie is a big deal because it determines how many showings it has in theaters. If a movie is an hour and 30 minutes long, it could run four times a night, but if it is three hours long, it may only run twice. It is preferable to have shorter movies because the more times the movie is shown; the more money is made from selling tickets.
In many movies that are made from novels, some aspects of the book are changed. Turow said this happens because the American people don’t want to see movies that end how his novel, Presumed Innocent, ends. So instead of having the killer get away with murder which is what happens in the book, the killer gets caught and put in an institution.
“Movies are the art form of capitalism,” Turow said.
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It Could Have Killed All Of Us
Michael Horn- JFRD Firefighter.
Photo By Lauren Hersey
The fire fighters were sitting in the kitchen at station 59 when suddenly the alarm started screaming. The alert on the screen of the light panel said “smoke in the area,” so they rushed to get their gear on and head to the scene. Upon their arrival, they saw a warehouse in flames and heavy black smoke filling the sky.
Michael Horn, a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department firefighter for station 59, was on the call for the warehouse fire. “We saw all of the black smoke in the air and around the building so we had to upgrade the call to a structure fire,” he said.
When the firefighters got to the scene, they started a second alarm call for backup because the flames were showing through the roof. They went to the hydrant, set out 800 feet of five-inch hose, and started an attack on the fire.
“After we extinguished the fire, we found out that there were acetylene tanks all over the area. If any of those tanks had gotten hot enough, they would have exploded and could have injured or killed everyone on the scene,” said Horn.
There were also many other hazardous chemicals in the area, so many that the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department had to go through full decontamination procedures to prevent long-term illnesses, including cancer, from spreading.
Michael Horn- JFRD Firefighter.
Photo By Lauren Hersey
“The definite cause of the fire is unknown, but it was most likely arson,” Horn said. “It could have killed all of us.”
Horn has been a firefighter for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department for almost five years. He says when they get calls like the one at the warehouse; it reminds him that he’s not invincible and he needs to stay on high alert at all times.
“I wouldn’t really call myself a hero,” Horn said. “I get paid to do what I love, and that’s a blessing.”
Lauren Hersey 