Recent News and Such

The Yearning for Zion Ranch is a compound for members of the FLDS church. FLDS stands for Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. They are a fundamentalist sect of the Mormon Church. The news has been littered with stories about how the Texas Child Protective Services has been handling the case. Numerous papers and websites have followed the case extensively. The New York Times has an entire page full of almost daily updates on the story. Every time anything changes, they write a story. I also looked extensively into the Salt Lake Tribune’s coverage of the story. It’s actually kind of funny. They come across as very sympathetic to the members of the church. This may or may not be because Salt Lake City is the very heart of Utah, which is the stronghold of Mormonism in the United States. Their local paper has as many updates on the case as does the more respected, well known, influential New York Times. The Salt Lake Tribune is obviously writing to an audience of Mormon readers, who want to hear more about the strife of the members of the fundamentalist LDS, as they sympathize. The New York Times handles the story far more objectively, focusing on the legal implications of the actions of the Texas Child Protective Services as well as on the treatment of the children and the legality of the actions of the church members. They are reporting to a group which is much larger and more diverse. This audience also does not hold stake in the religion of the people involved. I initially read about the seizing of some 400 children in Cal Poly’s own paper. I then read a couple stories in San Luis Obispo County’s The Tribune. This piqued my interest. I have some knowledge about the Mormon faith, having studied world religions in high-school. I tend to find it interesting when legal issues clash with religion in a country where we claim to separate Church and State. So from there I looked on line. I found plenty of background information on the FLDS and in particular the Yearning for Zion Ranch on Wikipedia and on assorted news sites. There are even interviews on Youtube with women who have escaped FLDS ranches. Many of the websites for actual newspapers include short video clips, most of which show members of the FLDS sect in their 1900’s period garb. The news seems to like to highlight standout features of the sect, like the fact that most of the children have seen little to no television or the fact that all the women are required to wear high necked, long sleeved, full length dresses at all time. All of the papers excluding the Sal Lake Times jump right to these striking, even shocking features to draw attention. It works.

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The News that Matters to Me.

My name is Austin Mello. I am currently a Physics major. I am also currently attempting to switch my major to Journalism. I've realized that the part of physics that appeals to me most is the gray area where physics and philosophy begin to overlap. It just so happens that this is not the focus of the physics major. I get no fulfillment from crunching equations. I do, however, receive a some significant fulfillment from writing. Anyway, I'm 19 and I'm from the San Jose area. The last new story I remember being particularly impacted by is an article I read in Scientific American. The article discussed the upcoming completion of the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator being built in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the largest particle accelerator ever built and will propel tiny particles at speeds currently unreachable. It will collide significant numbers of particles at very high speed, all of which will be recorded and documented constantly. This will afford the scientists involved opportunities that are currently not feasible. Scientists hope to isolate and identify particles which are currently only speculative and theoretical in nature. These kinds of stories and this kind of knowledge are important and often overlooked in the world. With the knowledge we have available it is imperative that we utilize the numerous systems of distribution for such knowledge. Scientific stories often go untold in mainstream media. This story was only accessible to me because I subscribe to science magazines and go out of my way for such knowledge. The general public needs to be informed now about breakthroughs like the Large Hadron Collider so that when the groundbreaking work begins and the discoveries roll in, the people will be appreciative of what this means and the impact that they have on our world. I could very well see myself pursuing this very kind of journalism in the future. I think I would find myself quite pleased to be a science writer. If I keep a physics minor, which I currently plan on doing, this would place me in a prime position to write with comprehension about significant changes in the science world.

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Just for the hell of it, as far as I can tell...

So I'm currently of the understanding that we're supposed to be entering a post, but there's no semblance of an assignment as of yet. What is this business? The situation at hand is one of frustration and preponderance.