We would like to be informed as well...

I understand that covering the election causes a very difficult task for some newspapers but I was very disappointed that winnipegfreepress.com didn’t include the results for my area St. Andrews, Ward 1 on last night’s election. Selkirk, Stonewall and West St. Paul were also excluded.

If you’re going to list the rural results, make sure it’s a full list. Considering there is no televised coverage on rural areas, it is very important to rural Manitobans that their election results are on the Internet. I was looking on the Winnipeg Free Press site for additional information on my article on the election when I stumbled across this link.Results from rural Manitoba

Take special note how neither the school trustees nor all the municipalities are included. This is an example of the budget cuts that plague the Free Press and other newspapers. It may be theat they don't cater to rural areas in their newspaper, although many of us subscribe to the Free Press and work, play and go to school in the city and therefore are connected to Winnipeg in a big way. We would like to feel a connection from Winnipeg as well.

 But perhaps the most misleading part is that the name of the article is "Results from rural Manitoba." It clearly should read Selected results from rural Manitoba. I guess it's clear I should change my homepage from The Free Press to www.cbc.ca/manitoba/ Because on their site I found a link straight to http://www.amm.mb.ca/ Which listed ALL the results for rural Manitoba, like it should. Thanks CBC.

25 Sunset Cove,St Andrews-Ward 1

If we're the ones social networking we might as well critique it...

“You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”

The headline for The Social Network tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, nerdy Harvard student turned esteemed billionaire with the invention of a social networking site; Facebook. The movie, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin depicts Mark Zuckerberg as an brilliant, yet ignorant college student who let’s Napster tycoon Sean Parker persuade him to use his advice over his orginal business partner, Eduardo Saverin.

But let’s back up a bit to the original idea of the Facebook and Divya Narendra and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss who first approach Zuckerberg with a similar idea to Facebook, but for dating. Anyone who has had an exciting idea and had it stolen, in any manner or form would side with the Winklevoss’ and Narendra in the movie. Same as how anyone who has been wronged or left out on important decisions by their best friend would side with Saverin.

 Regardless, anyone will feel a pang of guilt for these three characters, as pretentious as two of them seem. With that and the scenes where the Zuckerberg character chooses to ignore the problem instead of confront it and his dismal cooperation with the opposing lawyers, the viewer cannot help but see a different side of this poor Harvard student turned billionaire. Not necessarily in a positive light.

If I had a social networking website, controversial novel, or explicit blog, anything that I could potentially a) make a profit off and b) make a name for myself, I would welcome a multi-million dollar budget film on my story. Not only does the saying “any publicity is good publicity” come to mind, but also the fact that movies are a universal medium that reaches out to people of all ages, unlike the actual product.

(Although that can be debated as more and more people join the network.) For example, my mother does not have Facebook and doesn’t know what it is but I am sure she will go see the move, same with my father, aunt, uncle, who are all well into their forties, maybe they’ll even take my 86-year-old Granny. And after they will all talk about it. The best form of PR is word of mouth. If people aren't talking about it, then it's a not important.


The more you have people talking about it, the more you have the idea communicated. Also, I might add that Facebook has been out since 2004, and is old news. The launch of this movie has revitalized interest in the company. The point is a movie is advertising in the form of entertainment, and in today’s pop culture that is a very significant way to reach a large demographic of people.

PR Post; Zuckerberg, Hearst and Hollywood: PR Lessons Learned From the Past

I completely agree with the fact that Zuckerberg’s PR was rolling, and down the right path, I might add, but it hit a deep pothole before its destination of which affected its PR in the eyes of PR experts. After playing off the movie as blowing the drama out of proportion, Zuckerberg changed his stand point with the movie when he heard he had inspired young people to become entrepreneurs.(The fact that this one-in-a-million chance-of-success movie inspired people to be entrepreneurs makes me lose faith in humanity if at the mention of the billions people are jumping at the chance to “be just like him”.)

The author here has a legitimate argument that Zuckerberg’s decision to announce a $100 million dollar donation to Newark school system on The Oprah Winfrey Show on the opening day of the movie “seems to insult the audience’s intelligience.” But when it comes to how the public will view him for that big slip up, I don’t think it will cause a fall in his celebrity status. The only reason it was picked up was because PR people everywhere jumped at the chance to criticize the billionaire at the first chance they got. People are not going to pull ads over this one. It was a simple slip up that will be forgotten in a few weeks with the next PR blunder rears its head. We all observed and learned from his mistake. Hopefully he did too.

Related Links:

The New Yorker

The Social Network movie

Short Story review: Dinaw Mangestu "An Honest Exit"

Dinaw Mangestu "An Honest Exit", from The New Yorker

This story is an sensational tale of a a school teacher's father and his journey from war-ridden Sudan to Europe. It is told from the main character's son's point of view. He is telling his students his father's tale as it is shortly after his death.

The tale starts with a young man journeying from a persecuting government from Ethiopia to Sudan. In Sudan, the father makes friends with a gentleman by the name of Abrahim who helps him with a job and board. The young man trys to repay Abrahim for all the good he has done for him. Abrahim keeps promising him he will get his payback.

It is eventually found out that he wants the young man to travel in cargo, on a ship to Europe for a better life, and once he arrives he will seek asylum for him and his wife. His wife is Abrahim's daughter a young girl the young man has never met. After enduring complete hell, although he prepared for it, including drinking his own urine for fluid retention, he arrives in Italy. From there he goes to England but has not made it there himself. A part of him is left back in Sudan. He is not the same man he once was. Abrahim never got his daughter to Europe but the young man did repay for the good he endured while in Sudan by leaving his happiness there.

I really enjoyed this short story. I was full of great detail that made the reader imagine themself in the main character's shoes. It was like watching it on a screen with the vivid descriptions of where he was and where he was going. Some of the metaphors were powerful too. Like "a jail that will seem like heaven" and  phrases like "everything here is shit, even the sand." They conveyed a point in an unconventional and interesting way.

Another thing that struck me was the reverse of the traditional "better life" story. The young man did not endure a hardship and get repaid with the bounty and wealth of the new world -  instead he lost his dignity and pride and hated the world he ended up in. And yet, some good came out of the whole scenario of which you don't realize until much later. He had a son, who waas a school teacher and who seemed to have made it in the new world.

I particularly enjoyed how the horrors were not glassed over, nor were they exploited as to take away from the story. I like the fact that the storyteller, the son, mentions that he did have to make up parts to "fill in the gaps." It makes you wonder how much is true, and how much is an interpretation from the son.

In all, I would have one critique for the story which is that it has a lot of setting up that could be cut in order to make it a more compact package. What I mean by this is that at the beginning the storyteller is explaining the students and the school and then gets into the story. The introduction moves quite slowly as if he trying to ease the reader into that world of Sudan.

But all in all, a great read. I learned some things and I think I took away a lot from this different interpretation of the typical immigrant story. I would definitely reccommend this to anyone interested in a well told, journey-type of story.

Click on the link to read it now:

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction

Attn: Lost Draft!

Today was a great day. On four hours of sleep I managed to recieve and somewhat give, feedback on a short story in Creative Writing, operate a camera in Broadcasting class, sit in on a CBC Radio Noon show and stay awake for the rest of my classes. Then, I dutifully went to my journalism instructor's inbox and picked up my rough draft, corrected and returned for revisions and headed to my car.

I remember carrying my bright pink floppy binder and the awkward large brown envelope the rough draft was secretly kept in out the side doors of the college and to the parking lot where my car was parked. From there things were a little less clear. I called my friend and simultaneously talking on the phone balancing said binder and  huge envelop I got to my car.Then I placed what I think was the binder and the envelop on the roof of the car in order to open the car door with the keys. Well, I plopped my stuff onto the passenger seat and drove home.

When I got home I threw my belongings on the counter, like I always do, and was eating some turkey soup when I decided to look for the draft. Well, it was no where to be found.  I looked in my car, on the counter, my bedroom. Gone. The strange thing was I brought home my pink binder, but not the draft!

I was panicking so I called my dad, who was still in the city luckily and he agreed to go see if I had indeed left it on my car and it had subsequently fallen off as I drove away.  He called me from my specific instructions of where exactly I had parked my car ealier that day. After many sirens wailing in the background I finally managed to communicate where to look, and he found it! One parking lot over on the ground.

What are the chances? I think that is the luckiest story I have ever told. But then I do lose my BlackBerry a lot and have always managed to find it. But that's another story....

Buyer Beware: SPEAK UP!

 image from: southshorehospital.org

For our Buyer Beware project we decided to take a look at censorship in post-secondary institutions across Winnipeg. Our research included interviews with editors and students, an online survey, an experimental letter to the editor, and Internet research of famous censorship scandals.

Some things didn’t surprise me; like sometimes editors cannot publish articles that deal with what they think would be offensive to certain groups. But one thing that did surprise me was that it was the students who censor themselves by not speaking out.


I was also surprised to learn that two editors thought The Projector (RRC campus newspaper) enforced freedom of speech, and yet they backtracked and contradicted themselves. They thought it was a place of freedom of speech BUT. The ‘but’ included material that others would find offensive. So it brings up the question of where do you draw the line? Are they right to monitor a supposedly “Freedom of speech” newspaper?

This is a question I ask myself now when I read the paper.True, the editors believed it was a place they broadcast all opinions, but why are writers having to sit down with editors to convince them what is said should be said in an article?

So next time you are writing something for the paper, make sure your voice is heard. Make sure when they edit what you have written, they have not taken YOU out of the equation and inserted their beliefs. If we were in the game of not offending people, we wouldn’t be writing for the paper.

As you are reading the school papers be sure to take a critical eye to what is being said throughout and if you have a problem with it, make sure you talk about it. If you think something is being censored when it shouldn’t be, then speak up. We are only censoring ourselves when we don’t.

Through our research we found that students were censoring themselves, more then any other external source. For instance, we found that although students felt their school media outlets were a safe place to voice their opinion 56% of students on our Internet poll said they had never done such a thing. This is overwhelming evidence that we are scared to speak up. We have no one to blame but ourselves in a situation like that.

We found some really interesting information out about letters to the editor and how the unpopular, scandalous side of things often isn’t published.

Garrick wrote how he thought that the U of W cutting funding to disability services were a good thing and they should continue with that plan. Well, the university newspapers he sent it to, didn’t even bother to respond.

On the other hand, Veronica wrote a letter that outlined the positive effects of disability services at the U of W and how they should continue funding, she was told they would run it in The Uniter and The Projector asked her to do an article on it.


These were clear examples of how certain voices aren’t heard on university campuses across Winnipeg. But as students we have to make sure we are doing enough to get our voices heard. If we do not speak up, we are censoring ourselves. When we watch what we say at class and school newspapers we are conforming to a silent crowd of onlookers. We need to become more involved in campus life. Then only can we have true freedom of speech.

I personally think I will be more aware of the censorship that I engage in. I have learned a lot through this Buyer Beware that explains why my peers and I are so inclined to be quiet. It does not just affect us, it affects the environment around us as well. It affects what we read about in the school newspapers, hear on the radio and one day will affect what not only universities see and hear but what the world sees and hears. We need to learn early on that we have a voice. We need to learn what that voice is, and how to use it to our best advantage. I don’t have a cause to fight for, as of yet, but believe me when I find one I will let you know.

A few quotes.. NOT BY ME

An insult was but a pebble in his path, only showing the intellectual inferiority of he who threw it. -White Teeth, novel by Zadie Smith
(Some people have all the luck.)

If he came in with 12 ideas and you didn't like them, the next day he would come in wiht 12 more. - from the Andy Warhol exhibit
 (Ahh persistance, there never was a greater quality that was so productive.)


I never fall apart because I never fell together." - Andy Warhol
(I hope I fall together one day.)

I am a soup can.
(Aren't we all.)

PR Bio

Lita Hnatiuk- Long Bio
Lita Hnatiuk is a Creative Communications student at Red River College in Winnipeg. She also works part
time as a waitress at Larter’s Golf and Country Club where she has been an employee for the last six
years.
Lita worked as a clerk for the citizenship unit at Citizenship and Immigration Canada from June 2009
until August 2010 while attending the University of Winnipeg.
Prior to Red River College Lita finished her prerequisites to the Creative Communications Joint Degree
program at the University of Winnipeg.
She graduated from West Kildonan Collegiate with a Tourism Diploma in 2008.
Lita has also participated in a number of charity events including the Easter Seals Drop Zone this past
August where she raised $1,500 for Manitobans living with a disability.
She lives with her parents a brother, a sister, a cat and a dog just outside of Winnipeg in St Andrews.

Mayoral Forum turned Debate

I did the Projector article covering the forum turned debate between Sam Katz and  Judy Wasylycia-Leis. It was interesting that the event wasn't highly publicized. The only way we heard about it was from our instructors, which was odd. There were no annoncements anywhere else, or advertisements online or on doors(aas they usually are at RRC). It was a pretty big event too, over a hundred students showed up to watch. There were even a few who skipped class to go.

The issues that were addressed were on crime, property taxs, infrastructure as well as community centers, which ties into all three of those areas. I found it to be very informational. All the students I spoke to about it thought it was very interesting.

Some thought that Judy got cut off a lot by the event moderater Richard Cloutier of CJOB though. And then one said she thought that he did a great job moderating, so who knows. One guy I talked to thought that Judy attacked Sam way too much, but it seems that it would probably be appropriate because she is vying for his current position.

But other than a few discrepencies with the host, the students all seemed to welcome the event in their cafe that morning. I hope we can bring more political debates like this to more secondary institutes around Winnipeg. I do believe because these people met and saw Sam and Judy, that they will vote for one of them. They  might even make the effort to go out and vote (if they weren't planning on it before) now that they got to know two of the candidates. I would probably feel that way. I can't vote for mayor though so that's just my opinion.