Spotting Differences

            Three weeks is what it took for Katheryn Deprills’ biological mother to finally reveal herself after 27 years. Deprill was abandoned as a newborn in a Burger King restroom and has recently looked towards social media for help in her search. She posted a Facebook picture of herself on March 2 holding a sign that reads “"Looking for my birth mother, she abandoned me in the Burger King bathroom only hours old, Allentown PA. Please help me find her by sharing my post. Maybe she will see this, Thank you." The photo was shared more than 30,000 times by worldwide users. The mother, whose name has not been disclosed, came forward to attorney John Waldron and he arranged and facilitated the meeting. They met for about four hours before exchanging contact information. The mother was raped while traveling abroad and became pregnant. It turned out that the mother gave birth to Deprill at 16 years old and made the decision to leave the child somewhere warm and safe because she hid the pregnancy. Katheryn Deprill forgave her 110 percent and was understanding of the mothers reasoning but still had questions she needed answered. They plan to meet again and establish a relationship where they will be involved in each others lives.

            The articles I came across regarding this story differed for various reasons. I located this story in The Reading Eagle, Morning Call, and NY Daily News. Of all three newspapers, I found The Reading Eagle to be the most descriptive. The article contained multiple quotes from Katheryn Deprill and attorney John Waldron. The national newspaper, NY Daily News, and regional newspaper, Reading Eagle, seemed to have presented the story with more significance than The Morning Call, which is local to the story, based on the structure of the article. I found this interesting because the area that the story took place should have the most informative news coverage. The Morning Call article was highly opinionated and starts off track. The title, “Burger King Baby story is triumph of hope,” correlated with the story at hand, but as you began to read, the author goes off on a tangent about the missing Malaysian airplane which then turned into a discussion of a movie he found a quote from with a connection to the word hope. He has made the word hope the focal point of the article. The author then ends his tangent and addresses his main point, “what really started me thinking about hope, thought, was this week’s wonderful story about the Burger King Baby,” as if going back to an unfinished thought. The story was covered very briefly, in a matter of a full paragraph and also includes his opinion on the matter. I believe that the Morning Call could have placed more significance on the issue based on the area the newspaper is from.

            I have come to the conclusion that no matter where an event takes place, to get the full coverage, the best option would be to look at more than one source because every editor is different. Where one editor might want more quotes or information, another might add additional information that another newspaper does not. The level of significance placed on an article doesn’t just correlate with the area of the occurrence, it also has to do with different opinions of the organization. Clearly this story was significant enough to be placed in a NY newspaper, just like how Katheryn’s Facebook post reached thousands of people worldwide.

Media everywhere review

While skimming through the Reading Eagle I came across a short article that closely relates to mass communication, "Media everywhere, bathroom included." The title is what caught my attention because at first I thought that there was a new technology coming out that would be installed in restrooms. As I began reading into it the article talks about how TV viewers are watching their programs on their own time. Being that television is central to media consumption, streaming missed episodes or full seasons of TV series on a smartphone is no longer a new thing.

I found that the article left the reader well informed of studies done measuring TV consumption during recent years. I can definitely agree with the fact that it is increasing across the years because of various new TV series that come out. Everyone is interested in what’s new and sharing it with mutual consumers. The writing was well structured and flowed well. When I got to the end of the article it ended with a sentence that tied back to the headline, “an offbeat finding: 40% of adults between 18 and 24 use social media in the bathroom.” Although I do like how the author tied it all together but I feel they could have included more statements that was related to the title of the article.

In all I found the article interesting and the statistics surprising and informing. I do agree with the content because technology is only increasing from here and so will the numbers of consumption.

The Associated Press. "Media Everywhere, Bathroom Included." Reading Eagle. P.A12. 11 Feb. 2014. Print.

Hi, my name is...

On August 8, 1992 I entered the world in a New York City hospital and was given the name Sheala Garcia by my mother and great grandmother. My childhood in New York was short lived as we moved to the Poconos when I was entering the 7th grade. I am currently a Kutztown University junior majoring in Communications with a minor in Public Relations. With a B.A in Communication Studies I hope to enter the advertising field and pursue something I can extend my knowledge in communications to. While life has it's ups and downs always remain with your head up high because people are dying to see you fall.

I have been a part of the social media world ever since Myspace and it has it's pros and cons. I always wondered if things would be any different had I not joined the social media trend, like if I would be any closer to my friends because I wouldn't have the means to be in tune with their current happenings or if I would be any more productive in a day because I wasn't checking Facebook, That's one of the big cons is being so in tune with these social media accounts that one tends to forget about the real world and also how time consuming they can be. I enjoyed this post because I've never really knew someone to not have been drawn into the social media world, just about everyone I have come across now uses some sort of media outlet.It's refreshing to know that the media hasn't taken over every single mind in the world.