A Glance Into the Life of Documentarians

By: Nicole Toltzis
Montgazette Staff Writer

This semester, Montgomery County
Community College communication
students were fortunate to sit in on a
workshop with one of the most influential
and famous documentary-producing
couples within the communication
industry. The husband and wife team of
Steve and Anne Cocklin spoke about their
experiences in the field and demonstrated
some of the equipment they use to produce
their amazing pieces of informative
media.
Steve Cocklin began the presentation
with the time he spent working as a
freelance director of photography for major
news channels such as CBS and NBC. He
worked for a time with our Communication
Program Coordinator Allan Shear and
covered major news events all over the
world for over 20 years.
Anne Cocklin was introduced as the
individual who handles all of the “behind
the scenes” work. She talked about the
cameras, microphones, lighting and other
aspects of her work. All of the sophisticated
equipment needed to film a documentary is
costly, according to the couple.
Anne selected a volunteer for part of
her demonstration to sit in a chair for a
demonstration on how to make people look
best on camera for an interview.
The Cocklins also showed a
documentary that took place in the Middle
East titled Afghanistan.
Steve described what it was like
filming in such an environment, including
what it takes to survive in active war
conditions. He explained how the
equipment must be handled and concealed
and how the slightest mishap could cause
death.
While filming his documentary,
we learned of the casulalties of war and
filmmaking. At one time, Steve was
detained. He explained how hard it was
to navigate the territory and come out
unscathed.
They have won numerous awards
for their work, including The National
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual
Achievement in Cinematography.
For more information, readers can
view their website at cocklins.com

Cameras Lights Actions. Award winning filmmaker, Steve Cocklin, visits with students at Montco TV studio in the Advance Technology Center.

Gail Ramsey/Montgazette Anne Cocklin places a microphone on Brian Glantz during a demonstration on how to properly use microphones and cameras for an interview.

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Facebook Privacy is No Hoax

By: Coraline Pettine
Montgazette Staff Writer

Recently, many Facebook users have
been forwarding hoax posts about recent
changes to Facebook’s privacy policy.
Though the posts did not become popular
until this fall, they have been present since
Facebook updated its Terms and Conditions
almost a year ago.
Many Facebook users thought the hoax
was true because of its formal-sounding
declarations and references to legal jargon.
This particular privacy hoax took off so
quickly because many Facebook users
deeply dreaded the consequences of losing
their privacy.
One post read, “Facebook has just
released the entry price: $5.99 to keep the
subscription of your status to be set to
‘private.’ If you paste this message on your
page, it will be offered free. If not…your posts
can become public.”
Katie Lichtley, a sophomore at
Montgomery County Community College,
said she forwarded the post, fearing her
personal posts would be available for anyone
to see.
“Facebook is an online social media
community,” Lichtley said, “but as the
creator of my own, personal profile, I believe
I should have the right to choose who can see
the things I post.”
Fortunately for many fearful Facebook
users, the post did not truly come from
Facebook. There were no privacy changes
and no fees are needed to keep your Facebook
content private. Facebook’s official page
assured its users the claims posted were a
hoax.
Facebook’s real Statement of Rights and
Responsibilities explains that although “you
own all of the content and information you
post on Facebook, and you can control how it is
shared…” that by using Facebook “you grant
[Facebook] a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable,
royalty-free, worldwide license to
use any IP content that you post.”
Facebook users are in control of who
sees their page. However, contrary to what
the viral post claimed, anything posted on
Facebook belongs to Facebook.
Ultimately, Facebook is private on a
very basic level. Users may control who
has access to their pages, but Facebook has
ownership of anything posted. Not only can
Facebook publicize users’ posts, anyone able
to see someone’s page has the capability to
screen shot that page and download pictures
from it.
Users should be wary that anyone can
access anything they post, even if it’s a
hoax.

Images provided by Coraline Pettine/Montgazette

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Malala: An Icon of Courage

By: Mamata Tharima
Montgazette Staff Writer

Before the whole world knew her
name, Malala was just an ordinary
schoolgirl in the S’wat Valley in Pakistan.
Malala came to public attention at the
age of 11 by writing for a BBC blog about
life under the Taliban. When the Taliban
took control of S’wat Valley and banned
the rights of girls’ education, Malala
fought back with her voice and her pen.
Her determination would come at a cost
when she was shot in the head at pointblank
range by a Taliban soldier on her
way home from school on Oct. 9, 2012.
Malala had a miraculous recovery
and she believes that her second life was
given by God to continue helping people.
In her words, “I think death didn’t want
to kill me. God was with me and people
prayed for me.”
The book “I Am Malala,” takes
readers on a journey to reveal the
transformation of a quiet 11-year-old
to a women’s rights activist and the
difficulties she had to face when she
raised her small voice to inspire change
in Pakistan.
Malala’s father, a teacher and an
activist himself, inspired Malala through
encouragement and hope. In his eyes,
Malala had the potential to fight for her
rights and for the millions of girls around
the world who are being denied access to
school.
In the TED talks on March 24, 2014,
he said, “Fathers are usually known by
their sons in many patriarchal [societies],
but I am one of the few fathers who is
known by his daughter.”
In recognition of Malala’s courage
and advocacy, she is a global symbol
of peaceful protest and is the youngest
nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her
story was widely covered in U.S. media
including interviews with ABC‘s Diane
Sawyer and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“Her story is one of humanism, and
it is through her authentic story that
globally people can embrace the human
spirit. Her story is rare, but because of the
impact, it is worthy of being told again
and again,” said Montgomery County
Community College communication
professor Eva Blackwell. “Without a
doubt, she has had a tremendous impact
on our society. Her actions of compassion
have encouraged many to stand up to
injustice.”
Malala continues to spread her
message across the world through The
Malala Fund, a non-profit organization
that not only empowers boys and girls
to get a quality education but also helps
them find their voices to create a better
tomorrow.

Movie Poster for He Named Me Malala

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S t e v e J o b s : The Man in the Movie

By: Matthew Marinelli
Montgazette Staff Writer

STEVE JOBS is a strong movie
because of its engaging story and creative
cinematography.
The use of focusing the story around
Jobs’ daughter is a smart choice because
it makes the film a character story and
forces Apple, his company, to be just a
setting.
I appreciate the sub-plot of Woz
fighting for Jobs to acknowledge the
Apple2 in a story where Jobs won’t
acknowledge his daughter. As Woz
screams “ACKNOWLEDGE ME!,” you
know his daughter feels the same way.
The film builds a character that is
consistently cold and distant, which makes
the reconciliation with his daughter all
the more meaningful.
The cinematography is also very creative
and serves the story of Jobs and his daughter.
In the scene on the roof we see shots of Jobs
and his daughter, but they never share
the frame at the same time. This gives us a
feeling of separation and doesn’t allow our
brains to see them as together.
But when they reconcile, we see them
standing together. It then that we know
that they are finally connected. This is
done very purposefully so we see their
relationship change, even in the course of
one scene.
STEVE JOBS was an engaging film
and a refreshing biography picture that
focuses on the man and his relationships
instead of just his company. The expert
cinematography only adds to the story of
his relationships with the people around
him.
I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Movie Cover for Steve Jobs.

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Fifteen Teams, Fifteen Films, Five Days

By: Matthew Mashaintonio

Montgazette Staff Writer

Fifteen teams of filmmakers were
tasked with writing, shooting, editing and
scoring a five-minute film in just five days
at the Five Day Film Festival. This fall,
Montgomery County Community College
communication lecturer Jerry Collom
supplied each team with a genre, a line of
dialog and a prop each film needed to contain.
Five Days or 120 hours later, 15
exhausted teams filed into The Advanced
Technology Center on Montco’s Central
Campus to hand in their finished films to
Professor Collom to meet the deadline.
“That night you think you are not
going to get anything done,” said contestant
Leigh Sturgeon, “but then it just comes
together. It’s a ton of fun.”
On Nov. 4, the films were screened to a
packed audience at the Ambler Theater.
“I think it was one of the best
screenings ever,” said Jerry Collom. “We
tied our record for the participating
number of teams and we had a really
good crop of films. I think everybody had
a really great time and I had nothing but
positive feedback.”
At the screening, nine awards were
handed out including: Best Film, Best
Acting, Best Writing and Audience
Favorite. Taking home the top prize of Best
Film was The Good Dead, a horror film by
Montco team I Hate Your Face Productions.
Team member Hailey Brooks said of the
challenge: “The journey was rough. We had
two straight days of filming and everything
that could go wrong did go wrong. In the
end, we had a great team. Everyone worked
really hard and it paid off.”
The winning team’s lead actress,
Catherine Clauson, said, “I feel great. It was
awesome and everyone did great. Winning
was a big surprise.”
Another actress had this to say, “We
set out to make everyone laugh,” said Molly
Hennessy of her team’s comedy-horror
film Cute Aggression. “We achieved it. It
was such a rush to have everyone laugh
at our film. We had so much fun making it
and it was cool to know everyone enjoyed it
too.”
Due to the success of this year’s
festival, Jerry Collom is planning another
film contest this spring.
For more information and to view this
year’s films go to fivedayfilmfestival.com.

 

Gail Ramsey/Montgazette    The winning film team, The Good Deed, from left to right, Jeremy Bierson, Matt Marionelli, Tim Odom Jr., and Jordan Allison.

 

 

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Journalism Bias: Believeable Journalists?

By: Joshua Kellem
Montgazette Staff Writer

Many journalists say the internet
amplifies journalism. No matter how
news is consumed, all journalism should
be produced in a way that does not drive
down the value of content. The underlying
question—is there still ethics in journalism?
In 2015, the journalism game has
changed. There are fewer newspapers
being printed because the content and
consumers eyes are going onto the internet.
More and more stories are being
broken on the internet and on social media.
Anchors and reporters on television now
have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram, just to name a few social media
platforms. The big stories of the day are
being broken through these platforms.
Some stories are even being brought to
reporters by everyday citizens. In a sense,
social media is the Wikipedia of journalism
in 2015.
With this added pressure to break
stories on social media, can journalists
balance not rushing a story, which leads to
the risk of credibility, and delivering the
most accurate content quickly?
Matthew Herper, of Forbes.com, wrote
an article of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” host
Howard Kurtz’s show discussing Steve
Jobs’ third leave of absence in 2011. Some
of Kurtz’s guest argued that covering news
on Jobs during his leave was unethical as
there was a gray area on whether or not
Jobs, CEO of Apple, was a public figure.
In the mind of a journalist, like Kurtz, it
was just another story because Jobs was at
the very least a person people cared about.
Many journalists covering Jobs’ leave of
absence thought they were appeasing
readers, but to their advertising sponsors
some believe that they were trying to
increase pageviews.
On the other side of the coin, The
Baltimore Sun staff writer Susan Reimer
wrote an article about how USA Today
defended their inquiry of star tennis player
Arthur Ashe and the possibility of him
having AIDS. Unlike with Jobs, there was
no doubt that Ashe was a public figure.
The logic that you can’t cover Jobs
being sick because he’s not a public figure
and you can’t cover Ashe even though he
is a public figure but sick might be the
biggest contradiction of all time. This is
where the journalist has to lead the people
and not the other way around.
To many news outlets, covering Jobs
was the people leading the journalist. Now,
the people complain about the journalist
covering celebrities too much.
The journalist, for the saneness of
journalism, must lead. The people tried to
get USA Today to back off by frowning
upon what they were doing to Ashe at the
time, but the USA Today just kept going.
What USA Today did was completely
ethical and good for journalism as it is the
people’s right to know what’s going on.
Too many “the people” usages and too
much action ascribed to newspapers
Are there still ethics in journalism?
Yes, you just have to look for it.

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Paris Tragedy and World Support

By: Jessica Pupillo
Montgazette Staff Writer

On November 14, 2015, over 130
people in Paris lost their lives due to a
senseless act of terrorism committed
by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS. The
attacks took place not only in a concert hall,
but also in six other locations including
in a stadium during a soccer match and
outside a bar. As well as the people killed,
99 of the 352 other people injured were
seriously harmed in the attacks. Among
those injured were students studying
abroad like United States college student,
Nohemi Gonzalez.
Many places all over the world are
showing support for Paris. The Empire
State Building, Christ the Reedemer
Statue, Wembley Stadium, The Oriental
Pearl Tower, Tower of Toronto, and even
the One World Trade Center in New York
decided to light up their buildings with
the French flag colors. Google had placed
a small black ribbon to help show support
for the attacks that occurred that day.
On Social media sites like Twitter
and Facebook, people were able to show
their support. Besides the millions of
tweets and post showing support for
the victims of the attacks, social media
sites themselves created ways to show
support. On Twitter some users found
links that took users to the option of
placing a French flag colored heart in
the corner of their profile photograph
to show support. On Facebook, an option
was given to make profiles the color of
the French flag. We saw something
like this over the summer when gay
marriage was legalized in the United
States. Many supporters had the option
on Facebook to change profile pictures
to a rainbow color filters. Though while
that occurrence was more celebratory,
what happened in Paris was sadly a
tragedy.
Students of Montgomery County
Community College feel very strongly
about the tragic attacks on Paris.
Bill Bianco, a sophomore at
Montgomery County Community
College stated, “The attacks are terrible,
intentionally acting like this show the
worst parts of humanity.”
Another fellow Montgomery
County Community College student,
Alex Wall, said, “It was a tragedy…
definitely horrible and the fact that
someone could do that to their own
country is horrible.”
When 9/11 occurred many of the
French supported the United States
with the phrase “Nous sommes tous
Américains,” which means, “We are all
Americans.” Now, as many Americans
have been saying, “Nous Sommes tous
Francias.” Which means, “We are all
French.” Showing support even in the
smallest ways, can bring differing worlds
together and that is probably the only good
to ever come from an event as tragic as this
one.

Jessica Pupillo/Montgazette       Montco student Jessica Pupillo shows her support on her Facebook page for Paris by shading her profile picture.

 

 

 

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Where Did You Hear That?

By: Joshua Kellem
Montgazette Staff Writer

The internet is used to keep in touch with
people, meet people and sometimes even hook
up with people. Some may say the internet has
eliminated any real human interaction in our
generation. It has obtained a high level of use
in less than 20 years. In that time, the question
of the relevance of newspapers has come into
question.
If our grandparents are considered
the “baby boomers” generation, we are the
generation of the internet. We consume our
news on the internet, not the newspaper. We
read our class assignments on the internet, not
in expensive textbooks. This is because the
internet provides more content at a faster pace
than a newspaper can.
Larry Atkins, journalist, lawyer, author
and Montgomery County Community
College professor said, “Many older
journalists and writers still put more value
and prestige into printed publications and
books. They like to see their hard copy
books available in a bookstore or library.
However, I think that the bottom line will
be [more] important.”
The view of older journalists, and our
grandparents maybe, prompted another
question. Since more money for journalism can
be made by being online, why is there resistance?
“Money can be made for internet advertising,”
Atkins said, “but print ad revenue still brings
in more money. That’s one of the reasons
why newspapers are struggling. Their print
circulation is declining and, therefore, they can’t
bring in as much print ad revenue.”
The technological advances brought
on by the internet have become evident
now more than ever before. But is the
future of the internet as uncertain as
newspapers?
Atkins said, “It is hard to predict the future.
People couldn’t have envisioned the explosion
of cell phones and the internet thirty-five
years ago. It’s unlikely that the internet will
disappear.”
Unlike that famous State Farm commercial
with the woman who picked up a male “French
model” on the internet who turned out to be
anything but a French model, you’ll hear about
these types of discrepancies in print and on the
internet.

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Drones in Citizen Journalism: A New Trick for An Old Dog

By: Thomas Kraft
Montgazette Staff Writer

Citizen journalism has been around for centuries, but what
exactly is it?
According to the tech website, Mashable.com, it is “society’s
active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing
and disseminating news and information.” While that may
seem like a lengthy definition, when you see something on the
nightly news and “reported” it to your Twitter followers, you
become a citizen journalist.
One of the problems with citizen journalism is that it is
rarely unbiased and objective. That is, unless a neutral third
party, such as a drone, is used to capture the story.
Drones, small, unmanned, remotely-controlled flying
vehicles, were made famous by news outlets when a “hobbyist”
landed one on the White House lawn in January and again in May
2015. These events lead to a national uproar about their usage.
Prior to this, however, drones were primarily used by hobbyists
and filmmakers to get scenic videos for commercial use.
Drone streaming video technology would give a new tool
to the citizen journalists that at one time only professional TV
journalists could have.
For example, the Phantom 3, produced by aerial
technology company DJI has the ability to stream live footage
from the drone via the pilot’s smartphone. Other companies,
like UK-based ExtremeFliers, will be launching similarlyequipped
drones by the end of 2016.
As Eric Cheng, DJI’s director of photography, said, “A
protest, an accident, a disaster… Someone’s going to be there
streaming from it.”
The biggest problem to overcome is the regulation of the
Federal Aviation Administration. After the aforementioned
White House dilemmas in January and May, the FAA has been
trying to remedy mistakes such as these from happening again.
Starting this November, the FAA will require every drone
hobbyist to register their drone.
Even with FAA regulations, videos from adept drone
enthusiasts and citizen journalists capturing raw news footage,
drones may just signal a new wave of unbiased, objective
journalism.

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From The Editor

Dave Aston 

Montgazette Editor

A century ago, big corporations would have invested their
time and money solely into ventures that would bring them the
most profit, even at the expense of our environment. Today, big
corporations along with the federal government are investing
their time and money into ventures to make our communities and
Montgomery County Community College more sustainable.
Back in October, Montco held a sustainability expo in the
Advanced Technology Center on Central Campus. Featured
prominently in front of the big screen on its ground floor was
a table proudly boasting Montco’s sustainability efforts and
programs.
The most important effort displayed was our technology
recycling program. This program is just one part of a larger
initiative set forth many years ago.
Alana Mauger, Montco’s Director of Communications, let
me know that we have many similar efforts at other Montco
campuses. Most notable are the Culinary Arts Institute, in
partnership with a local waste management company, producing
landfill-free waste, and our recent signing of the White House
American Campuses Act on Climate Change.
Add to this that The Montgazette itself is printed on recycled
paper.
On top of all of this is one very important factor. You, the
students of Montco are reading the paper diligently and for
reading the paper, as you do, you have my thanks!
I ask of you to do two more things. Increase The Montgazette’s
sustainability by recycling the paper, don’t just put it in the
regular trash. Second, sustain the knowledge you gain from this
paper by sharing it with the world.

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