Not Your Typical Milk and Cookies

Cookie ˈko͝okē (COMPUTING) a packet of data sent by an Internet server to a browser, which is returned by the browser each time it subsequently accesses the same server, used to identify the user or track their access to the server.

Normally when you hear the word cookie you begin imagining the smell of baked goods fresh out of the oven. This is not quite the same thing. In the world of computers, cookies are pieces of data that track where a user goes on the Internet and what they look at. Many people are unaware of the number of cookies found on their computer or that cookies even exist in the first place. I was astounded to check my cookies. I've inserted a picture below. 

1, 158 cookies?! I immediately cleared all of my website data. Of course I quickly realized that this logged me out of all of my accounts, including  Blogger itself. I had seen advertisements for things that I had just been looking at on Amazon, and I knew that they were cookies but I never did anything about it. It had gotten to the point that it was annoyingly obvious. Right after I'd leave Amazon, the item I was looking at would appear as an ad on another website. As annoying as this is, cookies aren't always a bad thing. They're very beneficial for businesses. Cookies allow the business to see how the customer found you, how many times they've visited your site, as well as the other sites they've visited and how many times they've visited those. This may be a good thing for the business but there's always a downside. One instance that many customers may not know about is the use of cookies when booking a flight. If you use the same website for purchasing a plane ticket, the sight will read that you have been there before and raise the price over time. Another downside for internet users who block cookies is getting blocked by certain websites. I did noticed that after I switched my settings to block cookies from third parties and advertisers I was stopped every know and then by sites that required the use of cookies.
Although it may be annoying to have to log in to accounts again and occasionally getting stopped by certain websites that require cookies after clearing your cookie data, it's worth it. 

WKU "News"

The following are 12 of the most recent new stories posted by WKU News:  

• WKU RECOGNIZES TOP VOLUNTEERS, ALUMNI AT 2014 SUMMIT AWARDS
• WKU NAMED TO MILITARY FRIENDLY® SCHOOLS LIST FOR 6TH STRAIGHT YEAR
• DR. SUSAN BAUM MAKES PRESENTATION AT 2014 TWICE-EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS SEMINAR
• PARKING/TRAFFIC INFORMATION FOR WKU VS. UTEP ON NOV. 8
• WKU GERMAN PROGRAM TO MARK 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF FALL OF BERLIN WALL
• STUDENT ACTIVITIES ANNOUNCES CHAIRS FOR GREEK WEEK 2015
• PARKING/TRAFFIC INFORMATION FOR HOMECOMING 2014 EVENTS NOV. 6-8
• WKU YEARBOOK WINS PACEMAKER AWARD — 17TH OVERALL, 7TH IN A ROW
• STEAK ’N SHAKE TO HOST LAUNCH PARTY NOV. 6 AT WKU LOCATION
• WKU FORENSICS TEAM WINS LARGEST TOURNAMENT OF FALL SEMESTER
• WKU DEPARTMENT HEAD COMPLETES 8TH AROUND-THE-WORLD TOUR
• GROVES MAKES PRESENTATION AT U.N. WATER CONFERENCE IN CHINA

Out of these 12, I would say only half can remotely pass for news stories. Steak and Shake is having their grand opening? Parking and traffic information? That's some hard hitting journalism right there. Even the stories that I think could pass for news stories are soft stories. It seems as though this is a source I would go to if I wanted to know about some general campus news and events, but not for deep, interesting stories. Interestingly enough, none of these most recent WKU stories are featured in the local Bowling Green news (not even the Steak and Shake one! Shocking, right?) This is probably because someone who doesn't attend this school wouldn't care about smaller things going on around campus. I think perhaps alumni or other members of the community could be interested in the stories about Forensics Team, the Around-the-World Tour, and the U.N. Presentation, but the public most likely doesn't care about the chairs elected for Greek Week. These stories all seem like the easy catches. This probably has something to do with the size of the paper. Or maybe there is simply nothing controversial or impactful going on around campus (although I highly doubt that).  I'm sure there aren't many people relying on WKU News for their daily news and that's probably a good thing considering their seems to be no coverage of anything in the community. I know that I personally will to be using this site for my daily news. These stories may produce a nice public image for the university but it's not the whole truth if part of the picture is cropped out. 

They Say Image is Everything

If you were to look at Vogue's online magazine and solely look at the pictures, it seems as though they are promoting a high end lifestyle. The digital pages are filled with beautiful faces, some you may recognize as famous actors, artists or models. The images all seem to have a similar feel to them. Beautiful people, nicely done makeup, expensive clothing, perfectly decorated houses, story book weddings. After flipping through several articles I noticed that most of the people who appeared in the photographs were white, and every now and then I saw an African American or Asian model. I think the way Vogue makes the pictures for their publication works for them and the clientele they're trying to reach (although there could be more diversity) but it would not work for a more journalistic magazine such as National Geographic. Vogue promotes an expensive lifestyle and that is communicated quite well through their photographs. It wasn't until I actually read some of the articles that I realized that there was a bit of reporting that represented real people as well. They recently featured a story on a woman who fled Iran with her family and also a story of two woman who are standing up against sexual harassment on their college campus. But even the photos for these more serious articles are definitely stylized for Vogue. I think this loses a certain audience that they're on the verge of being able to connect with. The problem may be the image that people commonly associate with the magazine. If they're like me, they had no idea that Vogue publishes more journalistic stories and not just fashion advertisements and stories about celebrities.

At Home on Music Row

I recently did some research on local  recording studios, specifically, OmniSound Studios. OmniSound is located in Nashville, TN and has been consistently rated as one of the top recording studios in that area for the past 25 years. It doesn't come as any surprise that OmniSound is home to some of country music's biggest names, such as Blake Shelton, Lady Antebellum, Trace Adkins, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, and many more. The majority of their client base appears to belong to the country genre, however there are a few outliers, most notably, Disney/Pixar, Leona Lewis, and Hot Chelle Rae. It doesn't appear they targeting a specific fan base with their clients, I believe it just happens to be the area that the studio is in because Nashville is commonly associated with country music.
Throughout the years, they have worked with many major labels, but they prefer to work with independent artists. As they put it: "Our mission is to offer everyone the opportunity to make the best possible recording–regardless of whether they are a major artist or have never recorded before." Some of the distribution services they provide are iTunes, Amazon MP3, and many more major music distributors (they did not specify if they produce hard copies but I would assume so.) They also offer video production, record packaging (designing an album cover), web design, workshops, and Electronic Press Kit. All of these services help artists to promote their music. The problem I could see a recording studio such as OmniSound facing is some artists may not be willing to pay the big bucks for the services offered by larger studios. Nowadays there are programs that make it easy for any aspiring artist to produce music for much less money. The quality will not be as good but it is still a possibility. Although this probably wouldn't affect large recording studios, it has the potential to affect smaller labels and studios in the future.