Junior Basketball Player Ali Sanders to Transfer This Season

The junior Guard from Sleepy Hollow, Ill. has decided to transfer to Southeastern University to play basketball under coach Jody Martinez next season.

Image courtesy of Florida Southern Sports Information Department

“I really felt like it was the best decision for me,” Sanders said. “I don’t feel like the system was the right fit for me here.”

Sanders, who was the Mocs leading scorer last year at 10.7 PPG, struggled to score this season averaging only 5.1 PPG on 35.2% shooting during her junior season.

While women’s basketball coach Betsy Harris was unavailable for comment, it was widely known that Sanders and Harris were unable to find common ground this season which may have lead to Sanders’ departure.

Sanders isn’t the only departure this off-season as Lakeland native and starting Forward Christin Strawbridge has also stated that she will be headed to coach Martinez’s Fire basketball team next season.

“I’m really going to miss the friends that I’ve made during my time here at FSC,” Sanders said. “That to me is the hardest part of leaving this place.”

While Sanders may be on the other side of the train-tracks, she said she will definitely come back next season to cheer on her former teammates.

National Champion Kevin Capers Eager to Prove Himself Overseas

Euphoria was all Mocs Senior Guard Kevin Capers felt following the NCAA Division II National Basketball Championship win over Indiana University (Pa.) just a few short weeks ago. Since then, Capers has been busy trying to find an agent that will help him play professional ball in a European League next season.

“It really depends on who you know and who your agent knows in this business,” Capers said. “The guy I’m looking closest at thinks he can get me a spot in a European Silver League in France or Spain.”

Capers is arguably the best basketball player to ever don a Mocs uniform. The first-team Bulletin All-American finished his career at FSC with 2,319 points, which is second all-time behind John Ebeling’s 2,514.

Capers and the rest of the Mocs Men’s basketball team celebrating their National Championship win.

“I really believe [Capers] can take his play to the next level,” former teammate Bubby Johnson said. “He has to get a little stronger and play more like a Point Guard with his size but I think he can do it.”

Capers says he hopes to model his career after Minnesota Timberwolves Guard Gary Neal.

“He came in the league a little late, but he was one of those guys who played overseas for a few years and finally got an NBA contract as a 25-year-old rookie.”

The graduating Capers said he is going to miss his team here at Florida Southern, including former Moccasin basketball coach Linc Darner who has since accepted a job at the University of Wisconson-Green Bay.

“I still talk to coach Darner as often as I can,” Capers said. “We were like a family here, but I know hes going to do great things moving forward.”

Its safe to say that most Florida Southern fans hope the star player from right here in Polk County can make the transition and have a successful career moving forward.

Hummus Recall and What it Means for FSC

Sabra Dipping Co. LLC voluntarily issued a recall of roughly 30,000 cases of their hummus last Thursday due to possible contamination of Listeria monocytogenes.

Once Sabra Dipping Co. announced their recall; stores around the country were checking their product codes to ensure that the recalled products were taken off the shelves.

Florida Southern’s Moc Mart sells Sabra Hummus Dual Packs with pretzels. These snacks are popular amongst Florida Southern students for their convenience and because they are considered a healthy alternative to most snacks.  

Andrew Severance, a Moc Mart cashier who is primarily responsible for quality assurance within the store said that the Sabra products that the Moc Mart handles were not affected by the recall.

“Employees are informed immediately if any product they sell needs to be recalled,’ Severence said. “We are informed within hours of the recalls if any product we carry needs to be out [of The Moc Mart].”

They make sure to check for food safety concerns for any product The Moc Mart receives. “Whenever we get products from the companies that deliver to us, we always check the dates and the physical look of the product before selling it to students,” Severance said. “The batch numbers were after the batch numbers for the hummus that was required to be recalled.”

He also stated that in the two and a half years he has worked at the Moc Mart, they have never had to take a recalled product off of the shelves.

Some students who regularly consume Sabra Hummus from the Moc Mart were concerned initially, but were relieved to find that the recall didn’t affect Florida Southern.

“I eat the hummus from the Moc Mart pretty often, so I’m glad to see that we weren’t involved with the Listeria incident,” senior Nick Stone said. “I think the Moc Mart does a good job of catching that kind of stuff before it gets to [students].” 

 “We have had several recalls come in from products  we carry, but we’ve never had any of the batch  numbers that need to be recalled,” Severence said.  “We make sure that anything that is put on the shelf  is of the best quality possible.”

 In healthy individuals, consumption of Listeria  monocytogenes might cause short-term flu like  symptoms, but in children or the elderly, the  illnesses could be more severe.

Consumers of recalled Sabra products are advised to throw them away. They can also return their product to the store it was purchased from for a refund. Any questions can be directed to Sabra’s headquarters via email or at 888-957-2272 Monday through Friday during normal business hours.

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Sensationalism: Today, Tomorrow, and Maybe Forever

What if I began this article with a headline that read “Russia is thinking of dropping a bomb on the United States”? Would you have been more or less likely to read this article?

I’m guessing you would be more likely to read this and read it thoroughly. After all, I’m sure you’re a very astute and “sensational” individual who enjoys reading and enlightenment.

For a long time, the word “sensational” served to uplift a person’s spirit through a complimentary fashion. But these days, if you’re labeled as a “sensationalist,” your credibility is always in question.

In a 2001 article written in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, three individuals (Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Shuhua Zhou, and Brooke Barnett) documented the change over time of the word “sensational.”

The researchers also noted how the term of sensationalism could be traced all the way back in the 1500s and how the term is now something that aims to produce “a startling or thrilling impression or to excite and please vulgar tastes,” according to The Random House Dictionary.

So why do news organizations often feel the need to complete their news coverage in such a way. Why would a news outlet willingly want to “excite and please vulgar tastes”?

Two reasons. Money and competition.

With the news always being on a 24-hour cycle, everyone is looking for the latest stories. Yes, it is understandable that a reporter would want to do the job they were assigned to do.

There are also many news “organizations” like TMZ that are always putting out stories that may or may not be true just so they can be seen as the main place to get news.

And if they are the main place to get news, they get more money. Unfortunately, to get this money, the “reporters” often use sensationalized headlines to sell their story instead of just writing an in-depth story that is only factual with no ulterior motive. But there is hope.

Associate Professor of Communication Michael Trice said that journalists wouldn’t continue to use sensationalism if the public demanded better news and more thorough reporting. He also viewed the New York Times as a potential beacon of light since it was the New York Times that broke through during the time when two other newspapers were “competing” with each other.

“They [New York Times] carved out a niche,” Trice said. “They called it ‘All the news that’s fit to print.’ The idea being we’re not going to print this crap that you find in the Hearst paper or the Pulitzer paper, we’re going to print real news.”

Real news.

Is it really possible? Maybe. But reporters are going to have to step up their reporting skills and actually tell the news.

“One of the main dangers in media today is that journalists use a pack mentality, where one journalist reports this and everybody jumps on that because they don’t want to be the one who is not saying that,” Trice said. “You get reporters reporting what other reporters are saying instead of reporters reporting what their sources are telling them.”

If reporters aren’t reporting what their sources are telling them, then anybody can be a reporter. And that’s bad.

Leah Schwarting, Senior Editor of the Southern newspaper, keeps sensationalism out of the Southern newspaper by speaking to the writer of the story and ensuring that quotes are accurate. Schwarting also said that reporters can use several interviewing tactics to make sure that quotes don’t get sensationalized.

“If something sounds a little unusual to me, I usually ask a follow-up question,” Schwarting said. “Most journalists want to do a good job and are honestly looking for facts, so don’t just brush them aside when they’re trying to fact-check.”

Even if there are still many occurrences of sensationalism, that doesn’t mean the media isn’t trying.

According to a 2011 study written in the Journal of Media Psychology, there has been a decline in sensationalism usage in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

But let’s be honest.

Sensationalism in the media will always be a highly debated topic. As long as the American public continues to watch shows like “ESPN First Take”− a show that has two people who many see as the preeminent sports sensationalists− sensationalism will always exist.

So how can we solve this problem of sensationalism? Should we stop paying attention to the news? No of course not.

According to a study conducted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 80 percent of the American public believes that sensational stories receive a lot of news coverage simply because the stories are exciting, not because they are actually newsworthy.

Each of us can personally make the decision to not watch programs or read articles that might possibly have sensationalist elements in them. We can apply a level of critical thinking to whatever news we are ingesting.

You’re not stupid. I’m not stupid. As a part of the American public, we’re not stupid.

So it’s time to do our part.

FSC Students attend BEA Conference

The Communication Department sent two professors and a few students to the Broadcast Education Association conference in Las Vegas, NV.  These students had many different opportunities to sit in on sessions and dive in to their major.

 

The Broadcast Education Association hosted it’s 60th year conference at the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The opening session began with Jerry Lewis receiving the distinguished service award. Lewis raises money and awareness for muscular dystrophy.

Professor Allen soaks up some rays outside the Central Hall.

Adam Epstein, an editor from Saturday Night Live, discussed his time there and what it is like to be an editor for SNL.

“I’ll hand in and export to the air 10 minutes before the show starts. Once, I had the short streaming 20 seconds into the live feed,” Epstein said.

Canon also had it’s own area designated to presenting different cameras, and a broadcasting area where guests were able to interact with the equipment.

A Canon specialist was cleaning a camera lens and checking for damages in the lens. He deconstructed the lens, cleaned it, and put it back together gingerly.

Robert Yoeman, a famous cinematographer, sat down and discussed his work on the Grand Budapest Hotel, and other feature films he has worked on with director Wes Anderson.

Michael Cudlitz, best known for his roles as Jon Cooper in Southland, as well as Abraham in The Walking Dead, sat down and talked about the importance of characters and portraying substance abuse.

Cudlitz also read a letter from a fan that impacted him.

Some of the attendees of the conference decided to take a snooze in the middle of the hallway.

The line for this session was all the way past the stairs, nearly 200 feet away.

Attendees streamed the session from their phone in hopes of getting into the session. Space was very limited.

A session with Robert Kirkman, Steven Yue, and AMC President Charlie Collier, was packed.

“I think we’re in a unique position that the show is successful, but the story we’re trying to tell is so big,” creator of The Walking Dead comic series, Robert Kirkman, said.

Steven Yue, who plays Glen on AMC’s The Walking Dead, took selfies with fans and signed a few autographs.

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Building a Foundation

Florida Southern College students enrolled in Doctor Mike Knudstup’s Principles of Management class are tasked with a project that involves the students developing a service project. Three of his students took the project an extra step.

FSC sophomores Taylor Bothe, Nathaniel  Schriffert and Chase Hoyt partnered with a local preschool, Head of the Class Learning Center, to improve the school’s playground for their project. Schfiffert’s aunt is a teacher at HCLC and is how the group got the chance to team up with the school.

HCLC is located off of Kathleen road, it acts as both a school for small children and an after school program for children up to the age of 12.

“There is no better reward than seeing that you’ve made an impact on a child’s life in a positive way,” Bothe said. “Seeing the children smile makes it all worth it.”

The group surveyed teachers on campus about a plus and minus grading system to raise money for their project. The students were allowed to keep the money that they earned from the surveys, but they put it toward buying supplies for the preschool.

Hoyt, Schriffert, and Bothe spent several weekends doing yard work around the playground: removing weeds, small trees and thorn bushes that were near the playground. They also replaced the basketball hoop and purchased a new picnic table and benches to replace the rotten ones.

The group hopes that by starting the project with HCLC it’ll open a relationship that will allow students to come back and help maintain the preschool for community service in the future.

“We hope to sustain our cause for a continued relationship with HCLC in which we can be beneficial to them and their throwing of events,” Hoyt said. “Maybe in the future we can go back and fix up their shed and establish a relationship that helps both sides.”

The group feels that not only did they make the school better in terms of looks and equipment, but they helped themselves and made the future brighter for all of the children that attended.

“Working with HCLC not only progressed them as a business, but me as a person,” Schriffert said.

Hoyt, Bothe, and Schriffert started work with HCLC as a grade for a class, but are leaving with a long-term relationship.

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Below is a video that the group made about their project.

Before the group started working there were shrubs and weeds growing everywhere.

The group made it a point to clear it out so that students could utilize the full space of the playground.

The group wanted to make sure that they would get rid of anything with thorns or poison ivy.

“Seeing the children smile makes it all worth it,” Bothe said.

HCLC is a small school with a maximum capacity of 80.

The school is primarily for young kids, but older kids come to the after school program.

After several weeks of yard work, the change was becoming noticable.

“Hopefully we can continue to come back to HCLC and work to improve it even more,” Hoyt said.

“Clearing out all of the weeds made you notice some of the nicer things in nature too,” Schriffert said.

Replacing the basketball hoop was high on the group’s priority list.

A new bench was also a focus for the group.

The group recruited other students for fun and community service.

“I love community service and being able to do something that will help kids makes it even better,” sophomore Joey D’Allesandro said.