On a normal day, the town is sleepy but productive with grain trucks cycling through the silos and people filling up for gas before their daily commute. This has obviously changed and Jim a local gas station worker will explain how the shut down has affected day to day operations.

How long have you worked/lived in the area?

Jim: I have lived in the area for about five years and worked at the gas station for two.

How busy is work on a normal day?

Jim: You have the regulars who order food and depending on the day a steady flow of people for gas and snacks. We are busy most nights and will have four or five people working at a time.

How many co-workers do you have?

About 15-18 normally but now there are only 3 full-time staff and 10 part-time employees.

Has this prompted you to search for other jobs?

Jim: Yes, with fewer hours… it has made me realize something more permanent might be needed.

What has your store done to protect its employees?

Jim: We have the normal gloves and everyone is supposed to stay 6 feet from us. Only three people work at a time and we work in teams now to decrease the number of people we are in contact with.

Are people respecting the rules?

Jim: Sometimes, but mostly not. At first, it was a big joke until someone in the town got sick and now people just do it more discretely. From what I have seen people outside of work have been staying by themselves so hopefully, everyone else is doing the same.

Illinois has ordered all food places to close but your pizza and sandwiches can be ordered, does that make you have more orders?

Jim: No, people don’t seem to want anything not made by themselves although some places in larger areas have seen more orders in total. I expected it to be much worse but it is usually just a random family that forgot to make food.

How long can you last without more hours than you are getting?

Jim: I should be fine for a while but other people who lost their job completely are probably already struggling. Just spend less and save more should be everyone’s mindset. We have no clue how long this may last so you might as well prepare for the worst.

How has your day to day job changed?

Jim: Normally when you are working in the kitchen you have to be constantly doing something to make someone else’s job easier. This is normal things like making extra dough or cutting veggies and meat. Since the change in food production we now cant prep anything beforehand so people have to wait for the customer. Now that I cant work ahead I have been cleaning random areas that get missed or just trying to stay awake. Depending on the shift it’s either super boring or constant stress.

Has working in a team of three helped communication?

Jim: I thought it would help out a lot because you are always with the same people but currently we are only a couple weeks in and it has started to make each team dislike who they are working with. Probably because just three of us are stuck together on bad shifts. Hopefully, at some point we are able to change the team to see if that helps at all.

Overall how bad has the sudden work change been?

Jim: On a scale of 1-10 id say a 3. We aren’t getting sick but it has been a rough time to most of us. Hopefully we can all continue to stay healthy and can begin to get back to a normal schedule that can give everyone normal hours.

*Name is changed.

I believe that social media should attempt to reduce the amount of out of text content to help its users from spreading the information further. This could be done by these companies hiring fact-checking teams that will review reports of content that is false. Although it doesn’t solve the problem completely it will allow for some of the information to be taken down off the sites which could help people’s understanding of the news. According to Facebook in 2017 they changed their policy to attempt to stop fake news by hiring third party “fact-checkers”. This seems to have failed considering the number of fake news stories that are still shared from Facebook.

Journalistic companies should address the visual media like Lytvyneko did because it lowers their own credibility if they choose to ignore it. Although they should address the issue the groups shouldn’t get to the point where the only thing posted is telling people what was fake news. If it goes to that extreme it would be likely that people would just shut it out entirely.

The lasting effects of out of context media aren’t completely known as its a newer concept. But we do know that it can cause panic and potential harm to the community in question. For example, when anti-vaccination articles began circulating people stopped getting their children vaccinated. To my knowledge, this hasn’t caused any major problems yet but there could be a time that this would be a public safety issue and allow an eradicated disease to resurface.

Nineteen years after the original XFL first attempted to conquer spring football it is back with new rules and a new plan to sustain its rating week after week.

WWE chairman Vince McMahon first announced the return of the league in 2018 without many details besides it would start in 2020. After that announcement, McMahon took the back seat by hiring current XFL commissioner Oliver Luck a respected leader who previously held roles throughout college football like being on the college football playoff management committee.

The XFL’s goal is to make the game more exciting and higher scoring than the NFL. The league made many rule changes like the 25-second play clock instead of the 45-second play clock that the NFL uses, this was done to have the game played at a faster pace with less delay between snaps. Next, they added a new point after rules to eliminate kicking an extra point. The point after a touchdown can either be a one-point play from the two-yard line, a two-point play from the five-yard line, or a three-point play from the ten-yard line. This change allows the came to be in reach even if a team down points; so in theory, this will allow for more comebacks and exciting games. Another exciting change is the overtime format which will entail a soccer-style shootout with both offenses getting 5 chances to score on the opposing defense. There are plenty of other innovative changes like the one foot in bounds rule, new kickoff formatting, the way the final two minutes are played and a specific ball-spotting official.

After two weeks of play, the networks broadcasting the games see it as a huge success but many people are still not completely sold on the league actually working. Like junior sports communication student Jacob Steinberg who said: “history is not on their side” but went on to say that there is a chance if they show themselves to be an option for college athletes. Another sports communication student Joe Spotanski is quite optimistic saying that they have a chance to earn the spring football slot because of the rule changes put in place. He later went on to say “it might take a season or two for people to accept.”

The overall media focus has been mainly on the amount of access that is given to the viewer. The XFL allows reporters to be on the field conducting interviews right after a play and in the halftime locker room. The coaches and players have microphones during the game along with the referees and replay booth. This unprecedented viewing style creates more insight for the audience.

After just two weeks it’s hard to tell if the XFL reboot will be here to stay but it guarantees to be an interesting ride.

Sources: Photo https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3ALogo_of_the_XFL.png&psig=AOvVaw3j_BZCzQL4q15dH-W-BN9v&ust=1582414255256000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJDmz9Hm4-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

With the major shift in news consumption, we are beginning to see an increased importance of advertising for news organizations like the Oscars ad created by The New York Times.https://youtu.be/G1imfEXKaeM The obvious pro for the increase in advertising is that it allows more people to grasp what that organization is writing about and it helps the group become more a part of today’s mainstream. One con to advertising like this is it could be seen as desperation and turn away readers altogether. The success of the ads is dependent on the demographic it is trying to reach which in my opinion the Oscars is the wrong place to advertise. The Oscars are watched by millions of people that are older and probably already reading the site/paper, unlike the younger generation that isn’t watching. Using celebrities like the New York Times did is a way to add credibility and can be helpful if it is presented in a non-desperate manner. Making shirts and extra items with the name of a news organization, in my opinion, contradict the purpose of journalism because these organizations should be focused on the story not profiting from the merchandise. The New York Times partnered with Urban Outfitters to create a selection that sold for $35-$50 an item which is far more expensive than I would have expected. The shirts have mixed reviews with complaints about sizes and material and all items are now listed as sold-out. Overall this is most likely going to become the new normal as companies try to match what each other have done.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.