I got a job!

After biting my nails since graduation about getting a job, I finally got a paid internship. Ok, so finally is kind of a strong word considering I've been here less than a month.

I'm not going to jinx the new job by saying the name of the magazine I'm working for, but it has a pretty prestigious, if small, readership.

So how did I find out about the position? Craigslist. It's a pretty valuable resource for journalists, along with Media Bistro, Journalism Jobs, and, my favorite, ED2010. When I first started looking for a job in NYC (before I moved), it seemed impossible to find out about job openings and to get myself noticed amongst the thousands of aspiring journalists competing for entry-level jobs. The big publishing houses like Hearst and Conde Nast have generic form applications, but I knew I probably wasn't going to get an interview that way anytime soon. So I googled the best job sites for journalists and sent out tons of resumes and cover letters until finally I got a call (well, email) for an interview.

As much as I know I deserve this job, it still feels like dumb luck that I actually got it. Next step, apartment-hunting in Brooklyn.

Back in Black

I'm back in NYC, the media capital of the USA. It's just as wonderful as I remember, and just as overwhelming. Last year, the marketing firm Yankelovich reported that Americans living in cities saw an average of 5,000 ad messages per day. I'm willling to be that's more than double in a place like NYC. Heck, just walk around Times Square for an hour and you've got your daily quota.

Speaking of Times Square, I've spent part of each day there since I moved on Saturday. I try not to see the Times building as a metaphor-- an empty shell that was once the center of journalism, now plastered by advertising-- but it's hard. At least magazines seem to be doing OK. Here's where I want to be working in 5 years:

The Hearst Tower is home to Good Housekeeping, one of the most awesome magazines in existence, and on the the most often underestimated. As you can see in my last post, they have a variety of labs and test kitchens to ensure that they recommend only the best to their readers.

Other than Times Square, I've been a lot of places in the past 4 days, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Chinatown, Harlem, the Rockerfeller Center, Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum, and the Museum of Natural History, where I posed with a T-Rex (top right).

For the time being, I'm living in NYU housing in a tiny apartment that currently holds five people. I'm still searching for a job as an editorial assistat/intern at a magazine, so cross your fingers and hope that I find something!

In a New York State of Mind

It's funny how you can grow up thinking you hate big cities, then go to a place like New York and feel right at home. Well, almost at home. After a week of sightseeing and media touring, I'm seriously considering trying to intern there next year.

Here's some of my favorite media places we visited:

Time/Warner

They set the standard pretty high for the other media organizations, greeting us with coffee, donuts, and free magazines. They had also planned a great presentation for us, with representatives from many of their affiliates taking time to explain the business to us. Notably, we got to meet Jack Cafferty of CNN, who gave us some no-nonsense advice on how to get ahead in the world of journalism. He should know.


New York Times

We got a little less of a warm welcome here, but the peek we got at the inside of this place was priceless. We got to see the front page newsroom where some of the most important stories in the world are put together. We also watched a slide show of photographs taken for the NY Times, the quality of which was breathtaking. I even noticed a few of the photojournalism majors tearing up a bit.







Good Housekeeping

I was pleasantly surprised by this magazine, which I had previously thought to be somewhat of a fluff magazine for bored housewives. Turns out they do all of their own product testing in a series of labs in-house. You can see the kitchen lab where they test blenders, fridges, and any other cooking appliances. Good Housekeeping's attitude towards serving their readers, as well as their policy on ads (they won't take ones that don't live up to their claims) makes them the kind of magazine I'd like to work for in the future.


Rolling Stone

Definately wins for the cool factor. Their "Wall of Covers" is a sight to behold (left). Every single cover they've ever made since 1967 is on display here. We also got a behind-the-scenes look at how celebrities are photoshopped to get rid of any unsightly wrinkes or other imperfections. Boy, those before and after pics are scary!









Ketchum

This PR firm knocked our socks off. They went above and beyond any other place we visited to make us comfortable and had obviously put a lot of preparation into their presentation for us. We walked in to the sound of "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and found goodie bags at our seats. After hearing what they do and getting a sense for how well they take care of their employees, I was just about ready to switch my major to public relations. I plan on applying to their training program next summer.

Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I'm taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I'm in a New York state of mind

New York, New York

I've never been one to plan big trips over spring break. It's only a week long, after all, and right in the middle of the spring semester.

This year, however, I decided to spend my break in NYC, touring the major media companies in the Big Apple as part of a school-organized trip for mass communications students. And I have to say, it's the best spring break I've ever had.

Here are some highlights:

Time Square

A tourist trap for sure, but one of the funnest places to be at night. Our hotel was just a few blocks from everything: the giant TV screens, Broadway theaters, great restaurants, and more. We learned quickly to look at menu pricing before sitting down to eat. The street vendors were usually a safe bet for good cheap food (and accessories!). Day or night, there was always something to do in Time Square.

RENT

I was able to get half price tickets the night before and still sit in the 7th row. This was an awesome show. Chicago (the other show I saw in NYC) paled in comparison.

Chinatown

Forget buying trinkets in Time Square. Chinatown has all tourist junk you'll ever need, and for half the price! My hotel roommie got her favorite designer perfume here for $30.

Battery Park

I knew that I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty while I was there, but I didn't want to have to wait in line to get on the boat. Here I could look out and see the statue, as well as the Manhattan and Broklyn Bridges. There are also guys in the park dressed up as the Statue of Liberty who you can get your picture taken with. Silly, but fun.

Frim Fram and Dance Manhattan

These are two places I went swing dancing in the city. I lost my camera at one of them but some of the dancers helped me find out where it was the next evening and offered to mail it to me in California. Just goes to show what a friendly bunch swing dancers are! I also made almost as many media connections here as I did while touring the major corporations during the day.

To be continued...(with pictures!)

Vernon God Little: Not for Everyone

One of the books being considered for next school year's Campus Reading Program at SJSU is Vernon God Little, a satire of American materialism, conformism, and obsession with the media. It's also a dark comedy involving a school shooting. In my opinion, it's a good book, and a worthwhile read, if you like a certain kind of satire. Still, I don't think it should be chosen for the program.

In general, I'm not quite sure that SJSU should choose a comedy (however dark) for the reading program. Everyone has a different sense of humor, and I'm guessing that Vernon God Little is not everyone's cup of tea. The jokes are often crude, with a sarcastic edge. I don't think that most students would appreciate the satire of VGL, either. Satire is a slippery thing, and it took me 2 years as an English major to kind of get it.

I also think a lot of people would have a hard time relating to the narrator: a dirty-minded 15-year old boy given to frequent profanity. The vulgar language added to the graphic sexual content of the book might be off-putting for some. Sure, in The Kite Runner (last year's choice), Hassan gets raped. But this event was treated more seriously, and with less graphic description.

I imagine that the goal of the SJSU Campus Reading Program is to introduce students to a book they might not otherwise pick up; one that they'll like, that also happens to have redeeming social value and make for a good discussion topic. Vernon God Little can be a good book to pick up in your spare time, when you're in the mood for something with a darker edge. It's funny, and it does have redeeming social value. Still, when in comes to a campus-wide reading program, I think it's best to choose something with a more universal appeal.

The Media and Me, Part 2

We were asked for our last post to write about how we have changed as media consumers since the beginning of the semester.

First of all, I'm more cautious about where I get my news. I've known for some time that network news stations each have their own bias, depending on which huge corporation owns them. But it wasn't until I did an exercise for my Media and Diversity class that it really sunk in how skewed network news can really be. Now I'm more likely to turn to BBC when I want to see what's going on in the world.

I've also become a more savvy online media consumer. After learning about Bloglines, I started subscribing to blogs I found interesting. I'm now up to 25 feeds, ranging from Dilbert to Wired. Wired in particular has been a great source of topics for my blog, as well as just a great place to get tech news. And I can't leave out YouTube. The lonelygirl15 story, plus its takeover by Google, has convinced me that this new media outlet will become/has become important to our society.

Overall, I'd say that learning about the media this semester has allowed me to look more critically at the media I consume, and find new ways to get the kind of media I'm interested in.

And for those of you that are wondering, this won't be my last last post, just the final one for MCOM 72.

Borat: a Success?

After seeing Borat last weekend, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong: I thought it was very funny. But I just don't think that a lot of people will "get" the satirical humor of the movie.

For the record, Borat has it's good moments that I think were clearly poking fun at the right people. The rodeo scene and the part with the frat boys had me in stitches. This was partly because the bigoted people targeted deserved every bit of embarrassment they must now be feeling.

Yet even knowing the premise, there were parts of the movie that totally baffled me. Like, why the antique store owners? There was no obvious satire in this part of the movie, where Borat destroys over $400 worth of civil war memorabilia. The couple that owned the store seemed equally perplexed, and was not fairly compensated.

I also didn't see the necessity of interrupting someone's business conference by charging in naked for a wrestling match. Sure, it got some laughs, but you just wonder, why? Did Sacha Baron Cohen feel the need to be so outrageous just for the sake of shock value? Parts of Borat felt more like watching an episode of Jackass than anything else. The Internet Movie Database claims that the police were called on Cohen 91 times during the production of the film. Personally, I think the needless mayhem that Borat creates takes away from the more meaningful satire of the movie.

But then again, I still laughed.

An Open Letter to SJSU Curriculum Decision-Makers

(For a background in what's going on, read here, here, and here.)

To Whom it May Concern;

As this is my first semester as a journalism major at SJSU, I don't claim to know a great deal about the objectives of the J&MC program. Yet it seems to me that turning JOUR 163 into a software teaching class would be detrimental to the students, and the department as a whole. While it's true that commercial skills will benefit us in our field, I believe that it is more important for this class to focus on exploring new concepts of media so that we can keep up with the developments in the world of journalism.

Blogging is one such development. This semester, in Lilly Buchwitz's MCOM 72 class, I feel that I have grown immensely as a journalist by creating and maintaining this blog. I believe this is because the focus in class was on how to become a good blogger, not simply how to blog. Sure, a knowledge of how to use blogging tools such as Blogger would have helped me get started, but I'm glad we didn't waste time in class going over those kinds of details. In my experience, we learn best by doing things, not just by being taught about them.

From what I hear, the students in this semester's section of JOUR 163 have been given wonderful opportunities to explore "new media" and emerging forms of journalism, including blogging and podcasting. I believe this is key at a time when "old media" is on a downslide. Professors Steve Sloan and Cynthia McCune have done a revolutionary thing by bringing in top-notch guest speakers and encouraging their students to take part in the cutting edge of media. As SJSU alumni Robert Scoble said, "You can learn InDesign from a book." I'm willing to bet that what the students of JOUR 163 learned this semester was much more valuable that anything a textbook could provide. I hope that you will decide to keep the course curriculum as is.

My Adventures in Online Dating: Part 2

(Read Part 1 Here)

I've now spent a total of three weeks on Match.com, and I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. One one hand, I've talked to some interesting (in a good way) people, and even met one for dinner last week. On the other hand, I've spent hours writing emails back and forth to others I'm still not sure are who they say they are and that I've never talked to in person. It's an investment; one I'm not entirely confident will pay off. Speaking of paying off, $30 a month is a little steep for a college student. That's more than I paid for my mp3 player.

Online dating is also a little overwhelming. I get about 5 emails a day, which may not sound like a lot, but seems like it when I have to go back and recall details about who I'm talking to, and write thoughtful responses. I like to think that online dating could be a fun supplement to regular dating, but for me it's just too much. I'd rather use a service like the one my friend David made, which lets you find a date (or just an activity buddy) for a specific occasion. It's also free.

So back to Match.com. I have to say that my experience has been pretty positive in terms of the people I've talked to. I was surprised to find as many down to earth people that shared my interests (and were close in age) as I did. My one date so far was much less awkward than I imagined it would be, and I now have a Thai food and Billiards buddy who goes to my school!

So am I glad I tried Match.com? Yes. Will I keep paying for it after my group stops footing the bill? Nope. Maybe I'll come back to it in a few years. Besides, in a month, I've made enough connections to look into for now. Did I mention I have 4 dates this weekend?

I've Got a Secret

What are your web vices? We all have them, whether it be Woot, Fark, or any other site we compulsively check for reasons other than work or news. One of mine is PostSecret.

In 2004, a man named Frank Warren started a community art project in which he encouraged strangers to send in decorated postcards detailing their deepest, darkest secrets. Two years later, Warren has received postcards from all over the world, and now posts them on his website, PostSecret.com.

The rules for submission are simple: a secret must be true, and it must be something you've never told anyone before. Submitters are encouraged to make their postcards artistic.

Every Sunday new secrets are posted: some funny, some sad, all thought provoking. Warren gives us a look into the personal lives of strangers, and out of voyeuristic curiosity we cannot help but look. Sometimes we even see ourselves.

I've not yet sent in a secret, but I can see why so many people do. It's a means to catharsis for those who have let their secret(s) eat away at them. By anonymously putting their dirty laundry out for the world to see, they share their burden with the PostSecret community and perhaps feel a little less alone.

The message of PostSecret is simple: everyone has secrets. And maybe if we were a little more honest with each other, we wouldn't feel the need to share our secrets with total strangers, or peep at the secrets of others. PostSecret is a manifestation of our culture, and I'm not ashamed to admit that it's become one of my vices. Check it out and it may become yours.

O.J. Silenced

O.J. Simpson's book, "If I Did It," proves what most people already guessed: he did it. No one but a cold blooded murderer would take advantage of his crimes in this way to make money off his victims' deaths.

The book, which O.J. was to be paid $3.5 million for, details the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman: murders O.J. was acquitted of in 1995. However, Simpson writes as if he were the murderer (as if he wasn't), in a hypothetical depiction of how he would have killed the pair.

The publisher, Judith Regan, claims to have decided to publish the book for personal reasons; as a victim of domestic abuse herself, she wanted the book to stand as O.J.'s confession and perhaps as an apology. But critics have lashed out at Regan, calling her an opportunist and accusing her of helping a murderer profit from his crimes.

Finally, today, the book was cancelled, along with a related interview with O.J. that was to be aired on Fox. Thank goodness. I believe in freedom of speech and all, but I admit I'm quite relieved that this tragic events of 1994 won't be further capitalized on by O.J., and that the families of the victims will not have to endure any more of this cruel publicity stunt.

Harper's: A Review

I recently got my first issue of Harper's, a magazine about politics, literature, culture, and the arts.

The first thing that caught my eye was an article by Daniel Ellsberg, former U.S. Military Analyst, on a possible war with Iran. Only a few weeks ago in my Media Law class, we had talked about Ellsberg's role in leaking the "Pentagon Papers" to the New York Times in 1971, and ultimately helping to end the war in Vietnam. Seeing his name in the byline of a current article intrigued me to read more.

The gist of the article is that Ellsberg believes that there are plans in the works to invade Iran, and that the government officials involved in the plan should leak that information to the press now, before war breaks out. Ellsberg reflects that if he had come forward sooner with the intelligence he had, it might have been possible to avoid Vietnam altogether. While I'm not convinced that Ellsberg alone truly had that much power, I think he makes some very important points about the responsibility of those on the inside, and the consequences of standing by and saying nothing. He should know.

Harper's is not all heavy political talk, however. Interspersed with the longer articles and more serious content are poems, art, and works of fiction. In the current issue, I found an excerpt from a longer novel called Happyland, as well as a bit taken from Allen Ginsburg's diary as a teenager entitled, "Yelp." The humor in Harper's is smart, and the articles truly make you think. I found it to be refreshingly different from any magazine I'd ever read before. And now I can't wait to get my next issue.

My Adventures in Online Dating: Part 1

Our group project for this class is to look at Match.com and its effect on society. Naturally, my group decided that one of us should act as a guinea pig and actually try this thing out. Wary of online dating, but curious nonetheless, I volunteered for the job.

The first step was to enter basic information like my age, gender, and the gender and age range that I was interested in. Check. I created a user name and password, and was taken to a page of matches. After clicking on one, I was asked to complete a profile. One of the first things asked of me on the questionnaire was, "What's your sign?" No, I am not kidding. It is at this point that I start to wonder what I'm getting myself into.

At the end of the second page I'm asked what my best feature is. Included in the drop down list are: neck, bellybutton, and feet. Hmm...maybe I'll use this as a way to screen people. If your feet are your best feature, we've go nothing to talk about.

After completing my profile, I press the button labeled "send for approval." I get an email telling me it might take up to 72 hours to have my profile approved. So I wait. The next day, I receive another email telling me they can't approve my profile. Some of the possible reasons listed are: soliciting, providing identifying information, offensive language, or sexually explicit or violent material. What?!

I change the wording slightly in my description and resend. I go through this process several times before I finally figure out exactly what they’ve taken issue with. Turns out, they won’t let me use the word “petite” in describing myself. Heaven forbid I include any sort of physical description in a dating profile.

After finally getting my profile up, it isn't long before I start getting "winks," a Match.com feature that allows users to show general interest. But that's another story....

Blog Ads, Are They Worth It?

There's a feeling shared by many bloggers and blog readers that to sell ads on your blog is to sell out. The whole business of advertising is associated with sleazy practices and annoying distractions (pop-ups, anyone?), so why would one voluntarily pollute their blog with ads?

Bloggers that sell ads often have to justify making a profit to their readers and other bloggers. It seems in essence that bloggers are not expected to make money off of their work; that their blogs should stand as a sort of art for art's sake. But is it really practical to ask bloggers to live as starving artists to preserve the purity of their work?

Obviously, it's not really worth it to sell ads on your blog if you have very few readers to begin with. One must build up a loyal readership before it's possible to make any sort of profit. Still, for those bloggers who have already created a following and are moving up the ranks in Google, there's a chance that selling ads could make a significant difference in their income. Take for example, Dooce.

For those not familiar with Dooce, it's a blog written by Heather Armstrong, who became famous after being the first person to be fired for what she wrote on her blog. That was two years ago. Now, she supports her family by selling ads on her blog, which is ranked as one of the most popular blogs on Technorati. Obviously, her decision to have ads hasn't hurt her readership too badly.

Recently, tech blogger Robert Scoble questioned whether selling ads on his blog would be a good idea. The response from his readers was mixed, with some encouraging him to make a profit and others expressing concerns that his blog just wouldn't be the same with ads. It seems that Scoble was/is also considering donating part of his profits to charity.

I personally am not opposed to bloggers selling ads, so long as the ads are tasteful and unobtrusive. By unobtrusive, I mean they don't pop up, make noise, or flash repeatedly in a strobe-like manner. Yes, I know that ads are meant to be seen, but that doesn't mean they have to induce seizures.

Millitary Bloggers Face Censorship

I found this article on Wired, which reports that military commanders are cracking down on Miliblogs, or blogs written by military personnel. Officials are concerned that soldiers might inadvertently leak matters of national security, including information on troop movements and locations. Personnel will now be required to submit posts to their commanders for review before publishing them online. The Department of Defense put up an online alert that, "effective immediately, no information may be placed on websites that are readily accessible to the public unless it has been reviewed for security concerns and approved in accordance with Deputy Secretary of Defense Memorandum web site policies and procedures." The military says that this tightened security is only meant to protect national secrets, but it makes me wonder if the system could be used to censor dissenters against the war who show the uglier side of what's going on overseas.

I hope that this increase in censorship won't have too much of a chilling effect on what soldiers blog about. I think it's extremely important that soldiers in Iraq especially be able to candidly blog about their experiences. With the huge drop in embedded journalists covering the war (only nine left), and with the slanted media coverage that does get through, it's becoming harder to get a perspective on what's really going on at the front lines.

A Lesson in PR

When Lilly said that Tuesday was the one class of the semester we wouldn't want to miss, she wasn't kidding. After all, it's not every day that you get to watch a real press conference unfold in your classroom.

Three San Jose State students, Anna Pogosova, LouLou Quintela, and Kelly Sherman, were chosen as finalists in a national advertising contest to come up with a Superbowl ad idea for Chevy. PR genius that she is, Professor Lilly Buchwitz was on top of the story and arranged a press conference with affiliates of CBS and NBC news...to be filmed in our classroom!

As a Journalism major, it was fascinating to see the process the media went through in creating the story. From watching CBS set up the cameras to observing them doing one-on-one interviews, it was an experience I will never forget. One detail I found interesting was how CBS dealt with a mass release from the class. Instead of filling out paperwork, they simply had us look into the camera and give consent for them to show our images.

I also found it interesting to compare what I observed during the press conference to what was aired by CBS that night. Understandably, they were not able to use a lot of the material that was filmed due to length restrictions. They also jazzed it up with some clips from previously run Superbowl ads. Overall, though, I felt that they did a pretty good job of covering the story. The fact that my face was clearly recognizable in the piece might have biased me in this regard.

This press conference had the benefit of hitting two birds with one stone for SJSU students; it gave us a chance to see the media at work, and it created some great press for our school. Appropriately, the topic for the day was media and public relations. I'd say we got a pretty good lesson. Thanks Lilly!

Small Carrot: A Big Step?

In this age of technological convergence, it seems that there is little left that handheld devices cannot do. Overnight (it seems), cell phones have evolved to the point where they can play music, videos, and more. With this technology has come a demand for a new kind of media. Enter Small Carrot, a sort of YouTube for cell phones. Artists can upload their content, and consumers can download for free.

Among the types of files that Small Carrot currently offers for download are animations, designs, and motion graphics for the "small screens" of iPods, PSPs, and cell phones. There are some short movies that Popgadget says "run the gamut from cute to freaky, surrealistic to stylish." Apparently, some artists have even created mini-series, and Small Carrot now offers a way to update users by email when new installments are uploaded.

Curious as to what these videos might be like, I sampled a few. Some, like the "Office Buddies" series, were worth a laugh. Others, like "Hello Kitty: Gifts of Dance and Trance", were just a little weird. I also previewed a clip called "Underwater Jungle Disco." Yes, it is as trippy as it sounds.

Darwin Goes Digital

The BBC reported today that Darwin's complete works are now being published online. Cambridge University, the force behind this project, plans to make over 500,000 pages of the evolutionary theorist's notes, complete with audio files, available to all.

Hopefully, this effort will promote dialogue about Darwin's theories, which remain controversial today. Though evidence strongly supports the Theory of Evolution, there is still strong resistance to this theory in some states because of many people's beliefs that it contradicts Christian teachings.

While the U.S. Supreme Court banned the teaching of creationism in public schools in 1987 on the grounds of separation of church and state, conservative educators have managed to work religious views into the curriculum through what they call "intelligent design," which others have taken to calling "creationism lite." In places like Dover, Pennsylvania, there are laws that insist this theory be taught alongside Darwinism. A Gallup poll reported that 37% of Americans favor teaching creationism instead of evolution. It comes as little wonder, then, that despite numerous archaeological findings that suggest otherwise, an astounding 45% also believe that God created man in present form. How depressing.

Besides the actual content of his works, there are other issues that arise with the online publication of Darwin's works. I wonder, how long will it be before all print works are made available online?

"Sirius" Stern: An Oxymoron

Who is Howard Stern? To me, he is the social outcast turned bully: the awkward, self-conscious kid who finds pleasure in verbally tearing others to shreds. His behavior has been reinforced by a society who gets a kick out of people who can get away with saying outrageous things on air. This "shock jock" as he's been so appropriately called, has made a lucrative career for himself simply by saying what's on his mind, however offensive or obscene. Furthermore, it has made him "cool," an image he seems to be stretching for with his dark shades and rock star duds.

For someone who has been called a revolutionary in shaping radio, Stern seems to have little to say that is of real importance. Sometimes it seems as if his sole purpose on his show is to say the most shocking thing he can think of. With a reputation for being the most heavily fined DJ in the history of radio, he is famous for pushing (and frequently crossing) the boundaries of what you can and can't say on air. If only he would put his intelligence and lack of inhibition to better use and ask female guests more relevant questions than, "Are those real breasts?"

To me, Howard Stern is a novelty, nothing more. His shallow rants and degrading attitude toward women wear thin rather quickly, and it was to my amusement to discover that many of his fans are apparently as shallow as he is, and have not stuck with him through his move to Sirius Satellite Radio. I believe his style of broadcasting is a fad that people will eventually get over, but hopefully remember as a lesson on what not to do.

The Three Most Important T.V. Shows Ever Created

1. Will & Grace- Throughout the history of T.V., there have been many shows important to issues of discrimination. Will & Grace's positive portrayal of homosexuals is helping to break down today's stereotypes of gays in the media. Will's character is the complete opposite of what many think of as the typical gay man; he is a masculine lawyer with solid values and a serious demeanor. His friend Jack, on the other hand, represents more of the traditional gay man; an effeminate actor with a tendency toward the dramatic. Yet Jack is so hysterically funny, it's impossible not to love him.

2. Candid Camera- This was one of the first T.V. shows to be unscripted and feature ordinary people rather than actors. Some call it the "granddaddy of the reality TV genre." Candid Camera opened up the door for today's reality T.V. craze: something that I have mixed feeling about, but will admit revolutionized T.V. and has become an important social phenomenon.

3. Oprah- Over the past 20 years that her talk show has been running, Oprah has become more than a person: she is an icon. She has influenced the nation on matters of race, religion, sexuality, poverty, and gender, to name a few. Any book introduced into her book club becomes an instant best-seller. In 1998, Mark Steyn of the National Review wrote that Oprah is "therapist to an entire nation."