The Power of Twitter: A simple photo leads to “front” page news in Wilkes-Barre – Scranton news

This is a blog post about a cool Twitter thingy that happened Friday evening.  This would be a perfect example to use in a class or workshop on social media on how news can travel fast… of course this is not as cool as what happened with the Hudson Plane Crash and my client Janis Krums who took the first picture of the crash… (read about his cool story, here in the NY Daily News and also an article I wrote about Twitter and Janis, here.)

Some of my favorite cohorts and I were relaxing in the dorm before getting ready for the Wilkes University Creative Writing banquet/graduation when the thunder clouds rolled in. The wind started to blow. We ran from one side of the Ten East South Street Apartments to the other, checking out the view on either side of the building. The clouds were incredible. I took a picture with my iPhone and Twitpic’d it right away, as did my friend Jon. I took a bunch more with my regular camera as well.

A few moments later,I get a direct message from a fellow NEPA tweeter who works for Times-Shamrock (publisher of The Scranton Times, Citizen’s Voice, among others) asking for permission to use the picture.  Of course I agreed.

Meanwhile, people were retweeting my picture.  The pics of the storm were spreading as fast as the storm itself. The news organizations Twitter accounts, as well as people I follow were sending the picture around.

Then, while at the Wilkes banquet, I checked Twitter through my Tweetie app and saw the the Scranton Times website had posted its story or the wicked weather.  An early version just had my picture, then they later updated the story with reports on the damage.

This is a testament to news being tweeted as it happens, as well as gathering photos and eye-witness accounts to help research the story– and then for more in-depth stories- users can later check-out the news outlets websites, publications and broadcasts.

I just this was cool to share.  And yes… it stopped storming before we headed to campus so our hair and outfits were all good.

To read the whole story in the Scranton Times, go here.

Norman Mailer & Wilkes University

The front pages of both local papers featured a tribute to the life of the great Norman Mailer. I also think it is appropriate because today is Veteran’s Day, too and Norman Mailer is a veteran. My creative writing classmate, Joe Cetta was quoted in this one:

Mailer connected to Wilkes through creative writing program
by Heidi Ruckno, The Citizen’s Voice (11.11.07)

A close friendship with Wilkes University professor Dr. J. Michael Lennon gave Norman Mailer the opportunity to get well acquainted with Wilkes University.

Lennon, Mailer’s literary executor and biographer, and Dr. Bonnie Culver co-founded the university’s Masters of Creative Writing program in 2004. When they asked Mailer to be on the advisory board, the author accepted the invitation.Lennon and Mailer had been friends for more than 30 years.

The two collaborated on Mailer’s last book, “On God: An Uncommon Conversation.”Mailer was a great friend to the Wilkes community and to Culver personally, she said. He even convinced her a bachelor’s degree was not a necessary requirement for admission into the creative writing masters program.So far, three students without bachelor’s degrees received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, Culver said.

“That’s because of Norman,” she said.

Mailer always believed a writer’s level of formal education had little to do with his or her ability, but his involvement with Wilkes stemmed far beyond that small detail.Mailer visited the university several times as a guest speaker, delivering the keynote address at the inaugural Pennsylvania Writer’s Conference in June 2004. He also started the Norris Church Mailer scholarship fund in honor of his sixth wife, and routinely invited Wilkes students into his Provincetown, Mass. home.

Scranton resident Joe Cetta, 28, a graduate of the creative writing program, visited Mailer’s home during a Wilkes University trip. Mailer was not one to protect trade secrets, Cetta said. He was always willing to share some pointers with aspiring writers.Mailer told Cetta it was best to write now and edit later. The author felt it was easier than censoring before the pen hit the paper.Cetta was grateful for the advice, even though he was never a Mailer fan. Like many others, Cetta had some difficulty with some of the author’s views.

The author had unpopular opinions about feminism and fought to get a convicted killer released from prison.Mailer was brilliant because of the controversy, Culver said. He was never afraid to stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable.“He was never shy about trying something that was going to stretch our imaginations, and that’s the mark of a truly great artist,” she said.

Source: http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19013137&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6

Wilkes Book Featured in Citizen’s Voice

The Wilkes book got some ink! Brian Jarvis from the Wilkes-Barre Citizen’s Voice did a nice story on the Wilkes book- and Warren Ruda took a nice picture– and they layout guys did a nice job. I felt very proud!

Here is a snippet:

Donna Talarico knows Wilkes University.

Having chosen the school three times — first as a freshman, nearly a decade later to finish her undergraduate work, and now getting a master’s this fall — Talarico was an ideal candidate to ink a book aimed at giving incoming students the skinny. Though college guidebooks abound at bookstores, most don’t give the information students desire: What are the most popular classes? Are freshmen pressured to pledge fraternities or sororities? How are the surrounding neighborhoods? Does the student body have much diversity? And most important, how many females are available for each male?

Click here to read the rest of the story from today’s Citizen’s Voice

New Book: College Prowler

This post also appears on my personal blog, www.randomthoughtsfromdonna.blogspot.com.

Wilkes University: Off the Record is available for preorder.

The book is published by CollegeProwler.com. This company has a VERY cool history in itself– it was born from a college class project at Carnegie Mellon. ( www.collegeprowler.com) The company has published over 250 student-written guides that give the ‘real deal’ on colleges. I’m thrilled to the gills!!

It took about a year for them to put it out after I submitted it. A BIG HUGE thanks to Nora Jurasits and Stephanie DeBalko who served as the ‘bounce-back’ team, and are also credited in the book. They helped fact check.

The one thing that held up the process was all the edits– as we all know, Wilkes and Wilkes-Barre changed so much just in the past year that I had to add a lot of new things to the book and change many things– the Barons became the Yankees, we got a downtown theater, Barnes & Noble, a pool hall, a Bart & Urby’s, Eienstien’s and so, so much more. In a way, I am glad the book came out later that way we filled it with more cool stuff.The way the book is set up:It’s divided into about 15 sections– food, guys & gals, social life, academics, nightlife, security, etc. I begin each section with an editorial and the the rest is 3-5 pages of student quotes about each topic. I also wrote an introduction and closing statement. Each category is given a grade, which I had no say in, as they wanted it more objective (we all know how much I love Wilkes and Wilkes-Barre!)– so they looked at what I wrote, as well as the student quotes and gave it a grade. Wilkes fared pretty well in everything, except parking!

The book also has a directory of clubs, restaurants, hotels, transportation and more…Final Thoughts:I just like subheads. I don’t know why. At any rate, this is a far cry from a novel– it’s more like a compilation like “Kids, Have You Seen My Backpack.” But it’s one more publishing credit and one more way to get on Amazon.com. I am just thrilled to give back to Wilkes in this way, as they have given me so much the past ten years!