Indiana Capital Chronicle: Some uncertainty remains about big K-12 spending requests for upcoming Indiana budget
By: Casey Smith
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By: Casey Smith
By: Casie Smith
By: Whitney Downard
By KEVIN FREKING and JOSH FUNK Associated Press
By JILL COLVIN Associated Press
When Samuel P. Adams was five years old, he told his parents and teachers he wanted to be the President of the United States. During the 2012 presidential election, where Mitt Romney and Barack Obama faced off, he fact-checked and deliberated their policies.
Thursday, the Ball State College Democrats, Indiana Democratic Party and College Democrats of Indiana hosted three political candidates that are running in the 2022 midterm elections in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center at 6 p.m.
1.62 trillion dollars.
https://soundcloud.com/user-519363288/remixed-s5e10-beats-by-politics Welcome to another episode of Remixed! Tune in as we talk about musicians in politics, protest music, & musicians endorsing political candidates. Why do political protest songs matter? Is it bad for musicians to endorse political candidates? Find out all that and more on this episode of Remixed! Hosts: Sam Shipe & Blake Chapman Edited by: Sam Shipe Graphic by: Kellyn Harrison
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-519363288/coven-s7e3-notorious-rbg-vs-anonymous-acb[/embed] Welcome back, witches, for another episode of the Coven! Bubbling in the cauldron this week is the late Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Recently, the senate nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ginsburg's seat. What will this mean for women's rights in America? What will happen to LGBTQ+ rights? Tune in as we answer these questions, talk about RBG's legacy, and more! Hosts: Shwetha Sundarrajan & Lia Weisbecker-Lotz Edited by: Lia Weisbecker-Lotz Graphic by: Kellyn Harrison
by Kellyn Harrison I am a 19-year-old political science minor, and I voted for the first time last week. As a junkie for political science research, I have always been aware of my place in the election process. However, this year was different. It felt like I was standing in a room surrounded by people screaming at me; those people being older politicians, celebrities, advertisers, etc. Everyone demanding me to vote, but never looking at who I am. Politicians seeing me as a percentage, just a mindless number in their popular vote. "It's difficult to mobilize people in a system that's continuously telling them their political goals, and movements they want to see happening, are not viable." - Grace Wells, 22, home state of Texas, currently studying in Chicago, Democratic. Don’t get me wrong, I felt privileged to vote and I strongly advocate for people to do so in order to fight for the change we continuously demand. However, it is the execution of these campaigns that can make me numb towards the process. It is the same advertisements we had in 2016; only with heightened frequency, demand, and fear. Fear for how much power a little bubble on a scantron sheet can have. Especially in a time where we are demanding reforms in the health, economic, and human rights sector. My only question regarding this outreach is: Where is the voice of the youth? We stress how important educating and relying on the future of the youth is, but how is this being translated into our political campaigns? We can’t give up on the people who only just started to take that first step into the political world. “Many young people can feel disengaged from politics. A Harvard survey found that only 16% of those aged 18 to 29 agreed with the statement that ‘elected officials who are part of the Baby Boomer generation care about people like me.’” - Helier Cheung of BBC News Generally, politicians have used television to further their campaigns. By paying for advertisements on local television or partaking in interviews on shows like Face the Nation. Such platforms appeal to the older population who make time to watch television each night and wake up early on Sundays to watch shows like Sunday Morning. (Note: this point is made despite how much SNL still informs young voters on the election/campaign process. Even though I argue how SNL’s influence pales in comparison to social media.) Something out of style for young voters and professionals with busy schedules who would rather pay for streaming packages. Thus, showing a general decrease in cable news consumption. News platforms like ABC News shifting their attention to streaming recaps of their shows on social media, like Snapchat and Twitter, are the only references people have to low profile interviews analyzing the campaigns/election itself. Only recently have we seen politicians reaching out to voters on streaming platforms. However, the question is whether these advertisements are as transparent as they claim to be with a few federal laws regulating them. https://twitter.com/barackobama/status/992176676?lang=en But, other than President Obama using Twitter in 2008 to reach out to young voters, this shows how slow politicians have been to reach out to their younger audience. Plus, this points out how unaware politicians are of what Gen Zers want from them or the small communities that are created on social media. Although, many argue how politicians are aware but refuse to reach out because of the uncertainty of how this demographic will perceive their political ideals. Nonetheless, when politicians do try to reach out, they do it in a cringing manner that doesn’t entirely hit home. The only example I am going to provide is of Hillary Clinton using Pokemon Go to encourage her supporters to vote in the 2016 election. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt6riM2aDLk&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=CNN There are so many things I could say about how uncomfortable watching this is, but I am just going to state how important it is for older politicians to understand how off-center making references to pop culture phenomenon like this is. Especially for politicians who may not be as immersed in the phenomenon as young voters are. How are we supposed to feel connected to politicians when they make unrelated references to platforms they only know of because of Twitter trends and their younger peers. Especially when they already have the majority of young voters supporting them. Cringey references like this are not needed when they are a half-hearted attempt to further a campaign. It just falls flat and pushes young voters to feel even more disassociated from the voting process, politicians, and the political process itself. Reaching out to young voters based on pop culture trends is something Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is used to and does correctly. Ocasio-Cortez uses her knowledge in technology and relative association with Gen Zers to connect with them online by joining in their gaming communities. Thus, encouraging a growth in the demographic’s political activism. On May 7, it was announced Ocasio-Cortez had purchased a Nintendo Switch and the game Animal Crossings: New Horizons. That same day, Ocasio-Cortez opened her direct messages on Twitter and asked supporters to send their Dodo codes, so she could leave a note on their bulletin board. https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1258516156408713216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1258517774499889154%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fvideo-games%2F2020%2F05%2F07%2Falexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-now-playing-animal-crossing-shes-visiting-her-followers%2F Other than the connection it created/strengthened between young voters and politicians, it also let people know someone in Congress was thinking of them during a scary time. At the peak of the pandemic, while everybody was home, it was nice to connect with someone who could make a difference when politicians tend to be seen as disassociated from the general public. https://twitter.com/jmirsky87/status/1258548085719830528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1258548085719830528%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fvideo-games%2F2020%2F05%2F07%2Falexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-now-playing-animal-crossing-shes-visiting-her-followers%2F Now, Ocasio-Cortez has teamed up with fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to expand upon their connection to Gen Zers, by getting them involved in the election process through Twitch. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Ocasio-Cortez and Omar played the recently revived game, Among Us, with a group of high profile streamers including JackSepticeye, Pokimane, HasanAbi, Disguised Toast, and DrLupo. The stream not only garnered a peak of 439,000 views, becoming the third most-watched stream for an individual gamer, but it successfully made a seemingly forgotten generation feel connected to at least two politicians representing our country. Setting an example of how our government should appeal to young voters despite how difficult replicating the same event will be for older politicians because of their different ages and interests. Ocasio-Cortez and Omar not only represent Gen Z because of their ages and policies (compared to their coworkers) but because of their representation of the minorities in our country. Diversity is a demanding value amongst Gen Z voters. Clinton only made a small reference to a video game many doubted her involvement in. Ocasio-Cortez and Omar physically played with/for young voters and have been for a while now. Thus, making the focus on relating to the streamers instead of solely on the politicians’ or their party’s platforms. It truly felt they wanted to get involved in Gen Z culture instead of pretending to understand. It didn’t feel like another fruitless ad screaming at me amongst the countless others. I just hope other politicians take note of this event and make an effort to think of ways they too, can properly reach out to young voters in an effort to urge more of us to vote for matters that will impact our lives for years to come. Here you can watch the Among Us Twitch stream with Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, along with many other high profile streamers. Sources: BBVA, BBC News, FiveThirtyEight, Fordham Political Review, Jeremiah Owyang, Mozilla, Pew Research Center, The Philadelphia Citizen, The Wall Street Journal, Twitter, U.S. Department of State Images: Twitter, YouTube Featured Image: Blake Chapman
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b5yimhnn70&feature=youtu.be[/embed] This week on Pop Tabs Matthew, Mayzie, and Jake discuss Blizzard's questionable decision, Martin Scorsese's critique on Marvel, and Ellen DeGeneres under fire for sitting by George Bush. Time Stamps: Blizzard: 00:18 Marvel: 11:45 Ellen: 25:10 Pop Tabs is Byte’s news commentary podcast, focusing on popular culture and how it relates to issues in the media world. Host: Matthew Yapp Guests: Mayzie Brammer, Jake Helman Executive Producer: Evan Fischer Video Editing: Tyler Westman, Katie Buchholz Audio Editing: Kellyn Harrison Graphics: Daley Wilhelm, Tt Shinkhan Music: Jack McGinnis
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-519363288/how-its-played-s4e6-blizzard-gets-in-hot-water[/embed] Welcome to this week's episode of How It's Played! This week, we'll be discussing the recent controversy surrounding Blizzard's banning of one of their pro Hearthstone players. Did Blizzard ban the player because of China's influence? Was Blizzard just in applying the rules in this case? Find out all of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played! Hosted by: Eli Sokeland, Tanner Kinney, Shwetha Sundarrajan Edited by: Kellyn Harrison Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm Thumbnail by: Katy Szpak
by Emily Worrell Disclaimer: This review is of the PC version and was conducted on a PC with an Intel Core i7-6700, 16 GBs of RAM. This review contains spoilers for the game Life is Strange 2. After the utter debacle that was Life is Strange 2: Episode 3, I must admit that I didn’t approach the long-awaited fourth installment with very high expectations, despite my high opinion of the previous Life is Strange series and its related content. If anything, when I was downloading it, I felt like it was something that I had to do as a reviewer and loyal fan of Life is Strange rather than just a fun game that I really wanted to play. However, within the first few minutes of gameplay, I found myself enraptured more deeply than I had ever been in Episode 3. This episode has proven to be easily the greatest Life is Strange 2 episode thus far, and perhaps one of the best episodes of anything set in the Life is Strange universe at all. Life is Strange 2: Episode 4 starts off three months after the explosion at Merrill’s farm that ended the last episode. Our protagonist, Sean, is in the hospital, recovering from injuries sustained in the explosion. With his younger brother Daniel still missing after the blast, and the inevitability of being thrown in juvie after his recovery is complete, Sean knows he has to find a way to escape the hospital and find Daniel. However, in doing so, he finds a lot more than he originally bargained for.
by Tanner Kinney Another day, another problem for massive video-sharing giant YouTube. It seems like every few months, the platform gets itself wrapped up in another controversy. Sometimes it can be controversies created by the platform itself, other times it’ll be controversies connected to YouTube. For the low-level grunts running the social media accounts and dealing with customer service, it has to be frustrating getting so many awful things airdropped in out of nowhere, then being forced to deal with the consequences because upper-management is too busy figuring out new ways to promote up-and-coming stars like Jimmy Fallon or Will Smith. Oh, that’s not-so-hot, is it? Well, unfortunately for YouTube they found themselves in scalding hot water once again. And unlike the last few times, this case can truly set a precedent for the future of the platform.
by Baylie Clevenger The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte and Byte's editorial board. Over the past few weeks, news and social media have been buzzing with post after post about Empire's Jussie Smollett. This whole thing has been a confusing collection of events, so let’s start with a rundown of what has happened. Smollett claimed that he was attacked on Jan. 29 in Chicago in what was being investigated as a hate crime. USA Today reports that he alleged that the men who attacked him threw racist and homophobic slurs at him, poured chemicals on him, and also wrapped a noose around his neck — a nod to the lynchings that have happened to a lot of black people throughout history. The Chicago Police Department came forward with new developments in the case recently in which they report that Smollett likely faked this attack. On Feb 15, after having arrested the suspects of the alleged attack, the men that were questioned by police claimed that Smollett paid them to stage the attack. On Feb. 20, after further investigation, Smollett was indicted for charges of disorderly conduct and false reporting of a crime. On Feb. 22, the Empire star was officially removed from the cast of the show. This whole case has been sad and despicable, and in the midst of a widely publicized fake accusation, there is no better time than now to remember how many real hate crimes happen on the daily. According to reports made by the FBI, in 2017, more than half of the hate crimes committed were motivated by race and about 15% of them were motivated by bias against sexual orientation. Among the hate crimes that were reported, religion, sexuality, and race were the top three biases that were motivation for the reported crimes. Breaking down the information, the FBI also reported that among the sexuality-related hate crimes, more than half of them were against gay men, and among racially-motivated hate crimes, about half of those were anti-black attacks as well. Hate crimes are grossly underreported, as reported by The Chicago Tribune, so the number of hate crimes taking place is likely higher than what we actually have statistics on. While Smollett may have allegedly used his identities for personal gain by faking this attack, he does not represent the entire black community, and he also does not represent the entire LGBTQ+ community. He is one person in those communities that chose to use a false claim for his own benefit while millions of others experience real crimes. Though he has been an advocate in the past, his actions in this instance have negatively impacted both the LGBTQ+ and black communities. All it takes is one highly publicized false accusation to set the tone for a whole community. Even though the majority of hate crimes are not fake, people are going to remember the one that was. His actions have moved advocacy for black and queer people back many steps.
by Baylie Clevenger The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. It was revealed recently that Facebook failed to stop meddling in the 2016 election. Russian bots were using Facebook as a way to spread fake information in an attempt to sway voters. Facebook is no stranger to scandal, as earlier this year it was discovered that Facebook failed to stop a third-party analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, from accessing user information. User privacy has been a common issue with Facebook. There has even been speculation that Facebook and Instagram utilize user’s cell phones and other electronic devices to listen to them and then personalize ads for them. Cambridge Analytica gained access to personal information on more than 50 million Facebook accounts, as reported by the New York Times. This information was then used to sway voters in the 2016 presidential election. As the 2018 midterm elections have just passed, Facebook was criticized again for about 100 accounts that were suspected to be meddling in the election. USA Today reported that there was activity in French, English, and also Russian. The difference with this incident is that most of the accounts were on Instagram. Of the suspicious accounts that were removed, 30 of them were on Facebook but about 85 of them were on Instagram. The phenomenon of suspicious accounts and election meddling is usually associated with Facebook. What users commonly overlook is that Facebook owns Instagram. Facebook-owned Instagram is just as likely to have false information and suspicious content as Facebook. So how do users of both Facebook and Instagram fight back against political meddling and false information?
by Jeremy Rogers The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. With the 2018 Streamy Awards looming on the October 22 horizon, an important question is about to be answered: How can award shows get out of their current viewership slump? For the past few years, every major televised award show has experienced a decline in viewership. The Academy Awards, the Primetime Emmys, and the Grammys have all experienced steep drop-offs in how many people tune in to watch the award shows. This isn’t for lack of trying on the part of the different companies that run the different award shows. Back in 2017 when the nominees for the Grammys were announced, many were amazed at the historical show of diversity in the pool of nominees. Byte’s own Ryan fine “It seems like the Grammys have finally taken heed of the #GrammysSoWhite tag and gave several nods to Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s ‘Despacito’, which is the first ever mainly Spanish-language song to be nominated for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year.” Of particular interest was the Album of the Year category, where none of the nominees were white men, a win for diversity. During the 2018 Primetime Emmys, several portions of the presentation explicitly pointed out how incredibly diverse the cast of nominees. They even had a musical number and everything. Unfortunately, the nominations did not lead to a historic number of people of color earning awards, much to the chagrin of viewers. As Byte’s review editor Tanner Kinney put it in an article, “Even the hosts are making jokes about how white the Emmys are. When you have James Corden even making jokes about it, you’ve achieved something truly terrible. And just so we’re clear, making jokes about it doesn’t make it go away… It’s clear that the Emmys are just acting progressive for brownie points, despite the fact that they are still an Academy run by, and ultimately for, white people.” The Academy Awards tried to take a different approach to getting viewers to tune into the broadcast. Speaking from several experiences doing research in Hollywood with members of the Academy, Wes Gehring, a Ball State film studies professor who holds a doctorate in film studies, said, “The Academy in the last year or two, they’re trying to increase numbers, and increase diversity. They’re trying to… have more diversity available and to appreciate that.” But for all of the efforts employed by companies to retain viewers, all have failed. So where can these companies look to find new strategies to engage viewers? One potential answer is the YouTube’s annual Streamy Awards. In 2016, the online award show reported that they had a total of 586,000 viewers tuning in for the award show. The very next year saw 750,000 people watching 2017’s broadcast. Granted, the Streamys are still relatively new with less than a decade of experience to find an audience. However, the skyrocketing numbers of the program are hard not to notice.
by Baylie Clevenger The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. Midterm elections are less than a month away, and, for many states, the deadline for registration has passed. In the last few days before registration closed, the New York Times reported that the whole country saw a spike in voter registration, with more than 150,000 new registrations. Just a little fewer than half of those registrations came from people ages 18-24. The state of Tennessee also saw a spike in registrations of about 6,000 people. This spike in registrations is no coincidence after pop star Taylor Swift took to Instagram to discuss her political stances and particularly endorsed two Democratic candidates from Tennessee. “I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee. In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” said Swift. In the age of social media, celebrity opinions have a significant impact on votes as well as the political opinions of their fans.
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-519363288/the-covens4e7-the-alt-right[/embed] TRIGGER WARNING: POLITICS WILL BE DISCUSSED We're back witches, with another magical episode of the Coven Podcast. This week, we're looking at the alt-right. We will be discussing what has been going on lately with this political ideology. Is this too far to lean on the political spectrum or is it fine? All of this and more in this episode of The Coven. Hosted by: Daley Wilhelm, Tanner Kinney, Jeremy Rogers Edited by: Sunny King Graphic by: Daley Wilhelm