Arrested to Impress

As I was leaving Walmart in Seabrook, N.H., there was a guy to my right standing outside and looking down at his phone. He looked as though he was waiting for someone to pick him up. He explained to me that he was, but the person was almost there. He looked like a guy with a story to tell.

His name is Cody Taylor and he’s from Hampton, N.H. He offered to tell me a story about a time he was arrested and why he did what he did—his motivation. It happened in his youth at the water slides on Hampton Beach when he was 15. Taylor is 20 now. “I was just being a dumb kid. A dumb, dumb kid,” he said.

In this first clip, Taylor explains what he did to get hauled in by the police and why. To avoid confusion, when he mentions the “water slides”, he’s referring to an attraction on Hampton Beach that is open to the public during the summer.

In this second clip, I asked Taylor what possessed him to do this. Why this to impress the girl? Taylor also discusses other mischievous things he did in his teens.

In this final clip, I asked Taylor what the fallout was and the process after he was taken in by the police.

 

A Hidden Gem: Jass Boxing in Berwick, ME

“The name ‘JASS’ comes from my name, Joseph Alfred Stephen Siudut, but it came from a class I was taking in college where the teacher said that the person to the right of you had to name a fake business. Of course, the guy next to me was a guy who came to class drunk every day, so he took his head off the desk to ask me what my initials were, said ‘JASS Machine Company’ and put his head right back on the desk,” said Joe Siudut, the owner of JASS Boxing.
Here is the main entrance to JASS Boxing. This is their third location in 17 years. The school has seen “approximately 3,000” kids and young adults over the years, Siudut told me.
Here are some fliers from the past for boxing events put on by Mr. Siudut and JASS Boxing. Ryan Clarke, second from the left in the colored flier, is set to go pro. His first fight will come in “May or June after he completes the police academy,” said Siudut.
Through the punching bags and other equipment, there are a few students who are currently in the Navy training. “It’s the best school around,” one of them told me.
To your immediate right when you walk through JASS’ entrance, you’ll find a standard 18-foot ring. On the front of it, a banner reads “A non-profit organization dedicated to helping kids and young adults.” The school prides itself on getting kids back on track and showing them there “is more to life than getting and trouble and wasting it,” Siudut said.

What is the Role of Journalism in a Social Media World?

With the uprising of social media over the past decade-plus, different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit have become some of the more popular news sources for the consumer.

In fact, according to a Pew Research Center study done in 2016, 62 percent of adults get their news through social media.

“Sure, I care about the news, but not enough to watch it, so social media is way more convenient,” says Cassidy Ward, a manager at Papa Gino’s in Seabrook, N.H.

Avery Kozdra, a waitress at Urban Farmhouse in North Hampton, N.H. echoed those sentiments, but also added that, “Social media is fine, but I’ll definitely check something out if it seems off. You see plenty of weird headlines nowadays.”

Of the four people who talked with me about this issue, three of them only get their news from social media. Of those three, they also shared this in common: They are all under the age of 23.

“Social media is a very convenient source for news content, but you’re always skeptical if it’s real or not. However, let’s face it: nobody is reading the newspaper anymore and the television news media has turned into prosecuting attorneys versus defense attorneys. They have their stance and they’re not going to budge,” says Burt Glazier, a physician at Portsmouth Occupational Health. “For example, everyone makes claims about [President Donald] Trump being a racist and a bigot, but there’s no actual facts to support that,” Glazier continued.

Katharine Viner of The Guardian wrote a piece in 2016 regarding a social bubble and the idea of “does the truth matter anymore?” She expanded on this premise by citing things such as Facebook’s algorithm system in which people see what they want to see on their feeds.

“The notion that anyone actually seeks out the other side of an argument is asinine. No one does that. You have your beliefs and that’s it,” Glazier said regarding a social media bubble.

However, Cote Gagne, also a manager at Papa Gino’s said, “I was watching a comedian once and he talked about the gun laws in Australia. I’m mostly in favor of guns, but after this comedian brought up the issue I looked into it myself and it was interesting how Australia has changed since.”

When asked about why a comedian’s remarks made him check it out, Gagne said, “Because of the way he presented the information. Sometimes I watch the news, but not always. It’s like a lot of them make up stuff to fit their argument.”

The moniker “fake news” has become a mainstream term and social media plays a role in how it came to be. In Viner’s story, she recounted an example regarding the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks of false tweets circulating that were false. When this happens, Viner says, “Trusted news organisations are needed to debunk such tall tales.”

One thing is certain: Social media and news are not going away, so we will need to figure out a healthy way for them to co-exist.