Nick's Journalism Blog

Students tend to use social media frequently as it’s an easier form to communicate with classmates and friends throughout campus. Yet, how has social media directly impacted the lives of students in both positive and negative ways? Christopher Jones , an MSU student studying physics , has primarily been able to use social media positively in his life. Serving as a missionary in Hungry, Jones says that he still keeps in contact with people he met during that time with Facebook being his “primary form of communication” to keep in touch. For the most part, Jones says he’s been able to use it as a “tool” rather than something that causes stress in his life, with it at its worst being a time waster when browsing through YouTube. Riley Scanlon , a junior at MSU, says that his primary use for social media boils down to “a source of entertainment” so that it doesn’t consume all of his time that could be used more productively for school. ...

Social media has allowed for entirely new ways for friendships to be formed and kept. As the number of adults who use social media and other digital communication continues to rise, people are facing different problems with new kinds of exposure to their friends lives. The amount of stress related to social media use can be traced back to the kinds of information friends on social media are privy to that friends may not have shared previously outside of social media. A Pew Research Study shows that stress can be tied to the types of relationships that are kept over digital media and the type of information that’s shared from someone’s friends.   This awareness of events that influence a person’s levels of stress can lead to the perception that the social media is the cause of the stress, when certain types of social media interaction actually can help decrease stress in some cases according to the study.

The press briefing was short, with only a handful of questions being answered. One question asked why President Donald Trump and the administration are claiming that there was collusion between Russia and the Clintons  during the campaign. Sanders brought up the point a number of times to reiterate its importance through the briefing, and when questioned about any evidence the administration could provide, she said that she addressed the question already. When pushed for an answer, Sanders said "I'm saying that I'm calling on your colleague." Sanders criticized Democrats for not backing Trump's health care bill which Sanders says would have provided $45 billion to help fight the opioid crisis. The influence that the Trump administration might have had over getting Whitefish Energy a contract to rebuild Puerto Rico's energy grid was questioned. Sanders said that the decision to hire Whitefish Energy was up to local officials in Puerto Rico and the F...

Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leading a White House Press Briefing today at 2:30 p.m today. The briefing follows yesterdays release of 2,800 documents by the National Archives covering the JFK assassination with 300 still remaining sealed . There are bound to be questions regarding the last-minute decision by President Donald Trump to not release the remaining documents. There was also new information about the ambush that happened in Niger, separating four American soldiers, three of which were found dead by a rescue team while one other remains to be found, as reported by The New York Time's Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt . Further details were provided to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees in classified briefings, which still leaves holes in the timeline of events that unfolded for anyone outside of the committee. These two events are likely be covered in detail during the briefing, along with other questions fielded by the White House Press Corps, w...