Vol. 87 No. 12 - Dec. 04, 2017

Play ‘Checks’ big issues

Cudi shines at show

Stangs win bowl game

LMC student-written play “Reality Check” is coming to the California Theatre Dec. 6-9 — page 3

Kid Cudi inspires audience memembers during his concert Sunday, Nov. 19 — page 4

The LMC football team tweeted a photo (above) of the team after their bowl game win — ­ page 5

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F.Y.I. Important Dates December is AIDS Awareness Month Dec. 8

Last day of full-term classes prior to finals

Dec. 11

Registration begins for continuing and returning students with more than 100 units

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District blocks websites Virus defense causes issues

By ADRIA WATSON and PERRY CONTINENTE Staff Writers

The Contra Costa Community College District has implemented a cybersecurity update to guarantee protection of student information. But with these precautions came website restrictions.

An anonymous Los Medanos College student recently complained that he was unable to access a website due to it not being “in accordance with company policy,” according to the message displayed on the page.

Members of the LMC Experience staff verified that various sites are inaccessible, including adult and weapon sites as well as a college humor site.

According to district Director of Information Technology Satish Warrier, the updates began

in the district office Oct. 19 and made their way throughout the district in the weeks following — LMC received the update Nov. 8 — but as of press time students, faculty and staff had been uninformed about the changes made.

The computers in the LMC Library are often utilized not just by LMC students but also by members of the general public. Library Director Christina Goff said she was unaware of the changes with the update.

“Occasionally we have had issues with library users accessing material that violates the library’s behavioral use policy,” said Goff adding, “but those instances are fairly rare. We do not block access to any websites and are against that kind of filtering.”

District Chancellor Fred Wood addressed the

“We could have done a far better job of communicating this... I want to own that.”

— Chancellor Fred Wood

situation Thursday explaining that the updates made to the district network are not intended to restrict content but instead to protect it from malware, but acknowledges a lack of communication about the recent changes.

See BLOCK, page 6

Finals week upcoming Dec. 11 is the start of finals week for the fall semester. A reminder: classes that start at 4 p.m. and into the evening will hold finals at normal time. Confirm with your instructor as to the specific times for your finals.

Faculty to get pies in face The LMC Honors Club will be holding an event where you can decide which faculty member gets a pie in the face.

Club memeber will be tabling in the Indoor Quad Dec. 4 and 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to collect votes in the form of dollar bills. Proceeds will go to the Honors club.

Daily class cancellations Save yourself from making an unnecessary trip to campus for a class that has been canceled.

Professors cancel classes unexpectedly and often can’t tell their students in person.

The LMC website offers a daily class cancellation page, visit www.losmedanos.edu/

Experience • Adria Watson

The 2017 Brentwood Turkey Trot for Schools drew a record number of entrants, who thundered out of the start area as the race began.

Thanksgiving day run hits a stride

By PERRY CONTINENTE

pcontinente@lmcexperience.com

The annual Brentwood Turkey Trot was the biggest ever this year, managing to sell 2,000 entries into the race reaching its maximum, up from last year’s 1,500.

The event’s organization

was spearheaded by Edna Hill Middle School teacher and cross country coach Phil Rodriguez and LMC Vice President Kevin Horan.

The event, which took place on Thanksgiving, consisted of a 5K and a 10K race that participants paid a fee to enter.

Horan was excited by the rapid growth of the event, “its grown, we only had five or six hundred people the first year, we had 1,500 last year and its 2,000 this year,” said Horan.

He also explained LMC’s long history supporting the event, which benefits both

the Brentwood Union School District and the Liberty Union High School District.

“We were trying to promote the new LMC Brentwood center,” said Horan. “One of the Edna Hill teachers, Phil Rodriguez, decided to start a Turkey Trot and I happen

to be very good friends with him so LMC signed on as the first sponsor.”

Horan has consistently volunteered for the event, working this year at the water station handing out drinks to the athletes.

See TROT, page 6

Speakers discuss media Disability awareness encouraged

By BRENNA ENOS

benos@lmcexperience.com

Planning for next semester The LMC spring 2018 Class Schedule is now available for students who plan to register. It can be viewed online at losmedanos.edu/.

“People didn’t know how to explain the way I walked so they Experience • Crea Jones tried to hide it,” said Lawrence Attendees participate in social media activities.

Carter-Long to a group of Los Medanos Students in the Little Theatre. Now the Director of Communications for Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund as well as a former Public Affairs Specialist for the National Council on Disability, Long used to hide his cerebral palsy but now celebrates and educates others on disabilities.

Before obtaining his long-term success, Long spent his youth dancing and participating in high school theater — he explained that he wanted to fit in as much as he could. While he was passionate about the arts, he found that his directors did not know what roles to give to him Experience • Brenna Enos due to his disability and so he was often made See REP, page 6

Speakers discuss disability issues.

Fake news is examined

By D’ANGELO JACKSON djackson@lmcexperience.com

“Bots, Sockpuppets, & Fake News In Social Media!”

Was a chance for students to learn to better perceive misinformation on the internet.

Students were treated T uesday to a LMC Li-

brar y-sponsored seminar and panel discussion with two guests to the campus. Dr. Nolan Higdon . The second guest was Maureen Erwin, a political columnist for The San Francisco Examiner and a political consultant.

The event was coordinated

by LMC librarian Roseann Erwin.

“The purpose of the event,” said Erwin, “was to create awareness of how disinformation is spread through social media, discuss the current controversies over fake news, and share ideas of how to keep ourselves informed and think critically about the information we see in both traditional and social

Experience • Brenna Enos

Fatima Chrifi Alaoui talks gender representation.

Positive portrayals needed

By BRENNA ENOS

benos@lmcexperience.com

Professor at San Francisco State University with a Ph.D., in Communication Studies, Fatima Chrifi Alaoui gave a lecture on “Gender Representation in the Media” at Los Medanos See BOTS, page 6 College Tuesday, Nov. 29.

Focusing her presentation on gender, sex and patriarchal representation in the media, Alaoui highlighted the importance of positive and true portrayals of men and women in the media.

Beginning her presentation See MEDIA, page 6

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“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”

— Audrey Hepburn

Brenna Enos

Robert Pierce

BRENNA’S BACKTALK

AND NOW, THIS

What we eat is affecting us all

Millennials not the rude ones

What did you eat this past Thanksgiving? For some, plates were adorned with vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy.

But if your answer was meat, you were just one of the other 88 percent of Americans who also consumed it — resulting in the 44 million turkeys that were consumed on Thanksgiving Day alone.

Perhaps this statistic does not surprise you, but what is more shocking is that this statistic is just the amount of turkeys consumed in one day — not an annual number of all animal products eaten in America.

According to the Huffington Post and various other news sources, an estimated 193 lbs of meat was consumed annually in 2016. This is 193 lbs of meat per person.

This high number of meat consumption per person across the U.S. should pose the question: “What is the impact?”

While often discussed by health experts and animal advocates, the meat issue can range from animal lives to consumer health.

But a topic that is often not addressed is the impact that it is having on the environment.

By the environment, I’m not just talking about the rise in animal agriculture, but about deforestation, global warming and water use that livestock farming causes — an issue many people don’t think about when cutting a piece of steak on their plate.

Around the globe, many forests are being cut down to make room for livestock farming and this is extremely destructive to the ecosystems in those forests. With less land and a competition for resources, the plants and animals in those ecosystems are not able to thrive when their homes are converted into fields for cattle and other livestock.

In the last 40 years, an estimated 40 percent of the Amazon trees were cut down and a large portion of that deforestation was not due to just housing and paper production — but to livestock farming.

Aside from the forests, livestock also produce a ton of greenhouse gases. When most people think of where fossil fuels come from, which are global warming emissions, they might think about factories or cars. But what is less known, is that many of the fossil fuels that are released into the atmosphere come from livestock farming.

Methane, which is released from cows, is a greenhouse gas that has an incredibly larger heat-trapping power over carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. This is very dangerous and is one of the primary contributors of global warming.

Livestock farming also uses a significant amount of resources. To produce just one pound of pork takes 576 gallons of water and to produce a pound of beef, takes upward of 1,799 gallons. The amount used to raise these animals for their meat is leaving a globally large water footprint and this water, if not for cattle farming, could be used elsewhere.

While this information barely touches the surface of livestock’s impact on the environment, it should prove shocking. Meat consumption continues to rise annually and this will in turn greatly effect deforestation, global warming and water resources.

So what can we do to help? Most obviously, not eating meat would be the biggest way you can make an impact, but going completely vegetarian or vegan is not an option for everyone. Instead, you can reduce your daily meat intake and chose to do “Meatless Mondays.” You can also educate yourself and others on the environmental impact of the meat industry, which is a really beneficial exercise. There are many documentaries such as “Cowspiracy” that discuss the meat industries impact in depth.

Becoming aware of the impact we have by raising livestock and consuming high quantities of meat is key to making a change and helping the environment.

You can’t look at the Internet or watch news for more than 20 minutes without seeing some ‘think piece’ talking about how Millennials are lazy, narcissistic, coddled, etc, etc. One phrase these critics repeatedly throw out is a “culture of entitlement” – supposedly, everyone under 30 lives in one.

If you think Millennials live in a culture of entitlement, you’ve never seen a Boomer or Gen Xer shop.

I got my first job in April of 2015, as a 16-year-old high school sophomore – I’ve worked retail for over two years now.

I don’t have the oddly-specific and not-very-practical superpower of knowing someone’s exact birth year by looking at them, so I don’t know exactly which generation everyone I meet falls into. But in my time working retail, almost every single rude, unruly, disrespectful or criminal customer I’ve had an interaction with has been someone who looks over 40 at the youngest.

Boomers will complain that Millennials want the world handed to them on a silver platter, then walk into a department store and demand to open up vacuum sealed packaging so they can see if the electronic they are thinking about buying comes with a second cord.

When an item meant to be sold sealed is opened before purchase, it makes it nearly unsellable. Employees have to first find the item (usually placed on a completely different shelf from where it belongs), then try to force all of its pieces (usually at least one of which a shoplifter ran off with since it was out of place for so long) back into place inside the package (which is impossible since the items are vacuum sealed in and won’t fit in the packaging without special equipment), then tape up the package and put it back where it belongs.

It never gets sold. After all, if you went to go buy a television, would you want the one with a box that has been tampered with? When you tell these people that they cannot open the $500 box, they stare at you in disgust and question “Well how am I supposed to tell if I want it?”

You buy it, take it home, open it, install it. If you don’t like it, you have 30 days to bring it back with receipt. When something is bought and returned, the store can often mark it as defective and get a manufacturer rebate, or something to that effect. When an item is opened, not purchased and discarded – literally shoplifting ­– it never gets sold unless it’s put on clearance, and the store loses money on it.

If you buy and item and it’s legitimately defective or someone messed up while preparing it for you, please, return it, you have that right. But when customers buy, for example, a can of paint, use half of it, decide they don’t like the color and try to exchange it for a different one, it’s inherently scummy.

If everything was done perfectly and you just changed your mind half way through, that’s not the store’s fault. Not everything runs on the same rules as a library; older people don’t always seem to get that.

These people barge into a store like they own the place and get furious if there’s no sale going on, if the item they want is out of stock, if the specialist they need to talk to is on lunch break and wait 10 minutes, or if the store that was open for over 12 hours earlier is closing soon and they don’t have time to browse.

I’m not saying everyone over the age of 40 is automatically a terrible person or that bratty young people don’t exist, or even that customers aren’t allowed to get impatient with people. But even if it’s anecdotal examples, it is frustrating that society accuses younger people of being entitled but glosses over how rude and self-absorbed older people can be interacting with retail and service workers.

Experience staff • Lissette Urbina

Editorial

NY Times is out of touch

T

ony Hovater is a man just like any other. He puts his pants on one leg at a time.

He’s just your average working-class man – or rather he was. There’s just this one thing that sets him apart from most folks.

He’s a Nazi-sympathizer.

And we never would have heard of him if the New York Times hadn’t made the decision to write a profile, humanizing his reprehensible beliefs. The article went up last week and since its inception, Hovater has been forced to leave his home and has since lost his job. He and his family however have received upward of $6,000 for their pain and suffering, from right-wing supporters. This is the problem. Mr. Hovater has an influence now he might not have had if he hadn’t been given a platform to normalize his pro-Nazi beliefs. While he probably won’t rise to become the voice of the neo-Nazis, it’s still extremely damaging to publish something like this.

And if the Times weren’t already in enough trouble, they add fuel to the dumpster-fire that has been their publication as of late by publishing a condescending response to their naysayers. In this rebuttal, they explain that their goal was to get a closer look into the minds of those who are … Their argument is centered on the narrative that it’s important to know who these people are. We can tell you that. They’re white supremacists. At this point, who cares that they like reality TV and eating avocado toast for breakfast like the rest of us?

The Times claims the writer “agonized over the tone and content.” Well, he could have saved himself the agony and just not decided to write it.

Their take is that regardless of their good intentions, people still magically found a way to be offended by their content. This is a stance that is so far removed from reality. You really can’t see how “hey folks, Nazis are just like us!” is offensive?

Articles aiming to get a peek at what it’s like to be a bigot, validates people whose values should have been left in the past. Stories like this, make Nazism make sense.

And while showing varying perspectives is a concept held dear in the field of journalism, we should all be drawing the line at sympathizing with people who think Hitler had the right idea.

We as a society seem to be trying to move toward tolerance. This isn’t inherently a bad goal. Unfortunately people want to try and place importance on every single perspective there is because every topic of discussion has its “gray areas.” This is true for a lot of social or political issues.

But alternatively, some issues really are just black and white. Occasionally, there is a situation in which there’s only a good or a bad side. Whether you’re an individual making political and social decisions for yourself, or you’re a well-known news organization with influence, you’re going to have to pick a side sometimes and you might want it to be the side that doesn’t have Nazis on it.

Letter to the Editor

More lights, police needed at LMC DEAR EDITOR: I am concerned about the Los Medanos College safety policies. I have attended LMC since spring of 2015, but this year there have been several assaults on campus. These mishaps concern me greatly. I feel our school has had an alarmingly high number of assaults and the safety issue should have been addressed accordingly.

We have police officers and police aides on campus daily. These assaults are happening in the evenings when it’s dark without much visible security. Why isn’t it visible that we have security until the campus is closed?

Los Medanos students are being targeted because the assailants are aware of the times and places many students frequent in the eve-

nings. If we as students feel threatened while we are attending classes, how will we succeed?

There is a solution to this madness: We could petition to increase the police activity in the evenings. In addition, we can petition to increase the lighting on campus, especially around the lake. These are only as few ideas that I have to start with, but by taking these actions crime rate may decrease at Los Medanos College.

LMC has improved the number of students attending and graduating and I believe as a student, we would like to continue doing so.

Nevertheless, if we were labeled as a school with less than average security, who in there right mind would want to attend here?

— Lisa Fobbs

Reader Opinion Policy

The Experience welcomes Letters to the Editor and Guest Columns. All members of the Los Medanos College community — students, faculty and staff — are encouraged to write.

If you are interested in expressing your opinions on campus, national or world issues, bring your submissions to room CC3-301 and put them in the Perspectives Editor’s mailbox or mail them to Experience c/o Los Medanos College, 2700 E Leland Road, Pittsburg, CA 94565. You may also send them electronically through the Experience online newsite lmcexperience.com.

Letters and columns must be typed, signed and include a phone number for verification. They may be edited for clarity, content taste and length at the editor’s discretion.

Voices

LOS MEDANOS COLLEGE

What is your favorite family tradition?

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California Newspaper Publishers Association

Journalism Association of Community Colleges

“Were it left for me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“Christmas because it brings everybody together.”

— Alexio Tonso

“Going to Tahoe every fourth of July because I get to see friends and family.”

— Mikayla Olehy

“My mom created a tradition called pumpkin day which is a day to celebrate the first day of fall.”

— Antonio Alvarez

“Going to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving because it allows me to see family.”

— Jania Rhodes

“Birthday parties because the whole family comes together for each one.”

— Kevin Roldan

“Going to my grandparents’ house to make tamales for the holiday season.”

— Alex Galicia

Editor-in-Chief ........................ADRIA WATSON Managing Editor.................KIMBERLY STELLY Perspectives Editor..................JESSE GOMEZ Campus Editor ..............PERRY CONTINENTE Features Editor ........................BRENNA ENOS Sports Editors .......................CARLOS RUIZ & ANDREW GONZALEZ Graphics Editor .................LISSETTE URBINA The LMC Experience is published Fridays by students in the Journalism Program. The newspaper serves both as a laboratory for journalism classes and as a First Amendment forum for campus communication. Opinions expressed in the Experience are solely those of the students and do not represent the views of the college.

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“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”

— Thomas Campbell

New play provokes thought Experience • A.R. Broom

Teryn Macallan, Yazmyn Rahimi and Jason Miller play characters who find a mysterious board game.

Gives students ‘Reality Check’

By AZI CARTER

acarter@lmcexperience.com

Experience • A.R. Broom

Yazmyn Rahimi on stage at a rehearsal as her character Nunirah, particpating in a hijab fashion show.

A day of mourning and action KIMBERELY STELLY

kstelly@lmcexperience.com

“It is important to remember the individuals who lost their lives to hate and reflect upon what causes the hate in order to find ways to organize against that prejudice and marginalization,” said Los Medanos College student Stephanie Lutz in regard to an event she hosted, held in obser vance of Transgender Day of Remembrance last Monday.

The event was meant to honor transgender individuals who were murdered not only in the United States, but also around the world. As of now, at least 25 transgender people in the U.S. and 325 worldwide have been murdered

this year — not counting those who have fallen victim to suicide.

A majority of the event was dedicated to the memory of the deceased. Soft music played in the background as Lutz not only read the names of those who died, but acknowledged what they meant to their communities. On the screen behind her, candles went up for each person who’d lost their lives.

SACHE President Tammy Smith, who attended the event, said she appreciated the inclusion of those outside of the U.S. “I wholehear tedly appreciated seeing our international brothers and sisters included in this loving event,” she said. “We are all part of a global

community and the loss of their lives is just as significant.”

During the event, Lutz also quickly defined gender identity, biological sex and orientation, emphasizing the importance of remembering the differences. She cited the book “Self Comes to Mind” by Antonio Damasio — a work that positively impacted her younger self.

“It is an explorator y book that cross-discipline reaches to figure out what makes the self in your mind and where yourself is located,’ she said.

“It impacted me greatly because I had always never known who I was and it made me eventually sit down See TDR, page 6

“Do you or a loved one have false ideas about a social issue? You may need a reality check,” according to actor Gregory Kubik-Boyd, part of the ensemble of actors in the student written play, “Reality Check.”

The play was written specifically for the community to address many uncomfortable social issues.

“Each issue or conflict was researched in depth while the play was being written,” said Kubik-Boyd, giving an example. “Schizophrenia was researched, many people hear the word and think a crazy person, often that is not the case.”

“Reality Check” is a comedic production designed to provoke thought by challenging the audience to rethink pre-conceived perceptions and attitudes toward various social issues.

“This show has been very challenging, compared to past shows”, said stage manager Pricilla Rodriquez who was part of the Drama 914 Ensemble, that wrote portions of the play.

Last year, Rodriquez was a lead actor in Boeing Boeing.

“As an actor, ‘Reality Check’

would have been a great play to perform in because of all the different and very diverse characters”, she said.

Costume Designer Nicole McGraw has designed all costumes for LMC productions for the last two years. McGraw can be found Monday and Wednesday evenings in the green room with her spreadsheet in hand, navigating over 80 costume changes for this production. It’s old hat for a seasoned designer who began her designing career at age 15. This production is keeping her on top of her game with the most costume changes, of any LMC production thus far.

The actors have formed a sense of of camaraderie, developing from the summer class when they researched and wrote the play, through casting and now the final preparations before curtain call.

“The cast hangs out during breaks sharing lots of laughs, said Kubik-Boyd, “keeping things fun and exciting.” . This is his second production as he dubuted in Death and Silence in the Spring.

If you love theater this is a production you don’t want to miss, complete with a host of See PLAY, page 6

Experience • Adria Watson

Stephanie Lutz, an LMC student, hosted the solemn event.

Gift drive returns to LMC

CHOOSE YOUR DOCTOR

29th year of charity collaboration

in making thousands of Christmas wishes come true. Last year LMC’s Angel Tree collected more ’Tis the joyous season for giving and giv- than 180 gifts. LMC president Bob Kratochvil ing thanks. The Christmas holidays mark said, “It’s really heartwarming to see different the 29th year LMC has teamed up with the fundraising efforts by LMC faculty, staff, and Salvation Army and the Angel Tree program managers throughout the year.”

“This is a ‘shining’ to collect toys and example of the genclothing for needy erosity and sharing children within the that our employees local communities. do every day on beEileen Valenzuela half of our students and Linda Kohler and the community,” have headed up the said Kratochvil. project since 2002, Valenzuela asks but with Kohler that members of the retiring last year, LMC community Valenzuela is coorbegin their holiday dinating solo this shopping, please year. Valenzuela is remember others using her office as and help make our the drop off spot for Experience Archives • Cathie Lawrence 29th year just as the unwrapped gifts.

In years past An- Eileen Valenzuela decorates the Angel successful as last.

Gifts of new toys gel Tree has set up Tree in 2015. Although there is no tree or new clothing are and decorated a tree this year, LMC is still collecting gifts. desired. If you would with angel ornaments like to participate in bearing tags with the gender and age of a child who was in need this program, please buy a gift appropriate for of a gift. This year there isn’t an actual tree, a boy or a girl aged 3 to 12 years of age, and but the spirit of giving remains. Valenzuela is take it unwrapped to Eileen Valenzuela in the hopeful that a volunteer will step up to assist Office of Instruction, SS4-449.

The last day to bring your gifts is Friday, her with the project that has been a vital part of LMC’s history of giving back and connecting Dec 15.

For more information, you can call the Office with the community.

The Salvation Army has been successful at (925) 473-7406.

By AZI CARTER

acarter@lmcexperience.com

more

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Our doctors are caring, supportive, and highly respected in their fields. And with more than 800 Kaiser Permanente physicians in Central and East Contra Costa County and the Tri-Valley area, it’s easy to find one that’s right for you.

To learn more, visit kp.org/diablo.

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“If you can’t do what you imagine, then what is imagination to you?”

— Kid Cudi

Cudi brings ‘passion’ to stage

Experience • Jordan Neel

Rapper and singer Kid Cudi performed Nov. 19 at The Warfield in San Fransisco during his “Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ Tour.”

Rapper delivers an electrifying show

By JORDAN NEEL Staff Writer

In his performance on the “Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ Tour” Kid Cudi reminded his fans why he’s such an outstanding artist.

The rapper/singer was on stage at The Warfield in San Francisco Sunday, Nov. 19 – he also performed at the same venue the night before –

REVIEW

and performed songs from his past albums “Man on the Moon,” “Man on the Moon II,” and “Indicud” as well as his most recent album “Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin.”

Cudi wasn’t alone on stage either.

He had the help of Dot Da Genius — who produced Cudi’s hit “Day ‘n Night” — who served as DJ. Rapper King Chip, who performed songs “Just What I Am” and “Brothers”

REVIEW CREW

‘Justice League’

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

Series Summary: Director Zach Snyder brought comic book characters to life in the big screen release of “Justice League” Nov. 17. The characters are potrayed by a loaded cast of actors such as Ben Affleck (Batman), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Ezra Miller (The Flash), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg) and Henry Cavil (Superman).

‘Coco’ captures Mexican culture Pixar does it again

By JESSE GOMEZ Staff Writter

Pixar’s “Coco” opened in theaters over the Thanksgiving weekend in what appears to be their next big success. ‘Coco’ is about a boy named Miguel.

Miguel comes from a long line of shoemakers and fears that his fate will be the same although his real passion lies with music.

Miguel lives in Mexico with his parents, grandmother, and great-grandmother all of whom have one strict rule; absolutely no music. Miguel is torn between his family’s wishes to rid music from his life and follow his dream of playing music for the world to hear.

His dream is to grow up and be just like Mexico’s most famous musician, Ernesto De La Cruz. As Miguel plans to make his first leap towards chasing his dream in music and

REVIEW

join the town’s annual talent show on Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) he is denied by his family when they find out.

Instead he is encouraged to stay home and honor the dead at his family altar—well all but one, all except for his great-great grandfather who abandoned his family to pursue his own music career years ago.

This is when Miguel’s journey truly begins as he decides to run away from his family on the night of Dia de Muertos to play in the talent show. Due to his instrument being ruined by his music hating grandmother Miguel seeks another before the show. He then sneaks into the final resting place of Ernest De La Cruz to borrow his guitar for the talent show.

In doing so Miguel accidently crosses over to the land of the dead and seeks the help of his ancestors to return to the land of the living before sunrise or he’ll end up dead for See COCO, page 6

with Cudi.

Among the highlights of the evening was hearing Cudi perform “Cudi Zone,” a song that changed my life at 13. His performances of “Mr. Rager,” “Kitchen” and “Surfin’” — the latter two being from his latest album were also notable parts of that night.

Cudi exuded a positivity on stage that engaged the entire crowd as he smiled, danced, and interacted with the front row of the audience, grabbing hands and even signing my copies of his albums.

From the faux trees, to the lighting effects — and even a portion of the show where fake snow was falling

— the stage design made fans feel like they were escaping into another reality.

It is important to know Cudi was battled depression and suicidal urges last year and he took a break from performing.

“Over a year ago I wasn’t in the best place in my life. I just want everyone to know that I’m okay and I’m happy,” he told the audience with a smile.

“I haven’t posted anything on social media in a while but that’s because I’ve been taking care of my daughter and I have new music on the way.”

Sometimes when you see an artist who isn’t brand new you can tell

they’re still doing concerts still for the paycheck.

However, with Kid Cudi that isn’t the case at all — you see the authenticity. He showcases vulnerability in his music. He cares a lot about his fans that, some of whom admitted to me, “he saved my life,” one even sporting a T-Shirt at the show with that phrase.

You know you’ve been to a great concert when you say the next day, “I wish I could go back to last night.”

Cudi is coming out with new music in the future so if you missed this concert, be sure to see him on the next tour he goes on the road for.

HHHH

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Jonathan says: Fast paced but fantastic

Jordan says: Very solid but not amazing

DC Comics and Warner Brothers just released the first live action installment of the popular comic book series Justice League. Featuring super heroes many people grew up with such as, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg.

The big aspect that Justice League faced going into it’s release, was that it was a follow up film after the success of DC’s summer blockbuster of Wonder Woman. For many films the hardest thing to do is to follow up with another movie that grabs the attention of the fans.

Overall the movie itself was fast paced and was shorter in time length than many other comic films that fans have seen in the past. However, regardless of it’s fast storyline, the movie was a fantastic installment of one of DC’s most famous comics, and shows how far DC has come in the movie industry since the release of Man of Steel.

The movie itself was only a two-hour movie, but for such a short timed movie, the story had a certain flow to it that gave every character a reason to be involved in the climax of the movie.

Justice League has been given mixed reviews from many viewers, but I think that this movie was fantastic.

“Justice League” is far from a perfect movie but it’s a fun time to watch. This is the first time we get to see the legendary DC comic books characters Batman, Cyborg, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and The Flash placed on the big screen in a live-action film and it’s great to see them all of them come together.

I almost lost faith in this cinematic universe after last years “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” This movie is better than that, but even Wonder Woman is better than Justice League. In the two hour runtime it bounces back and forth between the six different characters, the tone is inconsistently light and dark, and the special effects at times are not that good.

Maybe if the film were two hours and 45 minutes like it was originally supposed to be, it would be a better story. It’s a shame DC relies on extended cuts for BluRay when those cuts could have affected the story.

Yet even with its flaws I would say that if you’re a fan of DC or other comic book movies, this is still worth seeing. There are still moments where the movie is definitely good. While these are two different movies, Marvel’s “The Avengers” did a better job telling a story that focused on more than one character than “Justice League.”

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Sports

Quotable

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“Wooooooo.”

— Ric Flair

Stangs gamble for late win

Two-point overtime conversion decides bowl game

By JESUS CANO Staff Writer

Los Medanos College head coach Chris Shipe took a gamble in overtime during the team’s most important game of the season and it paid off, as the Mustangs were able to win their first bowl game since 2003, capping off to what many people believe to be one of LMC’s best season’s in their history.

The Mustangs had a record of 9-2, but the most thrilling victory came in the end of the season against the Merced College Blue Devils in the 2017 Living Breath Foundation Bowl.

According to Shipe, star quarterback Sohail Mohsini went down with an injury late in the game. It lead to Timothy Evitt coming into the game when it was tied 21-21 and performing in the most crucial plays of the game.

“Honestly just the first snap was ner ve racking, after that it was pretty smooth,” Evitt said. “I was still very aware of the situation though, that we needed to score.”

After Evitt hit a touchdown pass to Craijon Menefee, Shipe said it was now or never commanded his team to go for two points.

Evitt threw the game-winning two point conversion pass, finding the hands of TJ Roberts.

Seconds later, the entire LMC sideline swarmed the field in celebration, as they had won the 2017 Living Breath Foundation Bowl.

“The moments after winning the game is what I’ll remember for a very long time,” Shipe said. “The joy and celebration our players displayed was what they deserved for all the hard work they put forth during the season.”

The Mustangs were well in control of the game

up until the last quarter, but blew a 21-7 lead.

“I truly feel that game shouldn’t have been close,” team captain Charlie Ramirez said.

“With all the downfalls and doubts people had the extra work we had is what got us through the stress because deep down we knew we would pull through.”

They went 5-0 for the first time in Shipe’s tenure as a member of the coaching staff, and also went undefeated at home.

They had a grand total of eight players make the Pac-7 first team.

Meeko Barjona, who spent last year in crutches after suffering an ACL injury, heartbroken as all he could do was watch his teammates play. But he had a bounce back season, and was one of the the eight players to win first team honors, and did it in unanimous fashion.

“It hurt bad, I felt like I had let down my team because I wasn’t able to compete and contribute,” Barjona said. “It felt good to be back and help the team and the offensive line.”

A plethora of LMC players lead the conference in statistics.

Mohsini lead the Pac-7 in passing yards per game and touchdowns, while also winning the LBF Bowl offensive MVP award. His popular target Jelani Davis was the leader in receiving yards per game and touchdowns.

Linebacker Richie Peralta lead in tackles and defensive back Antione Tanner lead with interceptions, three of them taken back for a touchdown.

While the season comes to an end, the LMC coaching staff will be working hard to recruit new Mustangs to continue the winning.

Experience • Cathie Lawrence

Los Medanos College’s Vanessa Kualapai attempts to stay away from the Napa Valley College player during the Mustangs’ 2-0 victory at home Oct. 3.

From town to town her passion never left

By JONATHAN LITTLE Staff Writer

For any athlete, the sport they play defines who they are as a person, it becomes a way life and brings upon a mindset that will last a lifetime. For Los Medanos College women’s soccer captain Vanessa Kualapai, the game of soccer is exactly that for her. However, her story is a little different from the average student-athlete that attends LMC. Many of the student-athletes that come to Los Medanos College are usually from around the Bay Area.

“After the first They come from Pittsburg, Antioch, week I think I Brentwood, anywhere in the Bay, and LMC always seems to have a huge connected well mix of local high schools on each with everyone.” of their sports teams. However, in — Vanessa Kualapai Kualapai’s case her story begins in

Escalon, California, a town just outside Modesto with only 7,000 people claiming residence, and 65 miles away from Pittsburg, California. She started playing soccer at a young age and gives credit to her father for getting her into the sport as well as being her first coach. Playing from a young age and to now here at LMC she said, “as I kept playing I developed a love for the game, and it became something that I always did.”

She spoke a lot on the fact that soccer was her family’s sport as she grew up playing with her older sister who went on to also play college soccer. About being able to play alongside her sister, she mentioned, “we both now what we’re capable of during a game, and we’d always give each other advice to

become better players.”

As a freshman at Escalon High School she was placed on varsity.

“Where I grew up all the teams I played on broke apart, so I’d have to go to a new team. Each team I was on I’d learn something new from each coach, and I developed a lot skill and knowledge about soccer. I had all that knowledge and knew so much from playing before, and it helped.”

Kualapai played all 4 years at Escalon High School on Varsity, where in her junior year she was voted captain of the team.

She reiterated that playing for many club teams and gaining all the knowledge from her family and coaches over the years helped her gain leadership roles as she continued playing.

And In her final season at Escalon High School in 2016, she returned as captain for the team, and at the end of the year she earned first team all-league honors.

However, after playing soccer at young age on club teams and all four years of high school, Kualapai was content on not playing the game of soccer anymore. She said she still loved the game, but just felt it was time to begin a new chapter. “I wanted to do other things, and I knew I was moving [to Pittsburg] and I wanted to experience the area I was moving to, get a job, go to college, and do all the college stuff and not focus on soccer.”

Though the passion and the love for soccer was still there and she began See TOWN, page 6

Volleyball repeats success this year

By CARLOS RUIZ Staff Writer

After winning the Bay Valley conference in 2016, the 2017 Los Medanos College women’s volleyball team looked to repeat that success this past season.

Yet despite not winning the division, this year gave the Mustangs accomplishments to look back upon.

The Stangs aimed to defend their title as the goal for their campaign. Despite winning only four out of the eight pregame scrimmages, the squad started on the right note winning the first two conference games against the Alameda Cougars at home and the Mendocino Eagles on the road.

Both games were 3-0 sweep victories, however they experienced their first defeat in their next conference game, falling

victim to the Solano Community College Falcons in a sweep.

The Falcons would continue to have similar performances with the rest of the teams in the Bay Valley Conference.

The Mustangs went on to win two out of the last three games, beating the College of Marin Mariners in their last game in the month of September. After the win over the Mariners the team gained momentum as October rolled around.

The Stangs went on an eight-game winning streak with six games ending in 3-0 set wins. The streak snapped after losing to the Falcons again at home that eliminated the potential of going undefeated in October. Fortunately the hot streak boosted the team in playoff contention due to See VBALL, page 6

Experience • Cathie Lawerence

Los Medanos College’s Ashley Dixon spikes it in for the kill against Yuba College Nov. 3.

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Backtalk

Laptops stolen from office

By ADRIA WATSON

awatson@lmcexperience.com

Campus police are actively investigating a theft that occurred in Math instructor Michael Norris’ office Wednesday — the door window was shattered and the suspect took two laptops.

According to Lt. Chad Wehrmeister, police received a

phone call at 11:05 a.m. in regards to the broken glass.

He added that there were no witnesses who heard or saw anything suspicious around the time of the theft.

Philosophy Instructor Edward Haven said he was surprised about the theft since it occurred in broad daylight and he was unaware of the incident.

“The surprising thing was I’m only three doors down and I didn’t hear a thing,” said Haven.

Norris explained that he did not plan to initially bring his laptops to work with him the day of the theft in hopes to keep his belongings protected.

“I was completely shocked because I could never imagined

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“I think we all believe at this point we could’ve done a far better job communicating this to folks,” said Wood.

“We’re trying to do our best to get that out fairly soon so that folks know ‘why would you do this?’ and addressing those questions and I think we could’ve done that better so I want to own that.”

According to Warrier, the new firewall used in the network is provided by Palo Alto Networks and the total cost is $727,046 — this covers all campuses in the district and includes both a firewall that protects against malware and a URL block that blocks specific sites.

“The software, to my understanding, is not making any moral determinations,” said Wood. “What it looks for are websites that are problematic from a technological standpoint.”

Wood continued saying that these problematic sites are “sites that contain this kind of content that we know are prevalent in malware sites.”

Warrier explained that sites blocked are “not divided by legality, but by risk,” explaining “this is not a moral issue.”

The web pages blocked, however, feature descriptors like “weapons,” “questionable” and “adult” instead of mentioning risk, and seem to have little connection to malware susceptibility.

The website collegehumor. com is blocked but some sites that distribute pirated videos — like gorrilavid.in and putlocker.movie which the Digital Citizens Alliance and cybersecurity exper t RiskIQ found to be extreme sources of malware — remain untouched.

When asked about the labels Wood responded “the categorization is done by the vendor.”

Warrier added that “the system is not 100% accurate,” citing the possibility of technical error.

Warrier addressed the possible restriction of educational materials, explaining that “right now the instructors just email us and say ‘we need this site unblocked for instructional purposes’ and we unblock it.”

He cited an example where a sexual studies professor needed a site unblocked and it was fixed in “under 30 minutes.”

These blocks extend to all Wi-Fi usage on campus, including smartphones.

“If a mobile device connects to the network, it is regulated, but if you are on your cellular data we have no control,” explained Warrier.

If you encounter an inaccessible website on the college network please let us know by pasting the URL into the reader comments area attached to the online version of this story at lmcexperience.com.

being behind undefeated Solano in the table that ultimately helped them later on.

With November being the make or break month for the teams on the verge of clinching a postseason spot, the Stangs got on the right foot with another sweep win over the College of Marin. Although they had a heartbreaking loss that went the distance against the Yuba College 49ers in their last home game that honored the Sophomore Stangs. The team achieved the task of winning their last two games in requirement to make playoffs by finishing in second place in the division behind undefeated Solano.

“Finishing first would’ve been better, but Solano was an exceptional team this year, they went through our conference without losing a set,” said head coach Lou Panzella. “It’s the first time we have made playoffs 2 years in a row maybe in forever, we had twice as many wins as losses, we competed in all of our matches.”

Panzella continued to express his satisfaction by saying he was happy for the team making the playoffs and overcoming serious injuries at the end of the season and competed to the best of their ability.

Although they accomplished their goal of reaching the postseason, the season soon came to a finish, after losing in a sweep against the Hartnell College Panthers.

“We can always look back at what we could have done differently or better, but overall I think we had a really good season. We win and lose as a team, it took every member of the team to contribute in order for us to get to the playoffs,” said Panzella.

This season had several players landing in the top five in Bay Valley Conference offensive stats. Setter Erica Wilder finishing third in assists by averaging 7.73per set, middle-hitter Nuru Boone also finishing third in blocks per set with 0.84, and Jolero Sophia Clavido placed fifth in digs and digs per set.

The goal for next season is the same according to Panzella.

“Compete, get the most out of our team. Do the best we can, play all out all the time.”

PLAY From page 3

cast members, costumes and a great learning experience that is bound to challenge you. Get your tickets early to get a good seat. “Reality Check” debuts in two weeks at the California Theater in downtown Pittsburg. Opening night is Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. and continues Dec. 7, 8, and 9, at 7 p.m. Admission is $15 $12 with student ID/Military ID, and $10 for those with middle school or high school ID. The Box Office is located at 351 Railroad Ave Pittsburg, CA 94565, (925) 427-11611 and is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and one hour before show time. For more information, visit www. pittsburgcaliforniatheatre. com

TDR From page 3

to discover who I am.”

Toward the end of the event, there was a moment of silence.

Stephanie then brought out her guitar to play a few songs.

“The event was incredibly moving and beautiful,” said Smith.”

Lutz said she hoped that those who came will take the information they’ve been given, and carry it with them beyond the span of the event.

Smith expressed that she is happy to see diverse representation on campus. “As a member of multiple marginalized groups, I am excited to see those of us who once felt invisible and unimportant at LMC, represented.”

However, though this event has taken place, Lutz feels transgender representation is still relatively minimal on this campus.

“If more events about the LGBT community are sponsored by the college and supported by various clubs, I feel that it not only helps to keep that trans students safe, but allows for cisgender students to grow an understanding with this group,” said Lutz.

She said we can all do something to lessen the violence and discrimination toward the transgender community. “It is impossible to mourn without action … pain is one side of a coin, and the other side of that coin is action.”

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F R I D AY,

for this to happen,” said Norris adding that his students were very helpful in trying to find the devices stolen by using the “Find My Mac” that comes with Apple products but finding out the protection was disabled after it was stolen.

According to Wehrmeister, Police Services will continue reaching out to students, faculty and staff regarding campus security and more information will be released as the investigation progresses.

REP From page 1

for the productions.

When Long did land onstage roles that required him to run around the stage and in some cases, even purposely fall, he recalled that it shocked the audience because they weren’t sure if he was acting that way due to his character, or his present disability.

“They’d never seen it before so they didn’t know how to act,” said Long.

Due to his childhood worries about his disability and the ways in which people reacted to it, Long did not become involved with the disabled community until he was 35 years-old. Since becoming aware and comfortable with disability and the community around it, Long now emphasizes the importance of proper media coverage of disabilities so that people can be more aware.

Long believes that disability needs mainstream coverage in all outlets of media such as news, politics, fashion and sports. Though the universal coverage, Long believes that the large, and growing, community of disabled people in America can finally have a proper voice in the public platform.

The same principle of media coverage goes to movies as well: “You never saw disabled people together in movies,” said Long. He then explained that even when there are cases of disabled people in film, they are often played by non-disabled actors.

By expanding the coverage of disabled people, Long believes that people can become more aware and open to discussing and learning about disabilities.

“Cultivating a sense of curiosity is the best way to figure it out,” said Long, adding that every disability is different and that people should have open conversations about it without it. “Every case is different — it’s like a snowflake.”

Cerebral Palsy is “the obvious disability,” said Long, then describing how his disabilities are unique as well and that he also has depression and ADHD which many people are not aware of.

After coming to terms with his disabilities and becoming an advocate for discussing each case, Long hopes that people not only in the media, but in daily life can also recognize and understand disability as well.

“Why are we ignoring, From page 4 erasing and diminishing real and be stuck in the land disability?” he questioned, “It’s a conversation we need of the dead forever.

Along his path Miguel uncovers to be having and don’t do it family history that may have enough.” led to his family hating music years later.

Pixar does an amazing job splashing the screen with color From page 1 while they reveal what the land With 2000 entrants paying of the dead looks like. a maximum of 50 dollars an These vivid sights do a great entr y, the event provides job in showing the true mean- several thousand dollars to ing in this Mexican tradition the school districts. One of as well as keeping the mood the big winners of the Turkey and viewer happy.

Trot was LMC’s own Arren De Traditional music, design Manuel, who placed second and Mexican folklore is riddled for his age group in the 5K throughout the film. event with a time of 18:44.

The design and art team “I was really not expecting to on this film really out did do this well,” said De Manuel, themselves with the amazing who typically competes in architecture and amazingly sprint events. “I was trying to detailed skeletons. hold a constant pace.”

The plot in this film alone Despite the race being a makes the movie great but the much longer distance that visual beauty is an amazing De Manuel was used to, he cherry on top that is sure to did credit his sprint training delight all viewers. with his success.

This is a true family film.

“The sprinting really helped Miguel’s quest with tradition me bring it in at the end,” said and following his dreams show De Manuel. audiences the impor tance Rodriguez was also proud of remembering ones family of the event and its turnout. because even though they may “It’s a great community no longer be living they live event,” said Rodriguez. “We on if they are never forgotten. have 2000 participants, which Be prepared for Pixar’s is up from last year.” sneaky tactics to create emotion He similarly complimented that will probably have you the staff, stating “we had a wiping your eyes. great committee this year.” her first semester at LMC in the Fall of 2016. Though one day her teacher gave an announcement on how the women’s soccer team was looking for more players, and the drive and passion to play the game gave her the idea to tryout for the LMC women’s soccer team. Explaining her feelings when she heard the announcement, “It was very random, and when I heard I felt like someone was telling I need to go play, and that’s when I made the decision to go play.”

“I was very nervous at the beginning, I was new to the area, I didn’t know the team’s level of play, or if everybody new each other. And I think after the first week I think I connected well with everyone and Coach Sullivan, it went very well for my first week.” Even though her first week went well, her first full season with the team didn’t go well as the Mustangs finished 2-11 in 2016.

For any athlete, to go through a losing season is frustrating. “It was rough and there were days where I was frustrated with myself but, it wasn’t a horrible experience, as a team we gelled well together, and created many new friendships.”

Going into this season the mindset of the team was very different. Kualapai expressed how the team got together early in the summer to work out, and after heavy recruiting in the offseason, the team wanted more and improve from their 2016 season. She found the 2017 season to be a sucessful result of her and her teammates hard work. “At first, we started off slow, but as the season went on we came together, had fun playing the game, and I think that’s what contributed to our success this fall.”

Now as Kualapai’s soccer career at LMC has come to a close, she thinks back to when she decided to stop playing the game she loves. “Playing at LMC really made me think back at why I wanted to stop playing in the first place and now I’m really excited to play at the next level.” Kualapai has offers from Division 2 colleges, and her dream college of CSU Monterey Bay and hopes to continue her career and education there in the future. “My sister just got finished playing at a four year, so hopefully it’s my turn to do the same.”

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Follow the LMC Experience online at lmcexperience.com

MEDIA BOTS From page 1

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with a short clip on female misrepresentation from the documentary “Miss Representation,” Alaoui talked about how the lack of positive women role models in the media affects other women.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” explained Alaoui. “The media shapes our narrative — it’s important for us to start questioning the media scene.”

Alaoui followed her talk on misrepresentation by explaining important terms such as feminism, sex, sexism, and gender. She then went on to discuss essentialism, which is the belief that gender distinctions are innate and natural. She explained that this phenomenon is harmful not only in media portrayal of gender norms, but to society as a whole. Essentialism is “not okay… we need to stat talking about it,” said Alaoui.

She then went on to talk about her career as a professor and the differences between the ways that students regard male and female professors.

Even though Alaoui has a Ph.D. like many of her colleagues, she recalled that her students would typically refer to her as “miss” whereas her male colleagues were regarded to as “professor” or “doctor.”

Despite the fact that her credentials were no different than the male professors at the institution, students did not refer to her with the same title and this “devaluated” the work of her and many other female professors.

“It becomes micro-aggressive on a daily basis,” explained Alaoui adding that students not only refer to her with the wrong title, but they also expect her to act “nurturing and not bossy” simply because of her sex.

Alaoui reflected back to how female portrayal in the media has inadvertently resulted in the ways she is expected to act as a woman and mistitled at her institution. She explained that typically in media, women are presented in passive and nurturing roles while men are the active, politically dominant and strong characters and this has influenced real life stereotypes. “Men occupy the public sphere.”

Following this idea, Alaoui showed a photo taken during a 2008 Hillary Clinton town speech and in the audience, someone is holding an “Iron my shirt” sign — aiming to devaluate Clinton’s political leadership. Alaoui used this image to showcase that while people think that gender equality is more equal, there are still many stereotypes and negative beliefs that people hold today.

“These stereotypes are still present in our lives,” said Alaoui, adding that the media needs to change these stereotypes by showcasing women in strong and powerful roles instead of portraying them in household spaces such as the kitchen.

Aside from fixing media portrayal on gender norms, Aloaui also highlighted that it is important to not impose “norms” on children. She used images of children in gender normative roles, such as boys playing with guns and girls covered head-to-toe in pink clothing and discussed how it is problematic to force them into those roles at such a young age.

“Adver tisements tell us what gender to follow,” she explained.

Before finishing her presentation, Aloaui showed another scene from the documentary “Miss Representation,” in which young girls talked about the struggles they have faced both with how they look physically and how they feel about themselves due to media por trayal of women. They talked about struggling with weight and changing their hair to fit in with media standards of women.

One of the high school students emotionally talked about how she had a sister that had an eating disorder due to the images of women she had scene in the media and the lack of body positivity portrayed. Aloaui’s presentation was concluded with a heartbreaking question from that high school student: “How long is it going to take for somebody to take a stand?”

media.”

Erwin first gave an overview on the definitions of various terms that have been used recently in the discussion of news available online and in social media.

Afterward, attendees broke into groups to evaluate social media accounts complete with a dashboard for each group to demonstrate how easily inaccurate information can spread. From there, attendees used what they had learned to discern what junk-content and fake news looks like on the typical dashboard.

Following the activity, panelist Higdon, a history and communications faculty member at Diablo Valley College, gave an expert on propaganda in media. Afterwards an involved member of the Media Freedom Foundation spoke about the correlation between propaganda and news, as well as the effects of media saturation and customization and how it affects the news that people consume.

He’d suggest that there are four factors that are greatly affecting the distribution of information online: n Entertainment Culture, which is used to get people hooked and watching their news’ advertisers. n Partisan Culture, which feeds into the negative relationships of political parties and affiliations. n A Fragmented Society, or the notion rather that social media has fragmented society, in part due to the ability of individuals to customize ever ything that the public encounters online, narrowing their viewpoints. n Inef fective Education Systems, which Higdon blames for not providing the general public with skills necessary for the media literacy needed to protect themselves online.

These four factors are the things that have come together to create a reality where journalism either can’t or doesn’t ser ve the people who are generally not equipped with the skills necessary to navigate a media-saturated society.

“You can operate in a world where climate change is real, or it’s a liberal hoax,” said Higdon, “depends on what you want to do. You can operate in a world where Black Lives Matter is standing up for racial justice, or one that’s a movement that’s anti-police.

You can operate in a world where women who are speaking out against sexual harassment are fighting gender inequities, or they’re looking for money and a handout.”

Next to speak was Maureen Erwin, a political columnist for The San Francisco Examiner and freelance political consultant.

She gave a personal account of an encounter with a Twitter sockpuppet account.

She described the account as contrived and enveloping of several pastiches of interest that wouldn’t normally overlap with one-another.

Erwin believes the reasoning behind these sockpuppet accounts is to seem like social and political outliers in the eyes of those who might come across them online.

Doing this allows them to pretend to serve as supporters of one political but with a dissenting opinion that actually supports the other end of that political objective.

After the panel some visitors left feeling more informed of the content they consumed or observed on the internet.

Communications major at LMC Luis Martinez, who was originally there for an extra credit opportunity for journalism and speech class, said he had a good take away from the event and was surprised by the rate that misinformation is spreading.

“I learned a lot more about how to spot fake news and how to spot things out and the activity was really interactive and I learned a lot,” said Martinez.

To learn more about Maureen Erwin’s work in the San Francisco Examiner, visit http://www.sfexaminer.com/ author/maureen-erwin/ And for more about the Media Freedom Foundation (MFF), visit http://projectcensored.org/