Journalism is a lot tougher than I thought it would be! What I initially believed to be simple "who, what, where, when, why, and how" has turned out to have a huge political dimension that I was not expecting. Even the questions I ask become politically charged, and I am at risk for revealing my bias as soon as I open my mouth (or my computer). Save for a few Associated Press reports, everything seems biased to me now that I've become more media literate. The obvious comedy news sites like the Colbert eport/Colbert Nation and the Daily Show are great diversions for me, and they satirize the mainstream media in ways that I appreciate now more than ever. I hope you get a chance to check those out.
Hey! Have you ever visited FoxNews.com? They advertise themselves as being "fair and balanced," but I'm starting to wonder…they're about as fair…...
Thus, the media hunted for items, building a case against Hatfill, in essence creating news rather than reporting it. Better balanced could have been easily provided by giving Hatfill and the FBI investigators more voice.
In order to prevent this from happening again, guidelines could be put into place. The first guideline would be to conduct an independent investigation into all details, including those gleaned from other news outlets. It should not be assumed that other news outlets are providing coverage of the highest integrity. Indeed, this guideline flows from the code of ethics: "expose unethical practices of journalists and news media."
Another guideline that could be implemented is that the outlet should not "create" news by digging up items of conjecture regarding the subject, but should rather report the findings of official investigations. In this case, this would involve reporting the FBI's official announcements on the issue.
Journalism
'Usually the first thing people say when they get in is 'Wow! Sh*& ! damn!' They can't believe how big it is on the inside."
Susan Smith, a thirty-two-year-old computer programmer living in Toronto, is bragging about her Smart car.
The Mercedes-made, Daimer-Chrystler-distributed fuel efficient mini car looks no bigger than a Harley-Davidson cruiser. In fact, the Smart car is only eight feet long, five feet high, and weighs considerably less than a ton.
It's also cute enough to make the Volkswagen Beetle look comparatively overweight and bloated. The Smart car's visual appeal is due to its being designed by Swatch, the Swiss company that makes funky plastic watches. Like the Swatch watches, the Smart cars come in a range of non-traditional and fun colors; they are inexpensive; and they are flexible.
Anyone who has recently visited Paris, London, and other major European capitals will already be familiar with the tiny two-seaters that are…...
Journalism
"I knew this is what I was supposed to do when I grew up," Jaeger said, wiping a flyaway hair that fell from her habit (cited by Bane). Andrea Jaeger looks a far cry from her heyday as a teen tennis phenomenon. Her traditional nun's habit reveals nothing of the athlete she once was, and that's fine for Jaeger, now 43 years old. "Looking back, Jaeger believes she never should have inhabited this world as a minor," (Clarke). Jaeger is now Sister Andrea, a member of an Anglican Dominican order in southern Colorado. "It came to me in a dream," Sister Andrea stated, wistfully (Bane). The idea had been lingering long inside the recesses of my mind. It wasn't until I met Catherine of Siena, and she gave me a tour of the monastery, that I felt the shiver run down my spine. I knew this was what I was…...
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References
Bane, V. (2006). Tennis star Andrea Jaeger's new life as a nun.
Journalism?
James W. Carey has written a thought-provoking essay on what journalism has in, has become, and might be. His central thoughts involve journalism's roles within the university and within our larger democratic society. He focuses on what he calls the "three axioms" of journalism (as summarized by Wartella), " that journalism is a practice distinguished by its form; second, that as a social practice, journalism reporting and writing should not be confused with technologies of communication (e.g. broadcast, print) or the institutions in which such a practice occurs (e.g. newspapers, television stations); and third, that journalistic practice is an important institution for the maintenance of democracy."
he difficulty is that none of those axioms allow journalism to fit in neatly either in university life or in real life. In university life, journalism is the orphaned child of the English department, which he suggests happened at least partly in an attempt…...
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The commentators are right. Journalism is not "Communications." Communications is public relations, sometimes mistaken for journalism by readers when newspapers reprint press releases without changing a single word, giving it an undeserved patina of news. Corporations within publishing have had a profound effect on how newspapers are presented to readers: journalists writing for USA TODAY are taught to write in pyramid form, so that each paragraph can be the last paragraph. The first paragraph is the tip of the pyramid, and technically, the paste up editor can just snip off the rest of the article after that first paragraph, and it would stand alone and seem complete. Each following paragraph would have that quality, so that the paste up editor can simply shorten any article with impunity to suit page layout.
The chilling part of that description is that it would seem complete. It might be argued that the best journalism digs below the surface, and perhaps what is found could not be presented in any kind of balanced or accurate way in paragraph/soundbites. Writing under such rules of constraint might arguably be viewed more as the domain of Communications than Journalism. It is Communications that addresses functional writing for a purpose-- not only public relations, but speeches and advertising.
Marshall McCluhan said back in the 1960's that "the media is the message." We see in 2004 that this is true. On television we hear sound bites, and it seems possible that one sound bite of Howard Dean, picked up by a highly directional microphone that exaggerated its impact, may have ruined his chances of a run for the Democratic nomination for pregnancy. That incident was communication, but not journalism.
Clearly there are concerns that come with allowing politicians into the often adversarial field of journalism; however, Shepherd fails to adequately recognize how this can be a beneficial practice as well.
It was Sun Tzu that said, "Know thy self; know thy enemy" ("Sun Tzu," 2010). If journalists are truly the watchdogs of politics, only by fully understanding the field can they effectively perform their duties as protectors of the American public. Experience as a politician, in a political campaign, or in a governmental agency allows journalists a new level of insight into the workings of American politics that outsiders simply don't have. When this insider knowledge is applied correctly, it can help facilitate a journalist's duties in reporting the news.
It is foolish to think that a journalist who hasn't acted as a political candidate or taken part in some form of political campaigning or governmental office has no personal…...
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References
Shepherd, a. (Jul/Aug 1997). "The revolving door." American Journalism Review. p. 19-21.
Asawa's sculptures literally depict wires shaped into various forms such as bells, cones, teardrops, spheres, and ruffles, thus making it a form of abstract art. Banner's work literally depicts written paragraphs about nudes set on dark canvases, which makes it a form of representational art.
While Asawa's sculptures do not explicitly represent anything, Banner's artwork is meant to represent female nudity. Banner tries to convey the message that nudity can be displayed verbally as well visually. Asawa employs symbolism to express harmony and interconnectedness. Asawa's artwork serves an artistic function under the context of beauty emanating from mundane objects. Banner's artwork also serves an artistic function under the context of displaying nudity through text instead of image.
eferences
Miles, C. (Dec. 31, 2006). "Sculptor of light and air" etrieved January 3, 2007 from Los Angeles Times Web site: http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-asawa31dec31,0,1734043.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels
Ollman, L. (Dec. 15, 2006). "Paintings that will make motors run: the word on…...
0 framework. This framework is particularly relevant to journalism where the need for greater levels of interaction and collaboration with the reader were badly needed. The rapid ascent of blogs and their use for journalistic purposes, in addition to the exponential growth of video sites including YouTube continue to underscore how accurate the Web 2.0 framework is.
The initial generation of technologies that disrupted traditional journalism included blogs, knowledge-based wikis, and the rapid growth of micro-blogging sites including Twitter. The growth of podcasts during the first generation of Internet-based technology adoption in journalism also served to accelerate much-needed change in terms of connecting with readers more effectively (Loop, 1999). This first generation of these technologies were very effective in creating an easily learned publishing platform, one that was able to reach millions of readers within seconds of a journalist posting a story online (Adee, 2008). They however did not have the…...
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References
Adee, B. (2008). Digging into social media to build a newspaper audience. Nieman Reports, 62(4), 52.
Bernoff, J., & Li, C. (2008). Harnessing the power of the oh-so-social web. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(3), 36-42.
Hermes, J. (2006). Citizenship in the age of the internet. European Journal of Communication, 21(3), 295-309.
Loop, M. (1999). A journalist's guide to the internet: The net as reporting tool. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 76(2), 398-398.
Yellow Journalism is a term used for the use of negligent and flamboyant newspaper reporting, without regard to facts. With yellow journalism the truth is usually misrepresented or concealed, more often than not, there may be no truth to the story at all. In its infancy, the term yellow journalism was used to describe the writing tactics used by William Hearst's New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. These men used yellow journalism to exaggerate and misguide the American public on happenings in Cuba; such reporting may have even sparked the Spanish-American war. Yellow journalism is by no means a memory in America's distant past; even the most conservative newspapers still practice it in a refined form today. Tabloids such as the Star and the Inquirer are notorious for sensationalizing and even falsifying headlines. Additionally, every once in a while straight edged newspapers papers such as the Wall…...
Responsible Journalism
How the Press Covers the Most Important Events of Our Existence
The media of our society is a complex conglomerate. One can read newspapers and magazines with the click of a button, and access countless journals with unlimited information much the same way. Furthermore, there is that monster of an invention that feeds biased and, sometimes, useless information every single minute of every day: the television. If an observer saw the amount of information with which we are bombarded every day, he would surely marvel at our capacity to absorb anything at all, much less what is important. The way that the press covers important events, especially the written media, is vital to our understanding of the world. This paper will thus focus on what responsible journalism means, especially when related to humanitarian crises and other such life-changing events, but will also touch upon how the media covers various issues…...
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A well-respected news outlet such as CNN should not focus its efforts wholeheartedly on a high speed chase, or a celebrity's arrest, but should rather update the society about what happens around the world and how international events can affect our society. However, seriousness without drama or debate is not considered good for the ratings, so many news outlet compromise their principles in order to offer politicized, interactive news, as entertainment, without much thought for anything other than ratings and profit. This kind of reporting and journalistic investigation is dangerous because it jeopardizes investigative journalism, according to a study. [4: Pyle, Christopher. "Irresponsible Journalists Are Jeopardizing Serious Investigations by the Press." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 7 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. < ]https://arch.library.nyu.edu/metasearch/record?group=003426&resultSet=019089&startRecord=3 >.
Reflections on Journalism
From all the analysis presented above, it almost seems like the media is infatuated with itself and is in a constant competition to have 24/7 information for the simplest facts. This makes the news overbearing, and sometimes it really is hard to watch. News has certainly become entertainment and has been politicized, especially due to the short attention span of today's generations. However, there are still journalists out there who strive to do their job, and be voices of fairness and reason, appealing to justice, in this world. Thus, even though the media is often biased and does not necessarily conduct its mission in a responsible way, such individuals do weigh upon the right principles for this profession and ought to be respected. I can only hope to become one such individual.
They're what journalists are supposed to explain. 'We'll focus on the issues' is the vow in virtually every newsroom in virtually every campaign. Ideally, it means producing comprehensive, thoughtful analyses of candidates' positions on economic growth, health care, education, defense, the environment, and so on."
There is, however, a story that became the political issue when Senator Berry's public life, for whatever, became entangled in the lives of not one, but five of his staff people; all women, and all with similar accounts of allegations of a criminal nature. It is not in discord with the ethics of professional journalism to report on this story. That the allegations involve a public officer, whose behavior is incompatible with that of a publicly elected official, and, if the charges are substantiated, are criminal in nature, in which case much more than the Senator's office would be at stake. It is the responsibility…...
This is important, because these individuals are taking their experience from the real world and they are using it, to help prepare students for the challenges they will face. Once this occurs, it means that many individuals will begin to have creativity and flexibility when it comes to their writing style (as this is often emphasized throughout the industry). At which point, they can be able to counter balance the effects of the more traditional schools. (Merrill, n.d.)
What Merrill concludes, is that the field is being overly influenced by academia. As there are a large number of schools and journalism departments that are following more structured formats. This takes away from the professionalism of the field, as it discourages creativity and flexibility. According Merrill, the only hope for any kind of professional standards, is for those who have worked in the industry to share their knowledge with others. This…...
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Bibliography
Merril, J. (n.d.). The Professionalization of Journalism.
For example, words could not convey the same meaning as pictures depicting police dogs attacking young African-American children. However, most Americans no longer get their news through newspapers, but through television. As a result, I feel that I have the greatest chance of impacting people, on small and grand scales, by pursuing a career in broadcast journalism.
In addition, Hurricane Katrina marked a tremendous change in how journalists approach tragedy. The only issue I had with pursuing a career in journalism was that it would require me to maintain objective distance in the face of unimaginable suffering. Therefore, seeing journalists get involved, to help end individual human suffering, gave me hope. Those journalists and their stories were not lessened by their involvement; instead, the stories were more poignant, moving, and informative because of such involvement.
Because I see it as a way to combine working for the greater good and helping…...
Child labor laws, meatpacking regulations and limitations on working hours are but three examples of reform.
A turning point for reform occurred at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. On March 25, 1911, 146 immigrant employees died in a disastrous fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. The impact of the tragedy resulted in great efforts by labor unions, the New York state legislature and various New York City departments to address the causes and failures that allowed the deaths to occur. (Shepherd)
The workers had been subjected to low wages, long hours and, when the fire erupted, an inability to escape since the owners had only one exit door unlocked. The New York City fire department could not completely extinguish the fire because their hoses were too short and rescue for those at the top of the building was also impossible since their ladders were also too short. Not…...
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Works Cited
Fieldstein, Mark. "A Muckraking Model: Investigative Reporting Cycles in American History." The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 1st ser. 11.2 (2006). Gdw.edu/msmpa/faculty/documents/harvard.pdf. Web. March & April 2010. .
Mabry, Donald J. "Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era, 1901-1908." The Historical Text Archive. Donald J. Mabry. Web. March & April 2010. .
"Muckraking." Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. Web. March & April 2010.
National Public Radio, prod. "The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire." Interview with David Von Drehle. NPR, Sept. & Oct. 2003. Npr.org. National Public Radio. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Those planning newspaper or magazine careers usually specialize in news-editorial journalism. To create stories for online media, they need to learn to use computer software to combine online story text with audio and video elements and graphics ("News Analysts").
Tasks, Duties and esponsibilities:
The tasks, duties and responsibilities of a news anchor center on gathering information, preparing stories, and making broadcasts that inform the public about local, state, national, and international events. They may also present viewpoints on current issues. They investigate leads and news tips, research documents, observe events at the scene, and interview individuals. Part of their duties involve taking notes about what they've observed or learned, and they may be charged with taking photographs or shooting videos ("News Analysts").
Once they return to their office, a news anchor typically organizes their material and determines the focus or emphasis of the story. They then may write their stories and even…...
1. The importance of paraphrasing in academic writing and avoiding plagiarism 2. Techniques and strategies for effectively paraphrasing text 3. The impact of paraphrasing on comprehension and retention of information 4. Common mistakes to avoid when paraphrasing 5. The ethical considerations of paraphrasing in research and writing 6. The role of paraphrasing in promoting critical thinking and analysis 7. How paraphrasing can enhance the clarity and coherence of written communication 8. The challenges and benefits of teaching paraphrasing skills to students 9. The role of paraphrasing in developing strong argumentation and persuasive writing 10. The relationship between paraphrasing and effective summarization in writing.
11. The cultural implications of paraphrasing and....
1. The evolution of photography as an art form 2. The impact of social media on photography 3. The role of photojournalism in shaping public opinion 4. The ethics of photo manipulation and editing 5. The importance of composition and framing in photography 6. The representation of cultural diversity in photography 7. The use of photography in documenting historical events 8. The psychology of photography and its influence on perception 9. The future of photography in the digital age 10. The power of visual storytelling through photography.
11. The influence of famous photographers on modern photography trends 12. The intersection of technology and photography in the 21st century 13. The significance of....
The Mechanics of Photography: Exploring the principles of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and their impact on image quality. Composition and Framing: Analyzing the techniques used to create balanced and visually pleasing compositions. Light and Shadow in Photography: Examining the role of lighting in shaping the mood, atmosphere, and drama of an image. Color Theory in Photography: Investigating the use of color harmonies, contrasts, and symbolism to evoke specific emotions and convey messages. Digital vs. Analog Photography: Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of digital and analog photography in terms of image quality, workflow, and creative possibilities.
1. Analyzing the impact of David Clay Large's work on the field of European history 2. Exploring the themes of identity and nationalism in David Clay Large's writings 3. Evaluating the role of historical fiction in David Clay Large's storytelling 4. Investigating the influence of David Clay Large's background in journalism on his historical writing 5. Comparing and contrasting David Clay Large's approach to storytelling with other prominent historians 6. Examining David Clay Large's perspectives on the impact of World War II on modern European society 7. Discussing the importance of historical accuracy in David Clay Large's publications 8. Exploring the role of memory and commemoration in....
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