Media Critique

PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT FACES ANGER

  Media Critique 

     This article is about how the people of the Philippines think that their president isn't doing everything in his power to help the people after the deviating typhoon that struck the country on November 8, 2013. One of the seven yardsticks that this article does not follow is fairness.

     It tells about how the people of the Philippines got aid that they really needed but it wasn't enough to help everyone. What it's forgetting to include is that the storm only happened less than a week ago and all of the streets are still full of the aftermaths of the typhoon meaning that the aid trucks can't get through. 

     This article is says that the roads are closed but it doesn't go into detail. And it's blaming the president as if it's all his fault. Instead of focusing on what the president is doing to help the author is focusing on what he isn't doing to help his people. Fairness is getting all sides of the story not just one side and this article didn't do this. It just focused on the negative.

Photo by timesbyisrael.com

Bullying

Say NO to Bullying

     One of questions on a current events quiz asked about a 12 year old girl that got bullied. She was getting harassed by people at school and one day she had enough and decided to end her life. Two of the girls that were involved have been charged for bullying her on the internet.

     Even though bullying has changed forms it is still a very big issue today. A few decades ago people got bullied at school but know that there is internet and texting many kids are getting cyber bullied which is turning into a huge problem. But the problem is that people aren't standing up when they see a person getting bullies. They bare too scared that they will be next. I think that people need to be taught to stand up for themselves and other when there is bullying going on. They need to learn that being afraid and taking action can go hand in hand. If they learn this then they will learn to stand up for what they believe in. This won't stop the problem but it will be a huge step towards fixing it.

Photo by Dimarko Chandler 

National Park Shutdowns

Parks Closed!

     A few weeks ago we discussed the effects the the Government Shutdown has had on the US and one of the biggest ones was that all of the national parks were closed for 16 days. This really took a toll on some of the small states. Some stated, like Wyoming, make their state money from tourists that come to visit the parks. During the shutdown some states saw their economy declining because they were losing money because the parks were closed so their weren't any tourists.

     Also all of people that worked in the parks got laid off for a couple weeks. It's. It an easy task to keep a park going so there were a lot of people not getting paid. The people that had plans to come visit these parks were also in for a surprise. All of the people that had reservations and tours booked didn't get to go and all of there money was wasted.

     I get that the parks were closed because they are federal property but I think the government should have found a way to keep it open because many people got screwed over because of this shutdown.

Obamacare

Obamacare 

     A couple weeks ago we had a question on our current events quiz about Obamacare. This is the new healthcare program that President Obama has put in place. Now this is the reason that Congress shutdown the government for 16 days.

     Congress argued that this was a bad plan and it will not work. I think that they should have the right to express opinions this Affordable Care Act but they should punish everyone because of it. Due to the shutdown many people couldn't go to work or get paid so they had a hard time. But the messed up thing is that the people in Congress still got paid. That's right the people who caused people to lose money were still getting a paycheck. 

     Now that the government is reopened Congress have put of this problem until February which I think is a horrible idea. They are just putting of the inevitable. 

News shows

WLKY

     For the second six weeks my journalism teacher made us watch the local news and write a critique on it. My station wasWLKY and their show needed a lot of improvement. 

     Out of a 30 minute news show only half of that time was actually used to cover news. About 10 minutes of the show was used on the weather and the other 5 to 8 minutes was sports and commercials. They should have spent less time on things that aren't very important and more time on news stories that actually matter. 

     Another thing that WLKY needs to work on is the contents of their story. In the month of October alone 52% of their news stories were crime. I agree that crime needs to be covered but they were reporting on stories that had no effect on Louisville or they kept on covering the same crime for days. For example they covered a trial in Indiana for about two weeks and after it was over they still found a way make a lead story out of it. They try to make the interesting important and not the other way around.

Radio

Radio After WWII 

     Radio is a very important part of technology in the new era. It's was the first wireless form of communication. When radio first started out it was very popular and it mostly focused on news. When TV came along it caused radio to demassify because all of the performers left radio to go to TV. 

     When radio demassified it turned its attention to music. Now instead of having shows that everyone could watch they played music for a niche group of people. The genre that really helped this noes form of radio to take off was Rock n Roll. This was the era that rock n roll was invented and people would always listen to their songs on the radio. 

      I think that radio demassifying was a really smart choice. If they didn't then we probably would not have radios to this day. Even though radio isn't as popular as TV and the internet it is still pretty successful.

 

Television

Huge Impacts ofTelevision 

     There are three major impacts of television that we have talked about in class. The first one is that it has kept us from going to social events. Since television many people don't go to social interactions as much as they used to. Now we would rather stay inside and watch TV then go outside and play or go to church.

     Another huge impact of television is it has influenced out spending habits. Now if we see something get advertised on TV then it always stays in our brains and that what we want to buy even if it's without our knowledge. 

      The last reason has to do with politics. Now if a candidate wants to have any chance of winning he has to flood the nation with TV advertisements which wipes any chance of middle or lower class people to win. TV ads cost millions of dollars which only means that to get them you writhe have to be rich or have rich friends. So next time you watch TV think of how all of those advertisements are affecting your life. 

Internet

Robot takeover is almost here!

     It is not an over exaggeration to say that the internet affects our lives everyday. All of the things we do 99.9% of the time involves the internet. The new generation soon won't even know what textbooks are. They will think of them as a far away place just like the current generation thinks of the library.
      The internets impact isn't all good. It has affected all medias that came before it. It caused music to move to the internet so now if you want to buy a song you can download it for 99 cents instead of buying a whole album just to listen to one song. 

     It caused many of the small newspapers because now instead of subscribing to a physical newspaper and paying money people could just go online and get the same news for free. So due to this companies either moved online or went out of business.

     The internet also caused the underground to go extinct. Now that you can find everything on the internet nothing was a secret anymore so their was no more underground. Same goes for mainstream meaning that people had so many choices due to the internet that now nobody had to follow one trend that is popular.

     I believe that sometime in the near future we will all rely on the internet too much and forget how to live without it. WE WILL SOON BECOME LIVING ROBOTS!

Design by OECD

Going to the Movies

Why Movies Are Still Around

     Many people still go to the theatre to this day but they never ask why movies are still around to this day when they can watch movies at home on their TVs for free. Well one of the reasons is for the overwhelming experience that you can only get at the theatre. The fact that you can sit in a dark room with a huge screen in front of you and have no distractions. Try getting that kind of quality at home.

     Another reason that the theatre is still a part of people's lives is because of the cultural experience. People want to see a movie as soon as it comes out instead of waiting for months for it to come out on DVD or to premiere on TV. People want to have the satisfaction of saying that they were the first to see it when it came out.

     The last reason is because of the social experience. People go to the movies all the time to hang out. Whether it's to see friends or go on a date it has always been a part of human social life. They don't want to see a movie at home by themselves instead they want to socialize with their friends.

Media Critique

After the Zimmerman Trial

There is an article written by CNN explaining the George Zimmerman trial. Even though this is a decent article it is missing one thing. That independence and fairness. This article has only one side of the story. The side that believed that Zimmerman was innocent. In this article the author quotes the people that were on the side that believed that Zimmerman was guilty. 

   This article failed to meet the principle that says that journalists must be independent in their writing. This person got the side that believes that Zimmerman deserves to be in jail. Even if this was true and Zimmerman was guilty it was not proven so the journalist should not try to hide his opinions about the trial in his writing. The author quoted Zimmermans brother but that is not good enough. The writer should have quoted people that didn't know Zimmerman and believed he was innocent. The Jurors, for example, would have been great sources. They believed he was innocent so the journalist should have quoted them and gotten their point of view. 

    A yardstick they did not meet is fairness which is about the same as independence. The writer should have gotten more of Zimmermans side. To make this article more nuteral he could have shown Zimmermans side. He should have talked more about Zimmermans struggles and how this trial changed his whole life.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial

Photo provided by CNN

You Rock Emily!!!

Emily blogs about Freedom of the Press

While I was surfing through the blogs of my classmates I stumbled upon an entry that Emily wrote. She wrote a beautiful post abut the beginning  of free press. She wrote about how John Zenger was the person who introduced freedom of the press to the world. Zenger published a newspaper that slandered the government saying that its corrupt. The governor was angry so  he wanted Zenger arrested, but the judge did not take his side. The judge decided that the truth is the ultimate defense.
     This is what the foundation of journalism is built on, the truth. Without journalists to report the truth we would not have all the rights that we are entitled to today. We couldn't just write a blog talking bad about people and broadcasting the truth to the entire world. Without freedom of press we would be controlled on all of the things that we write and say about people. Emily did a great job explaining all of this and talking about how America is the nation that introduced this incredible right  to the rest of the world. Maybe one day in the near future all countries will give the people a voice.
emilyjounalism1.blogspot.com

Trial of John Peter Zenger

Kitty's Thoughts About the Photographers of 9/11 

Kitty wrote on her blog her thoughts about the photographers of 9/11. She said that this is the event that showed a whole different side to these people, and I wholeheartedly agree with her. Without these photos to remember this horrid event I don't think that this event would have been remembered in the future without these exquisite works of art to help people remember.
      To think that these photographers risked their lives to capture such an important piece of history shows a lot about journalists. It shows that they are willing to face death to get the truth and to report it. It also says that these reporters are loyal to their audience. They wanted to capture these moments so that people can remember this tragety.  Even though these photojournalists didn't physically save lives that day they will always be seen as heroes for their bravery to capture the truth.

 http://ikonxx.blogspot.com/

9/11 photo by Thomas E. Franklin

Newspapers

Newspapers; Why are You Still Around?

If your between the age 13 - 29 then you probably don't get the newspaper. We had a lecture about newspapers a couple of weeks ago and it really made me understand why they are significant. I used to think that newspapers are just for elders that don't know how to use a computer. But my teacher explained why they are still important.
     First they are affordable which makes it easy for people who don't have Internet to know what's going on in the world. Second it has diverse content meaning that it has a little something for everyone in the family. Newspapers are also non linear meaning that you can skip all over the paper rather than reading it page to page which makes it convenient if you don't want to watch the news just to see a story at the very end of the show.
      The one I think is the most important is that it's tradition. Newspapers are part of history and people want to remember them. Aside from having award winning stories New York Times is still in business because it is part of American history and I think that newspapers aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Mass Communication

Did You Get It?

Our first lecture in journalism was about the definition of journalism. A if part of this definition has to do with mass communication. This is when your message has the potential to reach a mass audience, which all journalists want to do. We spent a good hour and a half talking about this but it didn't stop with just that one lecture. Mass communication is such a huge part of journalism that it comes up  in almost all of our discussions.

      There are two big things that define mass communication and I think that these are very important . One is that it is lost in time and space meaning that you can see it anytime you want which means you don't have to be there at that place or even in the same decade. With the biggest mass communication, meaning the Internet, we can go on YouTube and watch talk shows from the 90s or earlier. The other big thing is that you don't get immediate feedback. 

     I believe that it's very appropriate to talk about mass communication often. It is such a big part of what makes up a journalist. If we didn't have the potential to reach millions, even billions, of people then journalism would probably not be as big or as influential as it is today.

Mass Communication in the 21st century
Design bu DeDe Mulligan

Miss "Unamerican"

Miss "Unamerican"

Thursday of last week we had a current events quiz and one of the questions was about the newly crowned Miss America. It asked why people were so upset about her being crowned Miss America. This is what I found so angering. People said that because she is from Indian decent that she is unfit to represent America. Wake up people! This is the 21st century so why do we still have racisism in this country? 

      This country is supposed to be built on freedom and equality so why are people hating on this poor girl? After the pageant twitter was filled with a bunch of racist comments saying that  Miss America is Arab or that she is a terrorist. First of she is from India so there is a big chance she is Buddhist and second she was born in America so she is an American and therefore she is more than eligible to be Miss America.

    Aren't most people desended from all over the world? So what if she has a family tree that's more recent with people from another country than the other contestants. All that matters is that she was born in America and she is willing to represent the USA. It shouldn't matter if you have relatives from around the world all that matters is that this girl did her best and she won.

     I think that when we talked about this the teacher explained it appropriately and in great detail. This was a very interesting and different topic that we discussed. It shows that even though America has great things about it there are still some flaws and this huge event showed this.

Nina Davuluri
Photo by Maria  Vultaggio

Recordings

Recordings

Last week in journalism we had a through discussion about the history of recordings. I found it very surprising that something we use in our everyday lives and something that affects our lives so much was invented about 120 years ago. People use recordings to listen to music, send messages to loved ones or to learn a new language. Many think that invention is very old but this life changing device is merely a century old.

       Before the first recordings there was no way to get a message across to everyone. You had to be their to hear the message or you missed it. The same goes for music. Before recordings music was only heard from someone's mouth and as the song got passed around many of the lyrics or beats were changed. When Edison invented the first recording device in 1877 he made it mass communication meaning it had the potential to reach a mass audience. This is what made recordings so popular.

     During this lecture I learned a lot of new things. Before I used to think that this innovation was fairly old but it's not. I found it interesting that so many people use a form of this device everyday and they don't realize how it changed the world. Without this creation we would have no recorded music, or be able to spread information all over the world to make people see our ideas. We would not be as advanced in technology as we are today.  

      Overall I believe that this was a great and very insightful lecture. It made me see how people, me included, use everyday items that people take a long time to invent or perfect and we don't even know where they came from, and also how this recording invention came a long way. From being fragile and breaking easily to being able to last for years and years.