April 2011
3 posts
What is journalism? What is a journalist?
At the beginning of the semester, I had a basic view of journalism as a whole. I was initially planning on applying for the Print Journalism program and after working on my high school’s newspaper, I was definitely biased towards the print media. However, while taking this class, the assignment to read the New York Times opened my eyes to how much news I have actually always been getting...
Engagement and Relevance
I believe journalists should give people what the need to know, not what they want. Someone in the class said that we all thought that because we’re idealists, which I completely agree with. If we were going to give most people what they wanted, the headlines would always be entertainment journalism - Charlie Sheen gets booed on tour...
Comprehensive and Proportional
I think the most important thing about this section was the targeted demographics. It’s an easy trap to fall into because it’s so similar to marketing. I fit into a couple targeted demographics. Woman, Mormon (or religious) and very decided on one side of the political spectrum. It’s easy for me to just go to the sources that will support what I already believe in but...
March 2011
6 posts
Faith and Journalism
When I think of faith in the media, I think of movies like The Invention of Lying or Saved or tv shows like Big Love. It’s easy to mock other people’s beliefs (such as in the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umLUKBlpyoY) through a fictional story but in the news we must stick to the facts. I also think it’s important for journalism to adhere to the separation of church and...
Journalism as a Public Forum
Before journalism was published, printed, and broadcast, it started as a public forum. The power of the people’s voice. It is still used today in journalism because the public’s opinion matters. However, it’s hard to tell that there are people in the country that are moderate because the type of person that participates in news call-ins are normally the ones with the very, very...
Ethics in Journalism
When I was writing for my high school newspaper, I honestly did kind of struggle with the ethics aspect of journalism. It wasn’t something that necessarily worried me because it wasn’t a national paper that everyone would read; in fact, most of the students in my high school didn’t read it. So I started off by just quoting my friends. And then I started gearing my questions...
Watchdog Journalism
I think the highlight or peak of Watchdog Journalism was the leak of the Watergate scandal. It’s the reason a lot of journalists get interested in journalism in the first place. I found out the other day that Woodward and Bernstein were actually not even assigned to the White House when they started investigating. They were assigned to the Metro beat. Which just goes to show how innovative...
Journalist as an Idealogue
This chapter seems to me to be questioning what makes a story news and what motivates journalists to publish it.
Unfortunately, one aspect that is not really a “value” but is covered quite frequently, is entertainment journalism. Recently, the craziness of Charlie Sheen has been covered and in this article proves that more and more people are covering it because people are more...
Independence and Journalism
Most of my blog entries always relate back to the West Wing because that show is 7 seasons long and I just finished watching all of it within 2 months. But it’s still relevant. The West Wing depicts a fictional presidency with very real problems. The Press Secretary is often shown briefing the press in the briefing room, shown in this video (link).
After this group’s presentation, it...
February 2011
2 posts
Loyalty/Journalism as a Profession
I think everyone can agree that a journalist’s loyalty lies with the citizens. It is part of the definition of “journalism.” To report the all of the news truthfully for the sake of the citizens, so that they can be aware of what’s going on around them. If journalists were reporting the news for their bosses or their advertisers, the news would be skewed. When the riots in...
Truth in Journalism
I believe that the public has a right to know anything that journalists might know concerning public safety. For example, I was recently watching an episode of West Wing (yeah, I know) and they were debating whether or not they should tell the public about the President’s case of relapsing/remitting MS that he had not disclosed before he was elected. It was obviously a parallel to President...
January 2011
1 post
What is Journalism?
A good journalist participates in timely investigative reporting and the unbiased presentation of important events and issues to keep the public informed. Journalism means covering every story and uncovering every hidden detail. True, “hard-hitting” journalism is uncovering an important story before anyone else. Although that definition of journalism has relatively stayed the same over...