Religion, politics, and the media

By: Katie Anthony

Everyone knows that in the election, religious affiliation was a strong deciding factor with many voters.

However I for one, did not realize how much of the media focus was on Barack Obama.

Overall, 53 percent of the total religion covered was spent on Barack Obama's affiliation-and pathetically enough, most of that number was spent covering the affiliation that isn't true.

John McCain and Sarah Palin combined only got a total of less than thirty percent.

President-elect Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim, and it saddens me to think about how much air time was wasted on false information and petty rumors.

And yet, perhaps that's what the media will focus on now-false information and petty rumors over certain candidates religious affiliations.

I think they could find something of a stronger benefit to fill that airspace with.

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Who is writing what now?

By Liz Tjaden


To celebrate our Public Relations week before break, who better to recognize for her efforts than Angelina Jolie.

As she often appears in the spot light of celebrity gossip for a new movie role, philanthropy work, or news of another pregnancy, Jolie is shown in a typically positive light. (Disregard the years she was making out with her brother.)

In PR, the most important rule is to never lie. Turning bad situations into positive ones is a goal, but lying will only make things worse.

From adoption and giving birth, Jolie and husband Brad Pitt currently have six children. As the NY Times reports, Jolie and Pitt negotiated almost $14 million with People magazine this summer with pictures of their newborn twins.

Oh and...they also wanted to oversee the journalistic aspect of what was printed about them and their family.

The ethics of this deal is something for an entire different blog. Looking at only the journalistic aspect, who is now writing our news?

Obviously, nothing incredibly dire pertaining to our everyday lives comes from celebrities or can be found in People but it still puts a damper on the whole “hard working journalist” thing.
Who needs us around if we throw people a pad and pencil and tell them to write their own damn news?

It’s just sad that this is what it is coming to: needing to sell magazines rather than report the news.

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Write it right

By: Erin Floro

 

Editing, proofreading, spellchecking are each important tasks when journaling. 

 

A spokeswoman for the city of Des Moines, Amelia Hamilton-Morris, was reminded of this last week.  She sent a press release to several dozen media types using a misspelled word.  When referring to a dam on the Des Moines River, she called it a damn. 

 

She quickly sent an apology for the oversight.  This just reminds us again the importance of looking over your work.  Even in a professional setting, mistakes happen.

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Exanding growth in hard times

By: Lexie Hagerty

BusinessWeek reported that Facebook is continuing to push growth even with the economic downturn.

This strategy seems ligitimate, but differs from other social networks like Myspace. The article said that Myspace has "dialed back on growth to focus on profits."

Facebook, on the other hand, is making small changes to fuel growth in order to gain ground on their competition.

I am not sure how I feel about this. I think it is great that they are taking risks, but it isn't probably all that smart.

However, Facebook said that they have quite a bit of income that they can risk losing in order to grow. In that case, it is their money and any risks they want to take is their choice.

Who knows, it might turn out to be a really good decision.

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