Keeping them Honest

An article recently posted at Suite101 posed an interesting question: How can media and news outlets report the truth when they depend on sponsors that keep them in business being happy?

The point is that any news organization's decision regarding what stories to run or who to investigate will take into account how those investigations or stories might affect the groups giving them millions of dollars.

This is especially true in a modern setting when print media needs every bit of revenue anyone will throw at it. Organizations can no longer just decide to drop a sponsor for the sake of reporting the truth.

Because of all this financial pressure companies are able to do more than just keep the media from covering something: it can actually dictate what the media covers. This whole situation is even more complicated because of the wide outreach many conglomerates have, one large company really controlling dozens of others that have a wide range of interests and ventures.

The question is how can journalists still maintain a commitment to the truth with all of these outside influences "pressuring" them to say one thing or another? Without a significant change in the nature of journalism, the best anyone can hope for now is that no one is corrupt and that a PR-damaging story doesn't surface about someone barely related to a sponsor.

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Taking Care Of Business

With the sun shining and the busy time of finals approaching, many college students are feeling a lack of time to complete everything.

However, if a student wants to receive good grades for the end of the term, he/she must decide to prioritize what is most important to get accomplishments completed. With teachers piling on the papers, tests, stories, and quizzes, many students feel overwhelmed and unable to accomplish these goals.

Journalist students are not allowed many opportunities to get off track. To be involved in journalism, a person is constantly reporting, advertising, and researching for the next story he/she will deliver. How can a person maintain his/her focus consistent.

One good tip for students is to take advantage of writing lists. Lists benefit journalist students especially because writing a list of daily plans, homework, and meetings is a great way helping to manage his/her time. Seeing a schedule planned out for when there is free time to study or relax helps students know when to fit homework and other events in.

Another good tip is to not cram everything in at once. Whether it's allowing time to go for a run to clear the mind or watching a television show, taking small breaks in between tasks allows a person to tackle assignments with fresh eyes and a clear head.

One last tip is to remember to get enough sleep at night. Although it's the end of the year and people want to spend time with classmates, getting the right amount of sleep at night allows students to feel alert and more energetic throughout long days rather than simply going through the motions.

While receiving a lot of pressure from teachers, coaches, parents, and peers, students must remember that staying calm and balancing time evenly is the best solution to helping stay focused.

Although a person may feel frustrated, panic can take over a person's life and put him/her under additional unneeded stress.

Finishing the school year off with good grades and completed tasks can allow a person to feel great. Living a healthy lifestyle of rest and maintaining focus can allow a person to prevent stress.

So whenever you're feeling down in the dumps and like it's impossible to finish, always remember to take a deep breath and smile.

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Five Myths about the Future of Journalism

Online news consumption is becoming more popular through technological advances. There has been major talk amongst individuals about the future of journalism.

A major issue we face is what information is true and what is false. Below, are five myths that have been discussed amongst the journalism world.

1.Traditional views of media are losing audience

- This is not true because individuals are consuming the same traditional newspaper providers. The only change is that they are consuming the information online instead of through the source of a newspaper.

2.Online news will be okay as soon as advertising catches up

- Online advertising received the most profit last year. The problem with this is that the money doesn't go to the news industry or journalists, it pays the search engines.

3.Content will always be the winner

- It has been common in the past for a newspaper who has given the public the most current information is naturally the most popular. Since technology is on the rise the demographics of individuals are becoming more popular.

By the use of demographics, technology can determine what consumers are interested in through the way they access the web. Certain products can be determined based on the websites that consumers visit.

4.Newspapers around the world are declining

- Increased literacy rates are increasing newspaper consumption. Countries such as Egypt and Lebanon are facing higher newspaper consumption due to more literate people.

5.The solution is to focus on local news

- Local advertising companies are not putting their information online which means that newspapers can't generate revenue from this source. Another influence is the significantly low amount of dollars local newspapers generate.

Online media is becoming more popular, but this does not mean that journalism is going to becoming insignificant. The news industry still needs journalists to go out there and supply the public with a good story, whether it is online or through a hand copy of the newspaper.

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Manage Your Social Media

Social Media plays a vital role in our lives today along with e-commerce businesses. Managing one social media account can be a full-time job let alone managing multiple social media pages.

However, there are services that can help you manage all of your social media on one site.

HootSuite is a site that lets you update Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and WordPress. It allows you to schedule posts, and it keeps track of your visitors. HootSuite is perfect for larger companies.

TweetDeck is an app that allows you to update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and Foursquare. It makes all of your contacts available from each social network. Scheduling posts is another benefit of TweetDeck.

One great site for small businesses with social networks is Ping.fm. It's a site that can run 30 social networks including: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and Foursquare. You are able to schedule posts and update your social media accounts.

Scheduling posts is one thing that is common among these three sites. People seem to enjoy that benefit of these sites. With how busy people are these days it comes in handy to be able to schedule your updates.

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