The News About The News

MLB's Media Dress Code

2011-12-07T15:31:00.001-08:00

No closed-toe shoes, no pants, no reporting.

According to ESPN W, Major League Baseball released a what not to wear list for reporters. Banned clothing includes visible undergarments, flip flops, muscle shirts, short skirts, tank tops or anything with a team logo.

It is a shame that the MLB had to take actions into its own hands. This dress code shouldn't be necessary.

If any of the banned items were worn in the office, the employee wearing said clothing would be considered unprofessional and in need of changing room. Just because journalists are on the sidelines or at a training camp doesn't mean that they can let professionalism stop at the cubicle.

Real world reporting may have a more relaxed look to it, but journalists are still on the clock. Their attire should reflect their professionalism.

Photo by Paleontour

Tabloid Journalism is Contagious

2011-12-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

Video Blog 2

New Campaign Coverage

2011-12-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

Presidential campaign coverage may look a little different here in 2011 and into 2012 than it has in previous elections. An article on Mashable reports that more Republican candidates are reaching out through media outlets, specifically social media, instead of appearing in public town halls and other campaigns.

The Des Moines Register shows that the appearances in Iowa by GOP candidates is low and that is affecting how local journalists can stay on top of coverage. Iowa, being the first state to caucus, is usually heavily targeted by candidates because of the implications that Iowa's vote has on the rest of the caucuses and primaries.

Kathie Obradovich, the Register's political columnist, says "It's hard to find candidates interacting with voters in a real natural way." She has been covering presidential campaigns for 15 years, and says that campaign tactics have recently changed from town hall gatherings to Twitter.

Journalists have to react to this change and take advantage of the immediacy that Twitter and other social media sites provide. Additionally, Twitter forums allow for participation and questions from readers. Obradovich, for example, has begun live tweeting campaign events.

With the changing platforms for news outlets, journalists need to make sure that they react quickly and use these platforms to their upmost potential.

article via: http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/in_iowa_covering_a_new_breed_o.php

photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Reporter Breaks Embargo with Sony

2011-12-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

A film critic for the New Yorker, David Denby, recently broke an embargo with Sony Pictures after previewing their new movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Denby had agreed not to run his review until December 13 but, went back on his word and published it his magazine's December 5 issue.

While an embargo is often worth the paper it is written on, which it isn't, it comes down to honoring your word as a journalist.

I highly disagree with Denby's and the New Yorker's decision to run the review as it is a clear use of deception to gain access to journalistic information before their peers.

They site that there will be a lack of space available in the magazine due to the amount of "important" movies coming out through the end of the year.

What important movies? I'm sure they're talking about Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked or We Bought a Zoo, right?

Denby needs to face fact; he lied in order to prescreen a movie and violated an embargo in order to be first to publish.

In my eyes he has lost credibility in the journalistic world an it will be a while before he gains that trust back.

Words are not just Words

2011-12-06T20:01:00.000-08:00

The FBI is moving to redefine the word rape. Currently is it defined as a female forced to engage in sexual activity.

Female activists feel this is way over due because it has not been updated since 1929.

Due to this, there are many unreported cases of rape.

The FBI has moved to make the new definition "penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

The new definition now accepts that not only women can be raped, not always forcible, rape by relatives and now non-vaginal/ penile rape.

Also this now allows more arrests of offenders than before.

Why a Newspaper should Promote Itself

2011-12-06T19:59:00.001-08:00

The newspaper is a business, and this must not be forgotten. Their priority, first and foremost, is to sell papers and turn a profit. If a news organization cannot do this much, then it is just a matter of time before that company done.

With this in mind it is a bit of a surprise to me that the newspaper spends so little on advertising, it is a product after all. Just like any product, people will not buy it unless they feel a need to, so why are newspaper companies holding back.

An article on Mashable points out that on average, newspapers spend less than 1 percent on advertising, which is interesting in comparison to the 14 percent Coca-cola spends. Coco-cola is on peoples minds, and in their hand because they take the time and money to promote.

Keeping this in mind, it is no wonder the print newspaper is dying. People are simply forgetting about it. If a newspaper is not willing to spend some money to promote itself then how can they expect people to be drawn to reading it.

Newspapers need to spend a little more money on their advertising in order to remind people why they are still important.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket

The Dreaded Words: "Talk About"

2011-12-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Many of the questions reporters ask to professional athletes after a game are asked to get an answer that will make a headline.

Today's post-game interviews consist of a room full of reporters and camera men all asking different questions, one right after another, to an athlete or coach.

No conversations are held during interviews anymore because after one question is asked, the next topic is brought up by another reporter.

The lack of knowledge reporters gain from these types of interviews is small, so what happens is a quote can be taken out of context and sound negative when it was actually not.

"It's a headline-driven world, and what I said provided a headline," said Tennessee Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "That's why I'm guarded, cautious. I don't want to accidentally give bulletin-board material. If someone asks me about a player, I say, 'He's a great player.' If they ask me about a coach, I say, 'He's a great coach.'"

Other athletes have been saying the same things when it comes to interviews. They are going to be more boring and guarded with what they say in fear it will be turned around and used against them for a headline.

An article by Tim Keown of ESPN The Magazine discusses the new type of interviewing.

"For better or worse, the post-interview age has created a generation of athletes who are overcovered but underreported," Keown said. "In the end, perhaps this much is true: If nobody asks any questions beyond the obvious, maybe nobody needs to ask anything at all. We see more and know less."

People are gaining more information from these types of interviews, but it sometimes can be inaccurate when taken out of context.

Photo- http://arkencounter.com/blog/2010/12/08/announcement-draws-international-attention/

Plagarism Occurs More Than We Think

2011-12-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

Angelina Jolie and the producers of her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” plagiarized the work of Croatian journalist and author Josip J. Knezevic to create the film’s screenplay, Knezevic claims in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

As the Chicago Times brings up a good point about plagarism, I think plagarism happens more than we think or want to beleive. Students, teachers, employees copy and paste everyday without citing. People, including me, don't think copying a simple sentence, picture, or short article is a big issue.

However, a simple act as we like to think, can cause huge lawsuits which can damage peoples reputation. Jolie did this same mistake. According to Chicago Times this movie will show only little clips of the movie and with rack in few cash as well.

The sad thing about this lawsuit towards Jolie is that plagarism happens very often and very frequent with famous and non-famous people. With Jolie being famous it caused more attention and more feedback on this lawsuit than anyother person.

I don't see this lawsuit ruining Jolie's future or acting career but I could see it putting a negative view on her as a person until this is all out of the media. Chicago Times article on Jolie did a fairly good job on showing Jolie as a positive role model still and not blowing the whole lawsuit out of portion.

Plagarism is something that more people should take seriously. The charges, fines, and lawsuits can become out of portion. Jolie unfortunately is in the media more than she would want because of acting in a moving which involves plagarism.

Overall, I see this article becoming less and less important to the media. Jolie will still be a successful actress and viewed in a positive manner to most people.

Videoblog #2

2011-12-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Over Ran With Advertisements

2011-12-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

CNN, Mashable, National Geographic, Forbes, and many others have been dubbed distracting websites that are flooded with advertisements that hide the actual content of the sites.

This causes the website to become very busy and discourages the reader to 'find' the actual content of the site to read. Plus these advertisements could cause problems such as constant pop ups on the readers computer.

I feel a little disheartened with this situation and believe that major news sites are only focused on one thing, money. If they really cared about the reader's thirst for news, they wouldn't have so many advertisements trying to seek revenue with every click of the reader.

works cited: www.poynter.org ; www.creativecommons.org

Televisions in the Courts

2011-12-06T17:06:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Courts are modeling themselves after Great Britain and Canadian courts: They may being broadcasting Supreme Court hearings.

Sen. Richard Grassley (R. - Iowa) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D. - Ill.) introduced of the Cameras in the Courtroom Act of 2011 have fired up a debate about the potential effects of television Supreme Court hearings.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D. – Minn.) opened the discussion by stating citizens have “the right to see how the court functions, and to see its rulings” because “democracy must be open.”

On the other side of the argument, Chief Judge Anthony Scirica of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, was reluctant to allow cameras into the federal courts. “Co-equal branches of federal government have long-respected each other’s authority to govern itself.” The Supreme Court already is “transparent,” he argued.

If cameras are allowed to capture the Supreme Court hearings, the public would have complete access to the rulings and be able to gain a better understanding of how the courts come to their final rulings. This may allow citizens to gain a greater trust in the courts.

Five Ways To Read The Paper And Keep Your Sanity Intact

2011-12-06T07:47:00.000-08:00

Today's newspapers are filled with negative articles. Huffington Post lays out five ways to read the paper and crack a smile while reading some depressing articles.

First method is to read the headline and add naked at the end of it. This allows readers just to smile.

Second method the foreign press, which is reading the newspaper backwards. In doing this readers stay away from the more depressing articles up front in the newspapers.

The escapist method is basically taking the newspaper and turning it into modern art.

The Jon Stewart Method is pretending to write for the Daily Show. This method is to joke around with the news to lighten the mood of the article.

The last method is the hamster, which is using the newspapers as a way to catch the droppings in its cage.

These methods show that the newspaper is dieing and becoming boring. The newspaper is boring and these methods are trying to lighten the mood of the depressing news.

Warren Buffet Plans To Buy Omaha Paper

2011-12-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

Warren Buffet Plans to Buy Omaha Paper

2011-12-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

For years The Omaha-World Herald has been a employee owned paper. However Omaha native and billionaire Warren Buffet and his company Berkshire Hathaway are purchasing the paper.

Buffet told his shareholders two years ago not to buy newspapers because they face a possibility of unending losses. However Buffet believes that the World-Herald is doing it's job reporting to the community. In a meeting with with the company shareholders Buffet said, "I wouldn't do this if I thought it was doomed to some sort of extinction."

Buffet is offering the World-Herald $200 million for the paper. The final decision will be made by a vote by 275 employees and retirees who own World-Herald Stock.

The World Herald is excited about this. They believe that by being locally owned they will be able to continue great journalism.

One point that may come as a concern and has some employees skeptical is that Buffet may try to influence the news coverage, especially that about Berkshire Hathaway. With this as a concern the World-Herald is confident that he will not try to influence what is in the paper.

The New Town Hall

2011-12-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

Michele Bachmann speaking to voters in Indianola, Iowa this past summer.

Social media has set a very different tone in the world, impacting numerous things- one of them being presidential campaigns. The Columbia Journalism Review reports that journalists, especially Iowan journalists in the caucus state, are being challenged by less and less personal access to candidates and are dealing with campaigns releasing the same amount of information to everyone. In past years, candidates held town forums, where local journalists and townspeople could go and listen to their arguments and policies concerning the presidency. Now, with the popularity of Twitter, news and announcements are so instantaneous that candidates have apparently felt little need to build grassroots campaigns from the ground up in Iowa.

One tricky side effect sneaking up on journalists is the retweet. Such widespread campaigning with little variety from state to state leads to retweets of candidates, or even competitors. Other uses of Twitter include livetweeting candidate's speeches during the event.

Twitter has definitely made an impact in the political bubble. Journalists need to be much more aware if what they are covering is real news or not. Losing personal addresses from candidates to voters should not fade away because of what technology has brought, but should instead be enhanced by the new technology.

Photo credit/Kate Hayden

MuckRack.com

2011-12-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

"Thousands of journalists are using Twitter to research stories, break news, find sources, and keep tabs on their beat...Don't be left out of the conversation."

This is the tagline for the website muckrack.com, a site founded by Gregory Galant in 2009.

By developing this website, Galant hoped to answer the question, "What if you could get tomorrow's newspaper today?"

This website tracks thousand of professional journalists on Twitter and other social media sites and shows what news topics are trending.

This is a very useful tool for media professionals, particularly those in public relations.

The website filters and analyzes how journalists are covering the news in real-time and emails users when journalists tweet about relevant terms.

So for example on Dec. 3, the top topics most tweeted about by journalists were the death of news sportswriter Allen Wilson, the New York Times' interview with Sandusky, and Herman Cain.

For each topic, it gives a little paragraph description and than the tweets by journalists about the topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-5HDZUrh54

You Are What You Read

2011-11-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

"'Facebook Friend #384' read 'My Parents Turned Down Harry Potter Role: Daniel Radcliffe' on Washington Post Social Reader"

"'Facebook Friend #1276' read 'The World Mourns the Death of Dippin' Dots' on Yahoo!"

You may have seen similar postings to these popping up on your Facebook News Feed over the past couple of months. And, if you have lots of current events gurus as friends, you might be getting a little annoyed at seeing everything they read.

However, according to Facebook, this "frictionless sharing" is helping news organizations reach many new readers.

Jeff Sonderman from Poynter.com shares some lessons that Facebook and news organizations have learned since implementing these news apps in September.

First, early statistics show that these "frictionless sharing" apps have increased traffic to news sites from Facebook referrals. Yahoo News has 10 million app users on Facebook and its referrals from the social media site have increased 600 percent. The Washington Post and The Guardian are also seeing strong success with 3.5 and 4 million monthly users respectively.

Second, the struggle with finding young readers may be decreasing. According to Facebook, 83 percent of Social Reader users are 35 years or younger. This is good news to news organizations as they are appealing to a wider range of people.

Last, while no one seems to know Facebook's tricky algorithm for deciding which stories appear in one's News Feed, one thing is for certain: the open graph apps appear heavily within the News Feed, meaning that your friend's reading habits are consistently available.

Despite some criticism and leeriness over the inclusion of news reading on Facebook, I think that this is a great thing for news organizations as it is pulling in a wide variety of people to their website. Whether they read just one article or are drawn to the entire website, people that were getting no news before are receiving news via their social media habits.

We gain opinions and reccommendations from those in our sphere of influence and this is another way to help us decide what to read or what we may find interesting.

Or, you could just judge your friends on their own reading habits. As they (don't) say, you are what you read!

Pulitzers to be All Digital

2011-11-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

The Pulitzer Prize Board has announced it is requiring all submissions to be digital starting in 2012.

According to a press release from the Pulitzer Board they have also made changes to their Breaking News category.

They are focusing more on the real-time reporting of breaking news, which appears to deal with how a journalist uses social media to report a story.

It is nice to see the Pulitzer Board call attention to the proper, accurate and timely use of social mediums in reporting

Hopefully the Pulitzer Board's redefining of "Breaking News" affects more than just those submitting for a Pulitzer Prize.

It is really easy to hold the elite to this new standard but, it will show its true worth if everyone begins to adhere to it.

Photo courtesy of PhotoBucket

Unethical Journalist is Arrested

2011-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

Another person who participated in the News of the World's phone-hacking scandals, Bethany Usher, was recently arrested for participation in the phone hacking.

She was the the 17th person to be arrested since 'Operation Weeting'--the investigation into phone hacking--was set up this past January.

After the recent closing of the News of the World magazinr many people were made aware of the tragic murder of Milly Dowler, as well as the unethical way in which all journalists involved in the phone hackings operated.

Dowler disappeared in February of 2002, but her remains were not found until September of that year largely due to a belief that she was still alive. It was believed that she was alive because of the News of the World's hacking into her phone's voicemail, publishing the messages, and deleting them afterwards.

It was great to hear that her killer had been brought to justice, but, it is also good to know that those journalists who behaved so unethically are also being held accountable. I fully support 'Operation Weeting' and its efforts to remedy the phone hackings.

Paying for Information

2011-11-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

Recently, Nick Davies of The Guardian admitted to paying child prostitutes for information for one of his articles.

Davies claimed in a testimony before a U.K. Parlimentary committee, "I [paid them] for two reasons – first that I thought it was better for them to earn the money by talking to me than by allowing somebody to sexually abuse them; second that it seemed fair to them, if i was depriving them of ‘working time,’ that I should compensate them for their loss."

Even though Davies is writing on a very touchy topic is it ethical in any way to pay your sources for their time? If Davies hadn't paid the children to talk, would any of them spoken out to a reporter? Or would Davies's article consisted of facts, not first-hand stories, about the horrors of child prostitution?

A newspaper or reporter paying sources for information is known as checkbook journalism. According to the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the practice of checkbook journalism is unethical, wrong, and should not be used in any situation.

No News is Better Than Fox News

2011-11-29T22:22:00.000-08:00

Citizens who read no news are more informed than those who view Fox News.

The Huffington Post reported on poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University. The results revealed that Fox viewers aren't informed about the government stability in the Middle East.

Also, the University of Maryland conducted a study last year "found that Fox News viewers were more likely to believe false information about politics".

The function of the media is to be a watchdog, inform the public, and remain objective. Clearly, Fox News is can't juggle all of these functions.

Fox drops its first ball with not informing the public on current events. Perhaps too much time is devoted to other programming, such as political analysis, because a majority of viewers couldn't answer questions about political unrest in Egypt and Syria.

Remaining objective is another short fall for Fox. Viewers need to rewire their brains after Fox exposure because they are more likely to believe false political information.

Although Fairleigh Dickinson's pollsters point out that this poll had less to do with political biases and agendas and more to do with quality of programming.

Misinformation is dangerous. It makes the reader seem ignorant and the reporter mediocre.

Photo by sousa919

The Rack is Back

2011-11-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

For a long time citizens were not able to purchase news papers from news racks at Raleigh-Druham International Airport. After taking legal action for six years they are now back in the airpot and people are now able to buy the New York Times, USA Today, and News and Observer.

These newspapers sued the airport after they only allowed papers to be sold in the airport stores back in 2004. In 2008 U.S. Judge Terrance Boyle ruled the band of news stands unconstitutional. In an article with Poynter Institute Boyle said the ban on news stands will take away informed citizenry which is the heart of our democracy.

The airpot tried to appeal the judges ruling but were unsuccessful. The reason the airport wanted to ban the news boxes was because they thought that it would create competition for the airport shops, cause more traffic, and even pose a security risk.

The newspaper companies now have to pay a rent of $12.50 to have their boxes there. Airport representative Jim Tatum says that everyone has come to an agreement that will work out for everyone and make them happy.

Vlog 2 NATN Newspaper Advertising

2011-11-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Keeping the Old and Ignoring the New?

2011-11-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

News websites have been making an interesting discovery when it comes to their website's news. They are seeing that there is remarkable strong traffic towards older stories than their newer stories...this is bringing up the question: Is it really important for News to be new News?

What appears to be happening is that one person would read a weird story and it would automatically link the story that they had read to his or her facebook wall. This could lead to his or her friend's reading it and then it would be automatically linked to their facebook wall as well. Leading in an unending cycle of sharing this media. It is very unlikely that the readers know that this story is an older one, or perhaps they really don't care. After all some people tend to generally look at it this way,a good story is a good story as long as it's new to you.

I believe that this is an interesting story and it does show some of the things that I agree with. I don't mind if a story is perhaps even a few years old when I read it. As long as I haven't read it before and it perks up my attention, I have no issue with reading it. Its more for amusement and the 'Wow' factor really.

works sited: creativecommons.org ; poynter.org

What Does Christmas Mean?

2011-11-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

Black Friday draws huge crowds, greedy people, and bargain shoppers. According to Amazon, online sales in 2010 were raised only 9 percent and this year a whole 26 percent online sales were raised.

People are becoming more reliable on online purchases because it’s fast,easy, and convenient. Online sales have steadily increases and will continue to grow if stores continue to have bargains online as well as in the store.

Dale Hudson, Nevada Reporter, stated that 50 million people flocked in and out of stores on Black Friday in Nevada. Top four stores that received the most sale increase from most to least was Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Apple.

Is standing in line for 5 hours waiting to get in the store, waiting to check out for 2 hours, and losing 8 hours of sleep really worth it? Most people would said yes according to Hudson’s report on Black Friday. People live to save $2 dollars on almost all purchases anymore. A sense of accomplishment comes from Black Friday.

We should forget the presents, stop with the greed, and drop the Santa image. We should all stop and think what Christmas really means. Does Christmas mean spending $5,000 and being greedy towards others? People go overboard on Christmas shopping and overboard on greed.

Black Friday is becoming a holiday that destroys the image of Christmas. Should standing in line for over and hour and becoming greedy really what Christmas should be all about? No! We should all take the time to be with family, do a kind act, and donate to the Salvation Army or charity.

Lying A$$ Bit?h

2011-11-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

Faulty Study Left Uncorrected

2011-11-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

It's hard to admit you made a mistake. Daniel Klein, an economics professor at George Mason University, can tell you that, but he can also tell you how to move past it. Klein wrote an opinion column over a year ago saying that liberals score much lower than conservatives on a test over basic economics, according to his newest study. He published his column in the Wall Street Journal, which headlined: "Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader? Self-indentified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics".
Klein later took a second look at his data and concluded that his questions were loaded, or followed what he termed the "myside bias"- human's tendency to judge an argument based off of how closely it fits to their standard political views. Klein recently recanted his earlier findings and published the new results- but not in the Wall Street Journal. The Columbia Journalism Review emailed Klein asking why the new column appeared in the Atlantic instead of WSJ, and he responded that they had "declined the idea of a follow-up".

But shouldn't that be considered irresponsible journalism? The well-respected journal now has full knowledge that it ran an erroneous article, and the author is stepping up of his own free will to correct his past mistake. For the Wall Street Journal to decline the corrections is a loss of responsibility to their readers, some of which will never see the corrections simply because they don't read the Atlantic. The editors need to swallow their pride and put their reader's needs first.

Photo credit/creativecommons.org

Reporting Mortgage Fraud

2011-11-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

A local Las Vegas television station tackles mortgage fraud in the area.

There are many ways that television stations try to improve their ratings like Poynter stats, topless reporting to voice analysis, but KLAS is covering mortgage fraud in the city.

In the article, link here, journalist found that the mortgage crisis was the worst of all the reporting.

The journalist investigated the Clark County property records and found that the foreclosure papers were being robo signed or signing with a single notary.

In doing this many residents of the area that did this have problems with their titles when fore closing.

Journalist that bring this information to the people is a great way to bring up the ratings because the residence can trust the information that is being past on.

This is a great example of how journalism can help the viewers out by informing them on what is going on in the community and what they can do to fix the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=har6vZgb_sI

Social Media and Female Harassment

2011-11-27T10:43:00.001-08:00

For years women have had to overcome certain hurdles. With the growing integration of social media in the world of journalism, female journalists have a new hurdle to leap over.

An article on Poynter discusses the increases harassment women have seen through social media outlets. Sexual comments and sometimes worse are being thrown around. This usually occurs when a woman reports on mainly male field of interest like politics or sports. Apparently men feel the need to rudely assert their dominance.

This issue doesn't disappear after shutting down the computer. These online posts, sometimes lead to off-line fears.

So, basically, all women journalists must immediately get off Facebook and Twitter, lock themselves in their room and pray for safety. No.

There are some precautionary measure that can be taken, as mentioned in the article on Poynter.

One women keeps personal information that she puts online to a minimum. Also, she waits until she leaves a location to check in on Foursquare, never tweets about the hotels she stays in. It is also very common to have a professional Facebook page.

Women must take control of the situation, and let all viewers know they need and want to be taken seriously. Clearly people are going to do what they want and that may be to harass women, but hopefully this doesn't scare the world of female journalists offline.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket

Reporter Goes Topless for Story

2011-11-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

While covering a story about a naked drunk driver involved in a high speed chase, WOIO reporter Paul Orlousky appears topless while recreating the drivers stunt.

Orlousky, a reporter for WOIO Action News in Cleveland, Ohio, went to the courthouse to try and get some answers from the woman who was arrested for drunk driving while wearing nothing but a thong.

At first Orlousky was confronted by the woman's lawyer who ended up swatting the video camera with her file folder.

Then after an attempt to get something from the drunk driver herself, Orlousky went topless.

In the video it shows Orlousky sitting in the car wondering why the woman would be almost completely naked while driving. The camera then zooms out to reveal he himself has no shirt on.

This could be an attempt to get more ratings for his station, or Orlousky thought humor was the best way to connect with the audience during this segment.

Many people commented on an article by Andrew Gauthier at TVSpy at mediabistro.com, showing their negative feelings toward the topless story, calling Orlousky biased and unprofessional.

Whatever the reason for Orlousky taking his shirt off was, it did bring in some additional viewers to the station to see this topless reporter in action.

Online Buzz for TV Shows

2011-11-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

A study by Optimedia US concludes that a television show's advance buzz doesn't predict its rating performance.

This study focused on five new shows: X-Factor, Playboy Club, New Girl, Whitney, and Charlie's Angels. The study measured Tweets, Facebook likes, Google searches, and Klout scores before the show premiered.

An increase in social media buzz reflects the network's marketing efforts and doesn't reflect how many people will actually tune in to watch.

Ad executives conclude that online buzz isn't a good predictor of which shows will be popular but measures how engaged people will be when watching shows.

Every show on television has a Twitter and Facebook. Many shows actually post their hashtag in the lower right hand corner of the television screen while the show is on so as to increase the online buzz.

The most affective way to promote a TV show with social media cites is to get viewers to Tweet or post a status on Facebook about the show while it is on. This will get more people to tune in if they see people they know and are following commenting on the show.

Citizen Journalism Provides Answers

2011-11-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIJzeH8PBs&feature=player_embedded

Police arrest journalists covering Occupiers

2011-11-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

When journalists go to work in the U.S., every day they know they might inadvertantly annoy or anger those who hold public office or employment. However, this is America- we hold expectations that journalists have the right to freely gather and distribute information to the general public. Lately, in the name of "protection", as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg charactized it, journalists have been dealing with serious obstacles.

According to the First Amendment Center, on November 15 over a dozen journalists were arrested while covering the overnight raid of Occupy Wall Street's encampment, and many more were kept at a distance from the developing story. Julie Walker, a freelance radio journalist working for National Public Radio, was arrested for disorderly conduct while walking a few blocks north of Zucotti Park. She said the officer grabbed her arm twice, took her recorder and arrested her after she asked to know his name and badge number.

Why is the police force wasting time trying to block journalists from accessing an event of national interest? American foreign correspondents risk their lives travelling to many brutal dictatorships to cover protests, yet here in the American democracy journalists are arrested for their own "protection". City officials are protecting no one but themselves. It is a journalist's right to put themselves at risk for a story, and they are not in need of officials helicoptering over them. The American public deserves to know the story.

Scooping Where You Sleep

2011-11-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

Twitter is the ultimate instant news source.

Reporters have the ability to tweet from anywhere with cell reception or Internet access, and most put this on-the-go capability to use every day.

An article from Poynter. reported that because journalists were tweeting and updating statuses about being arrested at Occupy Wall Street. While this use of social media is effective, some critics argue that the arrested journalists actually scooped their own newsrooms.

Although an official statement was released by the journalists' newsroom denying that the employees' tweets scooped employers, there is an idea that other news sources could become obsolete.

The biggest (actually, shortest) obstacle for Twitter's takeover of breaking news is 140 characters long. Limited to 140 characters, Twitter is heavy with headlines but short on content.

For a quick news fix, Twitter should be the go-to; however, other media, such as print and online newspapers, television, and radio, are better equipped for whole articles and in-depth pieces.

Photo by Creative Commons

Video Blog

The News About The News: Too Much Bieber Fever

2011-11-20T12:34:00.000-08:00

The News About The News: Too Much Bieber Fever

The Internet is Not Permanent

2011-11-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

There has been recent concern about the speed of the internet, the promise of access to a vast amount of information, and a reliance on the internet and computers, and, that if these needs and expectations continue to increase there is a large possibility the the world system will crash.

In a recent article published by The New York Times, the founders of the company known as Arista Networks, discussed their uneasiness with the quick expansion of technology and speed of technology. The article discussed that people are now able to pour civilization online in the forms of Facebook posts, video chats, music, and so much more; and now just about all of this information is available via phone, tablets, etc. With so much information, business, and news conducted using the listed networks in the article, there is great danger in the loss of it all.

There have already been numerous recent occurances of networks shutting down for several hours to repair their networks--it has happened on too many occasions to count at Simpson College. One of the founders stated that Americans, as well as many others, think of the internet as a permanent thing that will always be there, simply because we rely so heavily on it; but, he makes it clear that the internet is not a certain resource. Furthermore, there is the risk of halting commerce, destroying financial records or enabling hostile attacks because nearly everything is conducted online.

I found this article extremely alarming because as we speak, I am using the internet to complete this blog. So much of the world's information and communication with one another, and other countries, is conducted through the internet. And, with the move of news from print to the internet, it is alarming to think that all communication with other countries, as well as being able to receive could come to a complete standstill from the crash of networks worldwide.

Premature Tweeting

2011-11-16T11:13:00.000-08:00

A recent article posted to Poynter.org brought to light that some news corporations are getting upset with journalists who use social media to report news to early.

The article focused on Brian Stelter's criticism of the Associate Press' guideline requiring its journalists not to break news before it reports it.

Stelter makes the point that the journalists shouldn't have to wait for their respective news outlets to publish news in order to report on it.

He criticizes that the wire should react faster and I couldn't agree more.

The news should be reported swiftly and accurately. If both these terms can be met there is no reason not to publish.

What appears to be the biggest concern with journalist publishing news before their employers is that it undermines the employer.

Big news argues that the journalists they employ are serving to promote their own brand instead of the companies.

However, they wouldn't have this problem if the news organization worked to publish quicker.

It would give the journalist a better chance to link to news sources and increase visitors to their websites and other pages.

Sandusky Who?

2011-11-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

Last week, dozens of Facebook status' clogged up my newsfeed spouting opinions on the Penn State scandal. "JoePa" was flowing off the tongues of people who had never watched a college football game before in their life.

As the indictment news of multiple Penn State employees was revealed, media outlets went wild and the stories poured out- Joe Paterno involved in sex scandal. Joe Paterno to retire at the end of the season. Joe Paterno fired.

Wait, legendary coach Paterno sexually abused multiple boys in the showers at Penn State? Not the case, but if you would have been watching ESPN or any other station covering the scandal last week, it would be easy to think just that.

In the seemingly nonstop coverage of the scandal, Paterno was at the helm. The actual villian here, Jerry Sandusky, was given an almost-free pass from the media.

Sandusky, former coach for the Nittany Lions, was the one who abused those eight boys over multiple years. Mike McQueary, assistant coach, was the one who witnessed Sandusky molesting a young boy in the Penn State showers. Paterno is the one who is getting all the blame.

Now, understand this, I am in absolutely NO way trivializing what happened here or saying that Paterno was in the right by not making sure that Sandusky was punished for his inexcusable actions. In my opinion, all three of these men should be fired and held accountable for their actions, but I don't believe that the media coverage is providing fair coverage.

I would be willing to bet that a significant amount of people thought that Paterno was the alleged assaulter.

If Paterno was not the legendary coach that he is, and was let's say someone like Iowa State's Gene Chizik, would we be getting this same sort of coverage? Would we be hearing more about the president of the college also being fired along with the coach? I'd like to think so.

We, and the media, need to remember that this is bigger than football and bigger than Paterno, no matter how prolific he may be.

Political Figures Reporting the News

2011-11-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

Recently, NBC News hired Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, as a full time correspondent who will be reporting "feel-good features."

Hiring this highly-politicized character seems to be a publicity stunt and an attempt to boost ratings. Many journalists find it ironic Clinton is being hired to report the news when she has showed the press the cold shoulder in the past, refusing to ever be interviewed.

Clinton has no reporting experience and this makes NBC's hiring of her look like an attempt to captivate audiences with the use of famous figures, not professionals, as their reporters.

Additionally, some question whether Clinton can be seen as a trustworthy news reporter. Since both of her parents are active political figures, how can she be seen to present the news without biases? Won't people always associate her views with those of her parents?

Even though Clinton cannot escape being linked to her political family members, her starting role as "journalist" will keep her away from hard-news and politics. Clinton will be covering the fluff stories.

Clinton is not the first person from a political family to enter the world of journalism. In 2009, Jenna Bush Hager, George W. Bush's daughter was hired to NBC as a reporter. Is getting these political figures worth potentially harming the credibility of the station? Or do these women have the potential to break away from their parents' legacies and create their own?

Twitter Engagement

2011-11-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

Journalists and news organizations primarily use Twitter to broadcast links, and they rarely ask for audience input or retweet others.

A study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism focused on tweets by top newspapers, broadcasters, websites, and individual journalists.

The key finding is that news organizations use Twitter in limited ways. The main use being linking to their own material.

Ninety-three percent of tweets by news organizations link to their own articles while just two percent asked for audience input, and just one percent where retweets.

Individual journalists had about the same percentage of links and retweets.

Fox News had the most audience interaction on Twitter with 21 percent of tweets seeking feedback and 44 percent retweets.

Fox also increased its followers the most rapidly, maybe because of their Twitter interaction approach.

The New York Times had the least amount of audience interaction on Twitter.

Amazon's Kindle Fire Takes Over Android

2011-11-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

As Christmas approaches everyone will be wanting the new Kindle Fire. Before even hitting the market, Amazon's Kindle Fire has captured the hearts of tech enthusiasts and the minds of software developers in a way that no Android tablet before it could.

Android Tablets have been pushed off the market by Kindle Fire in North America and now soon in Europe and Asia. Kindle Fire offers a feature for apps that tops off the Android. Kindle Fire apps need to be submitted to Amazon, not to Google, so if this trajectory continues, Google will lose control of its own mobile device.

As this new Kindle Fire sky rockets the market, people are always still concerned about the cost. When you purchase the Kindle Fire you will have no worries about the cost because Kindle Fire is only $199 and is the number one reason developers say it matters.

However, the Kindle Fire still has some concerns to its product. The Kindle Fire does not have GPS, high end perks, and is a little harder to operate than the Android Tablet. Overall though, the Kindle Fire will establish all the Android camps and take over the Google technology.

Kindle Fire will be at the top of most people's Christmas list. With the Christmas days approaching fastly, make that persons wish come true and go out and buy the best tablet in the world today.

A Biased Bruise or a Truthful Trauma?

2011-11-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

Bias and truth are in the eye of the beholder. Just ask Michele Bachmann.

According to an article by The Huffington Post, Bachmann's campaign team can prove CBS bias against the presidential hopeful. An email from a CBS employee was mistakenly sent to a member of her campaign team.

CBS pointed to Bachmann's low 4% in response to Bachmann's campaign team's accusations of bias. If a candidate is sitting at 4%, a debate moderator wouldn't need to ask the candidate many questions.

This follows the role of agenda setting. Americans haven't made Bachmann a priority, so the media has no reason to report on her.

What the campaign team calls 'bias' is 'truth'. They can't contest the 4% from CBS's cited poll, so the team calls any negative news 'biased'. What is their truth?

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Student Victory in Court of Appeals

2011-11-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that school districts can not discipline newspaper advisers for allowing students to run material in student publications that the administration does not approve of. According to the First Amendment Center, the Allamakee School District reprimanded adviser Ben Lange after students at Waukon High School published material in the school paper's April Fool's Day edition that the principal found offensive. Find the case, Lange vs. Diercks and Allamakee School District, here.

The case is being hailed among students and journalism instructors as an acknowledgement of student rights, feared by some to have been taken away in 1988 after the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood School District vs. Kulhmeier that administrations had the right to censor student publications.

What does this case really grant students? Admittedly, some of the content that Waukon High School's newspaper the Tribe-une can be considered in poor taste- for instance, the students included a derogatory name for a rival high school and a parody cartoon of a biology teacher caught running a meth lab. But the students involved in the scandal are going to learn a lot about the journalism world.

First, edit your content- just because you have the right to say it, doesn't mean you always should. Making sure you can stand by what you write without holding regrets is a valuable skill in journalism. Basically, if you're going to get in trouble for it, make sure it's good. But also, students do have rights. Critically assessing every situation, both in the classroom and out, is a good way to monitor when your rights are being violated. Students should want to know when boundaries are stepped on and how they can fight back.

Students, stand by your words. And if someone is getting punished for that, then there's a problem.

Photo credit/NCinDC,creativecommons.org

Social Media Information in Newspapers

2011-11-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

The Monitor of McAllen, Texas, is now printing the Twitter usernames of its reporters by their articles so that readers can follow them on Twitter.

At the end of each story in the paper, it lists how to get a hold of the reporter by facebook, phone, and e-mail.

According to an article on Poynter.org, the goal of adding social media information to the articles is to get more readers to follow, friend or like the reporters on Facebook and Twitter.

Executive Editor Steve Fagan says he is "encouraging reporters to show a little more personality through the social networks than they do normally in print or even online reporting, to make our people a little more human."

Fagan wants his reporters to engage their followers and friends on Twitter and Facebook and by adding some more personality on these sites, they have a better chance of being liked and therefore being read in the newspaper.

Reporters are also allowed to show more opinion on the social media sites than in an article. By being more personable they are more likely to connect with their readers.

"I've been 40 years in the business," Fagan said. "We (newspaper journalists) have gone out of our way to be invisible people, keeping ourselves out of it. When you're doing social media, it's not really possible to keep yourself out of it."

Google and Twitter to the Rescue!

2011-11-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

After the allegations of Herman Cain's sexual harassment, people started to view Cain in a new light.

Theres one thing that can truly hurt a presidential candidate when he or she is in the process of running, and that thing is scandal.

It is then when people really start questioning, "Is this guy the guy we really want running our country?"

But good news is, Herman Cain has found a way to fight these allegations head on. By using social media and a popular search engine as his aid. Cain is using keyword Google and Twitter search ads, such as: "Cain Sharon Bialek", which leads to an option of Cain's website CainTruth, which was a paid attempt to bi pass the scandal. The campaign had also bought a promoted Tweet when anybody searched "Herman Cain" on Twitter.

I believe that Cain has made a pretty smart attempt on continuing his campaign and trying to get away from these allegations.

Works cited: www.poynter.org
www.creativecommons.org

Who Is It?

2011-11-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

Many people around the world today are victims of identity theft, but the mayor of West Valley City, UT was not a victim; he was instead a thief.

Poynter describes Mike Winder as not stealing a person's identity, but making a fake name up to boast about himself in the Deseret News.

Is making up a fake name the same as stealing some one's identity though?

I believe that it is the same because it provides the readers with opinions of a person that are assumed to be true. I also believe that the newspaper is at fault for not verifying the credibility of their sources.

All media needs to be sure to check their sources because they could lose credibility from their consumers.

Richard Burwash, the so-called writer, submitted four articles to the Deseret News boasting about Mike Winder, when in all reality Winder was being arrogant.

In doing this, Winder hurt his image as a person and also as mayor for the city.

Did the newspaper rush the article to be printed? Did the mayor pay someone off to keep this under the table? Is this a case of identity theft?

All these questions should be sought by a journalist to find the answer, because I believe this is wrong. What do you think?

Who Is It

2011-11-13T14:55:00.001-08:00

Freelance Mayor

2011-11-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

For a long time the citizens of West Valley City had been reading articles about their town in the Desert News written by a freelance journalist named Richard Burwash. Little did they know who exactly Richard Burwash was.

It turned out that the mayor of the city, Mike Winder, had been using the pen name to write positive stories about his town. Winder was tired of reading negative articles in the paper about his town so he decided to start writing freelance stories about what positive things were going on in his town.

In an article with the Associated Press Winder said that 56 percent of the coverage of West Valley was about crime.

Winder submitted all of his articles through Desert Connect which is a website for freelancers to give their stories to submit their stories to Desert News and other news networks.

Winder decided to tell the truth about his pen name because he is looking at running for the Mayor of Salt Lake City.

"I would rather disclose it on my own terms then a political enemy," said Winders

Sources:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/52893782-90/winder-deseret-news-articles.html.csp

The Penn State Debacle

2011-11-10T17:14:00.003-08:00

In light of recent happenings I thought it only appropriate to write a post dedicated to the discussion of the issue facing Penn State. Almost everyone in the nation has heard about, discussed, mulled over, and tweeted about this controversy.

First off, the university is losing an iconic figure, Jo Paterno. Secondly, the school is having a hay day dealing with press and what further action they should take. Finally, the students are in a complete uproar.

Obviously this completely oversimplifies what exactly is going on the Penn State, but I want to focus on media coverage of this controversy.

An article found on Poynter briefly summarizes several peoples opinions on how the media is handling this story.

Some claim that ESPN, who first reported the story, took it too easy when breaking the news. Rather than asking the tough questions right from the start ESPN, and treat the story with the gravity it deserved. It took a small news paper out of Harrisburg, PA to get to the nitty gritty. ESPN followed suit a few days later.

So what is the right way to handle this breakdown of a college football program? Does the public need to know the dirty details right up front or was ESPN in the right in keeping it light to begin?

In my opinion some of the incredibly inappropriate details are best left censored. It shows respect for the institution of Penn State and the people involved.

It seems as though ESPN misrepresented the story early on, treating it with less weight than it should have been. This is unacceptable.

Penn State is in a rough patch, and that may be an understatement. The media need to cover this situation as accurately and professionally as possible, without being inappropriate. If this is done then the nation will be able to accurately discuss, tweet, and complain about whatever they choose.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket.

2011-11-10T17:14:00.001-08:00

Ways Around Stress

2011-11-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

Imagine this: You have 5 hours to write story. It better be interesting, it better have intriguing sources, it better be 100% factual, and the grammar better be damn near perfect. Fail to do this, and you're fired!

The life of a journalist is a highly stressful one. A story could break at a moment's notice and a journalist better be ready to hop out of bed and get their butts down to the scene of the breaking news.

With all the hustle-and-bustle in this profession, how do journalists refrain from killing themselves, or their editors? The Society of Professional Journalists Generation J has come up with a solution that might help journalist world-wide vent their frustrations to people who understand. On November 13, 2011 this group is holding the first Google+ hangout allowing journalists to get together and discuss annoyances in their work places.

These sessions are not tracked or recorded so journalist can simply vent without worrying about pissing too many people off.

This "hangout" session not only allows journalists to get together and tell their stories, but will help them network, find sources, and hopefully help them remember the reasons why they entered into this high-stress profession.

Social media, such as this, are important tools for journalists, beyond helping them find stories. These media enable reporters to build a tight-knit community which they can share their passion for news with others who care just as much as they do.

photo from creativecommons.org

ECU Student Editor Defends Streaking Photos

2011-11-09T11:26:00.001-08:00

A student newspaper at the East Carolina University, The East Carolinian, ran uncensored photos of a student who streaked the ECU v. University of Southern Mississippi game.

Editor Caitlin Hale made the final decision to run the pictures, citing that they were not meant to be seen in a sexually suggestive manner.

According to Jim Romanski of Poynter.org ECU administration condemned the decision to run the photos and plans to use the event as a learning process.

My question here, is whether this is justified or not. Should those involved be reprimanded?

The pictures show front images of the streaking student and I believe this is where the biggest discretion is at.

Hale defended her decision by noting that the paper's audience had the right to the uncensored, factual photos.

Personally, the publishing of these photos comes off as a poor attempt to get attention. In fact, this is borderline disgraceful.

These photos serve as shock value and don't enhance the publication at all. Lets be honest, we can all picture a naked body in our head.

Student Journalism Upheld

2011-11-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Notch one up for student journalism.

Today, the Iowa Court of Appeals sided with a high school journalism teacher saying that he was unfairly reprimanded for allowing alleged inappropriate articles in the school newspaper.

The court cited the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier in their decision.

In April of 2008, the Waukon Senior High School Tribe-une distributed an April Fool's edition that consisted of various parody articles. In August of that same year, the principal of Waukon Senior High School issued a reprimand to Ben Lange, the faculty advisor for the newspaper, saying that the newspaper had "numerous inappropriate text, comments, and articles."

The newspaper obviously functioned as a parody, containing articles such as "Meth Lab Found in Biology Lab" and "Cheerleaders on 'Roids." Each page also had the disclaimer: "This issue is a parody created in celebration of All Fools' Day. It contains no factual information."

A few months later, Lange and the newspaper were under fire again after the principal issued another formal reprimand. He stated that the September 30, 2009 issue contained "numerous inappropriate and questionable text, comment, pictures, and articles... people within our school are offended by this edition."

Lange was suspended for two days without pay. In January 2010, Lange took the issue to court.

This case is a good thing for student journalism and journalism in general as First Amendment rights are held up and students' free speech rights are protected.

Go here to read the full court case: http://wcfcourier.com/court-document-lang-v-allamakee/html_b534f452-0afa-11e1-9a8a-001cc4c002e0.html

Death to the Media

2011-11-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

The newsroom of El Buen Tono was set vandalized by arson a few days ago by unidentified gunmen in New York, reports say there were at least a dozen armed men.

El Buen Tono was a new paper on the scene and is one of the victims in the trending crimes against media.

Equipment, offices, and the entire newsroom and was doused in gasoline and completely destroyed.

Along with material items in the building, over twenty employees were also inside the building, but luckily escaped in time.

The paper was not able to print the past few days but the director said they have every intention of keeping the paper printing.

A new trend against the media is a direct attack on the company is said to be done by organized crime.

El Buen Tono covers beats such as organized crime and related topics, and Veracruz is dealing with drug wars and violence and has been for many years. So one can assume this hit was done to cover any information not meant to be spread.

Journalists have been killed in mexico and have even gone into hiding. Mexico is one of the most dangerous places for someone to report the news.

Crime against the media is nothing new. More than a dozen news organizations were attacked with malicious intent last year. Vanguardia, newspaper of Saltillo, was attacked by a hand grenade in May. In February, gunmen attacked the facilities of two media companies in the city of Torreón, destroyed equipment, and killed a TV engineer.

With all these crimes against the media, along with the decline in the economy and newsprint, is there really a future for media? Are there people willing to risk their lives for stories that a small percentage will actually read?

https://www.cpj.org/2011/11/mexican-newspaper-offices-set-on-fire-in-veracruz.php

Too Much Bieber Fever

2011-11-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

As teen sensation Justin Bieber has become girls favorite pop star, the media should think twice about who they put on TV and who they put on their cover page of magazines.

Justin Bieber was accused of being the dad of a girls 3 month old baby. Bieber claimed to have no idea who this girl was but eventually triggered his memory. According to Entertainment News this pop star is everyone’s idol and dreamed about future husband.

The media, including Entertainment News, projects Bieber as a positive role model and possibly being a dad at 17 years old isn't positive. Teens have enough struggles going through life and don't need anymore bad influence than Justin Bieber.

Bieber could have easily had a one night stance and considered it "never have meeting this woman". The media is trying to cover up for the pop star because they don't want his reputation to be ruined.

Entertainment News media needs to cover more postitive celebrities such as Sandra Bullock, Carrie Underwood, Steve Carrel, and Shawn Johnson. The world needs people to look up to and be a positive influence.

Teen pregnancy, drug usage, alcohol abuse, and date rape can all be blamed on the media and celebrities because of how they project themselves. The whole society, especially teens, look up to famous people and when we watch them be daddy's of random women we then think it's ok to repeat that or walk in their footsteps.

The media should think twice about what they write about and what information will be read by young adults. We need to have a positive society and prevent simple people like Justin Bieber from being in the media as much as possible.

Administrative Censorship

2011-11-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

Journalism censorship is being brought to a whole new level. The Seattle School Board is considering to grant a proposal that would allow principles in the district to read high school news papers before they are printed and would be able to censor what they find disruptive to the schools learning environment.

An article in the Seattle Times says that this is the first time the district has tried to put restrictions on what school newspapers can publish. The Board is using an idea that has been suggested by the Washington State School Directors' Association. This group has been recommending this policy since 2001, but many districts have decided not to use it.

The main point of this proposal is to ensure that schools will not get in trouble for derogatory remarks or libel.

The biggest concern is that principles will take too much control over censorship and students will loose the ability to cover certain stories.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1988 through Hazlewood vs. Kuhlmeier that the constitution does not allow freedom of press to high school students.

Even though the Supreme Court has made this decision should school districts like Seattle be able to allow administrators to censor school newspapers?

Photo from: Creative Commons

Beating Five Minutes

2011-11-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

With the news focusing on the Occupy protesters all around the United States, but in one location, photographers should be careful on their time spent covering the news photography.

In Washington D.C., due to a "decades old law", it is an arrestable offense to be taking a photograph in a public place for more than five minutes.

With this new law, it is giving police more power to arrest photographers, during these Occupy events. But fear not photojournalist, the National Press Photographers Association are asking the State attorney to repeal or revise this law and other ordinances that limit photography.

Works sited: Poynter.org
Picture sited: creativecommons.org

Journalist Honored After Badly Beaten

2011-11-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

A Russian journalist, Mikhail Beketov, was nearly beaten to death in 2008 after investigating corruption in Khimki--a Moscow suburb; and is now, years later, being presented honors.

Beketov, currently recovering in an Israeli clinic, suffered severe brain damage--leaving him with an inability to speak in full sentences--the amputation of one of his legs, and the inability to use his hands after having his fingers bashed in. Even still, after receiving all of these injuries and coming out of a coma, Beketov was still required to appear in court to defend himself against slander charges.

Nevertheless, three years later, he is one of the recipients of an annual award for excellence in print journalism, bestowed by the Prime Minister of Russia--Vladimir Putin. And, while there is prize money granted with the award, it only totals to about 32,000 American dollars; which is no where near enough money to pay for Beketov's treatment, or the lasting physical/brain damage caused by his brutal beating.

Furthermore, according to the New York Times, the people who crippled Beketov--many of which are Russian government officials--are still roaming free.

Several of Beketov's friends and colleagues have spoken up about their beliefs that Beketov being awarded this prize is cynical. However, Dmitri Muratov, editor of the weekly newspaper Novaya Gazeta, who nominated Beketov, stressed that this prize is a state prize and that the money does not come from Putin personally.

Even still, there are still numerous doubts about the reasoning and the integrity behind Beketov's reception of the prize this year. The top human rights specialist from the United States State Department visited Beketov's colleagues near Khimki two weeks ago, promising to press the Russian government further on human rights.

When reading about situations such as these, I am that much happier that I am entering the field of journalism in America, where freedom of the press is truly a practice. However, it is also in reading stories such as this, that should serve as reminders to journalists, as well as the public, that as quickly as a freedom is granted, it can be taken away.

Beketov was simply investigating corruption, and now he has lost the function of a third of his brain. Current and aspiring journalists, as well as the American people, need to readily practice the First Amendment right of freedom of the press and question authority whenever necessary before it's too late.

Photo (Khimki Forest Construction): Courtesy of creativecommons.com

Andy Rooney Dead at Age 92

2011-11-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

The famous 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney died Friday night at the age of 92 in a hospital in New York City.

He died of complications from minor surgery which was undisclosed.

"It's a sad day at '60 Minutes' and for everybody here at CBS News," said Jeff Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes"and the chairman of CBS News.

Rooney had announced on Oct. 2, 2011 on "60 Minutes" that he wouldn't be appearing regularly anymore on the show.

Ever since television has been around, Rooney had been involved in it. For 60 years he was with CBS. 30 of those years he was a writer and producer for the show.

Rooney said he was never comfortable with being the television personality that he became. and according to an article on CBS.com, "He preferred to be known as a writer and was the author of best-selling books and a national newspaper column, in addition to his '60 Minutes' essays."

Rooney was known for his essays in which he delivered at the end of every "60 Minutes" episode.
These essays would generate thousands of responses from viewers or the show.

The topics these essays were about were very controversial. One particular comment about homosexuality led to getting him suspended from his job on "60 Minutes". But his loyal fans demanded him to be back on air and ratings dropped 20% when he wasn't.

“I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but of all the things I’ve complained about, I can’t complain about my life.” Rooney once said. And he considered himself lucky to have lived such a life and if he were to live life over again, he said he would live it exactly the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZ4yKHwrsc

The Dangers to Journalists

2011-11-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

When Colombian native Jineth Bedoya Lima became a journalist, she'd never imagined it would lead to her biggest nightmare. At the age of 26, Bedoya was kidnapped, raped, and tortured while following through a story on Bogota's maximum-security prison La Modelo in May 2000. She was drugged and taken from the prison, and repeatedly raped by three different men. A taxi driver later found her hours away bound in a garbage dump near a road.
"We are sending a message to the press of Colombia," Bedoya recalled them saying.

Bedoya is not the only one to live with this. The U.S. and the rest of the world's eyes were snapped wide open when CBS correspondent Lara Logan was attacked last February at Cairo's Tahrir Square during celebrations after taking down the Egyptian dictatorship. And it's not just violence against women. Pakistani journalist Umar Cheema has publically disclosed that he was stripped naked by men wearing police uniforms and violated with a wooden pole in 2010.

Sexual violence against journalists is not just violence against one person- as if that isn't bad enough. When journalists are targeted, it is an attack on the freedom of the press and the ability of the journalists to do their job. Lauren Wolfe, blogging about it for The Atlantic, interviewed and quoted Logan after Bedoya's case was advanced to an international justice commission.
"An attack in retribution for your reporting speaks directly to the First Amendment. It's terrifying in a different way. In her case, justice is critical because if you're allowed to attack journalists with impunity, there will be no free press, especially if the government is involved," Logan said.

Sexual violence against members of the news media is about more than personal suffering. It is meant to silence members of the press to keep them from bringing to light suspicious and criminal activity. The journalism industry must be more aware of the effect this pain brings on its staff and better prepare it for confrontation, both for the journalist's safety, and the industry's freedom of speech.

Photo credit/Chuck Coker, creativecommons.org

Building Trust in Journalists

2011-11-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been reading a lot of about the publics distrust in media organizations, studies showing that they are at record highs. With this in mind a new website has been created for journalists called NewsTransparency.org.

This site allows the public to get to know those who produce their news better. It is comprised of “journalist profile pages”, which are different from a typical profile page

Similar to the way Wikipedia operates, anyone can add or edit information found on a page. There is also the option to write a review on the journalist, and a collection of the journalist work is available.

I think this is really great idea in today’s journalistic age. You always believe information from those who you trust. Getting to know a journalist better, and seeing what others have to say about them can help build this trusting relationship.

At the same time though, this site could ruin a journalist. Too many bad reviews or negative comments could end a career.

Another hope of the website creator is that NewTransparency.com will improve the quality of journalism by holding people accountable.

I think this kind of program is a step in the right direction for strengthening people’s trust in today’s media.

video blog

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket

Scandalous Scoop

2011-11-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

Secrets lead to scandals. As journalists, we feed off of this basic formula for our biggest scoops.

According to an article from The Huffington Post, the identities of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment remain anonymous. This adds to Cain's politically scandalous story.

As a reporter covering the Cain development, a few legal issues are present.

First off, the choice to grant anonymity is a double-edged story. For some sources that is the only way to get them to talk, and without them there would be no story. On the other hand, because the source is unnamed, there is less accountability placed on the source to be accurate and a greater level of scrutiny on the journalist to have the facts instead of lies.

Thus far, only the attorney for one of the accusers has commented on the case. Joel P. Bennett, the attorney, said that his client will stay anonymous and decline interviews. Due to her silent approach, he said, "I could be on TV 12 hours a day easily," Bennett said. "I could be on CNN eight hours alone. Meet the Press. ABC. Next week, I'll be a nobody again."

Bennett brings up an interesting point. The public loves a good political scandal whether it be 'Weinergate' via Twitter, Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, or Herman Cain. However, will the press care in a week?

Clinton was reelected after the Lewinsky scandal, but Weiner stepped down after his Twitter fiasco. Cain topped the polls when the sexual harassment allegations hit the headlines. Will he be able to recover?

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Covering an Outbreak

2011-11-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

It is difficult to cover widespread diseases when people are panicking and false information is flooding the Web.

Journalists who cover this beat work hard to keep people informed and calm when covering disease such as AIDS, swine flu, malaria, and avian flu.

When there is an actual pandemic, the biggest problem is the confusion.

The first thing people want to know is how the disease will affect their family and what they can do to prevent getting the disease. The journalist's job is to tell the truth about the number of deaths, the dangers of the disease, and what can be done about it.

One problem that arises when covering a pandemic are the methods taken to avoid the journalists from contracting the disease.

Journalists should always take masks and gloves. They should also receive any shots available to prevent getting the disease.

The most reliable sources for diseases are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

News on the Go

2011-11-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Despite advertising and circulation woes, newspapers found out some good news last week when Pew Research Center revealed a survey that indicated good news from those who read their news via their tablets.

Although most readers are still unwilling to pay for news, those who use news applications are much more likely to pay for content than those who get their news from a browser. 27 percent of "mainly app users" have paid for news, while only 5 percet of "browser users" have.

Those who use apps are "power users," showing that they are more likely to read more news more often and also pay for the news.

The survey, which included 1,159 tablet users, also found that tablet users are getting news from sources that they did not previously read. 40 percent of responders said that they are reading different newspapers than before they had a tablet. USA Today and CNN were the top new sources.

As newspapers continue to rely more on tablet readership, they need to target these readers, especially the "power users." By enhancing the effectiveness and quality of the news apps and by allowing some free content, more readers will likely make the jump to app reading.

Photo courtesy of www.creativecommons.com

Holiday Clichés Should Stay out of Headlines

2011-11-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

The holidays are around the corner but the typical Christmas clichés in the headlines such as "'tis the season" should stay out of the headlines.

"Chestnuts roasting by an open fire are fine, but they should be kept out of copy and headlines," cautions master copy desk chief John McIntyre of the Baltimore Sun.

In his article titled The Holiday Cautions McIntyre lists off some of the typical holiday sayings that should not make it to the headlines.

"'’Twas the night before' anything: 'Twasing is no more defensible than ’tising," says McIntyre. "And if you must refer to the Rev. Mr. Moore's poem, if indeed he wrote it, the proper title is 'A Visit from St. Nicholas.'"

McIntyre also puts a halt to the Grinch stealing anything. When a house is robbed or any Christmas related items are stolen, "Grinch steals" needs to remain out of the headline.

Some of the other clichés he mentions in his article to not use are any "Yes, Virginia" allusions, and he states "Any 'Christmas came early' construction is right out."

The parodies of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are a no go, and anything that has bah or humbug needs to be deleted.

These sayings offer what seem to be creative headlines for the holiday season, but instead they are overused or do not resonate with the reader.

NPR firing over Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Caitlin Curran, a freelancer for "The Takeaway" which is co-produced by NPR-member station WNYC and Public Radio International, was fired from her radio show after her boss discovered pictures of her participating in the Occupy protests.

The station claims that since they are covering the Occupy Wall Street protests, having employers participating in the protests violates their editorial standards and every ethic of journalism.

Curran's boss saw a picture of her holding a sign that paraphrased text from "The Atlantic's" Conor Friedersdorf.

This story is similar to the firing of Lisa Simeone from NPR after it was revealed that she was working as a spokesperson for Occupy D.C.

Curran's and Simeone's stories shows how far the people of NPR will go to prove they are not a liberally biased program.

It goes against individual rights to fire people just because of their participation, on their personal time, in a non-partisan movement.

Americans have the constitutional right to protest freely without fear of punishment.

Journalists' jobs are to report the news in an unbiased manner, but what they do in their free time is their decision.

Journalists should not have to alter their lifestyles for their jobs.

Timing Your Tweets For Success

2011-10-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

It is a simple game plan when it comes to Twitter. The more people your tweets reach, the more established you can become as a credible source of news.

In this article on Mashable.com, Leonhard Widrich explains three apps that help you track the timing of your tweets.

The apps serve as a way to observe when tweeting would be most efficient for you.

The apps use a multitude of data in order to decide when your tweets would be most effective.

Everything from followers tweet times and density to number of retweets is tracked in order to determine optimal tweet times.

While there is no solid data that tweeting at certain times will help up your followers it certainly can't hurt anything.

The most important aspect of your tweets is their accuracy. But, if no one sees them are they really doing their job?

Sourcing for your tweets is another important part of tweeting. Variation is the key so people don't get bored with what you have to say.

In this case timing may not be everything but, it isn't something to be ignored.

Diversity Workshop Celebrating 30 Years

2011-10-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

An article by the NYDailyNew.com, covered a journalism workshop, helped to shed light on the struggling problem of diversity in newsrooms.

New York University's annual Urban Journalism Workshop is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year. The workshop, offered to high school students around the country, is a week-long program that provides students with a crash course in newspaper reporting, writing and editing.

Program coordinator, Pamela Newkirk, spoke of diversity issues several times in the article, emphasizing the alarming decrease of minority journalists in recent years. The numbers in the aforementioned article placed the decrease at .82 percent; further showing that while African-Americans make up 15 percent of the population nationally, they only represent 4.68 percent of newsroom jobs in the United States.

While this article's main focused appeared to have been on the Anniversary of the workshop, I found the purpose of the workshop to be far more important. The numbers presented about the presence of diversity in journalism were alarming, and it would appear that if something is not done quickly, these numbers will continue to decrease.

Thus, it is great that the workshop is still running and able to celebrate a 30th year; however, the purpose of the workshop is far greater and it is important that their mission be carried out. If not, journalism, and all it stands for, is once again at risk of failing completely--as I have repeatedly stressed in my previous blogs.

Amy Winehouse: Dead or Alive?

2011-10-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

When you look in the paper, on the internet, or check your emails the first couple headlines you see are most likely going to be about Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse is dead and died a while ago. Her coverage over why she died, her new release, and her childhood are getting old and not newsworthy anymore.

"The world will finally get to hear her music as she leaves the world unexpectedly" says MTV reporters. These types of headlines fill the media still today. The media is not covering her death on TV as much today but the internet is still filled with Winehouse's death.

In the eyes of an audience member watching the media forces me to believe that sometimes journalists don't know what to write about so go back on old deaths such as Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse. Yes they lived a great life and produced great music but when is enough, enough?

In todays time, journalists should be covering the world series, the war, the president elections, Halloween drama, and the list goes on. Personally I like to hear about current news and don't want to dwell back on deaths and old news.

Lastly Amy Winehouse was not a Michael Jackson, Elvis Presly, or Madona. Amy was a pop singer who was average. She didn't have sold out shows or number one hit CD's. Therefore the media not only needs to stop Amy's intense coverage, they also need to realize that she wasn't a huge artist.

Rebelling Against Establishment

2011-10-31T06:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a prime example of a journalist going for what he deems 'newsworthy'; however, does it come at a cost?

Jason Mattera, who wrote an ambush interview on Vice President Biden, is the new subject around Washington.

"I don't really care what the Washington establishment says," says Mattera who is the editor of Human Events. "If they want to give me affirmation or condemnation, it doesn't matter to me. My audience is not D.C. It's to get it ricocheted around the country."

I find those very encouraging words, that you don't have to focus on the one area you are living at to have your audience, but to branch out and aim for people all around the world.

Picture: creativecommons.org
Article: poynter.org

Rachel Smith Videoblog #1

2011-10-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Reassessing Opinion for Journalists

2011-10-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

For years journalists have wrestled with the idea of not voicing their own opinion in their stories.

Technically, journalists are giving up their freedom of speech.

If journalists are involved in the stories that they are writing about why are they not allowed to voice their opinion in what they are talking about?

The example given was Occupy Wall Street and all the writers involved must not include their lives in the stories.

Also, if a journalist “likes” a politician on Facebook, must they like all other candidates?

Is it not time to admit that we live in an age where it’s appropriate for journalists to also have an opinion? We as people also need to recognize that these people are not drones who report the news on a daily basis.

Journalists have been fired for voicing opinions and one example is CNN Senior Editor and Middle East expertOctavia Nasr was fired for having posted a sympathetic remark about an alleged terrorist on her Twitter account. Regardless of the fact that this man was a terrorist, why was this grounds for firing Nasr?

If we are to keep assuming that journalists do not have an opinion, does this not prevent our culture from moving forward intellectually?

http://gigaom.com/2011/10/26/its-time-to-admit-that-journalists-are-human-beings/

Staleness in the News

2011-10-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

The look of televised news programs are similar from station to station. The basic news program consists of a lead anchor, or anchors, and a team of reporters who present prepared video and sound bites to the viewing audience.

Recently, at the National Press Club luncheon, Harvey Levin, creator of the celebrity news website TMZ.com, exclaimed to his listeners that broadcast news delivery is "stale."

Levin discussed how broadcast journalism has used the same formula to present viewers with the information for the past 40 years and suggested "you don't need the middleman as much anymore." Aka limit the time the anchors and reporters are used.

Levin suggested new stations focus their cameras on the newsmakers themselves. Levin discussed how the newsmakers are much more compelling than the anchors or reporters, and by focusing more, if not solely on them, televised news programs can freshen their look and increase their appeal to viewers.

Levins speech raises an important point about broadcast journalism: What is the importance/role of anchors and reporters? Do viewers require an individual to present and summarize information the newsmakers, other sources used, and video footage can be edited to display.

Anchors and reporters bring character to the news. They help build the credibility of a station and maintain accuracy in stories. Without them, it could be difficult to air hard news stories such as crime, politics and other controversial topics in a way that removes biases and is accurate. Anchors and reporters are very much needed, but news stations should remain open to new, more interesting and compelling ways to report the news.

photo by roger4336 from creativecommons.com

ACLU Sues LA Sheriff's Department

2011-10-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

Are security issues enough to prevent a picture from being taken? No, says the American Civil Liberties Union. In fact, they believe so strongly in the right to photography that they sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Thursday, saying the law department has been harrassing both amateur and professional photographers who take pictures in public places.

The First Amendment Center published an Associated Press wire report on its website detailing the harrassment. According to the report, sheriff's deputies have harrassed many different photographers within two years, by stopping them, frisking, and in some cases threatening arrest. The photographers in each case had been taking pictures of public buildings, parks, and facilities. The problem with that, according the deputies, was that taking pictures of public spaces is a sign of a possible terrorist threat. One photographer was even asked if he was "in cahoots with Al Qaida" before being frisked.

Has it really gotten to the point that all photography of public spaces is suspicious? Then, wow, we have a lot of trouble. Teachers taking pictures of class trips to the zoo. College students taking pictures of their first trip to Washington D.C. Middle school students taking pictures in the gym at their public school dance. The difference between these scenarios and the cases being described is simple: the photographers are alone. They stand out.

Photography of high-risk public property is not itself a threat, and should not be treated as one. The ACLU has a list of photographer's rights on their website and advice on what to do if you are stopped or detained while taking photographs. Freedom of speech is not limited to simply the freedom of speaking or writing. It provides the freedom to see.

Photo/Mike Baird, creativecommons.org

The Newsroom in the Digital Age

2011-10-28T09:40:00.001-07:00

It is no surprise that the future of news is in the balance. We are in the digital age, whether you like it or not. This is cause for change in many news rooms; it's time for a "facelift."

Several newsrooms across the nation are getting revamped in order to accommodate this new age in media. One that really embraced this and made significant changes was The Seattle Times.

The Times developed a strategy centered around three foundation groups: creativity, curation, and community.

The creative team encompassed anyone who reports, whatever their medium. Photographers, reporters, and editors all work in one key area.

The group centered around curation primarily focussed on integrating technology into the Times. The curation team "gathered" the news, and then distributed it to as many platforms digitally as seen fit.

Finally you have the group of community. Their primary focus was to figure out how to effectively inform people living in the Seattle area.

These groups mix together to produce a new type of newsroom. One that is dynamic, and digitally centered. Rather than reporting to a print editor, as in years past, everyone goes to a top digital editor.

"There is new energy and focus around our enterprise reporting efforts. We are revitalizing watchdog reporting, long a strength of this newspaper. We are revising work flows, breaking away from the print-focused assembly line of the past and [moving] to a more dynamic and flexible system," says Executive Editor, David Boardman."We are doing much more knowledge-sharing among people with various perspectives and experiences, both within our newsroom a

nd from the outside."

I think a redevelopment of todays newsroom is a smart move. A bit of ingenty is needed, but can create a great result. This is exactly what the Seattle Times is experiencing, although still in the early stages.

As I said earlier, we are in a digital age. Those who are not stepping in to it are a step behind.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket.

Local News Is Spreading

2011-10-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

There is a grave concern for local news due to the fact that older methods of delivering the news are fading out because of the electronic tablets and smart phones that are readily available and easy to use.

However, Patch is a website that is helping communities all around the country make local news important to the people in their communities again.

Many journalists get their start in local news stations. However, because of the decline in these methods, it is more difficult to begin a journalism career. Patch is now helping journalists kick-start their careers by providing them with job opportunities. This article helps explain how Patch is providing jobs to help deliver the local news.

Patch targets the suburb communities, not just the general metropolitan area. This creates an easy and effective way of providing jobs to more journalists and updating a more narrowly-focused community at the same time.

As Patch continues to expand, it will help bring people in the communities together. Local news provides a common topic of interest for people who normally have nothing to talk about.

Are you interested in getting the local news out to your community? Would you consider starting a website through Patch to help make that happen? One can very easily start their own local news website. Anyone can be a journalist, and Patch is helping to make that happen, one community at a time.

Newspapers Gaining Consumers Through Tablets

2011-10-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

A new PEW study suggests that newspapers are drawing tablet users to their products.

"Tablet users are more likely to pay for content than general news consumers," said Julie Moos in her article about CNN and USA Today gaining new readers.

The phone survey of 1,159 tablet users showed that a new audience of tablet users are being drawn to newspapers.

"Of the 894 respondents who read news on their tablets weekly, 40 percent said they are getting news from newspapers that they did not rely on as a source before," continued Moos.

New technology like the tablet is thought to be killing off newspaper companies, but as seen here it is actually helping them by providing them more consumers.

10 percent of the tablet users in the survey said they get news from USA Today on their tablets and they did not use that source for news before. 10 percent said the same thing about CNN.

The survey also showed that the tablet users were also using other types of media like cable TV channels and online sources now with their tablets when they weren't using those sources before.

19 percent of the users now watch a new cable TV news station, and 18 percent use a new online news source.

The tablet has opened a window for consumers to get their news in a new way.

Photo via Creative Commons

Norris Steps Down from NPR

2011-10-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

Journalists must remain objective at all times. Without it, we would lose our credibility and trust from the public.

Identifying conflicts of interest isn't difficult. A football player can't cover the homecoming football game, student body president can't report on the latest developments in student government and a fraternity president can't write a story about Greek week.

The Huffington Post reported that Michele Norris of NPR's 'All Things Considered' will step down from her hosting duties while her husband joins the Obama campaign.

Norris made the only decision she could in her situation. As journalists, we must remain objective and unbiased in order to maintain our credibility.

While it is unlikely that Norris would have interviewed her own husband, he is still a part of the Obama team. For instance, a sports reporters should not cover a game if their spouse is a player on the team.

Reporters who are in these situations need to separate their personal and professional lives. The balance may come down to, as in Norris's case, choosing a spouse over work. Ultimately, this decision may seem unfair, but it was necessary for Norris to maintain her credibility for her journalistic. future.

Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

A Few Spelling Variations

2011-10-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Let's face it: it's highly embarrassing to be caught spelling somebody's name wrong. Especially when you know or talk about someone often enough that you should have figured it out. For all of the media's focus on accuracy and fact-checking, though, they sure managed to screw up a very important name: Ghaddafi. Or, sorry, Qaddafi; Gadhafi; or was it Kaddafi?

Why can't anyone agree on how to spell the dead dictator's name? According to Poynter.org, in 1986 a syndicated columnist named Cecil Adams found at least nine different spellings for the name, the most exotic and confusing spelling jointly attributed to the Library of Congress and the Middle East Studies Association: Qadhdhafi.

To be fair, part of the problem is translating Arabic script into the English alphabet. Adams explained that there are several sounds in the name that don't have an exact English counterpart, and for a while, the Libyan leader wasn't concerned enough to straighten anything out. However, in May of 1986, the colonel made his feelings known when he responded to a letter from second graders at Maxfield Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While he signed his name to his response in Arabic script, under it was typed "Moammar El-Gadhafi". News organizations announced they would make the switch as soon as the signature was made public.

Well, most of them didn't. This debate has gone to live on past his death, and it's a wonder that the media didn't simply check their facts from the start.

Photo/Bryan Mason at creativecommons.org

Displaying the Death of Gaddafi in the Media

2011-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

In the past week the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has made the headlines in the news and front pages of every news paper. Along with the stories some news outlets chose to show graphic images of Gaddafi after he had been killed. Now one of the major issues is whether or not the media should of displayed these pictures like they did.

In an article by Poynter, it shows how differently certain countries news papers decided to show images to go with these stories. Very few American newspapers actually showed Gaddafi's body after being killed.

In the newspapers in other countries some papers showed photos of Gaddafi before he we killed or photos of the rebels celebrating. However most of the newspapers decided to show the pictures of Gaddafi after being killed.

Is it appropriate to be showing these brutal photos of the death of Gaddafi?

Many people say that the tolerance of these images is starting to rise. In an interview for MSNBC Kelly McBride said that this is occurring because more people search for gruesome images then expected, then when they see them in the media it doesn't bother them.

The Week ran an article that saying that many news companies are defending their decision to show these images. They state that by showing theses photos they allow the public to know that Gaddafi is in fact dead.

Many people feel showing images like these in the media is now becoming unavoidable. The thing that the media needs to do now is decide how exactly to show these images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzfX_0jtyJs

Heckled Geraldo

2011-10-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition and profanity. Most parts of speech are protected; however, cursing is not protected by the First Amendment.

An article found in The Huffington Post reported that Occupy Wall Street protesters swore at Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera. Rivera was covering the event for the third time. Fox News cameras caught a heckler shout the f word at the reporter.

Freedom of speech protects the right to say what one desires but profanity is not. This is because it infringes on another's rights. Swearing is like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater.

Journalists often report from the front lines to get the headlines. Reporters, like Rivera, try do their jobs, but citizens at the event did not agree with Rivera and Fox News's presence at Occupy Wall Street.

Regardless of intent, that protester did not have the right the yell profanities at Rivera. As reporters, we need to know our rights as well as the rights of others.

Photo by creativecommons.org

The Anyday Paper

2011-10-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

According to Sara Dickenson Quinn from Poynter.org, Sunday papers just aren't quite what they used to be.

"'Papers seem to be taking fewer chances,' says Suzette Moyer, creative director of the St. Petersburg Times' Bay Magazine."

Instead of being the biggest and best, many Sunday editions are looking more and more like any other day, with little distinguishing them from a Monday or Wednesday edition.

Quinn outlines four possible reasons as to why newspapers are producing less impressive Sunday papers.

1. Job cuts in the newsroom. Jeff Goertzen, graphics director of the Denver Post, says that news design and graphics staffs are about half the size that they were ten years ago.

2. Designers and graphic artists have many more responsibilities. With more roles to fill, designers cannot commit as much time to front page spreads.

3. The average news hole is smaller than in previous years. Big, expansive investigative stories may not be occurring as often due to it being easier to break news.

4. Design centers are simplified in order to save time. Design isn't really an assembly-line situation, which is what most newspapers are headed towards. Design takes more time and thought, which is not afforded due to business decisions.

The front page is often what grabs a reader's attention. With newspapers spending less time and resources on the front page design, especially on frequently-read Sunday editions, the downward spiral of newspapers is likely to continue.

Photo courtesy of www.creativecommons.com

Advocate for Journalism Died

2011-10-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

Laura Pollán, 63, died Friday from respiratory complications in Cuba at a hospital in Havana.

Pollán is well known for her efforts of seeking justice in human rights.

Originally a Spanish teacher in Cuba, she was boycotted by the Cuban government for her work against it. She advocated for all the journalists imprisoned for work against Black Spring. Her own husband was one of the 75 journalists arrested during this movement.

The group started by Pollán is called the "Ladies in White," and these are women have had family members taken because of their voice. The goal these ladies had in mind was to oppose the Cuban government while wearing white. Showing that they are peaceful was the intention of the color white.

Having a strong passion for what they were fighting for, they never allowed harassment from authorities to stop them.

Often times, the authorities would try to prevent the members from being able to attend these weekly meeting and detain the women if they fought back.

Having a big heart for others, Pollan worked with CPJ to inform them of the travesties the families and detainees were enduring.

She started funds and raised money for those who needed it most and always worked towards freeing those in prison.

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons

"Sometimes they tell us, the Ladies in White, that we are brave women," she wrote. "We disagree: We've simply experienced so much pain and love that,without realizing it, we crossed that line between fear and bravery."

The Importance of Media Literacy

2011-10-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

Social media is a prominent force today. One of every eight minutes is spent on Facebook and thousand of tweets are posted each hour.

With this in mind it is important as a journalist to be on top of it all. It is not enough to just know how to work a computer, but you must be 'media literate.'

Recently a tweet was released by Mashable that stated the wrong number, accidentally changing it from billion to million. This tweet was then passed on by a very prominent journalist, further spreading the false information.

Was this journalist being media illiterate by further spreading false information?

Although the spread of false information was not catastrophic in this case, it was a cause for concern.

Journalists today are expected to keep up with the constant flow of news information, and breaking the news is only half of it.

Todays media world calls for a journalist that is media literate.

Ten years ago being literate meant you could properly read and comprehend what was being read. Today it is different.

In order to be literate today, you need to be able to objectively look at tweets and blog posts and decide what is in fact, reliable. Apply those helpful critical thinking skills that have been developing throughout your life.

If a journalist cannot properly discern what is true and false, reliable or not, then they should be hesitant to inform others of the information.

Not only do journalists need to practice this, but every person should be discerning when getting their news. People need to take caution and understand that any average joe can spread the information.

As the saying goes, don't believe everything you read.

Sunday looks like Monday

2011-10-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

Like in the movies or old black and white sitcoms, Sunday morning rituals consisted of a cup of coffee at the kitchen table with the Sunday paper in hand; however, due to newspapers taking fewer chances, the Sunday paper is starting to look a lot like any other day of the week's newspaper.

There are four main points why this is happening, which are:
1. There are major cuts in every area of the newsroom.

2.The designers and graphic artist are doing more jobs in the newsroom.

3. The average news 'hole' has gone down since 5 years ago.

4. The design centers are simplified due to business decisions to save time.

I found this article very interesting and agree that the front page design of the paper means everything. Its the first kick-start to get an audience into the world of the news. I believe we should head this warning and start working harder to regain those people back into that world.

Picture: creativecommons.org
Aritcle: Sara Dickenson Quinn from Poynter.org

Wikileaks Needs Donations

2011-10-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Governments today are trying to stop the media from sending out top seceret information to the pubilc.

Don't the people have the right to know though?

Wikileaks is a website that provides information about government activites and presents it to the public eye.

Recently though Wikileaks had to shut down there website due to the lose of money over the last year.

In this article, linked here, reads a statement for the reasons Wikileaks needs to raise money.

Wikileaks says they are being forced to shut down because of the US fincance companys are trying to control what they do.

Wikileaks is asking for help by accepting donations from active users and anyone to raise the money to get the website back up and providing information to journalist or anyone that wants to know what the government is doing.

Why is the government trying to hide these things from the people? I believe that the government thinks that if the people have this information the people might be able to go against the government or sell the information to others that might want to use it against the government.

Wikileaks is providing information to the people, information that most people would never see in there life time. By helping donate money to Wikileaks, the people can get the information they want about the government.

Turkey Takes the First Steps

2011-10-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Devastating and tragic events happen all over the world at any time. Most countries take pride and start cleaning up right away after a disaster.

However when New Orleans was hit by a hurricane and when Parkersburg was hit by a tornado they waited for the government to take action instead of taking pride themselves.

Turkey recently had a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the eastern part of Turkey. Most of the eastern side of Turkey was wiped out leaving 264 deaths and 1,300 people injured reported CNN.

Surrounding community members were devasted but never gave up hope for missing family members. Turkey citizens took the first steps of cleaning up by piecing through debri.

Citizens worked day and night cleaning up this mess never once waiting for help from their government or other countries. Due to many health service builings collapsing and houses destroyed people gathered at a camp fire to stay warm and to receive support.

CNN has many video clips showing the teamwork that Turkey demonstrated. CNN also captured the Prime Minister and the Health Minister chipping in their efforts as well. CNN also admired their efforts and hope Turkey demonstrated.

Never once did Turkey ask for help or cry out to government officials instead they got to work and started right away without hesitation.

This article is inspirational, positive, and should be motivation to all societies and countries. All countries, states, and cities should be able to provide for themselves. Leave the government out of issues that can be taken care of by the people, the government has enough issues already.

Paywalls: Newspaper's New Best Friend

2011-10-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, the New York Times set up a paywall to limit the number of free views people could have for their online articles. Many people believed this would be a complete failure thinking people would simply refuse to pay for online articles, but the New York Times has proved those non-believers wrong.

At the end of it's third quarter, released October 20, 20ll, the Times revealed a quarter of a million readers payed at least $15 to access the online content of this paper. This shows it is possible to make a profit by implementing the paywall strategy.

This is a huge success for now just the Times, but the journalism industry as a whole. Because the Times showed they could profit off their online content, it is expected that many other media outlets will follow their lead.

The success of the paywall helps ease the mind of those who believed newspapers to be a dying entity. Newspapers are not dying, they are simply evolving with the new technologies introduced to the world.

Although the paywall has the potential to benefit the journalism industry, what does this mean for readers? If other newspapers begin to charge for their online material, will readers still be able to access those breaking stories immediately? Or will this slow down the rate at which news travels?

The way in which the paywall strategy has been implemented by the Times will help keep casual readers interacting with the online content. The Times allows each person 20 views per month before they demand their payment. This allows those who are not news enthusiasts to view the few articles that catch their attention without first having to hand over their credit cards.

With it's success at the Times, it can be predicted that many other major news companies will set up paywalls similar to this one to help raise their profits. This will enable the journalism profession to keep up to speed with the fast paced world we now all live in.

photo by DRB62 from creativecommons.com

No Joke, The Daily Show is News

2011-10-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

Twenty-one percent of adults age 18-28 cite that the "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" is a place where they regularly learn presidential campaign news, but is "The Daily Show" reliable?

A study by Indiana University found that "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" is as accurate and newsworthy as traditional broadcast network newscasts, which includes ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Political jokes, including bashing Michele Bachmann for saying she is proud to be from the same city as a serial killer and joking over the meaning of Rick Santorum's name, present the news in an interesting way that keeps audiences engaged.

Although the first goal of "The Daily Show" is humor, there is still substance to the show. Stewart interviews substantial news makers such as the president of Pakistan and presidential candidates.

In 2002, news was made on the show by John Edwards announcing that he was going to run for president in 2004.

A second-by-second study of "The Daily Show" found that there is considerably more humor than substance in the show, but Stewart insists that he is a comedian, not a journalist.

It was noted that broadcast network news stories about the presidential elections are significantly shorter than are the stories featured on "The Daily Show" so the amount of substance per story is not different.

There is nothing wrong with being entertained while learning about current events. Without "The Daily Show" many people would not consume any news.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXpD7bj5rg

Blog 1 Keith

2011-10-12T11:39:00.000-07:00