Rodger Streitmatter, writer of Mightier than the Sword, discusses many historical places and moments in American history that have been made significant due to the press. This chapter is an example of how journalism doesn’t just cover the stories but has played a roll in shaping American history. Journalists choose which stories to cover by what they think will be the most interesting or most important for the public to read. This shapes history because journalist direct what events are brought to attention. Journalism is also connected to history because sometimes a journalist will come across a story that they know when they cover it will expose something so great American life will be altered. For example, if Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein decided not to continue on with their investigative journalism of the watergate scandal history would have carried on much differently for President Nixon and for the american people. Much of journalism is uncovering the truths in our society. These truths and discoveries are what make up history and without journalism many of them would never be brought to the public’s attention. Without journalism history would be missing many parts of the whole story.

I enjoyed watching the film “Shattered Glass” because it highlighted a key factor that we covered in class. The major theme of this movie would be the necessity of credible sources and the issues with fabricating journalistic pieces. I thought this was a worth while movie to watch not only because I was easily able to see how it related to class but it was very entertaining. Stephen Glass was an intriguing character and he let his fabrications get out of control and to the point of discrediting his journalism. I thought the scene where Stephen got in trouble for fabricating events that took place at the Republican’s young people convention is when Stephen should have learned his lesson but yet he let it get even more out of control because he was enjoying his success. Stephen’s biggest issues came when another journalist begins investigating his piece on a huge interest hacker and his fabrication began to unfold. I think this would be worth while movie for any aspiring journalist to view because it can show the true repercussions of being a dishonest writer. It shows how important it is to tell the truth with integrity when writing stories for the public.

Citizenfour was a chilling documentary and it really made me think. The basic plot of this movie is that Laura Poitras receives these crazy emails from an anonymous source talking about all this classified information on undercover surveillance done by the government. Laura and another reporter go to Japan to meet the person who is sending these emails and the person turns out to be a man named Edward Snowden. Although this movie took a lot of twists and turns and it kept me on my toes there was a specific aspect that made it the most interesting. I thought the most intriguing part of the whole movie was why Snowden picked Poitras to be the person he contacted about all of this potentially dangerous information. He said he didn’t pick her but her past jobs as a journalist is what picked her. I thought this was interesting due to how this relates to journalism 200. One of the first main points we learned is that journalist duty is to report truth to the public. The information that Poitras was given was about how the N.S.A could be listening in on phone calls, searches made on the internet, and other private conversations made by the public. So, in Snowden’s mind once he gave Poitras the information it was her job to do justice for the public.The rest of the film had many conversations between Poitras and Snowden deciding how far they must go with the information.I liked this movie a lot because I thought it dealt with a lot of the topics we discussed during class.

During our Journalism lectures we hit on Watergate and the journalism coverage that revealed these government lies. I thought the movie “All the President’s Men” was extremely interesting and it gave me a deeper look into what happened with Watergate. First off, I liked how the movie set the scene right away and gave all the action to what actually happened with Watergate. I thought showing the Watergate hotel and everything that happened with the cops before anything else really set the scene. The rest of the movie then showed how Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the truth about Watergate. I liked the parts of the movie that showed a true investigative side to journalism. For example, when they would pin pieces of evidence or information on to a big bulletin board and then they would step back and try to connect the dots. I thought this movie was riveting and shows how a journalist can’t give up even when sources keep turning them away or the information is hard to uncover.

Spotlight follows the story of a team of Journalists from the Boston Globe investigating the Church and to get justice for the many children a priest had molested. This movie showed how hard a journalist must work to uncover the truth, especially if they feel passionately about the story they are trying to cover. The deeper these Journalist got into the story of what was going on with the priest and the members of his church they became even more invested and felt they couldn’t back down because then they wouldn’t be doing the job of what a Journalist is supposed to do. One of the scenes showed one of the journalists on the case becoming very emotional about the case and saying how the people molested by the priest could have been anyone or it could have even been some of the journalists when they were kids. This was his reason for wanting to pursue the story and expose the truth. I thought this showed a great example of why Journalists are willing to cover controversial stories even if there may be repercussions. Overall, I thought Spotlight showed the many different sides of Journalism and how by taking a big journalistic risk there could be a great reward in the end.

We are in a time where news is all around us. There are thousands of ways to consume media. I think that in this time of mass media consumption it is important to be even more  critical of journalistic pieces. In todays age a person can click on any story on Facebook that could be written by someone who is a except on the topic or an amateur who just wants to give their opinion. Readers should be double checking sources and not just taking one article on a specific topic as the only side of the story.I think society has the opportunity to become immersed in so much more information and to become for knowledgable than ever before. As long as society continues to be inquisitive and eager for truth journalism will become a greater tool for education.

People expect picking up medicine from their local pharmacy to be safe and handled by their pharmacist with care. According to an investigation done by the Chicago Tribune that might not always be the case. Many reporters from the Chicago Tribune helped test 255 stores in the Chicagoland area. They were testing to see how often these pharmacies would dispense two drugs that could be dangerous if paired together and not give the customer warning of the risk. One reporter from the Tribune went to a CVS pharmacy in Evanston to fill a prescription for an antibiotic and an anti-cholesterol drug. Separately there were minimal risks for these drugs but together they could lead to kidney failure or even death. The pharmacist dispensed these with without giving any information about the harm they could impose. This same scenario was tried by reporters in other stores across the Chicagoland area and the same result occurred. Of these 255 pharmacies personally tested by reporters, 52% of them filled prescription of drugs that could cause harm if taken together without giving the consumer any warnings. Tribune reporters noted that the geographic area of these stores had no effect on the results. Stores in low income areas had comparable negligence statistic to stores in high income areas. After these reports were release the Tribune reporters interviewed the pharmacists about their habits of filling prescriptions. After these interviews it was noticeable that across stores there was an emphasis on filling prescriptions with speed. This was seen to the reporters as a major component as to why so many of these pharmacists missed a critical part of their job. This 2-year long investigation uncovered major danger consumers could face when picking up pharmaceuticals and emphasizing the changes these stores need to make.

The former Baylor Assistant Athletic Director for Football Operations, Colin Shillinglaw, filed a libel suit against the university. Phillip Erickson, a writer for the Waco Tribune, reports that Shillinglaw will now be dropping these charges that he had filed earlier this year. The lawsuit was originally filed against the university, interim President David Garland, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Reagan Ramsower, board of regents Chairman Ron Murff, and regents J. Cary Gray, David Harper and Dennis Wiles, and the law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP. Shillinglaw was suing these people for narrating that he his administration covered up crimes and he did not take proper measures in reporting sexual assault committed by football players. He felt a libel suit was necessary at the time because he would have to spend much of his time and money undoing the damage the administrators and Pepper Hamilton Law Firm had done to his reputation. The former Baylor employee claims these were false and defamatory statements made about him. According to Shillinglaw’s lawyer, they are now dropping these charges in expectation of getting justice outside the courts through arbitration. Arbitration will hopefully bring the guilty to be responsible for their actions.

Kids, students, business professionals, and even grandparents alike are tied down to their technology every single day. Technology is being over used to the point where it is excessive and has exceeded its purpose. The greatest distraction in society is technology. It takes away from being truly immersed in the people, things, and events going on in day to day life. There are benefits from technology but only when technology is used in appropriate settings and used for appropriate time periods. Ross Douthat, a write for The New York Times, urges society to begin creating a social movement in where technology is seen as unacceptable in various social settings. For example, he suggests restaurants get bins that people are expected put their phones in as they enter. He also suggests the creation of norms where using technology isn’t accepted. For example, checking emails in meetings or the use of cell phones in libraries, museums, and cathedrals. There are also harsher things that can be done and a lot of it starts with children so they don’t start off so early as dependent on technology. Douthat feels that technology should be taken out of elementary schools, the age for creating a Facebook profile should be raised from thirteen to sixteen, and young children should be banned from gaming networks. Children need to experience the world in real life before seeing the world from the a digital perspective. Technology will always be in our society and it will continue to evolve. What is important is that we evolve with it and as a whole realize there a times when technology makes us better and times when it makes us worse. Usage norms need to be adapted to diminish the addiction of technology.

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