Introduction to Journalism

Journalism and the media have helped shaped history in many ways. One of the impacts journalism has had is in terms of social justice. The media has the advantage to stand up to public figures or publicize social injustice. There are many cases that the media has been able to help a situation because of their accessibility to the public.

There are many other cases that where journalism has impacted history, such as financially and showing how words can make a difference more than actions in some cases. Including these connections, and many more, one of the biggest impacts journalism has made is publicizing the truth. There are many cases throughout history, where media brings attention to the truth, even when it is not the most desirable news to bring light to.  Journalism gives many the opportunity to make information known or raise awareness for issues.

I think that news is very important to society. There is an importance to know what is happening around the world and domestically because it affects a lot of people. Sometimes, I think the news will lead the audience to believe something specific. That is one aspect of journalism that is not my favorite. It is very hard not to be biased when telling a story,  but the audience needs to form their own opinions based on facts. Legal cases are a specific example of how news may lead their audience to find someone to be guilty when legally a citizen is innocent until proven guilty. Besides biased reporting, I think the news is important to society and is not appreciated by many as much as it should be.

The recent Pulitzer Prize winner, Eric Eyre, received an award for his investigative journalism on drug crimes in West Virginia. With Part 1 and Part 2, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports on a series of overdoses due to OxyContain.

Eyre reports information such as, “out-of-state drug companies shipped nearly 9 million highly addictive…hydrocodone pills over two years to a single pharmacy in the Mingo County town,” and, “Mingo County has the fourth-highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the United States,” (Eyre 2016). With a simple statistics, he is able to start building his case.

His trail follows interviews with family members of drug overdoses, information from the DEA, and utilizing legal information using the Freedom of Information Act.

Eyre was able to uncover the reason behind many drug overdoses in Mingo County of West Virginia using investigative journalism techniques.

Sources:

• http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-health/20161217/drug-firms-poured-780m-painkillers-into-wv-amid-rise-of-overdoses
• http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-health/20161218/suspicious-drug-order-rules-never-enforced-by-state

Quartz Media talks about an aspect of media law in the article “A Strategic Guide to Navigating the Law Like Donald Trump.” The textbook describes how libel can be a big problem in the media world. Quartz writes about many of Donald Trump’s tweets which can be considered libel. The topic of these tweets includes wiretapping and surveillance.  The article continues describing how Trump maneuvers the law, in terms of the media.

I thought the idea behind the post was very interesting. It is basically stating that Trump in harming his own credibility with his excessive tweets, making almost all information stated invalid. Ephrat Livni, the article’s author, phrased it really well when he said, “Trump’s tweets—both substantively and in terms of volume—make it difficult to take him seriously, which works in his favor,” (Livni 2017). In a way, it’s ingenious that Trump can now same almost anything with no consequences because of what he has done to his own credibility.

 

Sources:

• Quartz Media https://qz.com/935534/a-strategic-guide-to-navigating-the-law-like-donald-trump/
• Craft, Stephanie, and Charles N. Davis. Principles of American Journalism: An Introduction. New York ; London: Routledge, Taylor Et Francis Group, 2016. Print.

The University of Illinois Illini Republicans have received a lot of heat recently due to their “Affirmative Action Bake Sale.” Fox News Illinois recently published an article covering the topic.

The bake sale will charge customers based on ethnicity or gender. “True equality cannot be achieved so long as we are judging individuals not by concrete qualifications or character traits,” the club quotes on their facebook page.

I personally do not agree with affirmative action. However, I think this bake sale is not the right way to draw attention to the issue. The Illini Republicans have definitely drawn attention to affirmative action, but I think they approached it in a way that many found offensive. There also seems to be a mistranslation between what affirmative action actually is and the way the bake sale is being handled. Overall, I agree that affirmative action is an issue that needs to be addressed, but the bake sale does not seem like the right way to do it.

Snapchat Spectacles are the newest craze in the social media industry. An article in The Jakarta Post gives readers a “quick guide” on how to use the new piece of technology.  The Spectacles by Snap Inc. gives Snapchat users an innovative way to make content for Snapchat.

The article provides insight that these spectacles can be purchased on the product’s website or through other suppliers like Amazon.  They can also be purchased at Snapbots, which the author describes as, “vending machines that wouldn’t stay in one place for more than a day.” The article includes a post on Instagram from the company that features an image of a Snapbot.

With a brief description on how much the Spectacles cost, the article continues to explain what devices the glasses are compatible with.

The guide is concluded with an explanation of how to use the product. Users link the Spectacles to their Snapchat account. With a button on the side of the glasses, users can capture Snapchat videos with a camera inside the glasses. The Spectacles by Snap Inc. are a trendy new way for users to post on Snapchat!

 

 

Sources:

• http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2017/02/23/a-quick-guide-to-snapchat-spectacles.html

The CBS Evening News on Thursday, February 8, 2017, discussed news that was mostly related to politics, specifically, President Trump. There were also smaller stories that were discussed more briefly.

The values that defined “news” during the program where mostly conflict related which included topics that are controversial or out of the ordinary. With a wide range of stories, from politics to health, the focus was mostly on the conflict that each story supplied. There we other stories that discussed impact, one related to a recent tornado that went through New Orleans.

An example of a news value that was discussed in class and used in the program is conflict. Nancy Cordes was just one of the reporters in the program to explain and elaborate on the conflict happening in the senate between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Elizabeth Warren, among other democrats. This was just one example of the how the values discussed in class were used in the news but oddity, and human interest were other values that were emphasized in the news program.