1)Blog Proj Top 3;
The Daily Mississippian; University of Mississippi
The Wagnerian, Wagner College
The Dartmouth; Dartmouth College
2. Report on 2 interesting elements of the chapter and help explain why those elements are important.
I think that citizen journalism for the public domain is good and very interesting to me because it’s like an open journal where people can write about what they are interested in and report on those topics. This makes their news more local and direct to one area and makes it probably more reliable. This is important so that the public can report and the journalism companies don’t need to hire more staff they can have freelancers. I think it’s important because if you are knowledgeable about something and are local and in the area this means you can report on it. Especially if it affects you directly. Another element that I found interesting was the ethics bit. I found it interesting because I see a very clear answer for that and I don’t understand how it is a question of whether or not reporters should be fired after the first infraction. I feel like it would be different in this case if the reporter had caught the misinformation themselves and then rewrote the piece and apologized. But it seemed very much on purpose in this case, since it has been “36 articles” and more plagiarism. I think a way to prevent this is to have the professor teach them not to plagiarize and fabricate the truth and the facts of an article. There is a reason for peer review in scientific papers. I feel like it is the same for reporting, it needs to be credible and reliable facts it is important because then what is the news, if its not reliable.
3. Begin brainstorming on a feature story you’d like to work on: this will most likely be a local (campus) story.
What interests you?
Campus safety
Who would you need to talk to tell the story?
Security
peers
What is important for the reader to know?
How to be safe on campus
I thought that the distinction between hard and soft news was both important and interesting in this chapter. You’d think that newspapers would be focused mostly on “hard” news, but it seems like most are a mix of hard and soft stories. Distinguishing between the two is essential for determining the way the article is written as well as your journalistic approach; you need to approach a soft story in a different way than a hard news article. I think another interesting point from the reading was the section about the qualities of news, describing certain things a story can/must have to be a proper news story. Portions such as describing how timely a news story has to be as well as it’s relevance to the community of readers are important to all stories, but qualities such as being a human interest, novel/strange story or entertainment value are less vital but still inform how one could put together a story about a myriad of topics. Most importantly, this chapter describes the importance of news as a multimedia phenomenon in our current society/times. Now, instead of there being a newspaper where you get all your news, there are a bevy of different sources, all offering different perspectives and inherent advantages and disadvantages. An essential part of a successful news story today is multimedia elements, such as being published in both paper newspapers and on your website, but also offering an element of interactivity, live news, and making it easier to update the story as it develops. Overall, news is changing in it’s delivery, and understanding what makes a successful news story in our times increasingly involves understanding multimedia components of news.
The first factor that I found interesting about this reading was intense changes that have taken place in the reporting industry since the development of the internet. I have no perception of what the news industry may have looked like before technology as I was not alive, but this portion of the reading gave me a good idea. Technology has changed not only the way news is consumed, but also the way that newsrooms are organized and staffed. Everything about news has changed, from its’ delivery to its’ staffing, and I am curious to explore more changes in news that technology may have been a part of.
Another interesting point in the reading, which is closely related to my first point, is the use of social media for citizen journalism. I have never given the idea that I have my own journalistic platform a second thought, as this has always been my reality. I can post what I want, and have it seen by people all around the world. However, there was a time where only certain people had platforms, and they were vetted and had the correct background. However, the concept of citizen journalism is interesting to me because it means that anyone can post anything, regardless of their knowledge or background, and they have a platform to have their work read. I think that this concept has a lot of pros and cons, and it would be interesting to explore deeper.
Brainstorm: The sucess of UNE football- The road to the first winning season in program History
interview coaches and players, fans, school faculty. Its important for the reader to know that UNE football has been around for about 7 years. They have great recruitung and competitive athletes and its impressive how well they contend.
2 things: Humans will always have an interest on stories about humans and how they face problems, achievements and conflict. It is because these are special or notable problems that concern everyone. The second being that smartphones and the internet elevated how news companies deliver their news. This is how they transitioned into internet news.
During the reading of chapter one of WaRN I found a couple of interesting things. First, I thought that the breakdown of social media and technology and the effect they are currently having in the news world and how we as people are able to get news much easier because of the access that we all have to a phone or a laptop and how easy it has become to obtain news from different sources and outlets. I also liked how it talked about how our definitions of news are changing because of the surge in technology that we are living in. I guess something that I never thought of when it comes to social media and how we as viewers are now able to help create and collect news. I do think however that while the decline in physical copies of newspapers is unfortunate, I think it is far more convenient and useful for us to get our news from technology strictly because of how often we use it. Gone are the days where people sit around in the morning in the break rooms and read the newspaper because it has become easier to just pull out your phone and scroll through social media or a newspaper app on your phone or even listen to the tv or radio in the morning to obtain the same information. Another point that I found interesting was how jobs of news reporters have changed because of what we now have as online news. It has become easier for someone working to upload news throughout the day with things like twitter. Reporters are now able to continuously make posts and update viewers on the happening of a big event just by being on their phone which is extremely beneficial for news stations as their process has become expedited in breaking news to people. Also, I found the part about news stories now being a nonlinear structure was interesting to me because I’ve never looked at it in depth like that.
This chapter covered the basics of Journalism and the different types and struggles that come with it. A few things caught my eye; first I noticed the Pay Wall. I connected this with the New York Times subscription and their five article policy. Last year for a class, I needed to use multiple articles from this site but ran into a road block when after maxing out my free news. The site was blocking access to certain content and required a cost to unlock it. This was interesting to me because while I am aware of the income loss news organizations face in the digital age, it was still frustrating. I ended up paying the fee anyways but it begs the question, if the NYT can charge a fee online, what else may be limited online in the future? Another thing that struck me as challenging with online news was the timeliness of information being released. It makes sense that organizations want to release breaking news with a general understanding of the situation as soon as it happens but this can lead to key information left out. This means readers aren’t getting the full story but a glimpse of it. Later on, if they want an update on the situation they can find related links. It’s important to get some sort of news out so viewers can tune in and have a basic awareness of happenings, similar with TV news. They provide what they know at the time for viewers and give updates as new information is released. While this isn’t a perfect process, it shows the importance of getting information correct and reporting quality rather than quantity.
Report on two interesting elements of the chapter and help explain why those two elements are important.
One of the first topics of chapter 1 that stuck out to me was the discussion of social media and the rise of social networking through social media. Following this idea they touched on some of the ways that social media sites are changing journalism. The points of changing journalism they brought up were the ideas of new job positions, changing the access journalists have to tips and the increase of participation from readers and viewers. I find this to be interesting because I tend to have more traditional views and tend to be wary of change especially through social media. This topic makes me wonder what the rise of social media has impacted on journalists and their personal opinions on the evolution of journalism. (page 4)
On page 8 of chapter one there was a quote that really stood out to me, ““I worry that journalistic standards are dropping in that blogging and celebrity gossip and tweets are being confused with reporting and editing that passes a rig-orous standard,” one broadcast executive wrote. A newspaper editor concurred and added, “There is too much emphasis, I believe, on getting information fast even at the expense of accuracy, thoroughness and fairness.”’ This really ties into what I was talking about in my previous point and this is where my worries lie with the growth and evolution of social media tying into journalism, I really do see how in some aspects the media can be a tool but I am also so aware of the harm it can cause and the integrity that it can diminish.
One of the topics that I found to be interesting was the Impact section. Reaction stories to the news events or news angles that affect readers’ impact, especially when major national stories or any tragedies that occur in any community” (Pg 12 Par 1). When a disaster happens, everyone wants to know about it. Not only that, they want to know how they can prevent anything from happening to them or their families. It opened my eyes realizing how important the news really can be.
Another topic that I found unique about the chapter was the Media Coverage section. In today’s age every coverage isn’t just paper with ink anymore. More people than not read the news on their phone or ipad in todays age. With that they got advantages, such as audio clips, videos, and more.
Within our course textbook, Writing & Reporting the News (WaRN), the first chapter looked at how to conceptualize this idea of news today and consider the various forms, terminology, and progression it has taken. One thing that I was very interested in from our last reading by Carey and found myself drawn to within this chapter was the concept of immediacy in the news. As the chapter outlines on numerous occasions, simply the form of our news changing from solely print to print and digital to now mostly digital and to go one step further, via social media, brought up the idea of how our priorities surrounding news/journalism may have shifted. As the chapter alleges, should we have immediacy at the expense of “accuracy, thoroughness, and fairness…”(8)? Thinking back to even just the last 20 years, I believe there is a conversation to be had regarding values such as this — is that immediacy and incredible access that has ensued worth perhaps less in-depth, authoritative pieces? Another section within Chapter 1 I found compelling was the conversation around hard vs. soft news as it relates to some of what we discussed in class – there is the news that saves thousands from an earthquake, and there is the news from the Cannes Film Festival. But what I found interesting and in the spirit of intersectionality was how they can complement each other and perhaps even in the same story. It brings to mind the recent Oscars, undoubtedly soft news, with Lily Gladstone being the first Native American to be nominated for a lead role, which also brings in the potential to highlight some hard news on the state of Indigenous peoples of this country and their struggles. I like to think that journalism can still provide a space to deliver the most accurate sense of reporting but can expand into making those artistic writing maneuvers to shed light on deeper issues.
I found the section about objectivity to be especially interesting, considering the current news climate we find ourselves in. In the late 2010’s and current 2020’s,after the coining of the term “fake news”, I feel that the balance between opinion and fact in the news is especially fragile. Learning about how journalists use the context of a situation to remain more objective was fascinating, because I do think that method could help the journalist achieve this objectivity and also help the reader more thoroughly understand the article. Similarly, the factor of reliability that comes with being a renowned journalist is interesting to me, I think because becoming successful as a journalist is all about having that reputation.
I also found the different types of deadlines to be very fascinating, especially because they cater so directly to the audience in such a unique way. I kind of connect this aspect of the chapter to the concept of monetizing events in real time, which is also a relatively new idea, considering a few decades ago, newspapers were our fastest source of news.
One of the first topics of chapter 1 that stuck out to me was the discussion of social media and the rise of social networking through social media. Following this idea they touched on some of the ways that social media sites are changing journalism. The points of changing journalism they brought up were the ideas of new job positions, changing the access journalists have to tips and the increase of participation from readers and viewers. I find this to be interesting because I tend to have more traditional views and tend to be wary of change especially through social media. This topic makes me wonder what the rise of social media has impacted on journalists and their personal opinions on the evolution of journalism. (page 4)
On page 8 of chapter one there was a quote that really stood out to me, ““I worry that journalistic standards are dropping in that blogging and celebrity gossip and tweets are being confused with reporting and editing that passes a rig-orous standard,” one broadcast executive wrote. A newspaper editor concurred and added, “There is too much emphasis, I believe, on getting information fast even at the expense of accuracy, thoroughness and fairness.”’ This really ties into what I was talking about in my previous point and this is where my worries lie with the growth and evolution of social media tying into journalism, I really do see how in some aspects the media can be a tool but I am also so aware of the harm it can cause and the integrity that it can diminish.
I think the inclusion of sound bites is very interesting. I’ve seen them sparingly in online journal entries and I will say that most of the time I just ignore them, but it’s interesting to be able to hear information directly from the person being interviewed, even if most of the time simply quoting the person in text is sufficient. I also believe the use of tone is something that’s very hard to portray in journalistic writing when working with quotes, and sound bites definitely bypass this issue.
Another thing I find interesting is the summary blurb. I always have trouble summarizing what I write or create, but it certainly helps readers decide whether or not they want to read a given article. In some cases, I’d even argue that it’s more important than whatever hook or opening line you can write for a journal article. Readers will generally read the title of a piece and then the shortest text blurb they see, which usually tends to be this.
The concepts of “hard” versus “soft” news stood out to me. I had never thought to differentiate between breaking news and other news. This is also interesting not as a journalist but as a reader—How much hard vs. soft news do I consume? Is it my duty to ingest breaking news more often than I do, or vice versa? I also find it fascinating that there is hardly any distinction between gossip blogging and celebrity news and respected journalism, like war journalism or political journalism.
I think that the 24-hour news story led by the community talked about in the very beginning if this chapter is so interesting, because the text uses it as a way to showcase how media and news is changing and by the rest of the text it feels like it’s trying to say that this change is becoming more the norm, but I personally don’t believe that many news stations would allow for their network to be dictated by the common people, a feel like this situation that is describe soes feel very experimental and new, and a very good way to integrate the people into the news in an interactive way, but I can’t see that happening today.
This text goes on to talk about the changing landscape in media and how news is delivered and I think it hits a lot of really interesting things that I don’t think about in my day to day as being news pathways, such blogging, blogging to me has always seemed to be a more personal smaller thing, and my perception of the news and of media was a large one, but blogging really is basically personal journalism and I never really thought about it like that until reading this chapter
Multimedia is a multifaceted tool for journalists worldwide. Mainly for audience outreach purposes, utilizing different formats encourages reader engagement. The Lawrence-Journal World demonstrates the benefits of combining journalism mediums by including TV, newspapers, websites, apps, blogs, etcetera, partially made from the people of the town whose stories may have otherwise been mundane. Media convergence is vital to keeping the art of journalism alive, and it is remarkable to see the support from the Lawrence community this news outlet received. Including more than one technology format interacts with an array of audiences who have their preferences of how they receive their news. Journalists must be well-versed in multiple writing mediums and topics to be successful. Outlets additionally associate with other companies to ensure the production of high-quality products. More recently, technology has transformed journalism into a new business entirely. While it is a more interactive interface, there is a surplus of auxiliaries that may not always be beneficial. News on the internet has created an accelerated need for news and minute-to-minute updates, resulting in a potentially stressful environment for modern journalists. The structure of the work is heavily altered and generally up for interpretation, causing the readers to be split between stories. There is also the ever-present ‘related links’ section of news websites that may only loosely correlate to the content of the article read prior. The internet is a never-ending mechanism that continues to grow daily, and it is wise to ensure one is selective in their journalism perusing process.
The first interesting element that I want to discuss from the chapter the quote in the social media box that states “More people can communicate more things to more people than has ever been possible in the past, and the size and speed of this increase, from under one million participants to over one billion in a generation, makes the change unprecedented, even considered against the background of previous revolutions in communications tools.” We have entered a new era of communication and one really crazy thing to think about for me is the fact that we take in more information in one day than somebody did in their whole life span back in the 17th century. In fact scientists did a study where they found that the average human is exposed to 74GB of information in one day (that is as much as watching 16 movies) Even back in 2011 Americans were taking in five times as much information every day as they did in 1986. My question is, is there such a thing as too much information or is too much information always better than not enough? I think the proof is in the putting attention spans are going down the toilet and we only retain about 10% of the information that we are exposed to already. Another interesting thing about this topic is also the fact that different things stick out to different people so something that one person might forget in an hour another might remember for the rest of their lives. So maybe the information overload is actually a good thing because of differences in people’s personalities, cultures and morals. Like for me when I see a Nat Geo article I usually stop and read the whole thing while another person who doesn’t care as much about animals or the environment might just skim through the article or skip it completely. The other interesting element in the reading that I want to discuss is “how are regular people making and changing the news?” This is a loaded question. To start, regular people have forever changed the delivery of news. Declining newspaper circulation, forced news organizations to expand ways to interest readers and viewers which forced the creation of all the different news outlets we know and love today such as Blogs, Podcasts and Social Media.
16 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 3”
Journal #3
1)Blog Proj Top 3;
The Daily Mississippian; University of Mississippi
The Wagnerian, Wagner College
The Dartmouth; Dartmouth College
2. Report on 2 interesting elements of the chapter and help explain why those elements are important.
I think that citizen journalism for the public domain is good and very interesting to me because it’s like an open journal where people can write about what they are interested in and report on those topics. This makes their news more local and direct to one area and makes it probably more reliable. This is important so that the public can report and the journalism companies don’t need to hire more staff they can have freelancers. I think it’s important because if you are knowledgeable about something and are local and in the area this means you can report on it. Especially if it affects you directly. Another element that I found interesting was the ethics bit. I found it interesting because I see a very clear answer for that and I don’t understand how it is a question of whether or not reporters should be fired after the first infraction. I feel like it would be different in this case if the reporter had caught the misinformation themselves and then rewrote the piece and apologized. But it seemed very much on purpose in this case, since it has been “36 articles” and more plagiarism. I think a way to prevent this is to have the professor teach them not to plagiarize and fabricate the truth and the facts of an article. There is a reason for peer review in scientific papers. I feel like it is the same for reporting, it needs to be credible and reliable facts it is important because then what is the news, if its not reliable.
3. Begin brainstorming on a feature story you’d like to work on: this will most likely be a local (campus) story.
What interests you?
Campus safety
Who would you need to talk to tell the story?
Security
peers
What is important for the reader to know?
How to be safe on campus
I thought that the distinction between hard and soft news was both important and interesting in this chapter. You’d think that newspapers would be focused mostly on “hard” news, but it seems like most are a mix of hard and soft stories. Distinguishing between the two is essential for determining the way the article is written as well as your journalistic approach; you need to approach a soft story in a different way than a hard news article. I think another interesting point from the reading was the section about the qualities of news, describing certain things a story can/must have to be a proper news story. Portions such as describing how timely a news story has to be as well as it’s relevance to the community of readers are important to all stories, but qualities such as being a human interest, novel/strange story or entertainment value are less vital but still inform how one could put together a story about a myriad of topics. Most importantly, this chapter describes the importance of news as a multimedia phenomenon in our current society/times. Now, instead of there being a newspaper where you get all your news, there are a bevy of different sources, all offering different perspectives and inherent advantages and disadvantages. An essential part of a successful news story today is multimedia elements, such as being published in both paper newspapers and on your website, but also offering an element of interactivity, live news, and making it easier to update the story as it develops. Overall, news is changing in it’s delivery, and understanding what makes a successful news story in our times increasingly involves understanding multimedia components of news.
The first factor that I found interesting about this reading was intense changes that have taken place in the reporting industry since the development of the internet. I have no perception of what the news industry may have looked like before technology as I was not alive, but this portion of the reading gave me a good idea. Technology has changed not only the way news is consumed, but also the way that newsrooms are organized and staffed. Everything about news has changed, from its’ delivery to its’ staffing, and I am curious to explore more changes in news that technology may have been a part of.
Another interesting point in the reading, which is closely related to my first point, is the use of social media for citizen journalism. I have never given the idea that I have my own journalistic platform a second thought, as this has always been my reality. I can post what I want, and have it seen by people all around the world. However, there was a time where only certain people had platforms, and they were vetted and had the correct background. However, the concept of citizen journalism is interesting to me because it means that anyone can post anything, regardless of their knowledge or background, and they have a platform to have their work read. I think that this concept has a lot of pros and cons, and it would be interesting to explore deeper.
Brainstorm: The sucess of UNE football- The road to the first winning season in program History
interview coaches and players, fans, school faculty. Its important for the reader to know that UNE football has been around for about 7 years. They have great recruitung and competitive athletes and its impressive how well they contend.
2 things: Humans will always have an interest on stories about humans and how they face problems, achievements and conflict. It is because these are special or notable problems that concern everyone. The second being that smartphones and the internet elevated how news companies deliver their news. This is how they transitioned into internet news.
During the reading of chapter one of WaRN I found a couple of interesting things. First, I thought that the breakdown of social media and technology and the effect they are currently having in the news world and how we as people are able to get news much easier because of the access that we all have to a phone or a laptop and how easy it has become to obtain news from different sources and outlets. I also liked how it talked about how our definitions of news are changing because of the surge in technology that we are living in. I guess something that I never thought of when it comes to social media and how we as viewers are now able to help create and collect news. I do think however that while the decline in physical copies of newspapers is unfortunate, I think it is far more convenient and useful for us to get our news from technology strictly because of how often we use it. Gone are the days where people sit around in the morning in the break rooms and read the newspaper because it has become easier to just pull out your phone and scroll through social media or a newspaper app on your phone or even listen to the tv or radio in the morning to obtain the same information. Another point that I found interesting was how jobs of news reporters have changed because of what we now have as online news. It has become easier for someone working to upload news throughout the day with things like twitter. Reporters are now able to continuously make posts and update viewers on the happening of a big event just by being on their phone which is extremely beneficial for news stations as their process has become expedited in breaking news to people. Also, I found the part about news stories now being a nonlinear structure was interesting to me because I’ve never looked at it in depth like that.
This chapter covered the basics of Journalism and the different types and struggles that come with it. A few things caught my eye; first I noticed the Pay Wall. I connected this with the New York Times subscription and their five article policy. Last year for a class, I needed to use multiple articles from this site but ran into a road block when after maxing out my free news. The site was blocking access to certain content and required a cost to unlock it. This was interesting to me because while I am aware of the income loss news organizations face in the digital age, it was still frustrating. I ended up paying the fee anyways but it begs the question, if the NYT can charge a fee online, what else may be limited online in the future? Another thing that struck me as challenging with online news was the timeliness of information being released. It makes sense that organizations want to release breaking news with a general understanding of the situation as soon as it happens but this can lead to key information left out. This means readers aren’t getting the full story but a glimpse of it. Later on, if they want an update on the situation they can find related links. It’s important to get some sort of news out so viewers can tune in and have a basic awareness of happenings, similar with TV news. They provide what they know at the time for viewers and give updates as new information is released. While this isn’t a perfect process, it shows the importance of getting information correct and reporting quality rather than quantity.
Report on two interesting elements of the chapter and help explain why those two elements are important.
One of the first topics of chapter 1 that stuck out to me was the discussion of social media and the rise of social networking through social media. Following this idea they touched on some of the ways that social media sites are changing journalism. The points of changing journalism they brought up were the ideas of new job positions, changing the access journalists have to tips and the increase of participation from readers and viewers. I find this to be interesting because I tend to have more traditional views and tend to be wary of change especially through social media. This topic makes me wonder what the rise of social media has impacted on journalists and their personal opinions on the evolution of journalism. (page 4)
On page 8 of chapter one there was a quote that really stood out to me, ““I worry that journalistic standards are dropping in that blogging and celebrity gossip and tweets are being confused with reporting and editing that passes a rig-orous standard,” one broadcast executive wrote. A newspaper editor concurred and added, “There is too much emphasis, I believe, on getting information fast even at the expense of accuracy, thoroughness and fairness.”’ This really ties into what I was talking about in my previous point and this is where my worries lie with the growth and evolution of social media tying into journalism, I really do see how in some aspects the media can be a tool but I am also so aware of the harm it can cause and the integrity that it can diminish.
Wesley Chandler
Professor Miller
1/25/24
One of the topics that I found to be interesting was the Impact section. Reaction stories to the news events or news angles that affect readers’ impact, especially when major national stories or any tragedies that occur in any community” (Pg 12 Par 1). When a disaster happens, everyone wants to know about it. Not only that, they want to know how they can prevent anything from happening to them or their families. It opened my eyes realizing how important the news really can be.
Another topic that I found unique about the chapter was the Media Coverage section. In today’s age every coverage isn’t just paper with ink anymore. More people than not read the news on their phone or ipad in todays age. With that they got advantages, such as audio clips, videos, and more.
Within our course textbook, Writing & Reporting the News (WaRN), the first chapter looked at how to conceptualize this idea of news today and consider the various forms, terminology, and progression it has taken. One thing that I was very interested in from our last reading by Carey and found myself drawn to within this chapter was the concept of immediacy in the news. As the chapter outlines on numerous occasions, simply the form of our news changing from solely print to print and digital to now mostly digital and to go one step further, via social media, brought up the idea of how our priorities surrounding news/journalism may have shifted. As the chapter alleges, should we have immediacy at the expense of “accuracy, thoroughness, and fairness…”(8)? Thinking back to even just the last 20 years, I believe there is a conversation to be had regarding values such as this — is that immediacy and incredible access that has ensued worth perhaps less in-depth, authoritative pieces? Another section within Chapter 1 I found compelling was the conversation around hard vs. soft news as it relates to some of what we discussed in class – there is the news that saves thousands from an earthquake, and there is the news from the Cannes Film Festival. But what I found interesting and in the spirit of intersectionality was how they can complement each other and perhaps even in the same story. It brings to mind the recent Oscars, undoubtedly soft news, with Lily Gladstone being the first Native American to be nominated for a lead role, which also brings in the potential to highlight some hard news on the state of Indigenous peoples of this country and their struggles. I like to think that journalism can still provide a space to deliver the most accurate sense of reporting but can expand into making those artistic writing maneuvers to shed light on deeper issues.
I found the section about objectivity to be especially interesting, considering the current news climate we find ourselves in. In the late 2010’s and current 2020’s,after the coining of the term “fake news”, I feel that the balance between opinion and fact in the news is especially fragile. Learning about how journalists use the context of a situation to remain more objective was fascinating, because I do think that method could help the journalist achieve this objectivity and also help the reader more thoroughly understand the article. Similarly, the factor of reliability that comes with being a renowned journalist is interesting to me, I think because becoming successful as a journalist is all about having that reputation.
I also found the different types of deadlines to be very fascinating, especially because they cater so directly to the audience in such a unique way. I kind of connect this aspect of the chapter to the concept of monetizing events in real time, which is also a relatively new idea, considering a few decades ago, newspapers were our fastest source of news.
One of the first topics of chapter 1 that stuck out to me was the discussion of social media and the rise of social networking through social media. Following this idea they touched on some of the ways that social media sites are changing journalism. The points of changing journalism they brought up were the ideas of new job positions, changing the access journalists have to tips and the increase of participation from readers and viewers. I find this to be interesting because I tend to have more traditional views and tend to be wary of change especially through social media. This topic makes me wonder what the rise of social media has impacted on journalists and their personal opinions on the evolution of journalism. (page 4)
On page 8 of chapter one there was a quote that really stood out to me, ““I worry that journalistic standards are dropping in that blogging and celebrity gossip and tweets are being confused with reporting and editing that passes a rig-orous standard,” one broadcast executive wrote. A newspaper editor concurred and added, “There is too much emphasis, I believe, on getting information fast even at the expense of accuracy, thoroughness and fairness.”’ This really ties into what I was talking about in my previous point and this is where my worries lie with the growth and evolution of social media tying into journalism, I really do see how in some aspects the media can be a tool but I am also so aware of the harm it can cause and the integrity that it can diminish.
I think the inclusion of sound bites is very interesting. I’ve seen them sparingly in online journal entries and I will say that most of the time I just ignore them, but it’s interesting to be able to hear information directly from the person being interviewed, even if most of the time simply quoting the person in text is sufficient. I also believe the use of tone is something that’s very hard to portray in journalistic writing when working with quotes, and sound bites definitely bypass this issue.
Another thing I find interesting is the summary blurb. I always have trouble summarizing what I write or create, but it certainly helps readers decide whether or not they want to read a given article. In some cases, I’d even argue that it’s more important than whatever hook or opening line you can write for a journal article. Readers will generally read the title of a piece and then the shortest text blurb they see, which usually tends to be this.
The concepts of “hard” versus “soft” news stood out to me. I had never thought to differentiate between breaking news and other news. This is also interesting not as a journalist but as a reader—How much hard vs. soft news do I consume? Is it my duty to ingest breaking news more often than I do, or vice versa? I also find it fascinating that there is hardly any distinction between gossip blogging and celebrity news and respected journalism, like war journalism or political journalism.
I think that the 24-hour news story led by the community talked about in the very beginning if this chapter is so interesting, because the text uses it as a way to showcase how media and news is changing and by the rest of the text it feels like it’s trying to say that this change is becoming more the norm, but I personally don’t believe that many news stations would allow for their network to be dictated by the common people, a feel like this situation that is describe soes feel very experimental and new, and a very good way to integrate the people into the news in an interactive way, but I can’t see that happening today.
This text goes on to talk about the changing landscape in media and how news is delivered and I think it hits a lot of really interesting things that I don’t think about in my day to day as being news pathways, such blogging, blogging to me has always seemed to be a more personal smaller thing, and my perception of the news and of media was a large one, but blogging really is basically personal journalism and I never really thought about it like that until reading this chapter
Multimedia is a multifaceted tool for journalists worldwide. Mainly for audience outreach purposes, utilizing different formats encourages reader engagement. The Lawrence-Journal World demonstrates the benefits of combining journalism mediums by including TV, newspapers, websites, apps, blogs, etcetera, partially made from the people of the town whose stories may have otherwise been mundane. Media convergence is vital to keeping the art of journalism alive, and it is remarkable to see the support from the Lawrence community this news outlet received. Including more than one technology format interacts with an array of audiences who have their preferences of how they receive their news. Journalists must be well-versed in multiple writing mediums and topics to be successful. Outlets additionally associate with other companies to ensure the production of high-quality products. More recently, technology has transformed journalism into a new business entirely. While it is a more interactive interface, there is a surplus of auxiliaries that may not always be beneficial. News on the internet has created an accelerated need for news and minute-to-minute updates, resulting in a potentially stressful environment for modern journalists. The structure of the work is heavily altered and generally up for interpretation, causing the readers to be split between stories. There is also the ever-present ‘related links’ section of news websites that may only loosely correlate to the content of the article read prior. The internet is a never-ending mechanism that continues to grow daily, and it is wise to ensure one is selective in their journalism perusing process.
The first interesting element that I want to discuss from the chapter the quote in the social media box that states “More people can communicate more things to more people than has ever been possible in the past, and the size and speed of this increase, from under one million participants to over one billion in a generation, makes the change unprecedented, even considered against the background of previous revolutions in communications tools.” We have entered a new era of communication and one really crazy thing to think about for me is the fact that we take in more information in one day than somebody did in their whole life span back in the 17th century. In fact scientists did a study where they found that the average human is exposed to 74GB of information in one day (that is as much as watching 16 movies) Even back in 2011 Americans were taking in five times as much information every day as they did in 1986. My question is, is there such a thing as too much information or is too much information always better than not enough? I think the proof is in the putting attention spans are going down the toilet and we only retain about 10% of the information that we are exposed to already. Another interesting thing about this topic is also the fact that different things stick out to different people so something that one person might forget in an hour another might remember for the rest of their lives. So maybe the information overload is actually a good thing because of differences in people’s personalities, cultures and morals. Like for me when I see a Nat Geo article I usually stop and read the whole thing while another person who doesn’t care as much about animals or the environment might just skim through the article or skip it completely. The other interesting element in the reading that I want to discuss is “how are regular people making and changing the news?” This is a loaded question. To start, regular people have forever changed the delivery of news. Declining newspaper circulation, forced news organizations to expand ways to interest readers and viewers which forced the creation of all the different news outlets we know and love today such as Blogs, Podcasts and Social Media.