It's What I Do Analysis

“Silence can become complicity in oppression,” articulated Carol Guzy, as her eyes, filled with compassion and wisdom, scanned the audience. A four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, she radiated ethos, and my fellow National Youth Correspondents at the Washington Journalism and Media Conference soaked up every carefully crafted word. She touched on what it means to wield a camera or a pen to fight for the things others would wield a gun to defend, and how personal values make the journalist, not expensive technology or flashy gimmicks. During the half hour she spoke I realized that the personal impact journalism has is just as important as the societal effect. Carol Guzy’s voice was shown in images of tragedy-stricken places: New Orleans in 2005, Haiti in 2010; mine is shown in the words I string together as I try to better understand the world around me.

Many are rich many are poor many have money many don’t. Have you ever had a moment where you did something selfish for desperation of money and karma hit you right back with a right hook?. And felt regret towards yourself. In the short story “Why, You Reckon” the author uses irony and dialogue, to show the audience that money can't buy happiness.

News organizations that report on stories in a fair, balanced and ethical manner are essential to the functionality of this nation. A citizen’s ability to make well-informed decisions hinges on a news organization’s ability to relay the most accurate information regarding the state of the nation, the changing condition of communities, and adjustments in the government. Journalism is no longer a one-sided conversation. Journalism is an interactive process that allows for readers and viewers to create a dialogue with journalists by utilizing mediums such as social networking sites and comment sections. Audiences have a say in what stories get reported and how news stories are presented to the masses. When news organizations fail to cover all

Technological and media revolutions have freed journalistic duties to anyone with access to the Internet. Citizens can now practice their own news judgment. The emphasis can no loner be on who is a journalist but rather how journalism is performed. Thus, journalists have an even more important task of delivering the truth. Williams believes that journalists should be god-fearing, but fails to mention other values journalists should have.

Clay Shirky who wrote Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable (1993) argues that society doesn’t need newspapers society needs journalism to save society. Shirky supports this argument by giving a historical background to the problems newspapers face and how the problems have developed over time and the solutions society has came up with. The blogger concludes that in order for journalism to go farther new models must be created in place of past molds. Shirky directs this blog toward the current and future generations in attempt to motivate new models and methods of journalism.

Consequently, the political sphere is now being colonised by the media, and politics has begun re-orientating itself to satisfy the logic of media organisations (Meyer, 2002, p. 71). Therefore, the media are active participants in the policymaking process and the ability to stimulate change or maintain the status quo depends on their choice of subject or policy issue and how they frame it. Active investigative reporting attempts to shape policy outcomes, but this does not necessarily mean that it always represents the most successful approach for gaining policy changes (Spitzer, 1993, p. 7). In fact, sometimes passive, straight reporting can have a greater influence on policy choices. When this occurs, media independence is largely bypassed, as the news generated depends solely on the information released (as public relations material) from legitimate news sources. For example, in the United States, White House staff routinely make ‘leaks’ - expressively to influence policy decisions (Davis, 1992, p. 143; Robinson, 2001, p. 948). Robinson noted that journalists regard “leaks… as indispensable to their work” and that they are aware of their use by officials in return for scoops (2001, p. 949).

I disagree with Lauren Slater’s theory that throughout a person's life, one will only surround themselves with ideas and people similar to their own because, it is easy to see that people enjoy controversy and over the course of our lives, our beliefs and ideas can change.

Newspapers and other forms of news are very vital communication methods in the world today. The goal of news is to sell us their ideas by being biased and talking about how their idea is best. News can give us biased information although, the viewer could do further research on the

Media has completely evolved from what it was twenty years ago and now the media plays an extremely large role in politics. Mass media refers to the means for communicating to audiences. In the past, mass media would be considered newspapers, radios, and television announcements. Now, there are social media platforms and apps that deliver news and information to the people wherever they are. Even the current President has no qualms using such platforms as he is a frequent, and not so loved, user of the Twitter app. Almost every government agency and organization has their own website, or even their own twitter/instagram account. This provides the public easy access to information and updates regarding who they follow and what party they identify with. However, this leads to the problem of “newsworthiness”. Newsworthiness is the degree in which a story will likely appeal to the public. This can have very negative consequences as many journalists will write their pieces biasedly to attract the attention of fellow supporters. They will forgo the facts and instead, pick and choose what they want to include in their articles. This leads to a misinformed public, as they never receive the full

Robert J. Samuelson’s factual article, “Picking Sides for the News,” is an essay that describes the different views and opinions on American news by American citizens. Samuelson claims that most Americans see people in the news business as “sloppy, biased, and self-serving.” He states that the news industry is divided by political views; Republican and conservative, and Democratic and liberal. Based on your political standpoint, you may find different news stations more supportive than others. Samuelson shows support to his viewpoint that many news companies “make news rather than just report it.”

He believes that the capitalist colonization of the digital world has led to this collapse of professional-quality journalism as a result of the further commercialization of journalism. In recent years, investigative journalism has been declining and media companies have shifted away from it and settled for repeating prepackaged messages. It is difficult for real journalism to exist when its revenue is based on advertisement. McChesney argues that journalism should be considers as public goods and that we should create non-commercial forms of journalism and non-profit media. One of the “darkest episodes of American journalism history” was the invasion of Iraq based on the U.S. administration’s claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. These claims went unchallenged by the media because of the lack of investigative journalism, McChesney believes. Furthermore, he ends with bold proposals to reform journalism and the entire media. He proposes a strict regulation of advertising and limitations on ownership of broadcast media and expansion of nonprofit and publicly supported journalism. I agree with McChesney about the decline of quality journalism and I believe reforms to media must happen. However, I am uncertain how this would be possible with all the control these wealthy corporations, and their partners, have over the media. It will need a huge

Using Media today has become a way of life for people all across the world. It is a way for people to stay informed on current events, form opinions on hot topics, as well as determine their political affiliation. Because the media has become such an influential tool, it is important to eliminate bias in order to allow people to develop their individual opinions and become educated members of today’s society. By creating more diversity in journalism, having a more open mind about certain topics, and forming a new mold of media coverage, Americans can create an unbiased source of media that will encourage a more independent and intelligent society.

In the article, Media Bias in The 2016 Presidential Race, it brings up a key element that “there are only so many pages in a newspaper or so many minutes in a nightly news program and not every important story can be published” (Papastefan). This leads to the conclusion that news outlets must determine which piece of information they would like to put out there for millions to see, bringing out the biased part of these news channels. Papastefan also points out that the news outlets are obviously going to look to publish the stories that will bring their ratings up, so it is up journalists to pick which stories they find to be the most interesting and will bring attention to their audience. Obviously these journalists are going to pick the to release the stories that they find praises their political party and downgrades those they dislike. This can be compared to a child picking someone for their kickball team and the only two people that are left is their best friend and a kid he or she loathes greatly; clearly the kid he hates will not be

The history of journalism in the United States has spanned from the first colonist crossing the Atlantic Ocean to today’s mass media. Even before we were a country we had printers and journalists writing and printing stories for the people. Looking back, we can divide journalism history into different time periods and see how news reporting developed over time. Some of these time periods include the Colonial Period which spanned from when the first Pilgrims came to America in the mid 1600’s till the 1760’s. Other periods include the Revolution period which picked up from the colonial period till the early 1780’s. The period of Westward Expansion lasted from the 1800 to the 1830’s, then there was the Civil War Period which spanned from the 1840’s till the 1860’s. Finally, the Interpretative Period which lasted from 1930’s and continues to today. Looking back at these time periods we can see what was considered “news” and what was “newsworthy”, the dominate issues of the periods, and how far we have come as a society from those issues.

The belief that journalism is in decline has triggered major alarms, because society needs an informational environment that is easily available to all citizens such as newspapers. There is a large body of journalist that suggests that if television has taken over from the press as our main source of news this may limit our capacity to learn about public affairs; newspapers are believed to be far more effective than television at conveying detailed information necessary to understand complex and detailed issues. There is also widespread concern that if journalism fails as a profession it will not be able to reach large sections of the community, particularly younger or less educated readers. This may reinforce a growing gap among citizens between the information that they receive.