Media In Community Media

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

Twenty-first century reporters fill the airwaves with “news” pertaining to facets of life entirely opposite of awareness and activism. When news regarding anything aside from the lives of celebrities or current pop culture does make the headlines, the story seems presented in a watered-down, somehow censored, fashion; leaving the reader asking more questions than they received answered. As the major methods of mass media become increasingly consumer driven, the great majority are presented with less mentally stimulating material called “news”. As a result, Americans are often less informed, and thus less willing to become involved in, political, social, and economic issues, nation and worldwide. Through the application of relevant and straightforward journalism, like that practiced by Ida B. Wells, the people of this country may be armed with the knowledge needed to have an effect on the events unfolding today that will affect tomorrow.

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.

It being the leading source of news since the printing press. We put our faith in the media to report accurate facts unbiasedly. Between 1983 and now the media industry has consolidated from 50 individual companies to 6. That means that though the impression given is that there are a multitude of sources to attain information, the messages being communicated are all one in the same. The limitation of media sources cause a ripple effect of limited information, allowing these companies to control the public’s perception on

The discourse community of broadcast journalists is a broad community, but can be narrowed down to smaller groups. As a discourse community journalist come in as novices, but carry the opportunity to ascend in their profession, to become an anchor for a national news network. The fundamental goal of journalists is to educate the public with events that take place daily, both domestically and internationally. With this fundamental goal at hand, news networks run astray, to where they begin to host biased opinions, with means to draw in a certain audience. These biases are presented by the networks reflect a political bias, religious bias, and social bias that can impact the facts of the story

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.

Arguing that modern journalism is merging with the entertainment and online realms, James Fallows, in “Learning to Love the New Media,” compares and contrasts today’s modern press with the media of years past. The media’s role, Fallows believes, has always been to inform the public of information without sole concern for profit; however, due to industry deregulation and the advent of the Internet, journalists are increasingly writing stories targeted for public desire rather than for civic service. According to some, this shift in journalistic intention is causing American news to present fewer viable solutions to real-world problems and has ultimately made it less objective. Fallows, considering the past, highlights how historical

Describe how the media and community could be involved during the four phases of a disaster response. Avoiding panic is listed as a primary goal and relying on leaders that behave in manners that aren’t productive or helpful to any of the citizens of lower class, elderly, or any of the vulnerable residents on how to handle the safety of their families and themselves. Top leaders need to development a plan that will get to the vulnerable residents and aid in their safety. Community and media can work together as one to inform people of the danger ahead and be able to speak to

After researching the issue and the future of the journalism field it becomes apparent that, as privately owned businesses, most publications have the primary goal of making a profit, and subsequently produce the content that people desire to achieve this goal. With the exception of government-owned publications like the ABC, news outlets have no ethical responsibility to produce the hard news content that the audience ‘need’ to know, as they are businesses with an objective of producing a profitable source of entertainment for their specific target audience. Despite the different media diets of each individual consumer, media executives have the technology to understand and therefore satisfy the desires of their target audience. Thus concluding that while publications may not satisfy the supposed needs of their readers, they are able to recognize what they want to consume and produce this to retain their following and therefore achieve their primary goal of making a

The central tenet of several community media studies are journalists who are closer to their community and have a more intimate relationship with those they cover than those who work for metropolitan publications (Byerly, 1961; Kennedy, 1974; Lauterer, 2006; Reader, 2012a). Of course, not every small publication is close to its community, and this also does not mean that a reporter from a larger regional publication cannot be close to his or her community (Reader, 2012a). Additionally, it seems challenges exist for journalists in having an intimate relationship with residents in a much larger city (Reader, 2012a). In smaller communities, it is thought that close relationship comes from frequent interaction with

This research has been conducted due to the fact that some researchers have claimed that “journalism is dying” whilst others have argued that “journalism is not dying but is simply evolving” (Blatchford: 2014). This has been a much contested debate triggered by the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources i.e. newspapers, television and radio together with the technological advances of the internet and social media (Cub Reporters: 2010). This has raised many questions and firstly, this dissertation will assess whether the rise of social media has led to the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources. Secondly, this paper will look at what the advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a news distributor are for professional journalists and the general public. Lastly, this study aims to investigate

Media plays a big role in society these days. Whether it be letting society know what is going on the in the world today or something as simple as updates on current life on social media. The media's role in society not only delivers information of the world but also brings people together through common interests or general talks. In Brian Knappenberger's documentary: Nobody Speak: Trials of Free Press it is seen how media effect lives and how there is a much stronger meaning to what media stands for in society and why media needs to take its stand when it comes to people who want to devour them.

Old media like broadcasting, print, and film created a consumer culture in the public. Participants would consume the media they could find, and that was the extent of their engagement with a piece of media. But during the digital age, participatory culture has exploded. Participatory culture is a concept coined by Henry Jenkins where consumers take part in both the consumption and the production of media. The advent of computers facilitates a low barrier of entry for creation of digital media and its propagation. With the availability of personal computers and consumer level software to manipulate media as well as the popularity of the internet to spread content, fans have become more engaged with the media they consume. In turn, participants can create forms of that media that comment and expand upon the original content. Participants who used to only consume media now have the avenues to become producers of media. In this essay, I will explore participatory culture through the lense of Lev Manovich’s Five Principles of New Media: Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, and Transcoding.

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.

To wholly have a grasp on how this new founded approach to journalism has changed alongside technology—as well as understanding the dangers such openness brings forth—one has to understand what exactly those changes are. Primarily, those that are writing for the sake of offering information have, whether willingly or not, fed into the usage of social media as it has become a centralized method of distribution that is relatively inescapable with the current times. As such those framing the news for the masses find an authentic avenue to stay in contact via social media that has benefits ranging from, “its extraordinary newsgathering potential; its potential as a new tool to engage the audience; and as a way of distributing our news” (Eltringham, 2012), all of which are deeply different from the presentation of reporting that occurred during earlier eras. Days of strongly structured instances of journalism that could not travel with such speed have been replaced as, “social media has trashed many of the foundations on