Week 5: The Profession

There's a very interesting quote in Mind, brought up by Group 5: "If a culture is optimistic and expects things to work out well, then progress and safety before the expectation, and events threatening these are seen as news."

This makes sense to me. The things people consider news are those which are abnormal, break the social norm, or go against the shared values of a society.

With this and the quote in mind, look at what we consider news in the USA. Most of it is very negative news, highlighting crimes and the shortcomings of government and the threat of terrorism. Does all this “bad news” mean that we, as Americans, are generally an optimistic society?

This is really interesting to me. I have heard the argument that all the negative news we see on TV is going to turn us into a negative society. We are all going to have a terribly pessimistic view of the world. But doesn’t this become moot point when we realize that negative news is actually a reflection of a positive society?

Food for thought. As for me, I’ll try to find more happiness when I see negative news, because it’s a reminder of how good things really are. Would you want to live in a society where positive news is more common than negative news, because the bad is the norm? 

Week 4: Loyalty

Who will I be loyal to?

This is a big question, one people are constantly asking. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve!” declares biblical prophet Joshua. “Follow your heart!” coos the Disney Princesses. “To thine own self be true!” chokes Hamlet character Polonuis before he dies. It seems obvious that your first loyalty should be to yourself. We should never have to compromise our values to please others.

So, as a journalist, who should you be loyal to?

Later during this class, we'll create a code of ethics that outlines the personal beliefs we have that we should be loyal to. We generally accept that we must be true to ourselves and follow our heart and so on.

But the question asked by group 4 is complicated and interesting: As journalists, should we be loyal primarily to the citizens or our businesses?

We have an obligation to both, to be sure. If the business of our paper is unsuccessful, then the citizens are not getting information, and you're probably out of a job. But I hope that the answer in all journalist's hearts is an emphatic, "We are primarily loyal to our audience!"

Elements states in nice, bold text, "Journalism's first loyalty is to citizens." I believe this. We, the writers, compilers, and presenters of news, must have truth and accuracy as our primary goal. Information is what makes our society free and democratic.

We are the “middlemen.” We connect the newsmakers with the news-consumers. Our loyalty is not primarily to our boss, the corporation, the business. It’s to our audience. 

Pew Media Study!

Those interested in media, journalism, and the like, listen up! Read this. It’s an article on the recent Pew Research Center study that found some really interesting things about the public’s news diet.

Those who are more inclined to newspapers than television might find it particularly interesting. True, it’s been common knowledge that Americans use the TV more for news than other sources. And the study did find that television is the main source of news for three popular topics: weather, traffic, and breaking news. But the interesting thing? People rely on newspapers and their websites for 11 other topics, like local government, zoning, and crime news. Also, sources like texting and Twitter are the second most common distributors of local news.

Newspapers are not obsolete! 50 percent of the surveyed read newspapers or related websites for local news at least once a week. But here comes the most interesting part: 69 percent also said that “the death of their local paper would have at most a minor impact on their news diet” with young adults being “especially unconcerned.”

What a contradiction! It points to society’s tendency to, according to Pew director Tom Rosenstiel, not think of information as a privilege, but as a right. “There’s a feeling, I think, that in the digital age, information is a commodity that’s just available — and there’s not always a sense of how it’s generated or produced,” he said.

Read the article! It’s quick, interesting, and worth your time.