WDRB News Media Critique

You can read the full article here http://www.wdrb.com/story/33092641/drug-and-gun-cases-inside-jcps-schools

This article breaks 1 elements of journalism- inclusive and 1 yardstick- fairness

This article was about the investigations of drug and gun cases in JCPS schools. While the content is locally relevant the article was not in-depth enough to show the relevance.

In this article the reporter briefly covered each recent gun case, stating only where the incident happened and how the weapons were confiscated. "Then on Aug. 30 a Noe Middle School student was arrested for having 2 guns...one was loaded." This is not a description of the event, the reporter did not include any further detail on the event. If this is supposed to be an investigation shouldn't they include all of the important details?

Also the article barley cover the drug cases, only giving 3 schools that have a drug case and saying "Since the 2011-12 school year, there were 776 incidents. That number dropped to 726 the next year, then jumped to 935 for the last school year. There were 71 incidents so far this school year." If you are going to include drug cases the people should know when it happened, what kind of drug, and what happened to the students.

The article was unfair because it only gave ONE side of the story, Katy Zeitz, the JCPS Achievement Area Superintendent. While the superintendent is an important part of the story the article did not say anything about students, parents, or staff members of the school. 

Overall, the article left out major details and many sides of the story. The students perspective on the event should be one of the most important because they are the ones there when these events are occurring. This shows that WDRB's ability to get all sides of the story is not where it should be.

Response to Sky's "The Keys To Journalism"

You can read her full blogpost here: http://reachforthesky25.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-keys-to-journalsim.html

    After reading through Sky's piece, I began to understand the keys of journalism more. Throughout her post she expressed her opinion, views, and understanding of the topic. Not only did she show her understanding but was also able to connect it to real world examples. I found myself agreeing with everything she said.
    I loved how well Sky's piece flowed together. When she gave the NPR example and tied loyalty into the story, I thought this was great thing to add to her post because it showed her understanding even more.
     Overall, I throughly enjoyed Sky's post. It gave me an insight into her thinking and understanding of the topic, which helped me understand it more.

Magazines

In class (9/7) we discussed the history of magazines. During the discussion I was really surprised at how much magazines effected and helped to shape american culture.

The first weekly newspaper started going out in 1821 it was called "The Saturday Evening Post". This magazine had a little bit for everyone in it. Overtime it lead to what people called a "shared american culture" Because magazines became such an important part of american culture congress created the Postal Act of 1879, which made a pound of magazines only 1 cent to ship.

The fact that the goverment subsidized magazines shows how important magazines were to us at the time. They created a national culture and a national identity. They were able to do this because they were the first medium to reach a national audience. This shows that magazines really helped shape our country's culture into what it is today.

Response to Mia's "Medium Effects Message!!!"

You may read her full blogpost here:http://miamazingthoughts.blogspot.com/2016/08/medium-effects-message.html

After reading Mia's entry it was not hard to know how she felt about the lesson. Her entry not only described the activity we did in class but also showed that she understood the content and that the activity helped her gain a deeper understanding. I was also very interested in the subject of "Medium Effects Message" and it was nice to read someone else thought and opinions on the topic.

She stayed on topic and was able to make her ideas flow together in a way that was easy to understand.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Mia's piece, and I liked the way she was able to clearly express her understanding and opinions on the topic and was able to show that she knew the content well

The Positive And Negative Effects Of Conglomeration

Last week in class we discussed conglomeration. This lesson made me realize how big certain companies were, and how powerful they actually are.

For example Time Warner Cable (TWC) TWC is the third largest media company next to Walt Disney and Comcast. They own major internet, television and film divisions. Because they own all these different medias they can control what is said about them. Since they own CNN they can make sure that nothing bad is ever said about them on that channel. Another negative to conglomerations is the lack of diversity in content, because most of these conglomerates are populist, they only show what the people want to see, meaning that every show/movie/book are going to be very similar (The Hunger Games and Divergent for example) After this lesson I realized how few independent media companies there were and how these companies are becoming too powerful.

Even though there are some negatives to conglomeration, there are also some positives. Conglomeration positively effects corporations more then it does the people. Because conglomerates own so many platforms of media, they can make more money. Also because they own so many platforms they can expand over all of them. For example, Harry Potter. Harry Potter started out as a book, then it became a movie. Overtime it became so popular that companies noticed that they could make a lot of money if they started to create toys, video games and costumes. So they did. Now you can access Harry Potter themed things everywhere, over all platforms of media.

The Effect Of Gutenburg's Printing Press

Today (9/02) we discussed the history of print technology. When we started discussing the effects that print technology had on society, it really surprised me.

Before print technology was efficient, literacy was a privilege. The only people who knew how to read or had access to books were the powerful people like kings, queens, and most importantly the catholic church. Because the common people did not have access to the bible the church would lie to the people to maximize their power. Once Gutenberg invented his printing press, he started making copies of the bible in common german so that the people could finally have access to the bible. Once this happened new ideas and opinions on religion/politics started spreading. This was the beginning of journalism. Also, these ideas and opinions started spreading more rapidly because they could efficiently create many copies. Without Gutenberg's printing press, revolutions may have been a less widespread and fueled belief, also many important ideas/opinions could have never been heard, our world would so different. I realized that print journalism has effected our world so much and that it is really important