Truth

The number one objective of a journalist is to tell the truth. However, the truth can be subjective as journalists decide what stories to cover and what their angle should be. Of course there is no possible way for every story to cover every angle and be completely unbiased, but journalists should give equal weight to both sides and let the audience decide the truth for themselves.

The function of journalism is not to tell what the audience to think, the function is to tell the audience what to think about. By providing factual information the audience can think about what is written and decide what they want to believe.

I do not believe that it is ever possible to be completely unbiased. Journalists enter a story with their background and their way of thinking about an issue. However, the job of journalists should be to minimize bias. This means that if a journalist is assigned a story that they know they can not cover without significant bias, they should remove themselves from the story and write about something else. However, if journalists work to write without letting their bias come through, stories can still be balanced and honest.

Journalism bias affects both journalists and the companies they work for. The presentation on truth made me think about the movie "The Insider." In this movie Russell Crowe stars as Jeffrey Wigand who has evidence that the big tobacco companies perjured themselves. He agreed to talk on 60 minutes with Mike Wallace, but in the end 60 minutes did not air to full coverage because they were worried about retaliation by the tobacco companies. This is a real life example of the ethical dilemma's facing journalists. The producer Lowell Bergman, played by Al Pacino, wanted to tell the truth to his audience, however his plan was thwarted by the business side of journalism and fear of lost advertisements. I think this shows the difficult choices made by news agencies every day. Although they are not always this drastic, the truth is sometimes difficult to get out and it can be hard to tell the full truth in the best way, especially if the truth is about media sponsors.

Bias is prevalent in the media, however, if journalists are able to put their bias behind them, they can tell the truth more effectively and fulfil the function of the media.

New Media

Wow! Class today was a little frightening. I was glad that we went over all sorts of new media coming out, but it is slightly overwhelming to grasp it all. I was just entering the blogging world and now there is so much other new media that I need to become part of.

I don't have a ton of free time to devote to new media so my problem now is deciding what sorts of media is worthwhile of my time. For example, Twitter might not be so bad, but I just don't want to spend tons of time following people on Twitter and seeing what they're up to. Also, there are few things that I dislike as much as reading electronic books. I would so much rather just have a hard copy of a book of newspaper in front of me, so I think the Amazon Kindle is definitely not necessary.

I would love to get an iPhone, but my concern there is that I would spend so much time on my phone and on the Internet that I would forget the real world around me. I think the future of media is slightly dangerous because people may be so tuned into media and all the different media outlets that they forget there is a real world going on around them. My time is too precious to spend massive amounts of time online doing things that are not necessarily worthwhile. I guess that as time progresses and I get more involved in the communications major I may figure out exactly what kind of media is beneficial and worth my time.

I Love Blogging!

Since starting this course I have discovered I like blogging. Check that - I Love blogging. Seriously, it's one of my new favorite things. I went to Jerusalem last semester and didn't have a blog, but when we got home there was a group blog that we can all contribute too and I loved checking on it to see what my friends were up to. Then I started this semester and had to set up this blog, and then I was having so much fun I set up a personal blog for myself.

I was reading in the New York Times this morning about Mark McGwire and his steroid confession. I am an avid baseball fan and while I was reading that I was thinking so much about what I thought about the steroid issue and I just wanted to write about it. I went to class and we were talking about blogging and right then and there I set up a a new blog completely devoted to baseball, especially the New York Yankees. I think the steroid issue is so important to baseball and it really is destroying the integrity of the record books. I was proud to see McGwire finally come clean after ten years of denial. I wish that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemmons would also come clean, but I am not holding my breath for those two.

In other news, I am getting so excited about technology and the future of communications. I love reading the New York times and hearing about all the new technology coming out that is going to change mass communication. I am thrilled about skyping on television and the new Google phone. It really does make me so excited to become a reporter.

I am a little upset that NBC is moving Leno back to his previous spot and I think that it was a good decision of O'Brien to leave the network. I prefer O'Brien to Leno and I think it is completely unfair that they would give O'Brien the prime time slot and then give it back to Leno. Reading newspapers is so much fun! I just love being informed and learing about what's going on in the world.

Here's the link to my new baseball blog!

http://alisonlovestheyankees.blogspot.com/

What should I do with journalism

Although class today was awesome and very informative, it was slightly disheartening as well. Brother Cressman said that we probably wouldn't have a whole carreer in television journalism and that the journalism business was changing rapidly. I think that it's great that we have this information, but it is slightly stressful as I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life! I wish I had a crystal ball and could look into it and figure out what the future has in store for me. In my head I know how I want it to go, but there are just so many things that could happen. I want a stable carreer first and foremost. I think the most terrible situation would be struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. I need stability first.

My dream job with broadcasting would be to work for the Yankees Entertainment Sports network in New York. I would love reporting on games and following the Yankees as a job! With the changes in journalism though anything could happen. I'm glad that we discussed this matter in class today though because I feel more prepared for the future. I really just hope that things work out and I end up finding a job that I really love. I hope I'm not being too ideal about my dreams and goals because I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. Journalism is changing quickly and there are no longer any absolutes in regards to journalism. I just hope that I can keep up with all the changes and be prepared for what happens next!

What is Journalism?

I don't know if Journalism was ever easy to define, but I think that with the explosion of technology, the term journalism has gotten harder to define. My interpretation of journalism is published information. It can be published either through the written or spoken word because either media spreads information. Anyone can be a journalist if they spread information to someone else. Lay citizens can become journalists through blogging because they are spreading ideas and information through their blog. Additionally, with new technology such as smart phones, anyone can take video and edit it and post it on their blog or youtube to spread information. More and more, people are turning towards blogs and the other websites to obtain information making internet one of the largest media outlets of information. Journalism will continue to increase with the spread of technology and become even harder to define as people turn to different forms of media to obtain information.