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Blog Post #10 (Michael Luo)

Michael Luo’s article titled “How Can the Press Best Serve a Democratic Society?” is about how a group of scholars met with each other in the 1940s to discuss ethics, guidelines, concerns, and ideas to improve journalism and for it to benefit society and the public. The group of scholars were called the Hutchins Commission and they had several meetings to try to establish specific ethical journalistic values within the American democracy. At the time, the press was failing to meet certain requirements and the Hutchins Commission found many issues within the journalism business. Examples of prominent issues included: wanting to be the first to tell a story, biases, pressure, responsibility and accountability, professionalism, and more. Luo connected the Hutchins Commission’s article called “A Free and Responsible Press” with modern-day journalism 75 years after it was published. Luo also talked about how certain ethical journalistic values like objectivity are being criticized and reviewed. He went on to explain how some of the virtues that were put in place by the Hutchins Commission were more complex than what was realized. I enjoyed reading Luo’s article. I didn’t know much about the Hutchins Commission until I read his article. With what I learned about the Hutchins Commission, I’m surprised that I didn’t know or learn about them sooner because they played a huge role in shaping the core values that have been reinforced in the journalism industry for decades. I found it so fascinating how the same issues that the Hutchins Commission found from studying the press and the decisions that were made are still very present as of today. The competitive nature of media organizations and sensationalizing news are still focused on despite them being one of the major issues that get in the way of ethical journalism. The need to separate facts from opinions is also a recurring idea that journalists like Walter Lippman and scholars within the Hutchins Commission have been embracing since the 1940s.

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Blog Post #9

Kendra Pierre-Louis Reaction:

Kendra Pierre-Louis’ article titled “It’s time to change the way the media reports on protests. Here are some ideas,” is about media bias regarding the reporting on protests. She includes a concept that was mentioned by a journalism professor named Danielle Kilgo which was called the “protest paradigm.” The idea of this concept was first found in the 1980s when media organizations were reporting stories about anti-war protests. Dr. Kilgo noticed that the media reinforced what is considered to be the status quo and relates to the government's stance on the topic. Pierre-Louis includes how the media fails to focus on important details such as the goals and purposes of the protests. She also gave advice for journalists on how to cover the protests more effectively. I really enjoyed reading Pierre-Louis’ article for many different reasons. I never heard of the “protest paradigm” before until I learned about it in her article. I completely agree with Pierre-Louis and Dr. Kilgo that the concept is harmful because journalists should no longer report stories based on a consensus, but about what is truly happening with the protests. Also, being that the protestors are a core part of these news stories, they should be covered more fairly and be given a platform to spread their messages and to be heard by the public. I’m honestly surprised that so many journalists didn’t include any sort of reasoning behind the protests. Even if it’s very clear why people are protesting, journalists should interview protestors and research what the goals are of movements and organizations.

Kelly McBride Reaction:

Kelly McBride’s article titled “‘Unarmed Black Man’ doesn’t mean what you think it means” is about the phrase “Unarmed Black Man” and goes in depth to explain how it can be perceived and reinforces racial biases and stereotypes about black people. McBride included how a preschool teacher and listener of NPR radio, Deirdre Moultrie, reached out to the news organization to express her concerns about the use of the phrase and how it affected her as a black woman. The phrase has been used a lot in news articles, newscasts, and especially in the headlines of stories. The main reason why the phrase “Unarmed Black Man” is offensive is because it gives off a biased notion that a black victim can only be labeled as a victim if they’re unarmed. Specifying that a black man in the circumstance of how this phrase is meant to describe cases like the one about Ahmaud Arbery is unarmed, could be interpreted as journalists doubting the innocence of someone like Arbery due to the color of his skin despite facts and evidence proving otherwise. McBride explained the history of journalists questioning authority and how they can accidentally repeat the prejudices of those who are in power like police officers are. She also encouraged critical thinking and for journalists to be very conscious and careful about their wording to describe these situations. I really enjoyed reading McBride’s article for many different reasons. I learned about how even if a journalist doesn’t intend to be disrespectful or offend the public, the execution of phrases such as “Unarmed Black Man” can really hurt people. This article does a great job of bringing awareness to an ethical issue that happens frequently in journalism. With all of the instances of police brutality against black people and protests that have occurred to counter violence, racial violence, and hate crimes, journalists should work harder to have more empathy towards those who are affected by these situations. Journalists need to cover people fairly and truthfully to counter false stereotypes and biases against people.

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Blog Post #8 (Jesse Owens)

There were many major ethical problems that occurred with Jesse Owens and the Southern Press. The first ethical issue that came to my mind right away when reading this article was the strong bias that was present within this newspaper. At the time of Owens’ first-place winnings in the Olympics in Germany, many newspapers in the South refused to publish the story about his success because he was a black man. The consensus at this time was that black people were inferior to white people and black people didn’t have any positive stories or cartoons made about them. If anything, it was quite the opposite as there were many cartoons and comics included in the Southern press that depicted racial stereotypes and made fun of black people. Another major ethical problem that came to mind was the lack of empathy the press had for black people and in this case, for Owens. The racial stereotypes and lack of positive acknowledgement of black people really harmed black people and made them feel invalidated by the media. The negative portrayals of black people also put them in danger of being attacked and harassed by white people because that was considered as the norm at the time. The last ethical problem I can think of in regards to this story is how the Southern press deliberately hid information from the public that was actually newsworthy, especially because it involved the Olympics and a historical win. Owens won fair and square in the Olympics and deserved to be recognized in newspapers regardless of what people thought. His story checks all the boxes of being newsworthy, but the press decided to cover it up like it didn’t happen which is just as bad as lying to the public.

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Blog Post #7 (Rolling Stone)

There are many major ethical takeaways from the Rolling Stone’s article “Rolling Stone and UVA: The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Report.” The first one that comes to mind is to ask questions and to seek the truth and report it. Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the journalist who wrote about a rape case involving the alleged victim, Emily Renda (who is referred to as Jackie in the article), didn’t do the best she can to verify all of her information. Erdely’s only source was Renda and she didn’t reach out to the three friends that Renda mentioned to confirm if her statements were factual or not. Although rape cases are one of the hardest stories to cover in journalism and it’s important to make the alleged victim as comfortable as possible in order for them to share their experiences, Erdely still should’ve been more persistent and talked to more people about the case. Another very important ethical takeaway I got was to have empathy not just for the person you’re interviewing, but for everyone who is involved in the story. Again, Erdely having empathy for Renda even though her allegations were false, isn’t the problem with her article. Erdely didn’t have empathy for anyone else who attended the University of Virginia and were a part of  Phi Kappa Psi. The story had a negative impact on them and the story wasn’t fair to them at all, especially because they weren’t given a platform to speak in the Rolling Stone’s newspaper in favor of only Renda’s words. Despite all of the journalistic failures with the story, Rolling Stones did take accountability for their actions and even went in depth to explain to the public why they ran the story and what they’ve learned as journalists.

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Blog Post #6 (The Dr. V Story)

There are a lot of major ethical takeaways from the story about Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt (Dr. V) by Caleb Hannon. The first one that comes to my mind is to never out someone from the LGBTQ+ community in journalism. Hannon included in his article that Dr. V was transgender despite the fact she never went public about that information. Hannon even went as far as including Dr. V’s old name and used language that’s considered to be transphobic like “What began as a story about a brilliant woman with a new invention had turned into the tale of a troubled man who had invented a new life for himself.” Deliberately referring to someone as a gender identity in which they don’t identify as is very disrespectful to transgender people. Another takeaway is for journalists to focus on the true purpose of the story. The original point of Hannon’s article was to highlight the story behind Dr. V’s “Magical Putter” and what the explanation for her to make it was as well as focus on the lies and inconsistencies with her response. Dr. V’s gender identity didn’t have anything to do with the story and the shift to focus on Dr. V’s troubled past came across as mean-spirited and distasteful. The final takeaway I got from reading this story and situation is to have empathy and take accountability. The letter from Bill Simmons acknowledges the mistakes and bad decisions that were made when Grantland published the story. He mentioned the lack of empathy in regards to Dr. V because they were somewhat responsible for her suicide and the lack of knowledge because of their ignorance about the Transgender community. Simmons and the rest of Grantland even made the tough decision to keep the article available to read so other journalists could learn from their mistakes and they apologized. In my opinion, I thought they did a great job being accountable for their actions even though not everyone would agree with them for not removing the story.

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Photojournalism

When it comes to photojournalism, there are types of editing and that are okay and others that aren’t. The purpose of photographers in journalism is to inform the public about an event that occurred recently by sharing photos that accurately describe it. The more natural the photo is, the more credible it is to the audience. However, there are instances where certain kinds of editing can be used to enhance a picture. Techniques such as shooting a photo with specific camera angles, using a good, consistent source of light, and zooming in or out to get better focus on something are some of the ways photographers do to take quality pictures. An example of this is this photo of The Weeknd and some of his background dancers performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show because the photo is natural and the lighting is consistent which means that it would be good to use for an article about that event. With all of this said, here are the types of editing and photoshopping that aren’t ok: Adding or removing anything from the photo, cropping, inconsistent lighting, completely creating a new image that’s not a real photo, adding a false narrative to a photo that was taken out of context, etc. An example of this is this photo of a photoshopped Bernie Sanders sitting in a chair in a scene from “The Avengers: Infinity War”. The reason why the prior techniques aren’t okay to use in photojournalism is because it takes an image that’s meant to be real, natural, and accurately represents the situation within it, and makes it into something else entirely or provides a different perspective than the photo that was taken initially.

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Smith Chapter 4: Errors

After reading chapter 4, I learned about the different kinds of errors journalists make and the reasoning behind why they occur. There were two in particular that stood out to me in terms of what I think are the most important. The two errors I thought were the most important are carelessness and ignorance. The main reason why I feel like carelessness is one of the most important errors a journalist can make is because it causes the most common types of errors such as misspelled names, incorrect addresses, and incorrect dates. Messing up on basic facts like those not only makes a story unreliable, but it doesn’t honor the people or places that are involved in the story. These errors can be very frustrating because they are something that can easily be fixed and avoided by simply asking how to spell a name or when something occurred. It is very important for journalists to care about every single major detail that they include in their stories because if they don’t care, the audience won’t either. The main reason why I feel like ignorance is another one of the most important errors a journalist can make is because it goes against the first rule of the Code of Ethics, which is to seek the truth and report it. When a journalist is covering a story, they have to know what they’re talking about and report only the facts that they can confirm. If there isn’t enough information to have a story, it probably shouldn’t be told. Ignorance also leads to the failure of providing a perspective of the story which is an essential component, especially when interviewing people and sharing the thoughts of the public on a particular topic. The failure to provide important perspectives that benefit the story is simply unethical towards the interviewees whose input has either been omitted from the story or wasn’t even given a platform in the first place.

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McBride and Rosenstiel Chapter 1: Truth without Scarcity, Ethics Without Force Reaction

McBride and Rosenstiel Chapter 1: Truth without Scarcity, Ethics Without Force is about how journalists over time had to find the difference between truth and consensus. In the past, there were more instances where journalists reported what the consensus was at the time because they thought it was the truth. This happened very often because the journalistic formula that was used meant that, “...judgement about what persuades us to believe a particular assertion and for anything outside our direct personal experience as well as what persuades us as evidence of operative consensus among relevant actors.” In other words, this meant that whatever was persuasive enough and what the majority opinion was about any topic, that was considered a form of truth even though it was truly the consensus. Over time, journalists became more dedicated to finding the truth and found out the difference between truth and consensus and consensus became less relevant. 

I found this article to be very interesting for multiple different reasons. I thought it was kind of strange how journalists reported stories based on the conception of what the truth was rather than what the truth actually was. With how many historical events that I’m aware of, I’m a bit shocked that consensus could be so easily confused with the truth at the time. Despite that, I’m glad that more effort was put into seeking the truth and reporting it, which is the first rule in the Code of Ethics. I think journalism has come a long way and I’m wondering what the future of it would be.

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My Code of Ethics

Preamble

As a journalist, I believe that journalists should put just as much effort in making ethical decisions as they do to seek and report the truth. Any work that a journalist makes should not only include factual information, but include considerate information. The following four principles are some good examples to consider when attempting to demonstrate ethical journalism that can be used in any form of media.

The Golden Rule

No matter who you’re writing your story about, always consider how you would want to be treated if the roles were reversed. Make sure to think about the kinds of questions you’re asking your interviewee and make sure you treat the information you gain with care and fairness.

Journalists should:

Respect the interviewee’s boundaries and privacy.

Save the tougher questions towards the end of the interview.

Consider if every question written down or thought of is worth asking.

List the pros and cons of including certain kinds of information.

Check their assumptions and biases to make sure they’re giving fair coverage.

Have compassion for the interviewee.

Consider the impact your story might have on those who are involved.

Be Honest

Whether you’re creating your story or interviewing someone, one of the most important goals a journalist can have for themselves is to be honest with their interviewee, be honest with their audience, and be honest with themselves. 

Journalists should:

Let people know why they want to interview them.

Tell their interviewee(s) what information they're looking for.

Fill their audience in on the situation and the most important details.

Fact-check and verify the information that’s given to them.

Give credit to their sources and cite them.

Use direct quotes.

Prove to everyone that their work is credible all the time.

Re-read their work multiple times to make sure everything included is the truth.

Ask themselves if they’re being honest or biased in their work.

Reflect on their motivations behind creating their work.

Decide what information is important and what should be omitted from their work.

Take accountability for mistakes and bad decisions.

Call out untruthful and unethical decisions other journalists made respectfully.

Inform others about your experience as a journalist and while interviewing others.

Not slander anyone that they’re including in their story.

Tell as much of the story as possible.

Not twist facts or purposely include information or quotes out of context.

Consider The Context

So many stories are told everyday in the journalism industry and each one is unique in their own way. Although it is important to be truthful and ethical in every decision you make, it’s also important to remember that you might have to make different kinds of decisions depending on the situation and context of the story you’re covering. This is probably the most difficult part of journalism.

Journalists should:

Pinpoint the tone and mood of the story.

Decide whether you should include quotes that include vulgar language or not.

Decide if a photo or phone call is too graphic to show to the public.

Consider the impact their story might have on society.

Think about the benefits and consequences of releasing their story.

Know their rights and what is or isn’t considered protected speech.

Ask questions to get as much clarification on the situation as possible.

Understand the context and make it clear to the audience.

Think about how the story may come across to others.

Be empathetic to everyone whether they’re a part of the story or not.

Do Your Best

With great journalism comes great responsibility. Being a journalist can be very hard sometimes. Journalists aren’t perfect people and are people like everyone else at the end of the day. However, the point of ethical journalism isn’t about being right or wrong. It’s about being fair and considerate of those around you. Always remember that.

Journalists should:

Put as much effort into their work as possible.

Not be too hard on themselves when they make a mistake.

Be flexible and always have a back-up plan.

Try to improve as they write more stories.

Do the best they can with the information they have.

Be open about their intentions behind their ethical decisions.

Be open to constructive criticism so they can learn and improve.

Read their own drafts so they can re-write and edit as much as necessary.

Not be discouraged when they have to edit and rewrite their work.

Be as compassionate and empathetic as they can to their interviewees

Show others why their stories are important, especially in the lead.

Always strive to be a better journalist.

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Introduction and 5 Things A Journalist Should Never Do

Introduction

My name is Melody Rivera. I’m a senior in college, I major in journalism, and I minor in Communications. I enjoy writing and expressing my opinions and feelings on various topics. I decided to take this course in order to pursue my Bachelor’s Degree in journalism. My goals and expectations are to gain more experience on how to make more and better ethical decisions in my writing.

5 Things A Journalist Should Never Do:

1) Plagiarize.

2) Write about something without evidence or sources to back it up.

3) Speak more than the interviewee.

4) Believe or think that all information that is gained is correct.

5) Express bias or opinions in an article unless it’s an opinion article.

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Journalism in the Age of Trump

Jim Rutenberg and Margaret Sullivan have both written articles about Donald J. Trump and how journalism has had a hard time covering him. Rutenberg’s article titled “Trump Is Testing the Norms of Objectivity in Journalism” mostly discusses how journalism shouldn’t be biased towards one presidential candidate than the other and included facts about how Trump has been reported on. As for Sullivan’s article, which is called “Journalists in the age of Trump: Lose the smugness, keep the mission”, she talks about what changes should be made to journalism to cover topics and people like Trump more efficiently.

Starting with Rutenberg’s article, I really enjoyed reading it for many different reasons. Towards the beginning, he gets straight to one of his main points which is that reporting can be reflected and influenced by a journalist’s bias. Specifically, if a journalist was to view Trump as someone who can be a threat to America’s presidency as well as for the country itself, their bias and opinions are most likely going to affect the way they are reporting on a story about him. In my many experiences of watching the news very often and seeing Trump on it every day, I can definitely say that a good amount of news stories are biased or at least reflect the opinions of the person who is reporting it.

Another great main point that Rutenberg raises throughout the article is how Trump had received more media coverage than Hillary Clinton. Due to how many negative stories that were made about Trump, Clinton was placed in a more positive light. Despite the controversial misunderstanding about Clinton and the email incident, Trump was still the candidate that was considered to be more controversial by the media and that has created a problem with balance. I one-hundred percent agree that every political candidate should be covered equally to prevent one-sided stories, arguments, and confusion. If a journalist’s judgement is to clouded by the opinions of others and statements that may not necessarily be truthful, then that’s a huge problem. Also, it actually goes against one of the principles of trustworthy media creation which is to be independent.

Sullivan’s article is also very straight forward in presenting the message. Before she talks about the ways journalism can be reinvented for the future, Sullivan raises a very good point that is common with most journalists. There are many journalists out there that struggle to get outside of their comfort zones and report a story that they normally wouldn’t write or talk about. Given with how controversial Trump is, it is very difficult for journalists to create an accurate story that doesn't include any kind of bias within it. Either that or some journalists would choose to shy away from the topic of politics simply because of one political figure. Regardless, journalists should not let these barriers interfere with their work because they will lose credibility that way. The one thing that stood out to me the most about Sullivan’s article was the very last suggestion she makes to change journalism which is to lose the smugness and keep the mission. Although a journalist’s main mission is to report the truth and accurate stories to the public, journalists aren’t always right. Journalists shouldn’t let their ego and pride get in the way of their jobs. Instead, they need to focus on their mission and how important it is.

[melodysblogs]

Jay Reaction

Meg Jay’s article titled, “The Secrets of Resilience”, was a very inspirational article that talks about how resilient people end up becoming the most successful. As I was reading this article, I found myself very invested in it because of the several facts, studies, and inspirational quotes that were included in it.

I was really surprised to find out that less than fifteen percent of famous men and women in the study grew up in supportive households while seventy-five percent had to deal with lots of childhood adversities such as abuse and poverty. Based on this study alone, I can conclude that many people who are very successful in today’s society had to go through a lot of struggles and issues in their early lives. That was a reoccurring theme in this article.

The main purpose of this written piece was to show how powerful it is for people to be able to overcome their hardships, adapt, bounce back, and find motivation to make their lives better. I really enjoyed how this article isn’t necessarily saying that people need to go through adversities and major problems like abuse or poverty to succeed later on in life, but rather encourages the idea that people can gain skills from the life experiences they go through. For example, the article discusses how people that endured hardships that can be considered extreme to those that didn’t really experience them are more likely to achieve coping skills and mechanisms. When people go through really serious issues, they become more used to problems that can be relatively smaller and they are able to recover from them much quicker.

I personally find this to be very true because there have been times when I went through a problem, whether it was big or small, and because I haven’t really experienced the issue, I had a really difficult time bouncing back from it. There has also been times when because I dealt with something several times, I’ve been able to not really get affected by it anymore which means I was able to improve on my coping skills with a specific situation.

I absolutely loved how this article included many recognizable people and briefly talked about their experiences with facing childhood adversities and how they were able to overcome them. Just by listening to someone else’s story about dealing with their issues, I was able to learn a lot. I didn’t only learn about how some famous people were able to succeed but about the positive effects and outcomes of being resilient and what it truly meant. I found this article to be very powerful and inspirational because even though I have had to deal with my fair share of difficulties in life, I gained the ability to be determined and motivated and I don’t want to give up ever. I felt more confidence in myself after reading this because I was able to connect with overcoming obstacles and it makes me realize that I’m capable of being resilient and being successful.

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Klurfeld Reaction

James Klurfeld and Howard Schneider’s article titled, “News Literacy: Teaching the Internet Generation to Make Reliable Information Choices”, was very interesting and I have to admit that I didn’t expect it to come out the way it did.

I was hooked into the text when it was mentioned that only 9 out of the 200 students raised their hands to confirm if they took the H1N1 Flu vaccine. This piece of the text really surprised me because I didn’t expect the number to be as low as it actually was. However, what got me more interested in this particular section were the reasons why the rest of the students didn’t get their shots. This is because it’s one of the many examples I’ve seen where people have been misguided due to false information or “fake news” as many would say.

Klurfeld and Schneider have included many examples about how misperceptions on certain subjects can lead to people believing things that aren’t necessarily true. As I was reading, I noticed that this issue is commonly caused by things such as news sources containing opinions and one-sided stories (bias). When I was first learning about the rules of journalism, I remembered specifically that people couldn’t include their own personal opinions into their articles unless they were writing reviews or other columns that allowed them to do as such. If I’m being honest, it actually enrages me whenever opinions are included in news articles because that rule is very simple and I don’t understand why it gets broken so often. As much as I enjoy reading about the opinions of others, I wouldn’t want to read about them in an article that’s supposed to be one-hundred percent informational. When dealing with non-fiction, it’s very important not to include made-up facts in it because it defeats the whole purpose in it being non-fiction in the first place.

I was completely amazed by Figure 1: Taxonomy of Information Neighborhoods because it made me see the different types of information in a different way. I realized how different journalism is from the other types of information such as entertainment, advertising, publicity, propaganda, and raw information. This chart clearly showcases what the purpose of journalism is and what’s considered to be journalism or not. I was honestly fascinated by the information that the chart offered because it reminds me of how much I’ve seen these other types of information and they were claimed to be news or journalism when in fact, they weren’t.

Klurfeld and Schneider impressed me with their experiences and information. This article was very educational and is a great example of journalism in a sense. However, some of the information made me a bit sad because when it comes to the internet, social media, and sometimes news stations, most of it is either biased or false. I definitely appreciated the important lessons that this article had offered to me. I actually would recommend all writers and journalists to read this article so that they could be more educated about these issues.

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Act Independently

To act independently means to have the ability to make unbiased decisions on your own. Being independent is very important to me because it has helped me shape my own sense of identity and how I see the world. I have my own opinions on various topics and I do my very best to not let the opinions of others affect my own. I also have been making more independent decisions as of lately and there are several of which that I’m very proud of. One decision in particular was when I chose CCSU as my college.

I’ve honestly always wanted to go to Central for several reasons. It was the very first college I ever visited, it’s close by to where I grew up, it offered a journalism program, and there’s so many more reasons why I wanted to go there. In high school, my friends had many different opinions about college. Some really wanted to go to a community college while others didn’t want to go to college at all because they thought it was a waste of time and money. My teachers also had their own input on colleges themselves. The majority of them highly recommended students to go to college and to achieve for the best one they could get.

When I told people that I was going to CCSU, mostly everyone was happy for me. However, there were some people that told me that I should’ve aimed for a higher university and one that was out of the state because I had a very high GPA and I was a straight A student in my senior year. I completely understood why people had these opinions, but I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t fully respect my decision. Despite what those few people told me, I chose to go to CCSU anyways because I personally felt like it was the best fit for me and I don’t regret my decision because I acted independently and did what I thought was best. I’ve learned to be very strong-willed and determined about the things I want out of life and I think I made the right decision not to listen to the people who told me that college wasn’t worth it or I should’ve went to a different college because so far, I love being a CCSU student.

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Principle of Trustworthy Media Creation

In chapter 5 which is titled, “Principles of Trustworthy Media Creation”, Gillor discusses five principles that are very important in the art of journalism. The five principles of trustworthy media creation are to be thorough, be accurate, fair and civil, think independently, and to be transparent. Out of all these very important principles, the one that resonates with me the most deeply is to think independently.

Today, we are living in a world where journalism has evolved incredibly. There are many variations of journalism and there’s many types of media that could be used to accompany them. Each journalist has their own beat that they follow. However, whether their beats are politics, sports, fashion, food, etc, all journalists have one simple thing in common; they practice the art of journalism. Since there are so many journalists that exist in the world, it can be very difficult to be unique and stand out. All writers and reporters have their own styles, but they also express them in many different ways.

One way to separate a journalist from the next one is individual thinking. This resonates with me very much. As Gillor said in this chapter, having individual thinking is very similar to having more of an open-mind. Given the fact that the principle of being open-minded was the one that I connected with the most, it’s the same case for thinking independently. As a journalist, I’ve always had my own individual thinking and wouldn’t let the opinions and feelings of others change my mindset unless there’s facts and evidence that support them. In my personal opinion, I don’t believe that it makes much sense to report someone else’s opinions and conclusions without thinking about the reliability and truthfulness of those statements. To simply write opinions without the use of facts is not demonstrating independence as a journalist. To include the viewpoints of others without facts and sources is also not how to think independently.

Journalists are supposed to challenge their inner-thinking and be skeptical about everything. They’re not supposed to be naive and believe every single statement that’s made. All journalists and all people have the wonderful ability to think for themselves. It’s very important to keep in mind that we can’t be so easily influenced by the opinions of others. Opinions should only be considered if there’s at least some kind of truth to them. It’s also important to remember that we are all human and that we all make mistakes from time to time. Sometimes we just have to take accountability and think to ourselves that maybe we are wrong. No journalist should be self-righteous all the time because that means that they wouldn’t be thinking independently.

The principle of being open-minded is a challenge for many journalists, especially when it comes to tackling subjects that they’re very biased towards. When it comes to the principle of independent thinking, it’s also a huge challenge because some journalists would rather stick to their own biases and hidden agendas rather than going outside of their comfort zones. They would rather write articles and tell stories about topics that they’re really passionate about all of the time instead of including diversity and variation to their subject matters. Journalists who are always challenging themselves, considering the facts and opinions of others when necessary are journalists who demonstrate independent thinking.

Considering how biased many news stories are nowadays, I practice thinking independently as much as I can so that I can focus more on the facts and the truth more than the extreme feelings that can possibly come with them. The more I’m able to think for myself, the more I can improve as a journalist.

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Principle of Media Consumption

In chapter 2 which is titled, “Principles of Media Consumption”, Gillor discusses five principles that are very important in the art of journalism. The five principles are to be skeptical, exercise judgement, open your mind, keep asking questions, and to learn media techniques. In my opinion, all of these principles are very meaningful and they resonate with me. However, the one that resonates with me the most out of all of them is to open your mind.

I personally believe that to be open-minded is not only better than to be close-minded, but it’s very important to be open-minded as much as possible to refrain from judgement. When it comes to journalism, it’s just as important and meaningful. As a journalist, my job is to report the truth, not my beliefs unless I’m writing an opinion article. Even then, it’s still absolutely necessary to back up the story with evidence. Without evidence, my story will become unreliable and I won’t be able to gain the trust of the audience.

I have a strong belief that we all should look at things from a perspective that is different from our own so we could have a better understanding of each other and to gain the ability to comprehend several different situations. I believe that the more we can challenge our own mindsets and ideas about the many things in the world, the more we can grow as people. In the case of journalism, the more I can use my ability to seek evidence and the truth as well as finding new perspectives on various events, the more I can grow as a journalist and improve my reporting skills. If journalists were to keep the same mindsets that they’ve had when they first started practicing the art of journalism, they wouldn’t have the ability to really report about anything outside of their comfort zones and won’t be able to improve. In that case, the news wouldn’t really be news, we would continuously hear reports about the same things over and over again and the audience wouldn’t be well informed because the reporters don’t have the ability to explore the different aspects of journalism.

It’s very important to remember that although working within our comfort zones is much easier, sometimes we need to challenge ourselves and increase the difficulty level a bit so that we can overcome our previous mistakes and gain more out of the journalism experience. There is so much diversity and variety in this world and is expressed in today’s society. Every aspect of diversity should be written about and explored in journalism. I know that sometimes, it’s incredibly hard to report something that goes against our personal beliefs and opinions. However, we also need to ask ourselves sometimes if our judgement on a specific judgement is incorrect or flawed. We need the evidence to provide reasoning and proof about our statements. If there’s no evidence, then it’s possible that you might need to reflect on the situation more and look at it from a whole other perspective. Remember that this is all a learning process. None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes. We all have our faults, but it’s more important to try to overcome them by becoming more open-minded and aware for the better.

[melodysblogs]

Tompkins 12

Chapter 12 of Al Tompkins’ “Aim for the Heart” is titled “Working as a Backpack, VJ and One-Man-Band Journalist”. This chapter of the book provides insight on what it’s like to work alone as a multimedia journalist. When it comes to writing scripts, shooting photos, recording audio and video, and editing, it’s important to get used to doing all of these things on your own. Self-reliance is the key to being a great video journalist. To succeed as a backpack journalist, you would have to manage your time wisely and use certain resources such as a tripod, headphones, and the internet when necessary. This chapter also includes what should be included in a backpack journalist kit (Camera, microphone, headphones, etc).