Blog #12

1. There are a few drawbacks of the informational mode of journalism. The first one is producing too much information. The information will get piled up and people won’t pay attention to it they will think it’s junk and the pile up of information can add to the problems and anxiety of today’s world. This can result in too much unchecked data and not enough of discussions come from the many divisions of communication. The other problem is that the increased data has made a questionable impact on improving political and public life. People think they are not a part of the major institutions so they are trying to become involved in public conversations and debates.

2. News is accumulating information and creating narrative reports which are edited by other individuals who are a part of a news organization. News helps people be informed with important events, cultural trends, important people, unusual events that may be happening, and political issues.

3. Journalism has shifted from a more neutral model to a partisan model because of the rise in cable and internet. Neutral journalism publicized fact- gathering, documents and expertise. While the partisan model increased cable news and online news. This transition was caused by the rise in cable experts on news stations.

4. Deception and privacy present many ethical problems for journalists. First, deception is when a journalist goes undercover by masking their true identity to get information on a story. Witnesses who were at the scene not willing to talk to journalists, especially when it could get someone fired or ruin someone’s reputation. Journalists also invade people’s privacy a little too much. Journalists can hack into an individual’s voicemail, email, Facebook and Twitter accounts to gather more information. Journalists have also hacked into private voicemails of celebrities, the British royal family, and government officials. Due to this phone hacking incident, many senior executives were arrested or resigned.  

5. Getting a story first is very important to reporters because once the story to them, they have won a race because they presented the story before their competitors. has been out in the media, editors would back off.  Once a news company shows the story, other news media will back off and not broadcast the story because it was already covered.

6. Neutral journalism is when reporters take certain events and turn them into a news report and they leave out many other events. News reporters would judge other countries and cultures because they try to “live up to or imitate American practices and values” by ethnocentrism.

7. Reporters have become so dependent on experts because they can’t give their own opinion, they have to remain neutral. They have to look for experts who seem to be neutral about an issue. Reporters use experts so they can create a strong argument by putting quotes from that expert to support a particular position.

 8. Journalists and citizens firmly believe in the idea that there are two sides to every story because people have different views on particular topics. Journalists try not to pick sides instead, they stay neutral. They stay in this neutral position because they want their readers to say their opinion. If they did pick a side, readers would get mad and wouldn’t want to read the article.

9. TV news establishes its credibility from live reporting, believable imagery, and the trustworthiness viewers have towards anchors and reporters. TV broadcast relies on technology and time management because they need to time their stories in order for the story to fit between commercials. A poll was taken annually since the 1970’s and their results showed that majority of the viewer’s think that TV news is more credible than the news in print. Print news gets their information on a story when it is actually happening. Instead of managing their time around commercials like TV, print news needs to physically cut their stories down to make them fit around ads that are in the paper.

10. Today, the news is being presented to the public on a 24/7 basis. This allows people to see the news any time of the day. The news is now covering stories internationally but it can get expensive when they send reporters to go film stories on international issues so they use the “talking head” pundit. This is a strategy that doesn’t require a lot of resources outside of the studio and a few guests. Today, people would rather use the “talking heads” partisan over traditional reporting. However, this partisan method is not always good because the reporters might be giving false information.

11. The internet has influenced the traditional forms of journalism by posting their stories online. This means that viewers don’t have to wait until the next day to read the newspaper or important stories the news puts on.  Reporters tend to put up their online versions of their stories first before they do the morning paper or the morning news. The internet also allows readers to look at the entire article or story in the newspaper instead of part of the story because there is a limited space for writers to tell their story.

12. News programs like “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” play a role in the world of journalism. These types of shows use humor to criticize news media and the political system. They help viewers change their views on certain topics. An example of this would be during the 2008 election when SNL sketches on Sarah Palin. These shows presents the news in a funny way but also to stay informed with what is going on in the world.