Civil Rights in the Media

During our unbelievably lively discussion of civil rights in the media we broached the topic of how the media used the civil rights movement to get better ratings/viewership/etc.. During this time in the united states Television was still in its infancy, but the race to get the most viewers was on. Television was such a new medium that people didn’t understand how to fully grasp it’s potential, but the ratings war was on. So, unfortunately, lots of television journalists began to act in ways that were unsavory and in some cases unethical. The ethics in the media were at a low, in an attempt to gain more viewers and have more suspenseful news. 

http://www.newseum.org/digital-classroom/video/civil-rights/default.aspx

 

However, the television news media during the civil rights era wasn’t all bad. Through the use of nationwide television broadcasts the rest of the country was able to see what was going on in the south. People that lived in the northern parts of the country and even Canada were awakened to the fact that there was rampant racism, or to put it in the words of Professor Campbell “Racism was alive and well” in the south. Now of course racism still existed and wasn’t uncommon in the rest of the United States, but the level of hatred and persecution during the civil rights era was unbelievably high in the southern states, and thanks to the magic of television people all across the country were awakened to the reality of what was happening in their own country. 

 

http://www.paleycenter.org/the-civil-rights-movement-and-television

Passionate Journalism

Passionate Journalism

When Michael White spoke in class on Wednesday, one of the things that struck a chord within me was his passion for writing about your interests.  I had always thought that journalists were given their assignments and they had to write no matter what the topic was, whether they like it or not. However, Michael White showed me that a real journalist is able to write about things he’s passionate about. And why not? I know that when I’m reading article I only read the ones that interest me, and the ones that have a relatively similar genre.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100675/Passion-Replaces-the-Dullness-of-an-Overused-Journalistic-Formula.aspx

An article written by Robert Niles says that passionate writing can replace the dullness of overused journalism. What that means to me, is that the writers individual passion can make a piece come alive. Which is completely true, I can always tell the difference between an article that was begrudgingly written and an article that was done by a writer who has a passion for the topic.

This brings to mind the case of Jayson Blair, the journalist for the New York Times that spent years and years faking and forging articles so that he could keep his job. He never showed up to press conferences, events, etc.., but he wrote as if he did, and his writing, quite frankly, sucked. Jayson lacked a journalistic passion, or he wasn’t willing to write about what actually interested him. Michael White’s comments really opened my eyes to be sure that whatever I’m doing for my career, it’s something I’m passionate about.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayson_Blair

The Future of Journalism

Future of journalism

In our most previous class we discussed the future of journalism, and the many innovations and changes that we will be able to see in the near future. One of the points that really struck me was the fact that the future of journalism will very much be a hybrid style of writing. One half of our journalistic future will be the best practices of traditional journalism, such as fairness, accuracy, storytelling, etc… However, the second half will require tools from the digital age to maintain speed, transparency, and most importantly, engagement.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/future-of-journalism_b_3756207.html

As discussed in class successful journalism in the future will have a higher level of engagement and involvement. Today we use things like facebook, twitter, and interactive news sites. In the future, who knows, what will be available to use, but one thing is for certain, to keep people engaged in the news, they need a purpose to be there.  One of the problems of living in such an advanced digital age is that we are very much desensitized to most news that we read. News and Journalism is no longer as captivating to us as it once was. This doesn’t mean that journalism has become worse, simply that we as a species have evolved and changed, and so journalism too must change with its audience. Nobody really knows what the future of journalism holds, but for now we can see that it will use a combination of technology and adaptation.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-greenberg-phd/the-times-they-are-a-chan_1_b_3865229.html