amelia's blog!!!

The top headlines on the Courier Journal website habitually regard topics that are not newsworthy, therefore violating the first basic yardstick of journalism; newsworthiness. The specific headline being focused on also lacks a wide variety of sources, which is a violation of the context yardstick. Newsworthiness outlines the obligation and responsibility of the journalist to make the topic of an article have "... a direct and lasting informational impact on a wide audience," and pertain to a "core" topic. There are myriad top headlines on the Courier Journal website on any given day, that do not meet these standards. For example, the top headline for nearly the entire day Sunday was, "Your child can be an author in this funky hot air balloon, underwater writing clinic."  Seeing as this story encourages and advertises the Young Authors Greenhouse, it falls under the promotional category. According to gradethenews.org, promotional topics are considered per...

I was reading through blogs, searching to find one to respond to, and when i opened Tylers blog, the first thing I saw was his Media Critique. He is critiquing Fox News, for a story on a topic that, in his opinion, is not newsworthy. I agree that the individual story doesn't effect a lot of people for a long time, but the overall topic of police brutality is a recurring problem that has been effecting a lot of people for a very long time. So, what can we do to draw attention to the bigger picture and issue at hand, rather than the individual stories that are often skimmed over because they have become so common? As citizens and journalists, we can and should emulate what many people have recently done with different topics-create a movement. Creating a broader subject for all of these frequent stories to fall under would not only make them more newsworthy, but also draw awareness to them and effectively move society towards change, rather than continuing the cycle that many tragi...

In class, we spent a significant amount of time discussing how the binary models are altered by conglomeration. Hot and cool had no change, the category "infotainment" was developed, news sources veered toward populist reporting, and content-distribution successfully merged (for companies such as Netflix). But, in addition, I think the models are also substantially effected by society, and the change of modern ideals over time. For example, the increasing rate of time spent on screens-especially for teens- limits and takes the place of other tasks, such as homework. As companies that produce screen entertainment recognize this, they adapt, making the time-consuming screen activity more of a cool model. This strategically allows time for teens to multitask, without having to disengage with the screen completely, maintaining business for the entertainment companies. Another example is content-distribution. Because Netflix, a long time distributing company, has access to all o...

When I read Desiree's blog entry regarding mass communication, I was thoroughly impressed. There was specifically one part that really stood out to me as not only interesting, but very insightful. The third paragraph clearly details a common misunderstanding pertaining to this concept-that the communication type is classified by how many people access, decode, and internalize the message. The truth is, the number of viewers is completely irrelevant when distinguishing a message as mass or group communication. "... it's not uncommon for an individual to misinterpret the message as mass communication equaling more viewers and group communication being equated to less viewers," she wrote. She is completely correct. Simplifying it, mass communication is partly defined by the amount of people it has to potential to reach; not the amount of people it actually reaches. This then got me thinking about potential, and what a powerful concept it really is. Potential is such a ...

As a technologically developed and advanced culture, we are able to identify and utilize multiple mass communication outlets at any given time or place. These timeless messages often serve a valid and important purpose, however they are very easy to abuse, and can also have negative impacts. After the class discussion regarding mass communication, I sat down to create a written analyzation of these benefits and drawbacks. To think positively, mass communication has innumerable benefits that the world, and modern society, would struggle to function without. One example of this is the spread of art and culture, as well as the interdependence that mass communication globally creates. Especially through public social media, mass communication is used to connect with people across the globe almost immediately. Every day thousands of ideas, information, and aspects of culture are diffused, making everyone with access to public accounts aware of what is going on in places that they are unab...

One of the very first topics we discussed in class was what makes good journalism. More specifically, we talked about the elements and yardsticks, which are guidelines for journalists to follow in order to produce good journalism. One of these guidelines was outlining that for news to be effectively received and understood by an audience, it must be attention holding. Lets face it, not every newsworthy story is interesting. I'll be the first to admit that I would much rather read about a mysterious disappearance than what tax-bill was denied. Thats just part of human nature. My point here is that journalists have a much bigger job than a lot of people realize. It is very common for the most important news to be somewhat boring, and for the not so newsworthy content to be very engaging. This is where good journalism comes in. I am not saying that every story has to keep the reader on the edge of their seat, however, it is a large responsibility of the writer to hold attention long...

As I started to zone out in the middle of a lecture on Wednesday, Mr. Miller changed voice tone, keeping me engaged, and proceeded to explain the process of human communication. He discussed how an idea stimulates the brain, and if the idea is verbalized, different vibrations occur, travel across the room, etcetera. I started thinking about something that is rarely thought about or discussed-human communication-and how crazy it really is. The fact that our brains can so quickly turn thoughts into a series of vibrations strung together, that the travel almost instantly to a receiver, who hears and processes those vibrations, and then responds, often without hesitation, repeating the process.