Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Forty Years Later: Is Race Still in Vogue?

Martin Luther King's speech on racism was almost 40 years ago. The journalism world seemed to get better about the racism issue and being respectful. Although, recently Vogue magazine put a scowling black basketball star, LeBron James, was put on the cover along with a happy white supermodel, Gisele Bundchen. Does this show that Vogue was trying to make the black race seem less civilized than the white race? That is the question. The journalism world is very indecisive when it comes to the race issue and whether they truly want to talk about it. There are the journalists that talk rationally about the racism issues, but then there are the ones that use racism to make their stories more interesting like on the recent Vogue cover.

Journalism could be the world's pathway to a less racially motivated culture. If journalism spoke of every race in the same way, instead of seeming to take sides just because of a person's race, the people that read those stories could be affected by this change. If the people's media, who they look to to know what is going on in their world, showed respect, then the people may start to change their own views. I feel that this needs to be enforced. Every race needs to be treated equally by every journalist. It would obviously be hard to accomplish, but regulations need to be put into motion to start helping with this issue.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=58&aid=140909

Wooden Leadership

Now that it is coming up on Final Four time in college basketball, John Wooden, a legendary UCLA coach comes to mind. The amazing ESPN multimedia presentation "Forever Coach" showed the leadership that Wooden brought to his team. Wooden also uses a personal website to talk about his views on leadership and how your life can be affected by being a passionate leader. Through these different medias, this prominent figure shows the world how to gain success from becoming a great leader.

Now it is easy for everyone, not just prominent figures, to voice their opinions and thoughts on any subject. Without the many medias of the present, it would be much more difficult to reach the large groups of people that can be now. Blogs are especially an interactive way for everyday people to show how they feel about the subjects of the world. I am so excited to live in this world of many medias and cannot wait for the many technologies that will improve medias even more in the future.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=34&aid=140570

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Multimedia: An Adolescent, but No Longer an Orphan

Journalism is evolving yet again with multimedia journalism online. Instead of the lack of multimedia journalism has had in the past, which made journalism an "orphan" in a sense, journalism is in its "adolescent" stage of learning how to improve through multimedia. Journalism is bringing videos, photos, and audio to take their profession to the next level. These styles are being used online very often. The National Press Photographers Association awards made comments about the entries in the online categories that they reviewed this past year.

Here is some of their positive and negative criticism:

- Media has made many improvements by incorporating more multimedia then in the past.
- The audio that is used in storytelling, when used correctly, can make a huge difference in the story's meaning. News organizations are using audio slideshows to tell more adequate stories.
- Do not let the user become confused because they cannot run the program being used.
- Do not use so much multimedia that it is hard for the user to understand the story line.
- There is to much going on in many of the stories that are barely hanging together by the common subject.
- The biggest criticism was to be cautious of "Too much!"

The journalism world is being taken to the next level throughout these multimedia innovations. I am very pleased that journalism is going in the direction of adding new technology of the times. I feel that journalism must grow along with everything else in the world in order to keep up with the competition. There will always be one journalist that uses the new multimedia. Therefore, every journalist must do this in order to keep the future public's attention.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=140573

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Facebook and the Viral Marketing of News

Marketing of news has been affected greatly by Facebook. Many organizations are using Facebook to get breaking news out to their users. This is because the organizations have realized that much of the younger public is using Facebook for much of their Internet time. In this way the organizations can connect with younger public.

The organizations can expand their outlet to more users as well as be in control of the content. Facebook shows what news stories your friends have been looking at. This could make you want to look at the same thing, since you probably have some of the same interests as your friend. These connections lead to more users for the organizations.

I feel that with the new age of Facebook it is good that organizations are going along with it instead of fighting it. Since they are embracing Facebook culture there is much more chance for success in keeping the younger and future public as users. They are keeping up with the times, which will lead to success for both them and the users in the information they gain from it.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=134855

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Roy's Totally Subjective Picks: 85 Wonders of the Journalism World

This article talks about the Wonders of the Journalism World. The writers of the Wonders of the Journalism World split these wonders into five categories: story forms and shapes, institution/ organizations, technologies, documents, and people. They are listed in the order of which they felt was most important.

Here are their top picks in each category:

Story forms and shapes: The Inverted Pyramid
Institutions/ Organizations: The New York Times
Technologies: The QWERTY keyboard
Documents: The First Amendment
People: Edward R. Murrow

It is revealed that they used recommendations of Poynter's faculty and staff to help come up with the list. Many beginning journalists can learn many things from this list concerning the journalistic world from this list. The Wonders of the Journalism World help put into prespective how the journalism industry has become what it is today. The list even speaks about the impact Google and Facebook have had on the modern journalistic world. The list has also helped close the gap between journalism in the past and present along with allowing readers to understand authors more clearly. I feel this is a fantastic idea to help educate people within the journalistic world along with the people outside looking in. This list can help the world understand the amazing advances in the history of journalism and the past that still affects it.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=139028

Monday, March 10, 2008

Improving Accuracy: Creating a Newsroom System

There are more accuracy issues with online publishing. Eight newspapers in Southern Brazil are trying to stop this trend. They are starting by trying to get rid of their most common answers. The top five issues that add up to 53 percent of the mistakes are:

1. Names
2. Professions/positions/ages/political parties
3. Dates/numbers
4. Geography
5. E-mails/addresses/Web sites/telephones

These RBS Group has made an accuracy packet to help others in their efforts of online publishing. So far, their method of helping writers realize the common mistakes and drilling them into their head has helped tremendously in Southern Brazil. Hopefully, This method of madness can spread to insure an improved online publishing system. This is a great idea that seems to be working. Therefore, why not try it everywhere to see if online publishing can stop making journalistic mistakes. The way to fix mistakes is knowing what to look for to prevent those mistakes. This is precisely what the RBS Group is trying to accomplish.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=137822

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Eye to Ear: From Newspapers to Public Radio

The world of newspapers and public radio differ in many ways. This is shown by discussing David Folkenflik's experiences; he switched from working with The Baltimore Sun newspaper to being a National Public Radio correspondent. Folkenflik made the switch because he had grown up listening to the radio and greatly enjoys it. He had to start over again when it came to his thoughts of getting the information out to the public. A big part of this was the fact that there was now sound involved, which made it more complicated. Sounds were added to stories to make them seem like real life. Radio correspondents also have to do a very hard thing, not be afraid of their own voice. At the same time the writing needed to be different. The basics are similar, but everything else needs to be done somewhat differently. Here is how Folkenflik sums up the writing transition from working with newspapers to working with public radio.

"You have to be willing to collaborate to a greater degree," Folkenflik said. "You have to tell complex stories more tightly -- but without losing any of the sophistication or vital context."

It is every journalists choice as to which part of the field they enter into. If they switch areas I just hope its because they want to experience a new area of journalism rather than a salary increase. Hopefully, they will keep their passion for journalism no matter which area of journalism they go to. Every area of journalism is different in a way, and each is done with a little bit different expertise. The world of newspaper and public radio journalism may be different in many ways, but their point is the same. They want to reach the public and inform them on issues or get whatever information they feel needs to be told out to the public. Journalism is an amazing tool of the people that lets voices be heard by others.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=138083