the bottom line

Is the need for revenue on news organizations affecting journalism?

Possibly. Is this why we get so many ridiculous stories? Does Tiger Woods make the organizations money every time someone mentions him plus a scandal?   Is this why meaningless stuff makes news?  You’ve also got to deal with all the opinion/talk show hosts that get a hour or more to battle it out with someone who probably disagrees with them. Half the time they aren’t even really having a wise debate, they’re having a screaming match.  People like this though, especially if the host is yelling about something they care about.

I just don’t see Fox getting rid of O’Reilly anytime soon and I think it’s pretty safe to say Glenn Beck is going nowhere. They have a loyal following. I’m guessing they make money because of this.

I think the need for revenue does affect journalism.  It makes it harder to just tell the facts because, most people don’t want facts, they want a spin on some story to make it good or bad. They need that commentary. Drama makes for a good story. It also means that some stories get pushed under or ignored while the really meaningless things get bumped up.  Other things were happening when Michael Jackson died, but you wouldn’t have known since every mainstream news organization in America was only showing things about him. Montage’s of his life and all the people mourning him.

Of course, the need/want of money is going to affect journalism. You make money by giving the masses what they want. It’s just how the whole scheme of things work.

Better, Brighter, More Accessible Internet?

According to this story on mashable, the mobile web will rule by 2015. Oh, what to do?

Maybe it’s the fact that my phone has so many cracks in the screen, or even that the screen is so small that I don’t bother with looking up more than facebook or a weather update on it. Yes, I get text messages when someone adds me on facebook or comments on my wall. I look-up what the temperature is or what the forecast is for the day if I don’t feel like turning my laptop on and waiting for WKU’s Cisco to load and let me have access to the internet. I even get updates when the Protomen update their twitter because I like to know where ‘Boss’ will be next (Boss is better known as Panther, but generally prefers being called Wayne, and sings for the band) and because I like the band and try to make it to their shows when I can. I could just text Wayne and I’m sure he would tell me where he’s going next (and he does this, but only because he doesn’t know I’m secretly one of those nerdy fangirls). This is about all that happens involving anything web related on my phone.

However, have you seen Microsoft’s new phones? The Kins? Why, yes, I would like one of those. Perhaps if I end up buying that phone, I’ll be more into the mobile web.

Phones are becoming more like tiny computers. The iphone should be an indicator of that. They’ve just started becoming used for purposes other than texting or calling. Have you seen some of the youtube videos for the hack codes on the Android? Scanning to detect a woman’s bra size or if she’s wearing underwear? It sounds ridiculous, but then again, maybe the Android was marketed more towards those nerdy types of men…

I don’t disagree that mobile web will take over by 2015, it actually sounds possible. What this makes me wonder is, how is this going to affect journalism? Do we now have to change the way we do things again to make content to satisfy the mobile web user? Reading the news online is very different from reading the newspaper, you get more with pictures, video and audio to help tell the story. I don’t really know what to expect because I don’t use the mobile web that much, but I just wonder how and if this will change journalism again. Of course, maybe nothing will change, website content will just move over to the mobile phone and on the world shall turn. This is probably the case with things like the Kindle and the ipad becoming so popular.

Will all this really take place in the next five years? Probably. I guess I should start looking into buying a newer, less cracked phone. Your kins better be nice, Microsoft, because I’m looking at them.

multi-taskers for Journalism!

So, according to mashable, there are 8 traits a journalist needs to have to make it in the competitive world of news these days.  I agree with the traits described, especially about how journalists are having to become more versatile. How they need to know how to shoot video, photographs, and get some audio to bind it all together.  I’ve been hearing this in every single Journalism class I’ve taken so far.

The thing that everyone seems to be stressing about is, you have journalists who are mediocre at everything. They aren’t proficient at any one skill. It worries me too since technology and I have yet to be in a steady relationship, I can’t even operate the self-checkout at Wal-Mart without help. I can write. I can shoot video and I’m decent with a camera, but once the computer part of the whole process comes into play, it’s going to take me quite a bit of hands-on training to get it done.  I’m also very critical of myself. Highland, my media writing Professor, would constantly stop me after correcting a story and say, “Sofi, just because you made one mistake, doesn’t mean it’s not a good story.” I’d reply that I knew that, but he always smiled like he didn’t believe me.

Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Sexual Violence Has Got to Go

I’m a women’s studies minor, which I suppose would make a person think I’m a feminist or just extremely interested in women’s issues. Well, it’s both. In some of my classes we’ve discussed the possibility of a post-feminism world. How the women of today don’t seem to think they need to do anything because things are good now because of what women did in the past and there’s no reason to try and change it, which led me to this blog.

Is feminism dead? Possibly. Or at least, I used to think so. You never see people really protesting anymore, unless the media is portraying the few radicals in the tea party movement. Or Westboro Baptist Church. I’ve seen a few rallies here at WKU and have joined in a few myself.  I recently marched downtown for the annual Take Back the Night candle light vigil, rally, and march. It started pouring rain as soon as we stepped outside the church to march, but we did it anyway. We shouted, we held up our signs that were getting drenched and fell apart, and walked through the freezing rain to raise awareness about sexual violence.

Feminism can’t be dead. It can’t when there’s still so much we have left to do. Yes, women are finally becoming the breadwinners in the house hold, but they still aren’t getting equal pay.

My biggest issue is health care. I hate that women can’t get equal health care and, in some cases, are treated as incubators for the state. Women are so much more than baby makers and should be treated as such.

For me, women being treated as equal human beings is similar to checking ‘other’ on the census and writing “Human Being”. No one should be treated differently because of ethnicity or gender. Everyone is essentially a human being on planet Earth and should be treated equally.

new ways to get news

There are so many ways to get news and information these days. You can sign-up for mobile updates on your mobile phone, get emails, use a RSS feed, some news organizations even use facebook and twitter to send out the latest updates.

I think the main groups using these ways to get information are the younger generations, mostly those under the age of 40, maybe 50. It seems like teenagers and those in their twenties would be most likely to get updates on facebook or twitter. Also from a mobile.  The reason I venture into those over 30 is because I’m thinking of the older business people. The types in suits that you almost always see on their cell phones. Maybe I’m stereotyping, but that’s just who I think of when I think of the newest, fastest ways to collect news.

Mostly older generations, baby boomers come to mind, would still be reading the newspaper and watching their local news stations.  Mainly because most of them didn’t grow-up using computers or mobile phones. My grandmother can barely make due with her cell phone and she wants a laptop, but only to store photos on as she hasn’t the slightest clue of how to use the internet.

When I think of how people will get their news in the future, say 15-20 years, I’m reminded of all those Doctor Who episodes about the Cybermen, specifically Rise of the Cybermen.  From what I remember, John Lumic, the man creating the cybermen, gives all the people ear pods. They stick them in their ears and wear them all the time, at different times in the day, the people all stop and download information directly into their brains.  I’m not sure if this could happen in the near future, but I can see it happening, or it could be my imagination going wild.  Of course, I don’t expect anything to happen as it does in Doctor Who. At least, I hope no one tries to put a human brain a robot body and off we go to “delete” the rest of the universe.

Smooth and Sleek

Is design important? That’s the question raised here.  I really agree that it is.

I love the picture of the ipods with the caption “great design.” I’ve never owned an ipod.  I had a fight with itunes once when I was given a gift card and after that, I bought a Zune and never looked back.

Still, I can tell by some of the things I own that I tend to go for the sleeker looking things.  My phone has rounded corners, nothing sharp. I’ve dropped it a couple times so there are a few chunks of plastic and metal missing and three cracks in the screen, but it’s still a very smooth looking phone.  No, I don’t have an iphone. I have a Samsung Eternity.  When I initially went shopping for a new phone (My Razr met an untimely demise when I threw it at a wall in a fit of confusion) I intended to buy a LG Shine. It looked so awesome and I was really feeling the “Wow” factor from the advertisements for it.  Then I went in to buy it, was told it was a horrible phone and would I like to look at these fancy new touch screens instead? I did buy the Eternity because it looked cool to me.  It was nice looking.   It was a touch screen that was similar to the iphone, but wasn’t as expensive. I bought it and am still happy with my incredibly destroyed, but still working, phone.  I have friends with the same phone and we all agree it is one tough cookie. Yes, we are all clumsy and have at least three cracks each in our phones.

The whole idea of “smooth and sleek” design seems to very popular today.  Cars, phones, mp3 players, and cameras have all got this similar look.  It’s almost odd in a country where everything seems to be about straight lines and corners (how many “smooth and sleek” round houses do you see in the states?”) that everything else has to be round and curved. Consumers tend to like this look.

When Reynolds says that a products design has to amaze a buyer, he’s right.  No one really wants to buy something that looks clunky, heavy, or just too large. Especially electronics. It’s all about what can fit in your pocket, what looks cool, and what will show your status.  A designer has to constantly think of what people will want or what will impress them, they can’t just go with whatever feels right and hope it works.

picture worth a thousand words

That’s the saying right?  It’s always been true.  Pictures are very important when it comes to telling a story.  That’s what a story is supposed to do, isn’t it? Paint a mental image of what’s happening. That’s what I always thought story telling was anyway.

Pictures are very important to news outlets. I think the photos are part of, if not most of, the reason why people pick up the magazine on the stand by the check-out counter or the newspaper.  Headlines are important, yes, that’s why they’re bold print and big. They’re also very short and straight to the point, they have to get the main point of the story across so you get an idea of what you’re about to read and to peak your interest.  Still, would anyone actually pick-up the gossip magazine or the tabloid if it didn’t have the tell-all picture of the screw-up celebrity of the week?

Photographs also help explain things in a better way than print can.  I’m sure some Americans really wouldn’t know about the devastation in Haiti if it wasn’t for the pictures accompanying the story.  It’s the picture that grabs your attention, pulls at you ‘heart strings’ and gives you some sort of emotional reaction to the story.  When you’re reading something, especially news print, which gets the facts across and doesn’t really paint any sort of picture for you in words, you can’t get an idea of what has really happened. If there’s a picture next to it with some sort of caption, I think people tend to understand more. They try to anyway.

They show us that something is real, that it’s actually happened and that’s what helps us to understand the story a bit more.

Paper or Digital?

Read this article tonight about journalism and it’s move to the digital world.

I’ve been hearing about this move from paper and print to online journalism since I began taking reporting classes.  I’ve had Professors tell me I could definitely write for an online publication, but I don’t really know if that’s the route I want to go.  Yes, the move to online would make things more accessible and you get ‘up to the minute’ headlines and ‘breaking news’ instantly instead of having to wait until the day after it’s over.  Newspapers aren’t the fastest way to get your information and because of this, I think most of my generation has begun to see them as obsolete.

I really don’t see things in the same light.  While I agree it is best for journalism students to learn about online publications and to learn about blogging, I still think print has it’s place in all of this as well.  Maybe I’m one of the odd ones that likes to sit down with a cup of coffee and snap open the local paper or a copy of the New York Times when I get the chance.  Then again, I’m one of those people who likes to own physical copies of books and albums (is it odd that my cousin and I collect vinyl records and have a record player to play them on?) because it makes the experience so much more enjoyable.  My ears get tired after listening to my Zune for so long or staring at the screen of my laptop for a hour trying to read.  This is why I have no problem with newspapers and magazines sticking around.

I suppose I enjoy both though. My homepage is currently set to NPR and every Tuesday and Thursday I pick-up a copy of The New York Times for Intro to Popular Culture, discuss some articles and end up sitting in my room reading through it again at the end of the day.  I don’t see one as being better than the other.  I think I’m also very lucky to have Professors here at Western who actually know their way around and can teach about blogging or online journalism of any sort.  I had no idea backpack journalists or OhmyNews existed until I started taking classes here.

So, I agree with Ms. Taylor when it comes to the idea that Professors do need to be kept up to date with online journalism and digital media, but disagree when it comes to completely scrapping printed publications. Now, I’m off to listen to my Cheer Up, Charlie Daniels multi-colored vinyl.

Journalism 232

I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this electronic journalism
class. Online journalism has definitely become one of the major ways
people get their news and such. From what I can tell newspapers have
been on the decline, or at least this is what I’ve been told, observed,
learned, etc.. Then again, I’m the biggest technophobe on the planet and
probably shouldn’t be allowed near a computer for fear of the screen
suddenly cracking or just being shutdown for no reason. I do get most of
my news from the internet or sent to my mobile phone, but I still like
to read a newspaper, so maybe the two can keep going on together.

I’d like to be able to make my way around the internet or have my own
website and actually know what the heck I’m doing. I slightly know how
to use html but not to the point where I can make something with it or
know what I’m talking about when it comes to using it. I don’t even know
if I’m speaking correctly about it right now.

Online journalism is definitely useful to me since it’s easy to get to
and I can easily get the latest updates about some breaking news going
on. So, in some ways, yeah, it’s a good thing.