As the internet is getting to be a more and more popular way for people to get their news, the practice of "citizen journalism" has popped up. I think this is an interesting new direction for journalism, because it enables the everyday American to have a platform for their views and give their perspective on the different situations the world over.
The citizen journalism website I chose to review was "OhmyNews International," http://english.ohmynews.com/index.asp, a site for international news, which also provides links on "how to" articles for brand new citizen journalists. One of the most interesting of these links was for the "Journawiki," (http://journalism.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page ) which is basically an online manual on how to be a citizezn journalist, which can be added to by fellow citizen journalists all over the world.
The reason I chose "OhmyNews International" was because of it's old school newspaper look and feel. Its look was clean and professional, and even though the articles have their own biases, the tone and grammatical structure was professional as well. It also interested me because it was an international site, so it has a wider volume of writers, as well as readers. The international aspect also shows that there are many different viewpoints available from this website, and it's not just concentrated in one area.
I think that citizen journalism is really the future of journalism, because it is easily accessible, and it's coming from "people like us." The hardship will be determining what is true and what is false, but that stands true of even traditional journalism today.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Survival of the fittest...
In a recent episode of Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites, the motivational speaker from the Fan team said that the Fans have an advantage over the Favorites, because they know how the Favorites behave, just by watching the previous seasons. The Favorites, on the other hand, have no idea how the Fans are going to behave.
I was inclined to disagree with this logic. While on the surface it seems to make sense, in reality, the Fans have no idea who the Favorites are. The Favorites, who in past seasons appeared to have one personality, may in fact have a personality completely different. That is to say, they could have been playing a role, in order to appeal to the viewers, or their fellow players. Also, the personalities that they portrayed could have been altered merely by the other player's personalities. The chemistry between the teammates could have brought out different traits in different people. As well, the challenges are probably not going to be the exact same, and it is difficult to say how people you have never met are going to react in every circumstance.
The idea of Fans vs. Favorites is interesting, but I think that it is just going to be like every other Survivor, and not that much different.
I was inclined to disagree with this logic. While on the surface it seems to make sense, in reality, the Fans have no idea who the Favorites are. The Favorites, who in past seasons appeared to have one personality, may in fact have a personality completely different. That is to say, they could have been playing a role, in order to appeal to the viewers, or their fellow players. Also, the personalities that they portrayed could have been altered merely by the other player's personalities. The chemistry between the teammates could have brought out different traits in different people. As well, the challenges are probably not going to be the exact same, and it is difficult to say how people you have never met are going to react in every circumstance.
The idea of Fans vs. Favorites is interesting, but I think that it is just going to be like every other Survivor, and not that much different.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Max Headroom analysis
In my BC253 class, we recently viewed an episode of a show called "Max Headroom." The episode we watched showed a group of terrorists in cohorts with a news station in order to boost the ratings, and gain more money for all involved. It really showed the impact that the news could have (and in some cases does have) on the world.
Along the same lines, it also shows the importance of keeping the media relatively honest - if the media actually did conspire with terrorists, what could happen? In television today, the ratings are all powerful; however, how much sacrifice is too much? Are we sacrificing our morals, innocence, and humanity for the sake of ratings and monetary gain?
For example, when I was watching the news the other day, I saw footage of a woman who had been poisoned, supposedly by her husband. They showed video of her dead body on the news, in the middle of the day, no less, all the while mentioning that her own family could not watch this footage. How is that necessary? I am not saying that our media would go as far as to kill a woman on the air, as they did in the episode of Max Headroom. Max Headroom shows a "worst case scenario" of what our media could potentially become, if we continue to value the ratings over the people who are watching.
Along the same lines, it also shows the importance of keeping the media relatively honest - if the media actually did conspire with terrorists, what could happen? In television today, the ratings are all powerful; however, how much sacrifice is too much? Are we sacrificing our morals, innocence, and humanity for the sake of ratings and monetary gain?
For example, when I was watching the news the other day, I saw footage of a woman who had been poisoned, supposedly by her husband. They showed video of her dead body on the news, in the middle of the day, no less, all the while mentioning that her own family could not watch this footage. How is that necessary? I am not saying that our media would go as far as to kill a woman on the air, as they did in the episode of Max Headroom. Max Headroom shows a "worst case scenario" of what our media could potentially become, if we continue to value the ratings over the people who are watching.
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