Media Critique

Watching WLKY I've realized that they often do to many crime stories. After doing ten nights of watching it and recording the data they had around 53% of their stories to be crime. But there stories weren't exactly newsworthy crime stories. They often ignored the principle of making the important interesting. The crime rates in Louisville have increased but not every crime that happens is newsworthy. Such as a shooting that is only relevant in one neighborhood does not affect everyone in Louisville, unless the culprit hasn't been caught and causes immediate danger.

Response to Hannah Tsai's Blog

http://hannahtsai01.blogspot.com/2013/09/response-to-class-lecture.html
I agree with what Hannah said in her posts about how she now looks at news in a different way, and critiques them while she's watching after the class lecture. Also about how she always just accepted what the journalists said was the truth, which I feel is something I've done too. Especially when watching local news and having the minimal reaction to it and simply just accepting it, but I've now looked at the local news and can see a lot of the things they could improve on now that I know how to critique a news story or a news organization.

Response to Sarah Kelley's Blog

http://sarahkelley01.blogspot.com/2013/09/class-response-9-19-13.html
When reading Sarah's post about recordings it brought up a lot of points, I enjoyed how she connected the lecture to herself as a person and her interests about music. She also brought up about how it made her realize that music and recordings are actually a mass medium even though the typical mass medium tends to be only thought of as newspapers and magazines, which I found to be a valid point because I also at first didn't think of music as a mass medium even though it has the potential to reach an audience. I feel as though her post was well written and wasn't wordy, therefore making it easy and quick to the point.

Response-Newspapers

I liked the newspaper lectures. It brought about how timeless and important they are especially to the development to today's society. It made me realize that newspapers are something that would never go away even with the rise of technology because they'll always be used by people, typically older generations because they have a level of comfort and tradition associated with them. They also helped bring in investigate journalism and overall helped literacy rates and peoples awareness to what was going on around them. It gave journalist a voice to finally be able to speak the truth and to be able to speak out about things they found unfair, it also gave people a place for their opinions to be heard.

Response-Printing Press

I enjoyed the lecture about the printing press. Mainly because it brought about a lot of "what if" thinking. Such as what if a reliable printing press was never made. Also the realization about how the majority of us would be illiterate and virtually controlled because we wouldn't be able to read or rationalize a lot of things. We would also be under one mindset, which was the mindset that the church would want people to be under. We also wouldn't know if our leaders were corrupt simply because they were educated but a large amount of the people wouldn't be educated therefore believing in everything the leaders say.

Response-Models of Mass Communication

I found the lecture about the models of mass communication to be interesting. I found it interesting because it was interesting to realize the different classifications. I also realized that a lot of the media is now mainly populist and less elitist showing how a lot of news organizations tend to make the unimportant important. Showing how populism has virtually taken over a large amount of television as well as internet. It also shows how some journalists have pretty much "given" up on promoting the truth and simply just going with want the people want.

Response-Principles of Journalism

I find the lecture over the principles of journalism and the seven yardsticks to be one of the most important lectures. It was a proper "opening" to the class. Simply because it's why we're all here in the J&C magnet or class, because we have an interest in learning how to be a successful journalist. Which is why the lecture was and probably will be one of the most important lectures to the class. We'll always use this lecture throughout our time in this program.

News Media Critique-WLKY

WKLY, a local news station at points seem not to tell the entire truth. When watching a news story they've broadcasted, they'll often interview people. But it's always a short video clip of the interview, unless it's live. The video clip majority of the time is obviously edited and cut. They'll play the portion they want people to hear, but as soon as the person goes to say more it almost abruptly stops. Leaving the viewer slightly confused and questioning if they've gotten the entire story, the entire truth. Which is why they as a news organization are lacking the first of the nine principles of journalism, truth. Either the interviews are being withheld or videos just aren't well edited. 

They also make the unimportant interesting, which again violates one of the nine principles of journalism. They could take someone being shot and run it as a news story almost nearly the same several times in a week, but it's not relevant to Louisville as a whole, seeing as how Louisville is multiple communities and not just one connected community. Therefore their stories lack a certain amount of newsworthiness. Also, nearly all of their reporting is passive reporting simply showing up at the scene of a crime, taping the police, firefighters, or whomever is on the scene; doing an interview of a frightened citizen; reporting about it for days after without ever getting the full truth or looking over or investigating the story. 

They also lack a sense of watchdog. They'll report on "politics" but they are stories that people have already heard, typically from larger media, and there isn't much on our local politicians doings, except for certain bills have passed. But they'll report if the politician has said something "scandalous" in their terms. Which also goes with truth and loyalty to the citizens. They seem to lack loyalty in the fact they don't typically report the negative doings of any of Kentucky's people of office.