Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Power of 'The Narrative'

Charles Martin brings up an important point in This Article. Speech is so powerful. How you tell a story and report it really affects the readers. This is exactly what the chapter about mobilizing citizen participation is The Press is referring to. The average citizen is just going to read one newspaper and a couple articles and that is going to be how they view worldly events happening around us. However, I think that is giving the journalist too much credibility. This just an emphasis how important it is to be aware of what you are reading and know that the truth isn't just that simple. This makes me question how corrupt our society is because people are so affected by what one person says- and there is so much more out there than that.

Thumbs up or Down for the Media during Watergate?

In our readings for class I was enthralled by Nixon and his relationship with the press. I wanted to know more about what the media's role  during this time. I found this article from 2005, and it is talking about "Deep Throat" coming out and admitting he was the one who leaked he information. It is interested to note that there is a constant friction as to if the people feel the media is playing a key role in politics or not. Nixon felt that the media was out to get him- even though taking a step back the media was on his side a lot of the time. He used the media in new ways that paved the way for others. Even though people argue that the media either aren't doing what they are supposed to or people view the way they are telling the news negatively, they are getting the job done. 


"As much as Watergate is a model of the journalism that we admire, you can also see in it the origins of the distrust we have today." This is a quote from this article, that gave me more of a perspective as to the conflict of the role of the media during the Watergate scandal. 







Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Facebook Facing a Dilemma

“The trust people place in us is the most important part of what makes Facebook work,” she said, adding that the company welcomed a discussion with Mr. Durbin and others who have an interest in this matter. “As demonstrated by our response to threats in Tunisia, we take this trust seriously and work aggressively every single day to protect people.”
     http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/business/media/15facebook.html?scp=2&sq=news%20about%20the%20media%20and%20politics&st=cse


In this article  Facebook is very conflicted- not really sure whose side to take- if they support the activists, the protestors, the people who don't want any of it up... they just are not consistent.Facebook is struggling with how they feel about supporting activists and letting them get their voice known through Facebook.
I also found it really interesting that both Youtube and Twitter are both sites that have a clear stance and are trying to help anyone spread the world about protests- Twitter is outwardly trying to help anyone who is protesting- even when the Internet was down in Egypt, Twitter had people record messages to get them out to the public. 


I don't know what Facebook's intentions are and because of that I am torn as to how I feel about them not taking a stance and just doing things " to keep peoples trust."  
One side is if they feel ambivalent about taking a stance because they respect everyone and they feel as though there is freedom of speech and everyone has a chance to let their voice be heard and Facebook is a good forum for that, then that is one side or the second side is if it because they want everyone to be on Facebook and they don't care even if they think its out of hand, if its getting more hits or ratings up its fine- then that I feel is the wrong way to handle things.



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Role of the Watchdog

When I was reading the Chapter 10 in The Press I was really interested in the 'role of the watchdog' and decided to delve more into it.
I came across this article- which really echoes a lot of what the reading reflected in practice.


“This story is far from over,” Mr. Conroy said last week. “There are 20 men in prison who are there on the basis of suspect confessions, and no one is paying attention to them because investigative reporting is time-consuming and expensive and no one wants to pay for it. I’m not paying attention because I can’t afford to.


This is a quote from this article, and it is so fascinating that the role of the watchdog is really grey. It seems that journalism is the utmost important thing in a democracy, however things like making sure the ratings are up and not being happy with the hidden news is keeping the role of the watchdog of doing what it is supposed to do. Even in this case Mr. Conroy is stating that it is too expensive so investigative reporting is being ignored.
There is so much that news stories don't tell us or know and then we read all the really biased accounts from people- but what i feel is necessary and what the role of the watchdog should be in in between that- there to find out the real facts without as much as possible to add a bias.
I think the role of the watchdog is really important- and that people are really missing the point.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/business/media/05conroy.html?_r=1&src=busln