Final Reflection

I was consistent enough with my writing since the goal was to answer some questions that the teacher would ask me for the assignments. I just used a normal language, and didn’t need to do anything gimmicky like “leet-speak” or “emojis.” The best way to be professional is not to be so extreme.

Sadly, I didn’t know much about interviewing since it was difficult for me to find a topic or a person discuss with, and those online stories are the only ones that will never be completed.

I didn’t cite a lot of sources, and in some cases, I should have to give context to the assignments I was working on. It’s fine for the teacher or students if they know about the assignments, but for a person who just happened to come across the blog randomly, they may end up confused. I didn’t put any images except for the story in five pictures assignment. Even then, I just summed up a normal day when I’m alone, and I think I have something to do but don’t feel like it. The pictures didn’t have anything to do with any recent news stories. I did get my skills of editing and framing my photos from photography class a few years ago.

I had a fun time in JRN203. This has encouraged me to make another blog voicing my opinions, as well as be more vocal on social media. What I would like to do on my blog is doing reviews or editorials of movies, tv, video games, or any other entertainment medium, or analyze mentalities of certain groups of people. I hope I get to keep working on writing in the future.

(Further apologies for turning in late assignments.)

Assignment XIII - Podcast

Here's the recording

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wgVBkbwAGQUSHaukjg0C-v3JCpeoboLV

and here's the script.

FCC’s Attack on Net Neutrality

Anchor: Elijah Berry

11-29-2017

Timecode: 01:05:00

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-chairman-calls-twitter-the-real-threat-to-an-open-internet/

[CUE Audio: 111_eyecatch.wav

Time: 4.5s]

Hello, I’m Elijah Berry making my first attempt at a podcast.

For a while, Net Neutrality is being threatened again since 2015, and this time they are super serious about this, even though they never got the memo last time.

But, it looks like the FCC chairman Ajit Pai (no apologies if I mispronounce your name) has responded to all of the people wanting Net Neutrality not to be abolished, calling us and websites such as Twitter, a threat to freedom.

The FCC is essentially blaming us for something they are doing. There is no valid point that he made in that statement. So if you’re like me, then you should call your senator now and tell him how ludicrous the FCC is.

This is Elijah Berry, and even when doing something fun, I procrastinate on it.

[CUE Audio: 111_eyecatch.wav

Time: 4.5s]

Assignment XII - Tell a Story in 5 Photos

Official Title: When I Don't Know What To Do For a Whole Day

Assignment XI - The Future of TV News

Web video and online storytelling have no real set schedule. They are released whenever they want, and we can watch these videos at our own pace. Some people are impatient, and we don't like it when a news program interrupts a tv sitcom.

There's not a huge future for cable in general, especially after streaming got popular. Although it only got popular because we could watch old TV shows that didn't get much VHS releases or did not have a DVD release at all. But that's another story. As for news, they are better instantaneous, and you don't have to worry about technical difficulties while live on TV.

Live streaming has gotten popular. Amateur video makers often Livestream themselves playing video games on YouTube and Twitch, while more professional companies stream live events, like E3, and Nintendo Directs. News companies could Livestream their reports like they would on TV.

Assignment X - Who cares if it's true?

Note: I wholeheartedly apologize for turning in this late.

Buzzfeed decided to edit their posts before publishing their stories, so they don't have to correct anything after the fact. This is, so their hoaxes feel much more valid than they seem.

The primary concern that media veterans have with BuzzFeed's style is that people would favor quantity and speed over quality and truth.

Unlike the Onion which is a parody of journaling and Snopes which goes more in-depth about rumors and false stories, Buzzfeed just reports the story without thought. Almost as if they just saw the title of the story and they talk about it. If they would stop and think, and they update the story as time goes on, they wouldn't be that bad.

I don't trust Buzzfeed because it just seems unprofessional to talk about news that they don't have the full story for.

Assignment IX - Podcasts and Audio, Part II

The interviewer's name is Nomiki Konst, and the interviewee is Hollywood producer, Norman Lear. This is part of the program called TYT Network. Norman Lear's works reflected and influenced the politics during the 1970's, and he tweeted himself taking the knee back in World War II and recently during the NFL controversy. She asked, what is the significance of taking the knee given his understanding of history, how much Lear's work influenced culture, and what can we do to fight fascism. Konst had this strategy where she built up the questions by giving out the historical context of these questions. They seemed friendly with each other. I didn't sense anything hostile.

I learned a little about the perspective of a producer that was a World War II veteran and the impact he had back in the 70's. As someone who was born in the mid 90's, I took a lot of these older shows for granted, not knowing how much impact these shows had in our culture before shows like the Simpsons, Duckman, South Park, and Family Guy would push the envelope.

Link: https://player.fm/series/tyt-interviews/norman-lear-on-nfl-protests-trumps-america-and-more

Assignment VIII- Podcast Reflection

https://player.fm/series/nbc-nightly-news-audio

This podcast is as recent as it can be. This podcast is by NBC and it's affiliated with, well, NBC. It's about 20 minutes, and they cover more stories in only a few minutes, so it's not too in-depth and they just summarize what's going on. At 8:27 of the podcast when the reporter says "We have no leads, and we have no motive" There's a sound that sounds like an Atari 2600 game. (Observe, https://youtu.be/8llysEFFc7s?t=16s ) To be honest, the kind of podcasts I listen to are the self-help type podcasts, and I usually read blogs to get news info. Even then, I read the title more than the actual article, so I guess you could say I'm not that good of a reader.

Assignment VII - Journalism Hero

I decided to talk briefly about Walter Cronkite. I actually first heard his voice in the animated movie We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story, where he plays the professor Neweyes. Just from that and his news reports, he has more of a gentle personality than most news reporters nowadays, who are more critical and stern towards the story.

"And that's the way it is."

Assignment VI - Professional Online Presentation

*Decided to keep the questions in for contexts*

1. Why would a professional journalist want to create an online resume site or web presence? Because the internet is the most popular place to get information, and social media thrives in that area.

2. What kinds of tools are available to build your site? There's Wordpress, Google Sites, or Blogger. Or if you really want the most complex programming there's Adobe Dreamweaver.

3. What considerations do you have to keep in mind regarding branding and consistency? How does this helps a reader or potential employer find you? When you want to be a professional journalist, try not to overdo your layout with poorly done drawn and over the top colors, because that makes you unprofessional. Give your website a simple layout and color scheme, make it presentable to the eye.

5. What types of files will you collect to present and link to (be thinking what types of digital formats)? I'm not exactly sure what you mean, I think it's about pictures, in which case it depends on the file size. If you want your website to load faster, I recommend gifs.

6. How will you organize your site? Explain and provide one link from a search of professional journalists' websites as an example. What I would do is to show the most recent examples of my work at the main page, as well as give a brief overview of what I do. Like this one. https://raminzahed.journoportfolio.com/

7. How can creating a professional web presence help you work or represent yourself better as a professional? If you are starting out, then it's an excellent opportunity to get some constructive criticism from other internet users. One of the best things about the internet is that anybody from anywhere can help you.

Assignment V - What is our greatest ethical obligation as journos?

It has to be "Seek Truth and Report It."

Let's say you are working for a news company and you want to post this story about how a politician did a very serious crime. However, it's an incriminating a politician with the same political beliefs as the news company, and they don't want you to besmirch the political party's name. But you have to do it anyway because it's not about the political party, it's about catching a criminal.

Online Story?

Oops. I guess I procrastinated too long and couldn't find the right words in time. But I swear I'll do the second online story assignment at a later time.

Assignment IV - Media Impact Project

The article I've looked at is https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/strategy-studies/improving-accountability-reporting/

In terms of journaling, I found a good quote that says, "Target the people who are unsure [because] the most likely people to be swayed are the people in the middle — those who aren’t sure what to believe."

According to that blog, "newspaper readers are now more of a visual society. We’re spoiled, impatient, even lazy. When we want information, we say show me, don’t tell me." Anybody can talk about whatever comes out of their mouth, but if you want to prove how true you are, you'd have to show them a picture of something. I myself am a visual learner and less of a words person, so I understand a story better if I can see it.

Online writers bring in the right amount of emotion and impact to get the views and followers up. They pick the right amount of words for the situation.

Assignment III - Aggregator, or Activist?

Activists shouldn't be journalists. Activists are more focused on making their side the hero, and the other a villain. Journalists are all about discussing what's happening and keeping their biases out of their writing so that the reader can create their own argument.

Julian Assange is more of a muckraker. He is the founder of WikiLeaks which shows many emails and documents that are not meant to be seen to the public eye. In this article, he claimed to urge Trump Jr to publish his conversations with the Russians to his website. Assange also wanted to leak those emails supposedly to strengthen the connections to Donald Trump and Russia so the President could get impeached.

Edward Snowden is more honest about his action in leaking his emails. He didn't do it to make Obama look like a bad guy, he did it to warn people about any possible danger that might be coming.

Assignment II - Reporter's Privilege

They should not be considered professional journalists because there is a trap that bloggers talk about, and that is bias. Bloggers can certainly talk about what is going on but not without being opinionated about their beliefs and feelings. Experienced journalists would put aside their opinions and talk about the facts.

It all depends on your expertise. Reporter's Privilege, in my eyes, is about the right to speak as much truth, no matter what anybody else says. It's important, to tell the truth, to bring down some evil liar.

Assignment I - Response to Online Article

What I learned from that article is that those migrants tried to enter America in an unairconditioned truck, and that ended up killing some of them.

The article is presented like most accident stories are presented, except that the details of the victims and survivors were not named. The only source it mentioned was the Washington Post, the rest might be from eye-witnesses or police reports. 

I'd say the reporter spent less than two hours researching it, and even fewer people editing, in less in an hour. I can't speak for myself since I'm not very good at time management, but some news reporters are inclined to get the news out as fast as possible.

Intro

Hello. This is just a blog made for my JRN203 class. As soon as this semester is over, I'm probably going to set this blog to private.