Covering Disasters: From Katrina to CA Wildfires

It is apparent to me in reading each of these stories about media coverage of these disasters, that the growth of techonology is rapid and fierce. There were no reports of people blogging or twittering or doing any type of online citizen journalism in the wake of Katrina in 2005, but in the wake of the CA wildfires in 2007, that WAS all the media, online!
What went wrong with the media coverage of Katrina was all the reporting of the sensationalist rumors,not facts, just to report something. I really like this quote from Hugh Hewitt, it makes you think.
"If all of that amount of resources was given over to this story and they got it wrong, how can we trust American media in a place far away like Iraq where they don't speak the language, where there is an insurgency, and I think the question comes back we really can't. "

10 reasons for a bright future in Journalism

I think the first reason is the best reason.
1.) More access to more journalism worldwide.


What a great gift! Now instead of relying on our American media sources to provide international news, ( what little they provide) we can go right to the international source and get their local angle of the story.

Global education is right at your finger tips.

The next best reason, I believe, is that more voices are apart of the news conversation.

This leads to more fact checking and more amateurs helping professionals in investigations.

Never ending stories are also a great reason for a bright future in journalism. Rarely in traditional print media do stories get followed up closely and can spend a lot of space really developing a story. In the online world, you can do that, and easily.

Global Voices Online

"With a media blackout in Kenya mobile phones played a vital role in covering the Kenya elections and now they are playing an even more important role in covering those elections bloody aftermath."

What a great opportunity I think this is so great for the oppressed citizens of Kenya to let the world know what is really going on in their country when their government is trying to conceal reality to the rest of the world.

This shows how the development of technology has created vast improvements in communication across the universe. Anybody can document the daily events in their communities in their country's and publish it to the net to get the word out to the universe. Bloggers are quickly becoming citizen journalists and providing vital information to the world when the Kenyan government is trying to conceal information.

"Color Blind"

" The media must do more to reflect the reality of France today"- Jacques Chirac in a special address to France during the height of the riots in 2005


Reading this article by Jeremy Harding, I could only think of one thing; Hurricane Katrina. The stories show a similarity with the reporting of a tragedy while simultaneously ignoring the minority faces behind the events . The French Riots were spawned mainly by people of color. The French media reported on the riots themselves but failed to report on the causes of the riots and the oppression of the Northern African and Sub-Saharan migrants.

Azouz Begag says the problem is with French television and that it doesn't correctly portray the demographics in France, it fails to reflect its diversity and thus does not portray a correct reality. He does say, however, that it has gotten better ever since the CSA "is now required to ensure that the networks 'reflect the diversity of French society.' "

University of Paris Sociologist Marie- France Malong found this problem to be true when she did a study of French television at the request of the CSA. She summed up her findings like this, " “the visible minorities are invisible people {on television}"
Although she says the integration of more minority faces on TV is a step towards progress in the French media, she also says that "Merely increasing the quantity of black faces on television is not going to solve what she sees as a 'fundamental qualitative problem.' ”

I think that France is not alone in their lack of minorities in mainstream media or their lack of "why" reporting instead of just "how" reporting, i.e. only reporting on an event or story but not reporting on the issues behind the event or story. This was seen in the reporting of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. media. The press covered the destruction and devastation of people's property and belongings well but failed to report on the social implications of the aftermath.

I believe that ignoring the socioeconomic parts of stories has been an inherent part of the press and they have historically left that reporting and conversation to sociologists and historians writing books. The only way we can change that is to educate those going into the journalism field ( that's us!) of the problems of our profession and hope that with a new generation we can try to make the change.

Re-thinking Objectivity

"Objectivity is seeing the world as it is, not how you wish it were."- Michael Bugeja
I love this quote. There are many different ways to define objectivity and each person has their own definition. I believe that most journalists strive for objectivity (however you define it) but there will always be the critics out there calling you out for bias. Every person sees the world through their own eyes. I like the ending paragraph about the reporter in Iraq who stopped his journalistic duties to help a wounded soldier and said that he is a human first, reporter second. I believe that should be true for any profession you are in but like the article says, it is sad that he had to worry about his reputation as a journalist at all from his actions.

Agenda Setting

Maxwwell McCombs' quotes are based off his agenda- setting theory that reality flows through the media which flows to the audience. I definetly believe in his theory because the news producers create the end product of information that is sinking into your brain. The editor of a newspaper could twist a story around and publish it on the front page and all of the publication's readers would believe what was written. He just created their reality for them, when in fact that might not be reality.
Probably the biggest lesson I have learned here at IC I learned during my first semester at school in my Media and Politics class: Don't believe everything you read.
Studying to be a journalist I now know to search multiple sources to get an accurate account of what the full story is, but how many news consumers don't know to do that or don't care? My whole life growing up I thought that because it was on the news it must be true. But that has turned out to be wrong many a times. Look at the whole Killian document controversy with Dan Rather back in 2004. CBS reported it and stood by their investigations and then a week later apologized to the coutry stating the documents they obtained were fake.
What McCombs is saying about editors and producers influencing our perceptions is true because they get to pick which information to publish or broadcast out to the public. By gatekeeping, priming and framing they get to create reality for news consumers.

A Year In The News

As I read through the article by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, I am very intrigued. One of the biggest debates, I think, between the public and the media is media coverage. Throughout my years here at IC in my journalism classes, professors have talked about the struggle for journalists to report on the public's top interests. As seen in the Public Interest vs. Media Coverage graphic, 12 out of the 15 issues polled come in with high public interest and little media coverage. More than 50% of the public wanted to follow closely the rising price of gas in 2007 but the media only gave it less than 10% of its coverage. To me, that is pathetic.
In the past three years at school we have talked about the lack of world news coverage here in the U.S. and people say it's because news consumers don't care for that kind of coverage and all they want to see is celebrity coverage, but seen here it is not true! I think that the average person likes to follow news that most directly effects them and their community, that's why there is local news. I think that it would be far better for the networks to cover international news than covering the same national stories that local news media across the country are reporting on. This way, the consumer can get their local and national news from one source and rely on the network newscasts for their global news awareness.
Working at the NBC London Bureau in the summer of 2007 gave me a lot of perspective on how differently news is covered in the rest of the world. The BBC is almost all international news and not just reporting on Britain's national interests abroad like U.S. world coverage does. With so many people complaining about media coverage here in the U.S. I thinnk we need to have more niche outlets. If there was a more distinct line between news organizations and what they are covering, then people can know where to go to get the information they want.

THE FUTURE

I cannot even fathom what the future is going to be like. I think it could go two ways. We've already seen such an instant evolution of technology and media over these past few years. I think that things we can't even imagine will be invented in the future and completly change the way we live our lives. I do believe that one day televisions will be cut out of the picture, much like any old technology. I think that there will be flat screens all over people's homes which can perform any functions they would like; telephone, internet, TV, etc. So technology can either run almost every aspects of our lives, or it can pretty much stay the same amount as it is involved in our lives right now. I think that some people will be very weary of technology running people's lives as it takes out the human aspect of our very existence. But as long as the world keeps turning, people are going to be inventing new technology and new ways of live, just as it has been done for as long as man has been living!

Journalism 2.0 on Science 2.0

I can completly agree with the scientists who oppose the open access to scientific journals. That is their work in progress (some of them it's their life work!) and it is just opened for anyone to see, I wouldn't want that either. I especially agree with the part that some people might try and steal others work or ideas and publish it first, that is not cool! On the other hand I can see where people would think this would be a good idea so that the general public could know what scientific research was going on and what conclusions were found. I think we are coming into the age where ALL information is going to try and be published online and that is already creating a lot of arguments and debates. I just got an email with this link {http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf} about the scary future of personal information being available to anyone throughout computer systems. crazy to think about!

Media systems

The UK's primary system is Social Responsibility and its secondary one is Libertarian. It is more Social Responsibility oriented than Libertarian because they have a strong public broadcasting system and the biggest media company in the UK ( the BBC) is funded by the government. The government makes sure the main focus of the television channels is to provide social responsibilty with programs of public importance.It is Libertarian however because a lot of their print media is owned privately. Print journalism in London is much more entertainment based because being privately owned the main focus is on money and revenue.


I think Canada has the same two systems as the UK. They have government funded stations with national quotas about how much national content they need to broadcast.
Canada also has a private sector of owning media so that's how they get Libertarian as their second system.


I would say Japan is hard to figure out because the government has no laws interfering with its media however they have a club that only grants access to journalists who are in that club. They are called Kishas, and that is how the government creates relationships with the media and creates favortism. Because of this I would say it is Developmental. But they are also Libertarian first off because they can put anything they want on air from news to entertainment and pretty much the whole country has access.

Private Matters

I agree with the courts ruling in the case presented in this article. Hacking into voicemails to get private information is ethically wrong! I just don't have respect for gossip tabloid papers anyways so I am biased. It's kind of like the paparazzi in L.A. Just leave these people alone! I think it's sad that people make careers and revolve their life around publishing people's "dirt." Even though there is a market for this type of journalism, the journalists still need to abide by journalistic codes of ethics. So this case with the Royal family where the journalist was jailed for hacking into their voicemails-I don't think it was wrong for him to be jailed. This whole debate between balancing privacy rights with the freedom of the press is a difficult one. On one hand, people who choose to live their lives in the public limelight know that media attention is something that comes with the lifestyle they choose to live. But I think the issue is when journalists go too far (mostly tabloid ones) and everything published is all about gossip.

"Musharraf's Monster..."-Shahan Mufti

I think its so awesome that the Pakistani media didn't take these new laws of restriction sitting down, they stood up and fought! I also think that was kick ass what Hamid Mir did locking himself in the newsroom and refusing to cut transmission, they should totally make a movie about that. I also think its pretty sweet that that incident made Musharraf break his reputation for never apologizing and saying this, "“Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the freedom of media, this is my mandate. I strongly condemn any violation of this.”
Its crazy to think that they don't really have schools in the state of Sindh and that TV will be their educators now that they have cable lines. Im also really glad I don't live in a country that is so volatile like that and is such a tough atmosphere for journalists trying to cover wars and politics while trying to be controlled by the government and threatened.

"The new Arab conversation"-Gal Beckerman

I think this article brings forth the changing world at hand! Now blogging is a regular seen way for people to express themselves, even people in Arab countries! (gasp) Our American media rarely reports any news-let alone GOOD news- from the Arab world besides the war on terrorism. People in the Arab world are portrayed so negatively by American media. Although I am aware of how different their culture and lifestyle is from the Western way of life, I was suprised to read that only 10 % of the Arab world has internet access. The internet definetly is a medium of freedom, just the fact that I am writing this blog right now shows that I am free to express my thoughts and put it on the web for anyone in the world to read. I like what the one blogger Salem Pax said about how all you hear about Arab people talking about is God and Allah. At least in my case that rings true because when I hear anything about the Arab world I automatically think about religion. And I can't think of any Arab personalities in movies or on TV besides political figures and terrorists you see on the news. So I think its really cool to hear about all the different opinions of the Arab people who are blogging. Even if it is a small number, and the elitest of their countries, to me it's a step forward. I really like the last paragraph of this article-

"The young insider-outsiders of the Middle East, blogging openly about their frustrations with the Arab world, about its persistent prejudices and limitations, as a way of liberalizing their societies, are doing what the front line of any social movement does — they say the unspeakable, they form the bonds that were previously unthinkable, they stand in the places that they are not supposed to stand. The Arab world will reform only when mindsets begin to change and a culture of dissent burgeons where it has never been allowed to exist openly before. If there is a way to kick-start this process, it is surely in the post of a twentysomething blogger wondering out loud why things can’t be more open, more transparent — more different."

reaction to Howard French article

The China media is less aggressive in foreign coverage because they are mouth pieces for the Chinese government says Yu Guoming, professor at People's University in Beijing. She says as government mouthpieces, the media is intricately linked with their government's policy and propaganda. I think the pressure of being so closely watched by the government, combined with the rule Chinese editors say the government has over them needing authorization to send reporters overseas or open over seas bureaus- has caused Chinese media to be seriously lacking in the coverage of foreign reporting. It shocked me to hear how after the Burmese soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, the Chinese media sent out a false report stating the, "Myanmar government has been restrained in handling the monks' protest and didn't use force."

I really believe that because China is a communist government, they run the media with an authoritarian hand which leads to state censorship and control over how much foreign media coverage they want to grant access to their people.

reaction to "Drawing a New Map for Journalism in the Middle East"

I thought this article was very interesting because I do not know a lot about media in the Middle East. The only familiarity I have with it is Al Jazeera because it has been talked about all over American media. I give a lot of a credit to Abdul Rahman al-Rashed for starting an alternate and competing media channel in the Middle East in the face of all the adversity he has to face. I can't even imagine what it must be like to receive death threats based on what you report and also the pressure of being critically watched by political regimes must be so stressful. I really like the ending quote by Rashed, “It’s about an idea: don’t try to change politics directly. Just try to change the media for the better. And I think the result will be a better Arab world.”
I do think that many journalists try to change politics through their reporting and on-air time and I his quote here puts that into perspective.

reaction to Ostrovsky reading

Reading this article about the TV coverage of Beslan just makes me more grateful to live in a country where our media is not government owned and controlled! I cannot believe how little they covered it. And I also couldn't believe the incensitivity of the Russian networks to air hostage movies in light of the whole situation. I liked the quote from the television reviewer Irina Petrovskaya, "One of the most disturbing lessons of Beslan is the readiness of the television once again to become the re-translator of official lies. Ten years of democracy in Russia turned out to be not enough to create freedom of speech. And to a large degree the responsibility for this rests with the media and the journalists."
I think that is what happens when the government wants to and controls the media, they can broadcast any lies they want simply because they control the flow of information. It reminds me of John Mayer's song ,Waiting on the World Change, in the line where he says,
"when you trust your television
which you get is what you got
cause when they own the information
oh they can bend it all they want"
Even though there is controversy in the US about media conglomerates and private ownership of media, Im would rather have that then get deliberate false reporting delivered from the government.