http://teawithahatter.blogspot.com/
What Kate pointed out in her reflection on the mass mediums unit really made me stop and think. What she said was spot on. I have learned so much in the past several weeks about journalism, mass mediums, and technology than I ever thought I would. Usually, I wouldn't think lectures would be fun, but I really learn a lot and I now look at things a lot differently. Before this unit, I looked at Yahoo as a good news source, but now looking at Yahoo's homepage, I can tell that most of their stories are celebrity/fluff stories that don't have much relevance to people. This is mainly because Yahoo doesn't try to be a big news source, they want ratings and viewers more than anything.
What Kate also pointed out was how much this relates to the real world. I have been able to see how the news really works and what websites to actually pay attention to. I know when someone is failing to do all the duties of a journalist, and I can criticize and understand them. I even remember a class discussion in my English class that involved what we have learned so far, and all of the J&C kids looked at each other and understood. Thank you Kate for making me take the time to look back and think about how much this class has meant so far.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Other Blogs
http://emilyjournalism1.blogspot.com/
As I was reading Emily's blog, I came across an entry titled, "I am Not a Happy Camper." She wrote about a WAVE 3 News story about a girl getting concert tickets. This story completely violated the yardstick of newsworthiness and a link to the article can be found on Emily's blog. She also pointed out how common some of these irrelevant stories are becoming on WAVE. I completely agree and I am also starting to notice this happening with other news stations as well like WLKY and WHAS. It is starting to seem like news stations now are just trying to find whatever they can and turning it into an article. These stations need to start focusing more on news than ratings.
As I was reading Emily's blog, I came across an entry titled, "I am Not a Happy Camper." She wrote about a WAVE 3 News story about a girl getting concert tickets. This story completely violated the yardstick of newsworthiness and a link to the article can be found on Emily's blog. She also pointed out how common some of these irrelevant stories are becoming on WAVE. I completely agree and I am also starting to notice this happening with other news stations as well like WLKY and WHAS. It is starting to seem like news stations now are just trying to find whatever they can and turning it into an article. These stations need to start focusing more on news than ratings.
WLKY News
http://www.wlky.com/news/local-news/louisville-news/festival-of-trees-and-lights-kicks-off-at-slugger-field/-/9718340/22985608/-/69qr5r/-/index.html
On WLKY's homepage, there is a story on a constant scroll of lead stories titled, "Festival of Trees and Lights' kicks off at slugger field." Just by the title, it can be guessed that this story is purely an advertisement. It is most likely meant to make people want to go to this festival, but there is a possibility that this festival has some major impact on people. If it does, there is no way to know by clicking on this article. The entire article reads, "WLKY is proud to be a part of the event, which benefits diabetes care at Kosair Children's Hospital." The whole article is one sentence and one video. "Maybe the video contains some information," one might think. Nope. The video lasts two minutes and about 30 seconds of it is a lady (no significance is given to her) trying to convince viewers to come to the festival. About 20 seconds is a broadcaster talking, reciting the exact sentence shown in the article, and finally, the last minute is a group of girls from Sacred Heart singing Christmas carols.
This video/article was purely an advertisement and had no business being part of a scroll of lead stories. It violated one of the seven yardsticks of journalism: newsworthiness. This story isn't part of one of the key core/peripheral topics, and doesn't have any affect on anyone's lives. WLKY shouldn't completely stop showing advertisement news like this, but they definitely need to find somewhere other than the scroll of lead stories to put them.
On WLKY's homepage, there is a story on a constant scroll of lead stories titled, "Festival of Trees and Lights' kicks off at slugger field." Just by the title, it can be guessed that this story is purely an advertisement. It is most likely meant to make people want to go to this festival, but there is a possibility that this festival has some major impact on people. If it does, there is no way to know by clicking on this article. The entire article reads, "WLKY is proud to be a part of the event, which benefits diabetes care at Kosair Children's Hospital." The whole article is one sentence and one video. "Maybe the video contains some information," one might think. Nope. The video lasts two minutes and about 30 seconds of it is a lady (no significance is given to her) trying to convince viewers to come to the festival. About 20 seconds is a broadcaster talking, reciting the exact sentence shown in the article, and finally, the last minute is a group of girls from Sacred Heart singing Christmas carols.
This video/article was purely an advertisement and had no business being part of a scroll of lead stories. It violated one of the seven yardsticks of journalism: newsworthiness. This story isn't part of one of the key core/peripheral topics, and doesn't have any affect on anyone's lives. WLKY shouldn't completely stop showing advertisement news like this, but they definitely need to find somewhere other than the scroll of lead stories to put them.
WLKY News
WLKY's homepage, http://www.wlky.com/, like all other large local news networks' home pages, are meant to show people who access the site large local news stories. Usually, on a news network's homepage, a person could find lead stories, trending stories, and late breaking news. A lot of news stations even have a box at the top of their homepage which either constantly scrolls or shows the top stories on that website. WLKY is one of the news stations who has a box at the top of their page scrolling the top stories. On November 15, 2013, they scrolled the top fourteen stories through that box of top stories. Yet less than sixty percent of their "lead stories" were actually relevant local news stories. Six out of the fourteen stories were either advertisements for themselves or other companies, or "fluff" stories.
These stories consisted of:
"25 animal facts you didn't know" http://www.wlky.com/news/25-animal-facts-you-didnt-know/-/9366352/22388016/-/p3wbhqz/-/index.html,
"Share your weather photos on u local" http://www.wlky.com/ulocal/share-your-weather-photos-on-u-local/-/9365640/9718014/-/il8pxl/-/index.html
"Show us what you are thankful for on u local" http://www.wlky.com/ulocal/Show-us-what-you-re-thankful-for-this-Thanksgiving-on-u-local/-/9365640/17451016/-/9k2o37z/-/index.html,
and more. The whole purpose for a box of "lead stories" is to put lead stories in it. WLKY might need to work on finding where to put their advertising stories so people can still see them while they don't interfere with actual lead news stories.
These stories consisted of:
"25 animal facts you didn't know" http://www.wlky.com/news/25-animal-facts-you-didnt-know/-/9366352/22388016/-/p3wbhqz/-/index.html,
"Share your weather photos on u local" http://www.wlky.com/ulocal/share-your-weather-photos-on-u-local/-/9365640/9718014/-/il8pxl/-/index.html
"Show us what you are thankful for on u local" http://www.wlky.com/ulocal/Show-us-what-you-re-thankful-for-this-Thanksgiving-on-u-local/-/9365640/17451016/-/9k2o37z/-/index.html,
and more. The whole purpose for a box of "lead stories" is to put lead stories in it. WLKY might need to work on finding where to put their advertising stories so people can still see them while they don't interfere with actual lead news stories.
WHAS News
http://www.whas.com/articles/national-news-104668/school-bans-mother-with-cancer-from-11831488/
WHAS recently reported a news story on their website about a mother and who has not allowed to enter her daughter's school because her cancer treatment caused her to let off a strong odor. There is a short 2 minute video to accompany the article. The article reads,
"Tierra Antigua Elementary had their Thanksgiving lunch today in the school's cafeteria, but because of what happened last week, Kerri Mascareno and her daughter Lynsey decided to spend the day relaxing at home together.
For Kerri, it's time that she doesn't want to waste.
"It's precious. Every little time is precious being with them," Kerri said."
What is shown above is the entire article. That might be okay if the video consisted of more information, but the article was taken from as a direct quote of the video.
Aside from the lack of a legitimate article, this news story also violated the yardstick of "fairness." The reporter gave a brief summary of what the story was about, then spent the rest of the time interviewing the mother and child. The principal nor any administration members were interviewed, and the reporter didn't imply that any administrators had even been asked. Not even students, teachers, or other parents involved with the school were asked to comment. The news story only had one side of the story, which wasn't fair to anyone who had a problem with the mother being in the school.
WHAS recently reported a news story on their website about a mother and who has not allowed to enter her daughter's school because her cancer treatment caused her to let off a strong odor. There is a short 2 minute video to accompany the article. The article reads,
"Tierra Antigua Elementary had their Thanksgiving lunch today in the school's cafeteria, but because of what happened last week, Kerri Mascareno and her daughter Lynsey decided to spend the day relaxing at home together.
For Kerri, it's time that she doesn't want to waste.
"It's precious. Every little time is precious being with them," Kerri said."
What is shown above is the entire article. That might be okay if the video consisted of more information, but the article was taken from as a direct quote of the video.
Aside from the lack of a legitimate article, this news story also violated the yardstick of "fairness." The reporter gave a brief summary of what the story was about, then spent the rest of the time interviewing the mother and child. The principal nor any administration members were interviewed, and the reporter didn't imply that any administrators had even been asked. Not even students, teachers, or other parents involved with the school were asked to comment. The news story only had one side of the story, which wasn't fair to anyone who had a problem with the mother being in the school.
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