Media Critique

http://www.whas11.com/news/Toddler-ignores-military-protocol-hugs-mom-275442091.html

The following article on WHAS11's website breaks a number of the 9 Principles and 7 Yardsticks. This article breaks the yardstick stating the article must be newsworthy, the yardstick that concerns local relevence and the principle that states "Make the Important Interesting."
It is a heartwarming and interesting story, but it is not necessarily newsworthy, which is one of the seven yardsticks. "NEWSWORTHINESS is based on two factors: 1) whether the story topic is "core" or "peripheral," and 2) whether the story is likely to have a direct and lasting (six months or more) informational impact on a wide audience (at least 10,000 people)" (http://www.gradethenews.org/feat/recentgrades/indices2004.htm). This story will NOT directly impact a mass amount of people nor will it impact them for a long period of time. A toddler hugging his mother despite what the military protocol is will not impact most people in any sort of way.
This article violate the yardstick local relevence. "LOCAL RELEVANCE is a measure of the percentage of news that takes place in or directly concerns the San Francisco Bay Area (the customary nine counties surrounding the Bay plus Santa Cruz)" ( http://www.gradethenews.org/feat/recentgrades/indices2004.htm ). It is not relevent to Louisville, Kentucky as a whole, except for maybe a few people from here that were at the ceremony or who know the toddler and his family.
This article also violates the principle that states "Make the Important Interesting." Journalism.com(http://www.journalism.org/resources/principles-of-journalism/ ) defines this as "It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant." This story does the opposite and makes the interesting important. Also, it isn't very relevant to the majority of the people reading the article nor most of the people who live in Louisville.
None of the article is necessarily incorrect, as the video shown at the end of the article proves, butt it should not have been listed  under the "Top Stories" category of the website. This problem could have been improved solely by the person who runs the website. Although it is technically considered national news, there are much more newsworthy, relevant and important articles regarding more impactful topics that could have been listed in the "Top Stories" Category, or this article could have been listed under the "Strange News", "Entertainment" or another category that better fits this article. To make this article more newsworthy and not make the interesting important, the author would most likely have to start over and find some other parts of the story to somehow leave a more lasting impact on more people.

Response to Skyler

Skyler's Response Regarding Monopolies:
http://markwell0819.blogspot.com/2014/09/todays-lecture-9314.html

Skyler:
Your first thought when you heard the term monopoly was the same as mine; I also first thought of the board game "Monopoly." However, I never knew what a monopoly truly was before this lecture. I too learned that real life monopolies are quite similar to the monopolies in the board game. I have never really been an expert at Monopoly, but I sort of understood the basics of the game. However, after this lectures all the pieces fell into place and the game made sense to me. Monopolies, both in real life and in the game, are fascinating to me and I completely agree with you that this lecture helped to explain things in a different way. Like you, I now picture monopolies differnetly than before. I too learned that strategy is the key to winning the game.

Magazines

On Friday, we discussed magazines. Considering how magazine today are focused specifically on one topic, reanging from sports to celebrity gossip, I would have never guessed that magazines in the past were targeted towards a general audience. In 1741, Benjamin Franklin created the first national magazine called "General Magazine." Later, the Saturday Evening Post was created along with countless others. These maggazines tried to reach a general audience, featured national advertisments and helped establish a national identity. I am not surprised that these magazines were forced to demassify. It would be extremely difficult now-a-days to create a magazine that included something everyone enjoys. Personally, I think that magazines should have targeted a nitch audience from the beginning, because I would rather read an entire magazine dedicated to fashion than read only a half page dedicated to fashion. I feel like people would pay a lot more for today's magazines because they do focus on a particular subject rather than dozens of different topics. Although I am not surprised that magazines were forced to demassify, I am surprised that they didn't target a smaller audience from the start.

The Future of Newspapers

In reference to Wednesday's lecture on newspapers, I agree with Mr. Miller's statement about newspapers being around forever. There are so many people that are in denial about using electronics to receive news and information, and there are so many others that don't know how to use those electronics. In addition, so many other people just don't have access or the finances to receive news through television, radio or online. Although I do believe that newspapers will be around for forever, I do think they will rapidly decline and many will be forced to shut down. My generation is so used to being able to Google everything,  that I believe newspapers when we are elderly will be nearly nonexistent. I believe that only the most successful newspapers will still exist and some local papers may still be around depending on the profits they may or not be making at that point. By the time my generation has grandchildren, most people will be getting their news through their hologram phones or listening to the radio in their flying cars that newspaper readers will be few and far between. With that said, I do believe that newspapers will be most popular in places where access to such electronics is unavailable.  

9 Principles of Journalism

The first lecture of this year involved the 9 Principles and 7 Yardsticks of Journalism. The 9 Principles of Journalism where created by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. They are:
       1. Truth- I believe this should be the basis for every aspect of journalism. I believe this is the most important principle because the purpose of journalism is to inform the public of news that will affect them long term. If they are being fed incorrect information, then there is no reason for journalism to even exist.
       2. Loyalty- Loyalty is also very important because if the news were completely full of advertisements, then the citizens would not be happy and would not watch that news station. The day after this lecture, I was watching the Today Show with my mom and it was Al Roker's birthday. President Bill Clinton appeared on the air to wish Al a happy birthday. He was talking about why everyone liked him and the main reason he stated was because he is loyal to the viewers, which I completely agree with.
       3. Verification- I believe this goes hand in hand with loyalty, because without verification, citizens would never know if the information is true or not.
       4. Independence- This is also important because it creates a broad audience rather than directing attention towards a certain group of people.
       5. Watchdog- This is very important because if media was not keeping an eye on those in power, checks and balances would not exist. People in authority would abuse their power and make citizens' lives miserable.
       6. Forum- This is important because it allows the public to give feedback to the medium runnign the forum and also to others sharing their opinions. This can create a broad and more diverse journalism perspective.
       7. Make the Important Interesting- this is important because citizens need to know information that will affect them long term, not information that they consider interesting, like Farmer Ted's chickens all got stolen. Although it is interesting, it will not affect the majority of citizens. News outlets need to ensure that the important information is displayed in a somewhat interesting way, or nobody will want to receive their news that way because it is boring.
       8. Inclusive- This is important because general news does not sway towards one group of people and respects diversity and differences.
       9. Room for Dissent- This allows journalists and others to speak their minds and be free to speak from their conscience. This is an essential part of media because it creates a broader viewpoint of different events.

The History of Printing

Today in class, we learned about the history of the printing press. I found it extremely interesting how the art of printing goes back to the earliest of civilizations. It is amazing to me how these people, back before the time of Jesus, figured out ways to share written messages to many people, even if most people were illiterate. Although printing back in the early centuries of the common era caused a lot of corruption because of the majority of people were illiterate, our lives would not be the same today if the early printing presses had not been invented. I find this interesting because I can't imagine how different life would be without books, newspapers or magazines. It is also amazing to me how the invention of one man, Johannes Gutenberg, can impact the life of every person to live after him. Because of Gutenberg's printing press, our society is much more efficient in spreading printed news, as well as much more dignified and civilized than it would have been without his invention. Along with Gutenberg's invention, the Mesopotamians' stamp seals, the Romans' screw press, Egypt and the Chinese Han Dynasty's wood block printing and Bi Sheng's movable printing press have paved the way to what the printing press is today and I only can wonder what is to come for the world of printing.

Response to Olivia

http://evansolivia.blogspot.com/2014/09/binary-code.html

I completely agree with Olivia on how interesting it is how binary models can link together. It is also fascinating how binary models do affect our lives so much that we don't even realize it. It's almost not even fair to the public because most people are completely unaware of the media somewhat tricking them. For example, the American public may find the information provided by a populist company interesting, but they may not be getting more important information, because these populist companies are ratings crazy and don't always have the best interest of the people in mind, though often they think they do. The public most likely is not finding out all the information that is impacting them. Therefore, I 100% agree with Olivia stating how the main focus of media outlets should be the important information.