Blog #9: Response to Chapter 13, "Watergate forces President to his knees"

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein changed journalism entirely. There nonstop investigation found "solid evidence" connecting the White House to "The third-rate burglary." the break-in led to revelations about the misuse of campaign contributions, laundered money, political sabotage, deception, immortality, and other misdeeds. It led Nixon becoming the only U.S. president in history to resign from office. Woodward and Bernstein pushed the limits of investigative reporting, they lied, begged and badgered sources. Woodward relied on an anonymous source the whole time, Deep Throat. The newspaper they worked for The Washington Post was the only news organization investigating the Watergate story. Television news did a bad job covering Watergate unlike the Civil Rights Movement and The Vietnam war. It made The Washington Post famous.    

Blog #8: Response to the movie "Good Night and Good Luck"

Through the movie, "Good Night and Good Luck" I learned more things about Edward R Murrow then before. In the movie, it portrays the conflict between veteran radio television journalist Edward R Murrow and U.S. Senator Joesph McCarthy of Wisconsin especially relating to the anti-communist senator's actions with the senate permanent subcommittee. Edward R Murrow, See it Now and Person to Person show on CBS attracted a lot of people to watch it. See it Now was a TV news magazine and Person to Person was a celebrity interview show. Through Murrow's show journalism expanded through radio and television. It gave a reason for people to tune in to his shows. Edward R Murrow had a big impact on media journalism

Blog #7: Response to the handout: "The Rise and Fall of Edward R. Murrow"

What propelled Murrow's career was his program on beleaguered Air Force Lt. Milo Radulovich and his later, more famous attack on McCarthy in 1954 enhanced the credibility of See It Now and its views. Many people praised how Murrow balanced his own stardom with his instincts for hard-hitting journalism. Murrow left a huge impact on media journalism and left an impact on television through CBS.

Blog #6: Response to handout "Code of Ethics"

I agree with the Members of the Society of Professional Journalists to adopt the code and declare it as a standard practice because now in days journalists are willing to do anything to be on the front page. They tend to forget the principles of being a journalists and rely on uncrediable sources. The Code of Ethics consist of four parts. The first one is to seek the truth and report it; journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. Second one is minimize harm; ethical journalists treat sources, subjects, and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect. Third one is to act indepently; journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know. The last one is be accountable; journalists are accountable to their readers, viewers and each other. Journalists should try maintaining these standards throughout their career and this what separates good journalists to bad journalists.

Blog #5: Response to Chapter 6, "Muckraking"

The Muckrakers played a huge role in our history if it weren't for them society would still be denoted by robber barons and corrupt politicians. These reporters provoked political, industrial, and social change by describing the horrid details to create a new style of magazine writing. Consequently the rise of the magazine was instrumental in the success of muckraking. Muckraking was called "The Literature of Protest." The first Muckraker was in 1902 name Lincoln Staffers, he began writing journals. He wrote articles exposing the "illegal and unscrupulous practices" among state government officials. He went through public records and interviewing city officials. Another famous Muckraker was Ida Tarbell known as the queen of the Muckrakers. In 1906, congress passed the Hepburn Act, "which made the penalties for preferential arrangements by railroads so severe that the practice quickly ceased." Muckrakers were an important part of history.

Blog #4: Chapter 4 Response, "Journalism of Vertification"

In the 1920s, Walter Lippman said that journalists should focus on "evidence and vertification." He's refering to how journalists should mainly focus on the evidence and verify it to maintain credibility. Some of his principles of reporting was to never add anything was not there, never decline the audience, be transparent as possible about your methods and motives and rely on your reporting. I agree with him because now in days many journalists write/report about random things and aren't reliable because of where they got the sources from. They don't validate their evidence. This could lead to bad journliasm for the public by misinforming them with false information. These journalists rely on misleading sources instead of creditable ones. According to Walter Lippman, "In journalism, only by explaining what we know can we approximate, the idea of people being able, if they were of mind, to replicate the reporting. This is what is meant by the objectivity of method in science and in journalism." Articles written by these journalists don't explain much on their reporting and don't elablorate much on it.

Blog #3: Feature News Story and Hard News Story Compare and Contrast and Response of Chapter 2 (Abolition)

   
(Chapter 2)

After reading this chapter I realized how much Freedom of the Press and Abolition go hand to hand. Through journalism many editors has changed history. Elijah P. Lovejoy established his own newspaper in his state of Missouri called the St.Louis Observer and Alton Obersver. According to Lovejoy, " Just as Tom Paine had appealed to the human emotions to translate colonial opposition to the British into terms the average man and women could relate to, abolitionist editors used highly charged rhetoric to place the slavery debate on a plane that made sense to a critical mass of the American public." People were soon reading the newspaper more and transformed the most controversial issue into a bigger issue. With more and more readers there were more editors writing about slavery particularly William Lloyd Garrison. He bean publishing in Boston of 1831 "What emerged as the archetype of advocacy journalism in American History,The Liberator. He constantly debated pro slavery editors and with his voice against slavery more and more mainstream newspaper also joined in the crusade. It only started with 2,500 subscribers but then grew to a circulation of about 200,000. There were many other abolionists that soon follow. Through journalism it has convinced the opinion of many on slavery and through it The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by the constitution, abolishing slavery.

TBC..