Friday, September 16, 2016
Peer Review: Evelyn Walford
You did a good job of explaining what yellow journalism was, but I think this post could have been more effective if you went more in depth with either Gutenberg's press or gave more details and examples of yellow journalism, instead of tying the two together into one post.I also think it might be better for the readability of the article if you finished your thoughts on yellow journalism and then covered the content of Mr. Miller's lecture. You described the evolution of yellow journalism quite well, covering modern tabloid journalism and it's purpose as a purely entertaining, ultra populist media platform. You made good use of out of the ordinary vocabulary such as titillating and sensationalism. I would only change the formatting of this article but the content was well written and articulate, tying in modern popular culture, and class lecture topics such as Gutenberg's printing press.
Katelyn Bale elitist/populist media peer response
Your post explaining the elitist, populist model was well written but I wish you would have expanded on what you were saying about about how populist media is damaging to informing us, and why we need more elitist media. I also would liked to have heard why you think that morality tends not to be a big concern to populist media. I think it was beneficial to the reader that you stated the fact that media is either elitist or populist but never both at the same time. I think for the sake of the length of the article I think it might have been better to write a post that included all the binary models instead of only the elitist, populist model.
7 yardsticks of journalism
The seven yardsticks of journalism are the seven main components of journalistic integrity, and are used to grade the news. the seven yardsticks are newsworthiness, context, explanation, local relevance, civic contribution, enterprise, and fairness. Newsworthiness is essentially what the name implies, why is this news, and will it having a lasting effect or effect many people? Context measures the number of sources they used and makes sure they verify their facts. Explanation measures if news is part of the big picture instead of just an isolated instance, it is not only what, but so what? Local relevance measures how does it effect a local audience, this applies more to local news. Civic contribution is keeping an eye on those in power, it is similar to watchdog. Enterprise is taking initiative and finding the story instead of waiting for it to come to you. Fairness measures weather all sides of a story are being told, not only both because there are often more than two. The seven yardsticks of journalism are a simple and informative way that allows the public to know what to look for in the news and what makes good journalism and what makes bad journalism.
Binary models
The basic binary models are hot and cold, Information and entertainment, and elitist and populist. Hot media is media the requires the consumer's full attention in order to process it, examples of hot media are newspapers, books, and magazines. Cold media is media that can be consumed through the background without giving it the consumer’s full attention, examples of cold media are tv and radio. The Internet has caused a dilemma when it comes to the hot, cold binary models because it can be both and it is not only consumed in one way. Information is media that is put out in the form of facts, and only facts. Entertainment is media that is put out with the intent of making people entertained but not giving them factual information. Infotainment is a third option in the binary model that combines both information and entertainment, most news programs are infotainment due to the need for ratings and the dry subject matter. Elitist media is media that is produced purely for information and the concept of the people needing to be educated
The lasting effects of Gutenberg's press
Lasting effects of Gutenberg's press
In 1043 Bi Sheng invented the first movable type printing press but his press was largely ineffective due to the Chinese alphabet being character based meaning that each word has a specific character associated with it, and also his pieces were made of porcelain or clay making them easy to break and hard to reproduce. Gutenberg invented his movable type printing press in 1440 nearly 400 years after Bi Sheng. Gutenberg's invention had two very serious advantages to it, the first of which was that Gutenberg made his prices from metal which meant they would last longer, were easier to reproduce, and much harder to break. The other advantage Gutenberg had was the German alphabet which only had 28 basic characters and then upper case letters, punctuation, and accented letters, but at most he would have to make 80 or 85 pieces, whereas Bi Sheng would have to make thousands and constantly be making new ones. Gutenberg made books easier to print and cheaper, with this he made the technology of literacy useful to everyday people not only the rich and powerful. It sparked a revolution of putting books especially bibles into the hands of everyday people, this made the church accountable to the people for the first time and let the people see what scripture actually was vs what was told to appease them. It also allowed people to know what rifts they had and what laws were actually in place not just what was told to them by the local lord or Baron. Without the printing press the transfer of ideas would happen in far fewer numbers and at a far slower rate, events like the American and French Revolution would never have happened and absolute power would be unlikely unopposed.
In 1043 Bi Sheng invented the first movable type printing press but his press was largely ineffective due to the Chinese alphabet being character based meaning that each word has a specific character associated with it, and also his pieces were made of porcelain or clay making them easy to break and hard to reproduce. Gutenberg invented his movable type printing press in 1440 nearly 400 years after Bi Sheng. Gutenberg's invention had two very serious advantages to it, the first of which was that Gutenberg made his prices from metal which meant they would last longer, were easier to reproduce, and much harder to break. The other advantage Gutenberg had was the German alphabet which only had 28 basic characters and then upper case letters, punctuation, and accented letters, but at most he would have to make 80 or 85 pieces, whereas Bi Sheng would have to make thousands and constantly be making new ones. Gutenberg made books easier to print and cheaper, with this he made the technology of literacy useful to everyday people not only the rich and powerful. It sparked a revolution of putting books especially bibles into the hands of everyday people, this made the church accountable to the people for the first time and let the people see what scripture actually was vs what was told to appease them. It also allowed people to know what rifts they had and what laws were actually in place not just what was told to them by the local lord or Baron. Without the printing press the transfer of ideas would happen in far fewer numbers and at a far slower rate, events like the American and French Revolution would never have happened and absolute power would be unlikely unopposed.
Monday, September 12, 2016
yellow journalism
Yellow journalism is a term used to describe journalism that has little or no standard of legitimacy or research done, but instead uses buzz terms and sensationalized stories to make people buy the newspaper. The only job of the yellow press was to sell papers and make stories eye catching, they first came along in the 1890's with the newspapers the New York World and the New York Press locked in a battle to sell more papers, and to outsell the other paper they each needed to give the public a reason to buy. The easiest way to do this was by pandering and manufacturing stories with little merit.Yellow Journalism was used as a propaganda tool to sensationalize American victory, and also the acts commuted by the enemy. Yellow journalism may not have the complete power to manufacture facts due to the age of information but it is still very prevent in the form of "click bait", it is likely that as long as there is media there will be some form of sensationalized journalism.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Media critique
https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/clowns-in-the-woods?utm_term=.km6QLgX2L#.yjDLW9a1W
Buzzfeed strikes again with more pseudo journalistic click bait article. To many who are familiar with buzzfeed they might be aware of their tendency to take the approach of making the interesting important and the quality of the article and journalistic principle being an afterthought. This article showcases the family horror story, but a very specific aspect of it having to do with our fascination with depravity and even more so the evil clown killer horror movie archetype. This article is irrelevant for several reasons the first being it happened in a small town in South Carolina, and second no actual crime has been committed as of yet, and until that changes there is no reason to believe that this isn't simply a hoax. This article scored very poorly on every aspect of the seven yardsticks of journalism, it was not newsworthy because it had no substance to leave a lasting effect on people. It was the most acceptable in terms of context because they referenced several townspeople they had interviewed as well as references to statements made by the Greenville police department. This article has no local relevance to anyone who doesn't live in Greenville South Carolina and even then this effects a very small percent of the towns population near where these incidents were reported. This article was not truthful and made no effort to be truthful, concealing the fact that this could very easily be a prank or a hoax and that no injuries or deaths have been reported. This was a classic case of making the interesting important and not the important interesting. Buzzfeed "News" is full of similar stories to this which is disappointing and I would expect this from the other divisions of Buzzfeed but would hope their news division would have higher standards. This article was not well written, it was deceitful and full of misleading information and half truths, and made no effort to follow any of the basic principles of journalism or 7 yardsticks.
Buzzfeed strikes again with more pseudo journalistic click bait article. To many who are familiar with buzzfeed they might be aware of their tendency to take the approach of making the interesting important and the quality of the article and journalistic principle being an afterthought. This article showcases the family horror story, but a very specific aspect of it having to do with our fascination with depravity and even more so the evil clown killer horror movie archetype. This article is irrelevant for several reasons the first being it happened in a small town in South Carolina, and second no actual crime has been committed as of yet, and until that changes there is no reason to believe that this isn't simply a hoax. This article scored very poorly on every aspect of the seven yardsticks of journalism, it was not newsworthy because it had no substance to leave a lasting effect on people. It was the most acceptable in terms of context because they referenced several townspeople they had interviewed as well as references to statements made by the Greenville police department. This article has no local relevance to anyone who doesn't live in Greenville South Carolina and even then this effects a very small percent of the towns population near where these incidents were reported. This article was not truthful and made no effort to be truthful, concealing the fact that this could very easily be a prank or a hoax and that no injuries or deaths have been reported. This was a classic case of making the interesting important and not the important interesting. Buzzfeed "News" is full of similar stories to this which is disappointing and I would expect this from the other divisions of Buzzfeed but would hope their news division would have higher standards. This article was not well written, it was deceitful and full of misleading information and half truths, and made no effort to follow any of the basic principles of journalism or 7 yardsticks.
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