Reacting to WLKY on U of L Sex Scandal

I was recently ranting about how WLKY publishes too much crime stories that are not newsworthy, but I have found one that is. The story is about the U of L sex scandal where the former U of L basketball director invited prostitutes on campus to strip and have sex with the recruits and players at on-campus parties. This article is very much newsworthy because it effects a lot of people (players and coaches) for a period of time. It also gets straight to the point and is brief which will attract more people because I am sure they don't want to read a lengthy article that just has one point and then rambles on and on.

http://www.wlky.com/news/report-subpoenas-issued-in-uofl-basketbal-sex-scandal-investigation/36150450

Crime Stories On WLKY

Roughly 36% of WLKY's stories are reporting crime. That number should not be nearly as high if they were reporting a newsworthy crime story. Newsworthiness is measured by effecting a lot of people for a period of time. Most of the crime stories reported are no where near to newsworthy. The titles are somewhere along the lines of "Blank killed Blank and they are now in court". If it doesn't effect more than the family and friends of the victim/witness/criminal, then don't publish it. Sure many people find the stories quite interesting, but it is not actual news which is what they came to your channel/site to see. A newsworthy crime story would be about a mass-murder, criminal on the loose, or threat.

Television

Ever since Farnsworth discovered a way to send pictures wirelessly, the world has changed drastically. First of all, T.V. brings a stationary presence, which means that you are sitting down while you are watching it. It also draws you in and away from social and physical activities, which I believe is one of the main roots to our obesity problem. Most people who spend the majority of their time watching television, are more prone to underdeveloped social skills. Television can also change your political views which can be good and bad. For example, T.V. can give you more information about candidates, which is good if it is verified and true. Television also changed the world economically. If you see an product advertised by a character by an actor on your favorite T.V. show, you are more likely to buy it. In addition to advertisements, you will want to purchase merchandise form shows and movies you enjoy.

WLKY Lacking Presidential Election News

Every time I turn on the television to watch the 5:30 P.M. news, I expect to see at least one headline about the upcoming presidential election, but I see none. For the last month, WLKY has reported 1 or 2 stories about the election that holds our country's fate, which seems very important to the citizens of the United States but not important enough to report on. I recently checked the website for any news on the election and I found a total of 2 stories. In the politics section of the website you would think that the whole section is filled with stories about both democratic and republican debates, but there was only one to be found. WLKY has violated the watchdog yardstick of journalism because they simply are not giving people information about critical news stories involving keeping an eye on people with power, such as politicians.
http://www.wlky.com

Movies

When a media's attention falls, demassification follows it almost every single time. Demassification is when a media focuses on a single or many small, specific audiences. For movies, this is entirely true. After the television became a household item in the 1950's, people have chosen to invest in T.V.'s instead of buying a cheap movie ticket. Don't get me wrong, the movie industry still makes roughly about 1,352 million dollars a year, but after television, it has wisely chosen to demassify. Movies focused on making the audience feel something that they could not get any other place than a movie theatre, such as large screen, no commercials or interruptions, dark setting, and sophisticated sound. Movies also provide social aspects that when new movie comes out that is being talked about on the tabloids, you want to be there to say you watched it first. It is actually amazing that so much thought and work went into the demassification of movies to make it like no other experience.

Radios

Most people do not use radios as a hot medium anymore, which means a media that requires all of your attention, they use it as a cool medium, which is a media that is playing while your attention is focused on something else. It is not often that you see a family gathered around a radio, listening to a talk-show or baseball game. They use televisions for that. During this radio lecture that Mr. Miller gave, I could not believe that Tesla invented broadcasting devices over 100 years ago and that one was in almost every single car in the world. The radio has many more uses than just entertainment, it was used, and still is, for war purposes. The radio in 1895 compared to the radio in 2015 did not receive many channels and when it did, it was in a specific area because there were not many. Now, you can find at least one radio station almost everywhere in the United States. Just because the radio is a cool medium, does not mean it has been forgotten.

response to Jay's blog

I recently read Jay's blog on plagiarism and agree 100% with everything she said. She mentioned how easy it is to plagiarize and how many people don't even realize they are stealing someone else's work, which is illegal. She also referenced the consequences of plagiarizing in high school and college with is very useful. I also appreciate how Mr. Miller took the first week and a half of school to focus on plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Check out Jay's blog at http://jaytfarrow.blogspot.com

BBC media critique

While I was searching the internet for a news article that violated one of the seven yardsticks or ten elements of journalism, I came across an article from BBC that was titled, "Seal spotted surfing humpback whale in Australia". This article violates the "Newsworthiness" yardstick of the seven basic yardsticks of journalism. In a nutshell, the article provides a few paragraphs and pictures all relating to animals standing/holding onto backs of other animals which do not have a direct and lasting informational impact on a wide audience. While the article was quite interesting, it was not informational. BBC was trying to make the interesting informational, while they should focus on making the informational interesting. My suggestion for BBC is to ask yourself before you publish an article to the public, "Is this newsworthy?".

Check out this article at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34276032

response to Eli's blog

I agree with every Eli had to say in her blog about magazines. I like how she mentioned how we talked about why telegraphs are no longer used in the present day and how buying the newspapers were traditional. I also think it's pretty cool to relate to something that we talked about in class to our own homes.

Check out Eli's blog at http://smallblueblogger.blogspot.com/2015/09/news-paper-lecture.html?m=1

Magazines

In my house we have so many magazines, probably because my brother pesters my mom about buying a bunch for a school fundraiser until she gives in all because he can get a keychain with a monkey on it, anyways, the point I am trying to get at is that most people don't read magazines anymore. Yes, they read the articles on an electronic device, but they don't buy the paper product and read from it. This topic never really interested me until the lecture in class, but when it was first introduced, I wondered why those magazines my mother bought remained where they were for the past three weeks. Later in the lecture, Mr. Miller mentioned something about in the 1950's, when television became a thing, that magazines became more exclusive, or demassified. I imagine this was because most of the subscribers to magazines, switched to television because everyone else said it was so cool and very slowly drifted away from them.

Printing Press

Before this lecture, I have never really actually thought about the most important invention in the world. If you would have asked me what I thought it was before this lecture, along with most young people, I most likely have said the internet or something in that genre, but I have been proven wrong. Without Gutenburg's printing press, we obviously would not have the modern day printing press and most mass communication. Before the printing press, most people who were literate were either super rich and could afford to hire someone to teach them how to read and write, or they were affiliated with the church so they could read from the bible. A lot of people were lied to and told they had to pay a great sum of money to get a ticket to heaven because the literate people told them the bible said it, but it didn't. After the printing press, more people were literate, anything that could be put into words spread more quickly, accurate maps were produced, history was accurately recorded, and the world became a more cultural place. Without the printing press we would most likely not have as much technology as we do today and you would probably not be reading this blog right now if it wasn't for Gutenburg.

Demassification

Demassification interesting because it singles out a specific group of people, which makes the product seem more personalized which people tend to like these days. This topic in our lecture made me rethink every magazine I have ever read and basically profile it and put it into a category. For example when I thought about the magazine, Highlights, I immediately connected it with my childhood and realized it was made for children aged to about 5-10 years old. But, just because something is made for a certain group of people, does not mean that if you do not fit the mold the producer was intending the buyer to fit in, that you cannot read/watch/buy it. In class, we analyzed that Reader's Digest was intended for old people because of the type of advertisements, but I bet a handful of teenagers my age also read it. I appreciate how Mr. Miller mentioned that in class.

Conglomeration

All of the lectures are so new to me, and things have never heard before, mostly because I have never took a Journalism class, but the lecture on conglomeration really intrigued me. I was so amazed by the fact that huge companies, like Disney, own other huge companies, like ESPN. I knew that Disney was a very big company on it's own, but before the lecture I had no idea that they basically owned everything. I guess that's why there is now so much advertising on disney for other companies that do not relate to it. The main con of conglomeration, in my opinion, is that the quality decreases because if one company is in charge of what other companies produce, there is a product that is bound to be repeated by a different company. But, conglomeration is also great too. If you like pop culture and the mainstream, basic products, the world is your oyster. It also brings in more money for the company that owns other companies, which benefits the employees. Overall, it is one of my favorite lectures so far.