WLKY Media Critique

     After watching WLKY's content for a couple of weeks now, I have begun to conclude that there are many stories that target human interest or include celebrity fluff. Recently on the WLKY website, a story was posted that did not regard the 10 elements and 7 yardsticks of journalism. The story titled "Woman announces pregnancy with a little help from Paul McCartney." An Indiana woman who wanted to creatively announce her pregnancy. She convinced her number 1 idol, Paul McCartney to announce that she was pregnant for her. The story is heartwarming but it is absolutely not newsworthy which violates the 1st yardstick of journalism. This story does not have a long lasting impact on many people. Its the kind of story that you glance at and say "Aw," then go on with your day. There is nothing significant about knowing how one woman announced her pregnancy. The insignificance of the article also ties in with the 7th element of journalism which is make the important interesting not the other way around. Another yardstick of journalism the story does not regard is the 4th yardstick which is how the story affects the audience. In this case, the story does not affect its audience at all. Only the woman, her family and friends would be affected by this event. The other people reading it would not have a need to read it because it is useless information.

Link: http://m.wlky.com/news/paul-mccartney-pregnancy-announcement-indiana-womans-dream-come-true/36009882

In Response to Jalyn's Television Post

     I enjoyed reading Jalyn's blog and seeing her perspective on the lecture about television.She brought up many great points throughout the post like how at the beginning of television caused a rift between classes. I'm glad that now many people can have TVs not just the rich. In her post, she also told about the reasons why people spend most of their time watching TV. Jalyn mentions how TV is omnipresent meaning that it is present in our homes 24/7. I think she did a great job explaining why more people use TV than any other medium. I liked how said that TV sets cultural standards because within the show they may show what is "accepted" and what is not. If we didn't see the trends that TV sets, then it would be harder to keep up with the latest fad. Overall, I loved how she connected the information we received in the lecture with her own thoughts.

Link: http://jaytfarrow.blogspot.com/2015/10/television-response-to-lecture.html

In Response to Arianna's Radio Post

     Throughout Arianna's post, she gave a great amount of detail on how she viewed the lecture and it was very interesting. I liked the way she described how the Hindenburg incident made listeners feel. I agree that they must have been severely shocked with the event because it was one of the first live broadcasts at such a horrendous event. Without live broadcasts, the world would be constantly receive old information. I also think that radio's invention of live broadcasts was one of its huge impacts on society. Afterwards, she talks about how radio's saved rock and roll due to its demassification. Another point that I agree with is how rock and roll created the stigma around what a teenager is. I think that was the one point people don't consider and she did a great job explaining how. Her blog post was unique because she mentioned points that others failed to mention which made it interesting to read.

Link: http://themoyaknow.blogspot.com/2015/10/radios.html

In Response to Emma's Television Post

     After reading Emma's blog post about television, I felt that I could definitely relate to it. Even though some people watch television on a daily basis, I particularly don't. When Mr. Miller said guess how many hours a day that the average American watched, I was shocked that it was 7 hours because I watch TV for 2 hours at the most. I could definitely agree about the amount of political ads on TV because I have seen so much that I can almost memorize them. I liked how she described why ads are so critical to politicians. She basically said that the advertisements discourage people from voting which allowing the candidate with voters, who will vote no matter what, will win. I mean in the great scheme of things, everything serves a purpose, even annoying political advertising. I thought it would also be helpful if we watched a clip or two of old television shows to get a visual interpretation of the impacts of television. We really did not spend that much time on how television progressed over the years and instead focused on more present television. Overall, I enjoyed her post and it was very relatable.

Link: http://freshoffthepresswithemma.blogspot.com/2015/10/televsision.html

Television Lecture Response

     In class we learned about the impacts of television on the world. Since television is more omnipresent, it was more convenient for people. I thought of how you'd have to drive all the way to the theater just to watch a movie, while all you had to do to watch TV was to grab a remote. Honestly, this has made us more lazy and causing us to stay indoors. I remembered how my mom would say stop watching TV and go play outside. This is true because people are not attending community events and instead watching them on television. An example I thought of during the lecture was the Churchill Downs races. Instead of physically going to the races, people usually stay at home and turn on the news station covering the event. Due to television, we are missing events in our community and we watch them from a 3rd person perspective. 

     I found that it was ironic that we talked about how TV ads were critical for politicians because before the lecture, a friend and I were talking about how almost all the ads were about the election for governor and attorney general. The ads are on so many times that you can even memorize them. I honestly did not know that we were electing a governor until the ads started to appear everywhere. This would be the reason that all of these advertising are critical to the politicians. If you don't introduce yourself to the public, then no one will know who you are and that equals no votes for them. Today, you can not win a political race with hardly any advertisements because many people have television and it would be easier to introduce yourself to the public. To me, the advertisements were annoying and repetitive, however I now know that they actually do have a significance.

In Response to Cameron's Recorded Music Post

      I couldn't agree more with Cameron's blog post about how internet is hurting the recording music industry. Internet is causing the gradual loss of the usage of many forms of mass communication, and recorded music is no exception. I noticed that all the mass communication mediums we've learned, like newspapers and magazines, had an invention that declined it's use. This makes me anticipate for the future because I wonder what new invention will cause the decline of internet use. The record label companies are being severely wounded due to the internet and more specifically YouTube. Many talented people put themselves out there on YouTube, which makes it easier for music producers to find them. Instead of going through the normal path and getting a record label, it seems now that they just walk around that step in the process.  I liked how she provided an example of a celebrity who became famous by YouTube. The celebrity would be none other than the well-known Justin Bieber because if it wasn't for YouTube, he wouldn't be as famous.

Link: http://cameronsjournalismblogs.blogspot.com/2015/10/2nd-6-weeks-response-to-lecture-of.html?m=1/

Radio Lecture Response

      I liked how this lecture provided radio broadcasts that helped us create images in our head. We listened to the live broadcast of the Hindenburg incident, where a giant blimp crashed and exploded. I could not imagine how terrifying it must have been for the listeners because people were still stunned with the idea of radio. Another broadcast we listened to was "World of the Worlds," where the listeners thought Martians were attacking the world. However, at the beginning of the broadcast it says that its an episode of the Mercury Theatre of the Air series. This example reminded me how gullible we can be when facing new technology. At the time of these broadcasts, it was the golden age of radio. The number of radios had increased rapidly up to 40 million radios, which is insane because not many people listen to radio anymore. The decline of the usage of radios was due to television. This makes me wonder what the next big invention will be and how will it affect our lives.
     The technology that threatened radio was television. A couple of years after the first TVs were sold, all of radio's talent were gone. Like every mass medium, radio demassified and due to this demassification, rock and roll was saved. The outputs of radio were targeted towards the youth (teenagers), whom were interested in this new music. I thought that this was very interesting because not many other mass mediums had demassifyed this way.

In Response to Lucy's Movie Lecture Post

      I enjoyed reading Lucy's response to the movie lecture. Her blog post made me remember that Thomas Edison tried to take credit for the invention of motion pictures. I never  knew that Edison put his name on many inventions that were created by his employees. Putting your name on other's ideas is called plagiarizing. I find plagiarizing immoral and simply rude but many people still do it. People may make up excuses like, "Oh, its not completely the same or I just adopted the idea and I thought of the rest." However, you shouldn't have to plagiarize someone else's ideas because your brain is just as capable of other brilliant ideas. At the end of her post, she included a mini reflection where she asked herself about if she had been responsible towards her own actions. I thought the end was a real nice touch to the post because it gave the reader insight on what you were thinking after the lecture.

Link: http://livinginthefastlucy.blogspot.com/2015/10/in-response-to-lecture-8-movies-main.html?m=1/

Movie Lecture Response

      This lecture caused me to reminisce about my childhood experiences with movies. Throughout my childhood, my family would watch various old movies. I would watch a collection of Chaplin movies with my family and would always wonder why the actors walked so weird in the movies. I never dwelled on the question, so I did not know the real reason behind their weird movements until this lecture. In the past, movies were hand cranked and not automatic meaning it was hard to keep up the same rhythm. This was because eventually the person would get tired and the movie would slow down or they would get excited and speed it up. Another experience was my aunt watching tons of old Hindi movies in the romance genre. She would always say "Why won't guys be more like this?" and this is the case where women who watch a lot of romantic movies tend to have higher standards. I noticed that no matter the culture, movies set standards for the world to achieve. When I learned about the demassification solutions that movies tried to offer, I thought of the old wild west movies that my dad used to watch. Under the title it would say, IN TECHNICOLOR, or sometimes it would just say in color. I liked how this lecture related to any experience we had with movies and gave us background information to clear any confusion we had about movies in the past.

Media Critique

       An article was posted to the USA Today website on September 14, 2015 about two identical twin sisters who are pregnant with twins and are due to give birth only two weeks apart.
        "Utah twins pregnant with second set of twins," is one of the articles found in the website's national news section that violate the 1st and 4th yardsticks which are newsworthiness and local relevance. Overall, it is just another feel good story and not in anyway newsworthy. This article's topic would be considered peripheral which means the story does not have a long lasting informational impact over a vast audience. In order for a story to be newsworthy, it has to be  the opposite of peripheral. Stories that are worthy to be placed in national news should have a lasting impact on the people of our nation. The yardstick of local relevance was also violated by this story. Local relevance is how does the story affect the audience. In this case, the audience is not affected at all. They would carry on with their lives and forget they ever read the article. None of their lives would have a sliver of an impact because as time drags on, they would forget the several feel good stories they have read.

       USA Today does have a section called "Life" for peripheral topics such as celebrity and sport news as well as other unique stories. A suggestion to the story's writer, Ms. Durando, is that she should have placed the story into that section instead of the national news section.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/14/utah-twins-pregnant-second-set-twins/72262780/

Response to Maya M's Ten Elements of Journalism Post

       Maya Malawi's blog post made me realize that journalists have one of the hardest jobs. One mistake or lie hidden in the past might be dug up and can come back to haunt you which may put an end your career. I liked how she gave an example of a well known journalist who told a lie and it came back to bite him. As a journalist, you have to have reliable sources and concrete facts before you release anything out to the media. Once it is released, there isn't much you can do, unless you give the media an informed update to the story. Overall, I loved how her post was interesting and informative at the same time.

Link: http://mnm4jc.blogspot.com/2015/09/ten-elements-of-journalism-being.html?m=1

Response to Melissa's INFORMATION V.S ENTERTAINMENT

       I've read Melissa's post about specifically the elitist-populist binary model, demassification, and conglomeration. I agreed with her point that our society is more interested in the latest trends, viral videos, and celebrity gossip. The populist media appeals to our interests by demassifiying content into age groups which helps them make more money. Due to demassification, they are able to expand their audience. Also, I wish we could have gotten more in depth with conglomeration because it had been quite confusing for me at first. While discussing conglomeration in her post she asked, "Is there a rule stating that a larger company can't by out a smaller company, if they are financially stable or there isn't any particular reason to close it down?" I happened to have looked it up and there is no law against the larger company merging with a financially stable smaller one which is highly unfair. 

Link: http://pocketsecrets2015.blogspot.com/2015/09/binary-models-binary-models-lecture-was.html?m=1

Newspaper

       I was shocked to see that the history of the newspaper went all the way back to Ancient Rome. Newspaper has survived for a very long time because there weren't many technologies that challenged it. At one point, many people began to use radio instead of newspapers. However, that changed when people considered the pros and cons of each medium. You can read a newspaper at any time, in whatever order and any topic interests you. But with radios, you can't skip the topics you dislike and you have to listen to it in whatever order it is broadcasted in. Today's technology is really challenging the business of newspaper because you could do all things with a newspaper on your phone. You could share and save it just like you could with newspapers but you would need to have knowledge how to use a phone. In order to have a phone you have to buy one and they are expensive while newspapers are cheap. The only reason newspapers are barely surviving is the tradition of the elderly. A vast majority of newspaper readers are the older generation because the norm back then was waking up and reading the paper. 

Books

       During class, we learned the impact that Gutenberg's movable metal printing press had on the world. However, before his invention there were many other printing technologies. Some inventions were as simple as a stamp seal and others were very similar to Gutenberg's such as the Chinese movable wooden type press. I now understand why his printing press had such a great importance in history. Prior to the Gutenberg era, the vast majority of people were illiterate and only the rich could afford books. His invention was affordable which allowed more people to buy books and it sparked a reason in people to learn how to read. Due to the movable metal press, literacy became widespread and it had paved a way for the Renaissance. Furthermore, it helped cause revolutions in politics and religion as well as standardized maps and languages. Without Gutenberg, there wouldn't be a world for Journalism to strive in. I think the world would have been a bleak place where only the rich could enjoy the privileges of books.

Conglomeration

       At first glance, conglomeration seemed a bit difficult to comprehend. However, as we moved along I seemed to grasp the concept. By definition, conglomeration is when a larger company buys out a smaller company. Merging companies is efficient and allows the conglomerate to have a stronger purchasing power than smaller companies. The positive side of conglomeration is only felt by the larger company rather than the audience. Large companies will dictate the content their assets create which causes a lack of content diversity. This causes the audience to watch or read homogeneous and recycled content due to the fewer perspectives.

Binary Models

        During this lecture, we learned about the binary models of journalism. Throughout our everyday lives, we experience these four models but we just don't know it. The four binary models are: hot-cold, elitist-populist, information-entertainment, and content-distribution. The model that connected to all the others was hot-cold. I never knew how I could be in the kitchen and still not miss anything on the TV. Apparently, TV is a cold medium since it doesn't require your full visual attention. An instance when TV is a hot medium is whenever you are watching a subbed show because you are reading and it requires your visual awareness.

        Today, you see a lot of elitist-populist categorized media. Elitist has a purpose, such as education. Populist, on the other hand, is just in it for the money. I noticed during the lecture that the media is becoming more populist. Our society is more interested in trivial things like celebrity drama and viral videos. This closely ties in with the  information-entertainment model. Since, populist media is all about money, it uses entertaining topics to gather more views or reads. However, there are some elitist media like 60 minutes whose purpose is to educate. The purpose of education is related to the information side of the model. Elitist media gives information to the world for the sole purpose of educating the audience and not really paying attention to his much money it makes.

        To me, the content-distribution model was confusing. I did however find out that when companies make products is way cheaper than when we buy it from the store. This model is merging because companies thought it would be easier and more cheaper to have your own distributors.