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.