Nico Pagni | Recordings

More to music than just entertainment.

Nico definitely hit his points straight on about our lecture! Music really doesn't serve as just entertainment but actually so much more. It allows us to spread info throughout the world along with teaching "language". This language includes many things. Referring to what Nico said:  

"Bards, which in the olden days, went from town from town, reciting verses from songs. And in these songs, they usually contained information of landscape, cultures, or events from the past. So, the people that were listening to the bard would most likely learn something that they didn't know."

Pointing out most of the key information, Nico's posts could be used as a way to study since it's clear and straight to the point. Though honestly, there could have been much more info that should have been said. As well as the music industry taking off, there were also many other events that allowed messages to be sent. Most of this can be seen during the Civil Rights Movements, the Rock era and so much more. Allowing us to communicate widely, this is how modern evolution of music messages were brought up from back them till now. Like Nico had said to end this post cleanly - Music, having a new wide perspective is now something that contains messages in which we all have to listen more closely to decipher.

Nico's Post on Recordings @ nicopagni19.blogspot.com/2013/09/music-lecture-response.html

Seyda Muratova | "Miss Unamerican"

Racism in the 21st Century!?

Looking throughout many blogs, here came up Seyda's post. Here I thought, 'why would I forget such a big thing which happened only last week!?' As many people know, Miss America was crowned just last week. She's a beautiful, intelligent lady that deserved a title and yet Americans were so frustrated and mad. The reason? She's from Indian descent. This is one topic that Seyda pulled off a very bold, strong opinion about. America does not have an official nationality! Really..

"This country is supposed to be built on freedom and equality so why are people hating on this poor girl?"

Those people on social networks ridiculed saying that, white-skinned people should win it. Honestly though, what is America thinking of now-a-days? Like Seyda said, this is America! She was born here in New York and she is willing to represent the U.S. in the international pageant. Many people had said things like how she was a terrorist, but come on people - first of all she's Indian so she's either Hindu or Buddhist. Second of all, is it really that necessary to even say such things? Many people in the United States are of different ethnicity and we should be proud of that. Reading the well..cruel but true realizations in Seyda's post about it, it's a bit disappointing in which how America is still like this. 

Seyda's Post on Miss America @ seydamuratova.blogspot.com/2013/09/miss-america.html

Fox News: Is it really that important?

Former President George H.W. Bush witness at Maine same-sex wedding

As fellow journalists, the seven yardsticks and nine principles have to be followed throughout the whole process of journalism itself. While many do follow some of them, like the truth, loyalty, independence, watchdog, etc., there's one topic most news organizations (often local) miss -
Newsworthiness.
According to gradethenews.org, newsworthiness is based off of two facters:

1. Whether the story topic is "core" or "peripheral"
2. Whether the story is likely to have a direct and lasting informational impact on a wide audience.

Core topics would be things in which information like this is what the public needs like politics, government action and economics. Meanwhile there's peripheral topics, information that is wanted but is not needed to know. Things like this include celebrities, human interest and other stories in which do not create a big impact. An example of in which articles are not newsworthy is a story done today by Fox News. The article can be found here:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/26/former-president-george-hw-bush-witness-at-maine-same-sex-wedding/

In this article, it tells the story of the former President, George H.W. Bush. He had visited a wedding in Kennebuck, Maine, being an official witness of a same sex wedding. The associative press of Fox News had gave in great detail about the former president being in long term ties with the fellow wives and how his son wasn't for same sex marriages, unlike many other people that surround him. As much as it was a tearing, heartwarming story, this is not what journalism is to be.
Looking back at the two factors that determines whether they are newsworthy or not, it clearly shows.

• This topic is peripheral. In a way, the former president is a celebrity. Also, in fact it was informed mostly about things all over the place. They had mentioned many things like information about President George H.W. Bush, his family and his son's way of being against same sex marriage. None of the info listed above or in the article is important.
• They did not have a lasting impact toward a wide audience. Journalism's purpose is to help readers and viewers make sense of pressing issues and events that affect them. How is an article like this able to affect viewers in a huge sense if it doesn't even have any relation to them? Being a witness at a marriage does not affect millions of people in America unlike something like tainted beef or deadly bacteria found in farmers' produce. Simply, it's not newsworthy but rather a filler.

As stated in many of the previous journalism classes, Fox News is one of those demographics that typically try to get as many news stories to fill up time or just try to look as if they are important journalism organizations like CNN or NPR. What they should really do however is just stop going after every story. Instead go for the stories that affect us greatly. Even if there are many interesting things that people want to know like who won 'The Voice', it's not something that would affect people's lives vice versa to something like Obamacare and the war in Syria about chemical weapons. That way, it'll significantly be a more newsworthy journalism association with these big impacted stories instead of many little ones with short impacts.

Newspapers

Truth: the ultimate defense to the press

Honestly, this wasn't really one of the lectures that gave me much interest compared to other topics in the beginning, being as that we had to first learn about all of the parts that make up the newspaper like the logo, folio, lead, column and many..many more that after writing all of it my hand couldn't take it at that point! Though afterwards, it definitely got more interesting. This was about the man who kind of almost bringing up the first amendment we see today, John Peter Zenger. He created the first English newspaper in the colonies, called Publik Occurrences. Writing continuously, he wrote about a corrupt governor who had took over the system by removing people in power to benefit in project. Soon afterwards, he was arrested for such libel against a man of higher power. After spending months in jail, he had went into court but was claimed not guilty for just a few simple, yet powerful words -

"The truth is the ultimate defense for the press."
Proving that with the proof shown, speaking out the truth, it could go against any libel made for it wasn't just a petty rumor or lie about the governor. This became such an amazing impact, where the freedom of the press starts till it is finally recorded into the 1st of 10 amendments. To me, this was something that stood out throughout the whole lecture itself for it is something that journalists use everyday. Without this, it's practically impossible to allow journalism to be right and fair as well as inform the corruption that might affect them without getting arrested for such things. Thinking over it, journalism is just now more than writing stories about occurring things..it's now a story waiting to be unfold in our eyes as we find the hidden shadows that could eventually destroy us and our rights. The statement itself..it's something worth knowing forever.

Books

An everlasting old technology:

It didn't really seem like it as first, but I didn't think books would actually create such an impact. It was surprising to find out that it was the first mass communication, considering that many articles / posts were probably made beforehand. Though what was even more surprising was the fact that it took till the 1400's (Gutenberg's time) for it to actually be a successful plan. Knowing that the people of Mesopotamia, Rome and China were all greatly developed societies in that time period, it took almost 5000 years till Gutenberg's creation was existent. Never mind that though. After Gutenberg, it created probably a long list of effects like:

• The printing press
• Increase of literacy
• History could be recorded
• Protestant reformation
• Spread of democracy
• Inventions and science developments would also be recorded
• Dictionaries along with translations could be made
• Maps were able to be created

Compared to other topics, this gave an impact to me to look at books more seriously and not like it's just some heavy thing we have to carry in our backpacks! Many of these things are tied in today's society which practically makes this one of the greatest, important inventions to us in modern society for the next 600 yrs. Looking back, without Gutenberg's press, we probably wouldn't be as far as we come to modern society today. We wouldn't be able to read as well, sciences wouldn't come as far to give us the proper medical care and history might as well never exist to our generation. Really, without books, might as well just not see a society like today.

Binary Models

The realization on conglomeration:

Though this was a while back, it did create a lasting impression in how I see all of these major co-operations. Now knowing 90% of it is now owned by six media giants - GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS. The power of conglomeration can greatly change many smaller companies, often becoming demassified not as a choice, but as their only option. A visual aid to see how it works can be found at the link at the bottom of this entry. A comic made by Jason at Frugal Dad, it shows how the media society is actually is - Not by many certain individuals, but rather by small yet 'big' companies as listed above. It's an interesting aspect on how they can just simply take over all of these cooperations and how similar they actually are when thinking over about it. Hopefully, now thinking over this, smaller companies can get more support before conglomeration takes over them as well.

Comic: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

Witness to History: The Photographers of 9/11

The story in the words and images of photographers on 9/11:

The story of all of these photographers while trying to capture those events really show a different side to how we see photographers or photojournalists in general. Seeing a different side of the events happening during 9/11, it gives us the ability to know the truth of everything that was happening on that day. Looking back at this video as it goes along to the events quickly happening, this was the boom of one of the greatest photojournalism and journalism pieces in U.S. history. Things like this are able to be remembered for future generations to come just from journalism which makes it vital from now till the future. The fact in which that these journalists had risked their lives as well as trying to get such information, they definitely show the principle of truth and making the important interesting (even if this was such a tragic event.) Capturing moments bit by bit, we are able to consider them as our heroes. Though they are not the paramedics, the police, nor the fire department, they still help us greatly with a great asset - knowledge.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVgKQUAPozs