Media Critique - NBC Treasure Story

The other day NBC posted an article on their website about treasure being found at the site of a plane wreck in the French Alps. Here is the link: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/26/20707001-frozen-treasure-found-amid-plane-wreckage-in-the-french-alps?lite. This story lacks the newsworthiness and local relevance qualities of good journalism stated in the seven yardsticks. Yes, someone found treasure but how does that affect other people? The yardstick of newsworthiness states that journalism should have a direct and lasting (six months or more) informational impact on a wide audience (at least 10,000 people). This article written by NBC does not fit this description of newsworthiness. The article also violates local relevance. Like I said earlier how does this impact anyone here in Louisville? It doesn't! There's really nothing the journalists could have done to fix this story because it really just should not have been reported on at all. Maybe in a local newspaper in France this story would be okay but not with such a well known media organization such as NBC. The fact that a guy found treasure in the French Alps is just not important enough.

Music

I feel like our music lesson got cut short for some reason and that we didn't get to finish it. We spent most the time talking about what they did before the day of being able to record music. Aside from that, I learned some very insightful things about music. Most people don't realize that music can actually contain messages and ideas. When we were finally able to record music these messages and ideas could be heard all around the world. Today we can access music on our iPod, MP3, or other music devices in just a click of a button or two. Music has been the basis of social change and revolutions in certain areas of the world.

Newspapers

During our newspaper lecture we learned about a man named John Peter Zenger. This man published an article accusing the king of unfair actions. He was sent to court where the ruling was that the press had the right to say what they wanted if it were true. This is very important to journalists because it is the first case that established freedom of the press from the first amendment. Then we went on to talk about why we still read newspapers. I thought this was an interesting topic as I have always wondered what keeps them around because I've always felt like my family was the only one who got the paper. It turns out many tings keep them around including tradition, affordability, and the fact that it's a physical object and not virtual.

Response to Grayson

While looking at Grayson's blog, http://graysonsmit.blogspot.com/, I happened to see his media critique of Fox News and I thought it was great! The fact that he found that story is hilarious and that it violated so many principles. I can't believe that such a large industry would even report on something so irrelevant as to a guy giving his car a funeral. This is a great find and he did a great job critiquing the story.

Sydney's Response to Current Events

I was looking at my classmate's blogs when I came across Sydney's blog about current events http://sydneyblocker.blogspot.com/. She makes a great point when she says we never talk about what relevance this has to us. When I look over the news everyday I see plenty of news articles obviously but do I necessarily remember them? No, because unless it is relevant to me, it very easily goes in one ear and out the other. I understand that it's part of our grade to watch, listen, and read the news, but it would certainly be great to know how some of the news affects us like she mentioned.

9 Principles and 7 Yardsticks

This was probably one of our most important lessons in my opinion so far. Because I learned about the 9 principles and 7 yardsticks, I now notice what is good journalism and what is not. When watching the news I am able to tell what they are doing right and I can pick out the stories that are irrelevant. This is very important and I love being able to critique journalism.

Conglomeration Lecture

I really liked our lecture on conglomeration. I thought it was interesting to learn how one company can buy many companies so that there is less competition. I found this very insightful since in the real world big companies buy smaller ones all the time. One such example is Microsoft buying Nokia.