Thursday, September 18, 2014

Student Response: Olivia Dawson

I recently read Olivia's comment on the class lecture. Here are my thoughts:

I would agree that this lecture was nice. Something as simple as newspaper is not something we often think of; it has been around for so long that it's not something that we often think about. I definitely think that the older generation is the reason that newspaper is still around. It was a very interesting lecture, and I give Olivia credit for the feedback.

http://oliviadawsonjc.blogspot.com/

Student Response: Laurie Jonhattan

I recently read Laurie's post on Literacy. Here is my reaction:

I also found this lecture extremely interesting. I had wondered many times exactly where and how books started and eventually became such a vital essence to the modern world. 

This is not a question you can simply "Google" to get the answer. This question requires tons of research and even then, the result could be vague and unsatisfying.

Mr Miller did a great job of thoroughly explaining the absolute necessity of books. A world without books would be primitive, in-advanced and frankly, not something I would like to experience.

http://dreaminreality14.blogspot.com/


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Magazines

Recently our class had a lecture on magazines. The lecture was fairly tolerable; in my opinion, it wasn't the most pleasant lecture to to sit through-- it was lengthy for the most part and completely descripritive.

The discussion was about the start of the magazine industry. Benjamin Franklin created the General Magazine. Even though the magazine couldn't hold, it brought forth the idea of an article that had more content and more photojournalism than that of a newspaper. It was revolutionizing in the journalism business.

The saga of magazine success was continued by the Saturday Evening Post. This magazine was more successful than the previous, and was a combination of many difderent subjects. The advantage of having more content and make it more unbiased. Therefore, there was a larger audience because it as cheaper and diverse.

The reason the lecture seemed a little bit flat was perhaps because personally the subject of magazines is not that  interesting. The lecturer himself was not to blame; he gave plenty of enthusiasm toward the subject. It was, however, a little less climactic after such a pleasant conversation about newspaper.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

A Hodge-Podge of Stories

Recently, I took a look at the Time magazine website. Supposedly, the website is a reliable place for "Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News....", according to the slogan that can be found next to the name in the website tab. While browsing through the home page, one particular article stood out; it was labeled "This Hangover Cure Will Make You Richer". 

As if the title wasn't enough to tell that the article did not follow the very first Yardstick of journalism (newsworthiness) , I continued to read. Within the first paragraph, I noticed a major flaw. Journalists, with the exception of commentators and critics, do not use first-person pronouns. Insulted, I did not pursue the rest of the article: "What kind of news source is this?"

You simply cannot be the source of unprofessional articles such as this while trying to maintain the face of a "Breaking News" source. First of all, it's frankly quite confusing. Time is a "Goodwill" of stories; while not only housing all of the old, used articles that no one wants anymore, it also is the home of all of the strange pieces that everyone is questioning the relevance of. Relevance is yet another Yardstick of journalism.

Being such a hodge-podge of stories in a sense is also unfair to the sum of journalists who face real work everyday to meet deadlines with breaking, real news. You simply cannot post articles on the iPhone 6 a week after the rest of the media released the information. It is useless, to put it bluntly. It is also unacceptable for a "news" publication to fabricate their articles based off of other news publications which work, and sometimes risk their lives for a piece.

In conclusion, Time magazine is not a sound source of information as it claims, but rather a means of entertainment.  

 Sources:


   

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Today's Lecture 9/3/14

  I was very intrigued by the topic of today's class. The lecture today was about several different things, all interesting nonetheless, but I was very interested about "Horizontal/Vertical Monoply" concept. At first mention of "monopoly", I thought of the childhood board game. After a brief amount of time, I learned that I was not quite off in thinking so.

  Monopolies operate basically the same as the game. The bigger company has enough money to buy out the smaller ones. Just like in the game, where the player with more money gets to buy more properties.

  The lecture gave me a semi-different way of looking at the big, corporate businesses. I learned a lot about the strategies they use to monopolize and compete with other businesses.