Counting On Citizen Journalism

As a video journalist, I have to carefully consider many elements of the news before I report to the public. As explained in chapter 7 of the text, I do my best to view my stories from the “news perspective.”

First, I must detect and recognize news, interpret its relevance, investigate and research a topic, then assemble the story. However, the disadvantage to this perspective is that it runs the risk of being interpreted from my point of view and interpretation. It could result in a narrow vision of what is “news-worthy.”

For instance, I recently was assigned to put together a package on the Irish foreign exchange student who plays basketball for Westminster. Since it was a feature story and not a hard-news piece, I had to decide the best angle to take on the story.

After analyzing the “news perspective” of the story, I decided to base my package around getting to know Peter. I was satisfied with the finished piece as were many others. However, perhaps some people wanted more facts in the story. The who, what, when, and whys of the story which make up the context of the story.

That’s the main problem with the “news perspective,” the vision of what is actual news varies from person to person.

Upon analyzing citizen journalism sites, the same conclusion can be reached. I chose to check out http://www.mytown.dailycamera.com/ which is based out of Colorado that provides daily news from breaking local stories to news from area clubs and sports teams. The site also allows the uploading of photos and for area residents to blog. The Daily Camera is also changing the name of its Sunday community news section to MyTown, emphasizing the connection between the Web and print sections.

Following the theme of the “news perspective,” one thing I feel that makes citizen journalism sites better than other sources such as national news is that it’s easier to decipher what really is news. Chapter 7 talks about the difficulty of truly knowing if news coverage is complete, balanced and accurate. I feel that it easier to know this if you actually live in the community where the news comes from. For example, if someone posts an article or blog about someone’s house burning down and questions its authenticity and accuracy, it’s easy to get in your car and drive a few blocks away to obtain the facts yourself. Or, maybe you know the neighbors or someone who live in that particular neighborhood, you can double-check the facts and develop you own interpretation of what actually happened. With national news, it’s difficult to go straight to the source and figure out how accurately a story was reported.

Therefore, community journalism sites such as mytown.dailycamera.com, make it easier for readers to trust the accuracy of news because they know it is coming from community members just like them and readers can easily go directly to the source of the news since it is within their community. Blogging and photo uploading is also a great way for community members to interpret news and share it with others.

Surviving Media's Misconception

Alexis’ quote is a prime example of how powerful the media really can be. As spoken by Uncle Ben in the movie Spiderman, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” In the case of Survivor Fans vs. Favorites, I feel the media has been greatly misconceived. The show Survivor, which has definitely been a great success over the years, is the type of show that can easily chose what to show and what not to show as part of the reality television aspect. Mr. Corso told us about a book he read that talked about how the production crew shot hours of footage but only used the entertaining parts.

For instance, the book claimed that cast member slept for extended periods of time and only participated in competitions and socialized with one another every so often. The average “media literate” viewer would think that what they saw on television was typically what took place each and everyday on the island. However, it is not. What is shown on television is what the producer, editors, and networks consider entertaining. This common misconception can be caused by a glitch in our information processing and the lack of ability to decipher “real reality” from “entertaining reality.”

This thought is exemplified through Alexis’ quote and how she feels that the fans have an advantage because they are avid viewers of the show and know the characters well. Do they really know the characters themselves or the characters that the show has portrayed? On the other end, perhaps the loyal viewers have developed their media competencies and skills well enough to know the character better than they know themselves. After all, the characters are stuck on an island and don’t know exactly how the show is portraying their personality and behavior.

To reinforce my take on this quote: the new Survivor Fans vs. Favorites is a great example of how much power the media has. It can be, at times, misrepresenting but always makes for good entertainment.

Meeting Max Headroom

Who? Yeah thats exactly what I said when Mr. Corso started talking about this character last week. To be honest, I did not know what to expect when we watched the episode on wednesday. Would I be bored? Impressed? Confused? Turns out, I was somewhat intrigued by how relevant that particualr episode was with modern day. I was 1 year old when they aired that episode and here I am at age 22 and still very able to recognize what went on in that episode. I feel like even today, the media goes to ALL extremes to capture our attention, get the inside scoop on a story, and most importantly, win the ratings race. As portrayed in the episode, one tv news station went a bit far (a little farther than any stations do today) in order to make good news and be there for the best coverage. It reminds of the movie "Shattered Glass" and the young journalist who goes too far in writing the best story for his magazine. In order to succeed, he fabricates a story and publishes it which helps sell the comapany's magazine and gets him lots of publicity. However, once the story is found to be false, the journalist loses all his credibility and his job. The news station in the episode of Max Headroom did something very similar to this. Although it was a bit of a stretch on what happens today, I thought it was ironic how the show takes place "20 minutes into the future" and sure enough, the future has sort of turned out as the show protrayed it to. Not only news stations but thousands of companies, websites, tv shows, etc. take every measure possible to manipulte the media and set off our triggers. As I sit and watch the superbowl, I see this example perfectly, through witty commercials. Hundreds of companies trying to trigger our media literacy through comercials that dont even last a minute but cost millions of dollars. So as bizzare and possibly irrelevant as Max Headroom may have beeen back in 1986, perhaps he was trying to show us something about the future and where the media was heading. Even through this one episode, I can see many similarities to the way ratings and the battle for the best new coverage takes place 22 years later.