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
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
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.
1 comment:
I appreciate the embedded video. Still sounded in parts as though you were responding to a class assignment. A little long and took a while to get to your review of the site.
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