Posts

The Powerhouses of Media

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It is no surprise that there are a few large media corporations that control the flow of news to the public. What I always loving doing is going to these different organizations and ready the same news story from each one. I have found that it can give a lot of insight to how the organization tells it news and what parts of the story you are going to receive. I think it is also beneficial to read stories from different sources, because it can help you get a better picture and understanding of the news. I try my best to read as many news stories as possible, but what made me decide on this for my last blog was seeing all the different stories about North Korea and their new bomb on Twitter. I first saw the story BBC and read their article. Immediately the next tweet was about the same topic, but from CNN. They both have the same story to tell but there are key differences in how the news is relayed to the public. The wording of each is different and one story leaves out information
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Gatekeepers and Trust

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When there was only radio, print, and television to share news gatekeepers were respected and their word was typically taken with less skepticism than it is now. Today with the web and social media have changed how people handle and trust the gatekeepers. Put plainly there is almost no trust when it comes to the public and gatekeepers. This makes it harder for the public to try and decipher fact from fiction when they are reading a news story. In a particular news article I found from FOX, they reported on gatekeeping and how it has changed. They suggest that in the past people would focus on one or two news stations that they believed were corrupt, however most people today will just say that media as a whole is corrupt. Even this news article itself is filled with bias and in some ways people would say corrupt. The truth of the matter is that people are becoming more and more distrustful of media and the gatekeepers that hold the power. Below I have attached a link to the news
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Where Do You Get Your News From

Sometimes it is extremely easy to tell when there is bias in a news story and sometimes it is almost impossible to tell. Almost always though there is some form of bias. This particular article I came across is one of the more obvious in how they are bias. The article was written by CNN and everything from the title, to the wording and content show how bias media can be. The first line of the article reads, "Donald Trump has a grandiose view of himself and his centrality to, well, everything." Starting off with the first line we can tell that this article is not going to be showing Trump in a positive light. The words and how they are put together show that they do not think highly of what Trump had to say. This article is all about "fake" news and how Trumps believes he made the word what it is today. It is obvious that the people who are sharing this story do not think highly of Trump and their bias views show. http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/08/politics/trump-huckab
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Power of a Political Leader

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I was trying to decide on what my next blog should be about, when I was sitting around with some friends. I was scrolling through twitter when I came upon a cluster of tweets specifically from Trump himself or whoever runs his twitter account. He was talking negatively about some news stations and praising other news stations. Typically it is the news stations that the public look to make an opinion on political leaders and situations that are happening. Trump has decided to flip the coin and he has been very vocal about his opinions on all news stations. He is constantly tweeting his opinions on news stations and how they are reporting news. If he doesn't like what a news station is saying about him or how he is handling a political topic he will fire back with his own opinions. While politicians have done things like this in the past, none have done it as frequently and vocal as Trump. Trump has taken it to a whole new level and doesn't care what anyone thinks about it. Bel
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CNN vs FOX

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I was on Facebook the other day and was scrolling through when I saw an article about a Marine captain and how he had a gender reveal while he was overseas. It is a very heartfelt and light story that is great to watch and read about. What I saw in the comments however is what this post is really about. Some guy commented on the post saying that he was so shocked that CNN would post such a story and then abruptly stated that oh wait it wasn't because it is actually posted by FOX. This comment just reestablished the idea that people like to listen to media that they believe align with their beliefs. In a majority opinion CNN is more liberal, while FOX is more conservative. So, if a person leans more on the conservative side they would be more inclined to watch or read news from FOX. Big companies like FOX and CNN hold a lot of power of the public and this comment is just another way that reiterated that in my mind. Below I have attached the video of the reveal. http://www.fox
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Power of a Word Count

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As of November 7, Twitter increased their word count maximum from 140 to 280 words. It seems to have been received with some mixed signals. Some people think this is a great thing seeing as they have more that they want to say and sometimes 140 words isn't enough. On the flip side some people think this is a terrible idea, because it is taking away from what Twitter previously was, which was simple quick blurbs. There were no long posts or rants that took forever to read through. People were also critical of this new change because they thought that it was a distraction from what they believe is a bigger issue on Twitter. Twitter has gotten a lot of heat and has become a place that is a breeding ground for cyber-bulling and harassment. People believe that there is not enough focus on handling those issues.  What I found very interesting and important to think about is that the largest group that liked this idea and wanted this change was the media. The media is a huge influence
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Puerto Rico- Where is the Coverage?

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When you open up you news feeds this week one of the top stories will be about Trump and the NFL. While that is not to say an important story, what happened to the coverage of Hurricane Maria and the devastation that it brought upon Puerto Rico? There is certainly coverage of the devastation, however it is not nearly as important to the major news outlets as a juicy gossip story about Trump. Whether you hate or love Trump or feel indifferent the news outlets make it so that we never forget the latest tweet that he has said. While I don't deny that it is important to know what the president is thinking and tweeting, I don't think it needs to always be the most important thing in the news. We are getting so lost in the debates about who is right and wrong in a situation that we are losing sight of what is really important, stories that matter. Puerto Rico is in a crisis unlike anything they have seen before. The news outlets were so quick to jump on Hurricane Harvey and
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