Reflections

REFLECTING ON THE OVERALL DMA COURSE

• When I first started this course, I entered with an already existing knowledge of how to effectively navigate the internet. I entered this class with a curiosity for journalism, and had already acquired a negative opinion of FOX news.
•  Although I entered the class with an understanding for technology, I learned how to effectively get my work done. My view on new-media has stayed the same throughout the course.
•  I would like to learn more about how new sources manage to continue spewing false information and not have any repercussions.
• Yes. Being well-informed with world and local events have a great impact on your understanding of the world and can invoke interesting conversations- it also allows you to appear more intelligent to some people. Being informed is seen as attractive in some people's eyes.

REFLECTING ON A SELECTION OF SPRING SEMESTER COURSES

 

 All of these correlate with one another.

REFLECTING ON THE SCHOOL YEAR

CULMINATING PROJECT OUTLINE -- FINAL

SECTION ONE

INTRODUCTION:

What if some of these particular News resources are actually providing false and/or fabricated stories in order to appease their viewing audience? What if every report is extremely over-exaggerated in order to invoke some sort of dramatic effect?

SOURCES: 

"A Tentative Study of the Causes of the Formation of False Journalism on the Internet--《Journal of Shanghai Normal University(Philosophy & Social Sciences Edition)》2006年01期." A Tentative Study of the Causes of the Formation of False Journalism on the Internet--《Journal of Shanghai Normal University(Philosophy & Social Sciences Edition)》2006年01期. Editorial Department,Journal of Shanghai Normal University,Shanghai, n.d. Web.

Morris, Jonathan B. "The Fox News Factor." The Fox News Factor. Department of Political Science at East Carolina University, n.d. Web.

 MATTHEW A. BAUM (2002). Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Inattentive Public. American Political Science Review, 96, pp 91-109. doi:10.1017/S0003055402004252. 

Schudson, Michael. "The Objectivity Norm in American Journalism*." The Objectivity Norm in American Journalism*. Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego, n.d. Web.

VIDEO COMPOSITION:

I uploaded my videos to my YouTube channel as unlisted. Since I do not want to flood my subscribers with DMA content, I am going to simply post the links here. 

On another note, I had a moderately decent grasp on how to "write" in a video or film. In actuality, almost every film has some sort of story- even the ones that don't make sense. As I watch my fellow classmates compositions, I am able to extract some sort of story even though it appear to be a mindless array of flashy images and sounds.

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD8bBwQ9O9s

2)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8tk435jgg (experimental video with footage from Lumiere)

TOPIC VIDEO: 

I attempted to convey a short sample of news resources that continuously fabricate their facts. Using footage from debates with Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilley, it allowed me properly display the kind of techniques that FOX uses to manipulate evidence and appear as though they know what they are talking about. The video ended up being around 2:20 or so. It is below the requested 3 minutes, however, I feel as though there is enough information to display the point that I am making.

V LINK V

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpUUb5RQ1m0&feature=youtu.be 

WHAT I LEARNED:

Over the course of this spring semester, I spent most of my time researching the topic of digital journalism. As the year progressed, I ended up moving more towards the question of: what if some of these particular News resources are actually providing false and/or fabricated stories in order to appease their viewing audience? What if every report is extremely over-exaggerated in order to invoke some sort of dramatic effect?

I was already interested in this topic and had done a small amount of research already, however, now I had an incentive to extensively dig deeper. I learned that a large amount of FOX News’ reports are somewhat fabricated and actively portray false information from time to time. As you saw in the topic video, various hosts such as Bill O’Reilley and Glenn Beck were one these people.  There is actually a website purely devoted to exposing and actively recording lies and false accusations that FOX has said or written, called FoxNewsLies.net. Quite creative, I know. What they enjoy doing, is quoting what they percieve to be “the lie” and then say “the truth”.

The Lie: “On a number of Fox News shows on June 12th, 2012 Karl Rove, Steve Doocy, Sean Hannity and Patti Ann Browne overstated and misstated the findings contained within a Federal Reserve Board Survey by claiming that a 38.8 percent drop in the median net worth of Americans had taken place during “the last three years.”

The Truth: “The Federal Reserve Survey clearly states that the period covered was between 2007 and 2010. In other words, there was a concerted effort at Fox News to blame the entire drop in net worth on President Obama, when much of it began under President George W. Bush.”

The University of Shanghai wrote a piece concerning the effect of false journalism quoting: There have been some discussions concerning the causes of false journalism on the Internet,which are restricted to such causes as“the low quality of the employees”,“inadequacy of law”and“rewarded journalism”,etc.By adopting the meth- ods of information administrative studies and communication studies,and by synthesizing the results of the available related stud- ies of false news and reports,this paper firstly analyzes the causes of false journalism on the internet.After a discussion of such issues as the features of and conditions for communication as well as domino effects of false journalism on the Internet,this paper goes on to deal with its characteristics of writing,the process and value of its communication,the mentality of the audience,and the atmosphere in which it is received,as well as the proper environment for its rational existence.To conclude,if we neglect ei- ther the reasonable living conditions for or the effective communicating links of such journalism or its huge reception market,there can't be any effect in prohibiting or boycotting this“special journalistic product”.

Michael Schudson describes conditions for social norms. “Four conditions for the emergence of new norms are identified – two having to do with the self-conscious pursuit of internal group solidarity; and two having to do with the need to articulate the ideals of social practice in a group in order to exercise control over subordinates and to pass on group culture to the next generation.”

All in all, after researching this topic and digging deeper, I feel as though I acquired an accurate understanding of the effects of false journalism.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT:

I find it quite difficult to write 500 words based on such a general topic. Journalism has never particularly been my subject of interest, so attempting to develop some sort of question concerning things that I actually desire to learn, is incredibly difficult to say the least. Since Journalism is such a general topic, a suppose that it would be appropriate to ask- what exactly is journalism? Mark Deuze discusses the history of journalism in his article titled “Professional Identity and Ideology of Journalists Reconsidered”.

“The history of journalism in elective democracies around the world has been described as the emergence of a professional identity of journalists with claims to an exclusive role and status in society, based on and at times fiercely defended by their occupational ideology. Although the conceptualization of journalism as a professional ideology can be traced throughout the literature on journalism studies, scholars tend to take the building blocks of such an ideology more or less for granted. In this article the ideal-typical values of journalism’s ideology are operationalized and investigated in terms of how these values are challenged or changed in the context of current cultural and technological developments. It is argued that multiculturalism and multimedia are similar and poignant examples of such developments. If the professional identity of journalists can be seen as kept together by the social cement of an occupational ideology of journalism, the analysis in this article shows how journalism in the self-perceptions of journalists has come to mean much more than its modernist bias of telling people what they need to know.”

Journalism is an art form the sense that journalism requires creative thought. You have to think outside the box in order to become a decent journalist. Is there a social norm that is required for journalism? Referring back to my previous source, Michael Schudson, discusses social norms presented by our media. “Why did the occupational norm of ‘objectivity’ arise in American journalism? This question has attracted the interest of many journalism historians but it has not previously been examined as an instance of a more general social phenomenon, the emergence of new cultural norms and ideals.”

At the end of the semester I will be leaving DMA with a better understanding of how journalism operates and the effect of false journalism on society. After researching various lies that FOX news has told, I’ve learned what news sources to watch, and what not to watch. Even though a lot of reports are fabricated, news is one of primary sources of information.

Journalism can be found in almost every corner of the internet, it can be considered reporting if you are providing the reader with some sort of information. Even though news resources are one of our most relied on sources for information, there are other places where you can receive your news.

“Alternative technological and economic explanations of the emergence of objectivity are criticized and the difficulty of understanding why objectivity as a norm emerged first and most fully in the United States rather than in European journalism is discussed.”

A question that I also have, is what would happen if all news resources were suddenly cut off- what would people turn to?

Work Assessment

1) Up to this point, we actively researched how to effectively work online and utilize it as a tool.



2) -----

1.  The two units discusses both the learning cycle,  which involves properly gathering information.  The other involves new-media composing algorithm which involves combining different methods.
2.  The four exemplars explored the internet as a unifying tool that can be used for your benefit.
3. My image composition combined my admiration for film and my computer.
4. My website and blog are pretty standard but define who I am. I think that I have some interesting content within both.
5. All of my Facebook post have in some way, possessed topics that would be viable for discussion.

3) Things that jumped out at me were topics that influenced discussion and were touchy subjects. It's always interesting to see other people's perspectives.

4)  A rule of thumb for Film to take risks, otherwise it's just generic and cliché.

5) I feel as though all of my assignments pushed the boundaries a bit and allowed the reader to think outside the box.

6) I think that the next step to push the boundaries and bit further in order to spur some more discussions.

Project Write-Up

I. Introduction to Project

Turns out that before I was even in DMA, I already had a blog on this website, which is kind of funny. Creating the blog was not too difficult, for obvious reasons. The most complicated part was organizing the present content on my blog.

II. Self-Assessment

Creating a blog or website is pretty basic if you know exactly what you are going for. In this case, I knew that I wanted to create a thread that was singularly for DMA. I didn't really encounter too many obstacles.

The project helps you with organization and researching topics online.

I will apply the same organization that I developed from this assignment when I'm crewing on a film set- keeping everything in order. Googlesites isn't the most professional, so chances are that I won't be using it to promote my personal work.

Normally I just assess the problem/situation as I'm working instead of waiting to completely understand what I'm doing. Kind of did the same thin for this. I saw that we had to make a blog, and took it step by step along the way.

I followed all of the instructions and accomplished each task, so I think that I did pretty well. I didn't exactly have a lot of available time, but I got the job done.

I would probably try to allow myself more time to work, unfortunately, I'm crewing every week. When I don't have a lot of time, I feel as if my overall presentation of assignments are not to my best potential.

III. Corrections to Work

I am going to try and work out the kinks with my website. I've encountered minor problems that aren't too hard to fix. Just some layout changes.

IV. Conclusion

I'm going to try to step up my work a bit, but it all depends on how much time I am allowed. All in all, I've always wanted a reason to start blogging again, and I'm glad that we are incorporating it into this assignment.

10 Things That Worry Me About The Future

1. That ignorance and unnecessary hatred will usher in the downfall of our society and natural way of life

2. Our generation's thought process will decay due to the convenience of the internet.

3. That the baby boomer's will mess something up again, one last time.

4. The music industry will never be saved. Shitty music will rule the charts.

5. More than half of the current American generation of teenagers will simply cease to gain any sort of knowledge.

6. The conflict in the middle east will erupt into one final, destructive blow that will metaphorically shake the entire world.

7. America will continue down the path of obesity, ignorance, and laziness.

8. America will not convert to the metric system.

9. The public school system will not change.

10. Advertisements will completely consume American lifestyle.