The Code

Even when I attended sports camps at BYU when I was 13-years-old, I needed to sign an agreement to uphold the standards of BYU. I didn’t think about it much at that point, my mother just told me to sign and I signed. I usually would snicker a little bit at the modesty rules and then go about my 13-year-old life. Now, at BYU I still live under the BYU honor code and I plan to live by that code for the rest of my life. I plan to go into broadcast journalism and uphold a standard of excellence and honor.

This whole semester I have been learning about print journalism in this class and broadcast journalism in another class. It has been interesting to see how they overlap, because they really are the exact same thing. The delivery is what sets them apart and it is those deliveries that draw in specific students to those majors. Both print and broadcast journalism seek to find the truth and to share it.

It is important to remain honest when reporting. Only report that facts and not things that may be or are likely to be facts. This keeps journalists out of libel problems and keeps a journalist’s name clean. But obviously, fact checking and getting good sources of information is key.

Edward R. Murrow said, “to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.” As journalists, our credibility is all we have. One silly mistake and we can lose everything. One silly name inserted that didn’t really exist and no one will hire us. Our job is based upon being trusted. If we lose someone’s trust, then they probably won’t wait around for us to earn it again, they’ll just go to another source. We learned in my broadcast class that the anchors that are most watched are the ones that the audience feels like they can trust. But if the anchor reads something off the teleprompter that a journalist wrote and it turns out to be false, then he anchor is the one who takes the biggest fall.

Along with honesty is independence from the subject you are writing about. Even if a journalist thinks or knows that are independent, it still may appear to an audience that they are tied in. Just how the first guest speaker is class told us about writing about his son’s school. His son had nothing to do with the incident, but since he went to the school at all, the journalist appeared to be too closely linked to the subject on a personal level.

The topic came up in class about if we would be willing to go to jail to protect a source. I loved to avoid answering that question because I just cannot even imagine being in that situation. The interviews I plan on doing would be local, non-government, sports teams, or maybe if I am really lucky Hollywood stars. But this class has made me recognize the steps I need to take to avoid going to jail or losing my credibility. I plan to tell a source that if I end up in court, I will say their name. Though, I still do not desire to do any interviews that may lead to the courthouse.

I think a part of me loves this profession because it does seem to require perfection. There is the truth and there is everything else. You either get it right or not. It’s all a matter how much you are willing to work to find the real story. We learned about muckrakers who went undercover and risked their lives to find the truth, but what are we willing to do?

I really enjoyed in class when we talked about balance in writing. There are always two sides to every issue, but we addressed the issue of subjects having equal balance or not. Before this class, I felt like journalism was sort of without a soul. Because everything has to be given without bias, without personality, and with balance for each opposing side. But that’s not exactly correct. With certain topics, the information can lean one way and there’s nothing wrong with that. Now, we should not strive to be like the anchor we watched in class who totally lost it with the woman who rallied at a funeral, but it is okay to have human emotions. And also as we learned in class, we don’t have to totally separate ourselves from society because we are a journalist. We can have friends!

Whenever we would talk about proper proportion in class, I would immediately think about the tabloids. I will not lie, I love waiting in line at the grocery store and reading the headlines of the magazines. Do I really care if some actress got a horrible haircut or if there are rumors of him and her getting back together? No. But they still do amuse me for the 3 minutes wait and the store. The strange subconscious thing is that we expect that from magazines. When flipping through Seventeen magazine a few years ago I remember seeing an article about world hunger and thinking to myself “why is this in here?” But when I see an airy article on lipstick colors in a newspaper, I wonder the same thing. We expect newspapers to have the important information and to focus on that.

I have a lot of faith in journalists. The type of people that this profession attracts tends to be hard workers who sincerely want to do what is right. However, with the medium of print journalism changing, I fear that journalists may lose their place to electronic whiz kids who will write however they feel necessary. But that will only happen if we let it. Part of upholding a standard of excellence is doing what we can to preserve our industry. I don not mean to hold onto print, I just mean to do what we can to be at the front lines of going electronic with blogs, online sites, and new iphone apps. We cannot be left behind and to be left behind would be to let down our code of ethics.

The quote I based my bumper sticker project on was, “In America, a president reigns for four years, but journalism reigns forever” (Oscar Wilde). We need to make sure that is never doubted. Journalism is a reigning power in American and it was born that way. Printed papers is what united the citizens to fight back against the British in the early colonies.

For me, it all comes down to one thing; if a journalist writes for the right audience, then they can never stray too far from the path. Journalists are supposed to inform the public. I know that at this economic time, it can be hard because no paper want to lose advertisements and sometimes they just want to print the “popular” stories and maybe not the more “important” ones. But journalists must hold on to that standard. If the papers start telling the public only what they want to hear and not what they need to hear, then there really is no point. Facebook could probably do the same thing but much faster and for free. Excellence in journalism will come from staying true to the profession and the traditions therein. So what if there print paper dies and everything turn electronic? Journalism will still be alive as long as people are willing to find the truth and write it for the people. Even in tough times like this, keeping a perspective on what matters most is what will get us all through.

Last year I had the opportunity to go to LA with a bunch of BYU girls for a week and spend time with people from all over the country. We were with these people nearly 24 hours a day and got to know each other quite well. A particular bunch of college boys from the east coast were intrigued with our honor code. They would always run around and say “well what about THE CODE?” They would oftentimes make a joke out of it and try to make it relate to things like what pets were okay to have. But it really has made me realize that BYU is preparing us to easily live by ethical codes in the real world by having us abide by the BYU honor code now. I do not stress about upholding any journalism code of ethics because it is already a part of my life now.

Hats

We all have different “hats” we wear during the day. Sometimes we even wear more than one hat at a time. But challenge as a journalist, is which hat or hats do you wear? Well, we are told to be objective and to not allow our opinion to get in the way. This means, leave your religion, political, and sensitive hat at home. But the hat we should always be wearing? Our moral hat with all of its values.

Personally, I love to compartmentalize my life, so I like the idea of leaving hats at home. I just feel like there is no way to wear every hat at once and it just makes everything more stressful. Because with each hat, comes a different audience. If I wear my Mormon hat, I then have the LDS church to make happy. If I wear my BYU hat, I better not say anything good about the Utes. And if I wear my Oregon hat, I better because talking about all things green.

But religion is the most touchy topic of all. I loved the quote given in class about how religion is the most important thing, but also the least understood. Every journalist is afraid to write about religion in depth because if anything is published and it’s not 100% correct, then there will be thousands of letters and emails letting them know. Even if an article is correct, if there is some way for it to be perceived incorrectly, then buyers will be lost and enemies made.

Religious people will do anything to protect their religion. The United States was founded on religious freedom, wars are fought every day because of religion, and people even disown family members if they leave a religion.

But the thing is, everyone would benefit from knowing more about religion.

http://www.religionwriters.com/tools-resources/reporting-on-religion-a-primer-on-journalisms-best-beat This is a website with lots of links and tips on how to cover a religion beat and how to write if you are or are not a religious person.

Also, this is a fabulous site http://www.religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm A world religion comparison chart for kids!!!!!! How cool is that. Sometimes I just want to know the basic differences between religions and this chart has it all.

“The Most Dangerous Man in America” Reflection

• In your view, what is the legacy of the government actions documented in the Pentagon Papers? How have such actions influenced democracy and trust of government in the United States?

The legacy left by the US government after the Pentagon Papers is not good. It basically told Americans, “hey, we have been lying to you and doing a lot of illegal things and it has been going on for a long time.” “We seek no wider war” was a lie and the Presidents and everyone working at the Pentagon knew it. Ellsberg said that thousands of government people knew this was going on, yet no one leaked information until Ellsberg years later. If just a handful of people knew, than that would be one thing. But thousands knowing for years and only one leak. That does not promote any trust for Americans to feel towards the government.

• While being interviewed by television journalist Walter Cronkite, Ellsberg says the lesson he took away from his experience with the Pentagon Papers was that “the people of this country can’t afford to let the president run the country by himself without the help of Congress, without the help of the public.” How would you define the lesson or lessons of the Pentagon Papers and the events surrounding their release to the public?

I thought the story that Ellsberg tied in about his father falling asleep at the wheel was really cool. His father was not a bad man and he honestly loved his daughter and wife. But despite that love, he fell asleep at the wheel and allowed the car to crush the two women in his life. This is similar to any President. They may love America and want to do what’s best, but they can still make mistakes and they need support and assistance to be able to do what is truly right for the country. I think Presidents also have a little more fear in them since the Papers. Because leaks have happened before and they will happen again. So if a President feels like they are about to do something the public wouldn’t like, they may not do it because of the fear the Pentagon Papers has left.

• What role or roles did media play in Ellsberg’s success and/or lack of success in stopping the bombing and, ultimately, the war in Vietnam? How do media actions then compare to media war coverage now? How did the Pentagon papers change the role of the media in the United States?

Well the newspapers, The New York Times specifically, are what made this leak possible for Ellsberg and his effort to stop the war. The published volumes from the study and explained to the public what it meant. Whenever any story is as big as this, it invokes chaos initially. So when this story first was published, the government, the American people and other media sources didn’t know what to do.

• Max Frankel (New York Times Washington bureau chief during the Pentagon Papers era) reflects on his newspaper’s Supreme Court victory, saying, “The cry of national security does not justify censorship in advance.” In your view, under what circumstances do journalists have the right or responsibility to reveal classified information and under what circumstances should they refrain from doing so? Under what circumstances, if any, should they be prohibited from doing so by the government or by law?

If something illegal is going on, report it. If reporting the information will put lives in danger, don’t do it. I understand that it seems much more simple to be because I’m not in the thick of it. But the difference between revealing troop movements to the world and telling about past lies is very different. Though, lives being in danger, that can mean a lot of different things. Because what if a country is so outraged about wrongs that were done to them and then printed that they attack the US? Or what if troops from other countries are put in danger? Do you still publish? I have no idea, because news stories can cause chain reactions that are sometimes not foreseen. I know I would never want to be the trigger for something like that.

Unless the government wants to have an editor for every major newspaper in the country, deciding what can and can’t be published is difficult because there is so much grey. When a newspaper gets a good leak, they throw a party, but the government does damage control and looks for someone to fire. I think the only law that should be in place, is that if the information published would cause immediate danger to citizens, then it cannot be published.

• In your view, what would the effect on a free press have been if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the Nixon administration and prohibited newspapers from publishing the Pentagon Papers, or if after publication The New York Times had been prosecuted under the Espionage Act ?

Free press would have proven to be a lie if the Nixon Administration had won. Our presses would only be free as long as the government was happy. Which sort of makes the press pointless. The entire goal of the American press from the start was to be a watchdog and to serve as a fourth estate. That cannot happen unless the press is truly free.

• In your view, would today’s major news media outlets be likely to make public the type of classified documents that The New York Times and other newspapers were handed in 1971? Why or why not?

I think the newspapers today would publish important information like the Pentagon Papers. They already feel confident they would not be sued because of what happened with the Pentagon Papers, and let’s face it, newspaper managers want papers to sell. Our media thrives on scandal and government scandal with hard evidence is a beautiful thing to any media company. Also, the media knows that Americans would want to hear the information. And if the information has already leaked to one paper, it won’t be long until it gets to another media source.

Symposium Review

There were 4 presentations at the symposium I went to. The first talked about the differences between men and women watching conference. It discussed what types of things they look for and care about and even how a speaker's title in the Church may decide how quickly people fall asleep. The funniest fact was that women pay more attention to the Young Men's Presidency than men do.


The second presenter talked about how the Deseret News covered the 1978 revelation of blacks being able to hold the priesthood. Honestly, this presentation was just read from her paper and she never even really looked up at her audience, so understand her fully due to mumbling, but I think the topic was very interesting.


The third presenter talked about board games in the Mormon society and how the difficultly standards of LDS board games can effect members. What does it say about a person if they don't do well in a board game? What about those crazy, obscure questions, are members supposed to know all the answers? I think the topic was interesting, but I feel like it's unfair to tear something apart like a wholesome board game. I think the Church just supports old-fashioned entertainment and that's why these games are sold in Church stores, and they teach gospel facts as well! Yes, some questions are really hard and obscure, but have you ever seen Jeopardy? I just don't think the Church is trying to say some big message by each individual game question.


The fourth presentation was given by Danny Duerden, who was actually my 211 TA two years ago, so that was funny. He presented on the Church's Mormon Messages site hosted on YouTube. This is a channel on YouTube where LDS conference talks and Mormon ads are uploaded and anyone can watch them. Danny focused on the fact that a small handful of them had gone "viral." Meaning that while some videos only had one or two thousand views, some had 700,000 or more. He tried to examine what makes some of these videos go viral and what keeps other from reaching that same view count. He concluded that the videos that weren’t LDS specific reached the highest counts. So people from other religions felt okay about watching the videos that were about common morals and standards, while they felt that same public could not relate to talks about the Temple or other LDS specific topics.

Types of IR

Journalism comes in many forms. Some of the most exciting forms are investigative reporting, but also, through that comes the most boring.

There is Original Investigative Reporting (the exciting) and Interpretive Investigative Reporting and Reporting on Investigations (he boring). Original is when people can go undercover and reveal stories that no one has discovered yet. And though Interpretive and Reporting on Investigations can be thrilling, I feel like most times it just turns into a bunch of number and pie charts that I don’t care to read about.

This is the video on that I think the presentation wanted to show us but wouldn’t load. It is the Associated Press telling viewers how to do watchdog journalism. First of all, I think it is so cool that the organization would come right out and spoon feed the topic to a YouTube audience. Second, the people speaking do a very good job of telling this story of these tunnels and showing how watchdog journalism can help to better our society through stories like these.

When you type in “Investigative reporting” to google, a lot of really neat things come up. I saw some workshops on how to do it an and also this website http://www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org/ . A website for investigative reporting? Really? How great is that?! Every story on there digs deep and gets to the heart of the matter through one of the types of investigative reporting. And to make it even better, many blogs of these reporters are linked through this site, so it is doing a wonderful job of working with the changing technologies.

Journalists Staying Independent

It is important for journalists to stay independent from the things that they write about because if they are too close to the subject, than that is personal. So it can easily turn into either PR love or hatred.

The debate we had in class was tough. I was put on a side that I did not agree with initially. Arguing that people should not have to disclose personal information. It really made me look for the reasons behind this argument, because naturally I would not come to that conclusion.

My major question was, well how much information is enough? Where people grew up, how old they are, if they had siblings, what cities they have lived in, where they went to school, if they have kids, if they are vegetarian… everything influences our point of view and therefore our writing. In class, some people made the argument that if you are vegetarian, that won’t influence the way you write about marriage. Though the majority of the population will agree with you on that, there are some people who will disagree. So do you only divulge enough information to satisfy the majority?

Giving all background information on a journalist will probably never happen. So is it better to give some than none? The risk with only shedding some light on their life is that it doesn’t give the full picture, and that can easily mislead people. This decision full of grey areas and I am glad I do not have to make it.

This CNN article talks about how journalists were told not to voice opinions but now some are asked to share. The reason? Money. Money is the reason they did not give opinions, and now it’s the same reason that they are. It asks the question, do people really want unbiased articles now or do they want a bias they agree with? If we disclose all information about journalists, than readers can easily find bias that they like.

This is a video talking about an NPR journalist who was fired for making “racist” comments. There was a lot of talk around this specific issue and trying to determine if this man was a “journalist” and should be held to that same standard. This journalism standard is what makes everything so hard. It’s not always clear. So when trying to figure out how to disclose information and how much, it’s just a guess. And everyone feels strongly about their own idea.

Journalism verification

Verification in journalism is sort of everything, because our first obligation is to the truth and our loyalty to the citizen. Without verification of facts, we can’t be sure we are promoting the truth or being loyal to the citizen. Without verification, we pretty much are a tabloid magazine for businesses and government.

The text gave a few examples for how certain journalists or editors check their facts. Some have long lists of checkpoints asking questions like “Did you double check the quotes to make sure they are accurate in context?” What is also interesting is that a lot of newspapers have a person dedicated to checking facts. A “Fact Checker.” Now, I would not like to have this job because it must be pretty redundant and tough at times. Also, if you do your job well, no one cares, but if you slip up and the paper get sued, well then you’re out of a job.

Even though this position doesn’t get praised very much, it is crucial to journalism. Even according to the Hand Book of Journalism website, there is an entire section devoted to accuracy and the steps that should be taken if a mistake does occur.

Anonymous sources have provided amazing, groundbreaking stories such as the John Edwards paternity story as written about on the Poynter website and how an anonymous source was crucial. Especially in DC where government stories and government personnel are all around, anonymous sources are rampant. Though it is important for newspapers to find that balance between naming sources and not.

As a journalist, the question is always: How far would you go to protect your source? I would love to say I would be a hero, but I don’t think that’s true. Especially if I had a family to take care of, I just don’t think I could go to jail to protect a source. Though I do not expect to be writing some controversial story anytime soon.

The Story:

A lot of my friends have been decided to go insane. By insane I mean not eat sugar. So when I show up at night with a plate of cupcakes, all they do is whine and moan and ask me to make something they can eat. One girl constantly asks me to tell her my cupcakes are sugar free, even when they’re not.

So this recipe is for all the people who feel like they need a break from this sugary world.

Sugar Free Muffins

¼ cup honey

½ cup Oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup crushed pineapple

¼ cup pineapple juice

1. Beat honey, oil and eggs together until well blended. Add vanilla

2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together.

3. Mix dry and wet ingredients together until blended. Do not over mix.

4. Fold in carrots, pineapple, and pineapple juice.

*You can add walnuts or pecans if desired. Also, feel free to totally play around with the spices. Since there is no sugar, the pineapple and the spices will be what you taste.

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The most memorable part of the lecture last week, besides him amazing ring tone going off, was when the presenter told us that he wakes up every morning asking himself “what is truth?” or something unto that. Most people wake up and first think about coffee of their children or how to make more money. But journalists do have a different perspective on life and the presenter made that clear.

Now, in reference to the book when it said that journalists are secluded and have no friends and should have no friends for the decency of their work… well that is just not true. Journalists are not so strange and different so that they can’t have friends, and they do not need to set themselves apart from personal interactions for the sake of their stories. A journalist writes to the people, and what better way to know how to write to the people than to talk to these people every day.

The presenter gave the example that he could not write about his son’s high school because it is his son’s. Even if he writes with no bias, other people can point and say, “Well his son goes there,” if they do not agree with the content of the article. So while being a part of the community is crucial, we need to not let it get in the way of our writing and our seek to find and share the truth.

Though it is strange as a member of the Church to hear journalism called a priesthood, I guess it is sort of true in a more worldly manner. More than a “priesthood,” I liked when the text referred to it as the fourth estate. Because ever since the start of this country, journalism and the press has been called to serve for the country. And all journalists see it as their duty to share problems or corruption that they find so that wrongs can be made right.

This is an article that discusses how the future of journalism and the technology today is destroying the priesthood behind journalism. It was written about a conference of journalists speaking about the topic journalism's future.

Connecting also to a topic we discussed a few weeks ago, truth vs. fairness. This is an article that discusses journalism’s higher calling and to not always produce equal sides to a story because there may not be equal sides. It was interesting to hear a newspaper talk about themselves and print a story assuring their audience that they do in fact have a higher calling to serve the people. So no matter what you call it, priesthood, fourth estate or something else, it is important to our society.

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You take the good, you take the bad,

you take them both and there you have

The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

There's a time you got to go and show

You're growin' now you know about

The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

When the world never seems

to be livin up to your dreams

And suddenly you're finding out

the Facts of Life are all about you, you.

It takes a lot to get 'em right

When you're learning the Facts of Life. (learning the Facts of Life)

Learning the Facts of Life (learning the Facts of Life)

Learning the Facts of Life.

Anyone else watch “The Facts of Life” in the middle of the night growing up? Probably not. It came on after “Happy Days” on Nick at Nite. But if you take this song out of the context of the show, it related the journalism. (The show was filmed in the 1980’s an the plot was based off of a group of girls at a boarding school.)

Getting the facts right in journalism is huge, because unless you have the facts you can’t be loyal to your audience. You would not have the capability. Even if the facts are not what you would want them to be, “you take the good, you take the bad” and you write it. Because you don’t write for yourself, your editor, or your advertisers good journalists write for the people.

I feel like a lot of journalists like to muddy the waters because they think that being loyal to the “people” is the same as being loyal to “their people.” For example, if a journalist writes for a newspaper that is predominantly read by Left Wing citizens, then the journalist might believe it to be okay to share more points towards the left and neglect the right. But that isn’t what it means to be loyal to the people. But it sells. And because business is part of the journalism world, things are going to give and take no matter what.

I really loved the whole separate elevator conversation we had. One of the journalists and one for the advertisers. Though this is quite drastic, this was an owner really wanting to take a stand and to do everything possibly (even silly some might say) to keep traditional values.

As I was grading blogs today, a lot of people kept commenting on how the newspaper is boring or too old and needs to get with the times. But no matter what people use the newspaper for, it still needs to be rooted in the truth and in loyalty to the people. ALL of the people.

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Journalism in the last five years has changed dramatically and I don’t think anyone believes that change is going to slow down. News can now be found in Apps on ipods and iphones and people read their morning paper from an ipad. But news still needs to be written and told no matter how technological our society becomes. I know that blogs are a huge thing in social media right now, but when people want to find realy news, they turn to CNN or FOX or MSNBC, not the blog of a stay at home mom who posts recipes along with her opinion of political candidates. As we talked about in class, bloggers get their initial information from a news article or and anchor on TV. If journalists were to stop going out and finding information and researching, bloggers wouldn’t have anything newsworthy to write about. For most people, blogging is a hobby not a life. Bloggers will maybe take a half hour out of their day to jot down a few paragraphs. They do not have time to find a story on the streets. But journalists make journalism their life and their career. Society will always need people who are driven to find the news and to fairly write about it.

The youtube video that the presentation started off with was really great. I know that I sometimes lose perspective of the impact that social media has in our world. I remember when my brother, who was in college at the time, told me about facebook. But at that time it was only available to people in college. I also remember the night that a friend of mine made me an account and tried to show me how to work it. I was so confused by his instructions and confident that I would never use it. But now, it’s just sort of an extension of me. I have 1,279 “friends,” 1,223 photos and 72 videos. Which is sort of crazy, but normal if you compare it to someone else’s profile I guess.

Like any social site, it can be used to good or for bad. We can let it consume us, take over our life, or give out too much information to allow stolen identities. But we can also keep in touch with friends all around the world, share photos and videos with family, and find people who love the same things we do.

News sites need to start infusing the social media sites with their information. They have fan pages on facebook and you can follow them on twitter, but as of now, they are not taking the proactive approach. For the news business to stay relevant and keep up with social media, news sites need to do more.

This was a really funny video about how much facebook and taken over some of our lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TI3gzx3JA

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The most interesting thing to me about the presentation last week was the question that asked “do people want to know what’s going on?” I would say yes, but what would they give to get the information. I like having the Daily Universe and the New York Times available to me, but would I pay to have it at my door on subscribe to an online version? No. Though I will admit I like to be spoon-fed the important facts, just like a large population of Americans. So I read the front cover of the newspaper before class so that so I can pretend I’m not just a college student that lives in the library and her apartment. I can pretend I know what’s really going on outside of Provo. But without the press, I couldn’t imagine our society. I don’t think journalism will ever go away, but it will change drastically with the times. Because not only is the technology changing, but the new generations will want different things. I can say that I like having a physical paper in my hands much more than I like an online version, but what will this new generation want?

Journalism is for providing citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing (Kovach & Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism). In addition to that, “One of the core functions of the press is to present citizens with a picture of reality that is factual and fair (p. 427, The Future of News, the Future of Journalism). Journalism is for the citizens of the country. But also with that, journalism often keeps government “in line” by always being a constant pressure. The government cannot get away with anything it wants to because journalists will be there to uncover the truth and to report it, sometimes even within the hour. As technology continues to change, journalism has been changing with it. The evolution from a weekly paper, to a daily paper, to broadcast journalism, and now to Twitter, Blogs and online newspapers has kept journalists moving and trying to adapt.

The role for journalism in society is difficult to determine. Anyone who writes facts with the strict goal to inform and not to persuade is a journalist. But for professional journalists, the goals should expand to keeping balance in the internet driven world and striving to keep false information out of the minds of the citizens. Some blogs are good and worth reading, but some are full of strong opinions stated as facts that can poison whoever reads them. Professional journalists need to keep the facts at the forefront so that citizens can form opinions based on fact and not fiction. Journalism needs to stay truthful and loyal to citizens above all else.

This video was posted two days ago and already it has hit over 1,000,000 views. The power of twitter and other social media sites are changing how we share news, and this video shows the impact it has in our life. Twitter Video

Print Journalism Class:

Journalism is information published in a form of media with the intention of informing a specific public. The “specific public” could be citizens of the United States, University of Oregon alumni, or people who live in Somerville, Boston. Journalists can write to whomever they want about whatever they want, but if the audience doesn’t want to hear it, the writing will not make it that far.

So who is a journalist? In this world, anyone can be. Any writing that is based off of facts is journalism. If your opinion takes over the piece, then sadly you are stuck in the Op Ed section and may be piled alongside with the ranting bloggers of the world. However, even an album on a facebook account can make a person a photojournalist. With blogs and social media sites readily available, the line between journalist and the average person has blurred.

Boxes or Bags?

Packing can be stressful or soothing.

You can put it off ‘till the last minute and then have to hurry to get it done. So this probably means shoving everything in boxes and garbage bags and putting your shampoo in the same box as your socks and sunglasses and a lot of other nonsense things like that. This just makes for a very stressful situation.

But if you put on some good music and give your self a few hours, then packing can be fabulous. It gives you the chance to organize your life and the opportunity to be excited about going somewhere new. You can pack everything in an orderly fashion, which insures for an easier unpacking. Taking down pictures and packing them away is discouraging to a lot of people. But it just makes me anxious for the next wall those photos will be up on.

My photos will be up on a different wall each of the next four weeks.

18 Hour Timeouts

Flying is like the “timeout” for adults. You have to sit in a specific seat uncomfortably close to other people for hours, which is worse than sitting in a corner. You have to listen to the same exact lecture every time before you take off: No smoking, turn off electronics, put on your own mask before assisting others, blah, blah, blah. You are not allowed to get up or unbuckle your seat belt until you are told you can. But even when you can, only a few people on the plane can stand up at a time. You aren’t allowed dinner—maybe some peanuts or pretzels if you are lucky. But if you fall asleep you don’t get anything! They will tease you by giving you fizzy drinks, but as soon as it goes through our system they tell you we have hit “turbulence” so you can’t get up to go to the bathroom. Now that is punishment for adults. Now, if you were bad in time out, then you might not get your luggage back at the end of the day. Or maybe time has been stolen from you and the time changes made you miss an entire day.

Timeouts are rough for adults. And the worst part is that we pay money for it.

Every Day Questions

Is it hard?

Yes.

But that’s okay. We make the most of what we have, and that’s enough for right now. I’m a better person for all of it and I will continue to be. Every day is better and brighter because of it. If I start to stress about it, I just repeat the words in my head, and then I can’t help but to beam. Every day is new and different, but I’m okay with that. It just comes down to staying true to who I am, then nothing can really go wrong.

Is it worth it?

Yes.

Every little bit, yes. I mean, it’s all I’ve ever known. I guess I have nothing to compare it to.

Is there anything there?

I don’t know.

It would depend on so many things and reality tells me no. But I can’t say that I don’t dream about it, because I do. Every day.

Flip Flop Ready

I want it to be summer. I’m done with the cold winds and the snow and putting off homework every night. I really just want to feel that strange feeling that comes with summer. The feeling of realizing that I have nothing I HAVE to do tomorrow, no time I HAVE to be up by. I want to lie (maybe it’s lay, I don’t even know because I did so poorly on the grammar exam I have no clue anymore) in the sun all day and just not care to do anything else. (Wearing sunscreen of course.) I want to be able to get up and just race my dog across the yard. I want to go to Boston and walk around Beacon Hill all afternoon. I want to drink smoothies and eat cold sandwiches for every meal and not get cold. I want to drive with all the windows down and still feel hot. I want it to be summer.

The Best Medication

The dollar theatre is a magical place.

For either a little over or a little under a dollar, depending on when you go, you can escape reality for a few hours. My custom is to sneak in outside food in my overlarge purse/bag: Peanut M&M's, apples, French fries, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, whatever is desired. This weekend, the choice was a bag of mini Butterfingers and Kettle Barbeque chips. My friend and I were having a rough couple of days and Saturday was the peak of our pain. “The Blind Side,” along with the crunch of the chips and candy bars, medicated our aches as best as we could have hoped. I even took a therapeutic power nap on my friend’s shoulder during the movie.

Never mind that when we arrived, we walked from our car through the cold into the theatre and when the movie was out, the cold air had escalated into a snowy blizzard. We hate the snow.

Back to reality.

The college experience can be so different depending on where you go. Last weekend I visited friends who attend a very small university on the east coast. The campus tour took about 10 minutes. In that time I saw every academic building, every statue, every dorm, every dining hall, the library, the campus center, and even the little coffee shop the kids go to. Every classroom only fits about 25 students and the architecture was so beautiful it just made me want to stop stare. The college experience my friends are getting there seems similar to the one I received in high school, very personal and community oriented. But big school have their perks too. They are great for the sports and performing scenes. Our crowds at big games would swallow the entire student body of that small east coast school and there is nothing like hearing a roar of applause at the end of a show. But when I walk to class, I’m lucky if I see one person I know in the sea of 36,000 students.

So big and loud or small and personal? I’m not sure which is better or which one I would really prefer.

I would have fallen asleep, but the professor seemed to be yelling at each student who asked a question, even the students who were sitting on the floor in front. It wasn’t a mean sort of yelling, just yelling. But it was scary enough to not want to raise my hand. The review was packed. The aisles were filled before the professor even arrived and more students showed up every hour. Despite the yelling, this was a determined professor. He moved from one topic to the next without hesitation and it seemed like noting could interrupt his passion of stats ‘til the second coming. But something did.

I was just sitting there, taking notes and trying to understand the proper usage of the Control Limit Theorem when it happened. It started with a slight tickle in my nose, there was the pause to set down my pen, then the common long breath in as I prepped to brace myself.

I sneezed.

The professor automatically responded with the courtesy “Bless you,” but then looked away from the projector screen to see where the sound had come from. I was sitting in the second row and it was impossible to miss his dumbfounded look. Instead of picking up his place in the lecture, he asked, “Was that a sneeze?” I was too confused to answer verbally so I just nodded hoping that the attention towards me ended there. But he continued to use his booming voice that was needlessly amplified by a lapel microphone to ask if that seriously was a sneeze. Then he asked the other 300 people in the review session if they heard it and he went on to tell us that he was a “let it all go” sort of sneezer.

I don’t know if I was just embarrassed that a lecture hall had suddenly relocated its point of interest from sample sizes and means to my sneeze, or if I was just stressing about taking the exam. But either way, I didn’t hear much of what the professor said to me.

When the review ended my friends said they were proud to have been able to sit next to the “weird sneeze” girl and random students made comments as we left the building.

I didn’t fail the exam the next morning and I learned to never again sneeze in a review session. But it’s nice to know that my sneeze can put up a fight against statistics, one of the greatest inventions of the 17^th century.

Leftover Birthday Cake

The most overrated holiday: birthdays. I mean come on people! Why are we celebrating the first day we were naked to the world? It’s not like we even remember the day. We could think it was in the winter, but for all we know we could have a summer birthday. We are just living by something typed on our birth certificate, which is really just a piece of paper, and two people who “say” that they were there… our mother and father. Where is the proof that it was really THAT DAY that we were born on?

So I guess I just don’t really understand the fascination and all the count-downs to one day a year that is pretty much pointless. I mean, it wasn’t an accomplishment on our part. We really didn’t do anything. It makes more sense for the mother to celebrate being able to push a 6-pound human being out of her and still be alive to tell the story. For a kid to celebrate their birthday without their mother’s name on the cake could sort of be a slap in the face to their mother’s pain.

It’s just one day a year that it is socially acceptable to basically say “Hey! Look and me and thank me for something I didn’t do! Sing to me and give me presents and cake!”

East v. Chocolate

Buy a stranger a Coke. Well, it wasn’t so much a Coke as it was a piece of chocolate.

Today was Valentines Day and I gave this random boy a piece of chocolate. He was at the same NBA All-Star party that I was at and he was sitting in front of me. He was cute and friendly and I was feeling a little more outgoing than normal. I just handed him a piece of chocolate and told him it was amazing. That is about all that happened. No spark. No fireworks. No hearing of wedding bells in my head. No wondering what his last name would sound like attached to my first name. Not even a date or an asking of my number came from it. Just “Oh wow, this chocolate is good.” Then he promptly returned his attention to LeBron James and Dwight Howard.

Did I honestly think this assignment would lead me toward my temple marriage? No. But a girl can dream can’t she?

Day of Silence

I woke up this morning with no voice—Absolutely none. I have been sick for a few days and yesterday I pushed my voice to the limit. So I have been acting ridiculous all day long to try to communicate with people. It wouldn’t have been that bad if I was at home and it was a weekend with nothing to do, or even a weekday and I could have stayed home from class. But no. I was in a different state with a group of girls and traveling home that day. We also had to give a few vocal performances. Vocal performances are hard to do with no voice... So I had to lip sync my way through four songs, which was a really interesting experience. When we took out two hour car ride to the airport I fell asleep. When I woke up I forgot I have no voice, so when I tried to talk I ending up having a coughing attack. But it was really interesting to realize how much people know what you’re trying to say even if you can’t use your words. But it is SO frustrating when you want to say something but you can’t. I would be a little more hopeful if I thought I would have a voice or even a whisper tomorrow, but I know better.