My professor has informed me via email that the in class "blogging a story" exercises we are to do next week will indeed be published here so you can expect to see those bright and early this coming Tuesday and Thursday (1/29, 1/31) as well as the following Tuesday (2/4). That is all.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Looking Into Ethics: Trends in Reporting
When I was browsing for news items to base this blog post on, I came across these two short blurbs from the 9News website. This first one concerns a body that was found in here in Boulder county and this second one concerns two children finding a frozen body in Loveland.
Seeing these, I immediately flashed back to our class discussion of the tragic Texas A&M Bonfire collapse of 1999 which Professor Stevens had incorporated into his lecture. He prompted the class for a specific ethical principle of journalism (to which only one other student responded) that a journalist should never identify the deceased until their family has been notified by either the police or the local hospital.
This had me comparing my two news items to the Texas A&M story. My two stories didn't mention any names and yet the Texas A&M story took a different approach. The LA Times piece from the day(s) of the incident only reported "at least 28" were injured without naming names in that regard. However, this article on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy does mention specifically that the accident took twelve lives including that of then Texas A&M student Michael Ebanks.
Now, obviously a decade is more than enough time to identify victims of any fatal accident and subsequently notify their families.I'm sure the media had reports containing the names of the victims in the days and weeks after in careful tribute as they were identified. They took very a very ethically sound to reporting on that tragedy.
However, the two 9News items are examples of what I find to be more questionable ethics in reporting. They are not even reporting death, they are reporting found bodies. It is good that they aren't giving out names or conditions at this stage, but isn't it a little bit premature to report to an actual news station that a body has been found missing if it can't be confirmed that the person is dead? At this stage, it would be better served in the local police blotter than being reported by a TV news affiliate.
These two stories from 9News violate one of the "minimizing harm" guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. They aren't showing enough passion towards those whose news coverage they may affect. Now, it is reasonable that the families of missing or presumed dead persons may be monitoring the news for such a report of an occurrence like this, but this early in the case it's too premature for such a story to reach an outlet as big as 9News. Before even reporting it to the newspaper, the families should've had a chance to be called in to identify the body. Other than that, the reporters seemed to do all they could to minimize such harm and adhered to the rest of those guidelines that applied to them. The second article mentioned children finding a frozen body and I felt like it was handled sensitively enough.
It appears that journalistic ethics may be in decline when it comes to covering death. They could use some close reexamining before they slide too far.
Seeing these, I immediately flashed back to our class discussion of the tragic Texas A&M Bonfire collapse of 1999 which Professor Stevens had incorporated into his lecture. He prompted the class for a specific ethical principle of journalism (to which only one other student responded) that a journalist should never identify the deceased until their family has been notified by either the police or the local hospital.
This had me comparing my two news items to the Texas A&M story. My two stories didn't mention any names and yet the Texas A&M story took a different approach. The LA Times piece from the day(s) of the incident only reported "at least 28" were injured without naming names in that regard. However, this article on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy does mention specifically that the accident took twelve lives including that of then Texas A&M student Michael Ebanks.
Now, obviously a decade is more than enough time to identify victims of any fatal accident and subsequently notify their families.I'm sure the media had reports containing the names of the victims in the days and weeks after in careful tribute as they were identified. They took very a very ethically sound to reporting on that tragedy.
However, the two 9News items are examples of what I find to be more questionable ethics in reporting. They are not even reporting death, they are reporting found bodies. It is good that they aren't giving out names or conditions at this stage, but isn't it a little bit premature to report to an actual news station that a body has been found missing if it can't be confirmed that the person is dead? At this stage, it would be better served in the local police blotter than being reported by a TV news affiliate.
These two stories from 9News violate one of the "minimizing harm" guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. They aren't showing enough passion towards those whose news coverage they may affect. Now, it is reasonable that the families of missing or presumed dead persons may be monitoring the news for such a report of an occurrence like this, but this early in the case it's too premature for such a story to reach an outlet as big as 9News. Before even reporting it to the newspaper, the families should've had a chance to be called in to identify the body. Other than that, the reporters seemed to do all they could to minimize such harm and adhered to the rest of those guidelines that applied to them. The second article mentioned children finding a frozen body and I felt like it was handled sensitively enough.
It appears that journalistic ethics may be in decline when it comes to covering death. They could use some close reexamining before they slide too far.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Upcoming Posts
I will post a new entry in this blog on Thursday in response to a class assignment. So far, all I can say is that it will be about ethics and I've found a workable news article that I can base it on. If I have time, I will get started on it tonight. Otherwise, I will be writing most of Wednesday. The professor has said he expects us to do about six of these blog assignments over the course of the class and he's not sure when the rest of them are going to be yet. Next week, we are supposedly doing in class exercises on "blogging a story", so some of those might end up here. I will have to ask the professor just to be sure. Anyway, I will give any other readers of this blog a heads up in the future when you can expect another new substantial assignment post from me. Really, I just like to post them to get some good use out of the Blogger Android app I downloaded on my phone. Who knows? I don't expect to be doing all my assignments from my phone, but it might come in handy someday! See you in a couple of days!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
What Makes Today Significant?
Today isn't as much significant for what transpired now as much as what effects will take affect later on. What happens in the space of 24 hours isn't as relevant as what consequences those events will cause. From a historical perspective, today is merely significant for what already happened in order for today's events to take place. Tomorrow and the days afterward are relevant for what happens today.
Taking an example from this week's headlines, Vice President Joe Biden yesterday was expected to present President Barack Obama with his report on gun policy including a heavy recommendation of gun control, assault weapons bans and background checks on gun purchases. Today, President Obama is expected to present to congress his own gun policy proposal which in addition to similar recommendations also includes more funding to mental health services. Biden had reportedly advised Obama to bypass congress with these potential laws as he is likely to face many objections from them on these fronts.
For some, this story has caused some tensions and emotions to run very high. For one thing, it's quite understandable that this talk of gun control policy and assault weapons bans would stem from two of the most horrific and tragic mass shootings in recent memory occurring within only less than six months of each other last year. Reaction is strong not only among families of those victims, but among gun owners and strong advocates of the second amendment such as radio host Alex Jones and firearms training enthusiast James Yeager who have gone so far as to imply that a second civil war will ensue if Obama's plans go through. While such an idea may sound frightening to our nation, it should be taken with a grain of salt coming from such...well, "colorful personalities" as these two gentlemen. Still, if they or any of their followers acted on these beliefs and incited some form of gun violence against the government than this date would be significant for the events that it triggered going on into the following weeks, days, months or possibly even years to come.
There are things like this that are relevant to just about everyone and then there are things that are just relevant to you and a relatively smaller group of people which have no direct effect on the lives of others. For example, I have just completed my second day of classes here at CU Boulder. This is only significant to me and a few other CU students (about a few thousand out of roughly seven billion or so people) for a number of reasons. It is significant today because as a student, I am just getting into a new schedule. It is significant in the months to come because I am getting acquainted with what my professors expect from me in their classes and what sort of weight the course material will carry. As a student, I must plan accordingly around all of this in a way that is the most conducive to my learning. Pretty much all of college significance involves planning for one's future and this being my senior year, this is especially important to me. These classes carry some significance in my career path later on in life. This date is especially important in fulfilling the credits I need to graduate and when I am able to do so. This date is significant to determining the study patterns I need to follow in order to succeed as an undergrad. I guess you could say this date is significant because it's the beginning of the end of my undergraduate career.
Since significance itself can be categorized as an ever fleeting concept, digital media technology is important in capturing it. Since the internet has been increasing in availability and media presence, it has provided everyone with the sense of immediacy necessary to react to our own events in real time. These records can also be preserved so that future generations may look upon them, learn form them and determine how they are significant to the challenges they may face. The internet basically functions as one big time capsule that any one of us can dig up any part of, any time or anywhere. Whether it's blogging your own commentary on today's world headlines or just expressing your feelings and sharing parts of your own life via social networking, digital technology plays an ever vital role in processing what is significant to us on a day by day basis.
Taking an example from this week's headlines, Vice President Joe Biden yesterday was expected to present President Barack Obama with his report on gun policy including a heavy recommendation of gun control, assault weapons bans and background checks on gun purchases. Today, President Obama is expected to present to congress his own gun policy proposal which in addition to similar recommendations also includes more funding to mental health services. Biden had reportedly advised Obama to bypass congress with these potential laws as he is likely to face many objections from them on these fronts.
For some, this story has caused some tensions and emotions to run very high. For one thing, it's quite understandable that this talk of gun control policy and assault weapons bans would stem from two of the most horrific and tragic mass shootings in recent memory occurring within only less than six months of each other last year. Reaction is strong not only among families of those victims, but among gun owners and strong advocates of the second amendment such as radio host Alex Jones and firearms training enthusiast James Yeager who have gone so far as to imply that a second civil war will ensue if Obama's plans go through. While such an idea may sound frightening to our nation, it should be taken with a grain of salt coming from such...well, "colorful personalities" as these two gentlemen. Still, if they or any of their followers acted on these beliefs and incited some form of gun violence against the government than this date would be significant for the events that it triggered going on into the following weeks, days, months or possibly even years to come.
There are things like this that are relevant to just about everyone and then there are things that are just relevant to you and a relatively smaller group of people which have no direct effect on the lives of others. For example, I have just completed my second day of classes here at CU Boulder. This is only significant to me and a few other CU students (about a few thousand out of roughly seven billion or so people) for a number of reasons. It is significant today because as a student, I am just getting into a new schedule. It is significant in the months to come because I am getting acquainted with what my professors expect from me in their classes and what sort of weight the course material will carry. As a student, I must plan accordingly around all of this in a way that is the most conducive to my learning. Pretty much all of college significance involves planning for one's future and this being my senior year, this is especially important to me. These classes carry some significance in my career path later on in life. This date is especially important in fulfilling the credits I need to graduate and when I am able to do so. This date is significant to determining the study patterns I need to follow in order to succeed as an undergrad. I guess you could say this date is significant because it's the beginning of the end of my undergraduate career.
Since significance itself can be categorized as an ever fleeting concept, digital media technology is important in capturing it. Since the internet has been increasing in availability and media presence, it has provided everyone with the sense of immediacy necessary to react to our own events in real time. These records can also be preserved so that future generations may look upon them, learn form them and determine how they are significant to the challenges they may face. The internet basically functions as one big time capsule that any one of us can dig up any part of, any time or anywhere. Whether it's blogging your own commentary on today's world headlines or just expressing your feelings and sharing parts of your own life via social networking, digital technology plays an ever vital role in processing what is significant to us on a day by day basis.
Inaugural Post
Welcome to Digital Journalism with me, Casey Killingsworth. The purpose of this blog is mainly to post my assignments for JOUR 4562-001 at CU. There's not much else to say here except that coming soon will be a post on why today is significant both to me and to the world at large.
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