A Digital World

   Today's lecture was something I was really interested in learning about. The internet is an extremely large portion of a high schoolers life with a history that I didn't know much about. The internet, to us, is how we communicate, how we get our homework done, how we spend our time and how we will eventually get our names out there. We were not around to witness what the world without the internet is like and it will only keep advancing in our lifetime. It has been growing since October 29, 1969 when it was born and will continue to do so unless it is wiped out by a disaster that it is incapable of enduring.

    There are multiple things about the internet that set it apart from other medias we have talked about. Since it is portable, we can have a digital world at our fingertips at every moment. This allows us to follow the news all of the time and be able to pick up our video or story where we left off due to it's nonlinear quality. It's incredibly easy for us take for granted the information we can access without any cost because we have never known otherwise, but this was an unbelievable advance. Thanks to Tim Burners Lee's invention of Hyper Text, we can even navigate our way through the internet through links and a mouse. These elements and others explain why this digital world is such a large part of our lives.

A Step in the Right Direction

http://patricksperceptions.blogspot.com/2016/10/wdrb-story-observation_23.htm
    After reading Patrick's post on a bullying story that WDRB covered, I felt the need to respond. He discussed many of the elements included in this story to back up his point that WDRB did a nice job on it, and he even included why this story had an affect on him. Patrick's post really stood out to me because I have noticed that we tend to critique our station's stories in a negative way, and that is not at all what Patrick did. His critique gave me more respect for WDRB as well and I completely agree that it was a wise choice to write a story devoted to the issue of bullying in JCPS schools.

   I have witnessed bullying in schools that I have gone to in the past and know that it has a massive effect on kids and can even lead to suicide and depression. The grandmother of a student at the middle school I attended just sued the school because her grandson was hospitalized due to his mental and physical state because of bullying. These kind of problems could be avoided if we made people more aware of the impacts and I think that both Patrick and WDRB are doing that by sharing this story. I think we can all agree that these kinds of stories are a step in the right direction for news stations, much more important than another story about a shooting or an upcoming football game. Well done Patrick!

Hiding From Reality

    Turning on the WLKY news at 6 o'clock every white day has been the reality for about 4 weeks now. This project is drawing to a close but I have watched enough news to notice some reoccurring patterns. Overall, WLKY is a station that has informed me about what is going on in Kentucky and has really helped me out on current event quizzes. On the other hand, there has definitely been some issues with this channel, along with many of the other channels. I have also had the chance to reflect on the many crime stories I watch every other night.

    First of all, I understand that WLKY is a local news station, but it only airs 0-1 national stories a night, while other stations, like Wave, air 3-4. WLKY usually has 0 national stories online, and sometimes neglects to show stories on national events that have a large affect on where we live. I consider this a large issue because it makes the station less dependable. There have been two nights where WLKY has not shown any 6:00 news at all, due to football, and it has not been made up or shown later. This has only happened on one other station. WLKY almost always has fewer online stories and I think it's one of the worst stations when it comes to leaving out stories that the people need to hear.

     I have seen countless posts on the incredible amount of crime stories each night, but I feel as if it's something that can't go without being addressed. Out of the 104 stories that WLKY has aired between now and September 22, 31 of them have been crime stories. That's almost 1/3 of the stories and there are 10 other categories that they could fall under. Why does the station air so many crime stories? Because there is so much crime. Television may make us believe there is more than there really is, but many of us want to ignore this increasing issue because it isn't something we have to think about living in fortunate neighborhoods, going to a fortunate school. People like to think terrible things will never happen to them until it's to late to think otherwise and the crime is not something that I would blame on the news stations. As journalists, I feel that it is their job to show what is really going on in the world, instead of hiding from reality.

The Controversy of A Movie

    http://maple-leaf-mag.blogspot.com/2016_10_01_archive.html
  I looked through many blogs in search of an aspect that would set the blog apart from the other blogs and give me material that i could respond to instead of just critique. I found a post like this in Maggie's blog, titled "Class Response: Rise and Fall of Movies."In this post, she talked about concepts from the lesson, shared her opinions on them, gave counterarguments, and didn't lose my attention once. What I found really impressive was that, on the contrary, I love going to the movies and have very different opinions then Maggie does, but she almost convinced me that staying home and reading a book was the better option.

        I am one of the people she described that finds movies very immersive. I enjoy the experience of going out to see a movie with friends, although it is not just Maggie that has other ideas. I have talked to several people in J&C that "hate" movies. Before this year, I found movies to be a medium that everyone enjoyed because there are so many different genres. Maggie and a couple other students really opened my eyes to other viewpoints and have sparked my curiosity. If there are so many reasons to love movies, but so many reasons to hate them, why are they such a huge medium? Movies have put stereotypes in my head about high school, gave my dreams and goals life and created so many experiences that before, I couldn't imagine a life without them. Thank you Maggie, for introducing me to opinions different then mine. Very nice job.

Parts of a Newspaper Coming Full Circle

     I sat at my computer for at least ten minutes, thinking hard about how to write this blog in a way that is not just repeating the lecture. I have seen many comments given by Mr. Miller that advised against this, even though today's lesson was very informative and definition based. We learned about the parts of a newspaper, and I struggled to find the relevance in this until things began to come full circle. I started to find connections to previous lessons in this class, and even to lessons from Digital Design class.

   First, I realized that where the information is placed on the newspaper affects the message just like the medium affects the message. The banner headline is placed towards the top of the first page because it is introducing the lead and is meant to draw the attention of the reader. The ears are placed on the front page in the top corners because companies pay money to get their advertisements in the paper where they will be noticed.

   Red 2 just wrapped up a lesson on alignment in Digital Design that I also connected to today's lesson. Mrs. Palmer talked a lot about putting emphasis on the most important information like the candidate's name on a campaign flyer. Because their names stood out so much, Euan and Jack's flyers got the most votes along with other reasons. We also discussed how grouping information organized the article. This is why a picture, credit line, and caption of a newspaper are all next to each other. This was a lecture that I originally didn't get much out of, but after taking the time to think about it, I now see why learning the parts of a newspaper is so important.

Jimmy Bittner Body Found- Local Relevance Lost

http://www.wlky.com/article/body-of-missing-ind-teen-swept-away-by-ocean-found/6490304

   After watching a shortened version of this story on WLKY news during my 30 minute logging of the stories, I decided to look further into it on the website. I was skeptical about whether or not this story had local relevance and the website helped to clear some things up. I have found that national and international stories are rare on WLKY and this was the only national story of the night. Not only did I find elements and yardsticks that this story violated, but I also found many things that were done well and did a lot of thinking about what an event like this would do to our school.
 
   This story was about a boy whose body was recently found after drowning in North Carolina. Although I have no doubt that the students who went to school with him, and other people he was close to were severely impacted by this tragedy, the people in Louisville, Kentucky were not. This incident did not take place in our state and does not affect the people that live here in any way. It is a very touching story and must have been extremely difficult for his friends and family who described him as a brother to all, but in the end, nothing in our state or city will change because of it.

   On the contrary, this story included the yardstick of explanation and the element of inclusiveness. It discussed why everyone was going to miss him so much and went into detail about how he drowned instead of simply telling us that his body was found. The "why" is discussed rather then the "what."
The story itself only went into detail about the affect his death would have on people in his community which does not blow it out of proportion. I don't think it was wise of WLKY to put this story at the very top of their website, but the article itself was inclusive. I can't imagine the impact this would have if it was one of our students that died and I'm praying for everyone that knew him.

Reaching for the Sky Once Again

http://reachforthesky25.blogspot.com/2016/10/taunted-by-telvision.html

  When I slid my mouse over to Sky's blog, I had a feeling I wouldn't be disappointed. I could not have been more correct. Her recent post on Broadcast Journalism is full of vivid language, spot on terminology and claims that made me think. Having just done a similar post on the same topic, reading her piece helped me to reflect on my own. I too have been thinking a lot about our last lesson while I sit in front of a television, and am now following her thought process on how television changed society. Her title, "Taunted by Television" is clever and certainly appropriate.

  Ever since the first week of school, when I sat in my chair listening to her introduce another student, I have been sure that this program is where she belongs. Her detailed writing creates pictures in my head and makes me question my own ability. I am eager to read more from Sky and to experience her opinions on other topics that we have yet to face. Her entire blog leaves me with out a doubt that she "reaches for the sky" in all that she does.

Connecting the Dots

     A life without radios and television would be a very different one. That is something I think we can all agree on. Although majority of people listen to music on the radio and watch TV, very few of them have any idea how this became the reality. I was one of these people prior to our lesson on broadcast journalism. I had no idea that without the radio, the basic teenager would not exist. Mr. Miller went into great detail on this lesson, uncovering more and more information that slowly connected the dots for me. This lesson was presented in a timeline format, which was not quite as impactful, but once we dug deeper into the consequences of TV, I didn't want the class to end.


    The radio was everything during the 1920s. It was how people listened to music, stories or plays, radio shows, the news, and so much more. The radio was the worlds TVs, until the Golden Age, when the incredible television took the world by storm. Why listen to the radio when you can watch and listen to almost anything you wanted? All of the talent decided to switch to the television business where people could actually see their faces. It was then that radio lost advertisers, money, and listeners. It was also then that I began to think about how this changed society.


      As TVs started appearing in every household, the demassification of radios began. The radio business decided to target a niche audience, and only played music and talk shows. They targeted rock and roll music that created rebellious 13-17 year olds who greased their hair and had wild parties. They created the teenager. I can't imagine a world without this generation or the consequences that TV had on it. People were so fascinated by this new life-like technology that they believed the world they saw on the screen. This may be a reason that everyone thinks the world has so much violence and needs to be made "great again." In my opinion, the world is already great, containing students that need the television and possibly the radio to become what they have always dreamt of, whether that is an actor, a reporter, a politician, or someone who works for a business in need of advertising.