What is News and Media Literacy
What is News Literacy and Why does it matter in our lives?
News literacy is the benefit of recognizing and criticizing the credibility of news, articles, and any other information. Due to the digital age, it is difficult to find credible information. In addition, new services can be used to create and upload information that only seems trustworthy. This is why news literacy is important in our lives.
Why is Freedom of the Press is Important?
No Democracy has existed in the modern world without the existence of a free press.
Freedom of the press has been around since the 1600's. During this time, John Peter Zenger, a German immigrant, was arrested for publishing an article about the governor William Cosby. The article argued about the wrong things that he was doing. Freedom of the press is important because it let's people speak the truth about the government, businesses, the president, and more. Freedom of the press is especially important in a Democracy, because a Democracy is ruled by the people. How could a Democracy work if the people can't say what they believe is constitutional or unconstitutional.
Censorship
Censorship is used by governments to control what is published to the public. There are tens of thousands of journalists, who are actually innocent, in countries like Turkey, Russia, China, and South Korea who are behind bars because they dared to write. These country's governments might practice censorship because they want to control the information that gets said about them, so that only good perspectives are communicated.
Would you take the risk?
Ignorance is man's weakness
If I were a journalist and the government would arrest me for publishing the truth , I would be cross. I believe that everyone should know the truth whether it is about the president, the government, or even a restaurant. This country is like a team, and a team is expected to work together. A team can't cooperate if someone is hiding information or parts from someone else. If the government threatens to arrest me, so be it; at least people will know the truth. |
Journalists As Purveyors Of Information
Jefferson's Meaning
Thomas Jefferson once said, "...and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." This means that he would rather have newspapers without a government. I would gladly agree with him. If we didn't have a government, the country would be in an anarchy; but we would have newspapers to tell people the truth and what's going on in the world. Without newspapers, the government would probably not hesitate to sugarcoat or hide the truth. |
Journalists: Purveyors of Information
Purveyor: a person who sells or deals in particular goods.
Synonyms: seller, retailer, supplier.
Journalists are important in the world; they have the job of providing the truth to the people. They give the truth through articles that they write. If they say something that makes someone with lots of power look bad, they can't be thrown in jail because freedom of the press protects them. Journalists supply, give, or provide the world with the truth.
My Job as a Student Journalist
As a student Journalist, I need to make crucial steps to make sure that I am making ethical decisions or choices. One of the steps is to make sure I am not plagiarizing. I can make sure that I am not plagiarizing by paraphrasing the work I use. In addition to that, if I want to use other journalists work, I would make sure to cite their work. I need to follow another step to make sure I don't procrastinate. I can do a little bit of research everyday to make sure I don't wait until the last day to do my article. Another step I will make is to look at all of the perspectives of the story. I need to make sure that all sides are looked over and have a chance to be heard; keeping in mind that freedom of the press can be used for and against an individual.
Fact Checking
Verify Your Information
I don't think that the average person today verifies all the information they hear, watch, or read. With the internet, someone could just Google something and take what they read as true. One reason why is because it is too time consuming to check the information. Another reason could be due to gullibleness or stubbornness. This is especially bad because of the new technologies that allows anyone to create content; for example, someone could Photoshop their friend so that they are standing right next to President Obama. Anyone could also write an article and publish it to the web. Therefore, verifying information is important.
Information requires verification to be effective
I agree with the statement above. What it means is that in order for information to be good, it needs to be analyzed to see if it is objective and not subjective. If I am writing a essay on bears, I need to make sure that my resources are accurate. I could say that bears are the most fierce animals on the planet, but that would be my opinion. I need to have evidence that can support that statement.
Is the skill of fact checking important?
As a consumer of news and media, I think it is very important to know how to fact check. If I'm using information from the news, I want my information to be facts. I understand if an article is wrong due to lack of evidence like a homicide or a plane crash. If something seems too good to be true, the skill of fact-checking would come in handy.
Breakout EDU
Solving Mysteries
Today I got to work with a great bunch of girls and play Breakout EDU, provided by Mr.Dennis. We had to work together to open a case that had locks on it. I learned that working with multiple people is better than working by yourself. There were times that I was trying to figure something out, and then one of my partners would solve it. I also learned to |
Whistleblowers & The Panama Papers
Information in today's society must empower forums to give voice to citizens and to monitor the free flow of information
This quote means that information must give potential to a public discussion so that a citizen can speak their opinion and the access to information without obstacles can be watched over. I agree with this statement because information should be able to be seen and analyzed free of barriers. America is run by the people, by what they think is right; a person's opinion should have the opportunity to be heard.
CLASSIFIED: DO NOT OPEN!
It is important to publish highly-sensitive materials for the world to see, because people might believe a lie that the government says. The information must be really important if it is classified; if it is classified then the government, or whoever has the information, might make something up to keep that information a secret. That keeps the truth away from the people. A Journalist's job is to provide the truth, but how could they give the truth if what they know are lies? |
Whistleblower: What is it?
A whistleblower is a person who exposes illegal activity. A journalist reveals the truth, but a whistleblower reveals the top-secret truth that can get someone in trouble. A whistleblower willingly reveals the truth, even though they know that they might go to jail or have to escape the country once they do. Some people see them as a hero; others believe that they are bad. |
Nixon v. Journalists
If I were a journalist for the New York times, and I discovered top secret information about the government, I would share it with the public. I know that a group of people's lives could could be at stake, but the country is run by the people; they should be informed. They should know if there government is lying or doing someting unconstitutional. I feel for the people who's lives are at stake, but it is for a good cause. |
Journalism and Mistakes
Learn From Your Mistakes
We all make mistakes and that is good. Mistakes help us not make bad choices in the future, if we choose to learn from them. Mistakes have a downside, though. They could make a person more cautious or less friendly around you. They could even make a person lose trust in you. Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are a part of life; if their is a person who has never made a mistake in their life, they are not human. Mistakes are also in the news media. A company or a journalist who has a lot of respect could lose it all because of a mistake in an article. |
Accuracy is Important
It is important for consumers of news media to be given accurate information that does not have mistakes because their view of a event or a person could change drastically. An article could say that a person was hurting puppies when he was really finding them a shelter. A lot of hate and bad comments could go towards that person, even though it's not true.
As a student Journalist, there are certain actions I need to take to make sure that there are no mistakes in my articles. One of them is to make sure that I check over my information. Another way I can make sure that I do not make mistakes, is to have my editor check over my article every time I change something. If I make a mistake, I would reveal it. I believe that there is more shame in knowing that I have a mistake and trying to hide that mistake, than to just say that there was a mistake in my work.