Questionable Legality

What is broken in the newsroom? It is an interesting question to ask and there are a variety of answers that can be given. Season 5 of The Wire offers a unique perspective of what goes on behind the scenes of the workings of a newspaper.

You see much of the real world: politics, money and the legal and ethical issues that come with being a journalist. Each journalist has to deal with the buy-out offers and the possibility of losing their jobs while still striving to make the deadline and holding true to the mission of the Baltimore Sun.

The show has one journalist turning in stories to the editor that are questionable. With no pictures or other forms of solid proof to back up the story, an editor questions the journalist. However, because one of the higher ups liked the story so much, despite the lack of actual facts, the matter is dropped.

This reporter seems to have trouble making deadlines and writing something worthwhile to turn in for the Baltimore Sun to print. Fabrications of stories as it is displayed in the show illustrates how easy it can be to get pulled under the stress of the job and give in to means you might otherwise not use.

More ethical issues can be seen in the detectives that invent their own serial killer in order to get funds to work another case. They take bodies of homeless men and exaggerate their deaths to look like murder, making people believe that they have a serious criminal on their hands to deal with. Meanwhile, the real criminals are being ignored.

Seeing things like this on a show can bring into question the legitimacy of real-life papers and their reporters. However, that does not mean you have to question everything that you read. This show points out some crucial pieces of information that you can look for as an avid news follower that can allow you to determine for yourself if the news you are being given is factual or not.

The simple fact that the reporter had no pictures of a child in a wheelchair can raise a lot of eyebrows. These days, with all of the technology out there, it would be difficult to believe that a reporter did not have a digital camera or a camera on a cell phone to take a picture. At the very least he could have done was to run and purchase a disposable, which he should have as backup in his bag at any rate.

Next you have absolutely nothing on the kid. No one, despite extensive research in various departments and sources, has ever heard of the kid. If this does not scream out skeptical then I don’t know what would. Someone, somewhere, should be able to get some piece of information pertaining to a kid in a wheelchair at opening day of a baseball game.

The Wire shows that morals and common values are often hard to come by in certain areas. Not getting what we want and not being able to deal with the stress and time constraints have people buckling and looking for short cuts that often lead to bigger problems than what they had to start with, involving more people than they first may have thought.

Key Standards of a Journalist

Accuracy is without a doubt one of the top guiding principles a journalist has to follow. As it is stated in Thom Lieb’s All the News, “if a piece of journalism is not accurate, it has no value.” The public watches the news on a daily basis to keep up with what is going on in the world and they make plans and reach conclusions based on what information is proved to them. Reaffirming that the facts are correct is a simple and easy thing for a journalist to do. Misinformation can lead to a variety of consequences that can be avoided.

Objectivity is crucial to a story that a journalist is covering. They must keep their opinions to themselves and out of the story so as not to come off as trying to influence the public. People do not like to be misled or forced to only hear one opinion in regards to what is being reported, they like to make up their own minds. A journalist’s job is to provide all of the important information to the public so that they are well equipped to make decisions on a variety of topics.

Plagiarism and fabrication are also notable rules to abide by, as they are one of the most common ethical issues journalists face. It can be easy for a journalist to be tempted to take a short cut when faced with deadlines. However, with the technology that is available today, it is easy to get caught. Journalists can lose their jobs over reporting information without giving credit to where it is due. It can lead to giving whatever news organization you work for a bad reputation that could end up hurting other people’s jobs besides your own.

Honoring the Troops

Yesterday 50 soliders from the Curtis Bay unit deployed for training and a year-long assignment overseas. The unit's job requires them to support other units that are moving in and out of combat zones.

Before they left the unit gathered with family members on the driveway of the Army Reserve Center in Glen Burnie for a farewell ceremony. For some of these soldiers it will be their second or third deployment. These soldiers are participating in the third-longest war in our nation's history, next to the Revolutionary and Vietnam wars. However, this war is the only one being fought by an all-volunteer military.

Many family members spoke of the amount of pride they have for their family members who are serving their country. "I'm excited to go do the job, but it's tough leaving," said Maj. Bruce McLaughlin, a member of the unit.

I have a great amount of respect for anyone who has the courage to volunteer to serve their country and their families. We can never truly understand the sacrifices that they make and sometimes it does not seem like the troops get the amount of respect that they deserve.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the units last assignment, which was in 2005, assisted in the transfer and delivery of 8,000 vehicles, 3 million items valued at $400 million and 7,000 tons of ammunition.

2008 NCIS FanFest

For the past few days I have been in California attending the 2008 NCIS FanFest. It is an event for fans to gather to enjoy a variety of activities related to the show in support of two charities, The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and Operation Gratitude. NCIS, or Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is a television show that airs on CBS on Tuesday's at 8pm starring Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauely Perrette, David McCallum, Sean Murry and Cote de Pablo.

Some of the events that I attended were seminars hosted by Doug Reilly, NCIS Graphic Artist, local NCIS Agents and Executive Producer Charles F. Johnson. At these seminars we learned about how much work goes into getting a T.V. show from the set to air on television. We were shown examples of film before editing takes place and after, which illustrated how much difference sounds can make when you don't have them.

During my stay I was fortunate enough to meet one of the actors, Michael Weatherly. He was very friendly and more than willing to chat and take pictures with some fans.

It is a great experience, learning about how much work goes into developing a show for television while raising money for charity. Live auctions and silent auctions gave fans the opportunity to own a piece of the show while donating to a great cause. I myself was able to obtain copies of two scripts, 100th episode hat, a t-shirt, and a few other collectible items. For anyone who enjoys watching the show this is a wonderful experience and a great way to meet new people.

Twitter Chatter

When posting on Twitter, you first do a 50-character post with a 130-character follow-up. A good skill to have as a journalist and several people are already doing well with this.

Cara Flynn followed the character posting rule very well. She pulled out the necessary information from each story that she read and combined the information together in an organized manner.

Mike McGregor's page displayed each story with the right amount of information and no junk information, so to speak. It is clear that he closely examined everything the larger articles had to offer before making a Twitter post. He has also started to follow several other people and their posts.

Nicole Bellman displayed her skill with each posting of limited characters very well. She went straight to the point and the information provided had me feeling confident that I wasn't missing any other important facts when I read the posts.

All in all, a lot of good work so far. I think everyone in class has a pretty good handle on everything!

Reviewing the techniques...

Our most recent assignment was to read Chapter 4 of ATN in order to learn more about lead structure and short reports. Lead structures tend to be very specific and are generally only a sentence long. They are used as an opening to more information about a story. It can grab a reader’s attention, and help a reader decide if the story is worth reading further or not. Short reports are altogether extremely short, but tend to give the most important information to the audience as quickly as possible.

An example of a lead structure can be found on the baltimoresun.com website. This story discusses using Garrett County’s resources for gas. With the recent storm having just hit, gas prices are going up. A brief introduction that goes further into the discussion of leases, it can be very informative for anyone who lives in that area.

Also found on the baltimoresun.com website is an example of a short report. This short report involves a local bank in Baltimore County being in support of a four-day work week. It tells you what is happening and who is involved in a simple paragraph.

Information is delivered to us in many styles and learning how to properly use them will go a long way in a future career as a journalist.

In the news...

The news can be defined as a collection of data that is formed into a audio, visual, or text presentation and delivered in a timely fashion.
There are 9 traditional news values that journalists use in order to determine if a story is newsworthy. They are impact, unusualness, prominence, currency, conflict, timeliness, proximity, affinity and human interest.

Impact is defined as how the audience is affected by the story. Unusualness is pretty much what is different from the ordinary. Prominence focuses on powerful or influential people. Currency is any story that has a relation to another story already in the news. Conflict is key to most news stories, with people in battle against anything from nature to disease. Timeliness is basically how recent the story has taken place. Proximity refers to the location of the story and where the audience is in relation to the story. Affinity offers up stories that interest people due to similar character traits or religion, race, or nationality. Human interest stories are about extraordinary actions involving everyday people.

Looking through the articles of the Baltimore Sun I found three that caught my interest. The first story is about a playground that caught on fire in Baltimore City. This can easily be identified as a newsworthy story. It impacts the surrounding community with families who enjoyed taking their children to the park. The timeliness of the story is very recent. The human interest aspect of this story is very strong as the playground was mostly build by a group of volunteers.

The second story releases information in regards to a parade for Michael Phelps celebrating his success at the Summer Olympics. While in Beijing he broke several records, an incredible accomplishment. There is a strong connection to this story as he was born and raised in Maryland.

The story discussing the level of troops in Iraq is of high interest to not just the state of Maryland but the entire nation. It connects previous stories together with continuous reports on the status of the situation in Iraq. It is conflicting because not everyone agrees with President Bush on how he has handled things in regards to our troops. It is one of the many popular topics for the Presidential candidates in this year's election as well.

Any combination of the 9 traditional values can work together to make a story newsworthy. It ends up being a judgement call on the journalist as well in deciding if it should be released to the public as news.