Thursday, December 8, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Good Night and Good Luck !
Good night and good luck is a black and white Drama movie directed by George Clooney. This film portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin relating to the anti-communist senator’s actions with the senate Permanent subcommittee on Investigations.
The movie begins on October 25, 1958, at a fancy dinner tribute to Edward R. Murrow. It is the usual gala event affair, everyone is dressed up and looking expensive. Most of the people were smoking and having a drink. Ed Murrow was introduced as a hero who fought against McCarthyism. Ed came out and proceeds to make a speech about how journalism has become occupied with presenting only good news and how journalists have succumb to escapism, losing touch with the real world. This attack makes the audience uncomfortable and Fred Friendly looks like he’s having a good.
The newsmen are in a conference room, trying to decide news pieces for the next show. The Air Force officers’ rights to a fair trial were clearly violated, as he doesn’t even know the charges against him and found guilty anyway. The newsmen are reluctant to pursue this, afraid of a backlash from McCarthy. We see a bit of the show that runs after Eds, its Don Hollenbeck praising Eds courage and reporting. There is tense moments as everyone waits for the phones to ring and none do. Someone in the back asks if he should turn the phones back on and the tension is eased. The phones start ringing off the hook. Later, the crew, along with Don, is having drinks at a bar and decides to get the early edition newspaper reviews of the show. The first one came out very good, the second one not. Some people look relaxed, some angry, but Don looked very uneasy.
Bill doesn’t actually ask Fred to stop reporting on McCarthy issues; he seems to both enjoy yelling at Fred and also trust Freds judgment. Joe and Shirley are getting ready for work, before Joe leaves, Shirley reminds him to take off his wedding ring. It turns out that they are secretly married, which is against company policy. Later, Joe is approached by someone from the government, who warns Joe about running future McCarthy Pieces, saying, What if I told you that Ed Murrow was on the Soviet payroll in 1932?
McCarthy takes up the offer and basically uses the show to make a series of accusations about Eds ties to communism: a writer with communist ties had dedicated a book Ed, Ed was on the Soviet payroll in 1932 for some foreign exchange program which is known to be communist. Ed also says that since McCarthy didn’t refute any facts Ed reported about him, the world can assume they are true.
Joe and Shirley are called into the editors’ office and are told about an upcoming layoff. The editor mentions that it is against company policy for two employees to be married and everyone knows they are married. Bill Paley calls Fred and Ed into his office tells them that CBS lost the Alcoa sponsorship and will have to lay a lot of people off. Bill tells Ed that his show will be cut to 30 minutes from 1 hour, moved to Sunday afternoon and Ed will only do five more shows. Ed and Fred walk to the elevator and say that they might as well go out with a bang in their last five shows. Fred mentions that Joe and Shirley were married and Ed seems to be the only one who didn’t know.
Cut back to October 25, 1958. Ed finishes his speech saying that journalists are the ones with the responsibility to keep the public informed of the real world, regardless of its unpleasantness.
The movie begins on October 25, 1958, at a fancy dinner tribute to Edward R. Murrow. It is the usual gala event affair, everyone is dressed up and looking expensive. Most of the people were smoking and having a drink. Ed Murrow was introduced as a hero who fought against McCarthyism. Ed came out and proceeds to make a speech about how journalism has become occupied with presenting only good news and how journalists have succumb to escapism, losing touch with the real world. This attack makes the audience uncomfortable and Fred Friendly looks like he’s having a good.
The newsmen are in a conference room, trying to decide news pieces for the next show. The Air Force officers’ rights to a fair trial were clearly violated, as he doesn’t even know the charges against him and found guilty anyway. The newsmen are reluctant to pursue this, afraid of a backlash from McCarthy. We see a bit of the show that runs after Eds, its Don Hollenbeck praising Eds courage and reporting. There is tense moments as everyone waits for the phones to ring and none do. Someone in the back asks if he should turn the phones back on and the tension is eased. The phones start ringing off the hook. Later, the crew, along with Don, is having drinks at a bar and decides to get the early edition newspaper reviews of the show. The first one came out very good, the second one not. Some people look relaxed, some angry, but Don looked very uneasy.
Bill doesn’t actually ask Fred to stop reporting on McCarthy issues; he seems to both enjoy yelling at Fred and also trust Freds judgment. Joe and Shirley are getting ready for work, before Joe leaves, Shirley reminds him to take off his wedding ring. It turns out that they are secretly married, which is against company policy. Later, Joe is approached by someone from the government, who warns Joe about running future McCarthy Pieces, saying, What if I told you that Ed Murrow was on the Soviet payroll in 1932?
McCarthy takes up the offer and basically uses the show to make a series of accusations about Eds ties to communism: a writer with communist ties had dedicated a book Ed, Ed was on the Soviet payroll in 1932 for some foreign exchange program which is known to be communist. Ed also says that since McCarthy didn’t refute any facts Ed reported about him, the world can assume they are true.
Joe and Shirley are called into the editors’ office and are told about an upcoming layoff. The editor mentions that it is against company policy for two employees to be married and everyone knows they are married. Bill Paley calls Fred and Ed into his office tells them that CBS lost the Alcoa sponsorship and will have to lay a lot of people off. Bill tells Ed that his show will be cut to 30 minutes from 1 hour, moved to Sunday afternoon and Ed will only do five more shows. Ed and Fred walk to the elevator and say that they might as well go out with a bang in their last five shows. Fred mentions that Joe and Shirley were married and Ed seems to be the only one who didn’t know.
Cut back to October 25, 1958. Ed finishes his speech saying that journalists are the ones with the responsibility to keep the public informed of the real world, regardless of its unpleasantness.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Experience of Interview
Interviewing a person is not an easy job. We saw people interviewing others so easily, but it doesn’t seem same while interviewing. Not most, but maximum people get nervous while interviewing others. To conduct better interview you must have an arrangement, preparation, the actual interview, and the reconstruction. To become a journalist is not a joke. They have all those experience to conduct interview, collect and distribute information about current events, people, trends and issues.
Today I will write my experience of interviewing a person which was conducted on October 24, 2011 on Zuccotti Park in New York to check out the Occupy Wall Street movement. My friend Deva was with me during that interview. I have seen it on TV and have certainly read about it via different channels on the internet, but it’s always good to see things first - hand before building an option or making any kind of statement. I just heard on news, television and internet about occupy Wall Street, but I don’t have any idea what the heck is going on down there. So, by going over there and interviewing people I get more information about occupy Wall Street and get some experience of interviewing people. My initial impression and expectation were too high. Its disorganized, smelly mess with no central message focused out research. Our main aim was to collect some news about occupy Wall Street by interviewing people, so we catch one lady who was over there with her own story.
Firstly we were nervous to take an interview and have introduction with that lady. So we firstly introduce our self and told our basic purpose of visit over there. Then the lady was ready for interview with us. Initially we ask her personal information, and we went to occupy Wall Street. Her name is Stephanie Mcilhenny, and she is from Texas. We were afraid to ask her age, but we did it and she told her age as 24. She is resident of Texas, but she move to New York for her studies. She used to study on Manhattan College, and it’s been like one year she is taking break from college due to her economic condition. She is independent and she doesn’t work. It was private college, so even if she gets lots of financial aid it was not enough to pay her tuition fee. She has to pay from her pocket. She still has lots of money to pay for college. Her main protest over there was to help student by giving safety, better aids, and health care. She also added human rights in her protest. In present she doesn’t have any job, but she used to work on library in college. She was there for protest because of her cousin. She is expecting that the government will look over their protest and response them soon.
I feel so great after taking interview. During interview we recorded video to save interview. When I saw that video I feel happy and I found my weakness over there. So I think this interview help me a lot to improve my weakness and mistake.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Abolition: Turning America’s conscience against the sins of slavery
The chapter “Abolition: Turning America’s conscience against the sins of slavery” discuss about the slavery system in United States and talked about different people who try to abolish slavery. Slavery is defined as the state of being under the control of another person. But when we go back in history it seems much worse than that. People were tortured, murdered, and enslaved for years and years. To abolish slavery there came many abolitionists and fought for slavery. During their fight they had suffer a lot. They get physical torture, mental torture. Their property gets destroyed. For instance: one famous abolitionist was Rev. Elijah Lovejoy. He had multiple printing presses that were destroyed by people who were pro-slavery. Again if they talk against them then they have to lose their life like Elijah Lovejoy. Elijah Lovejoy talk against pro-slavery even though he got the warning and physical torture. Finally, for the fourth time he was attacked for the destruction of press. He tried to save it from destruction and he was shot and killed. Journalists who spoke out against slavery in the 1800’s didn’t last long and they were usually silenced. Lovejoy never backed down from his protest and even though he was killed his legacy continued. Lovejoy gave journalist the courage to continue speaking out against what is wrong and he gave journalists the courage to continue picking themselves up no matter how many times they were knocked down. If you believe in something and your passion about it then you continue pursuing it until your voice is heard. One voice could alter an entire future.
Monday, September 26, 2011
RESPONSE OF OPENING SHOT
The Egyptian press stumbled toward the sunlight and the early protend vast journalistic shifts,and this is just not in Egypt. When Al Jazeera Qatar based outlet, dified threats and continued Saturation reporting of the January 25th up-rising, its Egyptian satellite signal was cut, is License pulled and some of its journalists were arrested. But Dubai based Al Arabiya which is More conservative competitor of Al Jazeera was preserved. Egyptian media reports began to change dramatically as journalists discovered their voices and consciences, as the Mubarak regimes began to slip. One of the country's fledgling independent newspapers and frequent regime critic, reported Accounts of the government thugs staging looting which is Al Masry al Youm (Egypt Today) and also it challenged state media for spreading a "culture of fear" and conspiracy theories about Israeli Trained protestors. Some high profile state televison journalists took leaves of absence in protest of orders from on high to continue broadcasting propaganda.Mohammed Ali Ibrahim the editor of Al Gomhouriya, a major state run newspaper addressed the protest in a frontpage column which was an apologize for not hearing the public and demand which was noted in Al Ahram's English language weekly. This newly found honesty was just able to flourish after a path had been cleared by both journalist and social media. Many bloggers and journalists persisted bolstering morale by churning out the ground level accounts of critical events. Just as the Tunisian upheaval inspired Egypt's protestors which couldn't be able to ignore by the most populous Arab country. Online news operations have sprouted, angering and frustruating authorities in places like kuwait and Jordan. Great challenges were faced by Arab journalists those were beyond government bullying. But the morning after Mubarak re-signed, Al Ahram editors saw the future abd rose to embrace it. They greeted readers with a stunning, bright red headline flared across its front page.
Monday, September 19, 2011
What is journalism For?
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field includes editing, photojournalism, and documentary. Johann Carolus's Relation Aller Fürnemmen and Gedenckwürdigen Historien, published in 1605 in Strasburg, is often recognized as the first newspaper. The first successful English daily, the Daily Courant, was published from 1702 to 1735.
In modern society, news media has become the chief purveyor of information and opinion about public affairs; but the role and status of journalism, along with other forms of mass media, are undergoing changes resulting from the Internet.
The first newspapers were distributed in 17th century England, twice-weekly. Another successful English newspaper which came in later was The Daily Courant.
The first newspaper in the American colonies – Benjamin Harris's Public Occurrences both Foreign and Domestic – was published in 1690 but was immediately shut down for not having a required license. Most American newspapers of the time period were against the British government, resulting in Britain cracking down on the press. There were several hundred newspapers in the U.S. by 1800. In 1833, Benjamin Day opened The Sun (New York) and created the "Penny Press." Day's papers, filled with sensational content and aimed at a working class audience, sold large amounts. During the Civil War, photography, allowing more accurate illustrations, and telegraphy, greatly increasing speed, were developed. In 1846, The Associated Press wire service was formed as a cooperative venture between several large newspapers to share news that arrived by telegraph from Europe. AP is now one of the world's oldest news agencies. In 1851, George Jones (publisher) and Henry Raymond opened The New York Daily Times, later renamed The New York Times. In the 1890s, Joseph Pulitzer, owning newspapers in New York and elsewhere, coined the term "yellow journalism"; coming from the name of comic strip – "The Yellow Kid" – published by Pulitzer.
There is a constant debate going on about the credibility of journalists and news in today’s world. Once you start thinking, apart from being controversial it is a little more than interesting facts. In this era of new media taking over every other form of communication, making a statement is the easiest thing to do.
But in this process of accusing and defending, people have probably forgotten one thing that defines the job of a journalist. His first requirement of news is truth. And a journalist’s obligation to truth is what a doctor’s is to the life of a patient. The first thing that a news person makes sure of before submitting his story, or even before it is called a story, is ‘getting the facts right’. So when a piece of news appears on TV or newspapers it is assured that they are reporting a true incident with real people’s opinions and (if necessary) politically analyzed stance of the incident.
Journalism was born out of discussions of people at a public forum where travelers logged their experiences. These log books or rather log papers were collected and published to give common man the benefit of knowledge without the need to travel. So as understood, truth is the essence of journalism. However, it came into existence in a more organized fashion because someone out there felt the need to educate people with whatever information is available.
The profession that brought all that knowledge and shed light on exotic lifestyles is being accused of poking its nose into other people’s life. Its purpose is to serve the public and feedback is the most essential part in any kind of communication, but may be in the process of judging the entire media industry, the critics might be missing a very important point.
Media has undergone many changes and its definition has been tried and tested and amended over the centuries. While it started with reporting of facts, it grew to analyzing and explaining facts to the public. Today, its role is being made confusing to the journalist himself than anyone else. If the channel or newspaper makes a statement, it is trying to rub its view on the people. And if it merely reports, it has no spice and hence no viewers or readers.
The problem might be lying in the fundamental layers of what to expect from any medium of information. People today are more than just distracted by jazzed up presentation. They like it and might have grown to a stage of wanting it.
There is something called the Theory of Interlocking Public. It is assumed that people have their priorities set and do not watch anything beyond that. To be honest, it is so in the industry too. But according to this theory, there are three kinds of people:
1. Involved public: Those directly impacted by a situation.
2. Interested public: They are not impacted but are interested in knowing.
3. Uninterested public: Those who don’t bother and might join a conversation, if at all, where judgments have already been passed.
And every segment of news has the attention of all these people because a homemaker with kids knows education (kids), economy (husband‘s career is her career) and politics (her natural instincts about people). Every viewer or reader falls into all the three categories. True, they are crudely generalized but the point is at a basic level all the information is required to every person.
The medium of information chosen by the people works on making it relevant, Understandable and knowledgeable to all of those people. Hence, in an ideal situation, before accusing an entire industry of adulteration and falseness, it might be right for critics to re-check if people want poker faced truth or analyzed presentations with a mix of facts. But in the real world, no one expects to see ideal reactions, at least not a journalist. Not after a whole day of chasing harsh realities only to be accused to falsehood.
So he moves on. Life continues. Some survive, some break down, all in the process of making the life of a common man better. The day when this is understood by critics, people and news makers remains to be seen.
In logical order, the theory of journalism's democracy consists of four parts: 1) the journalist’s role is to inform citizens; 2) citizens are assumed to be informed if they regularly attend to the local, national, and international news journalists supply them: 3) the more informed citizens are, the more likely they are to participate politically, especially in the democratic debate that journalists consider central to participation and democracy; 4) the more that informed citizens participate, the more democratic America is likely to be.
The main and important role of journalism is to provide information from national and international level to citizens.
In modern society, news media has become the chief purveyor of information and opinion about public affairs; but the role and status of journalism, along with other forms of mass media, are undergoing changes resulting from the Internet.
The first newspapers were distributed in 17th century England, twice-weekly. Another successful English newspaper which came in later was The Daily Courant.
The first newspaper in the American colonies – Benjamin Harris's Public Occurrences both Foreign and Domestic – was published in 1690 but was immediately shut down for not having a required license. Most American newspapers of the time period were against the British government, resulting in Britain cracking down on the press. There were several hundred newspapers in the U.S. by 1800. In 1833, Benjamin Day opened The Sun (New York) and created the "Penny Press." Day's papers, filled with sensational content and aimed at a working class audience, sold large amounts. During the Civil War, photography, allowing more accurate illustrations, and telegraphy, greatly increasing speed, were developed. In 1846, The Associated Press wire service was formed as a cooperative venture between several large newspapers to share news that arrived by telegraph from Europe. AP is now one of the world's oldest news agencies. In 1851, George Jones (publisher) and Henry Raymond opened The New York Daily Times, later renamed The New York Times. In the 1890s, Joseph Pulitzer, owning newspapers in New York and elsewhere, coined the term "yellow journalism"; coming from the name of comic strip – "The Yellow Kid" – published by Pulitzer.
There is a constant debate going on about the credibility of journalists and news in today’s world. Once you start thinking, apart from being controversial it is a little more than interesting facts. In this era of new media taking over every other form of communication, making a statement is the easiest thing to do.
But in this process of accusing and defending, people have probably forgotten one thing that defines the job of a journalist. His first requirement of news is truth. And a journalist’s obligation to truth is what a doctor’s is to the life of a patient. The first thing that a news person makes sure of before submitting his story, or even before it is called a story, is ‘getting the facts right’. So when a piece of news appears on TV or newspapers it is assured that they are reporting a true incident with real people’s opinions and (if necessary) politically analyzed stance of the incident.
Journalism was born out of discussions of people at a public forum where travelers logged their experiences. These log books or rather log papers were collected and published to give common man the benefit of knowledge without the need to travel. So as understood, truth is the essence of journalism. However, it came into existence in a more organized fashion because someone out there felt the need to educate people with whatever information is available.
The profession that brought all that knowledge and shed light on exotic lifestyles is being accused of poking its nose into other people’s life. Its purpose is to serve the public and feedback is the most essential part in any kind of communication, but may be in the process of judging the entire media industry, the critics might be missing a very important point.
Media has undergone many changes and its definition has been tried and tested and amended over the centuries. While it started with reporting of facts, it grew to analyzing and explaining facts to the public. Today, its role is being made confusing to the journalist himself than anyone else. If the channel or newspaper makes a statement, it is trying to rub its view on the people. And if it merely reports, it has no spice and hence no viewers or readers.
The problem might be lying in the fundamental layers of what to expect from any medium of information. People today are more than just distracted by jazzed up presentation. They like it and might have grown to a stage of wanting it.
There is something called the Theory of Interlocking Public. It is assumed that people have their priorities set and do not watch anything beyond that. To be honest, it is so in the industry too. But according to this theory, there are three kinds of people:
1. Involved public: Those directly impacted by a situation.
2. Interested public: They are not impacted but are interested in knowing.
3. Uninterested public: Those who don’t bother and might join a conversation, if at all, where judgments have already been passed.
And every segment of news has the attention of all these people because a homemaker with kids knows education (kids), economy (husband‘s career is her career) and politics (her natural instincts about people). Every viewer or reader falls into all the three categories. True, they are crudely generalized but the point is at a basic level all the information is required to every person.
The medium of information chosen by the people works on making it relevant, Understandable and knowledgeable to all of those people. Hence, in an ideal situation, before accusing an entire industry of adulteration and falseness, it might be right for critics to re-check if people want poker faced truth or analyzed presentations with a mix of facts. But in the real world, no one expects to see ideal reactions, at least not a journalist. Not after a whole day of chasing harsh realities only to be accused to falsehood.
So he moves on. Life continues. Some survive, some break down, all in the process of making the life of a common man better. The day when this is understood by critics, people and news makers remains to be seen.
In logical order, the theory of journalism's democracy consists of four parts: 1) the journalist’s role is to inform citizens; 2) citizens are assumed to be informed if they regularly attend to the local, national, and international news journalists supply them: 3) the more informed citizens are, the more likely they are to participate politically, especially in the democratic debate that journalists consider central to participation and democracy; 4) the more that informed citizens participate, the more democratic America is likely to be.
The main and important role of journalism is to provide information from national and international level to citizens.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Response of 9/11
This report was the incident of 9/11 where TV reporters stress lingered long after the cameras stopped. Reporters had to face a lot of problem during that incident. Different reporters had different story even thought the incident is same.
This report mainly talked about Pitts who just moved to New York from Atlanta and get assigned to go World Trade Center. He went to the World Trade center by cab, and saw that the second plane hit the tower. Not just the Pitts, but the people who were near World Trade Center get shocked with that incident. Firstly, Pitts thought that the piece of paper was falling from up. After that he realized that a woman in a dress was falling to her death. Everyone was surprised with that happening. Then again couple jumped from another floor holding their hands together. Not just the Pitts, but there were lots of journalism gather over World Trade Center when the plane hit the first Tower. Different reporters from different channel went over there and try to focus that incident. The incident over there was unbelievable and hard to describe. All the reporters, media, channel reached over there to collect news, but they themselves were trapped over there. Some of them have to run shoeless, and set out for the High way. The journalist over there were all talking about doing the jobs and only then stepping back to understand what had happened. One of the reporters got trapped in subway where the lights went off and he had to walk above the ground for his work. Not just this, but most of the reporters had to face similar problem like that. Reporters were all surrounded by the people who missed their families to post pictures of missing loved ones. Everyone over there was suffering and full of pain with that incident. From that day most of the journalists stay away from silly, light stories in favor of serious journalism. Most of them get changed due to that incident happened on 9/11.
This report mainly talked about Pitts who just moved to New York from Atlanta and get assigned to go World Trade Center. He went to the World Trade center by cab, and saw that the second plane hit the tower. Not just the Pitts, but the people who were near World Trade Center get shocked with that incident. Firstly, Pitts thought that the piece of paper was falling from up. After that he realized that a woman in a dress was falling to her death. Everyone was surprised with that happening. Then again couple jumped from another floor holding their hands together. Not just the Pitts, but there were lots of journalism gather over World Trade Center when the plane hit the first Tower. Different reporters from different channel went over there and try to focus that incident. The incident over there was unbelievable and hard to describe. All the reporters, media, channel reached over there to collect news, but they themselves were trapped over there. Some of them have to run shoeless, and set out for the High way. The journalist over there were all talking about doing the jobs and only then stepping back to understand what had happened. One of the reporters got trapped in subway where the lights went off and he had to walk above the ground for his work. Not just this, but most of the reporters had to face similar problem like that. Reporters were all surrounded by the people who missed their families to post pictures of missing loved ones. Everyone over there was suffering and full of pain with that incident. From that day most of the journalists stay away from silly, light stories in favor of serious journalism. Most of them get changed due to that incident happened on 9/11.
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