Category Archives: Featured

Recording Ethics

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Posted by Joe on February 5, 2010 – 12:14 pm
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism

“Can We Tape?” For every interview, journalists need to ask this question.

Of course we can interview and tape individuals – it’s part of our job. But the real questions are how we obtain this information, if we get consent or not, and what we do with the information once we obtain it.

There are laws regarding this issue in every state. As a journalist it is important to know these laws both at the federal and state level. We are responsible for the material we produce.

According to The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP.org):

Generally, you may record, film, broadcast or amplify any conversation where all the parties to it consent. It is always legal to tape or film a face-to-face interview when your recorder or camera is in plain view. The consent of all parties is presumed in these instances.1

A question to consider is it ethical to record a conversation and then get consent or get consent and then record the conversation? Sometimes the story may come out better if we get the consent after we do the interview or get the story. Many people become camera shy or shy in general if they know they are being questioned for the news. This may alter change the quality of the interview. You may get a better story if you get consent after doing the “undercover” reporting.  However, this raises a lot of ethical questions. What do you think? As journalists should we do this?

  1. http://www.rcfp.org/taping/consent.html [↩]

Take the Twitter Plunge

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Posted by Joe on February 1, 2010 – 11:07 am
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism, Opinion

I have heard mixed messages about Twitter from my friends. I hear the well it’s like just a bunch of Facebook statuses – except you’re limited to 140 characters. I invite you to look past the Twitter is just like Facebook statuses stage. Once you do look past this stage, then you can see what Twitter is all about.

Twitter is what you make of it and people have different uses for Twitter. Twitter could be simply one status update after another, if that’s what you make Twitter to be. That’s just half of Twitter, you see. Twitter is a conversation piece; a topic of conversation. Twitter holds many conversations that are going on across millions of people globally, nationally and locally. In the grand scheme of things, you are just a tiny speck in the large Twitter world.

Discovering and using Twitter as both a conversation piece and as a place to update your status, you’ll allow yourself to grow from a tiny speck to a large speck. A large speck which has hundreds and may be even thousands of followers – gravitating to your every word.

Twitter is scary and daunting at first. I didn’t really understand it and I too thought – hmm, this is just like Facebook statuses. Once I dug deeper, I found myself imersed in a world with conversation and life.

Don’t let Twitter scare you, because the longer you wait – the more opportunities could pass you by.

Media Convergence

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Posted by Joe on January 31, 2010 – 6:19 pm
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism

The media is changing. It is evolving. Convergence is happening right in front of our very eyes.

What is Media Convergence?

Media Converge is the combination of services into one service. For example, the iPhone is an excellent example of convergence. With the iPhone, you can make a phone call, go online, watch movies, listen to music, get directions and much more. In the past you would need multiple devices to do all of those things.

Convergence: Good or Bad?

Is convergence a good thing or a bad thing? The short answer is that it depends on your perspective and the context you are looking at convergence. Convergence allows us to access a variety of services on one single device. This limits the amount of devices that we have to carry or have. The ability to do multiple tasks on one single device is definitely easier. Depending on your opinion, you may not like this. You may feel that separate devices are better. Since I don’t want to make assumptions, I’m not going to say that majority of the people would prefer a single device with a load of services rather than individual devices for each different service. What are your thoughts on this?

Convergence also brings a bigger issue into the arena in regards to journalism. With access to the internet and in particular Facebook and Twitter on our phones, iPods, Wiis and other devices – we are literally able to communicate whenever and wherever we want. We could now be out to eat and contribute to a conversation about current affairs on Twitter. This added communication allows the public to join in on the conversation. A tool that I think every journalist should use, but use with caution.

Convergence could have a downside in the sense that there is a lot of clutter in regards to particular subject. Things tend to be a little chaotic. Go onto Twitter and search for a topic and you’re bound to find tons of “tweets” on the topic. How do we know which “tweet” is accurate? Accuracy in journalism is crucial. Convergence can also make journalists lazy if we rely too much on these tools.

What’s your thoughts on this?

How has Convergence affected you?

With all of these media changes occurring, how has it affected you personally? Do you like the fact that you can use a single device to do multiple activities? Do you think this good for society and for the media? Let me know your thoughts, I’m curious to hear them. Leave a comment below.

Before I go, I’m going to leave you with a video from CBS’s Sunday Morning show.

Helping Haiti: Are you going to help?

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Posted by Joe on January 14, 2010 – 11:50 am
Filed under Featured, Making a Difference, Rant

I’m not going to pretend like I know what it feels like to have everything ripped away from you in a matter of seconds. I’m not there in Haiti. However, what I do know is that the images and videos from Haiti are moving. It’s so sad to see the heartache and the pain that these people are going through.

I posted a link on my website (listed above – I’ll keep this link on the site for future reference) with a link of websites where you can help the cause to help the victims and their families during this tragedy. This is going to be a monumental relief effort by the United States and the World, but we can do it.

When tragedies of this magnitude happen, we are no longer people separated by borders, we are people of the world. We are one species in this world.

So my question to you is – are you going to help?

Here are a list of websites which you can contribute to the cause:

If you can’t contribute financially then please encourage your family and friends to donate money to the cause. If nothing else, spreading the word could put these links to people who may be able and want to help. Together we can make a difference for all of those affected by this terrible tragedy.

Striking Stories

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Posted by Joe on January 10, 2010 – 12:23 pm
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism, Tips

As a journalism student, where do I find my story ideas? How can you find stories to cover that are interesting and relevant to the general public? It’s easy to get lost in the constant banter of “headline news.” Throughout my day, I watch countless hours of news on both CNN and Fox News. Within an hour they constantly rehash the same stories over and over again like a broken record. They cut away a couple times to the weather and may be some side secondary story. It’s not long before they are back to the same “headline news” that they have been discussing for hours on end. I’m not saying they shouldn’t those cover stories and give them coverage that they deserve – but there is a line from obsessing about it and giving it appropriate coverage.

STORIES THAT SHOULD BE COVERED

I was taught in my introduction to Broadcast Journalism course at Lyndon State College that stories should be both interesting and relevant. The stories, whatever they are have to be of interest to the people who are watching. The internet is changing things not just technologically but because people now have choice to the stories they want to read, see and hear. You no longer have a group of people making decisions on what news stories that will be covered – people now have a choice to see, read and hear the stories they want to know about.

People want to know what is happening politically, economically and their personal security. However, we are only scratching the surface of what is really happening. If an outsider was looking in and watching our media – what impression would they get from our country? Is it an accurate depiction of what is happening in the country? As journalists our job is to uncover these stories and make sure our stories tell the true story. We need to cover stories from both angles so we tell the whole story from both sides. This not only makes the story unbiased but also gives the story depth and targets a broader range of people.

We need to target stories that matter most to the people. We need to stop scratching at the surface – we need to dig deeper and show the people what we really are about.