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.
We have all been to websites who have the last updated year of 1995. Don’t be that person. Google and other search engines are constantly looking for websites with fresh and new content. If you own a website you may want to consider creating a blog for yourself. You’ll not only help yourself in the search engine battle but you’ll also be able to show your knowledge.
Some companies fear that by making or creating a blog that they will look less professional. However, I don’t think that will be the case. I think people are looking for blogs and new ways that they can interact with companies and businesses. Business owners should welcome the idea of customer interaction and would benefit from not only blogging but social media.
Blogging can be unprofessional, but so can your website. It doesn’t matter what your website really looks like (as long as you don’t have a white background with light gray text) but the content that your website provides.
START BLOGGING
Organize. Develop an idea of what you want your blog to talk about. If you’re a company that engraves things you may want to talk about the history of the company, how you engrave (and other how to articles) or possibly sales. Don’t talk about things that are unrelated to your website or your personal life as this will draw people away from your blog and your company. It will also make your blog seem unprofessional. Unrelated topics and personal life issues should be left to a personal blog unless it has relevance to your business. Also make a decision on who you want to update your blog – workers, management or just you.
Update. Don’t just update your blog, update it often. The more you update the higher your website will go in the search engines.
Encourage Feedback. One of the many features of blogging is the ability to get feedback on what you write. This is good because as a business owner you want to get feedback for your sales and your company.
I posted an article on how good social media is and how it has potential to revolutionize the journalist industry a couple weeks ago. Social media is here and is going to stay and will possibly evolve into something much bigger. Is there a downside to social media?
Online Impressions
I read an article on Poynter Online called Everyday Ethics. I encourage everyone to read it whether or not you’re a journalist or not. There is good points for everyone to read, especially those that are looking for a job. We have to remember that everything we do and post online can be read by anyone – including your employer. Our views and opinions on topics can be liked, commented and retweeted. Sometimes what we post becomes “viral” or spread quickly through the internet. What you post online can damage your reputation online and offline.
I think it’s important for people to realize that your impression online is important and can translate to how people view you in real life. I have seen profiles loaded with thousands of pictures, status updates and more. The problem is when majority of your profile is consumed with pictures and statuses of how drunk you will get or got the night before. What an employer think if they saw this?
Impact on Journalism
This could be devastating for journalists. Bias does not belong in our field. The article points out how just by favoriting, grouping, liking could show bias. Is social media the real problem for news bias? Everyone has an opinion about something – the question is should these views be made public? Is this really a concern for journalism?
I was taught that as a journalist you have to be independent from your sources. You should not accept bribes or payments from a source to cover a story. Does friending someone on Facebook, Myspace or any other social network demonstrate the same thing? Does friending someone equate to not being independent from a source? The answer to these questions are not clear and will vary from person to person.
The bigger issue…Balance!
I was also taught that the news piece needed to demonstrate balance. Unbalanced reporting can also show bias. So where is the balanced reporting? Social media can expose journalists as being a Democrat or Republican. It can show that we like ham sandwiches and that we just broke up with our boyfriend or girlfriend. This shows that we are human. Humans have opinions, we all have tastes. The key to journalism is to be unbiased in a sense that we tap into everyone’s tastes and not just our own. Balance is key. Input your taste into the story but counter it with the other tastes. The more tastes you put in the story, the better.
So what are your thoughts? Do you think that journalists should use discretion when posting online?
The media has turned from a once credible source of information to a biased projection of thoughts. Cable news has become outlets for opinion and entertainment then actual journalism. The higher ups wonder why people are turning away from the media. I do not.
It’s fair to say that we do have balance – but it’s not balance in the right way. You have Fox News who tends to lean to the right with conservatives while CNN and MSNBC are more liberal and lean toward the left. So where is the real balance?
What’s going on?
We sometimes hear stories like what happened earlier this week at Fox. Fox News mistakenly aired the wrong tape for the Palin book signing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This comes after an earlier incident this week, where Sean Hannity showed footage from a conservative rally held over the summer [that] was played on “Hannity” during a segment on a more recent rally.1 So the question is now, is Fox News intentionally misleading the public?
Fox has stated that there has been a “production error.” They also released this statement:
“Yesterday we told you about Sarah Palin kicking off her book tour and then we spoke to Sean Hannity about an interview that he did with former Governor Palin. When introducing the segment we showed you footage of people lining up in Michigan for a book signing that evening. In the tease before the segment, the tease to commercial, we told you how those people were already lining up to meet Palin. The problem is we didn’t show you the video we were actually referencing. Instead we mistakenly aired what’s called “file tape” of Sarah Palin. We didn’t mean to mislead anybody in that tease. It was a mistake, and for that we apologize.”2
Fox News hasn’t been the only cable news company to be caught altering “news.” According to Yahoo news, Fox News rival MSNBC caught heat last week for using altered images of Sarah Palin on the air, for which they later apologized.3
How should we react?
As the public how should we respond to this? Can we believe that these are accidents and acts of “production errors?” As a journalist student how should I react to hearing about this? What are your thoughts on this?
Social media is changing the journalism landscape. Websites like Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon are allowing users to share information at record breaking speeds. I find it fascinating to be able to share a link with all of my Twitter, Facebook and Myspace friends. I see something cool on the web – boom I share it. The same goes with my friends – they see something they think is interesting they share it with everyone. This is a new way of sharing information. Traditionally, we shared information through email, instant messengers and word of mouth. All of those forms were to one individual or may be a couple of people depending on how many people we emailed, instant messaged and or spoke to. However, now with social media we can reach a broad range of people; faster, quicker and easier. This new way of transmitting information is revolutionizing media and journalism field.
There are many questions and even doubts of how “real-time journalism” will affect the field. Over the past couple of years, I have noticed a distinct change in how mainstream media has used broadcasting. When I am watching the news, many of the stories are posted online after they are broadcasted on air. Anchors often guide viewers to go to their website for further information. News agencies are using Twitter and Facebook to bring attention to their stories. They want and hope that you share their stories with your friends. This gains them viewers, listeners and readers.
The real question is, where do citizens come into this process and do they? Journalists are like detectives, curiously trying to find information and get to the bottom of the story. Journalists try to find sources and determine whether the information they have gathered is fact or fiction. This is important because if journalists do not fact check their information – they personally lose credibility and so does the news agency they’re reporting for. In this business, your name and your credibility are everything.
Sometimes I wonder if citizens can produce accurate information and actual facts. Sites like Twitter are surging with information at the moment of breaking news. It’s almost like chaos with hundreds of tweets being sent every minute. How much of this information is accurate? Where is this information coming from? How do we find out what is true and what is not? I think a good example of this is with the Ford Hood incident. I saw people naming the suspect before CNN, MSNBC and other news agencies. It took some cable news stations up to ten to fifteen minutes to get that information out, while Twitter was already discussing who this person was, background information and his role in the army. All the background information that was provided wound up being correct, but we can not guarantee that this will be true in other cases. The media and Twitter both claimed that the gunman was killed – but later reports indicated he was injured and in a coma at a local hospital.
Citizens are an important aspect in journalism and I think we need their accounts to help us write our stories. I think Twitter and other social media websites are an excellent way to gather this information. I think journalists should be the ones to determine the facts from the fiction. I’m afraid that with all of this information being submitted to these sites – we lose a sense of clarity. There is such a thing called too much information.
I think the bigger issues here is that our society thrives on constant updates and needing that information right this second. It’s almost like a subconscious need for information. Television news, newspapers and radio can not keep up with these social media sites because they are too quick. Imagine if television news was like Twitter – it would drive you nuts! These social media websites have us all wanting up to the minute updates – which is not necessarily a good thing. As a society we want information right this minute and we want this information to be accurate. Unfortunately, you can not have both. You can’t have information updated every minute and expect them to be factual. It takes time to sort out the details and to make sure the information you have is credible. For me, I would much rather wait the extra ten to fifteen minutes and have accurate information then have it right away and have it changed a million times because it was incorrect.
I think the potential is there for real time journalism – we just need a way to organize all the clutter.
What do you think of real time journalism? Leave a comment and or vote on the poll! I am curious what you think and how it may change our field.
