Sequence?

After taking JOMC 101, I’ve definitely come to a better understanding of the different sequences.  I haven’t decided for sure which one I’m going to take, but I’m now strongly considering PR, whereas before I took this class, I thought I was set on news-editorial/reporting.  I didn’t think Public Relations involved much writing at all, and I think I should definitely use my writing skills in the future.  However, I’ve learned that PR does involve a good amount of writing.  The difference between PR writing and reporting is that reporting requires a much better understanding of the press.  I’ve seen some aspects of reporting that aren’t so attractive, like how personal it can get and how easy it can be to offend others through your articles.  These things haven’t completely discouraged me from pursuing reporting, because there are still many aspects of it I do like.  I’ve seen some sides of PR that I think might involve more of my skills than just writing, though, which is exciting.  I think I have some strong leadership traits, which could be useful within PR because it involves many management functions, while reporting does not.  It also involves being very involved in and connected with a specific company, organization, or individual.  I think this might suit me better than jumping around between very different stories and contacts as would be the case in reporting because when I start working on something, I like to put as much energy and focus into that one thing as possible.

Overall this class helped me to reconsider my mindset about going into reporting and encouraged me to think about PR.  It’s also confirmed to me that I don’t want to go into the electronic communication sequence or advertising, and probably not the visual communication sequence either, but because I’ve learned a lot more about each of these, I’ve also seen how aspects of all them are important for any job within journalism, and it’s made me less hesitant to learn skills necessary for all of them.

Absence of Malice

Absence of Malice is a story of one man’s search for the meaning behind false information published about him in the local newspaper and a reporter’s search for truth about this information. Meghan Carter works for a paper in Miami that publishes a front-page story revealing Michael Gallagher to be the target of an ongoing murder investigation. Meghan is determined to get some real information about this scandal, so she goes straight to the best source, Michael Gallagher, despite people’s warnings that he is a dangerous man. Gallagher denies the truth of the story, but won’t give Meghan much helpful information. However, he doesn’t seem too worried about the false claims.

Throughout her search for the bottom of the story, Meghan is torn between making the complete truth public, agreeing to the privacy requested by those she interviews, and looking out for her own personal safety. A romantic interest that develops between Meghan and Gallagher adds another dimension to the story that entangles Meghan’s emotions with the politics of the newspaper. One of Gallagher’s close, mentally unstable friends who Meghan interviews ends up committing suicide when she sees her name and everything she disclosed to Meghan published in the paper. Meghan endures physical and verbal abuse at Gallagher’s hands for her publication. Their romantic involvement continues to develop even after this, though, and in the end it is finally discovered that a prosecutor in the murder case purposefully leaked the false information about Gallagher. He set Meghan up to discover this information so that she would publish it, encouraging Gallagher to give in and tell them some helpful information about the murder. Meghan was ultimately protected by the Absence of Malice rule in slander and libel cases and was therefore not prosecuted for publishing false information. She learned a lot of lessons about the potential harsh consequences of doing her job faithfully.

10 things I learned from the film that could help me become a better journalist…

1. Those that are interviewed by newspapers are real people with real emotions – discretion should be used in regard to how much of what they disclosed should be published.

2. If an absence of malice can’t be proved, false information published against someone is punishable as slander or libel.

3. It’s important to get enough background information on someone before deciding it’s safe enough to go off to interview them alone.

4. Even professional, official sources (prosecutor of the murder case in the movie) cannot and should not always be trusted.

5. Reporters should be committed to reporting the truth, but sometimes some information should not be published in order to protect someone’s reputation/identity or avoid destructive consequences.

6. Reporters need to be very clear with those being interviewed or testifying about the fact that they must consent or refuse to release their statements and name for publication.

7. Reporters need to be aware that their stories could put themselves in great potential danger and act accordingly, like not giving out personal information or publishing everything.

8. Getting emotionally involved with the targets of your reporting makes it hard to be objective when writing stories and also puts you in more danger of harsh consequences for your what you publish.

9. Papers have a great deal of freedom from the government in deciding what to print – it’s up to the integrity of the papers and reporters.

10. It’s important to be persistent in talking to witnesses or those involved in different parts of the story if you really want to get to the truth at the bottom.

Public Relations

A major difference between Public Relations and Journalism is that public relations is a management company, while journalism is the press.  PR practitioners also work for a specific client. That client might be one person, or it might be a corporation. While journalists write articles about many different things and only sometimes write things that affect the reputations of these clients, PR practitioners’ primary job is to represent that client. They put out statements about their clients and sometimes write things, but that is not their main focus, as it is for journalists. They often speak for their client at events, on TV, on the radio, etc. Another major difference between Public Relations and Journalism is that one of PR’s main jobs is giving their clients advice. PR reps serve as counselors to the management of their company, so they are often involved in decision making and organizational policymaking. Journalists don’t have a connection to a company or client like this and definitely are not involved in this kind of decision making.

PRSSA is the Public Relations Student Society of America. It is based off of PRSA, which was founded by PR practitioners in 1947 when the public relations industry was starting to get a negative reputation – many critics thought a lot of its practices were unethical. Its goals were to promote professional standards and to put forth a positive image. Society members adopted the industry’s first code of ethics in 1950 in order to do this.

Tips they offered on starting your own business include starting each day with inspiration, drive, and goals.  They also advised us to do a lot of research, talk to potential mentors and partners, network with them, write a and mission statement and business plan.  They encouraged us to work hard, long, and maintain perspective.

Championship Reflections

The championship win and this whole past season are obviously amazing and I feel so spoiled to have been a part of all of this my first year here! However, the win didn’t come as a huge surprise to me, as was probably the case for a lot of people, because our team did so well this whole season and because we knew we had 4 players who could have potentially been playing in the NBA rather than at UNC. I never even thought much about the fact that we could lose on Monday until Monday! I think I would’ve been more excited about our win if it hadn’t been predicted by so many people and if we had to work really hard to win each game in the tournament – I would’ve felt like I had to do more to help our team win, and each loss and win would’ve felt like a bigger deal if I had felt like the team depended so much on its fans and support. In our case, I still cared very much about our team’s standing throughout the season and the outcome of every game, but I didn’t feel like the team depended on me or its fans in general for encouragement because their success generates enough encouragement itself. I also think that because I’ve always been a tarheel fan..because so much of my family has gone there and I’ve always heard about their success, I expect a lot from the team, another reason why the win wasn’t a big surprise. If the school were smaller and I felt like the team wasn’t as separated from the students…if we didn’t have a reputation for being so good and I felt like the team needed all the support it could get…and if we hadn’t done so well during the regular season, I would’ve been more surprised and therefore excited about our win.

However, these things don’t diminish how proud I am of our team. I’m so thankful and proud to go to a school that already has such a prestigious, established reputation in this area. This is something I never had in high school and something that is really fun to be a part of. I’m glad to be a part of a school whose basketball team has such a rich legacy behind it – I feel like no one can really say anything negative about our team and have the evidence to back it up. And I think the most unusual thing to me is that this all happened in my first year here. It was so special and definitely something I will never forget!

Time Online in a Day

Here is what I did online from 8:00 yesterday to 8:00 today…

Monday, April 6

8:00: Checked weather.com for the day’s forecast (a few minutes)

9:00: did an experiment in Econ class on aplia.com for experiment (30 minutes)

10:15: changed my password on onyen.unc.edu (a few minutes)

10:20: checked the Spanish assignment I was doing on blackboard.unc.edu (one minute)

10:20: looked up Spanish words on wordreference.com while doing an assignment (30 minutes)

12:45 pm: used thunderbird to check email (a few minutes)

12:50: checked our blog assignment on the JOMC 101 blog site (one minute)

1:00: checked class openings on student central (15 minutes)

1:00: checked course requirements on the online undergraduate bulletin (15 minutes)

2:00: checked Facebook (a few minutes)

3:15: used the thunderbird site to try to figure out how to change my password (5 minutes)

3:20: used thunderbird to check email (a few minutes)

4:00: used Google to find out where a city was for an assignment (one minute)

4:30: checked course requirements on the online undergraduate bulletin to (a few minutes)

4:30: checked class openings on student central (a few minutes)

6:15: used thunderbird to check email (one minute)

6:30: checked weather.com to see the weather for the night (a few minutes)

2:00 am: checked class openings on student central (15 minutes)

2:00: checked course requirements on the undergraduate bulletin (15 minutes)

10 Best TV Series of all Time

I based what I think the 10 best TV series of all time are partly on what the ratings say and partly on which shows people seem to talk about and remember the most…

1. I Love Lucy (1951-1957): it’s classic of the 1950s (because it was actually made then) and it’s so well-known – many of us get our idea of this time period from this show; the original series ran successfully for 9 years and then for 3 more seasons with 13 one-hour specials; it was the most-watched show in the U.S. in 4 of its 6 seasons

2. Gunsmoke (1955 – 1975): it was the longest-running prime-time series with continuing characters, and it was TV’s No. 1 ranked show from 1957 – 1961; it had a background with its radio drama series that provided viewer interest; it was unique in that episodes featured very explicit content for the time, like violent crimes, scalping, rapes, and massacres

3. Laugh-In (1968 – 1973): this show was unique in that it was a sketch comedy program that include fast-paced skits, gags, and one-liners; I think the fact it came on at night, only once a week, is what kept people interested; it was exciting because it was set up as if viewers were going to a party when the show started and it featured its celebrities dancing to popular music

4. 60 Minutes (1968 – present): it holds the record for the longest continually running program of any genre scheduled during American network prime time; it’s unique in that it uses a style of reporter-centered investigation, and many consider it to be the best investigative TV program in the U.S.

5. All in the Family (1971 – 1983): this show caught people’s attention because it was the first sitcom to deal with significant topics such as racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, abortion, and birth control; Archie Bunker was a funny, but also influential character, and Bravo named him TV’s greatest character of all time

6. M*A*S*H (1972 – 1983): the finale was the most-watched TV episode in history; many of the stories in the early seasons were based on true stories real MASH surgeons told the production team, so it provided real information about the Korean War, but at the same time did not become too serious because it used satire that made it both a comedy and a drama

7. Dallas (1978 – 1991): it was broadcast on CBS for 13 seasons and was also successful in the UK where it aired on BBC; it was a soap opera that was unique in that it didn’t picture the typical family or situations everyone could necessarily relate to because it revolved around a wealthy family in the oil and cattle-ranching business in Texas; I think while viewers liked shows they could relate to, they also liked to see things much different from their own lives

8. The Cosby Show (1984 – 1992): it was successful for 8 seasons; it taught a lot of lessons and was a show parents probably weren’t hesitant to let their kids watch; the range of ages of kids attracted a large group of kids, but it also included a lot of situations adults could relate to in regard to the parents’ professions, parenting, and cultural dilemmas; TV Guide said it was TV’s biggest hit in the 1980s

9. Seinfeld: it lasted 9 seasons; TV Guide named it the greatest television program of all time in 2002; it was a show about nothing very significant, but the hilarious characters and plot lines are what kept people interested

10. Friends: It ran for 10 seasons and became one of the most popular sitcoms of its time; it consistently ranked in the top ten in the final primetime ratings; it was hilarious and its humor was creative, not overly predictable or only crude humor; it also did a great job attracting viewers by showing relationship problems and situations people could relate to

L

Country Radio in Charlotte & L.A.

Since I didn’t really go anywhere for spring break, I listened to the country station I usually listen to at home (Charlotte) and I listened online to another country station in L.A.  I feel like the target audiences of both of these stations include a large range of ages because they both focused on the newest hits, but they also both played a lot of songs that are much older.  That station in Charlotte calls its format “Top 40 Country,” but they play a lot of oldies, too, and the station in L.A. is categorized as “Today’s Hits and Yesterday’s Favorites.”  I think the stations are probably most widely listened to by 14-24-year-olds, but are also popular with adults up to age 50 and maybe even older.

I listened to the station in Charlotte from about 2:15-3:15 on a Friday.

96.9 “The Kat” WKKT FM, Top 40 Country, Charlotte, NC

2:16 – 2:20: Song (new)

2:20: Automated Station ID

2:20 – 2:23: Song: “God Love Her,” Toby Keith (new)

2:23: DJ did Station ID, mentioned being in the middle of 24-in-a-row, announced next song/artist

2:23- 2:26: Song: “I Will,” Jimmy Wayne (new)

2:26: Station Jingle

2:27 – 2:30: Song:“Never Wanted Nothing More,” Kenny Chesney (older)

2:30: DJ did Station ID, announced next song/artist

2:30 – 2:33: Song:“Feel that Fire,” Dierks Bentley (new)

2:33: Automated Station ID

2:33 – 2:38: Song:“The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia,” Reba McEntire (old)

2:38: DJ announced previous artist/song, announcement about an upcoming concert, gave station website

2:38 – 2:41: Commercials (auto repair, race tickets)

2:41-2:42: Clip of Station’s morning show/ad for it

2:42 – 2:43: Song: “That’s My Story,” Collin Raye (older)

2:43: DJ did Station ID, mentioned 24-in-a-row, announced next artist/song

2:43 – 2:46: Song: “River of Love,” George Strait (new)

2:46: Automated Station ID

2:47 – 2:50: Song: “Stand,” Rascal Flatts (older)

2:50: DJ did station ID, announced concert/how to get tickets

2:50 – 2:53: Song: “Ride,” Martina McBride (new)

2:53: DJ announced Martina’s CD, did Station ID, and told how to listen live online

2:54 – 2:56: Commercials

2:56: Morning Show host did ad for housing development

2:56 – 2:58: Commercials

2:58 – 2:59 Song :“It’s a Little Too Late,” Tanya Tucker (old)

2:59: Interrupted song for concert ad

2: 59 – 3:03: Song : “Something to Be Proud Of,” Montgomery Gentry (old)

3:03 – 3:04: new DJ introduces himself, does Station ID, mentions artists coming up, announces next song/artist

3:04 – 3:07: Song : “It’s America,” Rodney Atkins (new)

3:07: Station Jingle

3:07 – 3:10: Song: “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You,” Brooks & Dunn (older)

3:10: DJ did announcement for Radiothon for kids, announced next song/artist

3:11 – 3:14: Song: “You’re Gonna Miss This,” Trace Adkins (newer)

3:14: Station Jingle

I listened to the station in L.A. from 2:45-3:45 on a Sunday.

105.1 “Go Country” KKGO FM , Today’s Hits and Yesterday’s Favorites, L.A.

2:45: DJ did Station ID, announced upcoming artists

2:45: Automated contest announcement: chance to win tickets to Disneyland Resort is coming up on one of the radio’s shows

2:46: Automated announcement about how to sign up to win tickets on the station’s website – tickets to Southern California’s Winter Resort, include a country concert; also announcement about rating songs on the station’s website

2:46: DJ did Station ID

2:46 – 2:50: Song:“It Won’t Be Like this for Long,” Darius Rucker (newer)

2:50 – 2: 53: Song :“Laughed Until We Cried,” Jason Aldean (older)

2:53: DJ announced next artist

2:53 – 2:57: Song: “God Must Really Love Me,” Craig Morgan (new)

2:57: DJ did Station ID, announced next artist

2:57 – 3:00: Song: “Before He Cheats,” Carrie Underwood (older)

3:00: Automated Station ID

3:00 – 3:03: Song: “It’s a Little Too Late,” Mark Chesnutt (old)

3:03: DJ did Station ID, mentioned the drive home show and that DJ, announced next artist

3:03 – 3:06: “God Love Her,” Toby Keith (new)

3:06: Automated station ID

3:06 -3:09: Song: “All I Want To Do,” Sugarland (newer)

3:09: DJ did Station ID, told how to find out about upcoming concerts and contests, announced next artist

3:10 – 3:13: “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You,” Brooks & Dunn (older)

3:13 – 3:16: Song: “Last Call,” Lee Ann Womack (new)

3:16: DJ did Station ID and announced divorce between an artist and his wife, announced next artist

3:16 – 3:18: Song: “Daddy’s Money,” Ricochet (old)

3:18-3:22: Song: “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” Brad Paisley (older)

3:22: DJ did station ID

3:22-3:26: Song: “What Kinda Gone,” Chris Cagle (newer)

3:26: DJ did station ID, gave website, how to listen online, what # to text for contests, etc.

3:27 – 3:30: Song: “Small Town USA,” Justin Moore (new)

3:30: Automated Station ID

3:30-3:33: Song: “Mr. Mom,” Lonestar (old)

3:33: DJ did Station ID, announced next artist/song

3:34-3:37: Song: “River of Love,” George Strait (new)

3:37 – 3:40: Song: “Sissy’s Song,” Alan Jackson (newer)

3:40: DJ did Station ID, told about upcoming concert and when to call the next day, announced some artists to come in the next row of songs

3:40: same automated announcement as before about contest to win Disneyland Resort tickets

3:41: same automated announcement as before about signing up to win tickets to the Winter Resort/concert

3:42 – 3:45: Song:“Runaway,” Love & Theft (new)

These stations format clocks are very similar.  L.A.’s station included more announcements about contests and concerts and less commercials, while Charlotte’s had more commercials.  They were both in the middle of continuous music, though, and they played very similar music.  They both had only three very old songs, four relatively old songs, and the rest very new or relatively new songs.  They also both inserted their station IDs between almost every song.

Students’ Grade Disputes

The New York Times published an article about the great amount of disputes college students seem to be having with their professors about their grades (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html?_r=1&em).

I do agree that it seems a lot of the students in my generation often feel that they deserve a higher grade on an assignment when they don’t get what they expect.  I also agree that this can be attributed to many students’ sense of entitlement.  I actually just listened to a sermon online about the characteristics of my generation (the Milleniums, or Generation Y), and this sense of entitlement, sometimes in regard to grades, was mentioned as one of the unique characteristics of my generation.  I agree with my pastor as to why this is often the case.  My generation was the first generation in which it seemed that all kids got a trophy or an award for participating in a sport or a game, even if they didn’t win.  We learned that putting forth our best effort is all that really matters, and for that, everyone should be rewarded.  I think our parents were also more concerned with helping us build positive self-esteems and were simply more thoughtful about our development than were previous generations’ parents.  As a result, many kids in my generation were often rewarded for things that should have been expected of them anyway and were also often spoiled by their parents.  I think these two factors combine to make many college students today feel like a best effort should receive a grade of an A, and a moderate effort should receive a grade of a B.

I can understand parts of both the professors’ and the students’ side of this argument.  The professors are thinking that  this  kind of scale related to effort really doesn’t make sense because effort doesn’t necessarily reflect knowledge.  You can do all that’s asked of you – do the readings, come to class and take notes, and study the material for an exam – and still not really have a good understanding of the material.  And that’s what grades are based on – how well you understand what’s being asked of you.  This is why professors often have their assignments and exams take the material to another level and require students’ own opinions of the material or require that they understand certain applications of it.   In addition, if grades were so closely related to effort, what would happen if all the students gave enough effort to do what was asked of them?  Should the students who do more than enough receive the same grade as those who do just enough (all A’s)?  I agree with professors’ thinking in this regard because it obviously doesn’t make sense for grades to be so closely related to effort.  However, I also understand part of the student’s perspective in that a professor shouldn’t expect him to know that he should do more than what is asked of him in order to receive an A.  I think that what professors provide on their syllabi should reflect what students can assume they need to do in order to receive an A.  This doesn’t mean that they can do this work mindlessly and not really understand it, but it shouldn’t be hard for a student to figure out what more he needs to do to earn an A.

I also agree with the part of the article that says that part of students’ failure to earn higher grades is due to the test preparation they learned in earlier years.  My generation is very ambitious overall and extremely high academic pressures have been placed on them – an amount that hasn’t been seen in previous generations.  I think that this pressure has led to the fact that we’ve become very efficient in test preparation.  We want to prepare for tests as efficiently as possible because this will give us more time to devote to all the other tasks on our endless to-do lists.  As a result, we often don’t learn our material really in-depth, and this surface-level understanding then doesn’t get us the grade we feel our efficient test preparation deserves.

I think students need to realize that because effort doesn’t necessarily reflect how well someone understands material, more than just a good effort will often be required to get an A.  This doesn’t necessarily have to mean that we devote a lot more time to our studies, but it means that we make sure that when we are putting in the time, we’re fully engaged and really trying to understand the material.  And I think this comes more naturally as we get into the fields of study that we are pursuing and really enjoy.  At the same time, professors should give students enough information about what they expect on assignments and exams so that students know what levels of understanding correspond to which grades.

Is our news valid?

Where do you get your news and how do you measure the credibility of your news source?

Sometimes I get my news from the paper – the DTH at school, the Charlotte Observer at home. I read the paper either when I happen to see an interesting article or when I’m searching for the most detailed and factual report. I tend to view the paper as the most credible news source because it seems that to get something in print, and to distribute it to thousands of people, the facts in the paper will be checked very thoroughly. Whether it’s true or not, it seems like it would be easier to publish incorrect information online – like it wouldn’t have to go through an editing process as meticulous as the paper would. Another difference with online news sources is that they’re not delivering their articles to your door. The delivery of newspapers makes me feel like the paper companies must be very sure about what they’ve published if they’re going to urge us so strongly to read it. These same things are true for television in my mind for the most part, because broadcasting news, especially on the major networks, obviously has a major impact. This makes me think that the news stations will make sure their reports are legitimate. However, I still find newspapers more credible than TV reports because I think newspapers typically have more time to get their stories straight before they’re published, while the news on TV is usually expected to be the most up-to-date and given less time.

The reputation of a news source also plays a big role in the credibility I give to a certain source. Tabloids, for example, probably have a low credibility in everyone’s mind because they’re known to publish speculation as fact, to exaggerate, and to try to cause controversy. Smaller newspapers that haven’t built a reputation for being honest and thorough in their reporting yet would not have as much credibility in my mind as the larger, older papers.

I often get my news from other people. Word of mouth is a really fast way to spread news, but it’s not very credible. My experience with the people I’m hearing news from – how often they’ve been incorrect in information they have stated as fact and how often they tend to exaggerate – determines how valid I will consider their information. Getting information by word of mouth tends to be a pretty inaccurate news source because people like to get reactions from people and most people love to be the news-bearer. As a result, people often say things are true before they have enough evidence to be sure and they exaggerate in order to get greater reactions from others. In all, I think news published in print is the most credible.

Newspaper Interest

Will Sutton, our guest speaker, has asked that we blog about what is of most interest to us in the newspaper.

When I read the newspaper, I’m typically most interested in feature articles. I like to read feature articles about local happenings, especially stories that involve people my age. When I was in high school, I was interested in things students at other local high schools were doing, and now I would be interested in stories about interesting things happening at State, Wake, Duke, and Greensboro. I also like to read feature articles about local restaurants, events, and businesses. I’d also be attracted to anything about fashion, like upcoming or past styles. Other than feature articles, I would look to the paper to read the most detailed and factual information about elections, significant political issues, and important college and professional basketball and football news.