Friday, March 30, 2007

Journalism

Journalism is considered “the collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts” (journalism, Answer.com). Today journalism is the most effective way to get the news to the rest of the world. In the past people had to relay upon newspapers and magazines only for there news but to day, the internet has expanded the way we get our information. Now people can log onto the internet and go to news sites such as CNN, go to online newspapers, and go visit numerous blogs that have been dedicated to give you whatever news you want.

This week’s assignment was to choose and articles on a topic from both a newspaper and online source. I have chosen to write about the lawsuit that is being put upon the Delta Zeta sorority from DePauw University in Greenscale, Indiana, from 23 girls who have been removed from active membership, claiming they were removed because of their looks and race. My newspaper article, Kicked off Ind. Campus, sorority suing for reinstatement, was from Thursday’s issue of the USA today and my internet article, Sorority accused of kicking out unattractive members sues university, is from CNN.com on March 28th.

Both the newspaper and the internet article convey the same story but in different ways. I’ve noticed that in the newspaper article the writer used an inverted pyramid (journalism, Wikipedia) method were the most important message or portion of the story is expressed and from there all the rest of the story or news unfolds. The internet article was more of a summery of events that had taken place, and was more focuses on giving a none bias report of what has happened. The internet article was more of an informational article then the newspaper article was. Also the newspaper had a lot more quotes, whereas the internet article didn’t. The newspaper articles also had direct quotes that people involved had to say about the story which was something that the internet articles didn’t have. The internet articles paraphrased what people had to say, instead of giving the direct quotes. If a person wanted to find out more about what details were going on in the new story then I would suggest them in reading the newspaper article on this subject then the internet article on CNN.com, which basically summarizes what’s been going on.

Not only does that content of the newspaper article and the internet article differ, but so does the presentation of both. The article that I choose from the newspaper had a big picture and a big title which caught the attention of the reader. The newspaper article also was in column form which people today, recognize as a newspaper story format. Also the newspaper its self had many other articles on the same page, causing a person to be drawn to other articles and not just that one article. The online article had a much smaller title on the page, had no picture, and was written in a normal format and not in columns, which are all very different from the newspaper article. The online article, instead of having other articles on the same page, had just one article per page, but also linked to other articles that were popular or that related to that subject. With online articles it is much easier to search for similar articles under the same topic then it is with newspapers. In this way online articles are better for searching for topics then it is for detailed breaking news.

Newspapers and Online articles have changed the way that we receive our news today. Though newspapers are still being read and being printed I believe that online articles and blogs are the preferred way of getting news from the internet.

References:

Journalism. (2007, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:40, March 30, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Journalism&oldid=118575756

Journalism. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/journalism

Marklein, Mary Beth Kicked off Ind. campus, sorority suing for reinstatement. (2007, March, 29). USA Today, p. A2.

(2007, March, 28). Sorority accused of kicking out unattractive members sues university. CNN.com, Retrieved March, 29, 2004, from http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/28/troubled.sorority.ap/index.html

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Online Communities

Communities are a very import part of everyday life. Through out a persons life, a person will belong to many different communities like that of a neighborhood, work community, smaller groups like sports community or clubs, and online communities like ebay, facebook, , a blogging community, plus many more communities. Without communities we would be lost. The purpose of communities is to have a sense of belonging and reliability on others. Without the formation of communities a person would be alone in the world. Without communication with others our society would be totally different, it would be each person for themselves. This is why communities are one of the most important aspects of our society. Communities are what make the world as we know it today.

One community that has become more popular over the last few years is online communities. According to Wikipedia, an online community is " a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the internet . According to this definition, one online community that I belong to is facebook.

Facebook was originally created for college students, but has expanded to include everyone who has an email address associating them with a network (facebook, wikipedia). Facebook is free to all its users and allows people to create a profile in which you can state your interests, activities, town, relationship states, education information and anything else that you want to disclose. Facebook also allows its users to have a profile picture and upload pictures. This allows for other facebook members to connect a face with the information given. This also allows for stronger social bonds to be formed. The best thing about facebook is that you can set your page to privacy, which allows only those who are your friends to see your profile, allowing you to have somewhat of privacy with who sees your page. This in a way is creating your own community of those who can see your page. The pictures that you are allowed to put up on your page also create a social tie because you are sharing your life with others. This creates a tie because the people looking at the page will get to know you in some sense through the pictures you put up. Another way that facebook creates a social ties is when you add people to be your friend. This allows for you to add more people to your friends list thus increasing your community each time. Adding friends also allows you to meet new people and to talk to them bonding together your social worlds. Another way that facebook helps create a social tie is the feature where you are able to write on each others wall. Writing on a wall is leaving a comment for the person the wall belongs too. This creates a social tie because a person is able to communicate with everyone else who they are friends with on face book, creating a community of other face book users. Communication is one of the key factors in community, without it there would be no community. Facebook is a perfect example of an online community that has increased the community ties in society without making us disconnected from the world and its communities.

Community is one of the most important concepts in our society. Without it we would be lost. Communities are what connects us to the rest of the world. If there was no community then everyone would only look out for themselves and have no social ties to anyone, creating a totally different world then we are use to today.

References:

Facebook. (2007, March 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:25, March 20, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Facebook&oldid=116552685

Virtual community. (2007, March 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:24, March 20, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_community&oldid=115921446