Monday, September 15, 2014

All My Journalism Study Guides For J1

I'm in J2 now and I realized that I have all these relatively rad study guides and I might as well put them on the internet even though no one will find or look at this blog ever, I'm so sure.
On the off chance that, in beginning the freshmen blogging project, Mr. Miller gives you past years' blogs, you may find this.
If not, well. Eh. Here they are nonetheless.

2nd grading period
4th grading period
5th grading period

Midterm
Final

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Classmate Blog Response - Stephanie's Why Movies are Still a Thing

     I recently made a post that briefly covered how different forms of media have survived through demassification at the hands of television. (See that here.) Stephanie Little also made a post similar to this on her blog, but she focused solely on the movie industry. She went in-depth in her explanations, organized her points neatly, and emphasized the ideas with pictures and examples. It's lightly humorous, very informative, and interesting. She describes things in detail, but with simple explanations so that it is easy to understand.



A+

Gold Star

Classmate Blog Response - Kaylee on the TV Lecture

     Our classmate Kaylee recently posted a blog entry about Mr. Miller's  lecture about television. She went into great depth on the topic, explaining the effects of TV--including those on society. She gives a detailed recap on how it affects the way we dress and act, and also how it affects things like elections. She does all of this with a sarcastic sort of humor that makes it not only educational but also very entertaining.
     I especially like her picture of Barack Obama with the caption of "that's right friends i won." (Just saying.)

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Class Response - PR and Advertising

     In class today, we were introduced to our new unit on PR (Public Relations) and advertising. I'm very excited for this unit, because I'm interested in PR.

     We had worksheets to do today, and we were told to think about the worst and best advertisements we'd seen. I thought this was interesting and it got me thinking. Either way, I wanted to share my favorites and least favorites.

Worst:
Head-on: Apply directly to the forehead.



Well, it definitely captures the "repetition" method of advertisement. This repetition is probably to make up for the fact that the commercial is boring, lacking information, and just downright annoying. In just the thirteen seconds of the original version, it manages to irritate me. This, however, is a ten minute long version. Enjoy!







Best:
Public Service Announcement: Dumb Ways to Die


I love this! It's actually a public service announcement, but I'll still count it. Throughout the whole time I was watching it for the first time, I thought it was just a cute little video. Then at the end, where it was revealed that it was a PSA from Metro, I was pleasantly surprised. It's cute, memorable, catchy, and you don't even think of it as an advertisement at first! I show it to my friends just because I think it's cute, and they love it too! There's even an app for it now. That is really great marketing!

Monday, November 11, 2013

News Source Review - Camm Trial Verdict

     As I'm sure that we all know, on October 24 of 2013, David Camm was found innocent after a long, expensive, and much-talked-about trial. That day, every news station and the Courier Journal's lead story revolved around the trial's outcome.

     WHAS spent such an extensive period of time discussing the trial, in fact, that on that day, there were only two real news stories when you exclude the sports and weather. The lead story alone lasted almost nine whole minutes. Combined with the long breaks and excessive amounts of weather and sports stories, there was only time for one more, very fast and barely relevant story.

     However, it was not a slow news day. Every other news station still had at least seven stories that day, despite the Camm Trial. On top of that, The Courier Journal's archive shows clearly that the two stories featured were not the only newsworthy of the day. A list of news stories from the courier-journal.com's archive for the 24th is shown below.


While not all of these stories are relevant and several are sports related, there are many significant stories that viewers of WHAS news would have benefited from hearing. Things such as a new bullying protection order in JCPS, a vote to ban alcohol sales after two a.m, and a program aimed to prevent teen car crashes. These stories have more impact than the unnecessarily lengthy story covering the Camm trial, and are also far more interesting.

On October 24, 2013, WHAS violated the yardsticks of newsworthiness (it told about things that had little to no impact for only a short period of time) and enterprise (they did not seek out answers; they asked "what" rather than "why"), and they principle of making the important interesting (rather than making the interesting important).

Class Response - How Other Forms of Media Survived the Television Apocalypse

     With the intense popularity of television, all forms of media were forced to demassify. However, we still see these mediums today. Each medium had something about it that kept it around, and they each demassified into something that people would still have an interest in.

Newspapers
     Newspapers are still used today for various reasons. You can see these reasons in detail in a previous post by me by clicking here.

Radio
     Radio was forced to demassify and focus on a niche audience. However, this demassification is not the primary reason that radios are still around. What really saved radio is music--rock and roll. In the 50s and 60s, as television grew more prevalent, it seemed as if radio would be doomed. The music industry's involvement in radio got people interested in radio again, despite TV's popularity.

Movies
     There are many reasons as to why movies are still very popular. For one, Hollywood began making big-budget, extremely expensive productions that television could not afford. The movies also had a large variety of genres as well. On top of that, there is a cultural influence--the need to be first. Going to the movies also became a social experience, where you could spend time with friends, family, and romantic interests. The setting made it an immersive experience--the large screens, dark room, surround sound--which also appealed to people.


Friday, November 8, 2013

Classmate Blog Response - Alyssa Durbin Media Critique

     Alyssa's blog recently featured a media critique that reprimanded the WLKY news station for their lack of news--in multiple ways. She not only mentions the absurd amount of time that is spent in a thirty minute show with just advertising. With so many breaks, there is only twenty minutes left available for news. Between five to ten minutes of this, Alyssa claims, is spent on sports and weather.

     She also explains that the news that is actually featured in the news is not even good, relevant news. She elaborates by providing details about the David Camm murder trials--which we all know by now has been made to seem far more important than it is.

      I agree with all of Alyssa's points. However, her argument could have been made stronger if she had told which principles or yardsticks of journalism were violated by her station. Another thing I noticed was some sort of typo, where she ends a sentence abrubtly and with no punctuation before continuing with her next paragraph.


She trails off in the middle of a sentence, which is something that no blog should ever