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Showing posts from November, 2016

Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

1) I agree with Alain de Botton's news in the way he heavily expresses how the news is a "distorted picture of our society". The news puts the image of every stranger being a bad person who is either a murderer, paedophile or rapist which is damaging the minds of many individuals with false accusations. He goes on to say that everyone in society is nothing like that, and just because the paper had a front page of someone being a child rapist, for example, does not mean that it sets the norm for every other person in society. Alain de Botton says that the news plays a major role in our everyday lives. He said that when we wake up, we check our smartphones to see what's happening, and just before we're about to go to sleep, we check our smartphones again. He said over 15 million people will check the BBC News website over four times a day. We live in a day and age where we are surrounded by news and are in that era where people would read the news instead of going t

NDM News: Citizen journalism and hyper-reality

Example: Police officers striking Rodney King with with battens and later tasering him. The unprofessional (home) video was on prime time news (6pm) as well as starting riots in the later weeks.  Theory 2) The audience are not receptive; the audience have become produce's of news. There's a benefit to institutions as well. Lots of news institutions use user generated content such as blogs with comments enabled and are connected to social networking sites to help keep up with citizen journalism. They can appeal to a younger audience as they are more likely to agree with footage which is much less professional. Also, benefits to audience, allows them to see a different side to the story as the media may decide to filter out certain information but also they cannot have reporters everywhere. The use of citizen journalism allows news stories to reach a wider audience as anyone can take a video or picture and upload it on to the internet and it will go viral almost instantly. 3

Al Jazeera: WikiLeaks. Neutral reporter or political player?

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2016/10/wikileaks-neutral-reporter-political-player-161022113953803.html Summary: WikiLeaks has made public thousands of leaked emails from the Clinton presidential campaign. Much of it confirms what many already suspected: that Clinton has a far too cozy relationship with bankers and journalists. Some have accused Russia of being behind the hack and argue WikiLeaks is aiding foreign interference in the elections. Putting aside the agendas of all the players involved, one institution comes out undeniably sullied by the publication of the emails: the American news media. Opinion: I am all for an institution to be tapping phones and intercepting emails because they could detect a suspicious activity by terrorists and stop the terror they're planning early. However some people prefer their privacy but I say if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be scared or complaining. 

The Economist: American newspapers resoundingly reject Donald Trump

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/11/daily-chart-1 Summary: American newspapers, even those with stolidly Republican-leaning editorial boards, have largely abandoned Donald Trump this election year. The Columbus Dispatch, Arizona Republic and Richmond Times-Dispatch, which had endorsed Republican candidates in the last nine presidential elections, opted for Hillary Clinton. Newspaper endorsements tend to favour the party out of power, perhaps because editors are enthralled by challengers’ charisma. When Barack Obama burst onto the scene in his 2008 run, he charmed 71% of the newspapers weighing in—the most lopsided margin on record. Things didn’t work out quite so well the second time around, with Mr Obama having to make do with just 56% of endorsements in 2012. Opinion: Although I disagree with Donald Trump on every level, I also don't agree with bias and newspapers have a burden of showing two sides. As that brings about only one perspective, where the reade