Media Critique

Article: http://www.npr.org/2013/09/26/226155383/in-wake-of-colo-floods-a-scramble-to-clean-up-spilled-oil
By: Grace Hood

The Nine Principles and Seven Yardsticks are the core qualities that every piece of journalism should contain. However, not every article follows those standards. In the article about the oil spillage as a result of the Colorado flood, the principle of Truth is not exactly applied. The article states that more than 37,000 gallons of oil spilled because of the Colorado flood, however other sources are saying 27,000 gallons, 22,000 gallons, and even 5,000 gallons. As for "Loyalty" the content isn't bias in anyway, or a display of opinions. The article is purely a source to inform the people of the importance of this topic. The principle of Watchdog isn't used in this piece because it's not needed. There isn't any reason for the reporter or journalist to serve as a watchdog, the reason being that the article doesn't pertain to an individual in power. In "In Wake Of Colo. Floods, A Scramble To Clean Up Spilled Oil" the principle Inclusive is properly people executed. It is proportional in the fact that not only is the important news mentioned, but so is the extra parts of the story.

Regarding the yardstick "Newsworthiness" Grace Hood has chosen a great story to represent that. An oil spill may not be the most life changing or shocking news, but it is very important. After the BP oil spill occurred a few years ago, there hasn't been too many huge oil spills to follow that. It is necessary that citizens are up to date with huge events such as an oil spill into one of the nation's water ways. As for "Context" the writer of this article did integrate many sources of people into her piece. The article doesn't consist of two view points. It's written as a source to just provide details about the event. Grace Hood could incorporate "Fairness" by pulling quotes from people with different view points on the matter.

Response 4 to Class Discussion: Recordings

During the lecture on recordings, I felt extremely bored. I honestly don't know if it was the material or I was just not in the greatest mood that day. I normally would find this topic really interesting because I love music. I realize it wasn't directly about music, but recordings helped change the relationship between people and music. Other than that issue I had, I did learn a lot about the inventions for recordings between the 1870's and 1920's. Lecture 6 is most likely one of the only lectures that I completely understood everything. The amount of information we were taught wasn't reduced, but the difficulty level of actually retaining the lesson was. My notes were less than 1/5 of a page long, because I didn't need to write anything else down. The information sunk right into my brain, as it wasn't hard to process whatsoever. The notes I have on other lectures are between half of a page and 2 pages-- that really shows the level of understanding I have for this topic.

Response 3 to Class Activity: Jeopardy!

If you survey any number of students, the majority will most likely say they hate studying. In my opinion, studying is simply boring. I completely understand that it is essential for learning. The teacher could explain something clearly without any question, but studies show that the human brain needs to take in a piece of information 10-12 times before it sticking in their memory. The only way to make studying enjoyable, is to put a fun spin on it. Jeopardy is one way to do that. I have played Jeopardy at school before, and it actually helped me memorize key topics for my fourth grade social studies class. I was so excited when Mr. Miller told us we would play Jeopardy to review for our test. The game was really fun and it helped me remember the important things to know for the upcoming test. Even though Jeopardy was just fun in general, I think I enjoyed it most because my team won!

Response 2 to Class Discussion: Books

I really enjoyed Lecture 3 about books, mainly because I knew the material we were going over. I learned a little bit about Gutenberg's metal movable type printing press in the seventh grade. I like when I know at least a small amount about a topic that we learn about in class. Even though I don't know everything about the subject, it helps me understand better when I have some knowledge. As I heard more information about books, I began to think about how life would be like without Gutenberg's invention. The One Question Quiz asked that very question. I thought that Mr. Miller covered everything that could be acceptable as an answer. There's never a time when I sit down to do a quiz in J1 and I have no idea what the answer is-- this is because everything on our quizzes were discussed in class. I find that extremely helpful. A lot of the time in middle school, our tests would have questions on the subject we were learning about, but not necessarily the things the teacher went over. It's great to have a teacher who actually helps you learn things, rather than giving you a book and saying, "Memorize this."

Response 1 to Class Discussion: Newspapers

I do believe that newspapers are very important to keep around. I think that the fact that they are diverse in content, affordable, and physical, are the main reasons why they are still around today. My aunt and grandmother used to have a newspaper delivery route. Throughout the week, the papers had thinner sections, so they were able to assemble them during the route. However, since the Sunday paper had thick sections, along with ads, the newspapers had to be put together at the building they are shipped to. My aunt and grandmother were unable to do so because of the heat and the hard labor, so my parents, three siblings, and I would go up to the place we called, "the hub" every Saturday at noon, to assemble the papers. We had to stack the different sections together, then roll up the papers, and bag them. After bagging the newspapers, we had to compile them into carts so they could be loaded into my aunt's van the next morning. Because of that job that I had to do for at least 3 years, I have come across many different versions of the newspaper. Every week, the articles were new, but they still had important stories in them, along with the entertaining sections. Newspapers are one of the only mass mediums that have something for everyone. Not only that, but they are easy to pick up and take anywhere-- you can't do that with a television!

Response to Emily's Cieminski's Blog

I was snooping around the blogs of my fellow J1 classmates, and I came across Emily's. I started to read some of her responses and I caught myself agreeing with her question about books. Will paper copies of books ever die out or demassify? Everything in the world seems to be going digital. Like Emily said, Kindles, Nooks, and eReaders are really popular now and days. I'd personally hate for paper books to go extinct because they are so much safer to carry around. It's easier to have an electronic device to store all of your books on because it's convenient to have all of your books in one place, but it's risky. Nooks and Kindles are pretty expensive and to have one of them being stolen is far more worse than losing one book. An average book doesn't cost more than $15, but Kindles and Nooks are as high as $200. I know for a fact, if I lost one of those, my mother would never trust me with another one and I'd be reader paper copies for the rest of my life.

Response to Sydney's Blog

After reading through the posts on Sydney's blog, I felt the one that most related to me was "Response 1 to Class Discussion; Current Events" That being because I attended the same middle school as her, so I understand what she meant when she explained the role current events had throughout those three years. In the sixth grade, we had to write a summary every other week of one topic we found in the news. There were those select few that actually wrote about important issues or other matters, but the majority of students reported on a story about their favorite celebrity. In the eighth grade, we didn't have unlimited options to choose from because the article had to relate to society (social studies) in some way. As Sydney said, the current events seemed to gain relevance because we spent more time learning about the topics that were important, and not the topics that were just fun to read about. After having to discuss the events in class, I personally obtained a bigger interest in current events.