this is the title.

Yes, the Boring Headlines tumblr is fiercly entertaining, and their slogan "Where every day is a slow news day" is spot on, but take away all of the humor, and all you see is just really bad news. The fact there are enough headlines like "Rick Santorum not talking much about the economy", "Soils hidden secrets", and simply "Gingrich makes gas station stop" to fill an entire blog, is well, pathetic. 

(Unfortunately, this is a real article of the NYT: "In Maine, More Lobsters Than They Know What to Do With")

Also, ^^^ no one is every skipping to the "exciting legal copy" ever...ever. Not even in the 1920's when this ad was placed. ....ever. 

News is just not news anymore. What happened to the days of tuning into the news dying to hear what happened in the world today? Instead, you flip on the channel or turn on the radio and constantly there is all this jabber of uniportant "junk" news.  Was it VP Joe Biden got a Twitter? The current status of Jessica Simpsons body weight...or perhaps the current relationship status of Kim Kardashian.  Mainly dealing with celebrities, breaking stories of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez breaking up is trumping that of important national issues.  (Here is a website dedicated purely to rating "junk" news.) 

In a recent Nieman Reports article, Michael Skoler talked about the overlying problem the media is faced with today.  

"Over the past few decades, news conglomerates took over local papers and stations. Then they cut on-the-ground reporters, included more syndicated content from news services, and focused local coverage on storms, fires, crashes and crime to pad profit margins. The news became less local and less relevant, and reporters became less connected to their communities. Surveys show a steep drop in public trust in journalism occurring during the past 25 years."

In the UK at The Telegraph, Tom Chivers, the assitant comments editor, wrote this spot on piece entitled "In America, A Barrage of Thunderingly Dull Headlines", joking that "if the Titanic sank today, you would not be surprised to see an American headline saying "On Well-Known Ship, Some Unexpected Wetness", which I have to say, I would not be surprised myself either. 

I don't think there is a place for "sweep" weeks, and should not even be a factor in todays news.  If we are no longer making news for the people, but instead for the advertisers, even if it is only for a week, we have lost the purpose of the "news" organization.  I know they have to make money, but this is not the way it should be done. 

Mormon Media Symposium

The I’m a Mormon Campaign: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

Brandon Burton, Parry Merkley, Ron Wilson

In a fascinating presentation on the recent popularity of the ‘I’m a Mormon’ campaign, members of Bonneville Communications and the LDS Church’s Missionary Department explained the origin of the groundbreaking idea and the ultimate goal of the new digital movement. 

            With the re-launch of the Mormon.org website in July of 2010, the site now reaches 18 different countries, over 28 million views, 120 English profile videos with 80 more in production, and now translated into 20 different language.   Pioneering the concept of showing instead of telling what we believe, the new campaign has been immensely successful.  In previous Church websites, the basic doctrine of the Church was explained in a simple format with not much variance. 

With the re-launch of Mormon.org, they took a huge risk in completely changing up the format the Church had previously operated, basing this new strategy off of the fact that when someone knows a Mormon personally, they are much more likely to have a warmer perception of the Church.

            The Church has always been very progressive in using different media platforms (such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter so forth) and has been since the beginnings of the Church.  Profiling its everyday members was a very new concept, and was immensely popular not only among non-Mormons, but Mormons themselves. 

Adding to the “one-on-one” relationship with the Church’s members, Mormon.org also added the  “profile” element to the site.  Any member of the Church can create a profile, answering some simple questions about the Church and some basic background information, and then sharing it to whomever visits the site.  With over 110,000 public profiles, and 100,000 more not yet published, the public profiles section of the site has become a huge tool. 

The Church tries to keep the integrity of each profile by only having 2 screening processes: one that takes out any excessive personal information for safety, and also checks if doctrine is correct- trying to dispel myths not create more.  Thus, with spelling errors and all, each profile is deeply personal and unique to those who created it, enabling viewers to connect to the Church at a different level.  

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Its a scary thing when you all you hear in the news is how the news is going down.  Not a very good sign.  And when such a factor like Watchdog Journalism begins to slip, you know it's trouble from there. Throughout the history of journalism, many reporters have taken the role of "protector" to it's citizens, a very admirable and well appreciated job.  But when people like Victor Neufeld say things like,  “Our obligation is not to deliver the news. Our obligation is to do good programming,” you begin to wonder where the future really is taking us.  

I believe that the "watchdog" role of journalism is one of it's most redeeming qualities.  Take examples like Watergate, 60 Minutes, and reporters such as Nelly Blye and Upton Sinclair.  They all had one goal in mind: protect the people and reveal the true information.  

In the digital age, yes- information is widely avaialable to every type of person, unlike 50 years ago, and some may say the need for this "watchdog" role is lessened.  But I believe it is the exact opposite.  With so many people capable of posting whatever they want online for everyone to see, with no kind of fact checking or screening, the need for these "watchdogs" is at an all time high.  (Click here for a great relating article.) Already websites have stepped into that role (such as Medill Watchdog) but there is a need for many more. 

It was just yesterday that me and my friends heard a rumor from the recent election we wanted to fact check. We turned to the internet, and though we found countless number of acrticles in support of it, it wasn't on our preferred "trusttworthy" newsource, so it automatically lost credibility.  It's these kind of establishments that will keep the integrity of the industry, and without them, I'm afraid of what that future may become. 

Fabric of our lives...oh...jk it's not fabric. It's plastic.

Fabricating the news is really a concept that is baffling to me.  With how much crazy stuff is really happening to us right now, WHAT is the need to make more of it up?  It seems that in most instances we've studied in class, the stories are all real things that I'm sure have happened to someone, they just haven't done the research to find the person.  So in other words, you could say they are lazy, or just reporting the story backwards.
For a fascinating article on the top 10 most famous "journo fabrications" click here 

It's not only journalists who are making up these facts- take the scandal of James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces, that was almost compeltely fabricated.  Having been suggested on Oprah's reading list, it was a media frenzy when the news broke and brought on an entire new meaning to fabrication, even inspiring a slew of new words to be added to conversation such as knews and Sprinklegate.

So why do it? In nearly every incident the journalist has been fired, and every incident their reputation has been smeared, tattered, esentially destroyed.  With so much riding on your reputation of being fair, honest, balanced, as a journalist, why take the risk of making up facts?

The only possible conclusion I can think of is to cut corners.  Not worth the extra 20 minutes you might gain by making up a fact for a lifetime legacy of being "that guy who completely made up that book- you know, the one with the hand covered in sprinkles on the cover!"

His Girl Friday Response

11.     How did the movie reflect (or criticize) the era of Pulitzer and Hearst in their approach to news?

     It was get the news fast, get it first, and get it out.  Not a whole lot of fact checking being involved or even thought on future consequences to the subject of the story.  It is such a fast paced movie with the dialogue sped up; it was over before you knew it started.  I think that really must have been what that era was like, with so many competing newspapers all with the same resources and newsworthy stories to pull from, it must have been a mad-dash every day trying to find the story, write it and get it out first before your competitor. 

22.     How do the film’s characters violate journalistic ethics?

    So many times.  The entire basis of the movie is questionable ethics; it’s what makes it so funny.  From paying out sources, lying to reporters, to kidnapping witnesses and harboring a criminal inside the newsroom, His Girl Friday is full of journalistic ethical follies.  However, I think with the blatant disregard for a moral code, it almost highlights what good ethical behavior a journalist should have, do everything opposite of Walter Burns. 

33.     Did the characters “Minimize Harm?”

     No.

44.     Do the film’s characters remain independent and neutral?

     Not at all.  All of them are working on an angle, working with some other story in mind, thinking how they can spin it to win over public affection.  I love the scene when the Prisoner escapes and all of the reporters run back to their phones, with hardly any facts, each spewing off a completely different story that would entertain their audience.  So funny.

55.     The Front Page, on which “His Girl Friday” is based, is said to be “an old-fashioned valentine to journalism and American life.” How is that so?

     Old-fashioned valentines were never cheapened by commercialism as they are nowadays.  They were really ornate and meaningful, having the card itself being represented as the gift.  I think that despite the satirical ethics involved, His Girl Friday and The Front Page represent that true form of journalism.  Hildy has to get this story because she is so passionate about the field; she can’t step away from it, even for her own wedding.  This was the only way people were being informed, they were dependant on the newspaper and their reporters, and though it was a cutthroat business to get into, it truly was full of adventure.  A “golden-age” you could almost say.

66.     In its first incarnation, the “Front Page” was loudly criticized by the highbrow newspapers of the time. One wrote, that reporters were made to look more like gangsters than a moderately well off businessman. Do you agree?

     I agree somewhat.  With Walter Burns go-to man character, he basically was a true gangster; handing out counterfeit money, kidnapping the Mother-in-law, putting Hildy’s fiancé in jail on multiple accounts, all in the name of the story yes, but actions of a true 1940’s gangster, complete with the Italian accent.  Even in Walter Burns character you see hints of it from his Zoot Suit clothing to his at-all-costs attitude.  However, although I’m sure the movie and play were dramatized quite a bit, it can’t be too far off when it comes to down to whether you get the story or you don’t.  

77.     The original version featured two men, as did a later version with Walter Matthau (Walter Burns), Jack Lemmon (Hildy Johnson) and Susan Sarandon (Peggy Grant). How did the woman Hildy change the dynamics? What does it say about women in journalism?

     It completely changed the dynamic I think.  When Hildy goes in to get her interview with the prisoner, in my mind (being a female) it stood out to me how tender and soothing she was talking to the prisoner to get him to talk.  I kept thinking, “Wow, it’s the woman’s touch” something a man couldn’t have gotten out of him! Although I’m sure that’s slightly biased, I think a woman brings something a man can’t.  Even down to when Hildy is comforting the girlfriend of the prisoner, no other man was doing that and it ended up benefiting her in getting the complete story with the girlfriend on her side. 

War of the ......Networks?

Having just watched the Presidential Debate, I found it interesting flipping through CNN back to Fox, how truly biased these networks were towards one particular party. (as you can see by those headlines on their website's in the link) and it got me thinking: How would you do it differently? Usually at the debates, I stick to watching and reading things that align within my political view or else I get so mad at how biased they are skewing the facts to their advantage, but am I not doing the same thing by sticking to watching those certain channels?

This line of thinking got me to checking the Twitter world in the #debate category.  Thousands of tweets were coming through per second, an array from all over the political scene, each claiming that their side had won.

Like in class, we talked about the question of journalists being objective or subjective, and no matter how hard they try, by human nature they are going to be slightly skewed because of the differences in their lifestyles etc. How true that was manifested tonight in the coverage following the debate.  It was sad actually, because there really is no way to get pure un-biased analysis on the debate in the media now-days.  Everyone has a motive, which is now making it hard for the American people to be educated.  Depending on what news channel you watch, if you are truely an "undecided" voter, that channel will more than likely persuade you into what candidate they are supporting.  I started thinking how even in the newspapers, what should be "hard-news" stories somehow end up being somewhat editorial in the way the facts are presented.

The only fair way I could think of was to have a split newspaper like they tried having so many years ago, where one side will present it's case, having the other side presenting theirs, since it is so rare to find someone truly writing with both sides in mind.

This country has really been split into blue and red more and more as each election comes, and it's only a matter of time until it becomes too much of a divide to bring back together under one nation.

BYU Professor gives Journalism a face-lift

PROVO—A journalism professor at BYU is calling for a serious revamping of the media industry, more specifically Journalists, who are responsible for “upholding equity and justice” he believes. 

Professor Joel Campbell spoke in a lecture series put on by the school last Thursday to an audience of students, professors, and members of the community. 

Campbell stated that LDS journalists have a unique perspective and have an obligation to keep the press going, thus the call for a change in the moral code of journalists. 

Campbell began the lecture by going through a history of the press, all the way back to Gutenberg’s invention of the moveable type, showing how the events have perfectly set up the press for where they are today.  Campbell believes that there is a theme throughout history of a divine intervention of most major breakthroughs of the media.

 “If the Constitution is of divine origin- what does that mean for the free press?” Campbell said.  

The world has made a significant jump recently in the number of countries that now allow freedom of information.  There are now 90 countries entitled to that freedom, when there were only two back in the 1960s.  

With this new freedom comes new responsibility according to Campbell, who listed many examples of how the journalism field can improve.  Many of these value improvements were expected, such as accountability, conscience, trustworthiness etc. that have always been problems in the media in the last decade.  However, things such as Solutions Journalism, Empowering Information and maintaining a respect for leaders were somewhat fresh topics. 

Due to the current Presidential elections, the maintaining respect for leaders was particularly emphasized in this campaign season. 

“We can disagree [with the President], but there should be no ad hominem attacks…I have been very disappointed in some of the chain emails I have received from friends in relation to this,” Campbell said.

Campbell refers to many more stories of faithful journalists, trying to educated the public about this Constitutional role of a journalist, however there is still need for a call for reform he said, where innovations in the media will help to build up their communities, not destroy them.  

Gretchen Morgenson

We were so lucky to have Gretchen Morgenson from the New York Times come to our school and give us a lecture on her new book "Reckless Endagerment".  I'll be honest, in the beginning, I had no idea what she was talking about.  Having been both a business writer and a editor in her career, Morgenson really knows her stuff.  However, after a few minutes I felt I was caught up to speed and really did enjoy her lecture.  She had the whole audience engaged and I really believe it was because everyone in that room could tell she was passionate about what she was saying, you could feel it.

Her new book she co-authored talks about how we have gotten into this economic crisis, and why we are still in it today, so many years later.  Something that really hit me was her opening comment.  She said how when she began in this career, she used to write about innovative companies, successful business plans etc. believe it or not.  Now, ever since 1998, it has been "all scandal, all the time," which really is sad.

Having not a lot of background in Finance, it was interesting to hear how the financial sector has become much bigger and more powerful than ever before.  Because it has been dominating the economy, it has helped to create an imbalance in our country- thus leading to the crisis.  She talked a lot about the "Too big to fail" laws, which sadly was the first I had heard of them.  I was glad I attended the lecture as later that night it was discussed heavily in the Presidential Debate! It was the greatest feeling to actually understand what the issue was they were debating about, and have already made up my decision, based on facts I learned at the lecture, so I could gauge the candidates answers to mine.

Probably the most depressing aspect of the lecture however, was the lack of legal consequences many bank officials have received due to this financial crisis.   Morgenson stated that only one major executive has gone to jail, from some obscure company with $3 billion in fraud.  Compared to the bank failures in the 1970's with 1100 cases brought to court and 839 officials put in jail, we can see the stark contrast of how the SEC has handled the situation today in 2012.  With only 31 cases, and a $12 million recompense from the nine executives, it hardly makes a dent in the billions of dollars lost in the suffering economy.

It gave me hope to see that people such as Morgenson and her colleagues with fairly influential positions were not turing a blind eye to this crisis, however, I hope more light is shed onto this in the future, before it's too late.

Crandall's Printing Press

Yep, lived in Provo almost my whole life, and it wasn't until this summer that I had even seen Crandall's Printing Press. 

I am so glad we were required to go for class, I probably never would have gone in on my own. 

The sweet old men who helped us and gave us the tour seriously made it worth the visit, they were so cute! 

 I learned so much from that short little tour, I really felt like I became an expert on printing.

It was cool being able to see an LDS view of the history of printing, all the way back to writing scriptures.  What did they use? How did they write? These were all questions I had never even thought to ask, and now I know the answer! It really makes the scriptures that much more real: real people had to write these and they used real techniques of the time.  It was fascinating for me. 

 It was crazy to learn all of the elements of Gutenberg's invention.  He not only invented the moveable type, but also literally had to invent everything to go along with it.  The number of things he started really did blow my mind, and it was a testimony to me of how famous figures throughout history really were inspired to help progress the work of the gospel.

Being able to "walk through" the history and development of printing (literally) was something you don't usually get to see in a history class, taking 4 months to see the same process.  Different things made connections being able to see it from one stage to the next right after each other.  How cool is it that Gutenberg got his idea for the printing press from an olive press something very prominent in the Bible.  The fact that Gutenberg built six different printing shops and trained the staff was a miracle that helped progress the work, vs. a disaster that ruined him according to most scholars.

 Something that really stood out to me however was coming to "E.B. Grandin's shop". I never thought about the history of man who printed The Book of Mormon but how fascinating! The fact that the Eerie Canal was completed RIGHT before the book was printed, and just happened to pass right in front of his shop was no coincidence.

I saw the hand of the Lord in this process, more than I ever had before.  I really hope he receives church sponsorship like he has hoped, because it truly is an experience every member of the church should have.  

The coolest machine ever, the Linotype! 

Just News? Bleh.

Growing up, I watched the news.
Sometimes.
Ok well I watched it when my parents were watching the 10:00 news.
Yeah right, I was in the same room doing my homework while it played in the background.

Growing up, I read the newspaper.
Occasionally.
My friend saved a boy's life in the cafeteria by giving the Heimlich Maneuver and we were in the paper about it.  I did read that, well just the parts where I was quoted.
But lets get real, every other time I just looked at the pictures when it was lying on the counter.

I'm embarrassed to say, "the news" was never a big part of my life growing up.  Sure, I knew it was important, and did my fair share of Current Event assignments throughout my public school years, but join the Journalism class/club in High School? Yeah right, I always knew that was not for me.

-Ironic as I write this for my Intro to Journalism class.-

When deciding a major to pick, I knew I loved to write, so, many people suggested Journalism for me. I've been known to throw out a few "just writing about news? No way, thats so boring"'s here and there, so most people backed off.
But then- I was about to go into my fourth year of college and something had to happen.  So I actually thought about it:
I love talking to people. I love to write. I work well under pressure--actually I only work under pressure (Procrastination is looked at as a skill not a flaw over here in my mind.) So why not take the Journalism route?

People need the News, and I have grown to love it, but just gobbling up facts and then spitting them back out to the public will never be appealing to me.  But is that really the only option? Many of my classes I am taking now automatically categorize "Journalism" as news, which is understandable--it being the biggest field.  But I wish there were more "but thats not the only option!" hints along the way.  Because it's not.

Ever heard of a little publication called Newsweek? Readers Digest? The New Yorker? Its not just straight facts being presented to you.  Sure, its not breaking news-happening now kind of stories, but these pieces have creativity, something that in my mind, hard news stories tend to frown upon.

Reporters covering hard news may have developed the Journalism industry, but people like Louella Parsons, Liz Smith, Hedda Hopper, Walter Winchell, David Sedaris, David Foster Wallace and many more have transformed it into something totally different, and that place is where I want to be.

Never Forget

NBC decided to "skip" the moment of silence in exchange for the ever-pressing issue of Kris Kardashian and her thoughts on breast-augmentation and having Kanye West join the family. 

President Obama tweeted this morning “The election is in 8 weeks. Sign up to volunteer…”

Friends on my Facebook Newsfeed decided posting pictures of themselves and statuses about Pandora, shopping misadventures, and boyfriends who didn’t call were important issues for September 11, 2012. 

I was only 10 years old.  I remember sitting on the couch with my sister watching images on the news flash before us that really neither of us understood. 

I remember arriving at school, the hallway uncharacteristically lifeless, silent, empty. 

I remember walking down the hall as a waterfall of bewildered news anchors’ voices hit my ears: “No one knows who instigated the attacks…”, “Breaking news: World Trade Center Towers in New York City…”, “Completely devastated families…” each classroom being locked onto a different news channel for the rest of the day. 

I remember Fox News being muted in the background as we proceeded with the lesson plan of the day.  After a few hours, Mrs. Bishop decided we couldn’t ignore it any longer. The rest of the day was spent writing letters of encouragement to our soldiers, and letters of remorse and gratitude to the police and firemen of New York.

I remember the images of the hundreds and hundreds of flyers posted all over a wall as families desperately searched for their missing loved ones. 

I remember the following year going outside with my entire elementary school and having an entire minute of silence for the fallen.  I remember how silent real silence should be. 

I remember walking back into class and seeing the boy sitting next to me with tears in his eyes.  His uncle was a fireman from Colorado, who volunteered, risked, and lost his life trying to find survivors among the wreckage of the towers. 

I remember every year following having moments of silence, where typical rowdy teenagers stood silently gathered around a flag while the Pledge of Allegiance was later said with such vigor, even a cocky 14-year-old girl just trying to be cool was brought to tears.

I remember going to the Stadium of Fire on the Fourth of July and seeing them carry in the American Flag that flew above the Twin Towers.  I remember feeling so much love, compassion, honor, and pride in the men and women who fought, were fighting, and were preparing to fight for our country, I knew I would never look at another American Flag the same. 

I remember meeting a friend right after the 10^th Anniversary of the attacks last year who had just returned from his service in Afghanistan after his tank was hit by a roadside bomb.  I remember helping him change the bandages on his leg where he shattered every single bone fighting for my freedom, for my family’s freedom, for this countries freedom.  I remember when he texted me two months ago and told me his leg had been amputated from the knee down, and how different his life was about to be. 

I remember when NBC omitted the moment of silence.

I remember when President Obama tweeted about the upcoming election rather than the greatest American tragedy since Pearl Harbor. 

I remember when my friends on Facebook decided that other things were more important than the lives of nearly 3,000 people being lost.  

I remember.

I can tell you JC Corbridge, who lost his leg fighting in the Middle East, remembers.

I can tell you Denise Scott, who’s husband died trapped on the 84^th floor remembers.

I can tell you Cathie Ong, who’s sister was a flight attendant on AA Flight 11 who died fighting the hijackers, remembers. 

Posting about anything else but the September 11^th attacks seemed wrong because I do remember. 

Has it been so long that we can’t take one small moment from our comfortable, blessed lives and remember the sacrifices that were made for us?

But things do change. Time has passed by.  The rubble of the towers was cleared away for a beautiful memorial.  Wounds were healed.  Families were mended.  Osama bin Laden was pronounced dead.  Hope was brought back to the United States of America. 

No matter how many Anniversary's pass by, there is always one thing that will not fade away, and that’s the memory of 9/11. 

In 50 years people will be asking, “Where were you?”

It will live on well beyond our lives, as it should. 

And so, I will never forget.