POLITICAL JOURNALISM

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POLITICAL JOURNALISM

Week 1 Assignment

1. My name is Shelby Wheeler. I am a film and television major and a journalism and documentary production minor. I just graduated in June, but I’m finishing up my minor. I am intrigued by political news and fascinated by how the current worldwide pandemic and other national race relations are perceived through the media.
2. Broussard uses the differences in framing and the emphasis on the news coverage of race relations in the summer of 1964 of the three papers; Jackson Advocate, the Mississippi enterprise and the Mississippi Free Press to analyze the race relations between the black Americans and the white Americans and how each paper handled them. Mississippi Free press argued that the status of the racial relations between the Black Mississippians to remain the way it was. He argued that all Mississippians were to receive equal accessibility to shelter, accommodation, economic opportunity, and education. In 1961, the publications were made with the intention of being the voice of the civil rights movement. In order for that to b be a success, the Free Press most certainly often used pictures and editorial cartoons to convey what was happening and to air out its views. Towards the end of the summer, the free press was a platform in full support of the freedom summer, as previously when the summer volunteers arrived. The paper was in support of the freedom worker’s efforts and vouching for blacks.

On the flip side, coverage on the Mississippi enterprise did not show any recognition of the freedom workers or the racial unrest that was undergoing in Mississippi. It provided news concerning the church, social activities in the state, and the educational activities taking place. It majored mostly on the blacks’ achievements and anchored news about the sick and visiting relatives from outside the town. Based on its publications, the newspaper minimized and neglected to address the racial issues in the state.

Jackson Advocate publishers used the press to conjure negative images on those who supported the Summer Freedom movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The publishers shifted the blame to the blacks, and yet they were the victims of the racial unrest. This press was in full support of segregation in the state. The paper does not welcome the freedom workers in the state, and also in one of its articles, it places a very rating on the achievements of the Summer Project workers in the state.

3. The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in California. They were youthful revolutionaries who had been made for media coverage. Black panthers and protests generally fought for the rights of the blacks. They used patterns known as protests paradigm, which are ultimately made through symbiotic though imbalanced relationship between the press and activists. Blank panthers as well used social protests and narrowed on frames underscoring national ideas on race. Rhodes’s findings on Black Panther relates to what we have learned recently from Kilgo concerning protests. In both texts, social movements are formed to safeguard the welfare of certain people, especially blacks. These movements played a vital role in fighting for the rights and privileges of the blacks.
4. During the times of Long-Scott, the gatekeepers were rare to find because there were so many news outlets and a wider variety of standards of what is to be published and what to be left out. This produced a richer, more innovative, and democratic journalism, and to add on to that, there was the neglect of the professional standards and ethics. Sources had power than the journalists; they controlled whatever was being released to the public. Some of the peoplehad the power to manipulate journalism. There was a tendency of the media to release the news before verification took place. As in the case of White, there is a panel that deals with the verification of information. They decide what to publish and what to leave out. There is an analysis of the data whereby the titles that draw the most attention of the public is published. The ones that do not sell out a lot in the market/ do not catch the public’s attention are left out. The gatekeepers ensure that they do their work well and keep proper records. There is minimal manipulation of the content released in the media and, therefore, minimal pressure on the journalists.
5. The journalists are great people because of their work; they let the world know whatever is happening within their country and the outside world at large. Despite their good jobs, they encounter challenges in their day to day activities. Some of those challenges have been discussed in this essay. The perpetual storm is the pressures/ challenges while they are doing their job. And how they can be handled is have been discussed as follows: The journalists work under great pressure from outside; people want them to anchor the news their way; from companies that are very anxious and want to better their ratings/performance. Other pressures come from within themselves where maybe the journalist may feel the pressure to please his/her sources and employers, or they may feel the urge to indulge their own beliefs and customs, and yet they manage to handle all that pressure effectively and report well. The writer recognizes the sources of the pressures and accepts them, and that way, he is able to handle them effectively and produce accurate reporting. The writer advises his students to identify the pressures and their sources, and by doing that, they will be able to handle them effectively. The journalist can indulge himself or herself with the news that involves public participation and avoid reporting news as they happen. Mostly when the news is reported immediately on the occurrence of the particular event, there is no room to verify the information, and therefore the reporter may air alleged information.
6. Gatekeeping in journalism is the process through which information data is verified by filtering it for publication, the internet, broadcasting, or any other form of communication. In Clark’s study, the users use gatekeeping methods to spread news, advertise their products, and for academic purposes. The gatekeeping methods are used in fighting for black lives in the US. They use the media to air out their concernsand seek liberation. This study shows how people have used gatekeeping methods in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to fight for their rights and also to ask for help from other people. This study made a very useful contribution to the literature by illustrating how the broadcast-style nature of platforms such as twitter allows people who intend to build multi-racial parties with potential allies to indulge with people carrying out the work of developing their own awareness of racial power crescendos.
7. Gatekeeping includes a process whereby the media filter the information to the public. For every medium of news, its surveillance action has many stories gathered and presented by its daily reporters, wire services, and many other sources. The information should be filtered for any mode of communicating to the audience. This will involve all media structure levels starting from the reporter up to editors and even outlet owners of the media and the advertisers. As a result of limited time and space, the little remaining space should be given to advertising and other information. Gatekeeping should be used to ensure the preferences and tastes of the audiences are met.

Framing theory state that the frame whereby is the manner on how information is presented to the audience influences the choices made by people about processing the information. This aspect has a huge impact and influence, and organizations should adopt it as well. It is an essential part of conveying as well as processing data as a daily activity. Good framing can be used to minimize the rate of the ambiguity of intangible topics through contextualizing the information in a manner in which recipients can be connected to the things they know already. In this way, the audience understands the information being conveyed easily, as farming connects to what they already know. Framing is also important as it includes social phenomenon is socially constructed. Framing can help change the reader’s perception without changing the real facts since the same data is used for a basis.

Week 2 Assignment 

1. In 2011, there rose numerous social justice protests in Israel that journalists engage in journalistic activism. The media covered this social movement from the start to the end.  The journalists played a crucial role in ensuring that the rising cost of living and decreased public services inequality was opposed. They initiated the social justice protests that those who participated used the phrase “people demand social justice.” The journalists organized various aspects of the protests that lead to their success. The protests arose .following a Facebook post that called upon the people to rise and fight for social justice. Throughout the protesting time, the people were motivated by various factors, including journalists. Other motivating factors include high costs of living, demographic factors,dissat6of citizens in the country, and high unemployment rates. The journalists took part in reporting all the cases that were involved during the protests. They closely followed all the activities and reported them daily. They regularly updated the public on what was going on and the measures to take whether a crucial activity occurred. According to Shultziner and Shoshan, various mechanisms were present in this unusual case that facilitated such unprecedented engagement. The increasing cost of living was the main mechanism that leads to these engagements. The government of Israel at that time was very corrupt. Leaders were very selfish, and they used the money for the public for their good. There were increasing rates of poverty in the country during this time. The citizens suffered in great agony, and hunger and the government were less concerned about their welfare.
2. In Bonner’s article, the media plays a crucial role as a mechanism of accountability in social cases. This is illustrated using an incident involving the Argentinean media contributing to shaming and activating accountability mechanisms to contribute towards the public opinion of official wrongdoing in the case of police violence against protesters. Police had killed a high school teacher in a series of protests that saw teachers protest for their salary increments. The police used brutal force to stop a group of teachers who had established a roadblock in one of the major roads in Argentina while protesting for stalled salaries. Following this incident, the media rose to analyze what happened and who should be held accountable for the death of Fuentealba and the mechanisms of accountability to establish responsibility. Through the media, an investigation was initiated to offer justice for the dead teacher. The police officers who were responsible for the act were fired and held in custody for questioning. The use of media, in this case, demonstrates social accountability. The media held the police accountable for the death of the teacher based on the mechanisms of duty. The media made it clear that the Police officers have a role if protecting citizens from harm rather than humiliating them. There is no single situation where the police should use brutal force to handle any situation. Shaming the police and activating institutions of direct accountability by the Argentinean media in the case of death of the teacher shows one way in which media is responsible as a mechanism of social accountability.
3. Various elements of Galtung’s framework for peace journalism are found in Biazoto’s analysis of conflict-sensitive reporting on urban violence and public security in Brazil. There exists a belief that the media follows a low road in the case if reporting conflicts and wars that are run by the elites based on win-loss outcomes. However, Galtung claims that an alternative route based on the high road must be applied for peace journalism. For the case of Brazil, news on conflicts in the country is guided by various standards. These standards aim at ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and neutrality in what is reported. Brazil is considered to be one of the most peaceful countries in the world. This is contributed to what is reported by the journalists. The extent to which these standards control what the journalists report on conflicts and violence is more of a solution. The following are the elements of Galtung’s framework for peace journalists found in Biatozo’s analysis of violence and security in Brazil. Media discourses of crime and violence is a common element. The news media play a crucial role in driving all the discourses that are discussed and analyzed. Another one is coverage of crime and violence by newspapers. The Brazil press has been changing over the years as journalists have stopped using sensationalist language and started employing a serious approach when reporting crime and violence cases. Also, good reporting is evident in both analyses. Good reporting is responsible for long phases of peace.
4. The Studies of protests in international settings shed light on week one analysis of domestic protest coverage. They show the way that should be followed to handle issues related to violence and crime and the role the media plays in actualizing this. The mass communication theories applied in these studies help frame and give directions for various aspects. As you tread, the articles provided one gets a guide to refer to key aspects that explain the areas that should be placed ore focus on. The articles selected for this course help one understand how learning and analyzing results can help strengthen one’s future career. They also guide one on what to do as a citizen in various situations. They offer guidelines on how to participate in activities based on democracy and what goes around in news coverage of political and social issues in a country. The various contradicting aspects presented in the chosen articles and theories make it challenging to understand all the journalist’s approaches and framing of all the available types of events. Certain approaches are entitled to being employed for specific events. It is quite challenging to master all these approaches and the corresponding situations they are supposed to be applied on. This is also the same for journalists when it comes to their real-life application of these approaches.

Week 3 Assignment

1. The 1918 influenza epidemic is said to have a nature that has no beginning or an end and with no defined enemies for it, and thus it is easily forgotten. In the twentieth-century people shared their experiences through signs and symbols, this signs and symbols were shared through the media who happen to be stated as the worst record keepers and did not play an inadvertent role of memory suppression as expected and hence leading to loss of the public memory for1918 flu epidemic.

Public anxiety is how people respond to dangerous situations, whether they are happening or just imagined. The anxiety has a danger for the present with some care for its future. She says that one observer from that era confirmed such public anxiety among the Americans, which triggered the high changes in technology. During this era, there was a magazine that gave predictions of the epidemic but had a theme which lacked anxiety for the understanding of the epidemic by the Americans, and hence this contributed to the increasingly lost public memory of the epidemic because they did not understand the nature and cause of the epidemic.

One year after the rise of the flu epidemic, the number of magazines talking about it reduced with only two magazine articles speaking the truth of the epidemic and showed how people dealt with such a crisis. The decrease of information shows that there was a lack of anxiety evidence, and this led to the loss of public memory on the 1918 flu epidemic.

2. Health officials and medical experts often use the media to pass precautionary measures to people on the rising COVID-19 epidemic. The journalists always are expected to take part in such information sharing accurate information and act as health educators on matters of health, such as giving the possible care and prevention measures on the rising COVID-19.

Journalists often adopt either of the four roles during a rise of a crisis, which includes the role of being an interpreter, disseminator, adversarial, and the role of a mobilizing populist. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the main role seen is that of an interpreter where they give an analysis of the epidemic and interpret complex problems and solutions to the possible control of the epidemic. The journalists may also adopt a role in crisis mitigation, such as encouraging people on the advantages of respecting certain measures to curb a disease such as encouraging people to sanitize and stay at home during this COVID epidemic and such role of journalists promote adherence to those measures by people.

The other role of journalists of populist mobilizing where journalists speak to ‘ordinary’ people by providing them with entertainment through the media happens more during the COVID epidemic. The two roles sated are similar to the results of Klemm study in that these changes in roles often happen with a rise of crisis as stated in the study. Journalists adapt to these roles to help the people stay up to date with enough required information on any rising crisis, such as the COVID-19 epidemic.

3. William and his colleagues claim that developing a framework for healthy workplaces in Australia is important. Being concerned about healthy workplaces plays a crucial role in ensures legal, ethical, and business welfare. Expanding the aspect of healthy frameworks from Australia to other parts such as America initiates healthy and safety measures that are required by all individuals in any workplace. A healthy workplace is the one that offers the individuals there an opportunity to undertake their duties and responsibilities with minimal or no distractions. The managers and all the workers collaborate to utilize a continual process that aims to improve health aspects in the workplace and safeguard the health safety of all parties involved. In this case, the health and safety concerns are for the visible working environment, such as workplace culture and its organization. Also, it includes different ways if participating in the community, aiming at improving the health of the workers and other members of society. Healthy workplace frameworks can as well work out very effectively in US journalists. The just justice initiative was developed to engage the people respectfully and critically as a solution for the public health crisis that affects journalists in their daily work. More attention has been placed on business ethics in recent days, thus forgetting about the health crisis among professional journalists. Therefore, journalists leaders should improve the workplace health conditions of all the workers to ensure continued collaboration of all the parties concerned.
4. According to Casero-Ripples, the rise of COVID-19 has to lead to a decrease in disparities in accessing public affairs information. The pandemic has affected some social domains such as journalism and media. This has, in turn, lead to a decrease in the efficiency of transmission of information in the public sector. News is no longer propagated effectively compared to the times when there were no incidents of COVID-19. The safety measures that have been implemented to slow down the transmission rate of the virus have affected the activities of journalists worldwide. The current social media model cannot be relied on for the effective propagation of all news. Since the onset of coronavirus news is mainly focusing on the issue, thus neglecting other aspects to handle it accordingly. The information released on COVID-19 19 helps us be aware of what is going on in the world concerning the outbreak of the virus. Casero-Rippoles uses evidence on news consumption to support this contention. I agree with his conclusions that are most affecting less fortunate communities based on social, economic indicators. This is because people living low standard lives has fewer resources to safeguard themselves for the disease. Also, they have limited access to news on the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, they are more likely to be affected by the coronavirus. Media systems