Is New Media Going Too Far?

A recent scandal took place for the Kansas Governor, Sam Brownback, after a high school senior, Emma Sullivan, tweeted "Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot." (Huffington Post). Apparently the governor's press manager found the tweet and confronted the 18 year-old. She gained thousands of followers on twitter from the incident and had to write a formal apology. So, is new media being taken too far? This incident has opened the realm of freedom of speech and whether or not she should be held accountable for her tweet. Twitter is an informal website where people post whatever comes to mind. Now that it has become so universal, tweets and informal talk has become a more serious issue because of its availability on the Internet. Another topic has come up from this scandal, Brownback is using tax payers money to make sure no one is tweeting bad things about him. It does make me wonder how citizens of Kansas are reacting to this knowledge and if their impression of him as a professional has changed. Personally, I don't think Emma Sullivan did anything wrong. She was expressing her freedom of speech and personal opinion, whether that be negative or positive is up to her and it should not be infringed on. The fact that she was "punished" for doing so, is absolutely absurd. As for governor Sam Brownback, if people are tweeting negative things about you, maybe you should change what you're doing and use it as constructive criticism.

How poor is America?

In recent years it has become obvious that Americans have had to buckle down and be savvy shoppers. The recession has taken it's toll on many people and loss of jobs is just the beginning. Rock Center with Brian Williams recently covered a story about a family in Idaho, both trained nursing assistants, who couldn't find work and were forced to depend on government assistance; mainly food stamps. The story talked about how people line up to go into Walmart at midnight on the first of each month when they receive assistance, and they even compared the chaos to a spectacle like Black Friday. The family said how they were embarrassed to admit they needed assistance, and that they would go out of their way to keep it a secret. Unfortunately, need of government assistance has become pretty common, the article continued to say that nearly 15% of the United States depends on government assistance. This topic really hits home for me, my parents are divorced so a single mother providing for two children is difficult enough. But, because of the down turn in the economy, my dad was fired from his job and is now unable to pay child support. I have to say my family got off easy though. I have friends who's parents sit at the kitchen table and honestly discuss if they have enough money to buy groceries for the week. It's a difficult situation for a lot of people who never thought it would happen to them. The question is whether or not there will be a sliver lining on the horizon any time soon.

Americans Arrested in Cairo

Protests in Cairo have been known about for a while, but last week three Americans were arrested for being in the crowd, and it caused the United States to pay a lot more attention. The American students claimed they were wrongfully arrested because they were only observing the protests, and they also said they were beaten after the arrest. One student went on the Today show on NBC to talk a little about what happened, and it was clear he was happy to be home. He, his mom, and his attorney briefly discussed what happened with the arrest and how he was freed. Apparently, police in Cairo claimed the three students were on the roof of a building with molotov cocktails, and as police, they were just doing their jobs. The students deny ever being on a roof or having anything remotely close to a molotov cocktail. Unfortunately, the story seems to have been pushed behind the ongoing election, the occupy protests, and the holidays. The protests in Egypt are, in my opinion, a main reason to keep an eye on all the occupy protests here in America. Protests can go from peaceful resistance, to chaos and rebellion in a short amount of time, which is why there is so much press covering it. Protestors here don't necessarily mean to try to overthrow the government, but if something doesn't get done, protests could become more severe until they end up like the ones in Cairo.

Interview with an Editor

Business West is the premiere business news magazine in western Massachusetts. This twice-monthly journal has embraced new media by creating a web page and a twitter. I talked to George O’Brien, the editor at Business West, to find out how the economy and how new media has affected publication. In the past he worked at the Westfield Evening News, but for the past sixteen years has been editor at Business West. With so many newspapers losing subscriptions, Business West has endured through this difficult time.

Though they do not have a direct competitor, the Springfield Republican does cover business and is printed weekly and has proven to be a bit of an obstacle. Even with their balance of media, they try to focus on their print version as much as possible. “We try to direct as much traffic to the print version as possible. We delay information printed online to keep it up,” says O’Brien.

            Circulation of papers around the country have gone down significantly. Business West, however, has only decreased in readers slightly. “Fewer people read print these days. The newer generation reads less in general. The fact that most people read the news on new media has been a challenge,” says O’Brien. But they do not plan on raising prices for subscriptions. Their new media outlets like their web page and their twitter have been beneficial. “There are a lot of people who are more comfortable with reading information online. We want the print to succeed but new media is just more popular. It gets challenging though. It requires staff, not much revenue, and you’re basically giving the product away,” says O’Brien.

Page One

The documentary, Page One, is all about the New York Times and how new media has affected circulation and the paper as a whole. It talked about the lay offs, the papers shut down, and the constant struggle for newspapers to try to keep ahead of the internet, which seems pretty impossible. I have to wonder how media will affect newspapers in the future. Will there even be papers to pick up at convenience stores? Will they become so obsolete that the next generation will not get to even see or hold a newspaper? The documentary seemed to keep focus on a few individuals throughout the corporation. One being David Carr, an outspoken and opinionated columnist for the New York Times. Not only did he provide entertainment value to the movie, but he also brought up some very hard hitting problems journalism will end up facing. It even showed how he was reluctant to use twitter, but after trying it he became hooked because of all the convenience and ease. He was amazed and said how you could look up all this information before you're done waiting in line at Starbucks. The entire documentary was revealing in a way I never thought about. Obviously, as a journalism major I think about working in some sort of news room some day, but actually seeing the inner workings of such a major company was eye opening. I never thought of something like the New York Times having financial troubles or looking for hand outs, so not only was this unsettling, but it also made me feel the need to reevaluate my decision for becoming a journalism major. Newspapers are slipping, what will be next? How much longer will broadcast news be around? When will it become obsolete? Will the only way of getting the news be via internet, or will something else come along? For students studying journalism, will there actually be any jobs? If there are jobs, how long will one be able to keep it, or will they be laid off within the first year? New media raises a lot of questions and there is no way to tell for sure what the future of journalism has in store.

Photo journalism reaction

 

This is the image of a young girl terrified by one of the first attacks in Iraq. I think it is a great depiction of how the war affected the real people living there. When Americans think of Iraq, they think only of terrorists and not of the people trying to make a living to support their families, or the little kids who barely know how to spell and are being subjected to this kind of violence. I think this picture helps us realize that there is more than the stereotype, and that behind the hype there is a country full of people just like the United States. What really speaks in this picture is the little girl's face as she cries from the chaos set forth by the attack. The black smoke from behind her only adds to the guilt one feels while looking at it.