Suki Kim, a Daring Journalist that worked undercover to tell the stories from North Korea

Suki Kim is a Korean-American investigative journalist and author who spent much of his time as a journalist reporting from North Korea where she lived and worked undercover. She documents his experience in her book titled ‘"Without You, There Is No Us," which gives the audience a rare look at life in the nation of North Korea. She is daring as she conducted a decade-long investigation gathering insights about the country’s ruling class and ruled. In her own words, she says that “There was never a doubt in my mind that I needed to tell these stories.” This shows her passion in investigative journalism and the will to endanger her own life for sake of getting the information out to the world about life in one of the most brutal regimes ever existed in the face of the planet.

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Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/suki-kim-goes-undercover-tell-stories-north-korea-n265836

Ebola, a Complex Health Crisis in History

Ebola, a Complex Health Crisis in History

Peter Beaumont a senior reporter of the Guardian’s Global Development desk in this June 2019 issue looks at the most complex health crisis in history. He examines that complexity in a Central Africa country called Congo, which is struggling to contain the Ebola epidemic. There are a lot of challenges when it comes to reporting on or about such an epidemic, as a reporter can get it wrong or protection can go wrong and in the process contract the virus. However, Peter Beaumont is a bold reporter that has extensively reported from conflict zones the Middle East, the Balkans and including Africa. He looks at how political, cultural complications and security has negatively impacted the effort of overcome the deadly virus as it keeps on spreading. Peter Beaumont has heavily relied on ethos to tell the story. For example, he cites credible sources. Moreover, Pathos is also used, for instance, telling the story of survivors and their experience with the disease, such as the story of Moise Kitsakihu-Mbira. He asserts that “It was my grandson who died first,” he tells the Guardian. Many family members touched the body – highly risky as Ebola is spread through physical contact with victims’ bodies or those showing symptoms. They started dying. First his brother, then, one after another, twelve others.” The statement shows a broken healthcare system, which cannot inform the population of some of the preventive measures when there is an outbreak.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/25/most-complex-health-crisis-congo-struggles-ebola-drc

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Kellogg’s Scam

Companies highlight phrases on their products in order to increase sales. For instance, Kellogg suggested that their Rice Krispies cereal “helps support your child’s immunity”. This claim entices parents to pick up a box to feed their children as parents want their children to be healthy. However, The Federal Trade Commission soon demanded Kellogg to stop advertising this claim as the claim was uncertain. Again in 2013, Kellogg suggested that Mini-Wheats “could make you smarter” which got them into even more trouble. Kellogg’s claim that this cereal would improve “children’s attentiveness, memory, and other cognitive functions” was false. Companies like Kellogg use false advertising in order to gain more revenue.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/false-advertising-scandals-2016-3#kellogg-said-rice-krispies-could-boost-your-immune-system-5

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New Balance’s False Claim

Fake news is all over the internet as companies make false claims in order to get more sales. In 2011, New Balance was caught in a lie as they claimed that their shoes would “help wearers burn calories” even though that was not the case. In efforts to try to stop this false advertising, studies were conducted on their sneakers in order to see whether the shoe could help wearers burn calories or not. The studies done proved that New Balance’s claim was false as they found that “there were no health benefits from wearing the shoe” despite what New Balance had suggested. Many other companies use superficial claims when trying to sell their product and it is important to be able to recognize these false claims through research.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/false-advertising-scandals-2016-3

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Construction Impacting Communities

In my community they have decided to widen Alma Drive in order to “relieve current and future traffic problems” concludes NBCDFW News . However, there wasn’t much traffic on the street Alma to begin with, leaving many residents of Allen, Texas angry. Many people, including myself, are frustrated with the widening of the street as construction results in even more traffic. My mother, Geri Shroyer emphasizes how the street was “only bad during rush hour” and even then, it never got too backed up. She also brings up a good point about how this construction results in less greenery as they are having to tear down trees in order to widen the street. A member of the community: Michelle Massi feels the same way as she explains how there were “no issues with traffic” on Alma Drive before, so this construction is only creating a hassle. The widening of Alma has created much more traffic then there was to begin with and with widening the street comes the removal of greenery leaving many members of Allen, Texas irritated.

Sources: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Allen-residents-fight-back-against-widening-of-Alma-Drive-482114061.html
https://www.travelers.com/resources/driver-fleet-safety/4-summer-driving-hazards-to-be-aware-of

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Childhood Nutrition Based on a Farce

Honey Nut Cheerios are a staple food in most childhood experiences. If not Cheerios, most of us grew up with some sort of crunchy, sugary delight as part of the morning routine. Many of them, like Cheerios, are marketed as “heart healthy,” the shape of a heart being featured in many of their ads. If you do your research on this idea you will find this claim based on out-dated science. The disclaimers at the bottom of Cheerios’ website indicate they know this claim isn’t backed by current science and make allowances in the fine print. Cheerios’ tiny disclaimer is that “…many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease.” “May” being the key word and the only word that makes the statement accurate. The notion of saturated fat being linked to heart disease is primarily the work of Ancel Keys; who has since been laughed out of the scientific community for poor research practices. His practices being executed while backed and funded by big sugar companies to protect their interests. [2 links, 1 photo, 1 quote, 156 words]

Source: https://www.cheerios.com/hearts-matter/

Source: https://journal.crossfit.com/article/devil-in-the-diet-2

Source: https://www.marksdailyapple.com/cholesterol/

Sports reunites a war-torn nation

Nick Friend is a CNN sports journalist. He reports sporting activities from across the world. In a May 27, 2019 CNN sports feature, Nick looks at how cricket has united Afghanistan despite its name being associated with war. Cricket has re-branded Afghanistan and unlike in the previous years when you uttered the name Afghanistan and war came into mind, today when you say the name Afghanistan, cricket comes into mind. Nick shows the trans-formative effects of cricket on a war tone nation. Stanikzai notes that "Now, because of cricket, everyone wants to be a sportsman, everyone wants to be a popular person."  Today, Afghan is a cricket powerhouse with cricket being played from one street to the other since it is an avenue for popularity. Nick uses Pathos to tell the story of Afghanistan and reflect on its citizen’s passion when it comes to playing cricket. The conditions of Afghanistan as demonstrated in the images appeals to audiences’ emotion about the country and what it has gone through. The use of first person of the game’s great to help explain the impact of t

he sports in the society underpins the trustworthiness of the piece.

Link: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/20/sport/afghanistan-cricket-world-cup-spt-intl/index.html

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Same-sex Marriage: Wall Street Journal vs Times News

When same-sex marriage was finally legalized, it was a huge deal. The Wall Street Journal presented this on their front page with a fifth of their front page and no pictures or colors. It was all in black and white, seeming like they did not want this huge deal to be big at all. The title for the short article is, "Court Rules Gays Have Right to Marry." This title does not bring any sort of triumph or gleefulness but seems like they are taking shots at the LGBTQ community. They even have an ad for Omega watches that is about half the size of the whole article. On the other hand, Times-News' front page explodes with color. It has a picture of the White House with rainbow lights across it supporting the exciting news. The article for the new decision in Times-News is two-thirds of the front page with different interviews and questions and what it means for the country. Both news sources are some of the biggest in the country and it really shows a lot about what kind of audience they want to read their papers.

Source: https://newseumed.org/tools/artifact/same-sex-marriage-legalized-2015-archived-papers

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Journalists across the world being jailed

It is important to know what is going on in the world around us. Journalists who are brave enough to travel to places with a strong military presence or radicals are putting their life on the line to make sure we know the truth. A little over a year ago there were two journalists, Wa Lone, and Kyaw Soe Oo were jailed for 7 years because they were carrying papers about a story, they were writing on the Rohingya massacre. A lot of blame is put on the president because he "uses language like 'fake news' to describe the work of the national news networks...This rhetoric by the US president is encouraging every dictator to jail journalists, not only activists, not only those who are fighting for the environment or press freedom or any important cause, and that's happening across the world."  This article has a few pictures and is mostly black and white. I think the importance of this article is to get the word out and try to make an impact and is almost like a cry for help for traveling journalists.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/journalists-across-the-world-are-being-jailed-its-time-to-act-11489840

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The Bakersfield Californian vs. Los Angeles Times

A couple of years ago when Hillary Clinton was running for president, it was the first time ever that a woman was the presidential candidate for any party. It was a huge story in the news and so many different news sources wrote about it. The Bakersfield Californian's front page consisted of a picture of Hillary Clinton's husband Bill, not a picture of the woman who had just done one of the most amazing things in history. I find that very demeaning, it is taking away the spotlight Hillary deserved and put it on her husband who already was a president. The Los Angeles Times front page had the last 23 presidents pictures and then Hillary Clinton's picture proposing that she is going to be the next president. I feel like this is a much better way of portraying what happened because it is a huge deal for this country and women. Writers have to make sure that their article is "focusing on how their state delegation had voted", but this was before voting so you can see that certain sources were definitely taking sides.

Source: https://newseumed.org/tools/artifact/clinton-breaks-glass-ceiling-2016-archived-papers

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Fake Facebook!

Fake news on Facebook is always getting shared and is just gaining more and more attention. “Misinformation is part of an online economy that weaponizes social media to profit from our clicks and attention.” A video of a plane doing a 360-degree and then safely landing went completely viral on Facebook with more than 14 million views. Come to find out this video was actually falsely put together, “Aristomenis Tsirbas, a Los Angeles-based director, made the computer-generated video of a plane doing a 360”. His work was taken and then made into this fake news. This article gives some great advice to how to catch fake news. One, check the URL for misspelling or extra letters. Two, check photos for Photoshop or if it looks realistic. Three,  

check other sources to confirm the information. Four, there are now chrome apps you can download that will check it for you and either tell you if it is verified or unverified.  

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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/18/i-fell-facebook-fake-news-heres-why-millions-you-did-too/?utm_term=.abecf48787d0

Apple News Vs. News Break

I downloaded Apple News and News Break: Local and Breaking to compare them. Apple news has top stories as well as you can purchase magazines. Another thing that was interesting about Apple News you can customize what you would want to see and select the categories of what you are interested in. “Dive into your own personal newsstand, with full access to hundreds of magazines and leading newspapers.” I also downloaded  News Break, when you open up the app you can already tell it is a completely different layout. It has for you, following, local, and headlines. News break does not have magazines access but also lets you customize what you want to see. “Stay informed by getting alerts and emergencies quicker, smoother, better.” Apple news grabs you by visuals, right when you open up the app pictures from the news articles come right up in the top stories. The Apple News app is a lot more simple and easy to click around and get what you want. The News Break app when you open it you just a lot of words followed by small pictures to the side. There are a lot more tabs you have to click just to get what you want, so it makes it more difficult to find what you want compared to Apple News. I did find it very interesting that the apps color scheme is the same on both. 

Sources: https://www.apple.com/apple-news/ ; http://www.newsbreakapp.com/

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Journalist Diane Sawyer

Diane Sawyer is one news reporter/journalist that I have watched for years. She has covered and interviewed some of the interesting and big stories in the world. “she has traveled the globe delivering thorough and breaking news reports, and has conducted interviews with almost every major newsmaker of our time.” One of the more recent things that she has covered that was a hard thing to watch/read was interviews with women that have been sexual harassment or  assault at their jobs on a 20/20 episode. Diane Sawyer to me has always grabbed the audience's emotions and told the story from the people's perspective. She has covered many amazing and exclusive stories in all her years of work and has been awarded a lot of recognition for all of her work in the journalism world. 

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Source: https://abcnews.go.com/ABCNews/DianeSawyer/diane-sawyer-abc-news-official-biography/story?id=9380180

Battle of the News Feeds III: Flixist Vs Cinemassacre

     In our final round, we will be taking a look at two movie critic/review Twitter feeds: Flixist, a professional blog, and Cinemassacre, a blog done by one man.

Comparing the two is quite easy; Flixist introduces itself in a very simple manner:

"Blogging Movies Daily - News on upcoming movies, reviews, trailers, rumors, and more!" (Flixist)

...and Cinemassacre, run by the well-known AngryVideoGameNerd, introduces itself like:

"Official Twitter account for James Rolfe aka AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd) and Cinemassacre. Game and movie reviews plus more." (Cinemassacre)

     Neither one has any form of product advertisement in their description, which is great; they both get right to the point.

     The real difference is that with Cinemassacre being fronted by a single personality, that personality is highly promoted throughout the feed. Flixist is purely movie reviews and movie trailers.

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Battle of the News Feeds II: IGN Vs Gamespot

     In round two, we take a look at the news feeds of IGN and Gamespot, two of the oldest and most prominent video game news sites.

"We're all about video games, movies, TV, and comics!" (IGN)

"Official @GameSpot account. Follow for video game news, livestreams, & giveaways! Also follow @GSUniverse for TV/movies, & @GameSpotDeals for sales/freebies." (Gamespot)

     We can the similarities between how these two gaming news sites describe themselves and how the two news organizations did back in part I.

     IGN paints themselves as a site that isn't only dedicated to only video games whereas Gamespot makes it clear they are; although, they do encourage you to visit their other accounts for other news about other mediums.

     Just like how CNN was advertising their app, Gamespot is advertising their GameSpotDeals service. I can't say I'm a fan of the product placement right in the description.

     I find IGN to be the more poorly put together Twitter feed as it is flooded with non-gaming news whereas Gamespot is purely gaming related; it helps that Gamespot puts its' other non-gaming related news on a different feed.

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Battle of the News Feeds I: Fox Vs CNN

     As you all may be aware, Twitter is one the most popular ways that many people get their news. I personally don't see why as the platform seems fairly limited in its' capabilities. Unfortunately, as I've learned throughout the years, my opinion doesn't mean anything. Nevertheless, I have decided to venture forth and sail the vast ocean of the Twitter hellscape to find how different, opposing forces in news present themselves to the masses.

  

     In round 1, we are taking a look at Fox and CNN news corporations on Twitter. Right off the bat the way they present themselves in their description is quite different from one another.

"Follow America's #1 cable news network, delivering you breaking news, insightful analysis, and must-see videos." (Fox News)

"It’s our job to #GoThere & tell the most difficult stories. Join us! For more breaking news updates follow @CNNBRK & Download our app *" (CNN)

     As we can see, Fox likes to brag about how popular they are whereas CNN takes a more subtle approach and makes it clear that they exist to bring you the news. CNN, however, is pushing their application.

  

     If we take a look at their latest tweets, we can see that Fox News is covering immigration whereas CNN is covering the royal family and some boxer; CNN comes off as kind of shallow in my opinion. To be fair, the last tweet from Fox was in 2018.

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