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.  

[1 link, 2 quotes, 1 picture, 159 word]

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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Journalists in the Wild: Gervasio Sanchez

Gervasio Sanchez has been a reporter for 35 years. He currently writes a blog for the Heraldo in Saragossa, Spain. Sánchez is a photographic journalist who mainly reports on armed conflicts. He has published multiple photographic journals/books. Including a book in 2014 titled Women of Afghanistan, which surrounds topics like “forced and child marriage; the running away; drug dependence; suicide; legal developments and reality; and consequences of impunity and war.” The whole series took place between 2009 and 2014. Sánchez did the series with a woman named Mònica Bernabé.

Sánchez works with the sole Spanish speaking organization in Afghanistan. He splits his time between Afghanistan and Spain.  [2 image, 2 links, 1 quotation, 108 words].

Journalists In The Wild: Chris Terrill

Chris Terrill is a British undercover journalist. His is a one man team film maker as well as author. “This "lone wolf" technique is a hallmark of his work.” He has broken up Orangutan smuggling rings, and infiltrated human trafficking gangs in various places. He also spent some time with the US Marines. This is where his book and film series titled “Commando” comes from. Now 67, he completed his commando training when he was 55. Everything he does, he usually brings a camera along. With this, he is able to tell the truth in a way that words never could. His rhetoric is using film as evidence to show the truth you can see.
[1 image, 2 links, 1 quotation, 115 words].

Dying to Tell: A Film

This entire movie was in Spanish, but it had me intrigued from the start. Hernán Zin, the man who filmed the entire series, narrates the movie and adds his own twist to it. Zin does an amazing job at portraying the actuality of what deployments are like. Then the multiple interviews of what reporters and journalists have gone though was an eye opener. Gervasio Sanchez, one of the people interviewed in the film, said that “The day I don't feel that pain inside, get shocked inside, [he] won't go.” Film journalism shows so much more than written journalism can. The consumer is able to take the information with their own eyes, not through the words of someone else. Gervasio Sanchez says it best himself “the only way I can transmit things honestly, powerfully, without flaws, is feeling that pain.”
[1 image, 1 links, 2 quotation, 139 words].

Cristiano Ronaldo Rape allegations "Fake News"

Recently, it has come to light that Cristiano Ronaldo, a famous Portuguese soccer player, allegedly raped a woman in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2009. Kathryn Maygora is the woman who claimed these allegations stating that see Ronaldo's face on billboards "cause her severe distress." Ronaldo responded to the allegations hours later stating "'No, no, no, no, no. What they said today, fake—fake news.'" Apparently Maygora signed a non disclosure agreement in 2010 but decided to make it public recently. Maygora's mother intensifies the allegation with apparent quotes from Kathryn calling her in distress whenever a picture of Ronaldo came up.

source: https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/sports/cristiano-ronaldo-dismisses-rape-allegations-as-fake-news


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Red Bull doesn't give you wings

The company Red Bull was sued by Benjamin Careathers for falsely advertising that the energy beverage "gives you wings." An article from The telegraph stated that the companies advertisements were "deceptive and fraudulent and is therefore actionable" when describing why the suit was brought up. Other discoveries proved that the company falsely stated that their product provides more energy than a cup of coffee and therefore can charge a higher price. That proved not to be the case during this class action suit Red Bull had no definitive research to prove their allegations. Red Bull agreed to play the settlement in hopes of not bringing the issue that much attention.

source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11155731/13m-lawsuit-proves-Red-Bull-doesnt-give-you-wings.html

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter was found guilty in 2015 of receiving bribes and fixing where future World Cup tournaments will be played. "The Fifa ethics committee said that pair had demonstrated an "abusive execution." The FBI began investigating after Russia was awarded a bid for the 2018 World Cup. Ultimately Sepp Blatter and many others were found guilty of "disloyal payment" and stripped of their titles. Emails from the president of South Africa to Blatter disclosing payments were discovered in the investigation and proved the allegations explained earlier. FIFA now have new representatives and the organization is now motivated to leave this period in the rear view mirror. Improving the beautiful game is now their sole mission.

source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32897066

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Leave it to Twitter

"Fake news and false rumors reach more people" when Twitter bots begin sharing fake news articles on timelines. A study found that this fake news actually "spread much faster than accurate stories." The Twitter bots shared equal amounts of real and fake news, but humans consistently shared the fake news more. This would start with a human sharing because the story meant something to them. That first retweet would be caused by pathos since it's evoking emotion to share it. From their retweet, others count on the trust that someone wouldn't be sharing fake news. That method would be ethos. People don't even realize that they're using such rhetoric techniques on each other with their tweets.  [1 image, 1 link,2 quotes,116 words.]

Got Milk?

Milk has been a hot topic in the world recently. Many activist groups are beginning to boycott cow milk and push people to drink alternatives. Recent lawsuits have slammed the dairy industry for their deceptive assertion stating they treated cows nicely. It was discovered that cows have been treated in an inhumane way and many are enraged by this finding. According to an article by Glynis Farrell Bergner, "Members of the watchdog group also allegedly witnessed farm employees shooting cows and leaving them to die..." (Bergner). This quote provided a hefty allegation against a farm that would prove vital in the case later on. Many young people are beginning to switch to alternatives such as almond milk and soy milk to boycott these farms.

Source: https://www.courthousenews.com/milk-drinkers-blast-producers-claims-of-humane-cow-treatment/

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Wife for camels?

Finding Fake news:

In an age where information gets traded with seemingly no filter at all,

we all need to check our facts more than ever before. Sites like

worldnewsdailyreport.com, despite having a legitimate sounding name,

would like you to click on their sensationalist headlines like

“Saudi Arabia: American tourist arrested for refusing to trade

his wife to a prince for 45 camels”. This website is actually a satirical

news site which publishes a disclaimer reading “[...] WNDR assumes

however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for

the fictional nature of their content[…]” This doesn’t stop people from

believing in these types of articles, though. As a reader by the name

of Yvan who presumably read the article without reading the disclaimer

said, “and we make business with this sick country!” I think we should

all check out websites likes snopes.com who fact check so you don’t

have to. Here is their take on the Saudi Arabia article.

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TRENDING

News Feed:  News nowadays is received for most people when they’re not even
searching for it. Personally I go on the internet a lot (kinda a huge nerd) and I’ll
see the “trending” page or the “hot” page and click on it because it’s something
that everyone else is interested in. A good example of this is when I went on
Youtube yesterday and I scrolled through my recommended feed and Pewdiepie’s
video on Dr. Disrespect came up which peaked my interest. After it being posted
for only 4 hours it had over 600,000 views. The same thing happens on things like
Reddit as well. I’ll scroll through my feed and I’ll see posts where there will be over
hundreds of comments discussing certain things about what's going on around the
world… whether that's games or politics. Truly, I feel as though all these companies
use every single type of rhetorical choice to get their points across to all of their users.
Posts such as “Ima touch the giant” to “TIL that in the late Classical Era of Greece,
women owned 35% of the land and property in Sparta.”

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a Digital Detox

Journalists in the Wild: journalist Gemma Music travels to Africa in hopes of discovering a new perspective on life, sees that there is more out there than simply what we’re use to. There are many different animals, people, and cultures to experience… and how everyone in some way, shape, or form needs to have a “digital detox” -“Save yourself the tech-frustration and just switch off. Easy. No reception, no problems.”. Gemma uses logos to illustrate her point of view by explaining to her audience why she believes that everyone should try to travel to Africa and experience a life where you’re disconnected from others and just “live”. [1 image, 1 link, 1 quote, 107 words]

https://www.gapyear.com/articles/travel-ideas/why-trip-africa-total-life-changer