Journalism

Last Monday was a very nice and fun class. Jesse was really knowledgable and also had a good outlook on things when it came to journalism and ethics. I say a good outlook because I agreed with most of his responses. I know that ethics in journalism could be a huge topic and there are no distinct lines that govern its practice. Of course there are special cases that need not be stated where ethics overpower the journalistic person. It is such a big topic because alot of reporters have had a bad stereotype complied against them. Journalists search for truth and sometimes during that search they find themselves in a moral dilema. I think how they choose to handle that dilema says alot about the ethics of that journalist.

I have never really been exposed to the inner workings of journalism mostly because I chose a path directly opposite of it in engineering. I work with facts and don't have any morals or ethics to deal with when doing my work. It was nice to hear from Jesse, it gave me a new respect for what they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Response to Aarons News Blog

I decided on this blog because it is the most agreeable with me. Thats actually the reason I choose all my peer responses. I actually do the same thing I usually watch the news daily mostly for just to get a little info about whats happening in the world and also to find out the weather for the day so i can decide what to wear. However the news show that I most enjoy and get most of my current affairs knowledge from is the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I have been watching these shows since they first aired. These shows take all of the stories that I am interested in and discusses them while poking fun. Although most people would not consider it a real news show, I believe that it does keep you updated on the important stuff while being very entertaining. They leave out the minor stories like the guy hit by a drunk driver or other things like that.

This idea I have ties into what Aaron says about news today. Because of technology alot of people are getting spoiled. They can record the news on their Tivo or DVR and then watch it later and just fast forward the stories they don't care about. They can also log on to the internet where most internet providers have a news reel on their home page that has all of the current events and stories listed and you can click on one to read about it and most the time watch a short news broadcast on it. So this is similar to what I do by watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Just instead of selecting the stories I want to watch, I take the spoilednesss one step further and let the writers of the shows decied what stories I should watch.

Koin 6 at 6 Sunday

I watch the news alot and actually watched many different news programs but The one I wanted to write about was the Sunday 6 at 6. It had a virtual debate between senator Gordon Smith and Jeff Merkley. It was an interview of both the candidates answering the same questions and they just switched back and forth bewteen them for each question. I like this sort of debate because it tends to get a more direct response and forces them to give their response independent of what the other says. I really liked this particular one because it touched on the personality of each candidate, by asking how it made them feel when they saw one of their opponents campaign ad that instead of bringing up the candidate it attempts to slap down the opponent. Jeff Merkley did the typical run around with the question without saying a direct response like " I don't worry about it" or " It doesn't bother me". He actually turned his response into a negative ad for Gordon Smith when the question was asking about his personal feeligs. This did not appeal to me at all, I hate mudslinging and when a candidate won't obviously state their personal feelings on a subject. Gordon Smith Directly said "It hurts my feelings because they're dishonest at best half of the story". Which is exactly how I would think a person should feel. He makes a good point about how in one of Jeff Merkley's ads it states that Smith voted to privitize social security. He replies that AARP which is a leading social security and insurance company for senoirs Named Gordon Smith Senator of the year. Which they obviously would not have given him that award if he had voted that way. This was really a good debate for Gordon Smith and definately helped me with my choice.

Response to am's writing about writing.S

I think that this blog could have been written word for word by me because I have the exact same belief about work. He says there is only so much time you have to do certain things in your life, so for writing, by choosing a interesting and enjoyable topic it will produce a much better piece and also be more enjoyable for me to create it. I was told by my day when I was very young that if you choose something that you love doing for your career, you'll never work another day in your life. This could not be more true for me. I am not a lazy person so I always have some type of project or problem I am trying to work on. I put 100% of my effort into whatever I am doing so it usualkly comes out pretty good. Engineering is using science to solve practical real-life problems. Those are my two favorite things to do so its no wonder why I am in school for engineering.

The last little bit of Sam's blog says he prefers a personal relationship with a person rather than handing writing back and forth. Again this is exactly how I feel too. I hope to be in the sales part of engineering eventually because I enjoy meeting and interacting with new people. This skill is rare to find in most engineers so I feel that it will give me an advantage and lead to my future success.

Freelanceing

When I hear the word freelance I immediately think of Spiderman. Why? Because the chief of the Daily Bugle was a great character and the scene where Peter Parker ask for a job the chief says, "Job? No Job. Freelance. The best thing for a kid your age. Meat. I'll send you a nice basket of Christmas meat. But I never said you had a job." This is how I remember what freelance is. It can be a steady job if you want but also leaves time for those unexpected schedule changes a superhero might encounter.

If I was a professional writer or photographer this would be my route for making the rent. You get to choose your topic and your publication. So the harder you want to work the further you can make it. I am this type of person. Rather than having a steady job, I would prefer to be incharge of my own schedule. I am a very hard worker so this type of work is much easier for me to excel in because I know that my pay is proportional to my dedication.

Peter O' Connor;s Chapter Response

This was a pretty interesting post. Actually all of them are interesting because he definitely has some great writing skills. He is a very opinionated person and has a unique voice that is picked up from his writing easily. He has the general idea that I had but has a much more colorful way of talking about it. He discusses about listening to others around you and seeing how others communicate to one another and then comparing to how he thinks that he communicates. He says that the words you choose produce the biggest reflection of your voice. This is agreeable with one of the main points of the chapter. I personally agree with that, just your vocabulary alone can say alot about a person. Words like umm, and, like, and sort of are usually stalling words that are used so that you have more time to think about the right word. It can give alot of information about a reader. This type of information is usually not to your benifit to hand over so easily.

Chapter 8 and 19

Chapter 8 steps away from the rigid structure of technical writing and discusses how to bring your style through all the rules and formats. I had originally thought about this when I first started reading about style in writing. Because technical writing has alot of formats and rules that need to be followed it seemed that it would be much more difficult to show your writing style through all of that. This is where the book comes up with some rules to help you accomplish this. The first is create your own voice and the other two are kind of ways to help do the first. Next they say to use the right words and watch your sentence structure. By doing these you should be able to keep a basic display of your style in your technical writing.

Chapter 19 brings about the idea of creating a communication project for the reader. Because we have two main goals we want to accomplish with our writing, keeping the reader happy and also getting him to agree with your ideas. These two are not always easy to have in the same piece of writing. That is why some of the other chapter topics are so important. The biggest one would probably be knowing as much about the culture, personality and the business of the reader. The more you know about your reader the easier it will be to not upset or offend them. The more habitual this part is the easier you will find it to pursuade them without any negative consequences.