Category Archives: Danielle Cohen

Reporters’ impact before a big storm

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Miami is one of the major cities in the United States to have a history greatly impacted by hurricanes and tropical storms. As a result, the upcoming end of the hurricane season is a big deal. Hurricane season ends on Nov. 30 and, until then, many Miami residents are often extremely cautious of approaching storms and warnings.

As many Miami residents were starting to believe the rest of the Miami hurricane season was in the clear, subtropical storm formed in the northern Atlantic Ocean on Monday. At approximately 5 p.m. the subtropical storm was about 650 miles southeast of Bermuda. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour moving northwest at nine miles per hour.

Reports from the National Hurricane Center announced that the storm is supposed to head north on Tuesday and later that evening turn to the northeast.

Some strengthening is expected to occur over the next day or two and this storm could near hurricane strength by Tuesday afternoon.

With all of this going on in today’s world, it is hard to think about the world without reporters informing the public about approaching storms or hurricanes.

The information before a storm allows people to protect themselves and their family by taking  precautionary steps to prepare for a hurricane or tropical storm. In severe cases reports could even convince people to evacuate the area. These measures not only saves lives but it helps people protect their homes and belongings beforehand.

Reporters not only help protect the people and their belongings that could be affected by the storms but also the areas economy. Reports suggest that filling up on gas, food, water, batteries, and flashlights and other objects are extremely important before a storm. When reporters report a storm there becomes a surplus in the economy before the storm and a high demand for these items at local stores.

Not only could reports help save people’s lives and have an influence on the economy, but also they influence the employment world. As a result of reports, schools may be cancelled therefore parents may not attend work and teachers may have days off. This could simply be a result of a report of a storm made on the news and may potentially not even be accurate. Schools may be able to stay in session causing adults to attend their jobs.

Storm reports hold great importance and can greatly impact people, the economy, and the amount of local students attending school and residents attending work.

Typhoon Haiyan reporters risk their lives

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Typhoon Haiyan was one of the powerful storms to ever be recorded and is believed to be the strongest typhoon to ever make landfall in human history.

With 10,000 deaths already confirmed by local officials and the reports of many that are left homeless and hungry, it is pretty clear how dangerous and destructive this storm actually was.

With storms and natural disasters, although it may be extremely dangerous, someone has to be the reporter to go to the location and actually report what is going on to benefit the world’s public knowledge and awareness. The reporter could potentially risk his or her life for the sake of reporting information.

A Filipino reporter named Atom Araullo has become an Internet sensation for being a strong reporter and actually going out in the mist of the typhoon to make live reports. He was beaten up by 379 km/h winds, according to NASA.

The reporter was reporting for ABS-CBN News and is now considered a hero on social media for being the brave reporter to face the storm.

The footage of the storm that Araullo reported live has gone viral on YouTube and has been viewed more than one million times.

Hours after the broadcast, Araullo was trending on Twitter.

The cameraman who recorded Araullo is also being recognized even though there is no information on his identity.

Because one reporter broadcast this information competitive stations also sent reporters to this dangerous natural disaster sight to report.

Jamela Alidogan, who reported live from the storm’s hardest hit city, Tacolban, and shared her horrifying story of how she almost did not survive the storm while reporting about the typhoon.

She told her story about how she went to the second story of a building and hung from the metal ceiling beams in a closet with many others for about an hour to remain safe until the ceiling actually started to give way. The roof eventually collapsed and there was a loud noise. She managed to hide in one of the closet shelves while the eye of the storm was just above her. She was prepared to jump, but decided to wait for help until the water and winds died down.

“I have covered armed conflict, but there is nothing like this, nothing as incredible and scary as covering a natural disaster like Typhoon Haiyan,” Alidogan stated in her report.

Reporters have an extremely important job of supplying news stations and the public with information that in situations like a national disaster is scarce and powerful. Reporters risk their lives to supply this information and it just shows the importance and necessity of the news as a source of information. Just one piece of footage of something this detrimental can summon millions.

For more information visit: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/521290/20131111/typhoon-haiyan-yolanda-philippines-atom-araullo-report.htm and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/al-jazeera-reporter-typhoon-haiyan_n_4255916.html?utm_hp_ref=media

Media can inspire relationships

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Back in 2012, a woman by the name of Elizabeth Wisdom posted a picture of Crater Lake in Oregon on her Instagram page.

This picture received 221 “likes” and various different comments. One of the comments which said “gasping I miss this place” was made by a man Elizabeth had never met. Because of their common interest in the lake and the public aspect of Instragram they decided to exchange phone numbers to chat.

Elizabeth decided she wanted to meet this man Denis face-to-face so she flew out to New Orleans to meet him. She Instragrammed a picture of Denis when she met him to document their weekend spent together.

From their comments back and fourth, it seemed that they were attracted to each ohter. As their relationship progressed Denis Instragrammed a picture of Elizabeth to document when they started to date.

Nine months later, Denis took Elizabeth to a barn near her home in Texas where she always dreamed of having her wedding. There he proposed to her in front of a “timeline” of their Instagram dating life which he printed out and put on the wall of the barn. The two are currently organizing their wedding.

It is amazing how social media networks can bring people together. People can post messages and images that others can relate to which in situations like this bring similar people together. If it wasn’t for Elizabeth’s hashtag on her Instagram about the Crater Lake, Denis would have never found Elizabeth.

I find this situation to be a rare occurrence because many people who meet on the Internet or on social media are taking a huge risk of the dangers behind their relationship. They have to take the chance of the possibility of talking to someone they don’t think they are talking to and sometimes maybe even a criminal or pedophile.

The movie and show “Catfish” is a prime example of this new relationship era. The show documents cyber relationships with the intentions of  bringing the two individuals together in person to see if the person they have been speaking too is actually the person that they thought.

Most of the time, the person is someone who lied about their identity. People who use media networks to “date” need to be extremely careful of all the dangerous people in the world today.

This dating is potentially dangerous and emotionally heartbreaking if you are talking to someone who lied about their identity.

It creates a world of people who do not know how to talk face to face. It creates a virtual world where people don’t interact in person and it is like love is evolving into a video game where they speak through typing.

Media networks bring people together in a sense, but essentially bring people physically apart due to lack of face-to-face connections.

For more information on Elizabeth and Denis: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/this-couple-met-fell-in-love-started-dating-and-got-engaged.

Social media can sway opinions

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Two black customers at the high-end department store Barney’s in New York City claimed to be subjects of racial profiling by the store’s employees.

According to the Huffington Post, Barney’s has been criticized for profiling African-American customers. Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillip were separate victims who recently have been examples of Barney’s profiling instances.

Christian sued Barneys after he was accused of fraud after spending money at Barney’s when he bought a Ferragamo belt in April.

Phillips filed a notice that she will sue after detectives stopped her outside of Barney’s after she made a high-end purchase of a Celine bag in February.

The CEO of Barneys, Mark Lee, apologized and claimed they have hired a civil rights expert to address the situation.

This situation is not only hurtful to Christian and Phillips and the people who could relate to this situation, but it is hurting Jay-Z and his fashion collaboration.

Jay-Z, who grew up in a life of crime in Brooklyn, is now an international star and rapper. He is very aware of civil rights. He is thoughtful and thinks about his  labels and if they would be considered racist.

He also stood up and spoke about the killing of Trayvon Marton, a black teenager who was killed because he was mistaken to be dangerous just because of his race.

Jay-Z is currently in the processes of collaborating with Barney’s to create a jewelry line and clothing line for the holidays in which he would not profit in anyway. Twenty-five percent of the total profit is planning to benefit economically challenged students to help them pursue an education.

There has been discussion in the news and social media because many of his fans believe that he should not continue his collaboration with Barney’s because of their racial profiling.

Saturday, Jay-Z announced that he had been “demonized” over his new collaboration and has been under pressure from all ends of social media to end his involvement with Barneys.

There have been Twitter remarks made to Jay-Z about this situation.

An online petition was even made to convince Jay-Z to drop his partnership with Barneys. This petition spread all over social media. This petition has received 13,670 signatures.

On top of all the social media recognition about this heated petition, people have been criticizing Jay-Z for not speaking publicly about his thoughts on the issue. This has even landed him on the cover of the New York Daily News.

Yesterday, Jay-Z spoke out. He stated, “I haven’t made any comments because I am waiting on facts and the outcome of a meeting between community leaders and Barneys.”

Because Jay-Z has such fame and such a large following, any news about him could and most definitely will cause a social media uproar with people sharing their opinions. If the news was not as established as it is today, people would be unable to retrieve all the information and they wouldn’t have the capability to share their opinions within social media networks. They also would not have been able to gather so many names on a petition.

In my opinion, social media are great for advertisers and for sharing news within seconds, but they also allow for a platform of negative opinions to be shared, petitions to be made, and people’s lives and reputations to be tainted.

After understanding what Jay-Z is going through, I began to think about how peoples lives would be changed drastically if social media did not exist because people would make more of their own decisions.

Social media is essentially creating a persuasive stream of comments that are unnecessary and that just simply complicate people’s lives.

There is news being created that is simply stemming from what people say on social media. If social media was eliminated this whole era of news would be eliminated.

Lost internships hurt journalism

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By DANIELLE COHEN

As summer rolls around each year, aspiring college level journalists compete for internship opportunities at all different prestigious companies to “get their foot in the door” for their future career.

These students go through rigorous interview screenings and have to compete with an ample amount of peers for coveted opportunities so they can some day “make-it” in journalism.

A major powerhouse in the journalism field is the major company Condé Nast.

Condé Nast is the company behind some of the most glamorous and high-end magazines and digital platforms in today’s modern journalism industry.

Some of the best journalists in the industry dominate Condé Nast and have become known throughout the world. Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, and Graydon Carter, the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, are just some of the many examples of amazing Condé Nast editors.

Fortunately, I was very honored to be one of the approximately 260 Condé Nast interns last summer. I made it through a Skype interview and numerous e-mail conversations until I finally took the position to work under the fashion editor, fashion assistant, and stylist at Condé Nast Traveler.

Besides the two-hour commute into the journalism hub of New York City in my “Condé” appropriate up-to-par outfit and running around the city in heels only someone in the office would understand, I really benefited from this internship.

I went to amazing seminars, learned what it is like to be an editor, had great opportunities to network and learned the details about the company itself.

As an intern, I can honestly say it is a true shame that it is official in 2014 that the Condé Nast internship program will be shut down.

According to WWD, an intern, Lauren Ballinger, who interned for W in 2009 and another intern, Matthew Leib, who worked for The New Yorker in 2009 and 2010 have filed a lawsuits against Condé Nast for “being paid below the minimum wage during internships.”

What I do not understand is why Leib would intern for the company two summers in a row if the rules about getting paid did not change and he was unhappy enough to sue.

I am curious to know if these two interns allowed their names to be released in the press because I would believe this would taint their reputation if they are trying to pursue a career in this industry.

Competitive companies like Hearst and Fox Searchlight Pictures were also sued by interns for a similar reason.

I am truly in shock that a student who had the same amazing opportunities I had at Condé Nast would complain about not getting paid when they were honored with such an amazing “foot in the door.”

These two interns jeopardized many future internships for students who could have learned and benefited from Condé Nast.

I am curious to find out how this lack of an internship program will affect the hiring process of this generation and future generation of interns. I wonder if the students who were too young to intern before the program shut down are at a disadvantage at some day getting a job at Condé Nast.

Hopefully, they will start this program up again with repercussions to protect the company against lawsuits with paid internships. I hope future interns can have the amazing experience I was “lucky” enough to have had at Condé Nast.

For more information visit: http://www.wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/internships-ending-7242603?src=nl/mornReport/20131023

Protecting juveniles in the news media

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By DANIELLE COHEN

In a small town in northeast Washington, an 11-year-old boy was convicted of attempting to murder his fellow fifth-grade classmate.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Allen Nielson supported the statement that this elementary school student devised his murder plot earlier this year with another classmate.

On Feb. 7, the boys brought a knife and handgun to school. Another student spoke up after seeing the students weapons in one of the boys backpacks. Before the boys could carry out their plot the school staff seized both the weapons.

A school counselor named Debbie Rodgers interviewed the older of the two boys. He admitted that his plan was to stab the girl to death because she was “really annoying” and the second boy was going to point the gun at anyone who tried to intervene.

One of the boys also tried to justify their actions by stating, “she’s rude and always made fun of me and my friends.”

The two boys also told authorities they were going to “get,” or murder, six more students at their school, Fort Colville Elementary School.

The convicted juvenile criminal is due back in court on Nov. 8 for a sentence hearing. He was sentenced to three to five years in a juvenile detention facility.

Both of these Juveniles names were not mentioned on news reports and neither were their pictures or anything to give away their identity.

Juveniles have confidentiality protection that adults do not have. Many believe this is the case because the states have a strong desire to rehabilitate the lives of juvenile delinquents and protect their reputation by not reporting their names to the press.

This issue does not prevent newspapers from reporting the stories and certain distinctions are made to decide if releasing the name of a child criminal will defame his/her reputation.

I personally believe that a child who is positively guilty of murder shouldn’t have their identity protected or hidden from the media just because of their age. Anyone who is capable of such a crime should be recognized as a criminal and the public should be aware of his or her identity.

I understand that if your name is in the news mentioning that you are a murderer, your life weather in jail or out of jail is permanently damaged due to your reputation and records.

If you are under the age of 18 and committed a crime you will most likely have a longer life to live with this reputation. I understand the theory behind protecting these children from the media, but I do not agree with it.

For more information on the elementary school case visit: http://panewsmedia.org/legal/publications/newspaperhandbook/juvenile-news-reporting

Journalism can damage the innocent

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By DANIELLE COHEN

The Olympic games of 1996 that were held in Atlanta were bombed. One person was killed and more than 100 others were injured. News media outlets swarmed the scene, reporting false information that permanently damaged an innocent man’s life.

Richard Jewell was an innocent security guard who was accused by many media outlets as being the “Olympic bomber.” His name and identity were portrayed in the worst possible light.

A journalist by the name of Kevin Sack now reflects on his experience reporting the Richard Jewell case.

Sack was the national correspondent in the Atlanta bureau of The New York Times. On July 30, 1996, Sack was writing an “extra” edition for The Atlanta Journal trying to confirm that Jewell was the focus of the FBI’s search for the bomber.

As Sack approached the deadline for the article, he was informed  by the paper’s executive editor at the time, Joseph Lelyveld, that he was not to accuse Jewell for “fitting the profile of the bomber,” instead he was to write a modest article. Sack felt it was very hard not to compete against the other papers who were reporting the story on Jewell an with this he wrote a paragraph that might be considered one of Sack’s mistakes.

Sack ended up writing, “Coverage of the investigation of the bombing at the Olympics here was dominated for hours today by a report in The Atlanta Journal naming a local security guard as the leading suspect.”

He also wrote, “ Federal law enforcement sources had confirmed to The Times that Mr. Jewell was among the suspects in the bombing, but cautioned that there were others, and that there was not sufficient evidence to charge him.”

Looking back, Sack regrets writing this.

The article actually stood out for its restraint.

Today, Sack seems to have learned little from his mistakes and understands that the journalism business, through the Internet and social media, has made it more tempting to use unconfirmed information and rush to judgment.

The New York Post’s “Bag Men” cover story reporting the two innocent Boston Marathon spectators is one of the many examples of how the defaming of innocent people through journalism and social media has continued.

For an innocent man’s reputation to be destroyed by the media and for the media to not learn and change from this is mind-boggling. Jewell felt like the media jumped on him “like piranha on a bleeding cow.” He also stated in interviews that he could never get his name back.

It is a tough situation for journalists to be in when they have to do their jobs and inform the public, but also have to keep in mind that the reputation of a possibly innocent suspect is on the line.

To learn more visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/booming/a-bombing-suspect-and-the-rush-to-judgment.html?ref=media.

News leaks could be threat to security

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Reporters are responsible for making information and news accessible. Sometimes, the information that may be newsworthy might not be safe to share as public knowledge.

A prime example of reporters leaking information that is not safe to share has happened recently and has put our country’s security as risk.

There was a report made by the McClatchy DC news service Washington bureau chief about how “odd” a story was on the front-page of The New York Times.

James Asher, the Washington bureau chief for McClatchy, made this statement in regards to a leak that took place in the beginning of August regarding the closing of 19 embassies that stirred media chaos.

McClatchy at the time supported publishing the details, which included intercepted communication between the Al Qaeda Leader Ayman al Zawahiri and Yemen AQAP head Nasir al Wuhayshi.

Other sources, such as The New York Times, decided it would be beneficial to hold back publishing this information and honor the government’s request. The Times did report communication involving “senior operatives of Al Qaeda,” but did not release any identities.

The evening of the release of The Times story , a Yemen expert explained “that an August leak regarding an Al Qaeda plot undermined U.S. intelligence gathering as — laughable.”

Now that it is about two months later, U.S officials who request anonymity told The Times that the leak promoted terrorists to change their methods of communication.

There are reports that this news leak damaged national security.

The Huffington Post stated that the U.S. government never raised concerns following the story released on Aug. 4 and that “multiple sources inside and outside of the Yemeni government confirmed our reporting and not one of them told us not to publish the facts.”

Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert and author of a book on al Qaida in Yemen, made the point that the U.S. publicly closed 19 embassies and that the facts about Wuhayshi and Zawhiri were known in Yemen.  The point she made was once the government leaks something, the information is hard to control.

We are unsure if our government is investigating the source of these leaks. We do know that the FBI and the office of the director of National Intelligence refused to speak about the subject. The Times also did not contribute and did not contact McClatchy for information.

For more information visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-calderone/mcclatchy-new-york-times-al-qaeda-leak_b_4022429.html?utm_hp_ref=media

What Francis says, what media perceives

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Decades of popes have consistently been well spoken and have paid special attention on emphasizing the pastoral care of the Catholic Church. The current church leader, Pope Francis, does not differ from previous popes in his way off addressing his people. He is careful and has a very selective choice of words.

What the pope says is not always perceived the way it is meant to be by journalists and is released into the press with false statements that the pope did not actually say or mean.

Former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio picked his words carefully as an Argentine priest and then prelate of Buenos Aires. He was impeccable in his word choice, especially with the politics that attacked Argentina for many years.

Journalists are very interested in what the pope has to say, knowing it could potentially make international headlines. With this, the problem of journalists misunderstanding and misdirecting the media was noticed last spring after Pope Francis’s installation. There was a report in USA Today, for example, about the pontiff’s supposed “obsession with Satan,” of which many Protestants, Catholics and other Bible readers were skeptical.

The newspaper stated that the pope “mentioned the devil on a handful of occasions.” The reporter took an incident where Pope Francis gave a blessing to a handicapped man and speculated the idea the Jesuit pontiff was an exorcist, or from the film “The Exorcist.” The Vatican then went further to tell the international press that no priest performs “ad hoc exorcisms” and the popes usually pray with and bless’ victims.

Any reporter covering this story could have flipped through canon law, the Bible or Catholic catechism, which are available to the public.

A couple of days later, reports came out that Francis declared that atheists would go to heaven as long as they did good deeds. The media took his words out of context when really Francis spoke of “ecumenical communion between believers and good-hearted atheists.” Nothing Francis said had contradicted the belief that work for the poor and downtrodden people would provide a meeting place in people’s hearts.

Two months following this false media report, the media then again reported something out of context. They claimed that Francis declared that the church would no longer “judge” homosexuality. What he actually said was “Who am I to judge” in response to a question about the “gay lobby” and focused on “lobbies” of all kinds focused on the segment of society destroying Christian unity and brotherhood.

Last week, a lengthy interview with American Magazine took place with Francis, which was published by and for the Jesuit Society in America. What the media got from this interview was that the pope was going to change the doctrine — or at least soften it up a lot.

ABC then went on to report this as the pope scolding the Catholic Church over “divisive rules.” A European wire service reported that the “pope seeks easing of rigid Catholic doctrine,” which references other media sources that states he was “pushing a shift” in the Catholic Church. The abortion rights group, NARAL, went on with this false information and published a thank-you note to the pope, only to find him excoriate abortion a few days after.

Continued media failure upsets Catholics who truly understand Francis’s true message. This brings up the question of media credibility on religious matters and even more broadly than that. Catholic documents are easily obtainable and yet the media doesn’t appear to be checking facts before publishing news stories that change the words of Francis and the Catholic Church.

To read more: http://theweek.com/article/index/250062/the-medias-mind-boggling-failure-to-understand-pope-francis.

When singer goes wild, so do media

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By DANIELLE COHEN

Miley Cyrus’s striking new style drew public and news media attention when she cut off her long dirty-blonde hair and died it platinum blonde. It not only damaged her physical image, but it began the negative spiral of her reputation.

Miley’s performance on the MTV video music awards, startled viewers after she stripped down into a flesh-toned latex bra and matching underwear and “twerked” onstage. Across Twitter and social media networks there was a buzz of shock about Miley with people posting pictures of celebrity faces in response to this provocative performance.

After putting on quite the show at the video music awards, Miley’s new song “Wrecking Ball” came out with a bang. Not only was she in sheer clothing that fully exposed her, she actually got naked and began to swing on a wrecking ball. To top it off, she began intimately licking a sledgehammer.

Not only is Miley’s reputation as the innocent Hannah Montana Disney star destroyed, this morning Miley announced she was separating from her fiancé and Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth after he was seen out with Eiza González.

Miley’s behavior has placed her name all over social media. There were more than 4.5 million tweets about Miley during her performance at the  Music Video Awards, which is approximately 300,000 tweets per minute. Afterwards, her “wrecking ball” video created a record-breaking viewer count on Vevo.

Ever since her rebellious performance at the video music awards, people have been sharing their thoughts and opinions about her on TV, websites, in newspapers and almost everywhere else.  There are even parodies making fun of her behavior.

Students at a Michigan college reportedly had to remove a giant pendulum sculpture from campus after naked students were seen swinging on it imitating Miley in her “wrecking ball” video. Many pictures and videos have been released recently showing male and female students copying Miley’s actions. The dean of this school claimed it was a safety hazard for students.

There is such a strong reaction to Miley’s behavior that students actually rebelled and put their safety at risk. Miley’s behavior has caused controversy and a social media uproar. This is newsworthy and journalists should be and are documenting what is taking place because her behavior. It is not a serious matter in many people’s opinions, but it something that put students at risk. People are talking about her and people want to know more about what she is doing.

For more on this, see http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/naked-college-students-mimic-miley-cyrus-wrecking-ball-video-article-1.1459601.