Drudge Report still ranks No. 1

Posted on April 10, 2015 by S. Molly Dominick

By S. MOLLY DOMINICK

A recent article from Politico identified the Drudge Report as the “leading source of referral traffic” for many notable news organizations. This means that—other than browser searches and social media, which usually will lead users to news stories through links and shares—the Drudge Report is the No. 1 place where readers go to get routed to news.

First of all, the obvious thing to note is that the Drudge Report is openly conservative. It often crafts its headlines and arranges its content from a conservative perspective. The fact that this conservative news routing site ranks is most used brings up questions about the political demographics of news readers nationwide.

Does this reflect the views of the nation? More likely, it just sheds light on what we guessed already. Those who seek out news the old-fashioned way tend to lean more to the right; those who like their news brought to them (e.g. through apps) tend to lean more to the left.

The Politico article also notes that the Drudge Report has experienced very little change to its Web page over the years, which I found interesting.

When it comes to keeping users engaged, the mentality used by companies usually revolves around updating, upgrading and introducing change to keep things interesting. However, the Drudge Report has been mighty successful in keeping things exactly the way they are.

This might be more of a testament to the audience who most religiously uses the Drudge Report, as previously discussed. But it might also be something for other marketers and newsmakers to keep in mind before making major changes to what they offer. In some situations, consistency may be equated with reliability and could be a more effective strategy in keeping a loyal audience.

More multimedia is a good thing

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Shakira Molet

By SHAKIRA MOLET

Most of us are familiar with John Oliver from “Last Week Tonight” and how he tackles prominent issues in our society, such as student debt.

In his segment, he utilizes statistics, interviews, excerpts from government documents and of course, a bit of comedy with a lot of sarcasm.

So why does this matter?

If you were to check how many views the video above has, you would notice that it has more than four million views just on YouTube. Not only does this show entertain those who watch, but focuses on the news and getting information out to the public.

So why is it that these kinds of media get so much more exposure than an article in a newspaper, whether on paper or online? I believe it is because of the multimedia aspect.

When the audience can see footage of what a news story is about, it leaves more of an impression than a boring article. Though many websites do include photos and videos for some news stories, it is still not enough. Reporting needs to make room for more multimedia outlets in order to make reading the news more interactive and bring in a bigger audience.

Images, videos in news tell stories

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Madison Cramer

By MADISON CRAMER

Severe weather. Violent crimes. Jaw-dropping plays. Sure, reading descriptions about these things are great, but think about how much pictures and videos take these to the next level. We’re able to witness the news with our own eyes, without having to rely solely on the words of a journalist, and that’s an incredible thing.

Take the recent occurrence in South Carolina, for example. A man was fatally shot by a police officer, creating an uproar within the community and across the country.

With the power of video, people around the world were able to see this disturbing event in plain view. This will help the public learn the facts rather than be fed rumors, because video doesn’t lie.

Images are an extremely powerful tool in journalism. They tell a story and capture moments that we would have otherwise missed. They let us learn the truth without risk of false information. They’re candid, real and often shocking.

Without them, journalism would run the risk of being bland or uninteresting. As can be seen in the photo to the right, images are a vital tool in journalism that not only back a journalist’s words, but also significantly add to them and enhance the experience for the reader.

Implications of a reporting assignment

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Diya Vasudevan

By DIYA VASUDEVAN

A couple of weeks ago we received an in-depth assignment. Everyone in our class was given an address of a house and we were told to find out everything about the people who owned the house without contacting them or entering their property. This was my first time experiencing hands-on investigative work and it was thrilling and surprisingly easy.

Why do I say thrilling? Because, as I drove by the house while munching on my Publix sub, I felt like a CIA agent. Why do I say surprisingly easy? Because the ease at which I could find private information about strangers without any legal restrictions surprised me.

As a person who studied theory of knowledge, the implications of the task I had just completed dawned on me and reminded me of George Orwell’s famous 1984 quote “Big Brother is Watching You.” During my day of investgative work I had the opportunity to access all kinds of public records information, like someone’s criminal record, marriage certificate, birthday, legal involvement, the day they registered as a voter, who they were married to, if they were divorced and if they had kids.

Our information is everywhere and, as Orwell appropriately summarized, “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” With Facebook documenting our every move socially and LinkedIn documenting our every move in the workforce, there is not much we can hide from the public and, more importantly, the government.

As citizens of this country, we have the right to access all of this information, refusing to hand over certain information that we request is against the law. In regards to public records, even voter registration is a public record in the U.S. The only two areas that maintain restrictions is a person’s Social Security number and their driver’s license number.

News: Targeting the young audience

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Chelsey Sellars

By CHELSEY SELLARS

Even I have to admit, I didn’t give two kumquats about news or media throughout most of grade school. As a kid, I remember the grown-ups would shoo me away during the 7 o’clock news. Three trillion go-to-your-rooms later, my curiosity for news dwindled and died.

Studies, like those provided by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, say that letting children see or hear the news will cause a negative impact.

I concur with this statement; normal cable news is a bit ghastly for such naïve eyes. However, I don’t believe throwing a white sheet over the world events is any better.

It wasn’t until grade 8 or 9 that the white sheet was lifted for me, but what lied underneath was something new.

“CNN Student News is a 10-minute, commercial-free, daily news program for middle and high school students produced by the journalists and educators at CNN,” according to CNNStudentNews.com.

This show condenses worldly news and makes it more appealing for a younger audience. The site also provides teaching materials to compliment the news clips.

Apart from broadcast news, there are other news outlets for the young viewer. TIME For Kids is a weekly magazine geared to motivate grades K-6 to read and inform them of real-world topics. The glossy magazine is available by subscription and produced by Time magazine.

Media should continue to find ways to appeal to the children and teens in interactive and creative ways such as these.

Ultra gives attention to EDM performers

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Hanya ALKhamis

By HANYA ALKHAMIS

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all about electronic music, lasers and smoke.

Ultra Music Festival took place this weekend at Bayside Park in downtown Miami where crowds of people gathered from all over the world to celebrate this music festival. For many, it was their first time and for others they have been coming to this festival for several years.

Girls and women wore revealing, colorful and fun outfits that looked very cool resembling the electronic energy of the festival. I was amazed by the amount of country flags I saw, as many attendees had their country flags covering their backs all the way from Brazil to Lebanon.

Despite the rainy weather on Friday, the crowd was not held back from celebrating and I could remember Afrojack exciting the crowd when he said “We do not give a **** about the rain!”

I was amazed to see that one single music festival excited the whole city of Miami.
Tickets were first sold on the Website in November at a very reasonable price of approximately $200 for all three days’ tickets. As the festival opening date approached, ticket prices went up for people who were trying to sell their tickets. And on the Website two weeks before the Event tickets were sold for $450 in total, leaving people to think twice before buying a three-day ticket and relying on single day tickets sold by individuals for a cheaper price.

As mentioned, I was amazed how the music festival excited the whole city. The city of Miami was full of advertisements for pool parties, nightclub events and other events happening all over Miami. As I stood outside on my balcony, I could see the little advertisement planes fly slowly all over the downtown and South Beach.

On Friday, the festival began at 4 p.m. with everyone gathered in the main stage area, where all the famous DJs played. As a journalist, I approached the Ultra Music Festival venue with all eyes and ears, observing everyone’s actions and seeing how they react to this type of loud electronic dance music. Despite the rainy and windy weather, people kept enjoying the show. People were jumping and dancing nonstop until 12 a.m., to the beat of the rhythm.

Saturday was filled of surprises; Usher appeared and shocked the whole audience with his energy. Saturday wasn’t the only day filled with surprises, though. Sunday’s night had Iggy Azalea and P. Diddy and even most importantly, Justin Bieber. Colorful and loud, fireworks filled the skies and people jumped around with all the energy they had left till Sunday 11 pm when the finale occurred. An end to an eventful weekend filled with loud electrical music, and exciting advertisements. Definitely a Festival to remember.

Hillary Clinton, star of ‘The Matrix’

Posted on March 31, 2015 by S. Molly Dominick

By S. MOLLY DOMINICK

When reading online news, I hope to achieve a balance between biases by ingesting left-leaning, right-leaning and politically neutral media (to the best of my ability, of course). One of my primary sources of neutral news is Politico and it usually remains up to snuff.

However, today I ran across this image while reading an article on that site:

Source: politico.com

Swimming through a sea of high-tech coding wizardry far above the heads of the measly public, Hillary Clinton scowls toward an unknown opponent, contemplating her sinister past…

That’s what I get from the drama-inducing, Photoshop-doctored photo above. In fact, based on this image, the accompanying story may actually be about Hillary Clinton starring in a new sequel to “The Matrix” rather than about a political scandal concerning her responsibleness as a public official.

I understand that Politico was adding character to its content and being a bit creative here. That’s not a bad thing, although it does invite questions about the appropriateness of this when the following article approaches an issue sensitive enough to potentially harm a public official’s reputation.

I also understand that this photo does not necessarily show a political leaning one way or the other. In fact, my thoughts about the photo shifted from two extremes.

My first impression was that her scowl made her seem mean, or just gave an overall negative vibe, paired with her stark black-and-white contrasted coloring. Plus, she seemed overwhelming by the coding (the scandal) surrounding her. But upon further reflection, this image might convey the exact opposite. Her expression could be a face of tough determination in the face of those opponents attempting to tarnish her name. She is distinctly separate from the coding, after all, appearing boldly in front of it.

The English class-style dissection of this image could continue until we’re as gray as Hillary’s ashy-hued, color-manipulated face.

But all fun aside, including an image like this could possibly cross a line into editorializing (or diminishing) an otherwise serious hard news story, depending on how you look at it—which could be problematic for a famously neutral news source like Politico.

Why should media cover Ultra?

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Shakira Molet

By SHAKIRA MOLET

Every year, Ultra Musical Festival invades downtown Miami during the month of March, bringing with it celebrity DJs, crazy parties at South Beach, neon costumes and, of course, electronic/dance music.

But why do news outlets bother covering this three-day musical festival at all? Well let’s look at what else Ultra brings with it other than a good time.

One major complaint residents always have when it comes to Ultra, besides the loud music, is the chaos of downtown traffic. Major streets are blocked off so that Bayfront Park can accommodate the 80,000+ people that attend Ultra, which causes in a drastic increase in traffic for the duration of the festival.

In addition to traffic, Ultra Music Festival also brings safety concerns. Last year, a security guard working at the festival was trampled and was immediately sent to urgent care after receiving severe injuries all over body, especially her head.

On top of that, many attendees find themselves in need of medical care every year during the festival, resulting in hundreds of fire rescue calls.

It is because of this that Miami-Dade and residents made efforts to prohibit Ultra from returning the following year; however, their efforts proved to be a waste of time when a public uproar convinced officials otherwise.

Like it or not, Ultra has been bringing millions of tourism dollars for years. Though it is true that hosting the music festival costs Miami quite a lot of money and festival organizers pay for much of it, it seems that Ultra, at least for now, will be returning every March as long as those in charge of the event continue to take safety measures and pay for various operating costs.

Though all these issues are indeed worthy of coverage, there is another surprising reason why the media covers Ultra as well as any other musical festival and that is because it gives the public an inside look of today’s youth. For obvious reasons, the media is obsessed with what interests today’s young adults and how this generation continues to change. In response to this, some news and media outlets decide that it is necessary to report what goes on.

Ultra Musical Festival has made Miami its home for 17 years now and with no definite end in sight, it looks like we will be seeing it, and the resulting coverage, for years to come.

What makes news ‘breaking?’

Posted on March 28, 2015 by S. Molly Dominick

By S. MOLLY DOMINICK

I was browsing Internet news sites today when a giant banner with bright red letters appeared at the top of the CNN homepage declaring there was breaking news!

“Well,” I thought. “Seems important — better click on it!”

And the link brought me to the following news story about a former nurse’s aide who attempted first-degree murder of another woman by cutting a fetus from her womb.

“Wow, how absolutely disturbing and horrific!”

Yes, this news is certainly those things. But, is it “breaking?”

As I have previously understood, “breaking” means more than shocking. It means that the public needs to know this information now — or as quickly as possible—trumping the necessity of all other information in this moment.

And what makes this information so important to the public at large? It must have a substantial impact on people’s lives.

Although a ghastly and interesting find, this story is an anomaly and only affects a small circle of people. This story can be big news and very talked about news, sure—but showcasing it in huge font as breaking news feels like an attempt to merely gain clicks.

Not only are news sites including more and more “clickbait” in their headlines these days, but in this specific instance, they seem to be taking advantage of the horrific nature of this crime to do the clickbaiting.

Although not even remotely comparable, this act is ghastly and horrific in its own right.

Women in media: Where are you?

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Chelsey Sellars

By CHELSEY SELLARS

Don’t get me wrong, Anderson Cooper is one of my favorite players in the news game, but where are the female reporters?

In the studies conducted by the Women’s Media Center, there was a huge lack of representation of women in the United States media industry in 2014.

“The American media have exceedingly more distance to travel on the road to gender-blind parity,” said Julie Burton, president of Women’s Media Center.

The studies included all aspects of media: newspapers/magazines, TV/digital news, sports journalism, and entertainment/film to name a few.

Amongst all categories, men ruled the media. More specifically, white men were the largest represented demographic.

Gender representation in a newspaper newsroom, years 1999-2013

As an Hispanic, female reporter, what does that mean for me? I already have two strikes placed upon me; right off the bat, I’m at a disadvantage.

Gender disparity in journalism leads to a loss in content quality. For a media company to best serve its audience, it needs to appeal to the public with a variety of voices and topics.

An article on the winged-eyeliner or ailments to menstrual cramps just doesn’t seem as credible coming from a male than a female.

The way a news story comes together is also heavily affected by the gender of the reporter. For example, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas analyzed how many front page stories of The New York Times included female sources in January and February 2013. A whopping 19% of the sources came from females. Nothing shocking here; with such a high volume of men in the media, it only seems natural that they would gravitate towards a male source.

So, to put this in perspective, imagine a headline about a treatment for hair loss. If all the sources for this headline are male, how will this article appeal to women? This privation of women sources can lead to bias in the media; as if there wasn’t enough already.

Jailed over a Facebook post

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Diya Vasudevan

By DIYA VASUDEVAN

I recently wrote a post about how I dislike the idea of using Twitter because of the repercussions it could have on my image and how perspective employers might judge me from that. Overall, I didn’t believe the that the benefits of Twitter outweighed the negative repercussions.

For me being cautious about what I post is about prospective employment and nothing else. However, for some around the world being cautious is based of a whole other ball game. I read recently that a 19 year old in India was jailed over a Facebook post. As a Third Culture Kid from India, I never really experienced the dangers of being outspoken in a country such as India, simply because I really didn’t live there for a very long time.

How can a teenager be arrested over a Facebook post that didn’t threaten or allude to violence but merely expressed distaste? Well, this isn’t the first time this has a happened. In November 2012 two young Indian women were jailed overnight for a Facebook post they had made regarding a supposedly great (evidently corrupt) politician. They expressed their distaste regarding the fact that the city of Mumbai was treating him like a great leader that he really wasn’t.

I think that jailing someone based solely upon their opinions is ludicrous and, from what I have learned in the few months that I have lived in America, it would not be tolerated here. Having the freedom to say what I want to say as long as I’m not actually threatening anyone is something that I now see as gift. However, the freedom to say what I want when I want especially on forums such as Facebook should not be a privilege, the teenager in India deserves this right as much as I do.

Media get us closer to social causes

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Diya Vasudevan

By DIYA VASUDEVAN

I am a Feminist. It is not something that just happened, I think I was a Feminist for a long time and just didn’t have a word to express how I felt until very recently. In September 2014 Emma Watson gave her famous speech for the United Nations ‘He For She’ campaign.

HeforShe event sponsored by UN Women with Goodwill ambasador Emma Watson
New York, USA -20/09/2014/SIPA_SIPA837.01/Credit:UN Photo/SIPA/SIPA/1409230856 (Newscom TagID: sfphotos325055.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

She defined Feminism as “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”

She gave light to a very misunderstood word, opening it up to males and not just females, to her Feminism was equality for both sexes not just women.

Since then I have actively kept up with the facts, stories, events regarding a cause I feel so strongly about and there has been no shortage of ways in which to access this information. There are not only numerous organizations supporting this cause but also multiple ways in which you can recieve information whether it is through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat etc.

I even had the opportunity to see Secretary Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea Clinton speak on the issue of women’s rights on our campus for the Clinton Global Intiative University less than one month ago.

Chelsea Clinton introduced a newly created website that held all the data possible on issues pertaining to women’s rights. It covered statistics on the number of rape cases in the United States and countries across the world like India as well as the pay gap across the world between men and women. Aptly named No Ceilings the website has all the information you can get your hands on, whether you wish to talk about the data or act on it.

In addition to having all these platforms, Facebook collaborated with ‘He For She’ campaign and planned a live chat with Watson, that was held on March 8th ‘Women’s Day’. Comments posted and questions sent had a chance of being asked during the course of the conversation.

Not only is it becoming easier to access the information we require, it is becoming easier to engage with the information we are receiving, and that is exactly how media is changing the world.

Innocent until proven guilty?

Posted on March 20, 2015 by S. Molly Dominick

By S. MOLLY DOMINICK

Often times in the news, victims of a crime remain unnamed. Ethical practices dictate that journalists must help shield victims from the unfavorable limelight of the media and the unforgiving public eye.

But what about alleged perpetrators? Their names are always included in the news, no questions asked — even when their involvement is not yet confirmed.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Having the story of your victimization published in the news will likely be traumatizing, understandably. But less often acknowledged is that having your name plastered on headlines for a crime you didn’t commit will absolutely shatter your world and all of your connections. Your name will be stained forever because of the association now drawn between you and the incident, even after being proven innocent.

Take the story of Jordan Johnson, for example. He was a University of Montana student found not guilty of rape in a 2013 decision. According to the justice system, this young student is innocent. But look when you type “Jordan Johnson” into Google:

Three of the five pictures loaded first by Google are this student on trial.

Largely due to the media coverage he received, these false allegations will follow him for the rest of his life.

So, omit his name? But how do you avoid including his name when journalists are obligated to provide the public with thorough information? Seemingly, you can’t … yet journalists have collectively decided leaving this informational hole is okay when it comes to the victim.

There is no right answer to what should be done here. Journalism ethics, like any other form of ethics, is a wishy-washy mess of conflicting strong feelings and shaken fists.

But there needs to be some consistency. Either respect the lives of both victim and alleged perpetrator by including neither name, or honor journalism’s obligation to thoroughness and include both.

DIGITAL NEWS REPORTING

Journalism and Media Management Department, School of Communication, University of Miami

Drudge Report still ranks No. 1

More multimedia is a good thing

Images, videos in news tell stories

News: Targeting the young audience

Ultra gives attention to EDM performers

Hillary Clinton, star of ‘The Matrix’

What makes news ‘breaking?’