Journalism’s bad reputation . . .

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Rebecca Cohen

By REBECCA COHEN

The dreaded news reporter is disliked by politicians, public figures and celebrities. However, a reporter is not doing his or her job correctly if he or she does not expose wrongful doings or any newsworthy items.

Being disliked is simply the price to pay for being a good reporter.

Thankfully, reporters are here to expose wayward public officials such as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the drug incident.

However, there are instances where reporters cross the line.

The incidents that forced celebrities like Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry to petition for more privacy rights are the result of reporters crossing the line, for example.

Jennifer Garner said in an E! Interview that she did not move to Hollywood so her children could be yelled at by photographers.

Another example involves Duchess Kate Middleton, who was photographed topless in her own backyard and had the image broadcast. It is another moment when reporters have crossed the line.

The pressure to find newsworthy stories may lead reporters to cross the line in these instances, making their stories unethical.

All in all, as long as the reporters do not invade the privacy of public figures, by snooping and investigating public figures, they are just doing their job.

Toronto mayor takes turn for worst

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Alexandra Silver

By ALEXANDRA SILVER

A current article on CNN.com reads, “ Toronto’s Mayor is Stripped of Some Power”. After openly admitting to using drugs such as crack cocaine “in a drunken stupor” and using offensive and sexual language.

After this stunt, I would have expected to see Mayor Rob Ford leave office, but he claims that he will not be leaving his job any time soon. Despite this, he continues to make more mistakes when speaking to reporters and acting on impulse.

Mayor Rob Ford is clearly not too concerned with walking on eggshells. Although he wants to keep his job, he fires back at reporters with offensive responses that are hardly ever thought out well.

When asked about the sexual relations he had with an escort, he claimed that the woman was not in fact an escort, but rather a family friend. He explained that such “allegations” had “hurt his wife.”

He is embarrassing the residents of Toronto and refuses to step down or take a leave of absence. According to sources, most members of the city council support the idea that Ford take a leave of absence, but he has refused, leaving the other council members powerless and helpless.

We can only hope that he gets back on the right path and fixes his mistakes before he destroys his career.

Social media can sway opinions

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Danielle Cohen

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.

The ‘unusual’ element found in news

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Daniela Longo

By DANIELA LONGO

On Oct. 10, “the most beautiful night” for Venezuelans took place in Caracas.

A group of girls showed their best looks to engage the jury and have the chance of becoming “Miss Venezuela 2013” and, therefore, represent the country internationally in 2014 in the Miss Universe competition.

After the night ended, Migbelis Castellanos was chosen as Miss Venezuela 2013.

This headline appeared in every newspaper of the country, Twitter and Instagram went crazy from the beginning of night to even a week after it happened.

Radio programs, TV shows and newscasts had the winner and the four finalists as guests.

For Venezuelans, it seems everything else pauses on this night and they are able to escape reality for a while. This event is so powerful in this nation, that has the ability to unify a divided country.

During the “most beautiful night,” it doesn’t matter your political tendency or your social class, everyone is watching. Citizens are all happy to celebrate one more year of one of the things Venezuelans do best, beauty contests.

One of the elements of a good news story is unusualness. This element help journalists to chose whether a story is sufficiently important and interest to show the audience.

One thing is that the dog bites the man and another much different is that the man bites the dog. The first one is a normal behavior that might not deserve to be published by media because it’s a common situation, everyone already knows that a dog can bite a men. However, a man biting a dog its something rare that doesn’t happen often and society should be aware.

For journalists is necessary to find the right angle that develops that touch of uniqueness that can draw peoples attention and also gives society a valuable reason to hear the story.

The main purpose of journalism is to inform society of important things happening around the world that can affect them in some way or another. However, the way journalism functions varies from one country to another. This happens because each society, city and country is different; even each person is different and unique.

Journalism in Venezuela has become a rare thing and in the last five years has turned around completely.

This began with the nation’s political situation and censoring of freedom of expression. Venezuelan journalists in first place have to be very careful on how they communicate things without being subjective or biased by the government.

Another important fact is that with so many bad things happening every day, deaths, corruption, insecurity, bad economy, and more sad things have become the daily life, the common behavior of society. Headlines and news story are always about the same topics and normally are hard to digest.

This has caused a rare phenomenon that people have stopped watching or reading the news. They prefer to not be informed of what is happening.

I’m a Venezuelan and I can tell you how many times I have heard “change the channel or turn down the radio I don’t want to hear anything about the situation in Venezuela.”

People can’t be 100 percent uninformed. As much as a person wants to be far from bad news, the information will always come to you in some way or another.

We live in a world full of media platforms and news will get to you no matter what. Even trough the most basic form of communication, person-to-person communication.

The flip side of the Venezuelan situation is that when good things happen like the selection of the new Miss Venezuela, it becomes a rare situation and gets more attention than a political or economy story.

Normally, in journalism, a story like selection of the new Miss Venezuela might not even be published on the front page of a national newspaper or be the opening story of a newscast because it is not unusual, is something that happens every year.

The case of Venezuela shows how journalism varies depending on the needs of a society, and how something so common as electing a beauty queen every year can become an unusual news story.

When does it go too far?

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Matias Wodner

By MATIAS WODNER

We are in a point in time where the distinction between too far and not far enough is dangerous.

As a news reporter, it’s tough to walk the line of right and wrong. One too many details and your morals and ethics will be questioned. Leave out too much and suddenly your journalistic integrity is being questioned. I’ve struggled at times with this when cutting details out of stories, not only to make the story shorter, but also to not cross the invisible, ethical line.

This type of dilemma applies to all types of media.

For instance, the most recent noticeable issue with going too far comes by way of television host Jimmy Kimmel. The late-night talk show host parodied a recent interview that hip-hop artist Kanye West gave the BBC, using a little kid to portray West drinking a milkshake and giving ludicrous answers.

Mr. West didn’t take the parody so lightly, responding to Kimmel on Twitter. He angrily tweeted that the interview he did was “the first piece of honest media in years.”

“You don’t have scumbags hopping over fences trying to take pictures of your daughter,” also directed at Kimmel. “You can’t put yourself in my shoes.”

Kanye hasn’t exactly given himself the benefit of the doubt as he’s been the epitome of controversy over the last few years. Even a couple of months ago, West was at the center of it all when he assaulted a paparazzi.

As biased as I may be as a Kanye West fan, sometimes the media just go over the border. It’s happened numerous times with West and it’s probably happening at the moment. He’s constantly swarmed by media members taking his picture or shooting video from point-blank range, asking questions about his personal life. Do those people think about what it would be like if they were in his position?

They probably don’t and Kimmel probably didn’t either when he flat out made fun of him. Kimmel doesn’t care because that’s who he is as a person. I wonder if journalists care about the lines they cross.

I know it goes into consideration for me. Whether it does for others is of interest to me.

With fame, comes loss of privacy

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Rebecca Cohen

By REBECCA COHEN

Innocently walking down the streets of New York, actress Nicole Kidman was knocked to the ground by a paparazzo on wheels last week, according to the Associated Press. The actress was reportedly shaken but is now ‘OK.’

However, Nicole Kidman isn’t as innocent as she seems in this situation by walking down a public street in New York City, the ultimate site to be spotted. Although she was not deserving of the danger that occurred, she could not have rightly thought that such a scene would not ensue.

Theoretically, Kidman signed up for this kind of attention in 1983, the year she starred in her first film. Upon signing that first contract, she signed away a chunk of her privacy rights to the media, because fame comes only after giving up a certain level of privacy.

After all, would an actress really be a celebrity if she were solely known for her on-screen performance?

If America doesn’t know who they’re dating, what diet they’re on, and what brand they are wearing, they are just an actor – not a celebrity.

Perhaps that is the very thing that makes reality television so interesting.

Do you know what Jonathan Groff has been up to lately? That’s because he is an actor, not a celebrity. He is a Tony award nominee and has starred on Broadway and hit TV show “Glee.”

Although he is arguably more talented than, say Jennifer Anniston, for the time being, he refuses to hand over his confidentiality. America doesn’t know him and therefore, he lives freely to walk down the streets of New York without fear of stampede.

Groff would not be the star of a news story but Anniston is all over the place. We know her every move, because she’s a celebrity and not just an actress.

Whether she’s Nicole Kidman or Jenifer Anniston, these starlets knew what they were signing up for upon signing away their right to privacy and simultaneously gaining a ticket to fame.

When singer goes wild, so do media

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Danielle Cohen

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.

DIGITAL NEWS REPORTING

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

Tag Archives: Celebrities