Tag Archives: Television news

NFL debuts with Super Bowl rematch

Posted on by

By NICHOLAS BRUENS

The Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers faced off at the NFL Kick Off in a rematch of Super Bowl 50.

This game was much anticipated as these teams played a gritty, grind-it-out game in the Super Bowl.  Many were expecting a similar game in the rematch.  But despite these anticipations, quarterback Cam Newton did not share these feelings.

“It’s not a rematch,” Newton told the Associated Press, “It’s just our next opponent.”

Despite Newton’s feelings, he played the Broncos, the same team that beat him for the Lombardi trophy, on NBC in Primetime.

The high amount news media attention drawn to this event was expected due to the importance of this game.  It marks the beginning of the 2016 season of the NFL which is the highest grossing professional sports league in the United States.

Also, the game features Newton, who is arguably the most marketable player in the league and reigning MVP.  A player of his charisma is bound to draw attention and therefore media.

Finally, media was tuned in to see if any players would partake in the Colin Kaepernick’s demonstration of not standing for the American flag. Linebacker Brandon Marshall was the only player to do so.

The Broncos released a statement acknowledging there stance on the matter.

“While we encourage members of our organization to stand during the national anthem, we understand and respect it being a personal decision,” said the Broncos in their statement to NBC.

The multiple personalities and story lines heading into his game have created a perfect melting pot for media follow.

Cam and the Panthers were unable to change the outcome as the Broncos repeated their success with a 21-20 victory.

Shooting headline made ‘unique’

Posted on by

By COURTNEY CHENNAULT

On Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, a shooting at Alpine High School in Texas left one dead and two injured. Sadly, shootings in America have become so commonplace, that people aren’t surprised and hardly bat an eye when one occurs.

For a news network like CNN, which survives on viewership and popularity, that fact is somewhat problematic. The news media must determine how to recapture America’s interest in shootings or else there is no point in reporting them at all.

In an attempt to catch the public’s eye today, CNN chose to sensationalize the Texas shooting by emphasizing one main aspect.

The headline reads:

screen-shot-2016-09-08-at-10-03-32-pmWhen I first read this headline, one word leaped off the screen: “girl.” “Girl shooter?” I thought to myself. Since when do we identify shooters by their gender in headlines?

Other headlines rarely have the shooter’s gender.

For example, this Jul. 9, 2016 CNN headline reads, “Dallas sniper attack: 5 officers killed, suspect identified.” There is no gender stated.

A Jul. 25, 2016 CNN headline reads, “Fort Myers shooting: 2 dead outside teen party at club.” There is no gender stated.

Even the word “gunman” is ambiguous without clarification. For example, in a Dec. 5, 2015 CNN broadcast, the reporter referred to the shooter as “the female gunman,” to clarify her gender.

In a country where hundreds of shootings happen every year, it is easy for citizens to read the headlines monotonously. But, this shouldn’t be the case. A shooting should get someone’s attention not because the shooter is a female, but because the shooting happened at all.

Today’s headline should have been just as devastating and shocking without the word “girl” in it.

Video obtained of missing Chibok girls

Posted on by

By VICTORIA DE CARDENAS

Tragedies in Africa rarely capture the attention of anyone in the U.S. But when women in Nigeria spoke out two years ago after terrorists kidnapped hundreds of girls from school, they stirred a sense of global outrage.

Two years later, #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign took off, but the girls from the town of Chibok are still missing and still causing outrage.

The captor, Boko Haram, forbids modern education, particularly for girls, and enslaves and sells women, forcing them to live by 7th century norm, according to CNN.

Before the anniversary of the capture, CNN obtained a video showing 15 of the more than 200 girls that remain in captivity from the mass abduction. It was sent by Boko Haram as “proof of life” in negotiations with the government.

While I applaud CNN for obtaining this video and sharing it with the parents of the girls, I have the issue that no other news station seems to be covering this as extensively as CNN.

If the social media campaign was so successful in shining light onto this tragedy, why aren’t other stories coming out of this video? It is a compelling video and reminds those who are here in the U.S. to continue to fight for human rights, but I do not see another major news network picking it up.

It upsets me to see these girls being taken against their will and choosing to be suicide bombers to get out of the situation they are in, but I have yet to see someone else cover this as headline news.

We as global citizens cannot be so oblivious to what is happening across the world and to prevent the oblivion it starts with news networks talking about the stories that matter and shape our everyday lives.

Former CBC host acquitted in assault

Posted on by

By MIA POLLACK

Jian Ghomeshi has been no stranger to the spotlight in the last few years. Cameras have consistently been on his trail, as well as his family, since news broke from the Toronto Star that he allegedly assaulted three women, including one of his co-workers at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The former CBC host was charged with four counts of sexual assault in 2014.

Following the speculation, the CBC dismissed Ghomeshi from his high profile position, in which he got to interview actors, musicians, politicians and other public figures. As a one-time listener, he was good at his job, but leads me to wonder, especially with his female guests and coworkers – maybe he was a “little too good” at his job.

On March 24, Ghomeshi was acquitted of his charges, following his first court date in early February in Toronto. He plead not guilty to assaults that supposedly taken place in 2002 and 2003. The trial lasted eight days.

According to CBC News, his team of lawyers released a statement saying that he had been “rightly acquitted of his charges” and that “our system of justice, that is what must happen in every case regardless of who is accused or what crime is alleged. That is precisely what occurred in this case.”

Since CBC was Ghomeshi’s former employer and the crimes he had committed to these women took place in the public-broadcaster’s headquarters in Toronto, they had the best coverage of the events. The CBC was there every single step of the way.

Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 12.44.01 AMIn the light of the events that took place on Thursday, Ghomeshi’s acquittal comes as a shock.

It had been revealed that the witnesses gave inconsistent testimonies; ZK2the only testimony that remained somewhat accurate was Lucy DeCoutere, leaving the judge to believe that her statements undermined her credibility.

Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 12.51.29 AMAccording to the Toronto Star, the key factors that led to Justice William Horkins to letting Ghomeshi go included:

  • The unnamed witnesses claimed that they did not know how to navigate the Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 12.51.56 AM“proceeding.”
  • Justice Horkins said, “all 3 witnesses had similar stories’, but the ruling had to made individually rather than a part of a pattern.
  • In the end, all Justice Horkins had for evidence were the three witnesses accounts, if he couldn’t believe them true he could not convict Mr. Ghomeshi of his crimes.

Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 12.52.20 AMAs mentioned before, due to Ghomeshi’s high profile career, he had the opportunity to interview several actors, politicians, and other public figures on his radio show.

Zoe Kazan, an actress Screen Shot 2016-03-25 at 12.52.42 AMGhomeshi interviewed back in 2013, opened up on her Twitter about the treatment she received from the now “free man” and how she now feels about it.

It is truly absurd in my opinion that the judge felt there was not enough evidence to indict Ghomeshi on his crimes. There is evidence from the CBC that he did commit these acts, even from the witnesses, but maybe from these women, they did not speak up enough during the trial to put their assaulter away.

And now, h-e-r-e’s Donnie!

Posted on by

By JEAN-PAUL AGUIRRE

Well, another day of the news media’s time spent on Donald Trump. This election campaign is turning into our reality, or should I say, our reality show.

I am writing this on March 2, 2016—the day after Super Tuesday, which so happened to fall on my birthday — and who did I spend my birthday with, you ask? Well, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, of course.

Clinton and Trump won the day for their respective parties; each earned the delegates of seven states to take even larger leads in the race to become their party’s nominee.

All I have heard today from the news media has been arguments for and against Trump and the strategies that the establishment group of Republican Party leaders should implement to prevent Trump from becoming their nominee.

There has been little to no mention of Clinton, Bernie Sanders or the Democratic Party, if only to show the results from last night and compare them to Donald Trump, who I am now going to refer to as “Donnie” because I am bored from hearing his name everywhere, all the time.

The news media have been so saturated with Trump that most of my social media is inundated with articles involving the controversialist. I feel as though the news media are trying to suffocate me with all things Trump.

As I was watching CNN, I saw some scrolling text at the bottom of its graphic, which showed that the culprit behind the murders of the two Virginia college students, Jesse Matthew Jr., has been sentenced to four consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty.

You would think that such news would at least garner a minute, or two, of screen time to be addressed to the public, but no, the news media have opted to focus on Donnie once again.

It has become abundantly clear that this is our reality, our reality show.

News media fuel Trump’s campaign fire

Posted on by

By BREANA ROSS

Donald Trump’s campaign for president started out as a mere joke to some, but not for him. People laughed and took a shot at guessing how long it would be until the radical billionaire would drop out of the election. It was even a joke to the news media, which made it a point to cover Donald Trump’s latest offensive comment or outlandish statement every single week.

Whether it was negative publicity or not, Donald Trump was getting publicity. Publicity that would seem to have discouraged voters from supporting Trump actually helped to build his popularity. Now here we are, just days after Super Tuesday, and it appears as though Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States.

From name-calling to false accusations, Donald Trump made his way into the news media spotlight right from the beginning of the campaign. At the beginning, it was his comment calling Mexicans “rapists” that sent the news media into an uproar. Then it was his statements on his plans to require Muslim-Americans to register with a government database and carry around identification cards that brought him to the center of media attention.

While the Trump’s constant news media coverage seemed to just point out his extreme views and that he was unfit to be president, it actually helped him in the long run. Trump was getting attention and publicity that no other Republican candidate was receiving. When you turned on your television to a news station, chances are Trump was the first face you saw.

The news media actually helped increase Trump’s popularity by covering him so much.

Now, as the campaign gets down to the wire, the news media have switched their approach with coverage of Trump. The news media are starting to portray Trump as a true presidential contender and focus more on the Republican Party’s plan to stop Trump from getting the nomination. Information about Republican senators’ ideas on how to stop Trump from getting the nomination are starting to surface. It is becoming a reality that Trump could actually be the Republican nominee.

In retrospect, Donald Trump’s case shows how crucial the news media are when it comes to swaying the public. When the news media constantly cover someone, it forces people to pay attention to them and form an opinion about them. Donald Trump’s case is also a prime example of the popular phrase, “No publicity is bad publicity.”

Has Trump sealed the deal?

Posted on by

By ROXANNE YU

When Donald Trump filed his statement of candidacy a few months ago, no one would have expected him to go very far, much less sustain a significant lead among Republican candidates.

Now that it’s dawning upon the country that Trump actually has a shot at becoming the next president, CNN is already commenting what’s next if Trump takes over the White House.

Trump, who won the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday night, is unsurprisingly under the spotlight for his recent success. When the results showed how his percentages compare to that of the other candidates, the businessman turned presidential candidate has distinctly marked New Hampshire, South Carolina and now Nevada, to be “Trump states.”

From one state to the next, Trump is consistently pulling further away from his fellow Republican candidates and it’s looking more likely that there is a big possibility for Trump to heighten his momentum come Super Tuesday.

Alongside Trump’s efforts to power through the Republican polls, it’s also interesting to read about what the news has to say about this Trump frenzy phenomenon going on.

CNN has just released a number of news stories entitled What would Trump’s be first day in office look like and Trump’s Day 1-to-do-list. With the release of these web stories, it appears as though what’s being presented to the audience is an indirect opinionated piece that can influence public opinion.

Although CNN has not shown any support for Trump in any regard, it’s almost doing the same as straightforwardly subjecting the public to count Rubio and Cruz out.

Snowboarding video gets attention

Posted on by

By SARAH BRANDT

Casey Neistat is a 34-year-old American film and YouTube content creator. He currently has two million subscribers and 459 million views on his YouTube channel. On an everyday basis he films everyday vlogs, in which he shows his viewers his daily activities and his family.

About two weeks ago, New York City was struck with a gigantic blizzard and snowstorm. News reporters and police were warning citizens not to drive around because it was too dangerous. This, however, did not stop Casey and he got out his truck, attached chains and a rope to the back and decided to snowboard throughout the city.

He had cameras all over, which allowed him to get footage from many different angels. He collected the clips and uploaded the video to his channel. A few days later his video was broadcast all over the world. It was shown on newscasts in Germany, Switzerland, England, Australia and many other countries.

Even news network Web sites such as CNN and ABC did stories on his video. A lot of news media decided to cover Casey and his video, and it was all in a positive light.

The reason for so many news sites covering this specific video was because as you can see in the video that Casey is the only one driving through New York. This is a very rare occurrence, as the city is always full with lots of cars and people.

New York City is also a city known to many other countries around the world, and they were also aware of the big blizzard going on. Therefore, it is no coincidence that various countries decided on reporting on Casey Neistat’s video, which brought much attention and enjoyment to most readers.

With this Neistat has without knowing produced a viral video. The fact that his video was covered by so many news sources boosts his YouTube channel and the video now has 1.5 million views. And, of course, it gave a tremendous boost to his career as a filmmaker .

Big boys don’t cry?

Posted on by

By BREANA ROSS

When the final seconds on the clock ran out at Super Bowl 50, not everyone was smiling and celebrating. The CBS Sports camera switched from an excited, smiling Peyton Manning to a devastated Carolina Panthers player. This player was Cornerback Josh Norman and he was less than thrilled by the outcome of the game. The camera zoomed in for a close-up shot as Norman bawled into his hands, realizing his hope of winning the Super Bowl had now vanished.

As soon as the camera showed Josh Norman, devastated and in tears, everyone with whom I was watching the Super Bowl yelled, “Why are they showing him like this?” and “They should leave him alone!”

To an average viewer, it seems outrageous for the news media to show someone in such a state of distress, especially someone normally portrayed as tough. In many ways, it can appear disrespectful and even invasive for the news media to have a camera in the face of someone who is crying. After all, the news media could have shown other members of the football team who were, perhaps, not quite as upset as Josh Norman. However, as a journalist, I began to reflect on the other side of the argument.

The goal of the news media is to show a story from as many aspects and angles as possible. Only showing the excited and celebratory Denver Broncos players would only be showing half of the story. In any championship game, there are winners and losers. As much as people want to see the reactions of the winners, they also want to see the reactions of those who lost. Josh Norman’s reaction was a visual manifestation that summed up the emotions of most players on the Carolina Panthers team, thus golden for the news media’s coverage.

Media coverage of ISIS stokes fear

Posted on by

By XIAO LYU

Terrorists live among us? According to CBS12, U.S. National Security officials said there are more than 900 active ISIS investigations in 50 states — including Florida. After the terrorist incident happened last week, news coverage was full of  ISIS’ s recent status, they said that they were in South Florid, in the Washington, D.C., in the Massachusetts.

“They are amongst us. Believe me, they are amongst us here in South Florida,” Chad Jenkins told CBS12. Jenkins is a former counterterrorism agent with the FBI and a former US Army Ranger who served in Iraq. He also said that the reason terrorists chose South Florida were the weather and international makeup.

Moreover, Emily Miller, the chief investigative reporter for Washington, D.C.’s Fox 5 publicized an internal police document about the Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD) seeking information on four men who appear to be Middle Eastern engaged in “suspicious activity” on D.C.’s rapid transit system on Nov. 18.

The news quickly spread and is drawn attention on internet about danger in the Washington, D.C., area. After then, the Metro Transit Police proved the police just did a routine check and the news sparked unnecessary concerns about danger.

“The kind of document is shared internally with law enforcement every day and that doesn’t necessarily mean there is anything of concern for the public and caution any reporter that the individuals here are not suspected of any criminal activity,” said Dan Stessel, chief spokesman for Washington’s Metro Transit Police.

The latest news from CNN said that new ISIS video warns of attack on United States and makes threats against New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio responded promptly that NYPD was prepared to respond to up to 24 incidents simultaneously and the people will not live in the fear. However, social media spread the attack and raised fear about an Islamist terror attack in D.C. and New York, and even made derogatory comments about Syrian refugees.

Stoking fear is the goal of terrorist organizations, however, some media coverage just abet it.

‘Baby Hitler’ goes viral on social media

Posted on by

By XIAO LYU

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said if he had the opportunity to kill Adolf Hitler when the German autocrat was an infant, he would. The White House later tweeted the article featuring his answer with a comment, “Gotta do it.”

In an interview with the Huffington Post series that covers the campaign trail with the candidates running for president, this former Florida governor’s responded “Hell yeah, I would!” to the question: if given the opportunity, would you go back in time to kill baby Adolf Hitler?

“The problem with going back in history and doing that, as we know from the series — what’s the name of the Michael Fox movies? It could have a dangerous effect on everything else. But I’d do it, Hitler,”said Bush.

This odd question was picked via the e-mail address that Bush distributes widely to public audiences, and in fact, it had already become a controversial question when The New York Times Magazine ran a poll over the weekend last month asking readers if they would go back in time and kill baby Hitler. The result showed that 42 percent of respondents said they would, 30 percent said they would not and the left respondents were not sure about it.

The response on social media to Bush’s comments and The New York Times Magazine went viral. Most of them were comical, but it is still a sensitive question involved an adult kill an infant. Therefore, on Wednesday, when Ben Carson was asked the similar question, but there was a slight difference. The question was whether or not he would “abort” a baby Hitler and he responded that he was not in favor of aborting anybody.

In that case, whatever the respond to that question is, it will lead a new roar on the internet.

Raven-Symone: The saga continues

Posted on by

By ELAYNA PAULK

To follow up my earlier blog regarding the coverage of of Raven-Symone and the series of unfortunate events that came with it.

Raven Symone has struck a chord with us all — again, but this time it’s not without serious consequences. After her statement on the young girl in South Carolina that got brutally assaulted by a police offer, which blamed the young girl for being “on her phone” during class, there has been a petition to remove Raven Symone from “The View.”

The Washington Times, Huffington Post, NBC, as well as many other news outlets, have since reported on the petition, on Change.org that addresses the petition to Barbara Walters, that says:

“Raven Symone has been spouting her ignorant and self hating spiel on the view for long enough, from stating that she wouldn’t hire somebody for having a ghetto name, to openly complaining about reverse racism, the final straw was her comment about the recent viral video of the school police officer assaulting the student, where Raven Symone said “get off your phone in school then.” African Americans and black people around the diaspora need a voice representative of their views and not a voice representative of what white people want us to say. We need strong black role models in prominent positions on television an Raven Symone cannot provide that. That is why I ask that we petition to remove her from The View.”

The news media coverage has played a major role in the success of this petition, which currently has 106,185 out of the 150,000 signature goal. The coverage of issues, such as these, and the persistent conversations on social media outlets can finally put an end to the disaster that is Raven-Symone.

Joe Biden and CBS’ ’60 Minutes’

Posted on by

By XIAO LYU

Vice President Joe Biden made an announcement last week that he will not seek the 2016 nomination of the Democratic Party for president. Although it ended the subject about whether he will step back or not, the speculation of the reason came as follow.

On Sunday, Vice President Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, appeared on CBS “60 Minutes,” telling about the reason he decided not to seek the nomination: the impact of the loss of his son, Beau, and his views on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The vice president said in the interview that he knew he couldn’t win because he thought he and his staff couldn’t put together the campaign that their supporters deserved and contributors deserved. He also explained the reason — “the single most important thing in deciding not to run” is the loss of his son, Beau. The loss overturned the schedules.

Beau Biden supported Joe Biden to run for the president and thought he could win, while Maureen Dowd in The New York Times wrote about it and described Beau on his death bed said to his father, ”Dad, you’ve got to run.” This description was proved false in the interview.

Biden also discussed his comments reported by The New York Times last week that he didn’t mean to aim at Hillary Clinton herself and that they are friends.

“Go back and find anybody who says, for the four years we worked together, Hillary and I weren’t friends,” Biden said.

Moreover, Biden addressed his disappointment with Donald Trump directly and called him a showman. He wanted Trump to reconsider his remarks on immigrants.

CNN, NBC, The New York Times and many mainstream media covered this interview and they put particular emphasis on a different aspect of the story. CNN mostly covered “no Hollywood Moment” and the headline from NBC referred to Biden’s comment that he couldn’t win. The New York Times, which was mentioned twice in the interview, tells more about his family concerns. However, none of them made a comment about Biden’s disappointment with Trump.

NBA champ Odom deserves respect

Posted on by

By COLIN DAVIS

Lamar Odom is a two-time NBA champion. He was the sixth man of the year just four years ago. Currently, he is fighting for his life in a Nevada hospital and, although he is showing some positive signs, his outlook is not good.

There have been many reports on the Lamar Odom story by members from all walks of the media due to his relationship with Khloe Kardashian. Yet instead of referring to Lamar as an NBA champion, he is simply referred to as a reality television star as if he has only earned his celebrity through his interactions with the Kardashian family.

There have been very few media members that have given Lamar Odom the respect he has earned, and even less have done it as succinctly as Scott Van Pelt. After recently returning to SportsCenter, Scott Van Pelt did his minute and a half long segment, “One Big Thing” and assessed the situation through the lens of a sports fan.

While Scott Van Pelt makes a few jokes during his monologue, he makes a serious and simple point. Lamar Odom is more than just a plot line in a sad story; he has earned more respect than to be referred to as a Kardashian reality star, in such troubling times for Lamar Odom it is important to remember he was a star before he ever met Khloe.

Media coverage on Flight 17 crash

Posted on by

By XIAO LYU

The crash of Malaysia Flight 17 was caused by a missile warhead, according to the Dutch Safety Board’s report on Tuesday.

Flight MH17 crashed in Eastern Ukraine in July 2014. Everyone on board was dead. Distressingly, many aviation accidents and incidents took place in 2014. They range from the missing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to Malaysia Flight 17, from Algerian Air Force C-130 crash to TransAsia Airways Flight 222.

News media produced much coverage of those aviation accidents. They were filled with stories analyzing the facts and evidence of the crash. However, many of them were reckless and speculations, because they jumped to all sorts of conclusion without any interviews or data to support their theory. Such analysis is nothing less than the weather issues,  man-made causes,  terrorist attacks,  or aircraft malfunction. It now appears that the interpretation of lost of the Malaysia Airlines MH 370 was absurd. Almost every media covered the cause which is the disintegration in the air. CNN dedicated 100 percent of its coverage to flight 370,  even inviting a psychologist to talk about the possible causes of the crash. Later CNN theorized on their network’s website involving the highly unlikely scenario that the plane landed on a remote island in the Indian Ocean.

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the world’s most professional air accident investigation agency, but it should takes several months or even several years for them to complete the analysis. Therefore, reporters can’t make their conclusions recklessly.

In fact, most of the press did not show its responsibilities and the respect for the victims and their families. On the contrary, journalists made a fuss, creating the tense atmosphere. Also, they accused and shirked responsibility, misguiding the emotions and views of the publics and gradually became a conspiracy theory and led to the political debate.

During the investigation, the news we heard about was Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of causing the incident. As the Dutch Safety Board’s report was released, another round of uproar was set off. Russian national television is questioning the report — it showed that Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov echoed these denials on Tuesday, calling the Dutch report an “obvious attempt to draw biased conclusions,” according to the country’s state-run news agencies. “Russian Today” television released a short video, displaying a test involved detonating a BUK missile near the nose of an aircraft similar to a Boeing 777. It seems that the truth remains a mystery, especially under the media hype.

The responsibility of the press is to debunk myths and rumors, not to opine on events and make speculation from sources for capturing eyeballs, enhancing ratings, and boosting advertising revenue.

A new perspective on the debates

Posted on by

By ISABELLA MESQUITA

CNN produced a virtual reality version of last Tuesday’s presidential debate telecast and succeeded at what many major media companies have been competing to do since Samsung’s GearVR technology came out.

Not only was this real-time streaming a milestone for CNN technologically speaking, it was also a wise marketing choice. Despite the record 980,000 online viewers, around 73 countries logged onto the VR live stream causing the debates on CNN to be ranked as the #10 cable program with the greatest audience – behind college football games on ESPN and the Fox debate last month.

For the new VR technology streaming, two cameras were installed near the questioners, allowing VR viewers to see how the candidates reacted to each other. Another camera was placed right behind the candidates’ podiums and a fourth camera was embedded in the seating area. With this, anyone with the VR app or the VR headsets had a priviledged 360-degree view of the debate.

According to DJ Roller, co-founder of Next VR and CNN’s partner for the live-stream,“You’d probably get attacked by the Secret Service if you tried to get as close as these cameras! With VR each and every viewer has a seat in the room and a new perspective on presidential debates.” 

CNN plays a Trump card

Posted on by

By BRIANA SCOTT

CNN was put on the defense this past Wednesday, after commenting on the lack of attendance at an event held by Donald Trump (current Republican candidate for president) at the South Carolina African American Chamber of Commerce annual conference.

The following day, Trump went on the defense claiming that the reason there were photos or videos of the room being half-empty was because everyone “rushed” to the front of the room when he began speaking. He then went on to personally attack the CNN reporter who covered the story, calling her “terrible” and a “horrible reporter.”

But the CNN reporter was, in fact, reporting what had truly taken place at this event. The room was half-empty before Trump began speaking and after he began speaking. And of the half-full room of attendees, the majority of the people were white, disputing Trump’s claim that there were “many African Americans there.”

I watch the news on a daily basis and, based on what I have seen in regards to the coverage of Donald Trump’s campaign for presidency, it seems as though most news organizations have been tip-toeing around Trump afraid of his reaction.

This past week, Trump recently announced via Twitter that he was done with FOX and would not be doing any more shows with the network. But Trump has done this before. He threw a similar temper tantrum with FOX in August. Shortly after, he spoke with Fox’s network Chief Roger Ailes who “smoothed” things over and Trump was back on Fox.

As Trump has been garnering a large amount of attention from viewers, news networks are inclined to satiate the candidate and not ruffle his feathers in order to have him on their broadcasts for higher ratings. But it seems as though, more and more networks are reaching their limit with the brash candidate.

Shortly after CNN covered the story, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press reported on the story as well — mirroring CNN’s report. They all came to same conclusion: Donald Trump did speak to a half-empty room which consisted mainly of white people.

They didn’t beat around the bush or come up with excuses for the candidate. They simply reported on what actually happened, supporting CNN as a news organization. The Associated Press wrote in their article that, “CNN’s assessment appears to have been the correct one.”

I applaud CNN and the other news networks that stood behind CNN, for finally calling a spade, a spade Trump.

Trump re-enters war with Fox News

Posted on by

By CHARLOTTE MACKINNON

It is no secret that Donald Trump has been extremely vocal when it comes to his experiences with the news media during his campaign for office these past few months. He has notoriously bashed not only individual reporters, but entire news networks themselves, and much of this has been documented through his Twitter posts and live interviews. His controversial presence on social media and verbal attacks on individual journalists as well as entire news networks has become a defining factor of his campaign – let’s review.

One of the most substantial of these feuds occurred in early August, after Trump stepped out onto the Fox News debate stage and was questioned by reporter Megyn Kelly about his sexist remarks in the past. Trump responded the next day through a twitter tantrum attacking Kelly, as well as a few other Fox News personalities. He also addressed the debacle in an interview with CNN, saying, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever.” Soon after the remark, he was disinvited to a Red State event by Erick Erickson, a Fox News contributor. It had appeared that Trump had started a war with one of the most influential networks, especially for Republicans.

Trump eventually mended his relationship with Fox News after clearing the air with Fox News CEO, Roger Ailes. But as of this past Wednesday, it appears that the “war” between Trump and Fox News is back on.

On Megyn Kelly’s Fox News talk show, conservative columnist Rich Lowry asserted that Carly Fiorina had castrated Trump during the CNN debate last week. Lowry referred to Trump’s private parts, saying that Fiorina had the “precision of a surgeon”.

Obviously, the statement created a lot of shock, prompting Trump to tweet that Lowry was “incompetent” and that “he should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him.” The conflict continued to heat up, leading to Trump’s declaration via Twitter that he would be boycotting Fox News because the network has treated him “very unfairly”.

Fox News addressed Trump’s boycott in its statement about the cancellation of his scheduled appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor”, but declined to specify what had canceled the appearance. However, according to CNN, an unidentified Fox News spokesperson said about the issue: “When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.”

Now, we’re all waiting to see how long Trump’s latest war with the news media will last. A boycott with Fox News means that he will miss out on access to the millions of viewers who are tuning into the network each night for coverage of the 2016 race. And what will the repercussions be? As of Thursday afternoon, Trump is already down 8 points in the latest CNN/ORC national poll. Only time will show how his campaign will continue to be affected by the turmoil with Fox.

It’s important to pay close attention to Trump’s controversial relationship with the news media throughout his participation in the race. All of these feuds have been made extremely public, and the drama surrounding Trump’s campaign is going to play a crucial role in an election that we will all be impacted by. If there’s anything we need to be keeping up with, it’s the news coverage of the 2016 race – and  as we watch these disputes unfold, we will be able to observe, firsthand, the role that the news media play in politics and the impact that it can have.

Martin Shkreli, ‘most-hated man’

Posted on by

By XIAO LYU

This week, Martin Shkreli, the 32-year old CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York,  has earned the title “most-hated man in America.”

Turing Pharmaceuticals bought a drug called Daraprim, the drug can fight toxoplasmosis, which infects people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS.  However, the company raised the price from $13.50 to $750 for one tablet. According to the latest announcement, the increase of price has been rescinded under the pressure of public opinion.

The conflict was rising when presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said on her Twitter account on Monday:  “Price-gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I’ll lay out a plan to take it on.”

However, Shkreli has used television interviews and his own social media account to defend  the company and himself.

He told The New York Times earlier, “This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business.”

Recently, in the interview by CNBC, he said that the infection Daraprim is used to treat had been ignored by the pharmaceutical industry because there was little money to be made.  He claimed that the money will be able to educate doctors about the disease, improve delivery to patients, and develop better drugs for the infection.

There is no hope for saving his reputation, especially due to his way of responding on Twitter.

He wrote on Twitter on Monday, “It seems like the media immediately points a finger at me so I point one back at ‘em, but not the index or pinkie.”

He also said that Twitter seems to be a great medium for socialist and liberal rage and declared once again the price of drug will be a great thing for society. According to CNN Money, Shkreli was fired when he was the CEO of Retrophin. The reason he was fired, in addition to his poor management skills, was his irritating Twitter usage.

The whole issue is causing biotechnology stocks to fall across the board, involving the lively attention of the government, politicians, the healthcare field, and the financial industry. At the same time, the explosion of social media and TV networks have also made it a hot topic around the world.

Twitter boosts TV audience, appeal

Posted on by

By ISABELLA MESQUITA

Recent research conducted by Twitter revealed the importance of real-time tweets for the popularity and audience of broadcast and cable television.

New and rising media outlets such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Buzzfeed, and other online news and search engines have grown among all generations causing television to lose much of its prominence and value in the past years.

However, a new research made by Twitter revealed that Twitter and other social media platforms can actually increase the interest for TV shows and programming and drive a greater audience to take action regarding a specific TV show.

According to Twitter’s global media and agency research director Anjali Midha, the talk about TV shows and its programming on Twitter strongly influences mainstream media as well as consumer attitudes and behaviors.

“There are actionable strategies and tactics that can help both programming content and advertising work harder by tapping into the power of their audiences,” said Midha.

In other words, through TV related posts on Twitter, advertising agencies, directors, anchors, hosts and all others responsible for television programming, gained a real-time access to the audience’s opinion about their work and thus are able to create and deliver material that directly meets the public’s expectations and needs.

Results from the research show that in 2014, 93 percent of Twitter users had a cable subscription and that 85 percent of people active on Twitter during prime-time hours Tweeted about TV. Also, every show with a hashtag integration, had a significant 20 percent increase in tweets per minute about it.

Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 12.24.09 PM–> Tweets about Television has influenced the audiences to:

– Take action on a show’s social media sites – 52 percent

– Search the show online (through Google, Yahoo, etc.) – 47 percent

– Follow TV show or talent on Twitter – 46 percent

– Search show on Netflix – 43 percent

– Plan to watch show later – 42 percent

Finally, with this increase in viewership and brand engagement, Twitter is reshaping the ‘TV landscape’ and ironically preventing television from becoming obsolete in an era where social media has taken over.