I have still been thinking about how to direct myself in this class, and I think I have come up with a decent idea. Because this class deals with multimedia writing, I think that my topic of choice should be directly related to that. I have already said that my interests lie in journalism, and I have written about how the transition from print to online is affecting the industry, so I think I can take this idea and run with it.
My proposed idea is that I will start a separate blog or website of some sort that will analyze the reporting of politics and news from blogs, twitters and news sites. I will see how many people cite sources on their blogs, how much information is false or biased in a sense that is clearly intrudes on the quality of reporting, etc. I will be looking at the transition to digital media and if its effects are degrading to journalism. This is a very broad task to take on, but I think research and regular updates can help make it coherent enough. This ironic part of all of this is that I am taking a critical eye at digital media, but I am doing it in a form of the exact thing that I am criticizing. Am I part of the problem? Not necessarily. I think that if I still uphold journalistic values of citing sources, reporting true information and not being guilty of libel, I can make this a worthwhile project that will come to form quite nicely.
I want this to read from the first person, but not necessarily opinion based. I will state why I am doing it and I will call out sites that I think are giving out false information, but I will back it up with logic and reasoning. So it will be an opinion in a sense, but I would like it to be more newsy than editorial.
Does this sound like a worthwhile idea? Let me know your thoughts.
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Dan,
ReplyDeleteYes, this sounds great. I like the idea of a focus. Will you focus on newspapers or television or some other media or will it be open to all? It would be great to show examples of good and bad on your site - good articles, and poor ones, good TV clips and bad ones.
A challenge here will be to keep your personal biases out of this. Don't just rip on newspapers you generally think are politically opposed to your own beliefs, etc,... Otherwise, you'll be no better than those who are doing poor journalism.
I do think this is a key to what you wrote: I will be looking at the transition to digital media and if its effects are degrading to journalism.
This sounds like a key statement to keep posted in some way on your site. If newspapers can maintain a sense of integrity, they will continue to be valued. If not, their value may be in great jeopardy.
I look forward to reading what you come up with.
"That is, whether or not the press is becoming too much like social networking sites and blogs that are not accountable for false information that is spread."
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I believe mainstream news is slipping into the realm of entertainment, as opposed to information. CNN, which I used to watch more than any other outlet, has been trying to get viewers involved via Twitter and MySpace. I can understand the allure of wanting to interact with your audience, but the producers fail to realize that there's a segment of the population that doesn't want to hear the general public un-informed opinion. Using social networks to collect and comment on the news also severely alienates those that aren't members of such sites.
A good idea to do after or during this project is to take part of this project as a case study or condense it to make an article and submit it to magazines or papers to be published. I think this would be something interesting that hasn't really been covered yet, and you could attract attention to yourself as a writer with your great ideas.
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