Journalism and American Democracy

It was a a personal moment on the morning of November 6, 2012 when I had an overwhelming sense that anything could happen that night. I was voting for president for the very first time, and it was a powerful feeling and one in which I was proud to be a part of this country. I ventured out very early that morning with my dad and my brother to the local fire station to cast our vote, and it turned out to be a simple enough pursuit. Although a early on the morning, there were many people already out to cast their vote. We did not, however face the longs lines projected in Virginia or Florida or Ohio.

As a fairly new South Bend and even Indiana resident, it was hard to learn very much about the candidates while in school here. Jackie Walorski and Brendan Mullen fought hard battles over television and radio ads, while Donnelly and Murdock raced for the open senate seat.

While there can be so much negativity surrounding this campaign and people can be pulled in by the spectacle of news channels and twitter trends and mathematical predictions (which I sure did as I watched the results), it is important to take into account this great notion that anything could happen that night. It was a close race, and in our democracy, no one knew what would happen until al the ballots were cast. And that can be a comforting thought in all the headache of election season. Here the U.S. had two amiable and competent candidates who were willing to sacrifice much of themselves for the country, and they let the American people decide with each of their votes.

While the results were streaming in, I was volunteering at the local Ronald McDonald family room, and one of the parents standing there and watching the results struck me when he said, it’s not just the candidate who will get things done. There is a lot to be done in this country, and it will not just be from the president. Many people will be working of the benefit of this country for progress. Although Indiana voted for Romney, there must be comfort in the process of the election and that there should be four more years of working together for progress and a better future.

Do the debates matter? And why or why not?

As I gathered some of the news stories circulating the Internet and newspapers this morning, as well as hearing what other friends and classmates had to say about the debate, an overwhelming amount believed it was Romney who won the debate hands down. “Romney was aggressive, while Obama looked down at his paper and smirked a lot” seemed to be a common theme of the debate news cycle this morning. However, was this just based off of looks, charm and personality? Or did people check facts and decide on a winner from the substance and their talking points?

At least for myself, I had to check myself from doing that last night. “Obama made sure to wear blue and Romney red” I thought! “Romney is really looking at Obama with care”, I would think. “Why is everyone on twitter being so mean about the moderator?” I asked some friends close by. With a debate such as this, with such large matters at to debate, it is easy to think of things such as the appearance of the debaters or the lighting on the stage. However one (definitely including myself) must remember to listen to the words of the two men one stage, and not only that, but also interpret these ideas and actions of the men onstage and think of the debate in terms of the larger picture.

Last night, Romney received a large (and much needed) boost from the debate which left many people wondering if Romney was the one. Who knows, if he can keep up this string of aggressive nature in the upcoming debates, this election may be on close terms in November. However, the general public should remember their voice in the election. While appearance may come as an important aspect of an American president, it does not stand alone as we vote for the hope of a better future for not only ourselves but for the American public as well.

When I first heard about the iPad becoming a new staple of apple products, I wondered why this was a necessary machine. So many people already have desktops or laptops or both, and the iPhone had already made it’s way into the hands of many people around the world. The iPhone had everything you needed and it was the size of a pack of gum too! Why would people need that in the size of tablet? I thought this way about the iPad for a while, up until this past summer. I started to changed my opinion when my friend purchased an iPad for school. Actually seeing her use the iPad made it so much more impressive to me. It was so simple for her to use, and she was able to use many apps for school, as well as her own personal use. I was impressed by the impressive visual nature of the tablet, as well as the number of apps which were useful to my friend in her school life, as well as her everyday life.

After being told we would be getting apps for the class, I was pretty excited about this prospect, and now, with a few weeks of experience with the iPad, I feel as though my interaction with the news has become even better. Walter Lippmann, in his piece, “The Nature of News” writes, “All the reporters in the world working all the hours of the day could not witness all the happenings in the world.” However, with the iPad and its many apps, an average person can get pretty close to encountering many news stories of the day. My experience with the news has been greatly enhanced with the Flipboard app. I, like many people I know, enjoy the feeling and organization of newspapers and magazines. Although a completely different feel to it, I do enjoy the organization of Flipboard to be similar to that of a magazine. Not only that, but it also allows for me to follow my favorite news sites and commentators and updates the stories whenever I open the app. It has allowed for such an ease of participation and knowledge of news stories that I feel as though would not have been as easy with a laptop.

Kathleen Parker has a sure amount of style and voice when it comes to her pieces in the Washington Post. She brings a lot of honesty to the table, and it makes for a sure set of intersecting articles for the reader. She not only challenges people in her articles who work at the public sphere, such as Romney, Obama, their wives, and other political figures; she also challenges the reader with their own actions and thought processes.

Parker will be here on Thursday, talking about the news in an age of twitter and social media. When I first signed up for twitter about a year ago, I worried about one main thing. I thought people would judge me for having a twitter and being too self-involved, and in particular I thought older people would just see me as another example of a younger generation, who only cares for their own life and self. Parker mentions this aspect of narcissism in The likability trap’ when she writes, “This ridiculous matrix for assessing a candidate’s qualifications for office is the inevitable offspring of the cultural coupling of narcissism and attention-deficit disorder, otherwise defined as an inability to think for more than two minutes about anything more complicated than oneself.” In this piece she writes about the apparent importance of likability in a presidential candidate, and I thought it was such an interesting quote just because it made me as a reader think about my own thoughts on this topic. And paired with my own narcissistic tendencies due to Facebook or twitter, I thought this quote to be a little true. However, with this new use of twitter for use of the news, I believe twitter can actually help people to care more about others and the news, if they use twitter in the right way. I suppose we will have to hear from Ms. Parker herself on this matter.

My brother-in-law is from a small town in upstate Wisconsin, where the population numbers in the thousands. I had always heard about this small town from my sister, who would describe the kindness of the people and its cute downtown. After years of hearing about Merrill, WI, I finally got the chance to see it for myself, and it was, of all honesty, a great town. My brother-in-law and his family have always been such kind people, so I was not surprised at the kind feeling of the town. I traveled up there a few weekends ago for the bridal shower of my brother-in-law’s sister (or my sister’s sister-in-law, which ever is the correct term), at their parent’s home. I arrived a little on the late side, but upon my arrival, I realized the large crowd of people at the gathering. It was packed in the living room! And as I traveled around after the presents had been opened, I saw their wedding announcement hung on the refrigerator. It was a big announcement, cut from the local paper.I ventured to that website of the local paper, thinking of this question of wedding announcements, and upon arrival to the home page, found a link at the top of the page to announcements, as well as that of engagement and wedding forms to fill out and send to the paper. I think in smaller towns, much like that of Merrill, WI, wedding announcements are such a huge part of their paper because of the close-knit community. It’s interesting, then, to go to a southern newspaper in Milwaukee in Wisconsin an realize it is harder to find wedding announcements, as well the form to will out wedding announcements. When a member of a smaller community (or their child) gets engaged and married, the people like to share in the celebration of this event and the happiness of the couple. It was done in a similar manner in my hometown, a little larger than that of Merrill, but still a place where people like to hear the news of community members and friends and share in the celebration.

News Source: http://www.merrillcourier.net/index.html

http://hinsdale.suntimes.com/

http://search.jsonline.com/Search.aspx?k=wedding&s.x=26&s.y=13