Journalism and American Democracy

Throughout this semester, I have found and discovered a new side of the iPad. A side composed of interesting media apps, apps capable of annotations, and overall educational apps that have changed my view of the iPad. This semester I have been able to check my weekly news, my twitter updates, and my Facebook. I have been able to check political facts on hand, watch The Colbert Report in bed, and read an in-depth analysis of the Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma game just by the touching two buttons. This semester has not only given me a new understanding of what the iPad is capable of, but a new wave or curiosity of what is can be capable of the future.

Because of the fact that I will not be giving up my iPad at the end of this semester, I am excited for my future with the iPad. Before this class, my iPad was usually stowed away, under my bed, next to my shoe box. But after this class, my iPad is usually smushed in my back pack, next to the multitude a books that usually feels like  ton of bricks. I do not carry around the iPad because I want an extra workout with more weight in my backpack, but because I feel as if it is truly useful. As of a couple months ago, a lot of my articles for classes are on my iPad as well as useful internet search engines that allow for a more direct and filtered search of specific information. Overall, this class had opened by eyes to how the iPad can help me in school work and life. It has opened my eyes to what technology can do to make life easier and how devices such as the iPad have the capability to place many helpful resource in one place, in one tablet.

So as the class says Goodbye to the iPads, I say hello. Hello to a new understanding of how this device can help me in school and most importantly life.

The emergence of African American newspapers forever gave African Americans a voice, even though not always loud or powerful, a voice nonetheless. Coming from the birth of the nation where “It is difficult to fathom the kind of limitations on speech that were imposed on African Americans” (The Press page 84), a media outlet exclusively available to African Americans is a great stride in civil rights.

Today, African American newspapers still function similarly as they did in the 1960’s, catering to the African American community, and raising awareness of injustices to their race. In the Louisiana Weekly, based in New Orleans, there are sections such as Entertainment, and Classifieds but also article dealing with major issues such as racial profiling and unfair treatment of blacks in the workplace. I found an article called “The Hard Truth.. Recognizing the face of evil” by Min. J. Kojo Livingston. It comments very heavily on racism of African Americans, and cites America as “a nation built on lies, theft, and oppression.” The freedom of speech allows for negative comments about out country, even if it may be looked bad upon in conventional main strem media. And African Americans, after their years of oppression, have gained the right to publish what they like, even if it may be against the foundations of our government. The important thing about African American newspapers in the past and today is that they allows African Americans to publish what otherwise might not be published in a main stream media outlet. Mainly because of the constraints of the media we have learned about throughout our class, such as demographics, fear of loss of revenue and competition between media outlets.

Overall, I believe that the one of the main goals of journalism, to serve as a function of the common good, lives within African American newspapers. Which I also believe was ultimate dream for African American newspapers by popular advocates of this cause such as Frederick Douglas and Ida Wells.

Last night, just was we all did during the presidential debates, we stalked the election via Twitter. The Massachusetts senate seat election in particular was highly followed race because of what was on the line. If Elizabeth Warren was elected, then she would be the first women elected into the Senate in the state of MA, ever. She was indeed elected, and the history of MA senate race was changed forever.

Back to Twitter though, twitter was exploding on election day. Even though there are many other reliable sources via the internet such as the updates by CNN or NBC, twitter is a different kind of outlet  that is more accessible to a general public, especially young college voters. Many college students (such as myself) do not have televisions in their dorm rooms, and the alternative to tracking the election, other than the TV, is the internet. As I walked in the front entrance of LaFortune , I was hit by a buzz of  political college students assembling together, accompanied by pizza boxes and star bucks cups,  to watch the presidential election. I also noticed twitter up on a lot of different computers. Now even though many of the students were watching a projected screen of the NBC coverage of the election as well, they were also referencing twitter. I myself, as I proceeded to the basement to study in quiet, pulled up my twitter newsfeed and kept it minmized in the bottom of the screen, accessible for whenever I wanted to have a reliable update of the election. As I watched the coverage in the state of MA, news teams and media figures alike were also on twitter.

WCVB Boston tweeted many live updates from their Live Wire Blog. This blog had every single new election update, retweets from politico, CNN, and NBC as well as some of their own tweets and pictures such as Romney and his family voting in Belmont, MA. WBZ a Fox affiliate in the Boston area was also on twitter, tweeting live updates for the Senate Race in Springfield, tweets such as “Warren crowd now chanting her name. Waiting for her to speak.” and updates on the legalization of medical marijuana in the state of MA. Again, even though twitter is viewed by many journalists as a colloquial and un-professional type of news source, I got most of my election information from twitter, as I assume many others did. I believe that in general, we are looking at the future of election day, and personally I do not see it as completely dim.

Newspaper endorsements predict the victory of President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. Obama has obtained endorsements from 33 large  newspapers while Romney’s trails with 27. An even more interesting fact is Obama’s 33 newspapers almost doubled Romney’s 27 in circulation numbers, beating him 8,785,527 to 4,902,724. What do these positive endorsements for Barack have to say about his last election and his impending next election? What do these positive endorsements for Romney have to say for his past term in Massachusetts and how he would perform as the President of the United States?

Obama supporters continually cite his achievements within his first term as president; his success in bailing out the Auto Industry, in starting the withdraw of troops from Iraq, of saving the country from collapsing into a Great Depression. Papers such as the Toledo Blade state that Obamas’ “stimulus he promoted… helped prevent the recession from becoming a depression.” The News and Observer of Raleigh North Carolina stated that Obama “helped create jobs in many parts of the country (including urban North Carolina)”. Other more prominent news papers such as the New York Times states that Obama made great strides during his presidency in civil rights, with overcoming his hesitation on same-sex marriage, and legislating out of existence the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy concerning the United States Army. The New York Times claims that Obama also made great strides in health care and created jobs in school renovations and road projects that helped pull America out of a dark time in the economy. But was this enough, where all of these accomplishments enough?

They sure were not enough for Romney supporters, and this is what many of the Romney endorsements explained in their articles. Romney supporters claim that this “change” platform of Obama was not enough change, and the change now, needs to be a new president. Newspapers such as the Richmond Times Dispatch states that “Romney understands the value of free enterprise..and  in this year’s candidates he is alone in that respect.” And the Naples Daily Review states that they believe that the economy is on its eventual way back, but the total recovery of the economy will only attribute from a different kind of change, the change of the Romney administration. Other newspapers such as the Cincinnati Enquirer cite his success in Massachusetts economy crisis to his business back ground, saying, “Romney’s approach was business like. He didn’t spare any sacred cows.”

Overall, the general consensus of endorsements, of the papers still continuing to endorse, favor Obama. And those papers that favor Romney do so in hindsight becasue they feel like Obama did not do enough, and Romney’s more business like approach will save the economy.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/rtd-opinion/2012/oct/28/tdopin01-romney-promises-hope-for-recovery-ar-2314814/

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/oct/28/editorial-president-of-the-united-states/

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121028/EDIT01/310280050/Enquirer-presidential-endorsement-Mitt-Romney?nclick_check=1

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/28/2440915/obama-again.html

http://www.toledoblade.com/Editorials/2012/10/28/lt-div-class-libPageBodyLinebreak-gt-Re-elect-President-Obama-lt-div-gt.html

This is one of the most controversial questions going into the debates- do they really matter? According to the Washington Post, they don’t. But according to my personal and political view, they do.

In a recent article I read in the Washington Post entitled “Do the political debates really matter? Political science says no” statistics show that the candidate going into the first debate with the higher percentage in the polls more commonly wins the election than the candidate in second place. Further within the article they stated only two years, 1980 and 2000, was the leader in the polls switch and nevertheless the leader after the first debate won the election. This is pretty convincing and heavy statistical evidence for why the presidential debates don’t matter, but what about personal evidence? Which is more convincing and which is more reliable?

Personally going into the debate I thought that Obama was the stronger and more passionately motivated candidate in the race. But after the debates, my opinion has been turned. Romney cam back fighting on almost every comment Obama had to make, never backing down even when it seemed as if Obama had the upper hand. Anyone would agree that in this debate Romney was fighting an uphill battle from the beginning which makes his strong performance even more impressive. Romney was solid in his claims, with specific statistics, anecdotes, and numbers to back him up. He even was able to bring up the point about Obama giving 90 billion dollars to green energy last year, which I’m sure many of the country wasn’t aware of. Romney was obviously prepared for this debate but not only in his appearance but in his background checks. He was educated upon Obama’s plans as well as his own, which I personally thought was very impressive.

Overall, I am more now enticed by Romney and his beliefs, his plan for the future, and what he would be like as president. So in hindsight does the debate change my vote? Not necessarily, no but it has changed my train of thought. So in reference back to the Washington Post, in my personal opinion the debate has made a difference in my mind, but has it in the nations? I guess only time will tell.

“OMG Obama is so cute.” “Ew why does Romney have that look on his face.” These are some of the common comments heard while watching the presidential debate among my fellow hall mates in the basement of Walsh Hall. I will admit, all of my hall mates are women, so these type of responses could be only from women. But as the debate continued I got a text from my father saying, “Obama almost arrogant in look.”

What does this say about the people I was in contact with during the debate? Possibly that they are shallow and only focused on appearances, but possibly that apparences, or how a candidate portrays themselves really does matter. An article I read prior to the debate tweeted by Ezra Klein called Do Presidential Debates usually Matter? Political Science says No. states good looking candidates usually benefit more from debates. Even though this fact may be true, I believe that how candidates portray through their appearance matters more. Noting and judging appearance is not a indication of un-intelligence, yet merely a characteristic of human nature. We are trained everyday to notice and recognize people by their physcial appearance and outward personality, so why wouldn’t we apply this common notion to the presidential debate? Nevertheless, policy still stands as the most important evaluation of a debate, but the fact that appearances matter is unavoidable, even for the most intelligent scholar. So whether you like an appearance of a pompous asshole or the appearance of a down to earth working man, the bottom line is that you like an appearance.

Overall, as much as we hate to admit it, appearances matter. They matter whether for judging for attractiveness or just plain likeability, and even at an institution such as Notre Dame, we cannot escape it.

The two different newspapers I chose wedding announcements from were the Cape Cod Times, and the Hartford Courant. I decided to choose these two different papers because I live in Cape Cod during the summers and my home resident is in Essex CT, which is close to Hartford. These, other than the major newspapers such as New York Times and smaller news sources such as my local newspaper, are the only papers I have read consistently throughout my life. As I began to navigate their websites, I noticed the uncanny similarity between the two newspapers, especially within the wedding announcements. The formats were even similar. Both of the websites’ wedding announcement sections were “powered” by Legacy.com, which I furthered investigated to be the leading provider of obituaries to online newspaper sites all over the country. Legacy.com has also expanded their horizons to not only obituaries but also to general announcements, such as engagements, births and weddings. Based on a format assessment alone, I was able to judge that both of these newspapers and their wedding announcement sections in particular are similar. This means they are targeting a similar audience, an audience capable of using a search engine such as Legacy.com to find wedding announcements.
But within the content of the wedding announcements alone these two newspapers are similar as well. Both the bride and the groom on the entire first page of wedding announcements on both websites were middle age, white, Caucasian, and straight. This rules out the fact that these type of newspapers are targeting gay audiences, inner city, mostly black, audiences, and poorer audiences. Wedding announcements are a function within the newspaper for pure entertain of the people reading the article. Entertainment within the announcement section serves through readers reacting to exciting news of people like them, or people they might know. So if newspapers publish all white, all middle income, all straight, type of couples, these are the types of people they think their audiences will connect to, or possibly know. Why would a newspaper audience be interested in a wedding announcement of a couple that their readers cannot connect to? They wouldn’t. And this is why wedding announcements in both the Cape Cod Times and the Hartford Courant tell us that these are the type of people newspapers are targeting.

In high school and for my first year of college, I will honestly say I mostly used my iPad for Facebook and Netflix. And even though I still use my iPad for Netflix and Facebook, I now rely on it for the news as well. But the truth of why I only used my iPad as a fun device before this class is because I never really knew it could be used for much more. I always believed that the apps in the realm of learning would cost money, money I didn’t want to spend, and frankly didn’t have. But this class has opened my eyes to see a new side of the iPad. The side of the iPad marketed in commercials as the everyday and everywhere device.
Before, trying to find all my news on a computer constituted searching through New York Times, scrolling through twitter, and checking Facebook pages of ABC, CBS and other major networks. But now it’s all in the same place. Flipboard, which I believe as one of the greatest apps for news, filters my twitter and Facebook feed into one, combined with cover stories of the day and popular news. “Settle It” allows me to catch up on the political colloquy I never fully understood. While always noticing that Obama’s Health Care bill was a great debate in the presidential election, all of the news articles I came upon about it were about whether or not people were in favor of it, not what it was about. “Settle It” allowed me to comprehend what this bill was made of and how it will effect the people. Not only is the iPad great for political news, but it also allows me to compress all of my sports news into one click of an app rather than searching through endless blogs and websites. Bleacher report allows the reader to choose which specific sports and which specific teams they want to show up on their news feed. All of these apps and many more enhance my learning experience in the news today.
As a general statement, using my computer to find news always seemed like a task, yet on the iPad, apps allow me to find the news I want to find in a more efficient manner. I believe that learning an effective way to encounter news is one of the most important lessons one could give to an aspiring journalist.

The two different newspapers I chose wedding announcements from were the Cape Cod Times, and the Hartford Courant. I decided to choose these two different papers because I live in Cape Cod during the summers and my home resident is in Essex CT, which is close to Hartford. These, other than the major newspapers such as New York Times and smaller news sources such as my local newspaper, are the only papers I have read consistently throughout my life. As I began to navigate their websites, I noticed the uncanny similarity between the two newspapers, especially within the wedding announcements. The formats were even similar. Both of the websites’ wedding announcement sections were “powered” by Legacy.com, which I furthered investigated to be the leading provider of obituaries to online newspaper sites all over the country. Legacy.com has also expanded their horizons to not only obituaries but also to general announcements, such as engagements, births and weddings. Based on a format assessment alone, I was able to judge that both of these newspapers and their wedding announcement sections in particular are similar. This means they are targeting a similar audience, an audience capable of using a search engine such as Legacy.com to find wedding announcements.
But within the content of the wedding announcements alone these two newspapers are similar as well. Both the bride and the groom on the entire first page of wedding announcements on both websites were middle age, white, Caucasian, and straight. This rules out the fact that these type of newspapers are targeting gay audiences, inner city, mostly black, audiences, and poorer audiences. Wedding announcements are a function within the newspaper for pure entertain of the people reading the article. Entertainment within the announcement section serves through readers reacting to exciting news of people like them, or people they might know. So if newspapers publish all white, all middle income, all straight, type of couples, these are the types of people they think their audiences will connect to, or possibly know. Why would a newspaper audience be interested in a wedding announcement of a couple that their readers cannot connect to? They wouldn’t. And this is why wedding announcements in both the Cape Cod Times and the Hartford Courant tell us that these are the type of people newspapers are targeting.