Comm455/History of Journalism

It seems that celebrities are always complaining about pesky photos snapping shots of them around Hollywood. From red carpet galas to the Whole Foods grocery store, they can’t get a break without a creepy guy in an SUV pointing a Canon in their faces. “I’ve been… chased by paparazzi, and they run lights, and they […]

How many people pay attention to local news? According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, 72% of Americans are tuned into what is happening in their communities. According to the study, which was conducted with the John S. and James L. Knight […]

With graduation not far down the road for most of us, it is time to start spitting out resumes left and right and pray someone takes us in and sees our worth. As aspiring journalists, we are lucky to live in a world where the ability to deliver news is right at our fingertips. However, […]

What’s the latest scoop?! Big story reporting is what the media has always aimed for. Aside from sensationalized stories about anything and everything people would be interested in, the biggest stories always get the front page and the most attention. Presidential elections — like the one we are presently witnessing — are a huge deal […]

Author of the book “A History of News,” Mitchell Stephens gave a short synopsis of the history of news for the Future of Journalism Project’s Youtube Page. The themes that we continue to discuss in our class are nicely summed up in this five minute video. What Stephens remarks on is the human race’s desire […]

The Society of Professional Journalists adopted the very first code of ethics and made journalism more credible than ever. The SPJ was founded in 1909 at DePauw University in Greenville, Indiana.  At that time it was the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity.  The society is now a professional organization for print, online and broadcast journalists, students, educators and […]

It’s election season. We’re about a month out from the election and things are heating up. Wednesday was the first presidential debate which you can find here. The debates are an essential part of a presidential campaign because you really get to hear the candidates’ views from their own mouths, not that of the commercials […]

Propoganda is generally thought of as the comic-like posters on city walls or public service announcements that have been left behind in mid-20th century antiquity. However, all one must do to realize that propaganda is alive and well is turn on their television, especially during election season. It’s presence is ubiquitous: before practically every Youtube […]

We live in a culture where the latest episode of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” pulls in more ratings than the Republican National Convention during  the 2012 presidential election. The latest TLC phenomenon, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” is a prime example of how sensationalized news is undermining the foundation of ethical journalism. “Here Comes Honey […]

There is a new website heavily promoting the use of word of mouth called Rawporter, which offers rather nice benefits to users or “rawporters” who post pictures and videos on the homepage of this site. Rawporter’s claim is this; with the increase of social media sharing of pictures and videos across the web, any large news […]

  “If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people – including me – would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”                 […]

People have always had an innate desire to know what’s going on around them. As Professor Klein worded it in class, “News doesn’t like a vacuum.” When their need for information is not fulfilled, people become very nervous and frightened. Take the Dark Ages, for example. Literacy was much lower in this time period than […]