Rating System

  The rating system doesn't work because kids can sneak into movies anyway so what's the point really? I guess it DOES make parents feel better about what their kids are watching. If it makes the adults happy I guess it never needs to be revised. Please note sarcasm.
  NC-17 really doesn't work because they never make any money. So, why not just merge it woth R. It makes sense and most people think R is the highest rating anyway. People are prepared for the worst when they go to a R-rated movie. No point in seperating it.

The Doomsday Speech

  People of the United States, Doomsday is upon us. I realize that this is a dark day for all humanity, and I'm sure that most of you are concerned. But, we have had a great run. We, humans, have been around for millions of years, and no one can argue that we've left out mark. Some good. Some bad.
  Let us remember the advances we have had. The United States was once a country of slavery, but now, we are racially diverse, thanks to the protests of many brave people. We once believed that women were less important than men, but thanks to many women, they are equal. We've made advances in science, math, and literature.
  I will not use meaningless words of comfort. I will not lie. We will probably not survive. But, we have not lived in vain. This is the President of the United States, saying stay hopeful.  
 

Headline Hotshot

 1:  Comm. Arts' Coming Computers 
This is about the new computers the Comm. Arts computer lab will be getting.

2:  Fact or Fiction?
This will share some commonly believed things and see if they are true.

3:  Aliens?
This article will debate on the question  "Do aliens exist?"

4:  Trouble in Paradise
This article will show the bad sides of popular "paradises".

5:  Cab's Top 10 Teachers: Voted by the Students
Uhhh....it's kind of self explanatory.

Deer Hunting

  Deer hunting may not be morally good, but it is practical. It's a way to keep the deer population under control. And with the population under control there aren't as many deer related accidents. The hunters get healthier meat, and as long as no one over hunts the deer should be fine.
  On the other hand, I also believe that if we can find another way to control the population it should definetly be used. It's morally okay and then the hunters wouldn't have any sound reason to hunt deer. Unless it is their only food sourve. The, I suppose, you can't really say anything against that.
  There really isn't any other way at this moment to reduce the dder population, so I can't say it would be smart to stop the deer hunting. As long as it's needed it'll be here.

Colorful Source

  The ethical dilemma is that you don't want to make a person look like an idiot... but you really shouldn't lie. If people start calling the person an idiot then they'll get angry at the people who insult them and at you.
  You're supposed to make this person seem intelligent but it's forbidden to change any quotes. So what are you supposed to do? I suppose you might be able to subtly translate it after the quote into what really should have been. If you do it subtly enough matbe no one will realize that that isn't what the quote meant at all. A few things that they say might make sense to some people and you can't change the quote anyway.
  So, really you can't do much, so you mostly hsve to leave the quote alone.
 

Don't Read All About It!

  I believe things like space time cloaks aren't newsworthy until they actually do it. Sure they believe it's mathematically possible but what's the point in getting people all excited and then getting them disapointed when they find out it probably won't happen for a long time.
  It isn't newsworthy because there are plenty subjects that are way more important. But people like it because it's diving into the unkown. It causes excitement and maybe a little bit of fear. People start opposing it when it doesn't even exist yet! That just raises public awareness, which in this case really doesn't have a point. I say wait until it's actually real.

Ethical or Not: Facebook Photos

   I don't believe that it is ethical to download photos for a news article without permission from the subject. It isn't fair that someone takes a picture and then someone just uses it. What if it's an embarrassing photo that the person doesn't really want anyone to know except their friends.
  It could also be a photo that someone took and posted to show their work. I doubt they want it to be published without any recognition. Even if they don't care you should still ask. It's common courtesy.

States Request Silence

 I believe that we should go along with the request as long as no one is in danger. If no one is going to get hurt so there isn't any point in scaring them. But on the other hand if people could get hurt everyone should be informed. No one should be subjected to danger unaware.
 Although we should respect a state's privacy that doesn't mean we should ignore threats. It would be stupid to let our ethics get someone in danger. If they get an injury then how will you feel?

Religion Cartoons

  I believe that we should respect people's religion so if it's against their religion to have any images of Prophet Muhammed then we shouldn't publish the cartoons.  I'm sure that we wouldn't want anyone to disrespect any of our religions so why in the world would we publish something that disrespects a group of people's beliefs.
  I can understand how the people felt but I also believe that they overreacted slightly. There  is never an excuse to  kill people.  Still the cartoonists should have been more sympathetic and thought about it more.

Ethics

  Communication ethics fits into many ethic categories.  There's personal ethics because certain journalits won't write about some topics because they believe it is wrong. Such as not writing about some celebrity cheating on his or her spouse because they believe that it's personal.
  It also has something to do with political ethics because of how all the political ads slander the opponent. Have you noticed how candidates never say why they're the best choice. (insert sarcasm) Oh no, that's ridiculous! You can't do that! You should make everyone else look bad! (end of sarcasm).  Anyway... I'm pretty sure you can see my views on the subject. Why would anyone vote for someone that you have no idea about what's good about them?

Fast Food Dilemma

  To fix the problem of many people not knowing about how health care is rising in costs because of our eating habits we must inform them. Doctors should hand out brochures about it and tell parents and kids to read them. Businesses should hand out little information cards about it and politicians could promise to fix it.
  Newspapers could put little nutrition facts in every release and we should e-mail people we know about it, too.

Test Flight

  I believe that this test flight is news worthy if not worthy of the first few pages.  It gets people interested and that is one of the reasons people write articles. I personally was very interesed about the idea. Honestly, I think people will be more excited about the idea of the thing than the actual test flight.
 Another reason to write about it is that if you write about the actual flight out of the blue people will doubt it's safety because they never heard about the testing. They may believe that it hasn't been testedd and that just brings about a bad reputation. Virgin will not be happy about that. Besides what's the harm in writing about it? It's not as if the world will explode if it gets written about, right?

Tape it!

  I think people should know when someone is taping their interview. I guess it's possible they'll act different if they're on film but still you should always respect a person's wishes and by letting them know what you're doing you are respecting what they think. How would you feel if you were being taped unaware? Not to mention what if the person says something stupid they won't want you to show anyone or even have record of it.
  It's against my ethics because I believe in being open with people and telling the truth. In fact those are the two most important rules in my list of ethics. It's just plain wrong.

Social Networks Revolution

  Social networking has revolutionized many things. It's revolutionized news. Journalists can now send news to people's facebooks. So, now people can find out things faster than ever. It's also revolutionized communication. Everyone knows what you know before you know it. It makes talking to your friends faster and easier.
  Another thing revolutionized is "making friends". Sure you make friends faster but really you have no idea who they really are, so are they really friends? I don't think so. With business it's easier to get people to know about the business with social networking.

China : Freedom of Press

  Many countries do not support freedom of the press. This is wrong in my opinion. We might be able to change these countries' minds. We could try to talk to them about how peopke deserve to know what's going on. Making a list of the benefits might work. Helping them is necessarry because we don't want people to be attacked for writing about something that some people might not like but could help other people.
  Expressing our opinions is important. It's a way to convince someone of something or to just share a different point of view.  No one should die or be attacked because of something like that! Don't you agree?

Hard News Idea

 My idea is about how the Chilean miners got trapped underground.

- They need to stay light.
- They should excersize to keep up mental health.
- It happened on August 5th
- They get their supplies through a tube.
- It could take 6 months to get them out.

Journalists Embeded in with the Army

  I personally believe that it's bad to embed journalists with the troops. All those people are going to do is get in the way and possibly get hurt. That's not fair to the journalists or the people working to protect our country. If a journalist gets blown up or shot at then it's whoever sent them's fault. No one wants to live with that guilt.
  Unfortunately journalists will probably be embeded anyway so they should go through some traing and wear protective gear. A bullet proof vest would be nice. They should be taught how to handle a gun and put through a few physical tests. At least then there will be less of a threat than there is now.  Perhaps they should get taught by former army men/women. They should definetly know what they're doing.

Journalism's Problem

  I don't believe that being detatched from society is a major problem in journalism. Honestly, I don't see how journalism can be sperated from society because it tells about society. It will always be an imprtant part of society. Think about it. Almost all the adults on our planet read the paper even if it's only on Sunday.
  Journalism might be becoming more popular in society because of the articles up on the internet. I've read more articles on the computer than I probably would have ever read in the newspaper. Probably because I read books more than the newspapers anyway.
  I've asked a few people around me and they all say that they don't think it's detatched either.  I don't think the sentence has much to back it up either.

Privacy

  So, do you ever post things without thinking about whether it should be posted? Or are you extremely paranoid about what you put on the internet? I think that I am neither. I am cautious about what I post to make sure I don't post anything I don't want people to know. But then again I usually only post stories  on fanfiction.net. I do have a profile but I have like no personal info on there because anyone can see it.
  Anyway I can honestly say I don't understand why people voluntarily give out information that you'll regret without thinking because these days with all those creepers on the computer you'd think people would be even more careful.
  But, I have a theory of why this happens. We feel safe when we post things on the computer because we feel safe at home where we don't think anyone can get us. Of course that's untrue. Maybe someone should hold a class to show the dangers of the internet. Then again would anyone really want to attend?

Journal September 9, 2010

What is most important to remember when writing a hard news article is to make sure it really is hard news. I'm going to say it's probably easy to mistake sommething you think is important as a hard news even when it may not be. You need to think about whether it's really news and whether it really matters. Maybe you could ask a few people if the think it's important.
After you know that it is hard news you need to make sure that you have your facts straight and that you can back it up. If your facts are wrong then the article is wrong. Spreading false information is, in my opinion, the worse thing you can do as a reporter/writer. If the article is wrong then it'll come back to bite you on the butt.