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.