Questioning the media ch. 12

Q1:  What do you think of when you hear the term public relations?  What images come to mind?  Where did these impressions come from?

A:  When I hear the term public relations, I think of someone who is in charge of communicating with the public.  I picture a big building, similar to a law office, where business transactions occur.   These come from my previous outlook of PR firms, as I didn't realy have much of an understanding of how they worked.   After working through this chapter, I have learned that there are in fact public relations firms in existence, and that they do business on a very rapid timeline.  They control the world of marketing and publicity, as they must write press releases for various day to day events.  

Q3:  What step can reporters and editors take to monitor PR agents who manipulate the news media?

A:  Reporters and editors can double check if a news story is accurate enough by investigating the field.  In order to do this, they can go out to the site of the story and actually confirm with witnesses if the event took place or not.  If the PR agent has a track record of simulating the truth, he or she may be watched more closely, and their stories may be more doubted.  Reporters and editors can make it a habit of not accepting releases from known offenders, pressuring them to be honest.  They could also check with other firms in order to confirm a story based on various accounts.

Q4:  Can and should the often hostile relationship between the journalism and PR professionals be mended?  Why or why not?

A:  I believe that in order to have a successful reporting of the news, all news forces should act together.  If there is a hostile relationship, then all the news thats needs to be reported may not get reported in a timely and orderly fashion.  In order to maintain compliance, both groups need to do their jobs in an honest fashion that is considerate to the other force.  Journalists need to report the stories as they occur, without bias, and PR professionals need not ask to much for too little, such as over coverage of a small story.  There is no reason for colleagues not to be on good terms in such a demanding field.

Questioning the Media Ch. 8

Q1: What kinds of stories, topics, or issues are not being covered well by mainstream papers?


A: Mainstream papers today are only focused on whatever will sell. That is why information or news that certain groups would find interesting are not published to the mass media. Publishers are looking for whatever the most people will find interesting so that they will buy the papers. Topics like this include, foreign sports, small town oddities, and historical documents. Foreign sports would not sell because people are only concerned with what is in their culture. Whats going on across seas may be a sport not even known about in the US, therefore has no effect on Americans. Small town oddities are great for local newspapers, but people would not be able to relate to them through huge mainstream papers. Finally, people are only concerned about what is happening in the present, hence the term news paper, and would seek other sources of historical information.


Q2: Why do you think people aren't reading newspapers as frequently as they once did? What can newspapers do to increase circulation?

A: With all of the modern forms of news today, people do not need only to resort to newspapers. Back in the day, newspapers were the only form of communication that could get information out to the public. Sporting events could not be watched on TV, they had to be read about in the papers, unless one could actually attend. The same goes for any breaking news, whether it be politics, sports, business, or just big events. Today's technology not only allows us to bring a live news feed in to our living rooms with TV and radio, but with a click of a button in the office we can see the latest world updates. Newspapers can serve as a portable news device, but other means of communication are cheaper and require virtually no material. In order to increase circulation, I feel that newspapers could just broadcast certain stories in their articles rather than allowing them to be told via other means of communication. This would allow for people to have to buy newspapers to hear about certain events.


Q3: Discuss whether newspaper chains are ultimately good or bad for the future of journalism.

A: Newspapers tend to be biased and to not always tell the full story. In order to sell, they must contain credible information but it must be interesting for an audience. This type of information tends to become talked up by writers in order to make it sound more dramatic to readers. Also, sometimes a writer's opinion comes into play, depending on his or her views, and the general views of the newspaper. Newspaper chains could all carry similar values with them bringing readers a one sided story across the board. Though some people may find that a certain paper has validity, it story may differ from another. If an oligopoly emerges in newspapers, they could virtually control the news being reported. The small time news papers can sometimes be most reliable as they are not always just trying to sell papers, but relay news in a reliable form.