Lets keep in comprehensive people

     The emphasis for the reading of these two chapters was the importance of journalists keeping the news comprehensive and in proportion. This seems like a giant task on one hand because to keep journalism comprehensive and in proportion we have to understand the things which throw them out of whack. Secondly, the trend which media has taken in large part has been completely the opposite.

The book talked about several places where journalism has missed the mark on this principle. One of the big ones that I found interesting was the pressure of hype. Many journalists fall victim to sensationalism because it instantly draws attention to the story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensationalism However, that type of media can just as easily and quickly leave. I really like the metaphor of the naked man and the guitarist. The one example is a man who begins to strip on the street, which will instantly draw a large crowd and lots of attention. However, once you're naked there is only so much you can do to keep the attention of the audience. The second example is a man playing a guitar on the street who slowly increases the number of listeners day by day depending on how good a musician he or she may be.

      I also thought that this particular example of a guitarist is what journalists should strive for for several reasons. One being that as you gain a devoted readership over time you will have the revenue and readership (or viewership) which you need. Secondly, drawing from the guitarist again, the listeners who continually come back to hear you play may eventually buy your album and then listen to you on their own and buy future albums. This makes a much larger impact on the people who enjoy your music, or in our case, news stories.

      It is extremely important that we strive to avoid this sensationalism because of the damage it can cause to us and our employers. In the book it talked about the importance of setting the human feelings that are common in all of us aside. This is because it is so easy for everyone to fall into that mode when we see huge problem. http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2010/10/14/ethics-center-co-authors-report-on-nonprofit-journalism-10/ Then when we have fallen in to human emotion there will undoubtedly be parts of the various stories which we will overlook. This is a huge problem because then we are not telling the complete truth. Thus, we miss our first and most important obligation of finding the truth and presenting it to readers.

      But is emotion always bad? Is there ever a time when it would be appropriate to include your personal feelings and thus sway a story in a particular direction? The book explains that “the first sensible rule of thumb would seem to be that [emotionalism] should come at those moments when any other reaction would seem forced – when emotion is the only organic response.” However, there is a strict warning that comes associated with this allowance of emotion. “Emotionalism should disappear between the moment of discovery of a problem and the subsequent search for information meant to put the event into a broader and deeper context.” http://alturl.com/a85mj In this way we will be able to report on the facts associated with the story as well as depict the emotion behind it without missing the beat.

      While this lightly touches on a couple of ways in which we as journalists can keep the news comprehensive and in proportion there are several others. It is extremely evident how important this really is. If we want to make an impact and have a voice that perpetuates on and holds sway we must strive to deliver news on which the public can rely and trust in.