Media Critique: USA Today, Early returns from Scotland show lead for 'No' on independence

This article violates the context yardstick. The 2nd yardstick. There are no citations to where  the author got her information. She has several quotes from several different people who where involved in the voting. However, she did not give any expert, independent sources. This is bad because the reader does not know whether the information they are reading is true or made up. If the author doesn't cite any sources know body knows if she is credible or not. Citing sources is important and should always be done when writing an article that has the potential to reach a mass audience. The author could have written where she got all of her statistics. Or USA Today could just not have published the story at all if they had realized that this was breaking a basic rule of journalism.



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/09/18/scotland-independence-voting/15814921/

Response to Yamini Polcum

I really like the way you thoroughly explain everything about magazines in your response to magazines. If someone who didn't know much about them read your post they would totally understand. You use clear concise sentences and make everything easy to understand. I would like to see more of your opinion though. I think it's really important to write what you believe and think. Other than that I think that your blog is awesome!



Here is a link to Yamini's post:http://shreddedparanoia.blogspot.com/2014/09/class-response-to-magazines.html

The importance of the Modern Printing Press

The press perfected by Gutenberg will always play an important part in history. With out this printing press the spread of literacy would not have happened. Things like Enlightenment and the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation might never might happened. Our societies would still be in the dark. Governments, religious institutions, and corporations would be corrupt and stealing from the people. The invention and perfection of this innovation greatly helped everyone for generations and years to come. 

Response to Nikhil Warrier

I really liked your response to the printing press. You put into a different perspective the way it was  innovated. I had never thought about it as civilizations building upon each other. I also thought that your use of descriptive words and similes helped to interest me more into what I was reading. This was a great response and a great way to look at what we talked about in class. I really enjoyed looking at this blog post.


Here is a link to Nikhil's blog: http://thewarrierproject.blogspot.com/

Conglomeration

I believe that conglomeration can have both good and bad effects. Sure, it's awesome for the company because now they don't have to pay to either create content to distribute or to distribute their content. They can keep a lot of money for themselves but the services they provide can end up being a lot more expensive for the consumer because now there is less competition so they can raise their prices and people will have less options so they will most likely spend the money on that service. But also in theory the consumer could save money because the company is keeping money so they can lower their prices. As I said before, conglomeration can be both bad and good.

Newspaper.

I believe that even though newspapers may not be totally lost they will become more and more irrelevant. With the rise of more new technologies we will be able not only to share news but to get it in quicker and easier manners. The generation that reads newsprint will be gone and the generation of technology savvy individuals will no longer be in need of printed news.

Class Response to a Journalists Watchdog Responsibilty

I believe that the watchdog principle of journalism is the most important principle. If no one pays attention or keeps an eye on what the people in-charge are doing then they will go crazy. Journalists help to keep everyone in order and to give regular people a voice where they might not have one. So that even when people in high places think that they are invincible and that they can do whatever they want journalists help keep them in check. That is why I think watchdog is the most important journalistic principle.