Week 28

It was another fantastic week in the Independent Study and Mentorship Program. My mentor visit was a greatly important experience as I learned a new and valuable lesson. I've been learning about the process of creating a story is making sure that you cover the topic from all sides. It is incredibly easy for a reporter, and in turn the viewers, to only see a story from one perspective. This is dangerous as it can shift the feelings on a subject and completely change a person’s mind. News is supposed to be an outlet to gain accurate, unbiased information. This, unfortunately, has not proven to be the case. Many corporations narrow-cast, or reach out to specific audiences by sharing news in a way that people of a certain belief will agree with. On top of this, media groups are capable of agenda setting, or deciding what shall be reported on and how much attention the issue gets. Therefore, the overall population can sometimes come away with a very different idea of the problems the country faces than are actually true.

           

This is depressing! I want to enter into this career field in order to alert people to the problems at hand, not hide or shape the truth to make it something it is not. Moving forward, I will have to keep this in mind with everything I do. I should never get to a place where I utilize clips of interviews to make them sounds like they are saying something that they actually aren't. I should never seek information from only one side of a situation. I should never sink to the level of reporting in a way that is beneficial to me but not the general public.