Where's the News?

It has become apparent in today’s society, that news has become more of an entertainment media rather than strictly news reporting. Today’s television viewers rarely can sit and watch a news segment without seeing some kind of entertainment “buzz” story. Britney Spears and other Hollywood celebrities are plastered all over the news, including “big time” news sources such as CNN, USA Today and Fox News. I feel as if today, many news mediums will report anything, as long as it’s entertaining. Are there any news sources out there that are strictly reporting news based stories, rather than entertaining stories?


I thought that if I researched Citizen Journalism, I may find some news based only sites. I was wrong. There was one site that I found particularly interesting. A citizen journalism site titled, H2otown, focuses strictly on the geographical news of its town. This site has not only a creative title, but a creative approach to reporting as well. The site is made by and for the people of Watertown, Massachusetts. However, it is not news based only. The site reports different events going on in the town. People of the town are also able to post questions or comments they may have. For example, a lady posted asking if anyone new of a place in town where she could return the remaining pills of her prescription. The site is unique in the way that it is based around only one particular town and the posting is done by the people of the town.


In terms of context, how is this site different from other news sites?
Although there are no deadlines for the reporting, H2otown does have some constraints present. The most obvious constraint is geographical. The site contains information only about Watertown, Massachusetts. There are also several resource limitations. The reporting is being done by the community; therefore there is a limited amount of video footage or pictures. The majority of the people of the community do not have access to high tech equipment or news crews. Lastly, the site contains a lot of news-framing influences. According to the book, Media Literacy , "news-framing influences are like constraints in the sense that they can be seen as forces that shape what gets selected and presented as news." The site appeals to the people of Watertown, Massachusetts. Although they inform, some of the articles on events persuade people to attend them or include information on how and when to attend.



There are several things I enjoyed about reading the articles on the site. One is the site’s news perspective. All the people posting have similar news perspectives. (Reporting events occurring in Watertown) All the articles are short and to the point. This makes the site simple and easy to read. Second, although the site is based around one community, there isn’t a lot of bias. The posts include both positive and negative things about the town. Lastly, for the most part, I was impressed with the context of the articles. There was a range of topics. Deaths of people in the community were posted along with background information. Also, the histories of different events being held in Watertown were posted within the event article. The site also included information about sports, weather and cooking recipes.


To conclude, I believe that we’ve come to a point in our society where entertainment is a part of news. I don’t think we will ever see news again that does not include at least one entertainment story.

Fans vs. Favorites

I think that Alex makes a valid point in his comment. The fans do have an advantage over the favorites in the sense that the fans have watched the favorites and are aware of their habits and abilities. However, for this to be an advantage the fans would have needed to possess the natural ability of crystalline intelligence while watching the favorites on the show. The fans would need to remember the details about the favorites and understand their habits and abilities.
Alex makes the point that the favorites have an advantage of experience over the fans. Because of this assumption, I believe Alex shows she has media literacy because she has not mistaken the favorites’ real-life experience as her own from watching the show. However, she has not taken into consideration that what she and the other fans have seen on the show is not the whole picture.
The show is only an hour long episode; therefore it does not truly represent all of the favorites’ personalities and abilities. This brings up an issue of media literacy that we have discussed in class, traps of media. Alex and the fans may have a false perception of being informed about the favorites. What they think they saw or interpreted from watching the television may not be the complete truth. Producers and television execs can edit and alter the reality of the show to make it more entertaining or dramatic, leaving the audience with a false perception of the truth.

Max Headroom

In class we discussed the three types/ classifications of media messages; information based, entertainment based, and advertising based. We discussed how sometimes a message can represent more than one or even all three. (The line is blurred between the three types.) I thought this was an interesting topic of media literacy presented in the Max Headroom episode.
The show was based around a news station. Many people would automatically think that this meant the messages being exposed to the public were information based messages. However, this episode of Max Headroom proved that even with news the line is blurred between information and entertainment based messages. There was a quote from the episode that made this concept stand out.
Edison Carter said, “Since when has news been entertainment?” He was answered by his friend with the mustache, “Since it began.”
The whole episode was based around the idea of “sweeps” and the competition for rates and viewers between two different news stations. The one news station was not reporting true news. The stories the news station was reporting were staged and planned out. The episode shows that even the news can sometimes trap us and give us a false sense of being informed.