So, this is just a post that I did for my copy editing blog, that is very mediocre:

Will the media ever be perfect? Of course not. There is nothing perfect in this world, but someone always has something to complain about. With this in mind, I wanted to know exactly what type of negative effects the media might have on its audience. While searching around this topic, I came across a book called “Selling Anxiety: How The News Media Scare Women,” By Caryl Rivers. So, do the media really scare women? According to Rivers, a Boston University journalism professor and journalist, the answer is yes. Her claim is that women, specifically working women, are portrayed negatively in the news media. Her list of “trend stories” about women is surprising. Some of the stories she lists include:

• Women who get too much education can’t get a man
• Women who get too much education and become infertile
• Women who love their jobs so much they spend most of their time there, neglecting their children
• (White) women who get murdered
• Scary women who get power
• Women (all of them) whose brains suit them only for emotion

Those are just a few of the ones she lists. This is an extreme feminist view on the news media. To be honest, I’ve never read a news article that’s come close to portraying women like that. I’m sure some do exist. Since I couldn’t read this entire book, I can’t comment too much about it, but it made me think about women and media. And, there are some sites specifically geared toward women in the media including, Women in Media and News.

More recently, there were questions about Sarah Palin’s media coverage and whether it was more negative or positive. According a study by Journalism.org, 38.8% of Sarah Palin’s coverage was negative. But was that the media’s fault or Palin’s fault? A lot of people, republican and democrat, can admit Palin was misinformed about a lot of things. Honestly, more negative versus positive coverage might just mean that there was more negative things to say.

And We’ve all heard the classic debate about media setting a stereotype of the typical woman. Though I do believe a lot of the media do this (namely, magazines and advertisments) there are media organizations trying to change this view, and I’m talking all aspects of media, especially advertising. One example is Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign. A Dove press release that introduced the campaign said that “women strongly agree that ‘the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can’t ever achieve.’” My problem with this is that some of the women in these ads are truly overweight, and being overweight is unhealthy. While, being extremely thin is not healthy either, saying that women who are overweight are “real” is still giving women the wrong idea. Are these ads trying to say that women who are healthy and naturally skinny shouldn’t be in ads because of women’s own insecurities?

So, will this debate ever end?

Citizen Journalism: The Future of Journalism?

Journalism has had its share of ups and downs, all revolving around the idea that journalism, especially print journalism, has an uncertain future. Media convergence has become an increasingly important topic surrounding the future of journalism, and more media outlets have been asking their reporters to do more then just report. Most are now required to report, edit and take their own photos. One trend journalists have begun to use more often to deal with this added responsibility is “Citizen,” or “Community” Journalism.

When did citizen journalism become popular? According to one CNN report, The Sept. 11 attacks were an excellent example of citizen journalism. People took videos and pictures on their cell phones while the buildings were under attack and sent their coverage to national news networks. Hurricane Katrina was also widely covered by citizen journalists. Now CNN has its own site for citizen journalists, iReport. MSNBC also has a “virtual assignment desk,” so the public can help cover certain issues.

Other citizen Journalism sites include: iBrattleboro, Your Hub, Backfence and locally, Bluffton Today, in Bluffton, S.C.

Citizen Journalism’s intent as defined by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis in their report We Media: How Audiences are shaping the Future of news and Information, is to “provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."

But, is citizen journalism reliable? If journalism is supposed follow an unbiased principle, or as close as it can get to that, could citizen journalism, coverage by people who might not have had any formal training in journalism, be thorough, reliable and unbiased?

While browsing other blogs I came across a question that Mitch Joel asks, and that I also ask myself. Is witnessing the same as being a journalist?

Maybe citizen journalism is popular because it isn’t about being unbiased, but that everyday people are providing raw, critical information that some reporters might not have been able to get. I don’t think there is a correct answer to this question, but is definitely something to think about while citizen journalism becomes more popular. Is this the future of journalism?

The Beginning

OK, so with the advice of fellow students and many professors, I'm starting a blog. Will they see it? Who knows. I'm thinking that this will give me a chance to talk and start some discussions. This is going to be a pretty broad blog, consisting of my own life experiences, journalism, politics, health, sports... to name a few. To give a little info on myself if anyone was wondering, I'm Cheryl, a 22-year-old fifth year journalism major at the University of South Carolina. I'm going to be starting nursing school next fall. Yes, after I get my B.A. in Journalism, I'm going to move on to something I think is more of my calling... and that's nursing. So, I will definitely be posting a lot on health issues on here. Journalism is still something I respect and love, but it is not something I think I would do my best at. Nursing is something I think will be both challenging and emotionally rewarding. It also pays better (hehe).

I'll be in senior semester at my school next year, which is a grueling (from what I've heard) semester working for the School of Journalism's newspaper The Carolina Reporter. Each couple of weeks each person will hold a different position in the newsroom, and I hear rumors that my senior semester class will be the first in the print field to even have some broadcasting involved. I'm sure I'll be writing a lot on that subject as well, as I go through the day to day of what it feels like to be a real journalist.

I'm also new to blogging. I'm used to old fashioned journaling, but this is different, so I will do my best to see what I can talk about! Wish me luck!