This week's article from Poynter about plagiarism and attribution (http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/20374/great-journalists-credit-others/) didn't resonate with me until I read this article a few hours later: http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/01/tom-petty-awarded-songwriting-royalties-for-sam-smiths-stay-with-me/
Essentially, Sam Smith is going to pay 12.5% royalties and provide songwriter credit to Tom Petty because the chorus in Smith's "Stay With Me" is almost identical to "I Won't Back Down" by Petty.
On a side note, my good friend Ben wrote a song called "Folk Singer" that we have recorded and played a number of times. After a year or so, Ben realized that he had unintentionally lifted a portion of the melody from an indie song he'd heard before. He called me after hearing that song again, and said that we couldn't play the song again until he fixed the melody. It was an unconscious mistake, and he refused to even practice the song until he came up with a solution.
Obviously, intentional plagiarism is a different matter. Another article we read discussed how several companies wrongfully tweeted about Joe Paterno's death before he actually died. One of the major companies tweeted the news without verifying it or providing attribution to the organization that broke the story.
Does journalism fall into the same category as music? Does unintentional/unconscious copying occur, and how do we fix it? Does it matter that people will not notice these similarities on most occasions?
Monday, January 26, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
3: Inspiring Copycat Murders
Even before I began teaching journalism, I wondered why the media creates a feeding frenzy each time a mass murder takes place. The answer is obvious: it's highly newsworthy. Can we blame news outlets for heavily covering a subject that deserves coverage? A subject that everyone needs to know about?
News media should recognize their social responsibility to help prevent future mass murders. In 2015, it's guaranteed that mass murderers' face and name will be splashed all over every news site, blog, paper, and magazine for at least a week. I'm not suggesting that we refrain from covering these shootings, but I am suggesting that we refrain from glorifying the shooters by burning their pictures and faces into audiences' brains. Perhaps we also should also use these tragedies to expose weaknesses in schools' security systems and draw attention to mental health and gun safety.
Tufecki's article in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/the-media-needs-to-stop-inspiring-copycat-murders-heres-how/266439/) offered four potential solutions to this issue. His suggestions would be a good start, but how can we get every news agency and news source to agree to these guidelines? If one respected news outlet were to make a stand, perhaps others would follow suit. Lessening the celebrity of mass murderers might help stop future tragedies.
News media should recognize their social responsibility to help prevent future mass murders. In 2015, it's guaranteed that mass murderers' face and name will be splashed all over every news site, blog, paper, and magazine for at least a week. I'm not suggesting that we refrain from covering these shootings, but I am suggesting that we refrain from glorifying the shooters by burning their pictures and faces into audiences' brains. Perhaps we also should also use these tragedies to expose weaknesses in schools' security systems and draw attention to mental health and gun safety.
Tufecki's article in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/the-media-needs-to-stop-inspiring-copycat-murders-heres-how/266439/) offered four potential solutions to this issue. His suggestions would be a good start, but how can we get every news agency and news source to agree to these guidelines? If one respected news outlet were to make a stand, perhaps others would follow suit. Lessening the celebrity of mass murderers might help stop future tragedies.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
2: Objectivity in the Media
When I took over my school's journalism program two years ago, I had no training and no experience. My guiding light was an outdated textbook in which "technology" was the final chapter. It included a short section about DSLR cameras and mention of computer-assisted reporting. The authors spoke of the Internet with reverence and awe. Most startlingly, the book was actually published around 2005.
In this book, objectivity was referred to as being free from bias or partiality. Even without experience, I wondered how that could be possible in scholastic media. How can a student at my high school free him/herself from the attachment high school students nearly always have to their school?
In Ethics class last semester, I first encountered the notion of objectivity of process, rather than objectivity of product. We re-encountered this notion in our readings this week, and it caused me to consider that some of the issues we're experiencing in the professional sphere are probably related to deficiencies like the ones in this book.
There are two problems, though. Not all journalists further their education after graduating from college. And these days, most citizen journalists have no formal training whatsoever. How can we make paradigm shifts (like that of objectivity as a process) within the field now? Better educational materials and better-informed advisers will certainly help develop professional journalists. I think organizations like the SPJ can drive change among current journalists--and maybe include the increasing ranks of citizen journalists in the process.
In this book, objectivity was referred to as being free from bias or partiality. Even without experience, I wondered how that could be possible in scholastic media. How can a student at my high school free him/herself from the attachment high school students nearly always have to their school?
In Ethics class last semester, I first encountered the notion of objectivity of process, rather than objectivity of product. We re-encountered this notion in our readings this week, and it caused me to consider that some of the issues we're experiencing in the professional sphere are probably related to deficiencies like the ones in this book.
There are two problems, though. Not all journalists further their education after graduating from college. And these days, most citizen journalists have no formal training whatsoever. How can we make paradigm shifts (like that of objectivity as a process) within the field now? Better educational materials and better-informed advisers will certainly help develop professional journalists. I think organizations like the SPJ can drive change among current journalists--and maybe include the increasing ranks of citizen journalists in the process.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
1: News Literacy
Much of our conversation last night either directly or indirectly related to news literacy. The problem is, there's a paradox inherent in news literacy: most people who would benefit from becoming news literate are unaware of news literacy, and also unaware that they're in need of it.
I know a guy; let's call him Conspiracy Theorist for the purposes of this public blog. Among many other wacky encounters, I recently sat through a ten-minute lecture from him about how ebola had become airborne. He was absolutely convinced that this disease would be the end of society as we know it--80-90% of the United States would perish, and the military would take over. A friend and I patiently tried to explain to him that ebola is not an airborne virus. I even showed him an article from a prominent microbiologist explaining that ebola has a very small chance of ever becoming airborne. He replied with an article from some crazy alternative news source, the main page of which contained articles about UFOs and other phenomena.
Conspiracy Theorist seems like a normal guy when you first meet him. But he's in dire need of news literacy. The problem is, he doesn't know that he needs it. Further, you could never convince him of this because he constantly references articles and information from these same news sources to prove his points. It's circular reasoning at its very finest.
What solutions are there to these issues? What if news literacy were embedded in college (or even high school) general education curricula? What if news sources took it upon themselves to encourage audiences to verify information and search out bias? Both of these solutions seem unlikely to happen. Even if we pursued these solutions, it's difficult to teach people about something they don't think they need. For now, I'll do my part by being news literate and teaching news literacy to my students.
I know a guy; let's call him Conspiracy Theorist for the purposes of this public blog. Among many other wacky encounters, I recently sat through a ten-minute lecture from him about how ebola had become airborne. He was absolutely convinced that this disease would be the end of society as we know it--80-90% of the United States would perish, and the military would take over. A friend and I patiently tried to explain to him that ebola is not an airborne virus. I even showed him an article from a prominent microbiologist explaining that ebola has a very small chance of ever becoming airborne. He replied with an article from some crazy alternative news source, the main page of which contained articles about UFOs and other phenomena.
Conspiracy Theorist seems like a normal guy when you first meet him. But he's in dire need of news literacy. The problem is, he doesn't know that he needs it. Further, you could never convince him of this because he constantly references articles and information from these same news sources to prove his points. It's circular reasoning at its very finest.
What solutions are there to these issues? What if news literacy were embedded in college (or even high school) general education curricula? What if news sources took it upon themselves to encourage audiences to verify information and search out bias? Both of these solutions seem unlikely to happen. Even if we pursued these solutions, it's difficult to teach people about something they don't think they need. For now, I'll do my part by being news literate and teaching news literacy to my students.
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