Essay 3

1. In an effort to engage more people in following the news, papers and broadcast stations have turned to citizen journalism efforts, which includes a range of activities from having audience members send in weather photos and comment on stories online to having “expert” readers do some of the reporting legwork on a story (several Gannett papers do this) or letting reader suggestions guide much of the news coverage. Among the trends in news that are aimed at drawing readers, which are adding to the public good? And are there trends that may be harmful to the news industry or the concept of an informed public? And why??

Reviewing the history of more than one hundred years, the media development has passed through different periods and different formats, from the earliest newspaper to radio, to television and then to the current internet. However, whatever format by which the medium displayed for the public, how to attract a large number of readers or audiences is always a thought-provoking problem for the medium operators. For the newspapers, the director’s main focus is the circulation, while for the televisions, the key point is the audience rate. Nowadays, the clicking rate becomes the first consideration for the operators of the websites, a mushrooming format of media which has already became an inseparable part of our life. In an effort to engage more people in following the news, papers and broadcast stations have turned to citizen journalism efforts, which includes a range of activities from having audience members send in weather photos and comment on stories online to having “expert” readers do some of the reporting legwork on a story (several Gannett papers do this) or letting reader suggestions guide much of the news coverage. This is the main stream for the medium development now, with the advancement of technology, more and more readers and audiences involved themselves into the reporting work. Some people contend this interactive way will definitely generate big influences on attracting more readers and audiences. However, there are also people hold the opinion that the involving of readers and audiences into the reporting work will damage the basic values of journalism like fairness, justice, reality,…since journalism should not be guided by the audience. In my opinion, such interactive ways are the vantages for both the audiences or readers and the medium themselves.

For most print medium, like the magazines and newspapers, the most traditional way to get reactions from the readers is the criticism wrought by people from various areas, usually the experts or authorities. This is the prototype for the participations of readers into the reporting work. But such reactions are limited, since the limitations of boardtype and the publishing period. The emerging of the internet breaks the space and time limitations, the group of reactors are expanded tremendously. No matter whom you are, professors, layers, engineers, even general civilians have the freedom to express their own opinions on different journalistic events anytime and anywhere, what you need is just a computer which is online. The voices come from different social classes can be reflected. The combination of newspaper and internet promotes the liberty of speech in our society. Based on this consideration, there are some people contend that the participation of readers into reporting work damages the basic values of journalism in terms of authenticity, fairness, objectivity and so on. They contend that since the educational level of readers are quite different, some of the criticisms even demonstrated to be wrong and cannot reflect the authority. If such criticism guides the reporting work, definitely, the authenticity, the fairness will be influenced. However, I contend the criticism cannot damage the basic values of journalism, on the opposite side, it can improve them. We should remember that the truth gets more obvious with more intense debate. No matter the opinions are right or wrong, scientific or unscientific, they represents the whole aspects of the journalistic events. Just because of the conflict of these opinions, the final decision will be much reasonable and scientific as the whole aspects have been taken into consideration.

Take the Casey Anthony trial as an example. The Florida Court eventually judged Cathy Anthony, who was accused of killing her two years old daughter to be innocent and released her with freedom. From the beginning of this case, the medium placed high attentions on reporting this story. Also, there are a large number of readers participated in the reporting work. They expressed their own opinions through different ways on news papers and on the internet, from the member of jury to the general citizen. Innocent or guilty, justice or injustice, we hear almost every kind of voice. After the intense debate on this issue, the final decision became more obvious. There is no direct evidence to prove that Cathy has the suspicion of killing her daughter. In consideration of the jurisdiction and social morality, Cathy eventually retrieved freedom.

Some people contend that the interactivities between the audience and television station is limited. The format of reaction just limits on the hot-lines and sending short messages. However, the combination of television and internet improved this situation, the number of reactors are expanded tremendously. The function of the interactivity I have already analyzed above. Here I want to emphasize another important issue: we need to take good advantages of the combination of television and internet, especially for the talking shows which can reflect the main stream in our society now.

As is known to us, the number of the audience for the television is inherently big compared to the print medium, since the requirements for the audience of television is relatively lower, people in different ages and different educational background can accept the opinions transmitted by the television. In this regard, the television plays an important role on shaping the public opinions. Especially the shows which are presided by the celebrities or involved the celebrities, the celebrity effect itself can be considered as a better interactivity between the program and the audience, their figures on the television will attract more sight and attention, this is the original advantage. While the combination of the television and the internet expanded this advantage, since the website provided the audience a better platform to express their own opinions and to contact their admired idols. Thus the effect of the combination of the television and internet is of great significance on keeping a better balance among different social classes. In general, with the guide of the celebrities or authorities, more public opinions and social values will be led to a promising direction because of the celebrity effect and the wide participation of the audience.

Mike Wallace, a very famous talking show anchor, he and his program witnessed the tremendous progress of the development of the American society during the past 38 years. Still today, his show CBS’ 60minutes attracts a large number of audience around the world. The guests of this show usually were the elites or prominent celebrities worked in various areas, they talked about the current top topics in our society, criticized the government policies and discussed the current international situation. He and his guest always stood in front of the advanced social ideas, and guided a large number of audiences to recon on our current social issues. The celebrity effect of his show generates a big influence on shaping the social values, while the opening of the website of this show brought this program into a new period. With the participations from various social classes, all opinions are reflected and all voices are expressed, this platform gave the general civilians more opportunities to communicate the influential celebrities. Such interactivities provide a deep understanding of the journalistic events for the audience, while for the television, combined with the internet, their audience rate got much higher compared to the print medium. In addition, because of this celebrity effect, we need to make better use of it, more health and positive opinions should be propagated.

I have been working in this company for about three months. My director always told me that as the media workers, we hold a special mission in our shoulder. We need to take this responsibility. In our television, we also have some famous shows which are anchored by celebrities. We know how big influences our program will generate on our society, thus every time we decide the topic and invite the guest, we will do lots of research work, and make sure that our program can reflect the most recent social value in our society and help to lead the public a deep and positive perspective.

All in all, the participation of the audience into reporting work is better choice for both medium and audience. For the audience, they can keep up with what happens in our current society, while for the medium, they can get a much higher circulation, audience rate or clicking rate. Combined with internet, I am sure that the future of the print and broadcast medium will be much promising.

Wrok Journal 6

This week, the burden for us was relatively lower than before. On Monday, our crew held a meeting to summarize the editing work we did during the past week, we settled lots of technical problems. Our director told us we would combine the completed documentary we edited into a serial and air them circularly from next week.

On Tuesday, our crew reported a very important event—the centennial celebration of People’s Republic of China (Tai Wan). We used three cameras in different angles to record the whole process of this activity. I still remembered the point out director told us last time, several cameras worked at the same time, we should not stop anyone of them except for changing tapes or batteries. This time the editing work for us was much easier to complete. We also did a very important interview with the ambassador of Tai Wan, ambassador Yuan Jian Sheng flied to LA from WashingtonD.C to participate this significant historical event, and expressed his own opinion about the bilateral relationship between Tai Wan and America.

On Wednesday, our crew continued to record our own program: The top topics. The guests were the chairman of Emigrant committee of Tai Wan. Today’s topic was the cultural communication between Tai Wan and America, there would be a delegate which was composed of ballet dancers visit Tai Wan on October, this show explained the concrete details of this activity, like the destination, the schedule of performance.

Thursday and Friday, we still kept working on the editing process of our documentary. Our main focus was to find the appropriate music which can match the ambience of the documentary we did. 

Work Journal 5

This week, we met a lot of troubles, in terms of technology, copyright issues. But we overcame them eventually and continued to step forward.

On Monday, we held a meeting to adjust our schedule, as our director will go abroad on the middle of July.  I continued on my editing work of the Chinese documentary. My second work was almost done. From that documentary, I realized that my interest of television production was focused on the cultural program like the documentary of museum, I possessed the ability to write out the script which could reflect the history and culture effectively and lyrically.

On Tuesday, one of my coworkers met the problem of copyright issue. He wanted to use one piece of music which he thought was quite ideal, but he could not contact the composer timely. He wrought several e-mails to the composer, there was no response. Our director told him it was better for him to abandon this choice, but he did not. Unfortunately, after he completed all the works and be ready to air his work on our channel, the composer gave him the response that he could use only part of them. After a tough negotiation, the composer agreed our request of using his music as the background music.

On Wednesday, our editing work continued normally, most of my coworkers had the rough cut of their documentary almost done.

On Tuesday, we came out of the office to shoot images of another destination—South Coast Plaza, a very famous luxury shopping center in LA. We spent almost a whole day the shot different parts of this plaza. My director told me, this was really a challenging job since we must make sure that all our images has no clear demonstration of the customer’s face to avoid the privacy violation prosecution. From that moment, I got the notion that no matter which public area you were shooting, without the permission from the person you intend to include in your image, the only thing you could do was keep a long distance and let his face looked very vague, or just shoot his or her back.

On Friday, we continued our editing work.

Essay 2

Media scholars have written about the effects that entertainment programming can have on people – from encouraging imitative behavior (social learning theory) to creating the perception that the world can be a pretty scary place (cultivation theory). What about the news media? Looking at news coverage and the definitions of news, what effects does journalism have on individuals and on society? What does news coverage say about the United States? And what does it say about the rest of the world

From the naissance of the earliest newspaper till now, the history of media development has already passed almost a hundred years. During the past century, the format of media has changed and evolved continually, from the earliest newspaper to radio, to television and then to the current internet. However, whatever the format by which the media displayed for the public, the function of it never faded in our society. Nowadays, the function of it gets even more important with the booming of internet techniques. Web television, blogs, twitter and countless websites have penetrated into almost every corner of our life, and become an inseparable part of our life. From the news like the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the military actions operated by NOTA on Libya to the weather report and the daily price of gasoline. To get them, what you do is just opening the television or clicking the mouse. Then you will be overwhelmed by the information ocean. Television and other medias have became part of the process by which people learn society’s values and come to understand what society expects from them. They enable us to communicate with each other by helping us to overcome the barriers of time and space. It is widely acknowledged that the basic functions of media are: Inform, Surveillance, Service the economic system, Hold society together, Entertain, Act as a Community forum, Set up the agenda, Service the political system. For this article, I want to focus on two of them: Entertain and Hold our society together.

Television and radio broadcasting provides us with a big variety of programs and news every day. All these news and programs release us from the heavy burden after work. That is the benefit we get from them. To get a higher circulation or audience rating, except for the general programs and news they do, the negative news, even the scandals of stars or political officers usually become the favor for media. In this regard, it is understandable that the information like the divorce or extramarital affairs of Hollywood stars, the drugs abuse of some sports stars is always full of the screen or newspapers. However, have you asked what did we really get from these news？ Next, I will use one example to analyze what we really get from them.

On May 9, 2011, Arnold Schwarzenegger and His wife Maria Shriver shocked the world by announcing their separation in a joint statement. This happened after Arnold acknowledged his extramarital affair with his housekeeper mistress and cultivated an illegitimate son. This new became the top line on the media sonly. Arnold was also put in the teeth of the storm. A fierce debate on this issue emerged on the internet. The public was disappointed by Arnold’s disloyalty, and sympathized Maria’s situation. In my opinion, for the public, they should stay in calm and analyze this event comprehensively.

For Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, it could not be denied that he was the false maker. But remember every one had the right to make mistakes, and every one also had the right to correct his or her mistakes. The public’s reaction on this issue could do nothing but place high pressures on him and his family. To some extent, this event should be considered as Arnold’s domestic issue or even privacy. Of course, some people considered that the audience or the media bestowed the stars like Arnold reputation and social status, and they should have the right to know or comment on their behaviors, even privacy. However, stars or other celebrities had already done something to compensate for their reputation and social status. They provided us a variety of excellent television shows, films, music, other kinds of arts works or exciting athletic contests. Some of them even set good examples in promoting the public welfare careers. They were also commoners like us, they had their privacy, and they had their own time and space which needs the public’s respect. In addition, had you took Maria, the mistress and her son’s feeling into consideration?  Did we want the 10 years old boy to live in the shadow of his father’s scandal for the remaining of his life? Thus, for such news, it means a tremendous pressure on the star’s career, which might generate very big influences on their family life. According to one investigation, in South Korea, about one to five suicide cases of stars happened every year. The reason for the suicide was they cannot bear the pressures of scandals from the public.

For the public, on one hand, have you asked what do we really get from Arnold’s scandals? Do they generate significance on our daily life? The answer is definite: Nothing more than a burst of laughter. For most of the public, our daily life is not influenced by them. Those news are just the resource of our gossip after dinner, and such amusement we get is based on the stars’ sorrows. On the other hand, media usually serve as the promoter for the public’s mainstream ideas, what they published have a big influence on shaping the public’s opinion. For most of the young people, they are influenced a lot by the media, their immaturity and curiosity drives them to imitate the behaviors of their idols. We can image what they will be under the influence of such news like divorce, extramarital affairs even drug abuse and violence. Their values may be distorted under such ambience. Some of them even imitate the behaviors of the stars they admire, they indulge themselves in the amusement, they take drugs, they do not treat their marriage seriously. Thus, more social problems come to appear. Compared the economic profit and the social influence on our next generation, which one is more important?

Based on the above considerations, if the higher circulation or audience rate is at the expanse of the stars’ sorrows and the distortion of social values, then this investment is totally a failure. For the media, they should take the responsibility to shape a health public opinion. In order to achieve this goal, the shows and reporting work which can help the public to develop an optimistic, aggressive attitude should replace those pessimistic scandals.

Medias should take the neutral perspectives or angle in order to achieve the goal of a fair, democratic society, and hold the whole society even the whole world together. This is definitely right. For most medias, they always try to find a balancing point which can consider the profits concerning all social classes. Unfortunately, this is a challenging task, sometimes this is even an unrealistic anticipation. What should the media select if they cannot find such balancing point in the conflict between political or economic profit and the general civilians?

I want to take the news of the military actions the NOTA operated on Libya as an example. Even today, we still cannot get a clear pretext for this military action. No matter what kind of reasons, the peaceful and stable situation for Libya is our final goal. But, what we are doing now is not pointing to this direction. Every day, what we look on the reporting work was the fierce fighting scenes, the blast of explosives, the victory or failure of one party, the casualty of the conflict, the negotiation between different parties and so on. However, have you got more images of the civilians who are still live in the flames of the war? Do they have family members are killed or injured on the war? Do they have enough food or water? What should they do after losing family members or houses? I can guarantee that the images which show the scenes of fierce war and those political leaders are definitely more than the civilians who are still live in the war area. Why the war has no end? The answer is quite simple: even the civilian’s basic right to get a stable life cannot be achieved by the government, they even do not get enough attention by the public from the whole world. Why do not they select rebellion? Before their basic life has the guarantee, their profit can be protected effectively, their terrible life gets enough attention from the world. Then the war will be quite close to the end. Under such situation, what should the media do becomes clear for the public. If the media pay enough attention to reflect their life, their horrible life under the war to the whole world, then the tempo of the process to achieve peace may get accelerated. More humanitarian aid will be provided by different associations, more endeavors will be done by the political leaders to avoid more casualties.   

After analyzing the above situation, we can give answer to the question at the end of the seventh paragraph. If there is conflict between the political profit and civilian’s life, to get the crisis settled timely, the media should not serve as the promoter or publisher for the war but to work as the warrior to reflect the basic profit of the civilian. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of peace and democracy. To achieve this goal, we still have a long way to go.

From the moment that the media emerged, our society bestowed a special mission to this honorable career. It is every journalist’s accountability to realize this  goal: to hold our society together, to achieve democracy in every corner of the world.

Work Journal 4

On Monday, our crew continued our editing work. We held a meeting to settle the technical problems we met during the editing procedure. My director presented new software skills which can make special effects, motions. These skills definitely helped us a lot. But I am confused by one notion: how should we select if there was conflict between reality and aestheticism. Remember what we did was not journalism. My director told me we can select aestheticism, since documentary was like filming production. Sometimes, the audience placed their attention on how beautiful and gorgeous the images they were seeing. Of course, there was also one promise: that was all special effects made by you should be based on actual information and actual images.

One Tuesday, we reported the baseball game in Dodge Stadium. This story reporting taught me lots of valuable information.  The first one was: as a professional journalist, your shooting angle was your first consideration during the reporting work. You should select the most ideal place and the best angle to do interviews of the stars and their coach. Of course, sometimes, they were too busy to accept your interview, but you should not give up striving. The other thing I learned was the sound from the game scene was very important during the editing process. It could make the ambience more attractive, especially for the fans of that game.

On Wednesday, we made our talking show in the studio. Our Guest was a pianist name Chen Rui Bin. He was a very famous and influential piano player from Tai Wan. He held hundreds of performances around the world, ranges from The Golden Hall of Vienna to Broadway. His music accompanied many people on their growing process. He shared his Art Journey with the audience. From that show, I realized how important the anchor was during such shows, he or she should be at least a social man who possessed sophisticated communication skills, and knew how to adjust the ambience of the filming scene.

From Thursday to Friday, we continued our editing work of the documentary. What made us really happy was we completed one part of them, and the rough editing of the remaining was almost done.

Work Journal 3

This week, we still placed our main attention on the “Chinese Discovery” documentary, continued the shooting and editing work. What I learned most was the operation skill of the software named Sony vegas, which was similar to Final Cut Pro 7. We strode the first step on our editing work, the rough editing of our first documentary had almost done.

On Monday, except for doing the editing work, we also completed one story reporting. It was a press conference held by immigrants association of TaiWan, they announced the starting of preparing and registering procedure for the next global TaiWanese( a beauty contest). Actually, we were late when we arrived at the destination because of the terrible traffic situation. What we did was let the organizers reverted the press conference, let the participators repeated their words. Firstly, I wanted to remind my director that we violated the basic rule of journalism—actuality. But she told me we did not fake but to revert the reality. This was an acceptable way in journalism if the journalist missed the key points of the conference, but the promise was that the organizer agreed to help you to do that.

On Tuesday, we continued our editing work of the documentary. My work is writing the script for the documentary. You know, I have completed two scripts from the past week. My experience told me for the scripts of documentary, the scriptwriter must learn how to express your editing ideas lyrically. That mean you should select the esthetical words and sentences, and combined them with your emotion, only in this way could you attract the audience.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we continued our shooting work of the documentary. Our destination was Chinese and American Museum and the Asian Pacific Ocean Museum. This was really a challenging work for us. Since we need to combine the Chinese and American cultural elements together. During the shooting process, we were very careful in every step to avoid destroying the artifacts. I learned more new angles about the camera.

On Friday, what we did was recording a television program named New Sight. It was our famous and representative program which had a large amount of audience. This show was committed to demonstrating the communication between China Tai Wan and the US. From writing the script, inviting the guests, setting up the film scene, coordinating the details in the filming scene. I earned a basic experience about how to make a television show.

Essay 1

Think back on the interviews that you’ve done for news stories (for publication or for a class). Describe two – one that went especially well and one that went particularly badly. What did you do that made the interview go well/badly? For the interview that did not go well, what should you have done differently? For the interview that went well, what did you do to make that happen? What do seasoned journalists have to say about the art of interviewing, and how much of that is applicable to the interviewing situations that you typically find yourself in?

Journalism is a creative job. Journalists usually stand in the frontier of our society. They serve as the recorder for the history, the eyewitness for the current development. From the moment you take this career, you life has been endowed with a special definition. The word “accountability” becomes more sensitive in your life. How can we use this career to benefit the whole society should be a permanent problem for every journalist to reckon.

During the past month, I interviewed various persons who worked in different areas in my reporting work. Some of the interviews were very successful, while some of them were not quite ideal. As we know, interview was an inseparable part in reporting work, especially for the video stories. For the repowers, this was the most important stage to show your professional skills. While for interviewees, they wanted to use this opportunity to show their charisma and got the acknowledgement from the public. Every video reporter should keep this notion in mind. Now, I will use several examples to summarize the key points I got from the interviewing scene.

One of the most successful stories we did was the reporting of the delegate of Press Department of Liao Ning province from China came to visit LA. Our director assigned us to do this story two days before the press conference, and time for us was relatively ample. What we did was striving best to find the background information about this activity. From websites, newspapers, we even contacted the organizer for this conference to get the first hand materials. From all the materials we gathered we knew there was a long-time cooperation history for LA and Liao Ning province in different areas. Both cities designated officers to visit each other annually. The purpose for this visiting was inaugurating for the Broadcast and Television week of Liao Ning Province in LA. Based on the information we gathered before the press conference, the interviewing work got much easier for us to do. After the press conference, we got the opportunity to interview the vice minister of Press Department of Liao Ning Province. He answered all our questions, in terms of the history of cooperation between LA and Liao Ning, their current and future endeavor to promote the cultural communication between the two cities. All the answers were quite concise and pertinent.

“Like a good boy scout, a journalist should prepare for an interview. On a basic level, this includes researching the interviewee and seeing what has been written about him or her already.” Wrought by Dana Liebelson (a journalist from International Center for Journalists. ) in “5 interview tips every journalist needs”.

Suppose we did not do the preparing work before the reporting. Problems might get much terrible for us. We might lost several journalistic details from the interview of the vice minister, like there would be another delegate from Liao Ning province visit LA in October. All in all, our preparing work laid a strong foundation for the success of this story. “To be prepared, the promise for a successful story reporting,” was the biggest point I got from this work.

The other story I wanted to mention was not an ideal one. It was story about the opening ceremony for Aims Academy, which provided after school programs for student in different ages. Even though we gathered enough information about this school, but the interviewing work still same a little bit tough for us. The interviewee was the education supervisor. From the beginning, she told us she felt nervous when stood in front of the camera. During the interviewing process, the words she said were very obsessing, what she emphasized was just focused on how well their school was. She repeated one sentence for several times. Sometimes the words she said were intermittently, like “ uh….uh.” Eventually we recited very little of her words as our interviewing work. Fortunately, we had another officers’ interview which could be used. On the way back, I reckoned on why we failed to do that interview. There was one word appeared in my brain: affinity. Suppose if I was a female reporter, then the situation might get much better. Since affinity was always the advantages for females. Female reporter usually did well on release the nervous ambience in the event scene. As a reporter, no matter male or female you were, you must learn to be patient, and learn how to relax your interviewee during the interview process.

Sarah Stuteville, a reporter who writes for The Common Language Project once wrought “sometimes interviewees are frustrating not because they’re trying to bust your chops but just don’t understand what you want from them.” After read that, I realized that why we did not get what we want was because the interviewee did not know what we really wanted. I reviewed the questions we asked, the first one was: “Can you tell us your feeling about the activity today.” Feeling, actually was too general, for seasoned journalists, you needed to learn to guide your interviewee by asking concrete questions. If I asked: Can you tell us a little bit about the classes opened in your school? Then the situation may get much better. The intermittent word “ uh….uh..” might disappear in our interview. Since in such area, the education supervisor was an “expert”.

Interview was an art which needed all journalists used their own experiences to grip the essence of it. Dana liebelson, a journalist works for International Center for Journalist figured out five basic tips for interview: Be prepared, Embrace the digital age, Play by the e-mail interviews, Don’t give up when the going gets tough, Review timely.

Sarah Stutevill who writes for The Common Language Project points out 13 Simple Journalist Techniques For Effective Interviews: #1 – Find a good location. #2 – Prepare Your Goals Ahead. #3 – Write down your questions. #4 – Work on your flow. #5 – Think about the medium. #6 – Bring a buddy. #7 – Avoid Obsessing. #8 – Be a little annoying. #9 – Be a little sneaky. #10 – Empower them. #11 – Work them up. #12 – Endure awkward silences. #13 – Ask for what you need.

Actually, it was just one month since my work started. I also knew my understanding about the interview arts was relatively superficial. I will use my experience to develop a more deep understanding about those principles and apply them into practice in the future.

Wrok Journal 2

This week was really busy for every member of our crew. Our main work was still the documentary (Chinese version Discovery). We completed the shooting work of four destinations we made on our schedule.

On Monday and Tuesday, all our members stayed in company to sort out the footages we shot last week. We held meetings to summarize all the problems we met during the shooting process, and on the meeting we discussed our script for the documentary. I needed to write out one script for our story. Also, my director assigned me to continue the editing work for the American and Chinese Abacus Association Rewarding Ceremony. The chair for that association required our company to do a documentary for this whole story. The most important notion I wanted to mention was for campaigns shooting and reporting work, no matter how many cameras you used, you should make sure that they started at the same time and did not stop any one of them during the shooting process, this would release the editor’s burden during the editing work. The final documentary would also be displayed in different angels.

On Wednesday, we completed two shooting works, one was the California State University at Fullerton, the other was and Nixon Museum. On California State university campus, the first subject we selected was their new dormitory and Dinning hall, next was their educational equipments and security system. My editor told me these were the main focus for every school you wanted to work on in the future. That afternoon, we arrived at Nixon library and museum. The guide led our tour, this made our work much relaxed, since we had a clear timeline for this documentary. My director told me for most museums whose topic were people, they usually had a definite time line to record the whole life for the giants, what we did was just follow that timeline.

On Thursday, we arrived at Universal Studio in LA, this was the most famous scenic resort in LA which attracted thousands of tourist every day. We shot every section of this theme park, the biggest thing I got from the shooting process was you must stay in calm when you were in the flustered ambience. You must realize that you are not a tourist but a film worker.

On Friday, we filmed the Knott’s Barry Theme Park, this is another famous place in LA. There were so many exciting entertainment facilities liked roller coasters. Actually we did not take on these facilities to shot the image to protect our camera. But we still got various exciting footages and soundbite in this place. I addition, I realized that when the light condition was not ideal, we could use the filter to correct it.

Work Journal 1

Work Journal 1

Actually, my work has started almost one month. Worked as video reporter, I really appreciate this opportunity. The experience during the past month gave me a deeper understanding about my future career. This moment is a new turning point of my study process, I will use this blog to record all what I do in my intern.

Last week, the first work we did was a documentary. After I arrived at company, my manager told me they project to do a tourism program to introduce the famous scenic resorts in LA. They wanted to use this documentary to fulfill the blank space of Chinese tourism documentary in LA media market. We started our program around the middle of May. My colleagues used their social relations to contact our destinations. Eventually, we selected Hilton hotel and Getty museum. After several meetings, we decided to begin the shooting work last week. My work was following my director’ guide to coordinate all problems we met in the filming scene. There would be a lot of things for us to tackle before and during the process, like talking with the superintendents to get the permission to shot something which had copyright issue, keeping the order of the filming scene. This work cost us almost one whole day, we will complete the editing work around next week. In adddtion, this documentary is a Chinese version 'Discovery", we will keep on making it, and let it to be a serial.

The other work I did last week is story reporting. The Chinese and American Abacus Association held a ceremony to reword the students who possess the excellent abacus and mental mathematic skills. I worked as the camera man. Follow the guide of my director. I learned quite a lot about the composition of a picture while filming. He told me how to leave enough head space for the interviewer, how to adjust the light conditions. Based on the prior works I have done, my filming skill improved a lot. This work had been aired on our channel.

I will keep on working.

Sexual Scandal Reporting

As a reporter, from the moment you take this career, you should realize that you have selected a sacred while challenging job in this society. Worked as the social guide and surveillant, reporters always stand at the frontier of the ideological trend in our society. This earns them honorable reputation and high social status. While for reporters, journalism is also a challenging job, once you select this career, the word “responsibility” becomes more obvious and critical in your life. Fairness, Attribution, Accuracy, Relevance and Newness, the five basic journalism principles may lead you an engaged life. Sometimes you may be involved in a dilemmatic situation in which you cannot find a balance point in the conflict between social morals and reality. Just like today: A CU English professor who was dismissed because his name was listed on a child pornography Web site as a frequent client. The professor denies that his name is listed on the site. You need to write an online story use external and necessary links as background information.

I think the first step for this reporting work is the fact checking. What is this website? Does the website just look like the public describe? Dose the professor really visit the website as a client? Maybe there is another person who has the same name with the professor usually visit this website. Pornography, a sensational topic, which needs reporters to treat it more seriously than other stories. Before the reporting work, the reporters must keep in mind how enormous influences it will generate on our society. Unlike the general persons, the English professor holds a respectful and higher social status. Their words and behaviors usually have leading and instructing functions. Child Pornography is really a stiff and critical topic in media area, once you complete the reporting work that means the key roles of this scandal are utterly discredited. In addition, there will be also a public debates about this kind of corruption. For the professor, I think he will be more serious on this issue than anyone. If this is a mendacious reporting, it is undoubted he will use the legal means to protect his profits. “Journalist—and the organization they work for—can be held responsible for libelous statements they make.” This is the words recited from <>, our textbook. Based on this consideration, to avoid the libelous lawsuit, it is necessary for the reporter to do the fact checking work.

If the fact is correct, the professor is really a client for the child pornography website. New problems come out. Do we need to make a direct link to this website? As a reporter I will select not to link to the child pornography website.

Firstly, let’s assume this website is a legal one. On one hand, although linking seems like a harmless function, most websites use linking to provide their users more comprehensive information. The legal issues usually resolve around copyright and unfair competition. If you link your website directly to a commercial website and its businesses web pages without permission. You may face the copy right lawsuit. The pornography website may let you remove the link no matter it is a deep, inline or associative link. Since as the commercial website, they own the copyright for their content. Even though for most cases, the courts usually use a less restrictive standard to evaluate such violation. But for journalists, it is better for them to treat it conscientiously.
One the other hand, “linking can present difficult ethical issues for an online journalist. These issues generally center on whether presenting links promote a noxious point of view or muddies the separation between journalistic and advertising functions”( recited from<< Foust>>. We just put our attention on the first part of this principle. If we take this point into consideration, definitely, the child pornography will not allow you to link your reporting to their website since you angle is negative, your reporting will generate terrible influence on the website. The public may hold terrible impression about this website, and the government may make more restrictive measures to constrain its development since the website has already forms terrible effect on the whole society.

Secondly, let’s assume the child pornography website is illegal. If this is the case, it is obviously necessary for us to avoid linking the reporting directly to the website. United States courts have said that the First Amendment offers no protection for links to illegal or infringing content. As I described above, all contents on the child pornography website are illegal. Moreover, these illegal pornography videos and images may exert heavy influence on the young’s psychological health. More rape and sexual crimes are induced from them. The government has more serious restrictions on such websites. As a Journalist, you must be responsible for the whole society. If you link the reporting works directly to that website without any social influence considerations. You and your organization may face serious penalty from the government, even though you are not the operator for that website.

Last but not least, as a reporter, it is the basic requirement to follow the principles for journalism. On this event, I think the best way to do the reporting work is to find the appropriate platforms on the internet and select the reasonable links. Firstly, we can use the forum organized by news organization to arouse the public’s attention, and let the public to express their opinions on this event. According to Communication Decency Act, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” We can utilize this platform to let the public get deep understanding about this event. It is up to the public to get the link to that website, if they attach the links in their discussion, no one will be blamed. For links, if I want to use the website link, I just give the name of this website and do not provide links to that website. I will also place my main attention to associative links which show the public the former cases of celebrities’ sexual scandal like this event. Only in this way can we achieve the balance in the conflict between the reality and the social morals.

4/20 Story Ideas.

1. .I want to pursue a story which focuses on the function of marijuana. When we mention the word marijuana, our first impression is definitely its negative function on human body. People who is addicted to this kind of drug is usually excluded by the public. Since they will bring sorrows not only to themselves but also to their friends and family members. This is why we define it as drug. But we should also keep another notion in mind, marijuana has medical function in pharmacy industry. it works as a kind of raw materials for anesthetic. I want to do a story concerning the comprehensive function of marijuana.

2. In conjunction with marijuana, the first other things come into our thinking is Heroin, Amphetamine etc,. People who gets in touch with these drugs means a lifetime disaster for him or herself. Countless of homes are destroyed by them, thousands of lives are deprived every year. I want to pursue a story which concentrates on the origin area where these drugs made, such as Golden Triangle, Golden Crescent area. As we know, marijuana is the basic agricultural products for the farmers in these areas. People cannot survive without them. I want to analyze the deep reasons for the producing and transportation of drugs.

3. Drugs abusing is a common problem for the whole world. I want to pursue a story which describes the situation of drug abusing in China. I am a Chinese, and I am familiar with the social and cultural environment. So it is easy for me to gather information concerning this topic. Later I will do a comparison between American and China, find the commons and differences, and analyze aspects on which the two countries can cooperate.

4. I want to do s story concerning the situation of drug abusing in Boulder, especially on campus. It is widely known that University of Colorado at Boulder is a famous party school around the US. The consumption of marijuana is a common phenomena in party. My story will focus on this. I want to listen these marijuana consumers' feeling. In addition, I will do interview with professors or scholars whose researches focus on this area. Wardenburg Health Center is also is resource. I will try to gather date about the students who face such problems.

5. Finally, I want to do a video story on 4.20. I want to use camera to record the crowed who use the marijuana together. I am absolutely sure, there will be various activities on this rally, I will record voices from different organizations and unions.

The Functions of Blog.

From the establishment of the first node to node transmission from UCLA to Stanford—also the first crash (“logon”) in 1969 to present, the tempo of Information Technology Revolution almost goes beyond everyone’s expectation. During the past 40 years, we witnessed how the Internet changed our world and our daily life.

The world has been condensed into a small country, which we call “ Earth country” under the impetus of network. Now, whatever information you wish to get, you just need to just open your computer, then you will be immersed into the information ocean and get connected to wherever you want to know. The booming of portable pocket--size devices like I-phone or I touch even put our whole world into our palm. Facebook, Twitters and blogs have already became an inseparable part of our life. Especially the Blogs, it cannot be denied that blogs have became another mainstream media format in our society today. This is also my topic for this article.

In 1994, NCSA (the National Computer Security Association) used the “What's New Page” webpage to summarize the index of new websites, this can be considered as the prototype of blog. Even though the history of blog has only approximately 20 years, the function it generated on our life was tremendous, it has permeated into almost every aspect of our life.

The blog was originally designed to record people’s daily life, which served as an Electrical Dairy. People could express and publish their own opinions freely. With the popularization of network, the influence of blogs also became tremendously, they changed from original recording purpose to more social and commercial function. Basically, the function of blog can be divided into two parts: Information service and Entertainment.

Suppose you want to buy a new car to have a trip. There were so many things for you to tackle. Car dealers, weather, insurance, transportation, destination, etc., I want to take Treehugger as an example. If you are a blogger for Treehugger, by clicking cars and transportation catalog, information concerning cars market, maintenance, insurance will come into your sight. By clicking Travel and Nature catalog. Bloggers will tell you where are the most attractive scenic resorts, and what kind of work you should prepare for your trip. Of course, you will find more information with patience on the blogs where your interest locates. Many famous blogs usually attached the weather forecast, stock market information and transportation schedule on the webpage to satisfy people’s basic information requirements.

Blogs are good platforms for you to get information about what happens around the world. If you are a blogger for Treehugger, everyday when you open you blog, you will find the latest news by clicking the exclusive catalog. Bloggers from various fields will bring you more newsworthy events everyday. Some links may lead you to the mainstream medias like Washington post, NewYork time and CNN, etc. Those mainstream medias cannot deny this trend and established their own blogs after they realize the influence of blogs for their potential audiences. Most governments also follow this trend to establish blogs to promote the execution of their policy. Many powerful companies like Apple, Lenovo, GM also establish blogs to promote sailing and improve their customer service. Obviously, blogs gain more attractiveness for the public with the stimulation of those influential political and commercial organizations.

If your are an expert, a specialist or enthusiastic fans for a stable field say music, movies, economics, politics or philosophy. Blogs are the ideal place for you to get the most sophisticated technology, notion and works in your field. For instance, if your are an architect you will find more fashionable styles for buildings around the world in Design-architecture catalog on Treehugger. Then you will get novelty ideas about your design.

Based on this consideration, blogs are the platforms not only for basic information service but also for professional requirements.

Another important function for blogs is Entertaining. Usually, some popular blogs will gather the latest music, movies, fashion style and other format of arts and entertaining information together. We must keep in mind those who possess the blogs are usually the ones who can grip the impulse of our society, they know which is the audience most in need. Thus blog provide people another world for pursuing their interests. Take Treehugger as an example, it’s easy for young ladies to find the information concerning the most fashion style, the most welcomed cosmetics in fashion and beauty catalog. It is really enjoyable to appreciate the euphonious music, the fantastic movie or other things we want to know on blogs with a cup of coffee after a whole day’s exhaustive work.

Nowadays, a large numbers of stars in various fields opened their own blogs like Jackie Chen, Bruce Willis, Thomas Hanks and Michael Phelps. Fans can track their idols by following these blogs. These celebrity blogs bring our society another source of entertainment.

OK, after analyzing the basic functions of blogs. Someone may ask why should I select blog? I can get information and entertainment from other medias. This sounds reasonable. However, I want to emphasize one point. The most obvious character for blogs is interactive. Remember the original purpose for blogs is to record life and express ideas, and this basic rule will not change as time passed. What you thought and what you said on the Internet can get valuable responses. Keep in mind only communication can make things easy to understand. Those authorities’ opinion in your field may bring you a wide horizon, and those passionate responses may give you courage to step forward and forget the pressure and plight you confront.


All in all, the significance of blogs in our life cannot be denied. I am quite sure the advancement of technology may bring other new format like Microblog(a new format of blog now)into of our life, and our life will become more plentiful and promising because of them.

Why today is significant

   Let us put back the clock to January 8th. Tucson, a peaceful and quiet city located in Arizona State became the focus for all Americans on that day. The sound of gun broke the tranquility of this city. 

  

Jared Lee Loughner, a 22 year's old young guy who was the gunman created this incredible tragedy.  Arizona Democrat, Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others were shot when Jared opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms.Giffords organized activities to meet constituents.

It has caused six of the victims died till today, among them John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for Arizona State, and a 9-year-old girl. Other 13 victims including Giffords were seriously injured, and they were receiving medical treatment in University Medical Central in Tucson now. According to the spokesman of Giffords’s office, Ms. Giffords was still under critical situation.

 Officials said motives for Jared to create this shooting was still under investigated. 

President Obama, speaking at the White House, condemned this inhuman assault. He also appointed Roberts S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Arizona to oversee the investigation.

At the same time, citizens lived in different states expressed their sympathy, sorrow and blessings to the victims via different ways. Such as, citizens in New York gathered at different squares to in honor of the dies. Pupils in Chicago International school organized ceremony to express mourn for the 9-year-old girl.

OK, all the information above is quite easy for everyone to obtain via various ways, such as  television, website, newspaper, blogs,etc,. It may cost you just several seconds to get them if you have a “cute” and sophisticated I-touch or I-phone.

Turn our attention to the original question: why today is significant? Then finding the answer may become easy for us. It is widely acknowledged that 21 century is a century in which all unprecedented changes can happen. The development of telecommunication and network technology makes it possible for all of us to be immersed in an era what we call “information era”. 

If you want to find something what you really concerned and interested, what you do is just to open your computer, and visit the websites or log in your twitter, facebook and bolg. Then, you will be beset by the information ocean. You can almost find every thing you want.  The network technology advancement even makes television and newspapers lose its attractiveness for the public, while websites, such as facebook, twitter and blog become the inseparable part of our life.

 I think this is the biggest significance today, and it becomes understandable that the above shooting news can be transmitted timely to us.

We can still track the shooting news today:

“A week after being shot in head, Giffords breathing on her own”, this is the CNN reporting today. “Tucson Gun Show Goes On, and Safeway Reopens”, this is information come from Newyorktime.

When you read these news and information, have you ever think about what kind of function or influence they may generate on our life? I guess most of us do not. Of course, it is reasonable, and it should be the work for our scholars.

It is widely accepted by scholars and researchers who work in the communication field that for medias, there are 8 basic functions: Inform (a teacher function), surveillance( a watcher function), service the economy system, hold society together( act as sort of a cultural glue), entertain, act as a community forum, set the agenda and service the political system.

Definitely, The news I mentioned at the beginning of this article is a well manifestation for the function: service the political system. Usually, medias serve as a watchdog for the government, it will help the government to consolidate the conflicts between different social classes if it can be used properly.  Here I want to emphasize “properly”. Why?

Have you ever think about why the shooting can be happened? What’s the function of medias on such events?  We must keep in mind only the medias possess the ability to beget intense brainstorming in our society and generate tremendous influence on our daily life.  This is just what those gunmen and other culprits want to get.  They hope the whole society to pay attention to their plight and their injustice treatments. To achieve this goal, medias work as their assistant.  So it is easy to understand that why so much negative news like shooting appear on medias year by year.  The best manifestation is the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University shooting case.

Also, there is an obvious manifestation in China. In 2009, a worker lived in FuJian province who got unfair treatment used knife to kill 13 children before class to arouse the public attention. Just several months later, another similar assault against children happened in Jiangsu province. The culprit just utilized the medias influence on our society. 

Suppose we do not focus too much on this event, then the social reaction may be get small and tiny, and many crimes can be avoid when the culprits realize that what they do can not impact the society too much!

So it is really a thought-provoking problem for the government and medias to find a balance point between the reality and the negative function that may exert on our life.  Only in this way can we make it more significant today. To achieve this goal, we still have a long way to go.