Fakes vs. Facts

To quote Satchel Walton, "The actions of three people trying to counter a world in which all peoples live together in harmony will never define the first country built on enlightenment ideals and equality." It broke my heart to hear about the Kroger shooting, Pittsburg shooting, and attempted bomb mailing that took place this past week. It was even sadder to hear about it in school on Monday. Even still, I was thankful that the J&C freshman classes came together to discuss the events in a truthful, respectful environment. Reading Satchel's blog post was a great reminder of the class conversation and a good analysis of it and the events that took place. He says a few different times that hate crimes are on a increasing trend, and asks a question of the reader: Why is this happening? We don't have solid, complete answers to that question or other related questions, but we do know that due to our country and world's political state that hate is at a recent ...

In her article critiquing an article published by CNN News about three infants killed at a daycare in New York, KC Ciresi claims it isn't newsworthy. She makes the argument that while this might be relevant to the friends and family of the victims and the New York community, it didn't matter to her in Louisville, Kentucky. While this is a valid critique and I don't necessarily disagree completely, this story does have a purpose on a national news source. Around the entire country, there are hundreds of thousands of parents with children that go to daycare every day. If you were a parent of a child in daycare, wouldn't you want to be informed about large events going on in other daycares around the country? In addition, people do like to be informed about what's going on around the country. I sure would want to be informed if three children were stabbed to death (which in this case, they were). KC is correct that this story doesn't apply to everyone, maybe n...

"KFC offered parents college tuition money to name their kid after Colonel Sanders and someone actually did it," reads the first line of one of today's headlines on the Courier-Journal website. Ha-ha. Okay, now let's move on to some real news. Clearly, this wasn't what the Courier-Journal writers were thinking when they published this article, and had it show up as the fifth breaking story on their website. Yes, it's a funny headline that attracts people to click on it. But does it really matter? Most of what's been in the news in the past few days have been stories about the recent hate crimes committed in Kentucky and Pittsburg. Some would argue that an article about a baby girl named Harland would be a good reprieve from all of the negativity going around. However, this article is straight up non-newsworthy. Although it isn't pleasant, we need to hear about the recent shootings, even days after they've occurred. We need to be informed ab...

In the modern, developed world, any business or organization hoping to gain status or viewership has a downloadable app. The Courier-Journal is no exception. The app is a free, convenient source to read the news. Unlike the physical newspaper, it doesn't cost money, and it's right at your fingertips. Perfect, right? Not exactly. In a previous blogpost, I backed up the Courier-Journal's website when it was called out by a peer for showing non-newsworthy stories. There can't always be a breaking headline, and stories on general human interest topics are important. But the Courier-Journal app is very disorganized and all over the place.  Here's a real list in order of five articles on the "front page" of the Courier-Journal app. "'He's running!': Dispatch calls show Louisville Kroger shooting chaos", "WATCH: Here's a timeline of events for the fatal Kroger shooting", "U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth says Louisville Krog...

I watch Fox News. I know, most of you are probably cringing right now thinking, "What? Fox News?! What are you thinking???" And I see your point. While studying for our weekly current events quizzes, I couldn't help but notice the four sources we're given to study and four more liberal news sites (New York Times, Courier-Journal, NPR, WFPL). Not that there's anything wrong with them, of course. However, a huge part of journalism is knowing the full truth so you can report the full truth. That includes hearing both/all political stances. Although you may not agree with something you hear in the news, it's an obligation of journalism that we take both/all sides into account.  Of course, that doesn't mean that you have to believe everything you hear from every news source. Fact check anything that doesn't sound right, whether it was said by someone you agree with or disagree with.  To make sure I'm giving every side a fair chance, I added Fo...

In the beginning of her article titled "Convincing A Human That Aliens Exist", Morgan David asks a question. "Have you ever had a conversation with a person but you just can't seem to get your point across?" She goes on to reason that this is because of communication filters, and I don't disagree. But Morgan does not explain why or how this works the way it works. I've always had an issue with having to explain my ideas and beliefs to people that just were not able to comprehend it, no matter how hard I tried to get my point across. I wasn't speaking a foreign language or yelling at them incoherently - what I was saying was perfectly fine. They were just completely unable to hear out my ideas and even consider their validity.  It's nothing new that everyone in our society is conditioned to think a certain way from a very young age, and that that conditioning heavily influences a person's morals and beliefs. For instance, if both of your...

On behalf of the White Day Courier Journal group, sorry. When I signed up for the Courier Journal group, I really didn't think it would be any harder than the TV group,s maybe even easier, since the work would be done in class. Clearly, it's been a bit harder than any of us expected. On the first day, every person in our Courier Journal group went through every article in the newspaper together and categorized them into several different categories. This worked, but took way too long. On the second day, we talked through things together and put the articles into fewer categories which took less time, but it was still too long. Finally, on the third day, we divided the work into four sections and each did a job. At first, the process worked fine - we got done on time and with relatively little disagreement. But it didn't take long for our errors to surface. Our numbers didn't add up. The four of us spent the rest of the block counting, recounting, and triple-counti...

In Cassidy's media critique, she calls out the Courier Journal for publishing articles that do not apply to the majority people. She also says that the Courier Journal app is bad about showing articles that are important to readers, and is often sporadic when it comes to selecting which headlines are shown on the front page of the app. While I don't disagree that the Courier Journal has it's faults,    I have to back them up and refute some of the things in Cassidy's article.  Firstly, Cassidy states that the Courier Journal published an article on the outcome of a game where UK played Florida. she says that this article was not newsworthy because the only people it impacts are Kentuckians and Floridians, and since it wasn't part of a larger national debate, it shouldn't have been in the news. I disagree. The Courier Journal is a local news source, and subsequently, their job is to report on local events. The UK-Florida game was a large local event. If the Cou...