Kitty Litter Liners of the World

I hate a lot of things. Green beans. Tests. Long work meetings. Anything inefficient without purpose. I also hate tabloids. They are the worst type of journalism, though I do not even consider them journalism. They are everything a true journalist would go against. They are lies, rumors, and fabrications. There is no verification. No truth.

So how in the world do they stay afloat in the already suffering business of journalism? Who buys these rags?

Obviously Neil McGinness, new owner of Weekly World News feels it is a worthy investment. His company is revamping the website, www.weeklyworldnews.com, for people who (actually) believe it and those who read it simply for humor, as reported by New York Times.

They have taken tools and programs, such as Photoshop, and utterly abused them. It is not hard to look at the graphics and pictures on their website and tell that Barak Obama is not really holding hands with "Bat Boy" or being supported by earth-visiting aliens. After looking through their website, I became infuriated to see that ABC had advertisements placed in between the garbage of "PALIN POSED WITH ALIEN BEER" and "TINA FEY SHOOTS A BIGFOOT". Seriously?

I think the quote by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel that was passed out by Group 4 in class sums this up completely.

"...Communication and journalism are not interchangeable terms. Anyone can be a journalist. Not everyone is. The decisive factor is not whether they have a press pass; rather, it lies in the nature of the work...'

Where Your Loyalty Lies

In our previous class there was a lot of discussion on the two elements presented. Truth and loyalty to citizens. We tried to define what is truth. It was said that by being objective we can miss some versions of the truth.

My thoughts were focused mainly on loyalty to the citizens. The triangle drawn on the board in class showed relationships between employers and journalists, journalists and citizens, and the citizens with employers.

A large majority of students believe in the idealistic way of journalism. Journalists need to be loyal to citizens first, and employers later. And while this is my hope, that I can serve the citizens first, I do not think it is entirely realistic.

Journalism is now a business. Stockholders want profit and prosperity. Our field is changing. Newspapers are said to become extinct in the future. People are relying more on the web and blogs. Newspapers and broadcasting crews are laying off employees.

So, if it comes down to put the citizen first or employer's wants first on occasion, if you want to feed your family and keep your job, is there really a choice? There are only so many times you can quit and get another job somewhere else. As a journalist, if your lucky, maybe you'll stumble upon an employer who is willing to give you free reign.

My point is I expect eventually in my career, I am going to face a situation where I will have to lay my loyalties with my employer instead of consumers. Will I quit if it happens occasionally? Probably not. If it is a consistent problem, then I would strongly consider quitting.

Can you afford to quit every time? Will employers see your past actions as unreliable and not hire you?

Journalism is a business, and we can do the best of our abilities to bring the people of America honest, reliable journalism.

I interviewed John Oakey, a news anchor in the morning at the KETV news station in Omaha, Nebraska.

He became interested in journalism at a fairly young age of 12. He was always curious and aware of the things going around him locally, nationally, and worldwide. Oakey broke into the field during college at a PBS station on the campus of Texas A&M. He interned at CNN in Atlanta with Sports his junior year of college and returned to Texas his senior year to work behind the scenes at the local CBS affiliate.

Oakey defines good journalism as " telling the story right and telling both sides". He feels his news organization practices "good" journalism most of the time, owned by Hearst. He feels they are great at live coverage. Oakey has a sufficient amount of freedom to do the types of stories he thinks are profitable for the community, educational and life-style issues as well as human interest stories.

According to Oakey, his station, KETV, is very invovled in the community. They support countless non-profit groups. There is a line for community members called "7 Can Help" which provides as an outlet for their story ideas and problems the public is facing.

He feels if he is able to tell others' stories and get people to connect, then he has done his job well. "It could as simple as telling about a little boy struggling through health issues and the community answers by donating to help pay bills."

Oakey believes journalism has changed a lot over the past 20 years. Technology has changed the way he's done things, but also been a tremendous help. When asked about dropping ciruclations, ratings, and layoffs because of growing citizen journalism Oakey felt newspapers were feeling the pangs of it more so than broadcasting, as well as smaller tv groups.

"We are actually growing and hiring. Hearst has been a great owner and our ratings continue to be strong. There are challenges, but we have done a great job of adapting and put a lot of emphasis on the web as well.

When providing advice to students wanting to go into journalism Oakey jokingly advised not to. On a more serious note, he said that broadcasting is a tough business. There are few jobs and many people seeking to "get on TV". His advice was to diversify and learn about as many aspects of broadcast/print as possible. Know how to write for print, TV, the web. How to shoot video and edit it.


I found John Oakey's comments very informative. I was actually surprised when he advised not to go into broadcasting and/or journalism. It seems as if everyone I talk to and in each of my journalism classes that they are advising against going into the profession they are in/or teaching. Often I leave classes feeling as if my future career is doomed for poor pay and listed as an "endangered species". I have a feeling that this outlook will not change, and it will probably be reinforced more so as I get further into the program.