The Three Days (#6)

In the last days of the government shutdown this past October, The Courier-Journal featured three separate front-page stories on the issue. On October 15th, the banner headline read "Senate close to a deal?" and focused on Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid. Up until this point, the main stories on the topic of the government shutdown had been focused on the politics of the issue; looking closely at the political parties and the deal that had to be made. The debt ceiling seemed like a foreign topic, and, going by the Courier, it didn't seem like there was such a huge impact on citizens. It seemed to only restate information that hadn't been updated; the government had not made a deal. 

However, the Courier made up for some of its previous lack of reporting the whole story of the government shutdown with its lead story the following day, October 16th. The title read: "Refugees' plans now in disarray." The article went on to discuss how Louisville residents were being affected by the crisis of the government. It explains how the Louisville residents talked about were "among roughly 4,500 refugees who had been cleared to come to the United States in October-- including 73 heading for Kentucky-- but now face delays that resettlement officials say may take months for some to resolve." This was the perfect example of talking about how the government shutdown was affecting citizens in the U.S, especially those in the Courier's local areas. 

On October 17th, when Congress had finally made a deal, The Courier-Journal's top story headline read "Deal ends fight" and above it in a smaller print "Congress passes funding bill." A major accomplishment for Congress and, perhaps, for The Courier-Journal. Beneath the photograph were two stories about the topic, and finally, the issue had come to a close with fitting photographs and articles to point to it. 

All in all, the Courier did an alright job on reporting the government shutdown in its last three days. However, the failure to focus on citizens was definitely evident and surely hurt them. While readers are interested in the politics and understandings of government, they also know the importance of hearing stories that can impact them or those in the community. 

A Movie Theater's Experience (#5)

One of the reasons that movie theaters are still around is because of the experience they create. There are three different experiences a movie-theatergoer has while at a movie theater: immersive, cultural, and social. Each makes the event of going to the movies unique and competitive towards other movie distributers such as DVDs, online distributers, etc.

Immersive: Movie theaters create an immersive experience; viewers watch a movie, in the dark, on a large screen, with crystal-clear surround sound. Not only does it serve the senses by creating a space where moviegoers can focus on the movie they are watching, but it makes for the perfect place to forget about someone's life and focus on the movie and its plot, making it seem like it's happening in front of the viewer. It is something for the viewer to focus on intently and solely during the length of the movie. 

Cultural: Another part of the experience movie theaters create is its cultural experience. Midnight premieres at movie theaters resemble staying up late a particular night of the week to watch a new episode of a show; people want to watch it first. Movies such as the Harry Pottery films have only grown the fanbase originated from the books; the line for a midnight premiere would begin sometime that morning when the first viewers would show up. The cultural experience of movies may not be as obvious to some, but it is definitely a key part of the movie theater experience. 

Social: As long as they have been around, "going to the movies" has been there as well. It's something that you can do with a group of friends and (although frowned upon) by yourself. This is the social aspect of the movie theater experience. It's a tradition for some; maybe a certain group of people go to the movie theater every other Friday or every Christmas. It's something most everyone knows about and something that has been interwoven with American culture and society. 

All in all, the experience a movie theater creates is an experience completely original to movie theaters, making it still a beloved activity despite all the advances in the movie industry. 

Jamie Fights Bad Journalism Indeed (#4)

Jamie's blog can be found here.

Jamie D'Amato is a freshman in this year's Journalism 1. On previous blogging assignments, Jamie has proved her skills in blogging and in journalism. It is no surprise that she has only gotten more impressive during this second blogging assignment. Jamie's recent post on how local news handled the Camm trial goes into a great depth, pointing out the flaws of WHAS in reporting the day of the Camm trial's verdict. She also has made several class responses that encompass all the lectures Mr. Miller has given to the Journalism 1 class in a very neat and orderly manner. Overall, Jamie does, as her title suggests, fight bad journalism, and does it extremely well. She is definitely deserving of the highest grade she can get. 

Gibson Guilty (#3)

The banner headline for The Courier-Journal on October 26th was in bold letters, sandwiched between two photographs, reading: "Gibson Guilty." As expected with a crime story, it seemed that all the local T.V. news sources were reporting everything they could on this case. However, just as a news source should, the Courier seemed to cover it just enough. 

There were five stories found throughout the newspaper on this crime. Two were presented as banner headlines on the front page, stretching from side to side across the top half of the newspaper; the other three articles weren't on the front page at all. This makes sense, considering that the two banner headlines were the biggest two stories throughout the trial. 

Most television stations featured every step of Gibson's trial as lead stories. For them, it's an easy story to cover; they get the information and just redistribute what they have gotten as a police report. The Courier, however, was much more able to go the extra mile and report in-depth articles on this horrendous crime. Although the Courier has been lowering standards these past few months, they did a good job following the Gibson case for sure; not to mention regulating how many articles about the case made it to the front page. 

For More Information (#2)

Often on The Courier-Journal's front page is a little black-and-white symbol resembling a tablet or phone, and next to it, a blurb of text alerting the reader that more concerning this article can be found online. It's a nice and sleek tactic, fitting neatly somewhere on the page. Bolded is a link to whatever else they have online, easy for the reader to type in to their browser. This new addition is welcomed with opened arms and should be. 

As readers move online, so must newspapers. As discussed in class, newspapers grossly misjudged the Internet, seeing it merely as a passing fad. Now that the Internet has reached billions of people, newspapers are forced to rethink their tactics-- this is a sign that the Courier is rethinking theirs. 

This new tactic is a quick and easy way to get readers going online; and hopefully, get them interested enough to run into an article they'll have to subscribe to read. 

Filling Up Space (#1)

The Courier-Journal has been making major renovations to its news section. The most obvious might be the size taken up by headlines and photographs; room that should be filled with stories. The newspaper for October 23rd included a large promo for a story further in the paper at the top of the front page, as well as a large square photography beginning at the bottom of the top half of the page and continuing down, taking up a good two thirds of the bottom half of the page. Large headlines appear everywhere. This is just one example out of many that show the Courier's new and colorful format, which leaves only three stories on the front page. 

Now, compare this format to The New York Times front page. In it, photographs are used for almost every story as well, but they are much smaller; the headlines, too, are much simpler and take up much less room on the page. Five stories fit nicely on the front page; there is no confusion as to which photograph pertains to which. As opposed to The Courier-Jounral, The New York Times is giving the reader many stories to read. 

This may be due to the lack of the Courier's funding, but the Louisvillian newspaper is merely filling up space and cheating its readers of stories. While visuals are important, so is getting stories out there. 

#4: Journalism, Defined. (A Closing)

In America, the President reigns for four years, and Journalism reigns forever and ever.

Oscar Wilde 

During the first lecture in Journalism 1, Mr. Miller discussed the definition of journalism. He explained the 9 principles and 7 yardsticks. He explained how journalism must act as a watchdog over governments, companies, and corporations.

Sadly, we didn't get to talk much about examples of journalistic valor. I feel like this needed to be discussed more on account of how meaningful some of these stories are. Journalists have done some amazing things to shape our world today, and I wish we would have been able to discuss that more in class.

The Watergate Scandal, Zenger's Publick Occurences and its trial, and many more have shown just how far journalism and democracy have come. They are inspiring stories of journalists who inform the public of what is lurking under the bed. A world without journalism and these journalistic events seems impossible to imagine.