Journalism, Truth, and Democracy

"It should be like Joe Friday said: 'Just the facts, ma'am.' Never forget that, Lindsey."

That was what my Dad said to me a few days before I started college. We were sitting on our couches and he was discussing how much he thinks Journalism has sold out to far-left political interests as a majority. He pretty much thinks that Fox News is the only untainted news source anymore. Knowing that I intend to enter this profession, he reminded me of Joe Friday's catch-phrase from Dragnet. Dad was reminding me that reporters must report the facts, the truth, leaving their opinions completely out of it. Opinions are not the place of a reporter in writing for their paper unless they are an assigned columnist or critic. Journalists exist to tell the public the information, the truth, which they need in order to be free and self-governing. If the public does not know the truth, they cannot make informed decisions, and thus cannot effectively "provide...guards fro their future security." (Declaration of Independence)

I really liked the example of the Pentagon Papers in my Principles of Journalism class--if the public had known the truth, what was in the reports, in the 60's rather than the 70's, we might have saved so many lives. If not for the press, we might never have known any different than what the public had known before the papers came out. Can you imagine still being embroiled in the Vietnam War because we still had no idea how badly we were losing?

That's why I really see journalism as a high calling. I worry that many journalists today are becoming materialistic and aren't thinking of the public trust we serve. We are supposed to help, to reveal truth, to "be a light...in dark places when all other lights go out." ( Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) (Yes, I am a quote nerd)

Defending Disney Princesses--Snow White

"Emma, I feel a rant coming on."

We were sitting in class watching a group presentation on whether or not the media perpetuates stereotypes. The affirmative side had showed a slide on stereotypes of women--including the Disney Princesses. Something inside me snapped. I was sick of this whole theory that Disney Princesses turn girls into languishing zombies who think they are unfulfilled without their Prince. Yes, girls want to get married but I think it is perfectly natural to want to fall in love and do that. So I am going to go and debunk the myths by examining each Princess in turn and see why they are relatable--not just a languishing girl who needs a man to complete her. I will examine what makes each on unique, and summarize why they are not bad influences on young girls who are their primary audiences.

The first classic Disney Princess was Snow White, one of the Princesses most maligned with this accusation of ninnyness. First, let us consider her time period and situation--medieval-looking setting, Elizabethan costumes, so a time when women were largely helpless purely because of unfortunate laws and traditions. Both of her parents are dead, her stepmom is jealous and cruel enough to force a Princess of the Blood to work as a palace servant. To rise to such a position, we can naturally assume that after the first Queen, Snow White's mother, died, she somehow won the affections of the bereaved King. We must therefore assume that she either began life truly beautiful and kind or faked the kindness to win over the King. So, after her father is now dead, Snow White has to face the fact that she is a complete orphan, her stepmother is really either two-faced or just so messed up inside that jealousy has driven her to abase her stepdaughter, Snow White. Through all of this dysfunction in her family and the cruelty of her stepmother, Snow White remains hopeful and cheerful about her situation. That takes good attitude, that takes determination, to remain so positive throughout that kind of emotional upheaval.

Now, half the reason Snow White gets the flak she does is because of "Some Day My Prince Will Come." But let us consider the facts: based on the time period her story is based in, as well as her social status, she probably would have had a marriage arranged before her Father's death which has now been put on the back burner, her Stepmother having most likely claimed Regency until Snow White "comes of age" as deemed by her Guardian, Regent, and Stepmother. Also, for women of that age, marriage was often the only way to attain autonomy. Sometimes, even today, marriage is the best way out of a bad family situation--because once you get married, you don't have to live with anyone besides your husband. So, in all reality, her most realistic hope is for her "Prince" to come and save her, after a way of speaking.

When she gets away from the huntsman who has been paid to assassinate her, she finds the seven dwarves and lives with them. She is kind and cheerful, she cooks for them and cleans their home, she gives them reason the celebrate and enjoy their evenings after long hours in the mines. By simply being there, contributing her cheerful attitude and the skills she has acquired, she improves the lives of seven otherwise lonely men.

Now eventually, of course, she is fooled into biting the apple and has to be kissed back to life by her Prince--who finally shows up! Look, the fact of life is that sometimes women are going to make mistakes, sometimes we are put into bad situations because we don't have all the facts, and, at some time or another, we will have to accept help from a man. She doesn't know who is offering the apple, gets a fatal case of food poisoning, and is saved by the wandering Prince. This is a guy who is willing to kiss a dead girl and ends up saving her life!

So end my thoughts on Snow White. This was so long I think I'll make it into a series. Next time--Sleeping Beauty: Politics, Intrigue, Heartbreak!

I'll be published...where exactly?

I was happy after I left my journalism class last week--well, mostly. We were learning about social media as news, and how the role of journalists is changing.  We talked about how many people get their news from people in their social networks--an acceptable theory we learned about in Mass Comms & Society--and that a very few of these people spread it to their friends after paying attention to the news. So it may be that we're just the first in a series of dominoes now? No, upon reflection I think that we journalists are the finger that pushes the first domino over, the initiators of discussion as the initial providers of information.

We also learned that, while the format is changing from Print to digital, they still need people to write the stuff, no matter where they publish it. Which is good--as long as I'm writing, I'll be happy.

Although, I will say this: the world's complete conversion to Kindle and other e-readers will be complete over my dead body.

I knew I would learn a lot when I came to BYU--that was the point. But the knowledge has come in very unexpected categories, and that is the subject of today. I learned a few things today that had very little to do with Book of Mormon, Honors Writing, or Mass Communications and Society.

(1) I learned a little of what it is like to only have one eye, if not what it is like to be entirely blind.

(2) I learned that, if you want to take a nap on the grass once your homework is done and you have several hours before your next class, you should do it.

(3) Eating regularly is good for you, but not for the reason I thought.

(4) If you give a student food, chances are they'll eat it--especially if they're tired

As I entered the Wilk on my way to the cougareat grab-n-go, I noticed tables where you could sign up for things. My eye was drawn, eventually to the disability awareness week table. I learned that if you participated in an activity that simulated what it was like to have a particular disability for two hours and then watched a short video, you would get a free t-shirt. I looked at the disabilities, and eventually came to one for a vision impairment--wear an eye patch over your eye for two hours and go bout your business. This appealed to me because (A) I have always wanted a pirate eye-patch, and (B) my friend Kirt is completely blind, so I could sympathize with this. I quickly realized that they were giving me a medical eye-patch--like the kind to contain pink-eye. Oh boy. Well, completely for Kirt then.
You notice a lot when you wear an eye patch. The first thing you notice right away are the stares, I guess blind people get them too, or people with one eye. Or girls who want free t-shirts and are crazy enough to wear an eye patch in order to get it. But I could see them--I could imagine what they must think.
"Why is that chick wearing an eye patch?"
"Ew...gross...pink eye!"
"Maybe she has some weird disease?"
"Wow...did she have an accident?"
"I wonder why she needed surgery"
"Wow...it's too bad that girl only has one eye...she's beautiful."
Actually, that last one was what I secretly hoped one cute guy who kept staring at me was thinking. Nameless blond, you could have talked to a poor blind girl today!!
It got so bad, I actually bursted out to a group of girls in line "I swear I don't need this! I'm doing it for disability awareness week! I don't have pink eye!!"
My friend Courtney obviously noticed the change, so I told her what was happening.
"Oh, good ! I was gonna say, what kind of Birthday weekend did you have, girl?"
Well, you see Courtney, I was attacked by the Russian Mafiya, but since I've been inducted into the Charlie's Angels, I escaped with just a black eye that I didn't want to display proudly.
Another thing I noticed is how much I use my peripherals. I almost ran into several people departing from tables or garbage cans. I was so glad when it was over. I saw my mascara on the cottony pad of the patch and asked the girl at the table "Do I have Raccoon eyes?"
I was so tired after getting up at 7 for my Book of Mormon class that I really wanted to take a nap on the grass out in the hot sun but I was afraid of sunburn and being late for class. I really should have done it--I was too tired to cook myself dinner once I got home. I could have gone to sleep, and Bri would have texted me soon before class started about the charity for abuse victims we plan to start once we make it big. I would have awakened to a shout of "Silence--I KEEL you!!" and been on time to class. And honestly, with my record this summer, what is one more sunburn?

Halfway through the evening session of Mass Comms and Society, Sister Swenson gives us a break to get water or snacks and go to the bathroom. Every day I say that I will either bring my own munchies or not get hungry, and every day I trudge to the vending machines. One guy heard me say "Why am I always hungry?" And he and I began talking. I learned from him that eating regularly makes you become hungrier. I had always thought that it made you eat less, but, according to him ("I'm beautiful, incredible; he can't get me out of his head" not really but that would be nice) eating regularly makes your body burn calories faster and work more efficiently. Turns out a healthy appetite is a good thing! :)

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I got home with no energy to cook. So, deciding that today was not, after all, the day that I would eat a mostly all-natural diet, I popped in a frozen dinner. It wasn't even that good--I ate the whole thing. College students, I have noticed, don't care as much about what we eat as we should. But, I learned that the occasional easy night is ok, especially for a college student. Even Julie Powell once said "Yogurt for Dinner" during her attempt to cook French Food the way Julia Child taught America to do.

So, that's what I learned today. I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings.

"After all, tomorrow is another day."

Embrace the unexpected!

When I thought about my roomies and apartment life before I moved in, I pictured happy scenes of domesticity; us cooking dinners together, working on homework together on the couch, and bonding very quickly.
What I did not expect was the towel fight.
We were collaboratively doing the dishes when Michelle decided to demonstrate her towel-whipping abilities, which are pretty impressive. She demonstrated first on the air, but eventually strayed to demonstrating on Jess' leg. Jess took it at first, but pretty soon I was running to fetch her a towel and she and Michelle were whipping away at each other. We were all laughing, but especially me--I couldn't breathe and I felt like I'd done a fair amount of ab crunches when it was all over and we went back to washing dishes almost as though we had not just completely broken the whole "act your age" thing into a million little pieces with smiles on our faces.
Yeah, we've done a lot of things I expected, and the fulfillment of my imaginings has been nice. But it has been the things that I never expected that have been the most fun and memorable.
Like during Late Summer Honors. Oh, I could write a book about that. One night, we had an activity scheduled called The Amazing Race. You were supposed to run all over campus, but Ali (from Cali), Amber and I did not even feel like it. After some research, we found that Vampires Suck was playing at the mall. We got there, saw it--funny movie, inappropriate in parts but it satirizes Twilight well--and came home. It seeemed that the instant I pulled into my parking spot, Nick called Ali and asked about partaking of the donuts he knew her Mom had delivered that afternoon as part of a care package. "Bring us your donuts!" He wanted us to bring the donuts to him, an dhe was the one begging for them? Not cool, to any guys reading this--if a girl is even thinking of sharing her Krispy Kremes or other refreshment with you, make the effort! Then came the "Do you have a car?" No way was I starting the car up again and driving all the way out to Helaman Halls from Heritage! Unfortunately, she had put him on speaker phone so we could all hear him and stifle our giggles in an exercise of togetherness--special moment! So we ended up walking all the way from Heritage to Helaman--not much better, but I refused to waste more gasoline. As we sat in the lobby of their hall talking and letting them eat Ali's donuts, my friend Alex and his friend Nathan came up and said hello, and that they were going out on an In N' Out run.
Now, on discussing things that were going on in calls home, there was a reason I addressed my dear kindred spirit as Ali from Cali--she actually is from California, and has all the most agreeable aspects of a consummate California Girl. As such, she has an abiding love of In N Out Burger, and insisted on going with. Soon, Nate, Alex, Amber, Nick, Dean, Amber, Ali and I were all going to In N Out--in Alex's Mini Cooper. We fit seven people in and drove down the Parkway. We got weird looks, cheers, and Animal Fries.
According to Ali, there is a method to eating this combination of In N Out fries, a slice of melted cheese, grilled onions, and their signature spread correctly. You must get an extra packet of spread and put it all on, then get a fork and stir things around. Apparently doing it thusly and then using the fork to eat this glorious concoction is crucial.
We all got the matching hats, and drove back to school. It was one of the best nights ever.
So, let us, dear friends, embrace those wonderful, memorable, unexpected experiences that we will always smile over.

I Take What I Do Seriously--I'm a Journalist

We've been reading and discussing in my journalist what it means to be a journalist, what we stand for, and trends in journalism. I thought I'd post about it, since that was the whole reason this blog's creation was mandated.
Journalists exist to provide the public with the information it needs to be self-governing. That to me is a very noble, lofty goal as well as a tremendous responsibility. We have to cater to an interlocking public, so we have to make sure we keep the public interested, otherwise they won't read--not that they do as much as perhaps they ought to.
Now, I do not mind one little bit if people get their news from off of the internet, I don't care where people become informed about what is going on around them. We learned in class that News is, more and more now, going to come from profitable fronts as companies try to cut costs--that's fine. I would never suggest we throw money away on something unprofitable to the public or ourselves.
My only wish is for a public that was more informed, more eager to be properly informed. I wish that people were media-literate enough to pick out how reliable their information is--or isn't--and realized that without a free press they could be led about by any domineering government in power. I don't think we realize how blessed we are to live in a free country with a free press because that is all we've ever known. Most Americans are descendents of people who have been here long enough that they never heard a grandfather's story of the tyranny of the old country, have never known a place without something like the first ammendment. They do not have the slightest idea how valuable freedom of information is, so they don't care. It is just there, like their slippers or toothpaste or that odd shape in the stucco of the ceiling. They know it's there, often they use it, but they don't appreciate it and can hardly imagine what life would be like without it.
Sorry, bit of a rant there, but that is how I feel and I am comitted to truth.
I think that news consolidation is getting a wee bit out of hand--we need convenience and versatility in reporting and information sharing as well as truth and having the power of information in the hands of so few could be dangerous. That's what is quite nice about the blogger as a journalist--many of us do it for fun and aren't payed to promote an agenda. However, I also believe that if a blogger attempts to write journalism , they should try to do it in a journalistic fashion, separating clearly what is fact and what is opinion. I honestly think that the public should care more about news, maybe actually buy a paper and read the whole thing to keep themselves informed? Surely this would not be too much to ask. Our grandparents are more likely than us to read a physical newspaper, they are also more likely than us to vote. Is anyone else seeing what I see here?
The group that taught our first reading in class yesterday presented the information well--I understood them very well and what they said resonated--the Glenn Beck impression Garrett had Daniel do was sort of funny. Not that I enjoy making fun of Glenn Beck. He's a passionate Patriot, and I am too.
This has been heavily laden with feeling because it is what I feel about what I have learned. Maybe I am a little over-passionate, but this is what I want to do with my life and itt means a lot to me. Maybe it's because I like to write, or read, or because I am a naturally inquisitive person, but it is what I want to do.

Fun with Cell Phones

You would not believe how hard it is to pick up a cell phone in rubber dishwashing gloves.
I was washing dishes in my bathrobe, because I was about to treat myself to a long, hot bath with a volume of The Illustrated Screwtape Letters when I realized that there were still dishes to be done. I didn't want my roomie Michelle to come home from her extra-late accounting class and find the apartment a mess, so I put on my pretty purple dishwaswhing gloves and began to work.
Right then and there, a stirring, startling rendition of "Thunderstruck" sounded from my bedroom. I ran to get it and tried to pick up my cell phone with my sopping wet gloves. For a pair that are great for srcubbing food off of plates, they have zero grip for picking up technology. I barely missed my mother's call--we had been playing a variation of phone tag all night--the kind where you talk to a loved one, sign off, then call back because you remember there is one more thing you must tell them; lather, rinse and repeat. But it is very nice to be remembered and loved by one's parents.
Cell phones have been great cause for embarassment that turns to amusement with time, at least in my life. During the national anthem at the Roy/Bonneville game my sophomore year,  I forgot that my phone was on and Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" came on full blast. I was mortified at the time, but now I just laugh at the whole thing, because nobody really was mad at me; nobody even remembers it.
Also yesterday, I was sitting in front of the Library, writing a paper for English when I heard the "New Spice" whistle ringtone.
"Jess!?" My head immediately popped up in search of my roomie, but the faces giving me weird looks did not include hers. So, I retreated back to my laptop and allowed myself to blush. Oopsie.
My mother tells me that, once upon a time when I was about two, I started yelling "It's time to go home!" right in the middle of sacrament meeting.
Sometimes, having a cell phone is like having a small child--they're absolutely wonderful to have, but often they make noise in embarrassing ways at embarrassing times.

My Weekend+thoughts for today

I just want to take this opportunity to say how ecstatic I am that our football team won on Saturday! BYU football beat Washington this weekend, in a fantastic game. I almost didn't go, but my friend Brad convinced me to come back to Provo from my hometown and watch the game on his laptop, since he was trying to get a group together of those of us who didn't get a sports pass. It was hard to say goodbye to my Mom, Dad and Grandma after being home for just a little more than twenty-four hours, but I knew I would have a good weekend. And I really did--several movie nights, company over much of the time, and a really good Sunday. We had a great testimony meeting that extended into Sunday school, and then Jess, one of my dear roomies, convinced me to go to choir practice, which felt really good.
Labor Day was so much fun. I slept in until eleven, which felt amazing. My friend Courtney texted me soon after, asking for a ride to Best Buy to pick up her computer, which was tragically soaked by a leaky water bottle during late Summer Honors. I had to go to Wal-Mart anyway, so we went. Her warranty covered all the charges, we found all we needed at Wal-Mart, and RC Willey--a major furniture chain, I just learned that not everywhere has them--was offering a free lunch of soda and hot dogs. Now, that's not very healthy, I admit, but it was free and we are starving students. So we went. It was a fun little adventure, and we were able to talk about furniure and decor while we tried to find food. We went back to my place for Victory Lemonade, and I began cooking.
We were having some boys over for dinner, so I made CCR salad, Jess made Racamoni, and I made Cheesecake Brownies for Garrett's birthday "cake". Michelle, Jess, and I worked to get the apartment nice once we had made the food. As we cooked and cleaned together, my iPod blasting out the "Hairspray" soundtrack with occasional sing-along, I felt such a warm, comforting, Little Women-esqe feeling.
After the boys ate, we went to family home evening. We were with group 23 playing capture-the-flag, which I have discovered I get WAY too competitive about. I run, I set people on behind-the-jail patrols because I always play jail guard, I take no thought for my asthma ("Sucks to your as-mar!" name that quote), and I get so in-the-zone that I'm not really very courteous to people.
I realized this weekend that I haven't been even thinking about the writing goals I set for myself during late summer honors, and I feel bad about it, because I'm sure everyone else has. So, starting today when I get my homework done, I will begin to live my goals.
I wish there was time to pick up a Jamba Juice to sip during University Devotional. Oh, well--a scheduling lesson for next semester, true? True.

Here We Go...

The Journalist as a young coed may seem idealistic to those she meets, perhaps overly so in a world where dishonesty and despair permeate the subjects of the news and claims of Bias in the Media come from both sides of the political spectrum. But that is precisely why I have given myself such an idealistic goal in my career as a journalist, and in life: Seek out the truth, then report it.
I am currently a pre-comms student at a large private university--BYU, my dream school since I was old enough to fully understand what college was. For the past three years, I have written for the Teen Page of the Ogden Standard-Examiner and, this summer, was an intern for the paper's feature section, in which capacity I wrote several briefs on fun things to do for Friday's "Go!" section.
This blog has been created for the purpose of discussing what I learn in my Principles of Journalism class, but I hope I'll be able to touch on other subjects as well, thereby giving an accurate picture of a young coed who aspires to write for the masses.