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Short essay on the watergate scandal
Short essay on the watergate scandal
Short essay on the watergate scandal
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All the President's Men
The film All the President's Men told the story of two reporters from the newspaper, The Washington Post, who uncovered and exposed the Watergate Scandal of 1972. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein took risks during the investigation, but both did impeccable jobs in exposing the truth behind Watergate - that President Richard Nixon's association was involved. The story led to public outrage, and eventually caused President Nixon to be the first president in the history of the United States to resign from office. The film expressed many aspects we studied in News Literacy this semester. A few of things we studied include an editor's role in choosing which stories to publish and news drivers, the verification process,
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One specific concept revolves around the verification process. In All the President's Men, the journalists were very responsible in making sure that they checked their sources several times before confirming or denying their statements. When their editors demanded that they be checked and re-checked, the men were sure to take down all of the information, sometimes even verbatim. Also, the men were required to do fact-checks on the things that they claimed. In one scene, Ben Bradlee tells the two men, "Now hold it, hold it. We're about to accuse Mr. Haldeman, who only happens to be the second most important man in America, of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right." At that point, the men rushed to confirm every single detail that they claimed was true, only to be confirmed on all accounts. In Shattered Glass, Stephen Glass failed miserably in the verification process of his last piece, "Hacker Heaven". The place this process collapsed was during the source checks and confirmations. The reporters at FORBE's were unable to confirm any of the witnesses that Glass claimed he had spoken to. While he made a fake website, gave FORBE's phone numbers of people who posed as the "witnesses", Glass was caught red handed by his own editor after going back to the scene of the story; later to be found out the event he claimed he went to never existed. Comparing the two films allows news consumers to decipher between a successful and error-proof verification process and one that is so faulty it ends a
There are similarities and differences in how the authors of “American History” and “ TV Coverage of JFK’s Death Forged Mediums’ Role” use Kennedy’s assassination in their writing. The intended effect of “American History” was to entertain and show how TV news and news in general affects people. In contrast the intended effect of “Tv Coverage…” was to inform readers how John F. Kennedy's assassination affected the news. The author Joanne Ostrow and Judith Ortiz Cofer both use Kennedy’s assassination in their writing to explain how TV news affects people in a community.
As my conclusion of understanding this journey through the history journalism by Kuyperts is that one thing history of newspapers tells us while the structure of the news may change, or the market for the news continues and a formation of highly intelligent journalist will strive to insists that the community receives the type of news that they want to read about.
Stephen Glass: “I didn't do anything wrong!” Chuck Lane: “I really wish you would stop saying that!” Shattered Glass was a movie about a journalist named Stephen Glass would fabricate many articles. Glass had written forty-one articles and twenty-seven of them were fabricated. He was beloved at the New Republic for two reasons. He would always provide intriguing stories they wish they were covering and didn’t rub it in that he got the story and they didn’t. These can be considered factors for why he was able to get away with it for so long. His coworkers love his stories so much that they were entertained whenever they listened to them. People would not think to look more into stories because of how intriguing it was, so if something was wrong with a source it would most likely not be found out.
Since the advent of television networks, Americans have relied on local and national newscasts to inform them of the world’s happenings. In the 1950’s there were no other mass informational outlets besides the network news and newspapers. Today we have the internet, which allows independent research, but the majority of Americans still depend on network and cable newscasts for their local, political, and foreign news. With the responsibility and power of informing an entire country, are television newscasts as reliable as most Americans assume them to be? Most Americans don’t consider where their news is coming from or who is producing it. Network and cable news are owned and operated by people and thus are not as objective and unbiased as we would like to think. In light of the war in Iraq and the most recent presidential election, critics of television network administration are voicing their concern for today’s presentation of the news. Increasingly more Americans are demanding a rehabilitation of newscasts, starting with ownership.
Theses and Professional Projects from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Paper 2. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/journalismdiss/2
As television exposed the truth of government, so did Journalists. Daniel leaking of the Pentagon Papers that explained in detail the Vietnam War, and the leaking of the information to the New York Times in 1971. Scandals like this played an active role throughout the late 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. This eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. The critical stand point of the journalists led to the marked contradictory of American politics that grew into turbulent during the 1960s.
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
Through manipulation and lies, media manages to modify objective news into biased news in order to convince the public of what the media wants them to believe. The article, “How the Media Twist the News”, by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas discusses the major influence that news has on readers based on their choice of stories and words. “How the Media Twists the News” has borrowed from multiple other texts such as the books like Public Opinion and Liberty and News, news magazine writers such as Ruderman, and news networks like CBS through Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and CNN to make her arguments valid and prove that the news is biased and that it does influence readers significantly because of it.
During the two moves, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun some of the characters are strange and diverse, but the similarities and difference of their views, values, and problems, could be universal. It is universal since people all over the world have the same issues, thoughts, and reactions. Even in my life, finances, success, and family are of utmost concern. The characters in The Glass Menagerie are Amanda, Laura, Tom, and Jim. And the characters in A Raisin in the Sun are Mama, Ruth, Benitha, and Walter Lee. The characters I enjoyed the most is Amanda and Tom and Mama and Walter Lee. I would examine the mothers and the sons of each move.
America is known around the world as the land of opportunity, a place where you can follow your dreams. No matter how selfish or farfetched ones dream may be, their goal will always be available. Whether it be the pursuit of the woman of your dreams, like that of Jay Gatsby, or the hunt for something pure and real, like Holden Caulfield. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, and The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, exhibit the various types of American lifestyles and the aspiration that surface among each character. The dreams between the characters in the two literary works differ in selfishness, and availability.
In the movie “All The President’s Men”, Managing Editor Ben Bradlee tells Woodstein, “Nothing’s riding on this except the First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of the press and maybe the future of the country.” This quote can be analyzed in a few ways. First of all, Bradlee is being sarcastic. The First Amendment, the freedom of the press, and the future of the country are all going to be affected if Woodward and Bernstein get the story wrong. Everything is riding on them getting the facts right. Because Bradlee said this, Woodward and Bernstein are cautious about publishing something that could potentially be detrimental to the country, but they make sure the information they received is correct and publish it anyway.
Woodward and Bernstein's undertaking constructed the cornerstone for the modern role of the media. The making of the movie about the Watergate Scandal and the ventures of the two journalists signify the importance of the media. The media’s role as intermediary is exemplified throughout the plot of the movie. The movie is the embodiment of journalism that guides future journalists to progress towards the truth, no matter what they are going up against. It was the endeavor of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that led them to the truth behind the president’s men. They showed that not even the president is able to deter the sanctity of journalism in its search of truth. The freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and people’s right to know account for the same truth that journalists pursue; the truth that democracy is alive and will persist to live on.
The introduction of the internet to modern society has brought about a new age of information relation. Since there is no longer a need to wait until the next print day, news from all over the world is available at a person’s fingertips within hours or even minutes of the event. With this advent of such easily accessible information, new problems for the news media have also arisen. Aside from potentially losing good economic standing because newspapers are no longer being purchased in the quantities they used to be, the credibility of the information itself is also put into question. No one would argue that credibility of news sources is unimportant, but there is a discrepancy in what takes precedence; economy and speed or getting the information out correctly at the first publishing by taking the time to make sure all facts are checked. The importance of having a system of checks on all information submitted is paramount. People trust what they read and believe it to be so without always questioning. If all information were to not be checked thoroughly, there would be instances where people read an article only for information included to be wrong and they go on believing such information. This can be very dangerous as misinformed people make misinformed decisions. With an increase in errors being made by citizen bloggers and even major publications, many are worried that journalistic ethics and credibility in the news media are being sacrificed in order to maintain swiftness in the news circuit and to retain personal profits. Though getting information to the masses quickly is a major part of the media’s importance, this should not mean that the credibility of that information being presented should be sacrificed for it...
The first argument for media literacy deals with the notion that media plays a dominant role in politics and culture. Media help citizens to understand the complex problems within society. The job of the media is to inform the public; however, it is the job of the public to decipher the messages being sent through the media. T...
Journalism: a profession under pressure? Journal of Media Business Studies, 6, 37-59. Scannell, P. (1995). The 'Secondary'. Social aspects of media history, Unit 9 of the MA in Mass. Communications (By Distance Learning).