Wikis

    
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     Wikis, as explained in the "Wikis in Plain English Video", are used in order to coordinate between people. It is supposed to be better than coordination through email because it allows everyone to participate and edit information. It would be extremely helpful for large groups who are trying to collaborate simultaneously. It is faster and ensures that all of the participants can view all the changes. With email, one must open the group of emails and compare dates received in order to discover what the plans are.
     For my future career in sports, I feel that a wiki would be extremely helpful. In terms of collaboration, there could be many sports journalists covering one event and displaying new forms of information. With this collaboration, sports stories would be better covered and perhaps more in depth. The idea of the stories being more in depth and better covered would completely benefit the public, which is what journalism is for. I would be interested to see how a wiki for sports journalists would help or hinder the field.
        By moving towards wikis, sports journalists could further their stake in new new media. By moving towards new new media, they could increase their audience base. Although this form of journalism is almost exclusively entertainment based, I feel that the information should continue to follow the methods of journalism. The use of wikis could facilitate this goal.

Bloggers and Freedom of the Press

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       I think that the idea of Freedom of Press within the blogging world is a  major issue. It is rather confusing to distinguish between a journalist and a blogger because many people feel that they do the same thing. They both intend to inform an audience and they both work for the people. Because these two groups hold the same intentions, it seems as though they should be afforded the same rights. These rights include the Shield Law, which prevents journalists from being obligated to reveal their sources, as well as a type of freedom from government interference.
       Is it fair for bloggers to be on the outside of these benefits? I personally feel that it isn't. It seems to me that bloggers should be afforded the same rights as journalists because overall they must have a passion for spreading information. If you contrast a blogger with a journalist you can see that one is driven by a paycheck, while the other is driven by their intense desire to inform/entertain. It seems that the power is shifting and that people are now more open to the information presented in blogs than information presented by big news corporations. The fact that advertising is entering the arena of blogging is somewhat causing its reputation to be tarnished, however, not as much as the reputation of big journalism corporations.
        In terms of applying Freedom of the Press to my future occupation of sports journalism, I would attempt to enforce the importance of blogging within the realms of sports. If I were to not be afforded a job within a major news corporation such as ESPN, I would attempt to inform true sports fans about major controversies within the realm of sports. Such controversies to explain could be steroid use and even fraud among sports officials. I feel that having a blogger explain all of these controversies would be better for a sports audience because it means that as a blogger I can state facts without fear of being repremanded. Overall, this goes into the aspect of bloggers having more of a stake in facts and it also goes back to independence from faction.
        People are more likely to trust bloggers on a variety of different topics because they don't have anything to lose, whereas, journalists could lose their jobs. I really think this major difference between these two types of "informers" is what makes it so important that bloggers are afforded Freedom of the Press. The job of protecting citizens and informing people about occurrences within society has shifted to bloggers, and because of that, they should have the rights that are afforded to journalists.
        

New New Media

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I am very interested in the aspects of new new media. Since we've discussed it in class, I have come up with the idea of creating a blog for my sorority. The fact that it will be separate from any major news corporation, as well as the fact that it will be run by the members of my chapters sorority, solidifies its new new media qualities. New New Media is complex in the sense that its information does not have to be strictly news based. It also doesn't have to follow the format set out by big news corporations, hence its appeal.

I feel that in order to make a blog successful it has to first entertain people, whereas in news, I feel that informing is more important than entertaining. I also feel that it is important to gage the interest of your readers by allowing them to comment and to suggest new story ideas. This would increase the popularity of the site while at the same time challenge the writers to do stories that may be out of their comfort zones.

In conclusion I would like to say that New New Media is a very important wave of mass media. It encompasses the importance of the individual as well as the importance of reader support. I think creating a blog in this class has opened my eyes to that fact.

Big Ten Weekend

Indy.Com

I'm gonna be downtown this weekend during the Big 10 basketball games. I have always wondered about the different aspects of broadcasting that go into effect during such a huge event. First we would have to examine which news stations would be present. Surely, ESPN and our local news stations will be there. But, we have to think about what stations actually get increased viewership from these games. Most likely cities in which the Big 10 teams are located. So, we should expect all of these cities to be in downtown Indianapolis this weekend. Besides which stations will be in town, we must examine the ease of getting interviews with the players. There is going to be a lot of basketball players here, however, you only want to interview the well-known athletes. It is a given that the local news stations will interview Jajuan Johnson because he is a hometown star. But, after him what should they focus on.
There are so many questions to be asked in sports journalism and I think the answers are very easy to discover based on the purpose of sports journalism. Sports journalism is supposed to entertain people, whereas basic journalism is used to educate, inform, and assist citizens. Because sports journalist don't have to worry about entertaining and informing their audiences, they are free to focus completely on increasing viewership. In class we have been talking extensively about the struggle to inform as well as entertain, but we have failed to examine the ease that comes with journalism that focuses on entertainment only. The only road block that I can see with entertainment journalism is the fact that you can't blame low viewership on your intent to inform before you entertain.