Tom Brady, and why it’s best to leave 5-year-old children out of it
By Chris Roberts Kindergarten teachers [note]My wife taught them for most of her 26 years in the classroom.[/note] will tell you that their real job isn’t to teach math and the alphabet. The real job is teaching 5-year-olds that the world does not revolve around them. This is an important lesson for all of us, […]
Privacy for young adults and the importance of dumb mistakes
For then-Michigan student Jim Reische, the mistake was spraypainting “Corporate Cheeseburgers” on a McDonald’s building. For then-Alabama student Chris Roberts, the mistake(s) showed up regularly in The Crimson White, where I wrote a Friday column – often with no idea when I sat down at the keyboard on a Thursday afternoon. It was a self-enforced […]
Dove ad shows some dirty racism
By DE Harry A Dove Facebook advertisement went viral on social media this past Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017. The GIF displayed three women taking off their skin-colored shirts, revealing the next underneath. The transition from the black woman to the white woman made headlines. The company received backlash from viewers of the advertisement labeling it […]
Not all opinions should be treated equally
By Maddy Ard Richard Spencer has some rather unpopular opinions. The outspoken white supremacist delivered a speech advocating for an ethno-white state on Oct. 17, 2017, at the University of Florida. Though vastly outnumbered by protesters demonstrating against Spencer, it seems Spencer’s supporters made the biggest waves. About an hour after Spencer’s speech, a non-fatal […]
How some news organizations track you online
By Aaron Bonner In 2017, information is available in a matter of milliseconds, from cake recipes to a politician’s tax forms, but the availability of certain information has created privacy concerns for both journalists and readers. With more news organizations shifting to an online readership, readers have begun to question the information gathered by each […]
Photos can put unnecessary tragedy on display
By lepilat — From JCM 493 Blog post 1 Imagine a family that had barely come to understand the tragic death of their son when local news stations started publishing photos from the car accident. Images spread across the community and are quickly adopted by national outlets as well. Pictures of his death are now spread across […]
Sen. Ted Cruz’s Twitter scandal reveals misguided motivations
By Maddy Ard — From JCM 493 Blog post 1 Last week saw the aftermath of two destructive hurricanes, controversy over DACA’s legal status, and threats of nuclear war. Somehow, amid these monumental events, the issue which has the internet buzzing has nothing to do with life-altering instances and everything to do with Sen. Ted Cruz’s Twitter […]
Are millennial ‘community’ sites real journalism? One group’s odyssey to find out
A collection of University of Alabama students built a final project for an ethics class that asks a simple but profound question: Are millennial sites such as Buzzfeed Community, Medium, Huffington Post Community, HerCampus or the Odyssey real journalism sites, or something else? Their site — the Iliad 499 — is worth a look.
When you write ‘reform,’ the propagandists win
As the Trump administration this week proposes changes to the nation’s tax system, here’s a reminder to journalists and talking heads: When you use the word “reform” without putting it in quotation marks and attributing the phrase to the person or document using the word, then the propagandists win. The etymology of the word “reform” […]