‘Angry’ Joe Vargas: an Echo in the Spiral of Silence
By Kasey Hullett Joe Vargas quit his cubicle job back in 2008 shortly after doing a review for the latest Madden franchise game. The video combined sketch and serious criticism. It showed football players tackling developers in the game studio. The video shortly went viral and soon enough the developer contacted Vargas and assured him […]
Aristotle and Persuasion: Are Gossip Magazines Doing This Right?
By Anna Van Der Like According to the New World Encyclopedia, “celebrity” journalism is less reputable than other types of journalism. Some would argue that these gossip columns are not journalistic at all. Yet they are incredibly successful and continue to sell even in a time when print media is slowly fading away. Aristotle taught […]
Charleston Post and Courier vs. Battery: Reporter does the right thing and a soccer team owner overreacts
UPDATE: That didn’t take long. The United Soccer League stepped in a few hours after this happened (on April 8, 2016), and the Post & Courier has its credentials again. League president Jake Edwards’ statement spanked the club owner: “We will be taking the appropriate steps to prevent instances like this from happening again.” ************************************************************ […]
U.S. newsrooms mirror larger hierarchies of power
By Kendall Worman Newsrooms in the U.S. are not exactly the most diverse places when it comes to race. Is it possible for journalists to report objectively and holistically on race and minority issues when the journalists telling those stories don’t represent even a significant fraction of that demographic? According to The Atlantic a 2012 […]
What a class exercise taught me about my moral foundations
By Cara Walker Loyal. Fair. Caring. These are words most people would want to use to identify themselves. While the way we strive towards these attributes may seem almost subconscious at times, these characteristics are what many of us base our moral foundations upon, since we as a society have dubbed them all generally “good.” […]
Getting to the root of the problem: Journalism’s diversity problem
By Judah Martin When the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board met with adult film stars to decide on potential regulations for the industry in February 2016, The New York Times sent a white male reporter to cover the hearing. This decision was a mistake. Marveling at the fact that the “colorfully dressed” women were indeed […]
The ethics of food journalism
By: Kasey Hullett Entering into the world of food criticism and review is more precarious than I thought. Recently, there has been an outbreak of lawsuits from bad reviews on not only Yelp but blogs as well. In California, a groundbreaking law was set forth to protect Yelpers from defamation charges. You would think that […]
A Call to Arms: Using ethics in digital media
By Judah Martin I would hesitate to call myself a practicing journalist. In fact, I think such a claim would be patently wrong. In the years that I have worked as a student writer for The University of Alabama’s engineering college, I have written news releases, research articles, award announcements and “In Memorium” obituaries for […]
Trust Your Gut: How does background affect intuitive decision making?
By Cara Walker I felt my whole body tense as I stole several glances to my right and my left. Secretively, I hunched over my desk and made long, deliberate marks with my pen. L…K…E…I tried desperately to recall the shape of the final loop of the “R” in my mom’s signature. My chest was […]