Newspapers

Newspapers 

By: Ryan Darling

Local news, the backbone of the media and the also in the eyes of many the least credible.  Local news comes in many different forms from the local paper to the local news station, even radio.  I get my local news every weekday morning from KGW News, which is an affiliate of NBC.  KGW news today talked about the South Valley Fire burning near Dufur, which grew to 20,000 acres. https://www.kgw.com/article/weather/wildfires/south-valley-fire-burning-near-dufur-grows-to-20000-acres/283-579445373.  The clip stated that the fire burned at least one structure and between 80 and 100 homes are in danger of burning.  Forcing at least 400 people to evacuate.  I also get my daily News from the Today show which comes on right after the local news I just talked about.  I use the Today show to inform me of the world wide news that they cover which has included political events, social events and tragedies such as the volcano activity in Hawaii.  I rely on both of these for two very different reasons one is local, giving me the news that is more addressed to me and it feels more genuine and relatable because the people are from where I am from (OR).  The other is world wide news the is covered by people who are based in New York and who feel more like celebrities then real people.  The good thing about the world wide news like the today show is that I am able to be informed more clearly with the things that go on in politics, which is important to me because I like to know what is going on in the government.  But other then those two I trust one news site much more then either of those two above and that is the Philip Defranco Show.  This is a news show on youtube.  I feel like this show covers the news that I care about.  Some of the news is national news Such as the boys soccer team that was stuck in the cave. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puPPTIhcoj8.  They cover Youtube news such as the Logan Paul Vs. KSI fight that is happening in August. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDM-Nu9m8dU.  I trust this more then any other source because they have showed me over the 5 years that I have been watching them that they take the news very seriously and they work really hard to make sure what they are saying is factual, and if a mistake is made they make sure to correct it in the next show.  But no matter what they say to me I will never know what is real of fake but I use all three against each other to fact check each other is one is saying something that the other is not it makes me wonder if one is not telling the whole story.  

Many of these sources have paywalls which are in place to fund these organizations.  I am currently not a subscriber to any of these pay to read news organizations but I do subscribe to the online Philip Defranco show which is not a pay to watch site.  Instead what they do is have sponsors and ads in the content that helps them pay for their organizations.  I do not mind seeing these ads because I know the purpose of these and do not blame them for being there.  But if there was a paywall for the Philip Defranco show I think I would pay for just that one because of how much I value his news and what he puts out into the world.

On current events I feel that I am a three out of five.  I say three because I think I know of most of the things that are going on but I would not be able to explain all of it to others and that is a true test if someone is informed they will be able to explain what they just learned in a different way then how it was just explained to them.  For example in to days Philip Defranco show the top story was a writer for the Verge is now working for the New York Times.  She is under controversy because of her past twitter rants against white people.  Which to many including myself seems a bit racist.  Many people will say you cannot be racist against white people and to that I say "are you kidding?  Yes you can." What he was trying to get across in the show was that the Times and the journalist in question were pleading that this was counter trolling and it was used out of context by the people who did not like the Times or the journalist.  But what Philip had to say was this could be seen as a double standard. "what if instead of cancel all white people she said cancel all black people or jewish people."  I still do not think I know the whole context of the story so I will say on this story and many others I am still at a three.  

Topic 2

When the president is calling "Fake News" I see it as having many meanings.  In some ways he is saying that the news is not news it is just a witch hunt such as the Russia investigation.  By calling it fake news he is simplify saying it is not true and if it is prove it.  so far they have not been able to prove that Russia interfered in out election.  The news media such as the New York Times and others push this story and show news stories about it keep popping up but yet we haven't seen any damning evidence that is convicted anyone so to that I can see why Trump calls it fake news.

Many of the media personalities think that it is a disservice that the president is stating most news as fake news while I agree with that in some ways it makes all news fake if it does not reach the standards of Trump but I think in someways it is good for us because we investigated to go and search out the true truth.  The fake news comments are not a good thing but they are not necessarily a bad thing.

What I think is a good example of undermining democracy is when the media states that the electoral system can be hacked by big business to which I would say it is impossible to be hacked because each county is ran independently.  there is not one big electoral system that can be hacked it is all individually ran by county to county.

This is an article about the how trump is undermine press freedom around the world. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/05/02/how-trump-is-undermining-press-freedom-around-the-world/?utm_term=.356695afc92e