Journalism 1 Portfolio

    For most people, high school is a right of passage. The four years you spend in high school are life changing. It’s your time to decide who you’re going to be and start planning what you want to become. You go through triumphs, heartbreaks, and experiences that help mold you into the person you’re going to be for the rest of your life. High school isn’t anywhere near easy though and in fact it’s the exact opposite. While trying to find out who you are you’re faced with judgement, cruelty, and dilemmas. Peers judge your every move and decision. Who you’re friends with and what you wear is what you’re known by. No matter who you are or who you want to be, you’ll always live under and live by a stereotype. 

     Stereotypes are a part of high school that everyone has to deal with. They help make you into a stronger and more sophisticated person. Freshman Carl Sones is a prime example of this. He’s dealt with the cruelty of stereotypes his entire life and looking back on it, he wouldn’t change a thing. Sones’s passion in life is music. He gives guitar lessons, practices three hours a day, and goes to festivals to improve his skills. On top of all that, Sones is a member of two bands and a jazz band. Sones has a signature style as well. Most kids know him because of his “fashionable” hat that he’s always seen wearing. It was a long and hard path to get Sones the confidence he has today. Sones was a victim of bullying and it’s all because of his differences. In the end, Sones admits that it has all just made him into a stronger musician.

     Everyone stereotypes in high school. It’s a natural mechanism for all human beings. Our brains pull memories and information out from past experiences and use that information as a way to conserve energy. It’s one of the little amazing things our brain does to help us. So why do people think stereotypes are so terrible? Without our brains we wouldn’t be able to function. Everything our brain does for us is vital to our existence. We shouldn’t question the short cuts and gifts it allows us to have.

    Stereotypes in the long run help people more then hurt them.  If you’re stereotyped then you’ll know what it’s like to be treated badly and you won’t want to treat others that way. It ends up helping out lots of people. Take Junior Joey Merz’s story for example. Merz runs track and plays football for BHS. He’s an athlete so it isn’t surprising that he falls under the stereotype, “Athletes are Jerks”. Merz believes that this stereotype is false and that people misinterpret athletes. His reaction to this stereotype is to be extra nice to other people so that they will stop believing it’s true.

    In high school it may seem like everyone is out to get you and that you’ll never fit in. You may even think that the group you hang out with and what you’re stereotyped under will affect you your entire life. There’s an upside to all this criticism though. One day you’ll look back on all of it and be thankful. From my research I can honestly say that stereotypes help you in the long run. Without them you wouldn’t grow into a strong and confident person. You’d take the easy way out of things and give up on the difficulties you encounter in life. To sum it all up, stereotypes have a good side to them. Even if it’s hard to see that as a freshman or even senior in high school believe me that they’re doing you a lot more good then bad. The strongest people in the world live under stereotypes and if you’ve survived high school, you’re one of them.

Something that has always interested and intrigued me is stereotypes. When I heard about the requirements for this story I went back and forth between several topics. In the end I decided that stereotypes would provide the most interesting and unique angle for me. I wanted to find a way to answer questions that have always surfaced my mind about stereotypes. Why do people stereotype? What are common stereotypes at BHS? Most importantly, how does being placed under a stereotype affect a high-school student? I decided that the best angle to cover all these questions and to connect my topic to the high school would be, “How does being stereotyped affect a high school student’s life?”

I decided my first step to finding my answers to these questions was to figure out what the most common stereotypes at BHS were. I passed out around 75 surveys to BHS students asking what they think is the most popular stereotype at our school. I was very surprised with how mean some people were. The top four answers were:

• Athletes are jerks
• Skaters are druggies
• Hicks only wear camoflauge
• Drama/theater kids are weird or very outgoing

Since my results were about athletes, skaters, hicks, and drama kids I thought it would be best to interview one student of each. After my interviews, I realized it was not going to be easy writing this in a way that wouldn’t offend people. To make it better, I contacted two therapists/ counselors who specialize in self-esteems issues with teens. The two big questions I asked them was how stereotypes can affect a high school student and why high school students tend to stereotype. I had to do this through e-mail because of the holidays. Sadly, they haven’t gotten the chance to answer my questions yet but said they will get back to me ASAP.  I’m also planning on conducting “experiments” to see how each of these people get treated in certain situations.

Another thing I have done is research online. I found an article that talked about stereotyping and really dug deep into why we do it in the first place. It was a great starting point for me in my research and really helped me understand what exactly I wanted to write about.

   A photojournalist’s job is to capture visuals of real events and put them out into the public. This is a huge responsibility and plays a very important role in society. Without photojournalists people who didn’t experience or take part in an important event would have a very vague representation of what that event felt or looked like. It’s become a lot easier for photojournalists to put emotion or emphasis into a picture through the new editing technologies such as photoshop. While the new technology makes a photojournalist’s job easier in a lot of ways, I believe it can make it even tougher. The public depends on them for the truth. Now they have to find a balance between deception and the truth.

   I think a photojournalist should be allowed to touch up pictures to make them look better. However, I also think photojournalists should recognize the fine line between touching up a picture and changing it dramatically. There’s a difference between brightening or enhancing colors and changing someone’s appearance so that they’re almost unrecognizeable. I also think that a photojournalist shouldn’t edit a picture so much that it influences a person’s thoughts or emotions when they look at it. A person should be able to look at a picture and decide on their own if it makes them sad or happy. If they do choose to do this then I think the newspaper should be required to state that the picture was edited.

   This all can connect to much bigger and important issues. For instance, should newspapers be allowed to edit photos of celebrities to make them look better? Is our country becoming a place where image is all that matters? Is this all contributing to the fact that eating disorders are on the rise in the U.S.? Perhaps editing photos is hurting us more then it’s helping us.

   To sum it all up, I believe that photojournalists should be allowed to edit photos. There are limitations though. They should only be able to edit photos if it’s to take out something distracting or to brighten/fix the photo. Under no circumstances however should they be able to edit a photo so much that it takes away from the truth. The public depends on these photos to learn about the world. They don’t want false ideas of what’s happening.

    While researching Gertz Vs. Welch I found myself learning one key thing. You, as a regular citizen, are the one and only controller of your personal privacy. No one else gets any choice or decision in the matter unless you choose to give them that right. Regular citizens going about their daily lives have the right to more privacy then people who throw themselves into the public. Gertz Vs. Welch is a very good example of this. It involves an attorney and a very controversial case. In 1968 A policeman shot and killed a youth. The family hired an attorney and asked him to take on the case of their dead son. While the attorney was just doing his job a magazine accused him of being a communist and of being against the police. The attorney didn’t deserve this. He didn’t commit a crime, try to become a political figure, or invite the public into his life in anyway. 

   Every case I listened to taught me something new and just as equally important.  In the New York Times Vs. Sullivan case I learned that if you hold an influential role in a community then it is okay for a journalist to write however they want to about you. Time Vs. Firestone and Hutchinson Vs. Proxmire seemed to be similar to me. From both cases I discovered what it is that makes a person a public figure. A public figure is someone who puts themselves into the “spotlight.” Dun Vs. Bradstreet taught me that in order to be a successful and professional journalist you must check your facts. People can get angry if the information supplied to them isn’t correct. Especially since it’s a journalist job to do so. Ariel Vs. Time showed me how difficult it would be for a public figure to win a libel case. In order for a public figure to win they must prove that malice, falsehood, and defamation occured. The final case I was shown was Westmoreland Vs. CBS. I learned that above all things as a journalist, you must have proof to back up your writing. You can’t have a good story without evidence, facts, correct information, and proof.

   I believe that the limitations journalists have are absolutely fair. They give journalists enough space and room to do their job very well but still be respectful to people. In order to be a great journalist I think you need to know your limits and only stretch yourself to a certain extent.  These limitations help journalists do that and keep their readers happy. I believe High School media should recognize these laws and stay true to them. They help us become better writers and guide us in the right direction.