Journalism 1

Image from teapartytribune.com

As a person who relies on YouTube for most of her copyrighted entertainment sources, PIPA and SOPA scare the crap out of me. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and (Protect IP Act) stemmed from a bill proposed by republican house representative Lamar Smith, of Texas. The objective is to stop piracy and illegal downloads of copyrighted material online. The proposed consequence would be up to five years in prison.

I see SOPA and PIPA as infringing on the rights stated in the first amendment, the freedom of speech. Granted, the powder-wigged founding fathers probably didn’t have a clue about blogs and search engines and advertising networks, but hey, it’s still a form of speech nonetheless. The government, however hard they try, can’t stomp on that. And, no one wants to end up like China.

Personally, I think that congress has more important things to worry about. We are still in a recession, our debt is well into the trillions, unemployment is at an all-time high, and our relations with other political leaders aren’t exactly so hot. These are the things that need to be taken care of first, not something that isn’t actually putting America’s future in danger.

Thankfully, “further action on the bill” has been postponed, due to heavy protesting. Seven million people filled out a petition posted by Google, and many other websites such as Wikipedia shut down for a short period of time.

The internet is a massive beast, and with all the techies, hackers, and Geek Squad employees, I’m sure we’d be able to find a way around this fairly quickly. PIPA and SOPA would just be a waste of tax payer’s dollars, because I just don’t see the effectiveness being there. How can you keep tabs on something so colossal 24/7? I can’t even keep my Facebook page as private as I’d like.

Let’s face it, America runs on these websites. How would students write their term papers without Wikipedia, and where would we get free music and videos from if YouTube wasn’t around? We need this freedom to share our thoughts, musical tastes, humor, and expression.

image from questgarden.com

While bored this Christmas vacation, I watched more episodes of Criminal Minds than is probably healthy. I did, however, hear a quote from that show that I thought portained to this topic and all of journalism quite well. “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”– Cyril Connolly.

I think this especially relates to the journalists of today. It seems as if they’ll do almost anything to get a story while throwing ethics and/or morals–one of my definitions of having no self. The journalistic code of ethics states that reporting should never distort, plagerize, stereotype, or violate. I just don’t see too many stories printed as we once intended anymore. The ethics have definitely shifted from where they once were, and what has no become acceptable that was once scandalous. Morals of journalists are slowly slipping as their eyes focus only on the monetary prize.

The number one example of this is the Papparazzi. They photograph celebrities near their homes, while at restaurants, and stepping out of their cars–all for that extra buck. I swear it’s all the American people look for in a story. The times are changing, for better or worse. I even caught myself the other day looking at Kim Kardashian’s reported pregnacy in OK Magazine–aaaahhhh. I resent these sort of things. What happened to magazines being filled with actual intellectual articles? So few are left.

I like to think that my morals and ethics are generally straight and narrow, and I suppose I see more of a need for them to be solid now that I’ve been given the semester-long task of being a journalist.  It’s my morals that stop me from eating venison (why would you want to eat a beautiful creature of the forest?), they’re personal choices. My ethics come from what our society has deemed acceptable, that’s why streaking in the park and skinny dipping in the dark are no-no’s.

So, I choose not to misrepresent the people I’ve done stories on, or put in quotes that they wanted to keep off the record. I just wish that others would do the same.