Media, Culture and Society
As the primary venue for public information, regular news reports mediated by print and broadcast communications are considered and recognized for their democratic function that enables the public to make personal and communal stand on issues that the society faces. Contemporary studies in the field of mass communication especially the focus in the discipline of journalism will inherently provide descriptions and explanations on the structure of the society, politics and culture of the country.
(1999) described news stories as “consistent rational system and abstracted interpretation derived from the chaos of a given moment and filtered through the stages of fixed, editorial necessity”. He further claimed that news reports are organized artificially and fully mediated by the culture it supports and not ordained by reality nor necessarily complete descriptions of each. Like other institutions, the practice of journalism has undergone series of development processes which led to patterns of change and adjustments that are closely interconnected to the technological and cultural history of the community whose rules and modes of production are at least partly based on the greater society’s more general pattern of change.
PHXnews posted the success of the national school choice movement in their effort which led to the increased number of students who can avail of the benefits of the program this coming academic year. The news reported that the targeted K-12 school choice bills passed 16 legislative houses in 10 states this year which made the particular program a national issue at present. The states of Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Utah enacted new and expanded the school choice programs while other states including Pennsylvania and Minnesota are still waiting for the results of their appeals. “Ohio’s two-year budget includes a new statewide program for 14,000 general education children to leave public schools in academic emergency to attend private schools, and an improvement of two existing programs – expanding the Cleveland Scholarship Program to include 11th and 12th grade and making permanent the Autism Scholarship Program and removing the cap”. This year it was estimated that 84,000 school children will be able to exercise the influence of the program and next year, it was expected that this number will further increase by 25% projecting more than 105,000 students
The school choice voucher program appears to be state specific and dependent on the number of cases of poor performing public schools. The scenario will also be dependent on the number of private schools that will take in the students from the specified public schools as well as the number of students under the school choice program that they are willing to house in. Legal issues are reviewed for the possibility of exceeding the limit of the cap that was provided by the state law. The case of Milwaukee students and the state of Wisconsin is a clear example of such case.
In the Miami Valley, all 33 schools on that list were in Montgomery County — 18 in the district, two in Jefferson Twp., one in Trotwood and eight charter schools. If those schools rate poorly again on this year’s report cards and next year, they would have to offer their students the option to use vouchers to transfer to private schools. If many schools continue in academic emergency and public vouchers come here in large numbers, it could be especially helpful to Catholic schools and other religious private schools, which have suffered enrollment hits as the charter movement exploded since 1999. The increase in the number of eligible students, however, post a great challenge specifically to Wisconsin as the epicenter of the voucher movement. In the same news article, it was also stated the fact that Wisconsin’s law caps voucher enrollment at 15 percent of Milwaukee schoolchildren and Democratic Gov. has repeatedly blocked efforts to raise the limit
At present, we are experiencing a period of experimentation wherein media service providers and encoders are seeking new avenues to financially support their businesses just like what practitioners of journalism experience in defining online journalism norms, practices and (). (2000) also verified that online communication used for news viewing focus mainly on name brands known from television or print It is interesting to note, however, that there are relatively few number of studies and researches that were conducted which address the range of which commercial pressures of the new media environment, induced by technological innovations, are transforming media firm and journalist routines, as well as shaping traditional news values (1999, 2000;1998; 2000; 2000).
News gathering is the business of reporting, of finding out and recording of key elements and information for a news story. Different reporters engage in various techniques and means of gathering information for the completion of their stories. The medium in which the news story will be channeled is also considered in the ways of collecting news information since different the different media forms call and serve for different audience and readers. But generally, reporters share almost the same methods of gathering news information through first hand or personal sources and secondary data which are valid and reliable.
(1999) provided five ways used most frequently by journalist in producing their news articles. These news information gathering techniques include off-the-record, for background only, not for direct quotation, hold for release and private gatherings. Off-the-record news gathering usually takes place in small gatherings or interviews wherein the news sources ask the reporter to make succeeding statements of the record or give the journalists the option to look for other informants instead. However, there are instances when phony off-the-record- remarks used by the reporter as background to the story he or she is writing making sure that the meanings of the word used by the informant were clearly understood.
(1972) and (1997) recognize the effect of the assumptions held by authors regarding the ‘passive’ position of their readers on the content of the messages that could either contribute to or detract from the credibility of the source. Similar to the claims of rhetorical criticism, critical literacy “complements media literacy in particular as it offers a way to examine how media messages are designed for certain groups, why some media texts might be more effective than others, what issues are raised by media coverage, and whose interests are served by media content’ ( 2002). Hence, the shared values and lifestyle dictated by the way of presenting particular ideologies to the society could either be beneficial or harmful to the way the general public will decide the fate of their communities especially in the democratic social structure and policy governance.
In regard to discourse about new technologies, we need to consider what claims are credible, what evidence is accurate, and which spokespersons are truly acting in the public interest. We also should recognize explicitly how advocates and writers use narratives, myths, forms of language, and visual images to tell their stories. Through critical examination of these features, we can begin to see what ideologies are at work and whose interests are being served by the discourse. This is an important step to a thorough understanding of the issues at stake in the formation of technology policy and of how decisions on these issues may affect us and our lives.
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