Now You Know, and Knowing is Half the Battle, Citizen Joe!

Technology in the 21st century has changed the ways in which Americans live. The I pod has changed the way Americans listen to music, advanced video game systems have changed the way people get their entertainment, and now the internet, and more specifically citizen journalism websites, have changed the news industry.

One citizen journalism site, which has changed the news industry by changing the news perspective is a website called citizenjoe.org. This website is completely devoted to delivering national political news to as many Americans as possible. The major way it is reshaping the news perspective is by bringing back a sense of social responsibility to the news. This website's purpose is to create a forum in which every American can participate in politics or become informed about politics. It is not concerned with bringing a political agenda to the news, and it is the most objective news website on the internet. A group of editors monitor articles and make sure that Citizen Joe represents each political party equally in terms of coverage. There is even a section on the website that rates the editor's political views so a person can see where the editor stands on political issues.

The website's content matches perfectly with the goal which Citizen Joe states it keeps. There goal is not to appeal to Americans' emotions, but to simply bring them the news. Certainly even Citizen Joe is constrained by some news-framing influences. They have limited resources that force them into deciding what to place on their website, and they have a geographic focus, which places all the emphasis on national government, instead of state government. Citizen Joe may also have to turn to a marketing approach, especially if they cannot receive enough donations since they are a non-profit organization. However, even with some of these concerns, Citizen Joe is carrying on their social responsibility of bringing the news to the people. By keeping with this responsibility, they have become the preeminent communication medium that presents news as a reflection of reality, not a construction by journalists. Now if only our politicians' ideas to help this country would become a reflection of reality!

Survivor is Back

"I think the fans versus favorites setup is the ultimate challenge because we have the favorites who have obviously played the game before, coming in here with experience. But at the same time you have us (the fans) and we know their game. We know not only their strengths but weaknesses too. So I think that puts us at a huge advantage."- Alexis



Alexis may think that the fans have an advantage over the veterans, but she is making some mistakes in terms of media literacy. For one thing, she is assuming that what she sees on the program is the complete reality.

The program may seem like complete reality, but it is purposely not. The producers of Survivor are able to use next-step reality to make the program appear very realistic while swaying from the complete truth. The actual footage they show on the program and the editing they use may present a picture that does not portray the true daily life of the contestants or their personalities.

Consequently, Alexis is believing that what she sees on the program is the complete truth. Plus, considering she is a rabid fan, it is possible she fell into a state of automaticity, which convinced her what she saw on Survivor was the complete truth.

Even though Alexis believes the fans have an advantage of watching the veterans on television, they really do not. The fans are misinformed about the truths about the program. Even if the fans were very media literate, they still would have no real idea of how the veterans really interact or what it is really like to be on Survivor as a contestant.

Max Headroom

The Max Headroom episode shown in class was so full of media references to media literacy that it is hard not to walk away from watching the episode without seeing some type of example of media literacy.

There are many facets to media literacy, but what the episode focused on was the facet of how the media presents news messages, and how this makes people feel like they are informed. The episode focuses on the issue of how informed viewers of media are because in the episode people sold a false story to a news station.

For the viewers in the episode, they get the feeling as if the story is informing them. However, they fall into a media literacy trap of having a false sense of being informed. Many of the viewers probably went back into a state of automaticity, which led them to accept the surface meanings of the fake terrorist story.

On the other hand, Edison Carter and the news crew of Network 23, represent, in some ways, the media literate viewer. They questioned and analyzed the real information behind the fake terrorist story. By doing this, they demonstrated why it is useful to be media literate.