real journalism....?

When I thought of journalism, I always thought of the profession that uncovers the truth. I always thought of someone who goes beyond comfortable standpoints to show what is really going. Whether it is being present in the heart of a war zone, a disaster zone, a government coup, protests etc. For me investigative reporting is the true essence of journalism. On Oct. 24,2007. Alisher Siapov, an Uzbek reporter, was shot three times in the head and chest presumably by the Uzbek government's secret service. BBC described Siapov as the most outspoken Uzbek because "for Alisher, journalism was not just a job, it was a tool, an instrument to push for what he saw as desperately needed change." That is exactly the way I see journalism
Ch 18 focused on investigative reporting- the process, the results, etc. I actually was glad to find a description of the process to conduct investigative reporting. I particularly liked how they named the second part of the process as the "sniff". But the important thing is, like the book said, ACCURACY! Any inaccurate informatio can easily negate all the hardwork put in reporting the story. Generally, I prefer the hard lead, but when the topic of investigative style reporting arises, I like the anecdotal lead..because it humanizes the story on a personble level. The listing of "human" and "paper" sources also helped, athough I feel that human sources would be more emotionally revealing, paper sources could be more factually revealing...The most intriguing part of the chapter was part where the authors spelled out the various obstacles a reporter could face...I was most surprised that money was determined as the first obstacle...For me the first obstacle would definitely be red tape!

The IRE website was also fairly interesting but it mostly reminded me why I am disappointed in todas version of journalism...why is the fact that many Chinese workers ae dying while manufaturig American products not more important than Britney Spears' marriage problems...why is it not mainstream news? The links led to many interesting stories and those stories would have remained unread if not for the if not for the website. I especially liked how we could find he various links n the"find a beat " page. Although I feel many of the important websites were left out or maybe I just did not look well enough..where was the international monetary fund website..how about WHO, etc.

But on the whole today's reading was good.