Excellent job students considering the true role and purpose of journalism: to expose the truth and, ideally, instigate action.  In other words, journalism is about “exposure” or “shedding light” on topics important for citizens to know about. It is in this sense that modern journalism emerges from The Enlightenment (more on this connection next week). 

In Daniel’s post, we learn of the “secret” rise of homelessness all across the nation and actions we can take to counter this problem.  Rugayyah, in turn, cites an article on the rise in Adolescent Depression, a growing problem that, as we’ll discuss, is enhanced by all-too-easy access to Social Media. Somewhat relatedly, Carolyn discusses how an Australian youth (Dylan Voller) featured in a Juvenile Detention program successfully sued Facebook for allowing users to publish defamatory posts about him.

In his post, Eric carefully examines the photo of a US Border Patrolman on Horseback “rounding up” Haitian immigrants at the Mexican/American border to show just how big an impact the media can have to affect public opinion.  Anderson also highlights this “watchdog” feature, pointing to how the media followed the sexual misconduct of our Governor (Andrew Cuomo), effectively forcing him out of office.  In a somewhat similar vein, Sean writes of how media coverage of the poor treatment of inmates at Riker’s Island put real pressure on our Mayor (De Blasio) to mitigate the crisis.

As these and other excellent examples you all provided reveal, the media at times does indeed “do” its job, calling for (in the eloquent words of Melissa): “truth to power, free, critical thinking, and analysis.”

Melissa also focuses on the importance of a host of independent media sites that “allow me to think for myself and draw my conclusions and formulate my own opinions.”

Her “go-to” sites include Consortium News, Substack (where you can create your own blog), the blog of Jonathan Turley, and the twitter account of Glenn Greenwald — all of which I highly encourage you to peruse.

To these, I add some of my own alt-favorites Democracy Now and Citizen (which covers neighborhood news) as well as an Art, Culture, and Politics site I created while in graduate school: CJASMonthly.

Next week, we will be focusing on the First Amendment and the History of Fake News, but I will hold off on this topic to give you more time to finish your Student Profiles.  Please be sure to have these completed by Monday, Oct. 4. 

REMINDER: Upload your interview here: googledocs dropbox. (To upload press “new” (on upper left corner) and “upload file” from your computer. )

Read the JournalismStudentProfile2021 for directions.

Here is a sample: Sample Profile Assignment 

 If you are having issues finishing this assignment (or reaching your interview partner), please contact me immediately (mnoonan@citytech.cuny.edu).