Gun Threat Closes University of Chicago

There was an online anonymous threat to the University of Chicago for Monday, November 30.  The FBI warned the school that the shooting was said to happen at the quad at 10 am.  The University felt it was necessary to cancel classes on Monday as a safety precaution after what has been happening world wide and across other campuses.  Students were encouraged to stay off campus and inside.

Amanda Blackburn Case

A pastors pregnant wife from Indiana was murdered and an 18 year old man was arrested for it.  Larry Taylor was faced with the murder charges of Amanda Blackburn.  There are still 2 other suspects that detectives are working towards finding more information on.  All three men went into the Blackburn home after Davey Blackburn had left to go workout and confronted Amanda.  Detectives say that when two of the suspects left the house to steal money of one of the Blackburn's care, Taylor raped Amanda, then shot her, all while a 15 month old baby was in his crib upstairs.

States Reject Refugees

After the terrorist attacks in Paris, governors of many states have rejected to accept any refugees into their states.  Michigan and Alabama have both stated that they will not be open to accepting any refugees because one of the Paris attackers was undercover as a refugee.  Governors believe that accepting refugees puts the people of their states at high risks of Islamic Terrorism.  Governor Bentley of Alabama says "As your governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harms way."

New Orleans Shooting

Hundreds of people gathered at a playground in New Orleans for a music video shooting late Sunday night and two groups started shooting at each other, and 16 people were injured.  Police were already on the way to the scene before extreme violence broke out because people heard gunshots from around the block.  Detectives are still trying to find more evidence on the shooting or find surveillance videos.

Protestor Assaulted at Donald Trump Rally

At a campaign rally for Donald Trump a man began to shout "black live matter" in the middle of Trump's speech.  He was wearing a shirt that had the same phrase on it and was then tackled to the ground by people attending the rally.  No arrests were made and there was no need for medical attention but kicks and punches were thrown. The man was escorted out along with 3 other people who were asked to leave the rally. 

ISIS Threats

ISIS fighters have threatened not only France, but Italy and the US as well.  There have been threats of them blowing up the White House, and attacking New York City.  In the video there is evidence of an explosive being put together and talk of targeting time square.  Obama spoke on how terrorists goals is to intimidate its targets before reaching them, and that New York will remain un intimidated.  Although some of the footage is not new, NYC will remain in contacts with the FBI and keep their city aware of what is going on.  The FBI states that there have been no direct threats towards the US yet.

Kenya

Kenya has had a multi party system of over 50 parties since 1992, but two parties have dominated since 2007.  The KANU, short for Kenya African National Union represents those closely associated with urban oriented Nationalism and is highly centralized.  The KADU, short for Kenya African Democratic Union represents more rural and pastoral tribes and fears concentration of power by any central government.  The main conflict between these two tribes is tribalism because each party has a core group of tribes committed to such party.  Since 1964, KANU has been most dominant.  Kenya's Republic government style has a new constitution that has recently been adopted and 3 branches of government.  Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary, like the United States.  The Executive branch hosts the President.  Most conflict in Kenya arises around topics such as borders and land.  Kenya suffered from political violence ever since they became an independent country.  The KANU activists started gangs during the 1992 elections and ever since have had violent discrepancies with many.  In the 2007 election, more than 1000 Kenyans lost their lives due to violence over disagreement among parties.  They are working to solve this problem with reforming institutions and ensuring accountability.

Walmart's Wages

Veteran's from everywhere come home and find work somewhere with very simple tasks.  Companies speak so highly of their veteran plans and how they treat them when in all honesty their actions don't meet their promises.  This year Walmart started a program called "Greenlight a vet" where they focus "to help create visible and actionable national support for America's veterans and their families,"  and aim to hire 250,000 veterans by 2016.  Though they may be providing jobs,  they are not providing wages for veterans or anyone who works there to support a family event hough Walmart made $400 billion in profit last year.  Veterans are not asking for special treatment, they would just appreciate their hard work, commitment, and selflessness to be acknowledged.

Donald Trump's Immigration Plan

Many are saying that Trump "won" the debate for toning himself down a little and giving clear, well spoken answers.  Trump plans to deport 11 million illegal immigrants from the United States, but fails to talk about how this drastic change could hurt our economy.  He simply thinks we need them out, they are illegal, therefor do not belong in our country.  He stayed calm while debating the topic of immigration which is a large step in the world of Donald Trump.  He reminded us that our country is a country of laws, and if we continuously break them and do nothing about it then we are not a country at all.

Republican Debate

All republican candidates came came in needing to focus on different things.  Jeb Bush needed to big performance, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz wanted to continue to dominate and uphold their momentum in the race.  Ron Paul just wanted to be heard.  Rubio did well and hit all the important subjects, but en Carson was asked difficult questions that Rubio avoided.  Ted Cruz's performance could help him rise above the other candidates.  Cruz stayed moderate on some topics that other candidates were found to be slamming parties.  Donald Trump's debate skills have seemed to improve because he gave longer and more in depth responses regarding foreign policy.

University of Alabama Police Beating

After Alabama's big win everyone was celebrating.  When police were called about loud music they made their way to the apartment students began to quiet down. It is unclear what cause the commotion, but when the police arrived students in other apartments saw kids being thrown out the door on to the ground.  video shows police beating the students with batons and using stun guns.  Students were arrested and cops have been put on administrative leave until the case is resolved. 

Sexting in Colorado

Teenagers in Canon City, Colorado are starting to worry about getting charged with child pornography after sending around nude photos.  Many students at Canon City High School are under investigation and police are informing attorneys that many of these student will have to register as sex offenders.  All patrol officers in Cannon City will be participating in the investigation for the nest month, which has sent their community into a wide spread panic.  In some cases, students are being sent to juvenile court.  Footballs games were cancelled because the coach figured out that many players were involved in the situation. 

Man Behind the Mosque

1) Assume that the documentary, The Man Behind the Mosque, provided an accurate and research-based perspective on how the “Ground Zero Mosque” became a story. Based on what you saw there, what steps can you remember the cable-news media covering the story taking to investigate who was actually behind the Mosque in terms of mission, goals, and funding?
- people spoke on personal and family needs
-some irrelevant people were asked question when they had nothing to do with it
2) Who brought the story of the “Ground Zero Mosque” to Fox News, the station that broke the story and led coverage of the story?
-Obama
3) It can be argued that much of the cable news coverage of the story was just that – coverage of a “story,” and how people felt about this “story,” rather than actual reporting.  Explain how we can see this at work
- People spoke about their personal opinions
- "reports" are all biased to whether or not they were effected by 9/11
- coverage included only very strong opinions one way or another.  No facts were included, only how people were effected by the situation
- such varied opinions 
4) The journalists of Frontline included coverage of and interviews with the staff of Park 51 (the NYU grad and a couple other part-timers).  Do these individuals appear ever to have been interviewed on cable-news?
- no
5) What sources did Cable news appear to rely on for knowledge and expertise about Islam?  How credible did you find these sources?  Why?
- they relied on the muslim guy (forgot his name) but he is not reliable he is a biased source
6) How relevant is the ownership of a media source for understanding its goals and how its goals may shape bias in its coverage?  
- it is important to know the bias because often times you might get information to sway opinions
7)Who was, at the time of the Ground Zero Mosque story, the second largest shareholder in the News Corp?
- saudi prince
8) If you bring up the topic of the Ground Zero mosque today, many people might say something like, “Oh yeah . . . What ever happened to that?”  Think about it:  Given the level of urgency that was attached to the story, why did cable news just stop covering the story of the Mosque at Ground Zero?
- the progress on debating the situation was not going anywhere 
-eventually agreed to not build there so it wasn't relevant

How American's Get TV and News at Home

link

This article focuses on the different ways people at home get their news.  The 3 main ways are Local Tv News, Network TV News, and Cable TV news.  The article touches on how influential these different sources are to people and how much time people spend watching and getting news information.  Overtime people have become more reliant on television so newspaper and radio numbers have dropped.

top 10 facts:
1) "the cable news audience devotes twice as much time to that news source as local and network news"
2) "cable television seems to have an outside ability yo influence the national debate and news agenda"
3) "when the audience is largest cable talk shows tend to hammer away at somewhat narrow new's agenda that magnifies the day's more polarizing and ideological issues."
4) "most dedicated cable news viewers 72 minutes."
5) "significant declines in Americans' reliance on newspaper and radio over time."
6) "local news audience is highest during the late 11 p.m. newscast"
7) "more than half of the adult Americans watch more than one form of television news."
8) "Fox News and MSNBC appeal to different politically segments audiences"
9) "there is more crossover news consumption on the television side of the three competitive cable news outlets than there is on their digital properties."
10) "people in the top category for each platform-the heaviest users in terms of time spent-are far more engaged than those in tiers two and three."

intro to media

1) list as many types of media you can think of:
-twitter
-instagram
-facebook
-snapchat
-radio
-television
-newspaper
-magazines
2) investigate ownership of media in the US.  Find an article or chart that will allow you to identify the corporations that actually own mainstream media outlets like ESPN, Disney, FoxNews, CNN, NBC, Etc.,  Write down what you find.
-90% of media is controlled by 6 companies

3) Find a list that identifies universities with what are considered the top programs for journalism. Pick anyone you like, and then go to the website to investigate that school’s journalism program, as if you were a prospective student.  What can you learn about the professional values, standards, and practices associated with professional journalism?  (Write it down)
-Emmerson College
-Northwestern University
-University of Texas at Austin
-Boston University
-University of Southern California
---think critically, write effectively
---media center: broadcast tv, radio studios, editing suites
4) Historically, the media in the United States has often been viewed as playing the role of “watchdog.” Do research to understand the watchdog role of the media so that you can answer these questions:  Who is being watched?  Who is being protected?  And from what?
-mainly monitor government officials
-ex. watergate scandal
-protect people 
-keeps people honest
-gets the truth to the people
5) What have you heard about “liberal bias”? (Don’t do research for this one – just write down what you have heard about this phrase.  If you have never heard this phrase before, say so, and then explain what you think it might mean.) 
-i have never heard the term before
-I know bias means a swayed opinion or a lack of opinion so i am guessing that liberal bias is opinions that swing more towards the left wing, lacking conservative opinions

Chipotle E Coli Scare

Chipotle shut down many of their locations in Washington and Oregon due to an E Coli scare.  Nobody has died but seven people have been hospitalized.  The source has not been confirmed but medics are relating the break out to Mexican themed restaurants.  Chipotle has closed 43 stores in the areas to take caution.