My life has been busy, but very awesome. :)  Over Christmas break I had my gallbladder removed the day after my last final.  Even though it was no fun at all and like Cody said, "We have to do everything for her like she's a baby."  Now that I can move and do everything I could before I am so thankful for the surgery.  My stomach (gallbladder) doesn't hurt anymore and the only time I do have pain is when I eat too much, but who can complain about that? :)

For a week of our Christmas break my family went to St. George where I read a bunch of books in the sun and got to hang out with my fabulous family.  Christmas was a good one and by that time I wasn't on very many pain meds, so I was aware for all of it.  Both Dave and Cody got long boards and that was a hit with all the boys as well as one of the basketball hoops that go on the back of a door.  I got an adorable new outfit along with a bunch of other stuff, like new books and perfume. :)  Because I couldn't do much both in St. George and at home I got to watch almost every College Football Bowl week game, I was in heaven!

For New Years Eve, Ashley, Candace, Ariana and I went to a party and had so much fun dancing, laughing, eating and catching each other up on our lives. 
Too soon school started again, but I was very ready for all of my friends being back.  My new classes are going to be hard, but almost all of them will be worth it.  I am taking a film class, Principles of Journalism class, Geology class, Shakespeare class, Doctrine and Covenants Class and on a Folk Dance team.

But before we got too far into our classes we, meaning the boys from 25, Emilee, Mal, Taylor, Chad, and me, took a trip to St. George over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and it was a much needed get away from the wonderful, but sometimes suffocating Provo bubble.  We went caving, played tennis, watched movies, went swimming and laughed a lot, it was fabulous!
Now, I am back in the daily grind of life with small respites of rock climbing with Chad and making desserts late at night with Taylor. :)

Modern American Journalism and Truth.

Truth is an interesting thing especially when it comes to journalism.  One of the main things that journalists try to do is get the facts, but the problem with that is that the journalist isn't there when the event they are reporting about happened.  Now, this journalist has to try to get the truth from the people that were at the event, but all of these people have different versions of the truth, with all of their own biases and perspectives on what happened.
Another issue with getting the truth out there is that any journalist, however hard they try is going to be biased toward one thing or another.  While only the providing the facts, little phrases or even just words can show how the journalist feels about the situation or the person that they are writing about.  The unbiased truth is hard to come by in modern American journalism, not only because of the journalists themselves, but because of the people and environment in which they live.

Anonymous Sources in American Journalism

This is a very interesting subject that I hadn't ever given much thought until I started learning more about journalism and the correct way to write articles for journalism.  Most of the things I wrote about of course were students that I stopped on campus or people that I interviewed in my apartment complex, so they didn't need confidentiality, but these people were allowing me to connect their words to their names and had faith that I would do so in a fair way.
After doing these interviews and realizing the trust people have to have in the journalists they talk to, anonymous sources make a little bit more sense.  Some people don't want to be known for the things that they know or say about certain subjects.  But as a journalist or an editor it is hard to publish something that the readers will not credit as well, because there isn't a name attached to the information.  This problem puts many journalists in a tough position, because they want to let the people know everything, but many editors don't allow journalists to quote anonymous sources in articles for the reason stated before, along with others.
I feel that anonymous sources should be used, but only extremely sparingly, because without the use of anonymous sources at least sometimes the citizens of the USA may not have ever known about the Watergate scandal.

What is Journalism?

Journalism has recently begun to be scrutinized more and more as the digital age has made it possible for “anyone to be a journalist”.  It has always been a way for the public to get information, but because of this new information age it is much harder sometimes to distinguish the journalists from the general public.  Many people have blogs that can be read by anyone with a computer.  If the information on those blogs is correct or not is another matter entirely, but the fact that there are people that are putting news of any sort out there is considered journalism.  In this new age journalists, that used to be gatekeepers that restricted what information gets to the public, are becoming a new kind of gatekeeper by not restricting the information, but making sense of it.  Journalism in the tradition sense is becoming the way people double check facts and try to understand the information they learned throughout the day from other sources.  It is changing, but journalism isn’t going anywhere any time soon, because of the trust that the public and journalists share.

Daily Universe Going Digital

When I first read about the Daily Universe going to a digital-first format I was distraught, because I love to hold a newspaper in my hand when I read it, but I had to admit that I usually use my computer to check up on news, making me realize that the staff that voted for this new format understand the changing times.  In the article in the Daily Herald it talked about the opportunity that switching to a mostly digital newspaper will be for the students in the journalism curriculum, because the world is going to a digital newspaper along with almost everything else.  Now, when students work for the Universe (which is what it will be called when it goes to the digital-first format) they will have a much more similar experience to what they would be doing at almost any other newspaper in the country.  This alone makes the switch worth it, because one main reason for the Daily Universe is to help journalism students get real life experience.  The other issue that the Daily Universe was having, that the article in the Daily Herald illustrated, was that they had been operating at a loss since 2009.  The main reason for the change to a digital-first format is for the students I am sure, but the financial side of things couldn’t be ignored either.  So, when looked at from that perspective switching the Daily Universe to a online newspaper with a once a week paper edition will be better for everyone involved, even though it is still going to be a hard change.

Who are Journalists?

Journalists are an interesting breed.  They are a group of people that love to read and write, with a curiosity that is never satisfied.  These people are also doing what they love, because the starting salary for most journalists that graduated from college in 2006 was $30,000 (Willis, pg 1).  That isn’t the salary that these journalists end with, but because of that starting salary, we can assume that journalists certainly are not in their profession for the money.  Another thing that sets journalists apart from most people is the fact that they like being on the inside and the opportunity they have to rub shoulders with the newsmakers of the world.  These people will start at a low salary, so that they can know the information first and be able to share that information with anyone that is watching or reading the end result of the Journalist's work.  Journalists are a certain type of person that not everyone falls into because they have to have all of the qualities I have mentioned above, as well as have these qualities to the extent that they sacrifice late nights and early mornings to work on a project that won’t pay them as much as they most likely put into it.

The Mind of a Journalist -Jim Willis

Principles of Journalism

This semester in my Principles of Journalism class I have been asked to write blog posts pertaining to the class.  So, interspersed with my life blog posts there are also going to be posts about the Journalism world.  There is your warning! :)