WDRB Critique 5

WDRB Media Critique #4

Overall as a news source, I think WDRB is not a good one. It often fills much of its front page with fluff and almost never includes interesting investigative reporting. In my past few critiques I’ve linked a few articles which were horrible examples of good journalism ( or rather amazing examples of bad journalism..) WDRB is also very biased towards conservative views. There is nothing wrong with being a conservative. However, when your political views affect how you write your stories and what you include in them, it breaks a huge journalistic rule (remaining unbiased). For these reasons I think WDRB is not a good source to get news from

WDRB Media Critique #3

This story is the worst case of fluff I have ever seen. I was scrolling through WDRB’s website and I found this story http://www.wdrb.com/story/39408734/brady-bunch-cast-reunites-at-tv-home-before-reality-show-renovation.
The first thing that caught my eye with this story is that it was about a reality TV show. On a major news source like WDRB this doesn’t belong high on the first page. This is “news” more fit for a gas station tabloid. There are also no sources included in this article except for paraphrased quotes from cast members and a few tweet screenshots. That’s why overall this is a horrendous news story.

WDRB Critique #2

Media Critique #2

http://www.wdrb.com/story/39409210/judge-rules-crystal-rogers-son-can-no-longer-see-his-grandmother-sherry-ballard

In this article it explains that a three-judge panel of the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the 6-year-old son of Crystal Rogers, the Bardstown woman who disappeared in July 2015 and is assumed dead, is no longer allowed to visit his grandmother, Sherry Ballard.

I do not consider this as newsworthy at all! This only affects one small family in Kentucky. It was the third post down on the website and does not need that attention when many other stories could be in its place. WDRB has continuously had an issue with newsworthiness and I think it needs to be addressed.

News Critique #1 WDRB

The news story I’m going to be critiquing is http://www.wdrb.com/story/39383882/gum-bottled-water-pizza-bagels-want-to-be-called-healthy on WDRB.
This is not a newsworthy story to be on the front page of the website. It’s nothing that the people of Louisville need to know and it’s simply fluff. This could’ve been replaced by another news story.

However, I will say that the reporter did a good gob of including sources and numbers. There are good facts included in the article but overall it is not a great story to be an the front page of WDRB and more appropriate on a human interest website such as Buzzfeed and such.

Mass Communication

We had a very lively class discussion about mass communication. I feel like I learned a lot during it. An interesting way I learned to tell if something is mass communication or not is that with mass communication there is no immediate feedback. I has also never thought in depth about the steps in communication. I think that having that knowledge will help me communicate in the future.

Class Discussion on The Elements & Yardsticks

One of the first class discussions we had was about The Elements and Yardsticks of Journalism. Before we talked about this, I had NO idea there could be so many rules about journalism. I had watched news and read articles with no regard for the quality of the news and more just what the event was. Now I can’t even look at a news article on my phone without going through some of the Yardsticks in my head to test the journalist on. I think one of the most important elements is “Make the important interesting.” If journalists need to inform the public about some new very important information, the should make it interesting so that readers will be engaged and happy to read about it. This will mean more people will read the article, and therefore more of the public will stay educated about the discovery.