Uop Humanities 176 Week 8 Assignment

Part One
“You are the chief editor of a large metropolitan daily newspaper. One of your reporters is caught fabricating sources and making up facts. How do you handle the situation, from disciplining the reporter to explaining it to your readers?”

I would have to say that I would handle the situation by firing the person who was involved with the fabrication of sources and facts. I would fire the person because I feel that the integrity of that persons work would always be in question as well as the newspaper would be questioned as to having reliable reporters so long as that person kept his or her job. How I would break the information to the public would be by making the story a front page leading story to be able to show everyone that we are not hiding behind a questionable reporter and that we are acknowledging the problem, had a solution for the problem, and will address the problem publically.
I believe that a newspaper or news source needs to be honest and not have its integrity questioned. If someone is caught outright lying I know I would never trust that person or newspaper so long as that person is still associated with it. I know it sounds drastic but I believe that honesty and reliability are some of the core responsibilities of a newspaper and thus if anyone works there that has questionable traits or is caught outright lying that paper will never be able to come back from that negative image so long as that person is writing for the paper or is involved with the paper at all. Integrity is a core component for writing factual evidence, and outright lying brings into question what the motivations are for the reporter, and not only that, everything that the reporter has written previously will be questioned because if the person has lied for one report what reassurance do the people have for the fact that the reporter has not lied before?
I feel that acknowledging the problem by making it a cover story for the paper is the only way to honorably report on the situation. By making it a cover story it gives the readers the reassurance that the paper is aware of the problem, and is taking the proper means to solve the problem. It also gives the readers the knowledge that the newspaper did not support or condone that reporter’s actions and that the newspaper feels that integrity, honesty, and credible reporting is the importance and does not have ulterior motives. It is best to make it front page news because I feel that once it becomes public knowledge the other news sources will cover the story and try to use it to boost ratings or sales of their own papers, so trying to hide from the fact that it happened would not be effective nor would it inspire confidence from the readers about your paper.
As I have said before I cannot stress enough how important honesty and integrity are for a newspaper. Considering how many different sources are available to acquire news having a person on staff that has been caught cheating and lying will pretty much destroy a newspaper. Does firing the person seem a bit drastic? I’d have to say yes it does seem drastic, but given the alternatives of keeping the person on staff and having anything that person writes be in question or edits in question is just not worth the loss of readers and money. Firing the reporter in this case will show the public that you will rectify a situation that calls into question the papers integrity, as well as use that reporter as an example to the other reporters that they will lose their job should they ever use false information in their reporting. It promotes honesty with your reporters and gives the public a better feeling towards your paper. I feel it is a win-win situation for everyone except the reporter who got caught lying.

Part 2.
Explain the effect of relationships among television, movies, and electronic games with culture.

The effect of relationships among television, movies, and electronic games with culture is that those things basically define culture. What I mean is that just about every aspect of our lives now has some sort of interaction with one of those things. We now have DVR’s to record shows that we miss at work, movies make millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars, and gaming has become a mainstay in just about everyone’s house. Since life revolves around communication or interactivity between people, television shows, movies and games all promote interactivity in their own way. Culture in a rudimentary way is defined by what we watch, what we play, and what we listen to, so it is quite easy to see what the relationships are for entertainment and culture.
Television shows are one of the prime ways for entertainment to interact with popular culture. With the DVR being invented, Television is even more involved with popular culture because you can easily record any program you want and never have to worry about what time a show may come on at because you can watch it when you want to as opposed to when the show is originally broadcasted. You have shows like Hoarders and Intervention which shows people with problems and their struggles with overcoming those problems. You also have shows like Ellen, Dr. Oz, and previously Oprah which are talk shows that talks about celebrities, real world problems, or health related issues as well. You also have shows like American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and The X Factor which gives people the ability to become a television star (from just being on the show) or become a world famous singer or entertainment act, and all of these shows come with the fact that they have millions upon millions of weekly viewers. Magazines and newspapers talk about these shows, and not only that, other shows talk about these shows as well. To say that television is not a part of popular culture is equivalent to saying you do not need air to breathe.
Movies are much in the same vein as Television. It is a medium that has become part of culture based off the fact that it has such a big audience, financial gain, and popularity among people. You have movies that are bringing back old games, toys and comics, with movies like Transformers, Xmen, Spiderman, The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, GI Joes, Batman, etc. Movies are a way for new technological advancements to be brought to the public’s eye in the forms of computer animation, 3d animation and other special effects and makeup or robotic controls.
Gaming now has become a lifeblood or popular culture. You have games designed for every age group from the youngest of children with educational games to games that even the oldest generation can play like games on Facebook. You have games for people who consider themselves “hard core” gamers and even have professional gaming as a way to make a living. Games like World of Warcraft have millions of subscribers who pay a monthly fee to be able to play a game online with millions of other people. Games also promote controversy over aspects of violence, sex, nudity and a sense of appropriateness for popular culture. Games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt are prime examples of games that promote controversy just due to the content of those games and even more so with the fact that they have been banned in countries, or have been blamed for acts of violence. Gaming has came from a sort of taboo entertainment medium that only “geeks or nerds” play to a more socially acceptable medium due to games like the ones you find on Facebook and other causal games such as the games you can find on consoles like the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and Nintendo Wii, and surprisingly enough you can even find games that promote being healthy by playing games such as Wii Sports, or fitness games. You can even play a game to help learn how to play certain musical instruments with games like Rockband or Guitar Hero, which allows you to play with a game controller that is designed like an instrument which will help you develop the fundamental finger and hand control to play certain instruments.