It is important for consumers of news media to be given accurate information that does not have mistakes because if the information is false and the consumers of news media base all of their opinions on just that piece of information other people will do the same and soon the whole country or the world will be given the wrong idea of the situation. This matters so much because if everyone has already strongly supported their opinion of the information they received and the news company retracted what they previously said about the situation the company will probably not be trusted in providing credible news stories.
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When you ask the question, should journalists leak classified government information to the public, you'll probably have answers where different perspectives exist. For example someone would say that that they should be able to do that because the public has the right to the truth. Another example would be no, journalists should not be able to leak classified government information because the information could endanger the lives of the people who are involved with it. The side I would take would be that I think journalists should not leak classified government information to the public because it's classified for a reason. The information could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.
A whistle-blower is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that either private or public. They are important in journalism because they reveal information that no one knows about. They help the public understand the secret information that they announce that might help our society or change it. Some ethical problems that journalists might face when publishing such information is whether or not they should publish it, will the information they publish effect the society in a negative way, and will it effect other countries in a negative way as well. They might also think that it could put the people that are apart of the secret information in danger of jail or they could be killed.
Today I did a program called "Break Out EDU". It's an activity that requires a lot of critical thinking to find clues, unlock the locks, and discover the mystery. What I learned about working in teams is that we need to communicate to get different ideas heard. What I learned about problem-solving is that to get your answer you need many ideas. What I learned about being a journalist is that you always need to fact-check your information and investigate every single clue or piece of information you have.
The above quote means that the information you receive must be verified as a fact to be effective in helping other people. For example if you are a journalist and police are working on a murder case that you are reporting and pedestrians tell you information about the case. The thing is they were not a witness, so you need to check with the witnesses or the forensic scientists to check the information you acquired. I think average people today do not verify the information they hear/watch/read. I don't think so because when they hear/watch/read something they do not want to have the hassle of checking for facts and opinions. They want to be able to trust what they hear/watch/read. I think it is important to know how to fact-check as a reader and consumer of news and media because not all the information you collect is true. You would like to make sure that the information is true because when it isn't true your perspective on the situation changes dramatically. You always need to make sure it's the truth before you say something about what is happening.
The purpose of journalists in the world are for them to provide the public with news. Journalists are counted on to always give the truth in news stories. When Jefferson said he would prefer newspapers without government compared to a government without newspapers he meant he would want to receive all the news, info, and the truth rather
than a stable government. The problem with this is that there would be no laws and society would not run well. Censorship is government control over information or anything written or read or watched by citizens. Some countries that practice censorship are North Korea, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. Some governments perhaps censor things that people write because they want to control what the press says about them. For example if the press says that the government is stealing money or they are corrupt they will censor that article from the country's people to make sure that they stay in control.
Freedom of the press is important because it is one of our rights included in the first ten amendments of the Constitution. The United States is a democracy, which is a system of government ruled by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. This democracy allows us to have many freedoms. Freedom of the press allows for a democracy because journalists say and write what they call for changes to the government if it is ran carelessly. Many countries do not allow freedom of the press. The press in many other countries go to jail or get beaten and sometimes even killed for expressing their valued opinions or criticizing the government.
News literacy is learning how to read and right news efficiently or well. It matters in our lives because our lives our becoming more and more dependent on technology and with that comes many opinions from many different people. We need to make sure that our generation knows how to tell the difference between real news and phony news. We also need to know how to write news correctly and with real stories not fake ones.
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About the Author
My name is Haley Duran and I am currently a middle school student attending the Critical Current, Summer Enrichment Program. |