PressEthic

The convergence of media continues as television moves online. Democracy Television, an internet TV platform, allows users to freely share and watch videos from the internet in one convenient interface. This could potentially change the face of television by putting it out of business.

An article in the New York Times on Thursday talks about Wal-Mart's recent decrease in sales in November due to many of its overhaul strategies. To me, the article read more like an opinion piece.

Niche news sites like Slashdot.org seem to be catching on quickly in the world of online news. Could people be turning more and more to pages like this to get the news they want?

On November 20, CNN reported that websites cannot be sued for libelous information published by third parties, according to a California Supreme Court ruling. This decision could have serious effects on the world of journalism and media: free online expression is taking precedence over libel material.

We've all spent time browsing sites such as Wikipedia for information. However, how reliable and accurate are user-based systems of information on the Internet? How trusting or skeptical should we be?

This may be kind of old news for some of us, but an article in last Friday's New York Times is a testament to how much the world of media and advertising is changing. In response to the way Americans have learned to zone out commercials or fast forward, marketers are now turning advertisements into their own television shows and movies. Advertisers have become so fed up with smart consumers that they're turning the tables on us, and this doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

The Chicago Independent Media Center recently published the last words and mission statement of a man who burned himself alive to make a political statement about peace. In an age where war and protest are becoming more and more prevalent, how should such politically-charged subjects be tackled by journalists?

The New York Times scolded news outlets ESPN and the The Fort Worth Star-Telegram for reporting bids for the Japanese baseball pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka, through anonymous sources. Should the news outlets have kept quiet about the bids until they were made official? Did the New York Times handle the situation ethically?

While changes in the media are seriously affecting newspapers on the East Coast, changes in the media are also seriously affecting media industries on the West Coast, more specifically, Hollywood.

Is something a conflict of interest if inclusion is relevant to the article? I recently interviewed a marathon runner whose girlfriend happened to be a freelance journalist for the very paper I pitched the story to.

The Republican National Committee has put out a commercial of footage from several Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda interviews. With the elections creeping closer and closer, it seems as if the Republican party has become so afraid to lose their seats in Congress that it has stooped to scaring the American population into voting for them.

In the November issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the front cover features a political cartoon portraying the current Congress. The article is called: "Time to Go! Incompetent, Lazy, and Corrupt: Inside the Worst Congress Ever." Is something this politically biased fair game in the magazine world?

An article written by a teenager in the Gotham Gazette outlined the re-introduction of a bill to lower the voting age to 16 in local elections. If the bill is passed, New York's 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in the upcoming November elections.

In light of the debate that the evolution story spurred, I thought I'd bring up another interesting religious debate. As I was reading the New York Times online, I came across an advertisement for Fordham University, a Jesuit college.

Is it possible for a journalist to comment on controversial issues outside of their journalistic arena and still maintain their credibility? This week, a bay area news anchor's future was compromised when he went on his radio talk show and talked about the controversial topic of a gay man and lesbian woman's child. An article in Inside Bay Area covers it: