Blog Assignment #7: An “exit slip”

My own notes that I took during our meeting with Dr. Alexa Robertson:

·         Unwitting media - when something happens without purpose

·         Important to sort out the small questions, such as: who did what? Who said what? Who is who?

Making sense of media

·         Value quality and quantity - find the balance

·         http://www.ushahidi.com/

·         Economic threats to quality journalism

·         Tension between politicisation & professionalism

·         Crowdsourcing -

·         The problem with "old media" and "new media"

·         Egypt's Jon Stewart-

·         Dumbing down - celebrity politics

·         Power without responsibility?

o    Journalists have such political power but without any obligations and responsibility

o    No one votes for them but they have the strength and power to spread political beliefs

o    They are making and spreading the message without responsibilities

·         Relationship between media and democracy more complicated in globalized world

·         Everything is a competition - in media and on television

o    Glen Hysén in the new TV-show

·         What kind of problem is it?

o    Theoretical

o    Empirical

o    Normative

·         What is new? And what is a new twist on an old situation?

·         What is the general pattern? What are the cultural exceptions?

·         Who does it matter to - who are the stakeholders?

·         How can these ideas be tested empirically?

Reflection:

Alexa Robertson truly knew what she was talking about. Without notes she went through the basics of media; new and old, quality vs. quantity, media in the globalized world and so on. The part that most caught my attention was the part about journalists and their political power they possess without any responsibility. The journalists spread political messages and beliefs and they have the power to “tell those” in ways that might not always be the correct objective one, which makes us the readers form an opinion by reading in media. This is so important to know and I did not think of this at all before Dr. Robertson told us about it in class. The question of responsibility in media is one of the questions we have to ask ourselves. We have to be aware about all of this when we actively use media in our daily life.