Synthesis and Reflection

Media Law
Recently in  my journalism class we have been talking about the laws writers can face throughout their career. Through this, I learned and reviewed a lot of important information that will be very useful in the future. One new concept that we discussed was libel, the publication of false statements that lead to the defamation of someones character. Before this class I had only ever heard the word libel a few times, and even then the information was never relevant to me, so talking about it in journalism was an eye opening experience for me.

After learning just how big of a deal lying in journalism actually is, I will make sure that all the information I report on is accurate, and will do that by fact checking my information with multiple other sources. I don't want to ruin my reputation, and possibly my career, by lying in my work.


Fake News
In my same class, we have also been reviewing fake news, and other similar writing strategies. One of the concepts that I find intriguing is biased news. Biased news is writing about a topic from a specific perspective, in order to push people into feeling or reacting a certain way.

This concept really makes me wonder what articles I have read in the past that were published to persuade or trick me. It also makes me curious as to if I have subconsciously participated in writing biased pieces of work. I now know to watch out for any loaded language in my work, and to try my best to stay neutral when writing.