Class blog – Page 31 – Online Reporting, Research & Writing

How a soldier had PTSD and killed officers; FOIA used to prove it

A former soldier killed five Dallas police officers in July, 2016 during protests after returning overseas on duty. Information about the case was obtained through The Associated Press by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This act allows the public to access data and reports if the information does not contradict any of the exemptions that are set beforehand by the act.

FOIA.gov provides information on the Freedom of Information Act and the exemptions to the act as well.

AP News reported the story of the veteran that was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before the murder. It is proven that the 25 year-old man, Micah Johnson was seeking assistance for his anxiety and depression but physicians didn’t think he was at risk of harming himself or others and therefore did not act on his concerns.

jass23 — AP News reports a story about a veteran who was experiencing PTSD and kills 5 officers.

Reporters at AP News got their hands of records on the case thanks to the FOIA that stated Johnathan experienced an anxiety attack that required police and made Jonathan feel like, “My heart felt like someone was pinching it while it was beating fast.” Yet even as the soldier told this to doctors, no one diagnosed him with PTSD, something like this discovery could have saved the policemen’s lives.

When I initially finished reading this story, two thoughts came to me:

1) How did the reporters get records of a patient’s health information? Doesn’t this violate exemption 6 of the FOIA which states the FOIA, “Protects information about individuals in personnel and medical files.”

2) Are doctors really the ones to blame for allowing him go out in society? I try to say this with little bias because I’m conflicted with what I’m supposed to think since I try to look at each situation from every angle and give the benefit of the doubt. Why would doctors be dishonest in saying Jonathan was not a harm to himself or society? I don’t think he was a glaring warning sign to any of these doctors hence them letting go. However, they should have listened to Jonathan’s concerns more carefully and maybe prescribed him medication if symptoms persisted.

Coming from a potential future doctor, I fear ever letting a patient leaving my presence without making an effort to make them feel better. So perhaps Jonathan was at a disadvantage.

Podcasting has evolved!

Podcasting really had evolved and it’s leaving evidence and audience everywhere as it grows.

I found it to be interesting to blog about because social media has and is rapidly growing in new innovative ways like podcasting.

For instance, PBS NewsHour, posts daily and is listed as one of the most significant nightly news programs in America.

Podcasting also has it to whereas the BBC news audience can tune in on its iTunes app twice daily; more and more people are now getting easier accessibility to stay in touch with what’s going on because of these types of podcasting apps.

Podcasting allows one to give creative voice and visuals which helps with growing their viewers attention by sharing information with others in newer styles because of the changing time we are now living in.

I found doing research on podcasting to be overall interesting because it’s something anyone can do to display information, art or many other interesting ideas and skills with the world or groups of interest.

Pastor and 3 others slain in Detroit shooting rampage reported on CBS News

Although I don’t like reporting on negative topics, this CBS news lede says it all. For instance, one can clearly see what has taking place in the lede, the reader also can immediately see the location to whereas the incident took place.(Free Google picture art)

Furthermore, the reader can see in the lede above, who and how just enough whereas it will draw in a intretested reader as it did myself at the time being a I’m a resident of Detroit.

I also found that a good lede with the a big cty city name provided like Detroit, can bring in more readers and be more impactful than the actual story sometimes. A good lede however, can really be conducive to getting a readers interest enough to wanting to read more on their given topic.

Having key words in a lede also helps the reader to know if they’ll be interested in the story or not quickly and that’s very important for the publisher to know and to utilize quality ledes if they’re wanting to reach a large amount of readers at once.

$99 malware

Once again The Know brings attention to a new story in the tech industry. Recently a content developer for Microsoft Flight Simulator X launched a new model of plane available for purchase at a price of $99. What is interesting is that when the new plane model is installed another program that searches the computer for user passwords is also installed. The developer claims that the program was only sniffing for players that had pirated the game so the developer could press charges.

The Know does a good job in their video explaining both sides of the story, the redditor that found the program and the content developer’s response to the accusation. The Know also weaves in some comedy to make the story entertaining. Finally The Know clearly explains the facts of the story so personal opinions can be formed.

Net neutrality lede

An article I found recently, while from a… questionable source, actually had a pretty decent lede. It answers the who, what, when, and how. It leaves out the where and why because the where is irrelevant (it’s the whole internet) and the why is a much longer story than the lede can provide.

lede

I think this is a good lede because it is only two sentences on four lines, but you get the main point of net neutrality getting repealed soon. Now this isn’t a perfect lede, in fact I would say that it is rather far from one. The lede implies, at least to me, that ISPs and cable companies are malicious and instinctively going to take advantage of the situation, which is not completely true. At least they get the important information right.