blogs – Online Reporting, Research & Writing

Being biased sure doesn’t pay off

Ethics really does play a big role in one’s everyday communications and overall viewpoints in life.

When journaling or reporting on topics and issues, one’s unique writing skills will be influenced by one’s ethics as well. This is why being non-biased really does play a major part in getting the correct information because facts are a must.(free art from Google library)

Being non-biased while reporting allows the writer to focus more on facts than feelings; now don’t get me wrong, I personally believe all stories should have a sense of feeling, but it can also hinder a writers viewpoint. I, myself as a writer, have fallen victim to writing under emotions toward a story which needed more attention on the facts than the overall issue at hand. When reporting, one can easily hinder their own story by not paying attention to being a non-bias and letting their own feeling affect the fact.

I watched a video on how “Jouranalists Minimize their own Bias,” and i found it to be very helpful because it touched on fact checking, credibility and the importance of not being bias when writing.

The FOIA grants the people public access

The Freedom Of Information Act, (FOIA) was established in 1967, which helped to ensure public access of federal, state or local governments records that are needed for use. All requested information collected on each agency by the individual interested must then be submitted to the FOIA once received, this way there’s a public database full of records and information for all to access.

(free Google picture art)

Without the FOIA being established, it would make it very difficult to gather needed information and documentation on specific important issues from governmental agencies like the FDA, DEA, and other agencies like the ACLU, which is an agency that focuses on protecting individual rights like helping to protect young girls and women by reporting sexual assault and harassment in specific locations under the law.(free Google picture art)

Federal agencies must disclose all information requested under the FOIA, and I find this to be very interesting to know along with the fact that there’s only nine known exemptions given which protects more than one hundred company privacy laws.

The “Lede”, that is leading the way!

What Lede catches your eye?

We all know how important ledes are , and how they play such an important role to catch the readers eye. There is one however, that had caught my eye. There is a story concerning money, and well all know when money is involved , it trumps everything else. This particular lede is called , ” 3M is paying $850 million to end a years-long lawsuit claiming it contaminated water in its home state of Minnesota.

I would have to say that this lede gives us a very sufficient amount of information that would be needed. In such a small statement , it entails who it involves, what is going on , a time line of some sort , and where the situation took place. I believe that they give great details even later in the story , and that the lede gave the reader( me ) enough information to know what the story was going to be mostly about.

The story did not have any pictures on the actual blog, however, with the original story coming from CNN, it does give a strange sense of credibility. When I looked the lede up in several search engines, still no images appear.

All in all , I believe that this lede is a great one because it gives the reader a lot of valid information that they will know what to expect before indulging into he actual story.