The Watergate

We usually call “Something gate” when inappropriate political activities is revealed to the public in Korea. I didn’t know why media and people called it”-gate”, but I learned it was derived from the Watergate, immoral and illegal activities of politics in the U.S. The movie “All the President Men” described the event in details as the story “Watergate Forces the President to His Knees”.

Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein, rookies in journalism at that time, created an enormous innovation of journalism. Verification of journalism had been on the reporting from editors and reporters. They fulfilled verification of journalism in actions more than words. They dealt in depth with the Watergate by investigating all the materials about the event even though they spent lots of time figuring out what associated with the Watergate and who meddled in it.

Through this direct action and clear investigation, the power of journalism was boomed and the new concept of journalism came out. Their contribution to today’s journalism can’t be represented all in words.

Evacuation at Wall Street

     The Occupy Wall Street was evacuated by authorities in Zuccoti Park right after we went there to interview protesters. They seemed to be there until the economic situation would be recovered but they were forced by the police and didn’t get over it. Why would they have to be forced to get out of there and lose their right to demonstrate in Zuccoti Park?

     The protesters of the Occupy Wall Street just stayed there to appeal for the better situation to the government and major financial corporates in Wall Street. There was also no armed protest except for the suppression over the protesters. They were just evacuated and suppressed by the police who got paid from the taxes that the protesters paid, it didn’t make any sense. All the protesters not only lost the place they had demonstrated but they also lost their right to appeal what they wanted to the surroundings. Was it the right answer to put the issue down forever?

     All the protesters still keep working on it at the other places and they will keep going until the government and major financial corporates hear what they say and what they want. The Authorities could evacuate them from demonstration places whenever they want but they never evacuate what the people appeal to them. The protesters’ minds are getting colder and colder just like the weather in winter is getting colder.

Interview at the hot spot

Since Occupy Wall Street became a big issue in the U.S, Protesters of the demonstration have gathered with the same hope and stayed at the hot spot, Zuccoti Park located around Wall St. People in the U.S have been through financial difficulty since economic status got down all over the world, especially in America. There were no chances to appeal it to the government, because most of them were powerless citizens. The only thing they could do was to gather together and demonstrate for it. It was not a riot, or war, it was just appeal for the better status in people’s lives as citizens who had their own rights to do that. The people who I interviewed with some questions our professor gave us were there, at the hot spot, with their own purposes but the same hope just like other people. Apollo Mark, 49, computer service, said he thought it was an opportunity to make a difference and change and the only thing he wanted was to live ordinary life, like lying down comfortably on the couch as stretching the legs out. One guy, who wanted to be anonymous, also said he was unemployed after graduating 4 year college with student loan, but there was no opportunity to get a job because of the economic crisis. He was just angry at the government and financial corporates in wall St which was the starting point of the economic crisis.
Occupy Wall Street was not just demonstration for the economic crisis in Wall St. Protesters didn’t want to see big changes in everything during the depression, they just wanted to see how the government and the financial corporates tried to make it better. Protesters still have the wishes on the street.

Zuccoti Park

Union sq at halloween

Example of the code of ethics

I would take the food without any cares like human instinct and do focus on what I should do exactly. If I didn’t take it and later felt hungry before reviewing for the film, my feeling for the paper would be not good although the buffet that the film company set up was right in front of me. It would definitely influence the review. The chocolate my wife likes is nothing related to what I review for the paper. It’s just her business, when I write something, everything depends on me, reviewer, I do act independently, alone, just like the list of codes of ethic.

Act independently

avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.

refuse special treatment.

disclose unavoidable conflicts.

(Andreas Christoforous and Jeff Boyd)

Occupy all over the streets of the world

     Occupy Wall Street has been occurred over a month, a number of protesters have increased from 80 to over 1500. It’s been getting serious more and more, not only lots of journalism in the U.S reported this big event, but also journalism in other countries dealt with this event too.

     Economic status all around the world has gradually been down, many people have been through difficulty in financial problem. They didn’t just reveal their thoughts about what was going on in economics and tried to overcome it on their own. However, after journalism in the U.S closely reported the demonstration on Wall Street, people in the other countries understood why the protesters tried to demonstrate against all the major financial company and the government. So people all around the world formed the public to not only help the protesters but also try to make the economic crisis in their countries better just like the protesters did on Wall Street, because they don’t just watch it and want to let it go forever as citizens. They have to do something for a better future, they know one person can’t do anything but they’re surely aware of the fact that people gathered with same purpose can do anything to get what they want. That is why the demonstration spread out to the major cities of all over the world. Unfortunately, some people who just saw what happened on Wall St and the other places through the news, and didn’t know what exactly the purpose for the demonstration was responded to the problem emotionally and occurred the demonstration violently.

     It’s so easy to share all the information with people all around world through journalism. People do understood worldwide financial problem and tried to find out how the problem could be solved. It occurred the demonstration. However, it’s not just the demonstration. It’s the way they try to make their lives better after they shared the idea for the problem through journalism.

Abolition and Occupy Wall st

     Occupy Wall Street has been for a month in New York City, it was started with 80 protesters, a small scale, however, since an attack on people who didn’t actually participate in the demonstration around financial district with pepper sprays, the number of protesters has increased over 1,500 people and this event has spread out exceedingly fast all around the world.

     Likewise, journalism disseminates to the public when something special happens, in this time, journalism has an important role in the process of an event. It not only informs people what’s exactly going on, but it also makes people form the public by appealing to the public in the form of emotional journalism. In other words, it becomes one of the forms of the demonstration for the public. With this process, lots of protesters who have been through hard times all around the world occupied their financial districts to appeal their financial difficulties, just like The Moving Abolition onto the National Agenda, in the story.

     In contrast to the story, Occupy Wall Street is a modernistic demonstration. Even though there was the brutal attack on the people, the protesters at least had basic rights of human being, which they could occupy the street and exclaim what they wanted as citizens. On the other hand, people in the eighteenth and nineteenth were so oppressed to appeal to the public and also had no rights to do something they wanted as citizens. But they tried to occur revolution. As the result of their attempt, it brought on a lot of people’s death and damages in the country as we read the story.

     We never know how more it’s going to be revolutionary, however it’s sure the journalistic power is going to be stronger and the number of protesters is increasing more and more all over the world.

The concert of Latino heritage

     The Nuyorican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble stated a little later than the schedule because of the delay of a prior performance. After he introduced all the members of the band to the audience the leader, Americo Casiano JR. started the performance with poets, he was using metaphor and simile a lot as if he was a story teller.

    

      At the beginning of the performance, I was so impressed by a strange music instrument that looked like a traditional music instrument of somewhere. It looked like nothing but sounded by shaking and tapping at the bottom of it with singing “mamabuela”. There was especially beautiful harmonious sound between the drum and a keyboard, soft melody from the keyboard played by Edy Martinez, lively melody played by Gene Golden plus, beautiful sound from the bass and clarinet, played by Ray Martinez and Dave Valentin. Even though a lot of the audiences were required to come to the little theater by their professors, they did look like enjoying the live jazz music. One of the audiences, Emma Jean, who majoring in accounting, said “ It was even better than I expected, I felt like I was in the jazz bar in somewhere Manhattan”.  The band first expressed what they want to represent by reciting the poets like the narrative of the beginning of music and then they represented it through the harmonious music they played.

    

     There was no enough publicity about the concert. Before I came here, I had no idea and didn’t expected it was beautiful like this, because I thought it would be typical Latino music just like we listened anywhere on the street. It needs enough publicity around school.

80 protesters arrested

The videos that protesters occupied Wall Street have revealed through lots of social networking media. Before my professor of journalism talked about this issue, I didn’t know anything about it. That is because I didn’t see any articles about it on the majorities of news media such as CNN and The New York Times etc. I tried to find out what was exactly going on over Wall Street but the majorities of news media just covered something happened between police and the protesters like using pepper spray.

One of protesters on the interview of minority news said that he tried to call and ask the majorities of news to announce and cover it on the news or newspaper, but they just hung up on them, they did blackout. Why did they not cover what protesters wanted to say ? However, before we just think about it, we need to consider what this demonstration is for and why people gather more and more. Protesters first started demonstrating on financial system as other demonstration has happened in NYC. After the happening, using pepper spray, this event spread out all over the states of the U.S and people just focused on what they saw, not the purpose of the demonstration, then they just formed a public, who became protesters, with just anger. would they just respond to the happening, not to the original demonstration ?

I looked for the news about it through the social networking, and then I saw lots of videos which showed the brutality on the street. I had a chance to pass by Wall Street on Wednesday, there were lots of barricades surrounding all the main streets in financial district and the police guarded all around there, but no protesters.

The New York Times

     New York City is one of the biggest cities in the U.S where something happens a lot like demonstrations and terrors. I’ve felt and thought the authorities of NYC in any departments is even more powerful than the other cities of the U.S since I came here and saw something happened.

     Especially, I think the authority of the New York Police Department sometimes crosses the line. As we read the article about the protest on the financial system in the New York Times, it seemed to me like the overreaction of the authority of the NYPD. I wondered using pepper spray would be the only way to control the protesters and there would be no way to prevent them from extending the demonstration in the city except for using that at that time. The NYPD has been through lots of events and accidents for a long time like other demonstrations or terrors and they know how to control those events with appropriate ways. In this demonstration, the protesters weren’t even armed actually, and there were also some people passing by there with doing anything, but the NYPD penned all the people around there by using net and pepper spray.

     There is no clear line to judge how appropriately the authorities controls the public with, however, the authorities obviously know who needs to be controlled and the ways to prevent something bad happened when they confront the situation. Recording videos about it wouldn't have existed on the internet and become the issue if the excess hadn’t happened.

Goldstein, Joseph. “ Videos Show Police Using Pepper Spray at Protest on the Financial System” The New York Times :A21. 26 Sept. 2011.

News Matters

     “The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril, News Matters” by Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser is about what good journalism is and what the role of journalism in media is, comparing to other media that just try to make benefits.

     There are tons of ways we contact any information to know what’s going on in our communities as we read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch TV programs. However, would we realize what information from media is clear facts and isn’t overstatements? I think journalism provides definite information that we really want to hear and share the facts that we want to know with our communities.

     Journalism observes everything in the communities with an objective and critical point of view like corruption in government and misbegotten policies as we can see through the media when other media tries to concentrate on how more they could make benefits and pay people’s attention. As we read some reports from some states of the U.S in the reading passage, journalism tried to report everything in detail for the public in order to make people know what was exactly going on in each community even if the events were veiled. Moreover journalism makes people function together as a community. It shares the ideas with people, and makes people participate in the community with the ideas they share. Journalism is an easily accessible way to the community.

     There are still floating information overemphasized and misinformed by the huge publicly owned corporations in which focus on only benefits. The more it happens the less journalism appears through any media. People positively need to be more interested in journalism if they want to obtain the true.