Andrew Rojecki's lecture

I chose to watch the video of Andrew Rojecki’s lecture.  The subject of his lecture was political communication, and some of the topics he discussed were globalization, Barack Obama, the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and media’s role on all of this.  To begin the lecture, he asked what the students were worried about after college.  The obvious answer most of them had was finding a job.  He then asked how well and through what sources they followed politics and asked if they thought that politics affected their chances of getting jobs out of college.  Most students seemed rather indifferent about politics, but Mr. Rojecki went on to explain that politics are very important to everyone that lives in this country and that it is very easy to be misled by the politicians that supposedly represent us.  As the lecture went on, he shared his views about how he thought the Tea Partiers are people that still believe in segregation, and he explained that since the 70s, liberals have become more fragmented, while conservatives remained united.

The media’s role of our political views is related to what we’ve learned in class in a couple different ways.  For one, we discussed the Acta Diurna, which is essentially the earliest newspaper.  Also, the media relates to the framing activity that we did in class.  As we learned from the activity, different sources about the same story can lead people to notice certain facts more than others.  For instance, Fox news might say that drug crimes are increasing because of irresponsible parents, but other sources would probably say that drug crimes are a result of drug laws.  News media and other sources are also able to convey stories that can possibly reinforce stereotypes depending on how they report stories.  Those who choose what stories to share, and how they are reported have a lot of “power”, because they are able to exert control through things that others don’t have.

All of the issues regarding the media and the general public bring up questions about ethics.  Journalists and other employees of news agencies constantly face questions of what is ethically and morally right.  Sometimes, things that some people might like can do harm to others.  For instance, the decision about whether or not to include the picture of the Muhammad cartoon that many Muslims found offensive can be argued in either direction; putting the picture on the paper will inform the most people of the controversy, but could cause violent outbreaks.  On the other hand, not including the picture can be seen by some as an act that is unpatriotic and cowardly for not utilizing their freedom of the press to the fullest.

Personally, I believe that many media that report the news do a bad job of reporting the stories and facts that are truly pertinent to our country’s problems.