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The Truth Behind The T.V. Show “COPS”

In Vox’s 2019 youtube video titled, The Truth Behind The T.V. Show COPS, audiences learn that the longest running primetime T.V. show is COPS. 

It was a show that followed and filmed real life cops while on the job. The idea came from the creator John Langley sharing a video of a drug bust. It also helped that the show came in the wake of a writer’s strike. With no actors or writers needed to create an episode of COPS, it was the perfect program for the then-new FOX network to carry and drive viewership. The show ran for 30 years.

The show began in Broward, Florida, but it would later spread across the country due to the show’s success. It also helped that the show gave positive PR for law enforcement. The video best shows this when COPS appears in Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots. 

But this pattern grew. Salina, California and Omaha, Nebraska had bad moments. They then invited COPS to come and film in their area. 

FOX would eventually cancel the show, but the COPS formula was mimicked through programs like LIVE P.D.

LIVE P.D. was advertised as a way to build trust through audiences by following law enforcement live. Though it presents itself as transparent, the filmed content still needs to be approved by law enforcement before it airs on T.V.

“False Flag” Hoaxers Claim Mass Shootings Are Staged

A 2018 video from Vice follows the rise of False Flag conspiracists who claim mass shootings never happened. 

The video follows conspiracy theorists “Side Thorn” and “Conspiracy Granny,” who claim that the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas was a “false flag” — a hoax. The shooting was real and claimed the lives of 26 people inside the church, including the 14-year-old daughter of the church pastor Frank Pomeroy. 

“Side Thorn” and “Conspiracy Granny” have spent some time after the shooting confronting the surviving loved ones of the deceased to see if they can gain evidence of their status as a paid government actor. In one portion of the video, a clip from “Side Thorn’s” Youtube video shows him calling a survivor over the phone to tell them that the event was fake. 

“There is no evidence this person existed,” Side Thorn says in reference to the dead family member. 

People like “C.W. Wade” have come forward to debunk these conspiracy theorists. Wade thinks that these people pose a threat to the surviving victims of the dead loved ones, and thinks that it’s only a matter of time before one of the conspiracy theorists commits an act of violence. 

“C.W. Wade” is not the real name of the “False Flag Debunker'' shown in the video. It is an alias they use to protect themselves from the real harm he feels these conspiracy theorists can bring. 

The video ends with the conspiracy theorists confronting pastor Pomeroy. The police eventually arrest the conspiracy theorists, but not before they threaten to continue to harass teh pastor and the remaining surviving victims. 

Reflection

Visual Journalism will be affected by the internet and social media in the sense that it will need to compete for attention and clicks. 

While it’s true that the internet age has made information more easily accessible than ever before, that very real, objective truth is burying in a sea of conspiracy theories and bad reporting. What remains is a very broad field of information for people to sift through in an effort to find the answers we’re looking for. 

Journalism majors like me can easily find what we’re looking for while separating what’s with or without merit. But what about people who aren’t as media literate? These people may wind up consuming information like that of the conspiracy theorists in the Vice video. They’ll consume content like that and take it at face value, causing more conspiracy theorists to appear. 

It does’;t help that many news outlets hide their information behind a paywall. Though I certainly don’t mind paying the subscription price for my favorite news outlets, I also understand that I’m in the minority. Most people will simply look for outlets that don’t have a paywall. Those are not always trustworthy.

Social media was meant to level the playing field by having paid content still be posted on the site. However, filter bubbles can cause people to still be directed to false information, or at least information that only confirms their biases. 

I think as Journalists/Communications majors, we can help the world become more media literate by being more active with our audiences. Though some news may be behind a paywall, we can create threads on platforms like Twitter, so that we can at least report the basics to our audiences. 

To both paid and unpaid subscribers, we can also make a point to interact with them and answer questions they might have. I’ve noticed that many intentionally harmful outlets build a strong relationship with their audiences by constantly interacting with them. While I don't think we should be spending a large amount of our time on social media, I think there is a benefit to answering questions our audiences have by directly interacting with them as opposed to hiding that answer behind a paywall. 

I also think we can also do our part to make sure we call out and debunk misinformation, especially when it’s gaining traction. 

Last week’s group made a presentation on Critical Race Theory. The presentation highlighted what CRT is and why it’s currently a topic of discussion in modern political discourse. 

The group first had to define CRT to the class to make sure everyone understood what the presentation was going to be about. THe group defined CRt, by citing Encyclopedia Britannica, as:

“C-R-T or Critical Race Theory refers to the intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color. Critical race theorists hold that racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially with African Americans.”

 The group then highlighted the importance of CRT. They explained that, although the term and study had been around for over 50 years, it has been given a new sense of significance in recent years. The group explained that events like the election of President Obama and President Trump, the death of George Floyd and the ensuing 2020 BLM movements, and the rising alt-right movement as reasons for the rise in CRT’s significance. 

The group also taught the class that CRT was first created by NAACP lawyer, professor and activist Derrick Bell.

Last week’s group discussed the prevalence of mostly negative stereotypes in the media. 

The group first introduced the definition of a stereotype to the class. Stereotypes are assumptions people make about something based on fact or fiction. Stereotypes aren’t always harmful. For example; some people may say that the stereotype about college students is that they are all smart, young and excited for the future. 

However, the group focused on negative stereotypes. These stereotypes are typically based on a race/ethnicity or religion, and are almost always harmful. 

The group also included examples of these stereotypes in theri powerpoint. The presentation included clips from Disney animated films, shows like Family Guy and also portions of daily news shows.

The reason the group highlighted these examples are because they are all forms of media that people consume much of and on a consistent basis, 

The group also highlighted these examples because they explained how the persistence of the stereotypes showing up in the media lead people to believe these backwards assumptions more. If the media showed less of these stereotypes, then they’d stop being so mainstream.

The group highlighted the importance of these stereotypes ceasing to exist in the presentation. The explained that a reduction of these harmful stereotypes in the mainstream would lead to a more safe and tolerable society. 

The 2019 CNN article is about how the FBI focused their attention on a high schooler named “Sol Pais”, 18, who was discovered to have grown infatuated with the Columbine Massacre shooters while making threats online. 

“Pais” committed suicide by the time she caught time FBI’s attention, but the investigators later found a website that might be connected to her. 

The website was filled with scans of journal entries with messages that made investigators suspicious about its intentions, including:

“Everything from journal entries to my personal interests – I want to leave a record of myself before I, well. …”

Pais was from Surfside, Florida, but eventually bought plane tickets to travel from Miami to Denver, Colorado — close to Columbine High School. Though it’s not believed she ever set foot on school grounds, Pais bought a shotgun and ammunition from the Colorado Gun Broker. She also passed multiple screenings/checks to get the gun, leading CGB to believe she was not an immediate threat to herself or the community. 

The article goes on to report that Pais’ actions led to 19 Colorado school districts closing during her manhunt, including Jefferson County Public School District — the one where Columbine High School is located. 

A classmate of Pais noted that although she typically kept to herself, she was considered a smart student. 

Unfortunately, Pais' actions make it harder for the Colorado community to move past the tragedy committed years ago. 

— — — — — — —

The story does a great job of showing the harm and danger social media can cause when in the wrong hands. 

Pais was considered a nice, smart student in her class by her schoolmate. The ability for her to connect to any location around the world, however, allowed her to lead a double life where she was easily able to threaten a community 2,000 miles away. 

The internet also allowed her to easily find information on the Columbine event. Although we can't know for sure, her actions can lead people to believe much of the information she was exposed to was not scholarly or even accurate. 

MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN YOUR CAREER

The chapter opens with Eddie Dowd successfully landing a job due to his knowledge of how each different social channel works and how to best use them to get information out to his audience. 

 “They wanted to see if I understood that each platform offers different ways to give news to people, but also comes with different audiences,” said Dowd.

QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED IN TODAY’S NEWSROOMS

A 2015 survey of over 1,000 journalism-related job postings all showed that the words “mobile” and “social” appeared constantly.

It’s a sign that the digital age is now here in the field of journalism, and newsrooms all around the country are making sure to hire people with the know-how to navigate this new landscape

“Regardless of the type of newsroom, more jobs than ever before require journalists to produce content across multiple platforms and to understand how to monitor and increase audience engagement for their work, the study found.”

~ 60% of jobs mentioned a need for applicants to be able to get their news out through different social channels, and ~70% of them mentioned a need for the applicants to possess social media skills.

This trend will only continue to increase in the coming years

MOBILE AND SOCIAL MEDIA JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS

In addition to journalists having to add new social and mobile skills to their toolbox, newsrooms have also added jobs related to social media jobs.

These jobs are solely dedicated to having journalists report and work through a newsroom's social media channels. They reflect a newsroom’s desire to make sure this new channel works for them as a tool for getting their content out to their audiences. 

These new jobs are exciting since they help spearhead a large part of a publication’s distribution strategy. The people running these jobs get to dictate how news gets disseminated to teh general public.

FINDING JOBS AND INTERNSHIP LEADS

The following are good areas to focus on while looking for a job or internship related to journalism:

News outlet websites

Media company website

General Google searches

Professional Organizations

Social networking sites

Linkedin

The chapter also notes on resources on campus that can help lead to jobs, such as:

Connections made with faculty

Campus career centers

General networking

BREAKING INTO THE BUSINESS: LEVERAGE YOUR DIGITAL KNOW-HOW

The chapter makes the case that how you present yourself is now just as important as your clips and resume. Though that may seem daunting to some, savvy students can leverage this by making sure that to get an edge in these crucial areas:

Online portfolios

Digital resumes (including your social media profiles)

Cover Letters

The group analyzed the impact photographers have on a president’s image by examining the images taken by official White House Photographers Pete Souza and Shealah Craighead. Souza was the photographer during the Barack Obama administration, and Craighead was the photographer during the Donald Trump administration. 

The group emphasized that the way these photos are presented have an effect on how the general public views a political figure. The president and their administration have a say on a lot of the picture taking process, which might make audiences suspicious over a picture. It’s hard for people to not come away thinking a photo is staged for effect rather than invoking a true snapshot at a person’s life. 

An example of this was found in Craighead’s pictures of Donald Trump, many of which involved him talking to people on the phone or while he was sitting by his desk. Given his background as a businessman, it makes sense for Trump to feel comfortable with photos like this being released. 

The group continued to also show how powerful of a tool photos are in skewing public perception by posting side-by-side images of Barack Obama and Donald Trump holding babies and being around children. Although similar, the subtle features in each photo — like whether the children are smiling or not, or whether the people in the picture look engaged — led to people in the class having different reactions to each picture.

The most recent class presentation covered the January 6 capital riots. It talked about what led to the event, what happened that day and what happened as a result. 

The circumstances that led to the January 6 riots were President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Trump — and eventually, many members of the GOP — claimed that the election was rigged or “stolen,” leading many conservative Americans to feel the need to protest. 

The presentation showed many events that occurred that day hour-by-hour, covering the initial reactions of politicians like Trump, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. The presentation pulled information from the U.S. Department of Justice that included a list of consequences that came as a result of the riots, including but not limited to:

“Economic loss estimated at more than $2,880,000, including damages to the Capitol building.

Approximately 1000 arrests have been made, in almost all 50 states.

More than 500 people have pleaded guilty to federal crimes, more than 130 of these with a felony.”

The event very quickly gained public notoriety due to the many videos and photos that were taken that day, some of which were included in the presentation. 

The presentation also made a point to highlight that this was part of a string of domestic terrorist attacks that have occurred in the United States. The group highlighted domestic terrorism because these attacks have occurred at a much higher rate than international terrorist attacks, which have remained relatively low since 2000. The group cited the ​​U.S. Accountability Office with a stat that reads, 

“Domestic Terrorism-related investigations have grown [357%] in the last ten years. ”

SOCIAL MEDIA ETHICS AND POLICIES

Although smartphones are a great tool to stay connected with your audience, it’s important to remember that social media will be the true vehicle to get you to deliver the news and interact with them. 

NEW ETHICAL DILEMMAS

One of the major problems journalists now face is the question as to whether they should be the first publication/person to publish a piece. In the rush to become the first, journalists — and the general public — have been burned by wrong claims. An example the textbook uses is that of the Boston marathon bombing. People on social media were wrongly identifying people as the terrorists, and putting innocent civilians at risk. 

Other issues include the idea that a journalist’s account should only focus on their work. Even if it’s your account, you should always remember to keep it professional. You may end up need ing to apologize for yourself and your employer if your account carries content that is unfit to your newsroom’s standards. 

Charting an Ethical Course: Applying Journalism Ethics to Social Media

The textbook makes note that all journalists should use basic guiding principles when it comes to publishing content on social media: truth, verification, fair and balanced coverage, and avoiding conflicts of interest.

It may seem simple, but there are often times when journalists can cross these lines. Especially in the case of their own personal accounts. 

NEWSROOM SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES

In an effort to protect themselves and their journalists, newsrooms across the world have begun to develop and implement social media guidelines for their employees. These guidelines serve as a guide for journalists who wonder if theory content is fit for their social media, as well as proof that the newsroom has standards it wishes their employees to uphold.