I believe in free speech as much as the next guy, maybe more. But sometimes the comments that pass for fact on social media sites make me a little crazy. Sure, the point of social media is to be social and it’s fun to comment back and forth as if we were smiling and laughing Read more about Social Media and Just the Facts, Ma’am[…]
Last week’s tragic events in Boston had the news media scrambling and the whole nation glued to their screens ( TV, computer, mobile) for every twist and turn. There was some stellar reporting and some egregious errors. No excuses, but I can tell you from experience, newsgathering is messy and covering breaking news is even Read more about When News Breaks: Making Sense of the News[…]
On Monday, I talked about how the Shirley Sherrod story pointed up why "context" is important in evaluating the media information we all are constantly exposed to. Every day on non-news and "reality-style" entertainment TV shows, I see all kinds of "creative" editing that distorts the material and blurs our perception of the "context"of what Read more about More Media Literacy Thoughts[…]
The Shirley Sherrod story has a lot of angles to it. People at all levels over-reacted without having the full facts and there's plenty of blame to go around. It struck me that the concept of "context" is too easily overlooked in our 24-7 media-saturated culture. Some background – Sherrod gave a speech and one Read more about Media Literacy – Consider the Context[…]