Truth versus fiction in a journalistic world. Truth can set you free. It can be a weapon and can hurt your audience. It needs to have discernment, otherwise it can have damaging effects. Fiction, on the other hand, can create a world of feel good emotions that involves the audience. It also can be misleading and fraudulent.

In my journalism class today, we watched clips of two films: State of Play, and a Pulitzer Prize piece based on a photojournalist. State of Play is a fictional movie, while the Pulitzer Prize film was based on real life events. Upon viewing both of them, which one seemed more real than the other.

Based on what I saw, the Pulitzer Prize film seemed more real. This is because the editors of the film pieced it together in a documentary style. Due to this fashion, pictures of the scene taken by the photojournalist allowed for a more realistic approach. Further, they contacted both the photojournalist and the officer who were on scene to help make this film. Both parties recalled the events of what happened.

In the movie there wasn’t the same sense of truth as the Pulitzer Prize film. This is because there were many other stories created throughout the film.

Michael Farr, a Associate Web producer, a home page producer, and blogger for the LA Times, came and visited our Journalism 106 class today. Worked for the Chimes, The Point, and Eagle Vision at Biola University from 2006-2010.

He discussed Web Journalism. To be prepared for web journalism, we must use and apply journalism fundamentals, web coding, social media competence, multi-platform publishing, and familiarity with a wide variety of web publishing tools.

Under web coding, we must understand the “HTML.” HTML is the building block of a website. Another important thing is “CSS” (Cascading Style Sheets). “CMS” (Content managment system) works with blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, Tumblr, Djano, etc. helps use to type right away.

This is what we did today in class.

Associated Press

Canucks advance with 2-1 win over Predators

By Associated Press

Vancouver reaches the Western Conference finals by beating Nashville in six games..

Upon completing the movie All The Presidents Men in Journalism 106, the question becomes: why is this story so important? To begin with, Nixon’s administration played dirty politics by breaking into the Watergate complex. Unfortunately for these men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward discovered that there might be a connection between these men and a White House staffer, which ultimately lead to the arrests of these men. They achieved this by finding a connection with a check that was being checked outside of the country. From here they dug deeper into the facts by starting at the bottom of the chain and working their way up until they reached the top.

I feel that I would use the techniques used by Woodward and Bernstein for reporting purposes. This is because Woodward and Bernstein were young reporters eager to get a story eventually cracked the case on Watergate. Because I am young, just like Woodward and Bernstein, I would need to find a way to get my answers. I feel the best way to achieve this through personal interviews, phone calls, building relationships and trust with people, tracking, research through looking at documents, etc. Due to their fervor to unlock the true story about what happened, they were able to successfully find answers to the questions they were after. If these techniques worked for these men, then they most definitely could work into today’s society.

Today’s society is a somewhat more advanced technologically and is more post-modern and globalized than when Woodward and Bernstein’s time. With social media sites, instant news web pages, and Google, it becomes a little more easier to track down the necessary objects you are looking for. If this story occurred in our day, this story would be out in a matter of hours or less.

In reaction to seeing a portion of the movie, All The Presidents Men, I feel the movie portrayed great journalistic features. Both Bob Woodward and Karl Bernstein, reporters for the Washington Post, sought to find the truth and what exactly happened through tough journalistic approaches. Starting from the bottom and working their way up, they ended up finding an answer through a connection to Chief Financial Official to Nixon to re-elect himself. Further they discovered the Watergate burglars were connected to white house.

The journalistic approaches Woodward and Bernstein took were face to face interviews, phone calls, hands on approaches such as looking through documents, and using basic everyday resources such as phone books to weave their way to the top to discover the answer they were seeking. There was one instance of sneaky journalism that is clearly seen in the movie though. Woodward is trying to make contact with a fellow writer from the New York Times. After receiving a newspaper contained with an envelope that forces Woodward to give into the joke about the Washington post, Woodward is able to meet with the New York Times writer in the basement of a parking lot were the New York Times reporter gives Woodward clues, to the answers he is looking for.

Despite this sneaky aspect of journalism, I feel the movie greatly portrayed how to seek the information and answers you do not know.

On April 5, I sought how The Chimes work as an on campus media source, in order to better my understanding of news based journalism. Prior to my appointment with The Chimes, I sent an email, regarding my situation, to Katie Watson, the Chief Editor in Staff of The Chimes. Seeing that she is the head-honcho, I felt an email would be the proper way to set up an appointment. Katie was very optimistic and welcomed me to join in on one of their editing sessions.

I arrived to the office of The Chimes on April 5 at approximately 7:40 PM. Upon entering the room, I was welcomed by a very friendly Katie Watson. After our introductions of who we were, Katie showed me around the office. One thing that caught my attention right away was that each section of the Chimes had their own area. Right next to the entrance of the office, on the left hand side of the room, was the sports editor. Then moving along the left wall, was the opinion section followed by the Editor in Chief. The room then opens and widens. From here the photo editors desk faces the Editor in Chief’s desk. The adjacent to the photo editors desk is the news editors desk followed by the production’s editor desk and senior copy editor’s desk.

After Katie showed me around the office, we discussed how the Chimes presents news to this campus. The Chimes has approximately eighty writers, who fluctuate between journalism majors and all other majors. These writers sent their stories to the representative content editors who help edit and make changes to the stories. From here, the editors give their revised stories to the Editor in Chief, who makes revisions and passes it to the copy editor who gives it back to the Editor in Chief. After this long process, the stories will make it onto the web and print copies.

In class today we revisited the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. Here, we took a look at and watched different journalists from different cities record the attack on film and picture. After viewing all the different cities’ journalistic coverage of the attack, the question came up why should journalists capture events similar to the 9/11 Attack.

Journalists are very important as it pertains to media. They are in the words of Benjamin C Bradlee “The first draft of history.” That is, journalists capture everyday life and the events that occur so that we may remember the past. Further, a journalist helps stimulate collective memory via narrative, images, audio, and or video. In bringing about this form of collective memory, their analysis of the coverage allows future generations to understand what occurred during that event from a first person experience.

Not only is it important to record such events, as 9/11, for journalistic purposes, alone, but also for historical reasons. That is, when reading a history book, one can get a better idea of what happened with a picture or snapshot of what occurred. This helps take away the propaganda aspect or controversial topic out of picture from future generations who could possibly rant in disbelief that the event actually happened.

The light at the end of the tunnel is here, for hockey at least. With most teams having approximately five games left, the push is here to make the playoffs. The Eastern conference is pretty much set for playoffs, but the Western Conference is leaving everybody sitting on the edge of their seats.

This year’s Western Conference could be considered the most exciting playoff race in recent years. What makes this so exciting is that almost every team representing the Pacific Division is in a playoff seed spot. These teams are, in order from highest rank to lowest rank: 3. San Jose, 4. Phoenix, 5. Los Angeles, 6. Anaheim, and 9. Dallas. Unfortunately for Dallas, only the top eight team from each conference, Western and Eastern, make it to the playoffs. To make matters even more interesting, Detroit Red Wings, who have been a powerhouse for years, are in the second seed playoff spot, but without their main goalie and back up goalie.

This is because both their main and backup goalie are injured. So what Detroit has to do is bring up goalie’s from the AHL, their minor league system. This puts a strain on their AHL team because they too have to bring up a goalie from their farm system.

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks have been on a tear in this past month of March, winning 11 of 14 games played. Entering the month of March, they were down and out of the playoff race, but pulled it together with some huge trade moves acquiring Goaltender’s Dan Ellis and Ray Emery. They picked up Ellis and Emery due to a prolonging injury to goalie Jonas Hiller and the slumping backup goalie Curtis McElhinney. This trade paid off for the Ducks as both Ellis and Emery have a combined winning 12-3 record.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season unfolds as these last five games are approached.

In class, we looked at five magazine websites. Of these five websites, four of them were Christian. Of those four Christian websites, two of them had the word Christian in them. These websites were: Relevantmagazine.com, Christianpost.com, Christianitytoday.com, Focusonthefamily.com, and Pastemagazine.com. To my surprise Paste Magazine is actually a Christian website, despite how secular the stories they choose to cover. Dr. Longinow explained to us that Paste purposely decides to cover these stories so the world will check them out. Through this, Paste brings about a portal to share the God’s love and grace.

This brings up a sketchy topic though. Should Christian journalists be explicitly writing about their faith in secular magazine articles?

I feel there are two spectrum’s to this answer. On a personal level, my response is yes. As Christians, we are to spread and share the Gospel and Christ to the world as much as we can.

On the flip end, that is the professional level, my response is no. Many company’s do not want to hear what religious view you are, nor do they want your opinion. They just want you to get the job done. Further, some companies go to the extent of firing employee’s over sharing religious views. Also, many people do not like to read article’s about religion and feel it is a boring topic and will move onto the next magazine.

Moreover, Christian journalists in the secular world should take the Paste Magazine approach. That is, get the story, and then share Christ with their interviewee and audience. If a Christian journalist decides to write for a Christian website, he or she should definitely keep Christ the center in their article.

On March 24, 2010, Ms. Bethany Wilson died in her sleep. The cause of her death is unknown. Wilson is lived on by her family, Howard, Vivian, and older sister Naomi.

Wilson lived an active life. She enjoyed participating in sports, more specifically soccer, basketball, and water sports. Wilson is originally from Winnipeg, Canada, but grew up in Glendora, CA. Her family still resides in Canada while she lives in California. Her main hobbies include singing, and arts and crafts. She loved to surround herself in music as it created a sense of relaxation for her. Wilson was a sophomore at Biola University who studied Music in Worship with a voice emphasis, but decided to switch her major to Journalism with an emphasis in Public Relations.

If you would like to donate money for her family you can at http://www.facebook.com

On March 24, 2011, at approximately 10:45 AM, Jarrod Laugenour died doing the things he loved. Laugenour was a very active man while attending Biola University, playing intramural soccer and taking 16 units. He was on his way to graduate in May 2011.

Prior to his death, he went out for a quick surfing session with his buddies at his favorite surfing spot, San Onofre State beach. After catching endless waves with a beautiful sunrise that morning, Laugenour and his buddies decided to go snowboarding. It was to there misfortune that on the way up the mountain, they hit a patch of black ice, further skidding them off the road and tumbling down the mountain.

Laugenour was born on October 6 in Anaheim, CA. He was the first born of two children. Early in his life, he had many health struggles and complications that ultimately helped him grow in his character and love for God. Despite these health problems, he loved to play sports. He played AYSO soccer and little league baseball through the 6th grade. Once in high school, he followed his passion for music and joined the world famous Mission Viejo High School drumline, who always placed very high in competition and would regularly be invited to nationals held in Dayton, OH. Upon graduating high school in 2007, he attended Saddleback College for two years and finished his general education. In August 2009, he transferred into Biola University where he studied Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice and Biblical Studies. Laugenour’s goal was to work with Law Enforcement and help the community; he was still in the process of determining if he should work at the Federal level or for a Police Agency.

If you would like to contribute money for the Laugenour family, you can donate at http://www.help-the-fight.com