“Canis Journalisticus,” “News You Can’t Use,” “Birds on a Wire.”

[Rory Langan]

Brooke Gladstone’s The Influencing Machine, is a very well written and well-illustrated piece on the media and its relationship with the people and the government. I like how this particular edition addresses the distrust and antipathy for the media and journalists because that has been a common theme for quite some time. It is also a big theme now that Donald Trump is in office. He recently called the media the enemy of the people and I think this article introduces why that is not true. My immediate reaction as a reader is admiration for Brooke Gladstone, because she so accurately and creatively describes the problem regarding distrust of the media. She also has a show on WNYC and I love that radio station. To add to that, she is very knowledgeable and smart.

The tone of the works presented is both serious and informal because of the graphic novel format of the article. It is serious because she discusses the media’s coverage of many intense events such as hurricane Katrina and 9/11, but it is hard to take it seriously because it is written with pictures. This affects the reader because it is easy to read while still asking many deep and essential questions. The people to whom she is asking these questions are college students. That is why it is in the graphic novel format because if she was writing to interested adults, she probably would have written all in text. I have been “reached” as a potential target audience because I understand her point of view and I have not gotten bored while I read her arguments.

This piece is supposed to convince the reader that the media and journalists are not pestering nags, but important institutions in our society who keep politicians and the government under control. It also shows how the public opinion of the media fluctuates and that people do not really see or understand the purpose the media is supposed to play in democracy. Before I read this piece, I had not realized how complicated the relationship between the media, the public, and the government is. It is a very delicate balance. The media seem to have struck a balance between themselves and the government, but there is not a balance between the media and the people.

The central purpose of this text is to explain to the readers how essential the media is in a democracy and how public distrust of the media is not a current concept, but an old one. It also wants to inform us of the fact that the media has done great things for our country which has made the public change its tune. The main example Brooke Gladstone made was Watergate and how before Watergate the public hated the media and spat on them, but after, the public told the media that they saved them. The public needs to count their blessings and one of their major blessings is the media. Thank goodness, most judges see the merit of journalists.

I do agree with Brooke Gladstone that journalism attracts pesky, naggy people. That is essential to good reporting, because if one reporter nags somebody else, they could get good information out of them. I do not get how or why people say that journalists are self-serving, or arrogant, but I understand that that is a problem. How can journalists be self-serving when the whole system of journalism is to serve the noble purpose of keeping the government in check? It’s not like journalism is a big business where reporters make a ton of money. I think that journalists should not have to worry about being prosecuted. They need to be able to do their jobs and not be muzzled. If the press is muzzled by fear of backlash, as they were after 9-11, the danger is that they will be afraid to speak up against potentially dangerous laws such as the Patriot Act which violated basic civil liberties and as Brooke says, passed through Congress easily, too easily.

The main connection that I can make from the reading to other things I have read recently is from what Brooke Gladstone said to Trump’s statements. It seems that ever since he announced his candidacy, he has had a negative view of the media. Maybe it relates to his thin skin, or how the media constantly analyzes what he says and does, but he has made some extremely negative comments about the media. I wonder if he is saying all of these negative things so that he can have more power in the government without the media watchdogs. I hope that his statements do not indicate that his actions will be less ethical in the future.

In summary, when one thinks about all of the good things the media has done, it far exceeds the big national stories such as Watergate. The Bergen Record broke the Bridgegate scandal and the investigative journalism outlet from the Boston Globe broke the scandal that priests from catholic churches all over were abusing children. All of these things were not ethical and they were happening right under the public’s nose. The public needs journalism because it helps keep watch over many American institutions. Brooke Gladstone explains very well the importance of journalism and I hope that the media eventually and permanently regains the trust of the public.

[Danielle Ferriola]

I definitely agree that this piece was well written and well illustrated. The author used appropriate language and pictures to really help me understand the topics they were discussing. I am a fan of the comic style readings because they are easier to get through then pages of words. I know a little bit about the media from English class, but I am not really a huge news fan. I normally hear about the media through a secondary source. I do think the media is an important topic though because it is the main way that people find out about what is going on in the world. I do agree with the reading when they say that people are not trusting the media as much as they did in the past. I think it is harder to trust the media when there are so many different people saying different things. As Rory was saying, I also think that the media has done good, especially covering 9/11 and the Watergate Scandal, and I do think there is a balance between the government, media, and public. The media does have a hard job of spreading the appropriate news out to the public. One little scam or mess up makes people lose trust in the media, and they have to gain it back. That is why the balance is so “delicate”.

I also agree with Brooke Gladstone that journalism attracts pesky and naggy people. I feel like you have to be that way to be a reporter because you need to get information out of people. If you keep bothering a person they will eventually tell you what you need to know. I also think this shows that the journalist is really passionate about what they do. They will do anything to get the information they need. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Journalists just want to get the information out to the public, so they are more aware what is going on. I don’t think they should be penalized for that.

Overall I thought this article was really informative, but it did not seem that serious to me. It helped me understand an important topic that people should be aware of today. Even though I do not follow the media that much, I think it might be important to do so because we need the media for information.

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