Rebekah's Communication Blog

In the class lecture, these questions were discussed: Major Questions What role, if any, should a journalist's own religious faith play in identifying which stories to cover, in reporting, and in framing those stories? Should a reporter distance himself or herself from personal spiritual values, or is that even possible? Can journalists allow their personal faith to influence their world views without it causing them to slant or distort their reporting and writing? In regards to that last question, I believe that journalism can, and in some cases should, allow their faith to influence their writing. As Mormon's interested in journalism, the topic of faith in journalism is extremely applicable to all of us. Sometimes it can feel like a challenge, but I'd like to see it as an opportunity. I'm not saying journalism is necessarily a missionary tool, but there are always ways we can display our faith in today's world in a positive manner. ...

Panel: "Comedy and Mormon Women" Jeff Parkin, BYU Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, and Jared Cardon, BYU alumnus and adjunct professor at BYU, mediated a panel with BYU’s Divine Comedy actress Whitney Call, and BYU alumnus/ actress of the web show “Pretty Darn Funny” Lisa Valentine Clark during the Mormon Media Symposium early Friday evening. The panel was focused on how the role of religion and gender has affected these two women’s comedic careers. The topics discussed included comedy as a form of nurture, the role of the audience, how physical appearance has affected roles played, and creating comedy for an LDS audience.   Being at different stages of their lives, and having grown up in different atmospheres, the comments made by Call and Clark varied in content. Call spent most of her time talking about the social aspects of comedy. “It seems that people use comedy as a rite of passage or an alpha male badge,” said Call. “I’ve been ...

While I understand the importance of remaining objective, I love being an advocate. It can be really hard for me to simply report sometimes. That's why I love Op-Ed news. If I could, I'd just write reviews and columns my whole life. That way nobody can blame me for being biased. I'm supposed to be! But getting there takes time. So I'll learn reporting first and make my way up. We learned in our reading this week that "trying to silence a journalist's own felt emotions at the scene of a tragedy is an exercise no only in denial but also in futility: it does not work." I first watched the Walter Cronkite report of JFK's assassination in my high school U.S. History class. Here is a link to the best part:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBMs8JlYcgQ Reporting the hard facts was his job; and he almost got through it before choking up. Don't you think that five seconds of emotion was worth it though? The country had just lost a beloved president. It wa...