Thursday, January 19, 2006

Values & Such

Anchor name Values

I'm David Kennedy. I grew up along the northern coast of Maine. I'm a junior, majoring in computer science. My Blog is http://apt13times.blogspot.com Some of my top values are integrity, knowledge, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Okay, the last three sound like I just copied them, but seriously....I think they're good ones. I feel that the media values a good story, ratings, disaster, knowledge, and freedom.

At one point in our history, the media would try to ‘protect’ people like the president. For example, people’s views of Franklin Roosevelt (not Teddy Roosevelt) didn’t need to be tainted by the images of his physical handicap, so they were rarely shown. However, in modern times, it seems as if the media views themselves as the guard against ‘Big Brother’. That is, it is their responsibility to bring to light the scandals, cover-ups, and secrets. The word The History Channel uses is 'WatchDog'. As obnoxious as this can be at times, I think that these tendencies stem from the respectable values of knowledge and freedom.

Although I'm not going into the media, I figure that learning a few more ethics could be good for anyone.

Speaking of the Media's ethics, there's a cartoon portraying the Media As A 'Double Edged Sword'.

3 comments:

Moulton said...

In the interest of the integrity of knowledge, let me point out that Theodore Roosevelt was not physically handicapped. He rode horses and was known as a 'Rough Rider'.

It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was crippled from Polio.

Dave Kennedy said...

Crap.... wow... I feel like an idiot. Uh..... I aside from Crap, the only other thing I can think of to say is Thank You. I'll fix that immediately before anyone else notices!

Moulton said...

Any agent that undertakes to play a regulatory role in a system relies on accurate and timely information. It is a theorem (in the subject known as Feedback Control Theory) that a system cannot be regulated if the state of the system cannot be reliably observed in a timely manner.

The role of the media is to act as observer on the regulatory function of government, lest that function go awry.