The First Amendment of the United States Constitution makes it so that American citizens have the right to freedom of speech, religion, free press, the right to assemble peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Journalists have the responsibility of being the watch dog for the American people. Due to the First Amendment of the United State Constitution journalists are required to watch over people in power, to ensure that their power is not being abused. For journalists being a watch dog for the American people also means that it is their responsibility to keep the American public informed. Additionally a journalist is responsible for raising awareness to issues that people struggle with, who otherwise might feel as though their story is not being heard.
A journalist in the United States has primary loyalties. The first and most important loyalty is to the American citizens, followed by themselves, their family, and their employer. A journalist's ultimate goal is to seek and report the truth. The loyalties a journalist has to keep, ultimately help decide the timing and overall quality of reporting in a story.
While working for the Cigar I was given the opportunity to seek and report news that occurred throughout every athletic team at the University of Rhode Island. I was in a position to keep students and staff updated with the news of each athletic program. During my time covering sports at URI, I never broke a story that showed an abuse of power. My writing of features, and recaps expresses the ability I have to share the stories of collegiate athletes and coaches with others who affiliate with the school, in a way that they would not be able to share themselves. Attached below are three pieces that exhibit my ability to understand the importance of journalism in the United States.
The first of the three pieces of evidence I have included for this outcome is a written question and answer portion from a final exam I completed in my JOR 310 Mass Media Law class. For this portion of the final exam I was responsible for answering 10 questions that touch on significant court cases and situations that played a significant role in the expansion of the role journalists play in the United States of America. For example some cases included in the 10 questions are New York Times v. Sullivan, Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, and Branzburg v. Hayes. In each of my responses I express a clear understanding of each topic that has lead to the importance of journalism in the United States. This assignment taught me the importance of having an understanding for events that occurred in the past that have led to the importance of journalism in the present.
For the second piece of evidence I added a video that I worked on with a classmate named Monica Conway for my JOR 221 class, Multimedia Reporting. For the project it was our responsibility to put together a clip that was two minutes or less expressing an issue that URI students have faced on campus. We chose the topic of snow being poorly cleared around the URI campus,making the walk around campus extremely difficult and dangerous for both staff and students. We interviewed a fellow student to express the difficulties students faced with getting around campus. We also interviewed facility services director Jerry Sidio to see what he had to say about the issue of ice and snow being handled around the URI facilities. This video is another example of why journalism is important in the United States. This was an issue many URI students and staff members were frustrated with and wanted more of an explanation for. So we did our duty to raise awareness to students and faculty that Sidio knew this was a problem and had plans to make improvements for the future.
The final piece of evidence I included to express my understanding of journalism's importance in the United States, is a feature I wrote for a JOR 445 class, Disability in the Media. For this feature I explained what the Independent Transition Academy (ITA) is at the University of Rhode Island, for students who were unfamiliar with the program. The ITA is a program on the URI campus that had not originally received much exposure at the time, so for the class I interviewed the founder of the program Jennifer Harris. This assignment relates to the importance of journalism in the United States, because it was made to help inform the URI community while also raising awareness to the beneficial acts of the ITA when their story was not being heard.