Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Should Journalists Predict the Future?

Thoughts?

16 comments:

Kaitlyn Mashack said...

I think this reporter sounds ridiculous...I cannot believe some of the things that she predicted..."people will die, there will be fires, no one will have heat.." She is not reporting the facts or even useful information. She is speculating what will happen. More than that, I think all she really accomplishes here is scaring people in the community. She tells people to prepare for this major ice storm right now because there will be no food in stores. I just cannot take her seriously as she does not back up anything she has to say with statistical or factual information.

Jaimie Watts said...

To start off that reporter should not have been saying that people were going to die and that fires would be happening. Families with small children watch the news to be updated and that could have scared them. Reporters should report on what is happening in the moment or refer to things in the past that relate, not predict the future. It's especially wrong to predict that people will die, that is crossing a line that should not be crossed. This journalist should have stated tips on what to do when the power is out and reported on how long the community could be expect to be without power. She went overboard and said things that she didn't have to say.

Shealyn Kilroy said...

This is journalist is not doing a good job at being a JOURNALIST. It's evident that she's very concerned about this particular part of the area most likely because she's from that town (she makes constant references about her personal background and ties to the town). This rant that she goes off is something you'd hear on the streets of a local and shouldn't be deemed as correct journalism. The dramatic statements she makes throughout are not fact and are probably a result of the PERSONAL concern she has for her town. She should be saying this in conversation, not on live news as a journalist who people need to hear (as objective as possible) facts from.

Alexandra Friedman said...

I think at some points she had some valuable information but then she let her worries and "knowledge" get in the way of the actual news. Her saying people will die and cause fires makes her sound like one of those dooms day prepares warning everyone to fight to survive the zombie apocalypse

Danika Palmeri said...

First off, she sounds quite moronic when she says, "Why is everyone going to the supermarket and they're all buying all the milk and the cheese and the eggs and all that stuff..." as if the most perishable items in the supermarket are the ones that people would be stocking up on in a state of emergency. Her objectivity is not present in this "news story." She is frantically trying to give advice to an audience that is from the same town as her. She sounds more like a mother nagging at her children than a journalist reporting important and useful information. You can tell that she is reporting what she feels is going to happen, not what is actually going to happen. For example, she says that she feels like this is going to last for days etc. If what she is reporting is accurate, it would have been better backed up with a weather forecast of some sort.

Kristen Bowler said...

Clearly this reporter must have lost power and not been able to shower and have her cup of coffee that morning. Not a good example of journalism, BUT a lot of her facts are accurate. Sad, but true that the tragedies she is listing have and will happen in these situation. The problem here is that she is a journalist, and should be reporting on them properly: listing helpful hints on how to survive without power, listing local shelter areas, or locations with power. I don't think it is a bad thing that she says she is from the area, but instead she should have given the next closest town to go to if you need food, etc.. Also, if she wanted to list all of the dangers that happen, she should have paired each one with ways to not let them happen, or better alternatives to cook food indoors. Journalists cannot necessarily "predict the future" but by taking past information they can use their best guess, and using that information to help the people they are informing.

Woo Jeong Kim said...

I think this reporter went overboard with her predictions. I understand that people lost power (including mine) and we had a stressful couple of days. However, it is a bit ridiculous how the reporter said that people will die and there will be fires. That is too extreme. Also, I cannot believe she talked that quickly and for a long time. Like the title, she was ranting about the weather. I think she should have offered both the positive and negative outlooks on the weather condition instead of showing her discontentment over the weather. Maybe she should have explained when the storm will clear out and when people might possibly get their power back. I do not think she helped in comforting the viewers at all.

Unknown said...

this lady is crazy and fox 29 just kept the camera on her and let her go on and on and on.

Ryan Snowden said...

That bitch is cray.

But in all honesty she did go on one hell of a rant for TV but realistically, she is right. Precautions should be taken for horrific storms like that and they don't happen every year which is why people were unprepared for it.

Aurora Seamon said...

First of all she should not have said that 100% of the town was out of power? Saying 100% does not factor in the margin of error. Her next comment about the people of the town not having a "memory of what an ice storm is" is insulting. Its as if she's saying, "you guys don't remember this, however I do because I am a reporter". Her zealous prediction that people will die and run out of food is uncalled for. If she truly believed that people would die, she could have said lives are at risk and she could have sounded a little somber. Also her comment about the governor possibly declaring a state of emergency is unnecessary. Why report on something that might happen? Lastly her survival advice is unhelpful. Power outages happen and people have survive; there is nothing special about a prolonged power outage.

Geo said...

I can't imagine how she is preparing for the snow storm that is expected later this week. I imagine she is eyeing people up to see whom she can eat when society collapses and we begin to turn against each other.

I am scared. Very scared.

- George
(the teacher who wishes her wild rant was actually presented in a rational manner because, like many of you pointed out, there was some truth in what she said. But that crazy rant just made her sound like the nut job who preaches by the Bell Tower.)

Meredith Hebert said...

The first rule for any crisis is not to panic/instill panic. By telling people they are going to die, she will cause unneccessary pandemonium for everyone who lives in that area (at least the people who switched the channel after her first few lines or actually took her seriously). By talking so much about her childhood neighborhood, etc. she's making the news story too personal; even a simple reference isn't necessary, no one cares that she grew up in the same area she's covering. Also, her mile-a-minute pace and three minute tangent is very informal and makes it seem like she is talking to a friend rather than 10,000+ viewers live on air. I am shocked that they didn't simply cut her off or cut to commercial to avoid this unprofessional dissipation.

David Kroll said...

That was a bit ridiculous. I feel like that reporter went way over the top with this and rather than inform the public on the best ways to get through something like this (I guess telling them to put food outside counts) she went off on over the top "guesses" which would only scare locals.

Taylor Calta said...

The news should be more about facts and in the moments events that are happening than opinions and predicting the future. No one knows what will truly happen so by her saying that people will die just make her sound completely ridiculous and could scare some people.She was acting like this was the end of the world. I agree that people have to prepare for these types of storms but her rant was all opinion based. Who is she to tell people what will happen and how she thinks people should react to this snow storm?

Nerisha Penrose said...

This reporter has gone a bit too far. At a time like this where people are scared and frantic about the upcoming storm, they look to the news as a source of guidance and comfort. The news informs the audience about what's going to happen and what precautions need to be taken in order to successfully handle the storm. When they turn on the news and see this reporter ranting about what SHE believes is going to happen, it only makes the situation worse

Jade London-Johnson said...

Journalists should not do things like this. She made herself look crazy as she just about all her theories. She was very negative too. I think journalists should just stick to their job which is to report and that's it. No one needs to her 3 minutes of "the world as I see it."