While watching the news....

Did the news broadcaster meet the criteria for what is news? Explain. What news was relevant or useful to citizens of the local area, including young people? In what way was it useful or relevant?

CNN:
-“Balloon Boy” drama was staged, sheriff says

-Third “Sweatbox” victim dies in Arizona

-All-male college cracks down on cross-dressing

While watching CNN for about 30 minutes these were the top three headlines that stuck in my mind. These headlines were from October, 19th 2009 in the evening. In the beginning, I was watching BBC news but they were not broadcasting headlines, rather stories from people living in England and Ireland. After 10 minutes of watching BBC, I switched to CNN where I found interesting headlines. I was surprised these made the top stories because they seem very irrelevant for people all around the world. They all had somewhat big headlines which gives the viewer a larger impact although these stories do not affect the world so much.

The “Balloon Boy” story was finally said to be staged by a sheriff as the parents just did it for a publicity stunt. When this story first came out I thought it was very irrelevant to be on CNN and BBC because it is about a boy in a small town and does not affect many people except for the people in their community. Personally, it seemed more like “entertainment news” rather than news that is actually important for us to know. I do not think this news is very important for the people living in Israel or other parts of the world (unless coincidently they are relatives of the boy or they are close friends). CNN spent way too much time (more than 45 seconds by the way) to put this story across. There are other things in the world that are more important than a boy in a balloon, who is completely safe now.

The death of Lizabeth Neuman, age 49 and a mother of three were very startling to see on the news in Israel. It took place in Arizona at a self help program in Arizona. When I saw the world “sweatbox” I wanted to know more about what it actually is. I think by using these bizarre words, it pulls the viewer into watching more about the story. They also showed images of what a sweatbox looks like. It was a dome shaped structure with blankets and inside, hot rocks that create steam. The self-help expert James Arthur Ray said he would take all responsibility for the death and police are conducting a further investigation. Two other individuals also died from being in a “sweatbox”. For people in Arizona, this is startling news and very informative to people who were planning on going to these treatment centers. For people around the world, it may be important to know the dangers of these “sauna-like” structures although police or health professionals do not have a direct answer as to what happened to these three victims.

The last story I watched was about an all-male college in Atlanta, Georgia that is tightening the belt on its dress code. As I am doing student rights for my Senior Project, I thought it was important for a certain aspect of my project, freedom of expression. Out of all of the stories, I thought this was the most important as well all should have rights. I understand how a school wants to keep an "image" by not letting students smoke outside of school or putting rules on what you can and cannot wear but schools should not be so superficial because it's whats on the inside rather than the outside. Unfortunately, that's how a lot of people, businesses, corporations, organizations are like today because they know that a first impression is everything (everything=money)