The need for graduation from media and movies has been in a great incline since the invention of television. In the 80’s people started to amass over their favorite television shows. This has created a term called fandom.

This idea of fandom is the obsession of people over a certain movie or television show this has allowed the fans to be able to put their input into their shows. This would allow the producers to know what way their viewers would approve of. This is one way we are able to fulfill their urge in order to be satisfied.

People have adapted to getting their way and what we want when we want it. We can relate this back to the book we read throughout the school year present shock. He talked about how we need to have things happen institutionally not over time we have become more reptile like. Filling their urges as soon they are able to not waiting. Social media has flooded us. We have talked about how we have to get information quickly as possible.

We watched a movie this week that really blows this idea of fandom out of the water. It also shows how important they are. The characters had to rely on the dedicated fans who believed them so much to walk them through the bowels of their ship. Knowing it better than the actors themselves. This movie was galaxy quest.

In the movie, only one person was excited about living the rest of his life. His role took over his life but the rest of his friends despite it being lesser roles and not as beloved as he was. So much to having breakdowns or nearly fighting the fans to say famous lines. He lived on the fandom being as rich as he could living on a role that he lived 20 years ago. It was the only thing that was allowing him to continue living life carefree for the most part. In the movie the fans were so strong they even got a reboot. This happened after a long complicated quest but still. Shows once they die stay dead. Reboots for television doesn’t happen. Mummy movies now are having a resurgence. This is happening because of the fan base. Some examples are Avatar the Last air bender, new Jurassic Park movies, and new terminator movies have also been flooding the market of late.

This week, we mainly watched two episodes of The Newsroom. The show give me a clear idea of how the newsroom runs and what’s the important element of a great show.

At the beginning of the show, The main character Will’s speech show a lot of problem of the media industry. For a journalist, don’t shows your own political opinion is actually importance, you won’t offended your audiences. Every move you made on the TV show won’t be ignored and the anchor’s choice will be judge be the audiences and no matter what there will be people against it. Internet troll are all over the society right now. If you have certain amount attention and fans, the internet troll will pay more attention on you and they will twist your opinion to get more attention. The speech Will made almost get his career over, his producer hopped and take most of his stuff with him afterward. But in my opinion, his speech was just telling the truth.

After the whole drama, they produced a great show. It really told us what’s the most important element of a great show. Jim, the senior producer became to be the center of that episode. He discovered the news which has potential and actively followed up. When his supervisor disagree with his thoughts, he didn’t shrink back, use his knowledge tried to get deeper news. At this point, he fortunately get some secret news from two of his informants. So the secret of success in the newsroom is that you need to have sharp observation, full of knowledge, good resources and good luck. That’s how you determine the right news. But run the show is a totally different story. It takes a whole team to create a show. The anchor Will don’t need teleprompter, the EP can pull things together really quick, and it need all kinds of assistant to create a complete show.

Through the story moving we can tell, Will is becoming a nice character on the screen, adjust the content of show for the audience rating over and over again, he forgot the original passion of making news, I think that is a problem for us right now. Unlike decades before, we only have six major companies are running the television, the competition has been brought to upper level. On one side, that’s a good sign, became people will have more motivation to create new things, but on the other side, producers will make compromise for better audience rating.

Both Monday and Wednesday in class we watched episodes of The Newsroom. Right now I am taking a journalism class so I thought I would have a little understanding of how things are ran in a news office, however it definitely was not what I thought. Though the concept of digging through events or issues to find the most newsworthy and being able to sum it up for the leading statement and typical journalism rules, It ended up being more exciting/crazy than I pictured.

The beginning of the first episode “We Just Decided To”, A panel discussion is taking place and all of the candidates are asked, “What makes America the greatest country in the world?.” Will MvAvoy has pretty much avoided every other question at this point by making a joke until they made him actually answer, to which he snapped and didn’t sugarcoat the answer. He told the truth that nobody wanted to hear. That America isn’t the greatest country in the world anymore, and how we need to do something about it. The question at this point is, How does he win back Americans after suggesting the country is not as great as public figures make it out to be.

After his burst, he had gotten a lot of negative feedback and hate, raising the stakes to come up with a perfect angle to the perfect story to cover to win everyone back.

That is when the oil spill in the Gulf happened and they told different story than everyone else and they knew things were going to be okay.

In Wednesdays episode, the focus point was on how they were losing ratings because a very high percentage of people were changing the channel within the first 10 or so minutes. The team is then forced to decide to report on what the audience wants to see vs. what they believe they need to see.

The other topic we discussed this week was how entertainment services have changed throughout the years. In 1983, 90% of American media was owned by 50 companies. That may not seem like a lot to some people but in 2011 it was proven that the same 90% was owned by just 6 out of the original 50.

These big six leave little room for competition, and numerous job opportunities for people.

In class we watched episodes from The Newsroom and got a taste of what actually goes on in newsrooms. I did not really have a vision of what occurred when news broke or there was a major story to share. Newsrooms have a hectic atmosphere, or that is what I gathered, especially from the first episode. There is a constant stream of information coming through and it must be sorted and sifted through to find the best stories.

In the first episode Will, along with two other news anchors, were being questioned by the audience. The other two anchors were upfront with their views and responses whereas Will was not. Will responded with sarcasm and jokes and was hesitant to state his opinion. But then he was asked a very interesting question “What makes America the greatest country in the world?” The other two news anchors could answer no problem, but Will hesitated. He saw a sign from someone in the crowd and that was when he snapped. Will was urged to state his opinion and when he did there was no stopping him. He was very passionate in his response and listed all of the reasons why American was NOT the greatest country in the world. Of course after this happened, there were videos posted everywhere. Will had put a large dent in his career but why? He had spoken his mind and much of it was very truthful. The public does not like the truth if it hurts. I think this was a very useful event to use in the show.

I think this show gives people a better understanding of how the news affects the viewer. This show worked to allow the viewer to make their own decisions on the information they are receiving. They wanted to leave it up to the viewer to think on their own and to have their own opinions. It is so popular in today’s age for the news to coerce you into thinking about one thing. The media is capable to blur our vision on certain events and aim our focus at something else. We are unable to realize that what we are seeing, how much of it, and how we’re told about it effects our views.

Will Mcavoy is a very important character to the show and he tests the limits of the news and pushes the limits. After watching two episodes you are hooked and want to continue watching. There is something exhilarating about the process of the newsroom.

During this week in class we focused primarily on the show The Newsroom. Before taking this class I have never watched this show until now. I liked how the show brings forth past events and does not make up any news stories for entertainment, it gives the show a real feeling to it and we can then relate to these stories and make connections about what happened. It keeps the show relevant and interesting to watch rather than some made up news story. After the first episode I saw how TV personalities can slip up and make a bad decision which will affect their ratings, even if it was just voice his opinion instead of being neutral.

By being distracted by this sign the main character finally voiced his true opinion instead of some comedic answer that makes the crowd laugh. He gets a ton of backlash and negative feedback because of what he said, even though it was true. After losing a massive amount of their audience they had to find a way to get back on top with a story that will bring in new and their lost viewers. That’s when there was an oil spill in the Gulf and everyone was scrambling to get their hands on the first scoop and deliver to the people. Thanks to the addition of two people and a newly hired intern they were able to get all the information they needed and give it to the public before anyone else. They had multiple leads that followed through and came in clutch for them.

As discussed in class it seems we have all these choices when it comes to media entertainment, but in fact we don’t. There are only six major companies that make up almost all of what we read, watch, and listen to. These six major corporations have monopolized and control this industry, which is completely different from just a couple of decades ago where there were over fifty companies. Now that the fifty went all the way down to six there is even a bigger need to create more shows and content for the people, this also means that there will be more jobs available to people because of the workload needed to put out these shows. With all of these opportunities being produced by these huge corporations we should think about supporting them rather than disliking the companies.

This week we discussed how the news is presented nowadays compared to how it was presented. The Newsroom is a great depiction of how news broadcasters used to do the news. The main objective then was to get critical information out to the public in an efficient way. In the first episode of The Newsroom, it presented problems with modern day news and also showed how news should be broadcasted. In the show, the major issue discussed was what type of content should be on the news. Whether or not they should focus on actually real problems that are faced in the world or focus on gaining more viewers and simply doing an entertainment show. Many of the characters had their own opinion on the matter.

The first episode was the pilot called “We Just Decided To”, the main point in this episode was to prove to the world that real news is still out there. The main character is named Will McAvoy who is the anchor on the Atlantis Cable News and is the leader of his news team. Will is stunned to find out his ex was his new executive producer and that almost his entire original news team was leaving him to work for someone else. Mackenzie is his new executive producer and brought her own employee whom she highly recommends to work on their team. Will tries to have Mackenzie fired but his agent will not allow that so instead Will sacrifices his own paycheck to have complete control over Mackenzie. He now has the power to fire her at the end of every week depending on how she preforms. During the episode, Mackenzie’s employee begins to receive a news alert about an oil spill but Will’s old employee conflicts with the alert saying that it’s nothing to worry about. The entire team does more research on the situation to find that it is much worse than they thought. This is brought to Wills attention and they broadcast a show that night to alert the public of what the task at hand is and how it could’ve been prevented.

We also discussed how news today is completely different from when it first started. The news sole purpose was to alert the public about important incidents that are happening around them. This idea has been altered and mis-interpreted. Nowadays, the news focuses on making sure the public only knows one perspective of certain issues. The news has the power to change peoples complete ideals just from how they present situations.

-Noah Soriano

This weeks lessons were focussed on the news as well as outlets of the news. As we are all aware, there are many different “news” stations that you can throw on each day to gather some intelligence of what may be going on around you that day. It is always great to have options but that might not be the case when those options have agendas. This idea brings us back to a past topic of agenda setting. Each news outlet will broadcast what they want you to see and think. In the two screenings of the Newsroom that we observed this week the ACN team was able to show us how ratings and some other factors can be the dictators of the news as opposed to just broadcasting ACTUAL news.

From what was shown in those two episodes, people should take a deeper look at the news that they watch and ask themselves if they are being giving all the information / all the truth. Our current president was one person who went ahead and called out the news outlets claiming “FAKE NEWS” which is important that we do. We must check the credibility of sources to be a properly informed people. The great importance of this dates wayyyyy back. If the people are not properly informed than they will be unable to make informed decisions when it comes to government, safety, health and basically everything else.

Part of this is the reason I have the lack of news following habit that I do (aka none). I know it is not optimal for myself and others in the same boat as me to not follow any news, but personally I hate when people ramble at me about things that do not effect me or those around me. For example I don’t need to know all the gossip on what the celebrities are up too, but I would like to know about all the civil wars that are going on around the world or when there going to be decision made that will change the future. WE WANT PERTINENT REAL NEWS!!!

The television series the Newsroom did a good thing in coming out to try combatting fake news. This show focuses on how they are trying to break away from the way everyone is reporting news and go back to the way news used to be reported. Back when people were able to put trust in their anchormen and the anchormen had nothing to prove so they were able to just tell what was needed to be reported on. It is too bad that today we have to fact check everything that we are told in order to gain one piece of truth. BRING BACK REAL NEWS PLEASE!!!!!

-SHANE WEBER

This week in class we viewed two episodes of The Newsroom, written by Aron Sorkin. The American television drama series premiered on HBO in 2012 for three seasons. The Newsroom stared well-known actor Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy. Jeff Daniels won an Emmy award for this portrayal of a popular news anchor struggling to find the balance between ratings and delivering real news. Other actors and actresses featured in the show are Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn and Sam Waterston.

The Newsroom shows behind-the-scenes events that transpire at the Atlantis Cable News (ACN) station. The series kicks off with Will McAvoy exploding during a debate after being asked, “What makes America the greatest country in the world?”. He flips the script and goes on the offensive to explain the flaws that lie within the United States government and that we are no longer the greatest country in the world. Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) the director of ACN, hires a new executive producer without informing Will McAvoy. The new E.P. happens to be Will’s ex, Mackenzie, who he has not seen or spoken to in three years. The two hashed out their differences and the episode then turns to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The news team throws the previous stories out and run the oil spill piece completely off script. They successfully deliver the coverage and facts of the spill in exciting fashion. The first episode ends dramatically with Will and Mackenzie sharing a moment from their first date. This leaves the audience craving more outlandish states, romance and wondering what direction the Atlantis Cable News will take next.

Another topic of discussion in class on Wednesday was the major conglomerates that control almost all aspects of television, news and film in American life. The six major conglomerates are GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS. Notable properties of these organizations are Universal Pictures and NBC (GE), the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal (News-Corp), ESPN and Marvel Studios (Disney), MTV and Paramount Pictures (Time Warner), and Jeopardy and 60 minutes on CBS. These massive industry giants control 70% of your cable television and had a total revenue of 275.9 billion dollars in 2010. The profit the big six corporations have increased in millions if not billions of dollars in 2019. The six major conglomerates only do not control about 10% of the media in American life.

Publisher – Samuel Erickson

In class this week, we watched two episodes ”The Newsroom”. I have seen the pilot episode before but the second one i never really seen before. I still loved the pilot episode. The first episode is all about the news anchor Will McAvoy who comes back from vacation after an embarrassing pubic incident at an university. He comes back to find that half of his staff are leaving to go work for a different new anchor. His boss then hires his ex-girlfriend Mackenzie MacHale to be his new executive producer. This makes Will very upset, but his boss says that it can help him a lot and that it can work. An issue that a lot of news channels have is figuring what issues are worth pursing and see how much views it can bring in. A news alert came through the news station about an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, many of his people, working for Will don’t see it as it’s very important and tell him that it won’t gain him a lot of views. As the team did their own research, they find out that it is an oil spill that had been yet to be plugged. McAvoy and his pursue the issue and are the only ones to broadcast it on the airwaves that night. Other news stations had not yet realized the big issue of the oil spill and it was very good for McAvoy to have displayed this news out fast. I really loved the episode because they did a great job displaying the news story and seeing if it would help the situation or if it would be beneficial for the public.

In the next episode of the Newsroom, there was issues with what they wanted to broadcast. The issue was what the public wanted to hear and not for entertainment or relying on actual news. McAvoy show took a big hit after not covering the Casey Anthony trial. McAovys and his team wants to cover real and actual news that is actually important to the public. After they lose half of their views to Nancy Grace, they decide that it was time to make a change and put on the Casey Anthony trial. The team decides that they want to stay on top of the news that is going on and they start to report about the trial in case their views come back, The episode shows you that sometimes the news doesn’t show you important information and they are just showing you what is going around in the world or in our country.

This week we discussed news and recent trends of news being subjective instead of objective. In the screening of two episodes of The Newsroom, one major theme follows the plot of the show. It is the idea that news in the modern era has become extremely bipartisan, and the protagonists of the show are striving to combat this trend by reporting the news as an objective item. They want to allow the audience to create their own opinions about events happening in the world. The main character Will McAvoy is the main anchor for the show and believes his viewers are not complete mouth breathers that must be told exactly what to think. 

Conflict arises in the second episode when the team decides not to report on the Casey Anthony Case. They believe the case is not worth reporting on because it replicates basic television drama. As a result, they end up losing half of their audience to a Nancy Grace show that did report the Casey Anthony Case. The team decides that because of this decline in the audience they must report on the controversial case within the next week. This creates a problem that all newscasts face. Whether they should focus on reporting stories that their audience is interested in seeing, or whether they should report on stories and issues that they believe are important for their audience to be informed on. 

Overall, I believe The Newsroom is successful in terms of presenting issues that impact the current way we ingest current events. In the first episode, Will is criticized during an interview for not taking a political stance as a news anchor. After being taunted about this, he finally blows up and chastises other news anchors for voicing their political affiliations. He believes that current events should not be reported with a liberal or conservative spin on the content, for this could alter how an audience ingests the information given to them. 

Today, we are given the illusion of choice when it comes to entertainment options. Entertainment corporations such as Disney, Viacom, and Time Warner have consolidated all media into massive media monopolies. In fact, there are only six major corporations that are currently in control of the industry. As opposed to thirty years ago when there where approximately fifty companies involved in the industry. This move towards massive conglomerates creates little to no competition in the industry. It also means that all of our information and entertainment comes from only five or six giant corporations. However, these massive conglomerates are not just a one-sided evil villain. Their massive size means they need to produce more content than ever. This creates an opportunity for jobs in all aspects of production. From directing to costume design there is a demand for workers in this field. As easy as it is to become pissed off by a mass take over of corporations, at least I can rest easy knowing that this is the best time for post-college graduates to enter the entertainment field.