Immigration Reform influencing the media

While both Garber and Barrett express the view that our media isn’t very partisan; there are some issues that seem to tell a different story. Immigration reform is such an issue. It would seem most media outlets can’t discuss the issue without bring up a party. Over past year tensions have been running high around Immigration reform.

One need only look towards the bill the Senate passed, which the house has failed to take up, and the executive order from Obama granting deferment to “Dreamers”.

The an article titled A Conservative Pathway for Immigration Reform plays the issue of immigration reform as an issue for conservatives to win voters.

While, TIME posted an article stating that many felt the President hadn’t done enough. However, only democrats seem to like such actions. As many Republicans pledged to file a lawsuit against the president taking unilateral actions.

Students Speaking Out, Hong Knog

As protest in Hong Knog grows, America is still uninformed. Garber explains that selection for foreign news stories is very similar to the selection of domestic stories.  Garber points to the fact that stories still need to appeal to American audiences. “Protest, as a rule, are covered only when they are violent” (Garber, pg. 254) this points to the reason why until no so many American haven’t heard about the protest students are holding in Hong Knog. Most still are unsure of what is happening, however  CNN has covered the protest pretty well. The Chinese government has eliminated the open nomination process, in order to ensure the poor get control of the political system.

The violence of the police has changed several things in Hong Knog. Such has caused more protesters to show up instead of persuading people not to show up.  Two camps have developed the pro- democracy and pro-government.  Many have expressed concerns about the fact that pro-government side seems to be able to attack the pro- democracy side with impunity. However, Garber points why this has become news.

It is very beneficial to the Status Quo of the American government for the pro-democracy side to advance. Garber states, good frames are provided for friends, while bad frames are provided for enemies. This Garber says follows the official designations of who are or aren’t friends, while China is an ally of the US – at least I believe so – communism is still widely unpopular in American society. This has largely affected the way in which reporting about the protest in Hong Knog happens. 

Ebola Ebola Ebola

Garber has identified there are several factors when it comes to crisis report in the reporting of the Ebola “crisis” we see several of those factors. According to Garber the first few moments are about getting the information out regardless of whether it is correct or not. We’ve definitely seen this with the media’s reporting of Ebola. Garber says stage three, attempt to connect the crisis with a larger long-term prospective, happens simultaneously with the stage one and two. Many reports have blamed government officials over this the past few weeks. Most of the attention has been directed at the White House because of its inability to control the outbreak.  However, such fails to connect the inability of the Senate to confirm the health official Obama nominated towards the beginning of his second term.

During the second phase of the crisis reporting, the media attempts to correct any incorrect information. Alderson does raise the question is there really an outbreak? Major news networks have attempted to set the record straight. Both NBC and Fox network issued a journalistic commentary in which they confronted the idea of that the flu is easier to catch than Ebola, and more pole are likely to die from the flu than Ebola. 

The media as a collective

While many forms of the media feel they are outside of the norms they still exhibit habits dictated by the norms of media. Garber identifies several reasons why this is true. All media - at least new media –lacking expansive resources uses traditional media as part of their story inevitably tying themselves into an already constructed system. It’s almost impossible to take one thing and rephrase it entirely to something new; even more so in a congressional hearing David Simon discredits Citizen Journalist. 


To really observe the collective we can look to the Raven Simone incident. While talking with Oprah, Ms. Simone comments about not being African-American.

Within hours just about every alternative news media played Raven’s comments against someone who overwhelmingly identified as African-American. Bustle Media.  Creating an invisible middle where journalists can hide in their reporting. Barnett comments on the fact that social media allows people to be closer to the news source, although such creates problems when it comes to investigating. Accepting whatever that source has said is inevitably no different from the way in which governmental stories are written. What the media reported Raven said and what Raven actually said was completely different.

 Had the media investigated what Raven said, they would have realized she was talking about African-American as an ethnicity not as a race. In several interviews conducted after the story broke, Raven confirmed that she was in fact not talking about her race.

Raven Speaks Out