Once you've set up your blog, please write a first-week entry about your news habits. How do you get news? How often? What do you read and view both online and offline? About how many hours a day or a week do you intentionally seek out news coverage? And one last question: when you think about news media and their coverage of race or gender or sexualities or disabilities, what are your own assumptions?
-All the news that's print to fit. Nowadays, since the vast majority of newspapers moronically put almost all of their content online, I get most of my news that way. I don't have to go out to 7-Eleven and dig out some change. In Safari on my computer, my bookmarks at the top of my window go like this: UNT wireless log-in page, then Gmail, then I have a NEWS category. So, when I wake up every day, or indeed whenever I get on my computer at all, that's the second or thrid thing I do. I'm a news junkie. I start by checking out the DRC, because the NT Daily is worthless. Then the Telegram, then maybe Google News. Then I open up Firefox and check out the Houston Chronicle, because their website makes Safari crash. I'm from the Houston area and so the Chron gives me what matters most to me. And, I love their coverage and their website a lot more than anyone else. It always seems that they're more thorough and honest.
I pickup actual papers alot too. Mostly when I have photos in them. I'll pick up a DRC when I have pictures in it, or when I see a story online that I want a hardcopy of or photos. When I'm traveling however, I like to read the actual paper in the places I might find myself in. As a photographer, the visual look of all the many different papers across the country fascinate me. And the layout and look of a paper also can give clues to the content and quality of coverage. I like seeing what others do.
I think its bullshit when I read today about women or minorities that are doing something for the first time. This is 2007, almost 2008. It should have happened already. That's my stance. When the Bears went to the Super Bowl this year, all you heard about was Lovie and Tony, and the fact that they were black. It shouldn't be a story. It doesn't matter what color they are, or ethinicity they are, the story should be that they're great coaches. It completely eradicated any accomplishment that they made. The first thing the FOX reporter asked Tony Dungee after the Colts won was something along the lines of "How's it feel to be the first black coach to win the Super Bowl?" WHAT THE HELL KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? What did they expect, some kind of black panther answer? Forget the super bowl, forget the win, forget all of it, because you're black. That's not what matters. And highlighting race as being a issue only continues to send the messsage that it makes a difference what color you are.
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