The article, “Legal Guide For Bloggers” is the perfect manual for journalists to know where their boundaries stand when it comes to writing articles. In the first amendment, people are given the freedom of speech and freedom of press but there is a certain limit to how much a journalist is able to write in order to get a good story. Fair Use is a writer’s best friend. Fair use is when a journalist is able to use certain information from someone else’s work for their story. For example, a journalist is able to quote something from someone else’s blog and use it in their article as a reference. That is not a copyright problem and the journalist will not be punished for that.
For my beat project, I do not think that I will have copyright issues because The First Tee of Tampa Bay is a public organization. I had a discussion with the executive director of The First Tee and he has no problems with the materials and information that I will be using for my article.
The article, “NPPA Code of Ethics” explains on how you can be a good visual journalist. Learning the simple rules and techniques to capture an image for a good story, helps to prevent any issues with pictures being used incorrectly. Manipulating photos to gain benefit to boost up a story is not the right way of doing journalistic work. Not only is it unethical but it could end up a journalist losing their jobs. The best option to get a good story out of images is to get them in their natural state. Make sure that as a journalist you do not ask the person to do exactly what you want and in the end the story is just not original.
For my beat project I will let the staff know that I am here to video their program but I will not intrude with their work. I will sit on the side and just observe what they are doing. I think if I do not get involved, sooner or later the children and volunteers will not even realize that I am there video taping them. That way, I can get the natural feel to the story. Also for my interviews, I will asked simple questions and not make it sophisticated, till they will not be able to give a great answer. I think if I kept it simple and allowed them to explain it, I will be able to get stories that I would not get if I were to bombard them with many questions.
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