Fundamentals of Journalism Blog

In the article, “Blood on our hands,” it discusses how 23 years ago a tragedy took place in the UK and many people died in the Sheffield stadium on April 15, 1989.  The families of the people that lost their lives that day had no answers for what happened to the members of their families that day.

Today, reports came out that days following that tragedy, police lied about not having anything to do with the reports that were being turned in.  This article states, “Up to 164 statements from officers were falsified or amended to shift blame from the police on to innocent supporters, with 116 having potentially damaging comments deleted.”

The rest of this article talks about how the families are relived to finally have answered to what happened to their loved ones on that day.

This article is news because I’m sure they are following up on something that was reported for days or maybe even months after the incident happened. I am curious however what actually happened. I thought if the author of this piece would have even given a summary of what happened 23 years ago, it would have made things a lot more clear for the reader. Even though this isn’t something that happened in the United States, I think it still interreges people due to the fact that law enforcement messed with evidence to a tragedy.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hillsborough-cover-up—how-1322011

As the Democratic convention began on Tuesday some news that will affect both candidates, and the whole nation for that matter, also became public. For the first time ever the nation’s debt has now reached $16 trillion.  Some news that could affect President Obama not only is the $16 trillion of debt we sit in but his “unfavorable” ratings are higher than his “favorable” ones, according to The Washington Post.

This article brings up a good point as to whether either Presidential candidate will bring to voters’ attention how much work it will take to see a decrease in debt, the spending our country does, and the worries of the global markets.

The economic problems the United States is facing are not easy matters.  With it being an election year the voting citizens will look at the leader of this country to make it better, who can make the better decisions.  With being this far in debt, which many Americans are very concerned about, it’s not like it will be fixed within a year or even two.

Because the debt of the nation is so high and the Democratic convention just staring and it’s an upcoming election, this is news for anyone who can vote or anyone who cares about the current situation the U.S. is in.  This is something current and happening right now so it’s very much considered news.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/analysis-both-obama-romney-unready-to-confront-voters-with-harsh-truths-about-debt-taxes/2012/09/05/7405340e-f796-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html

Today Hurricane Isaac made contact with land in Louisiana after making his way through the Dominican Republic and Haiti in the past few days.  Louisiana officials told 3000 people they needed to evacuate their homes in the New Orleans area.  Hurricane Isaac is creeping up to the levees only getting strong due to the fact it’s just sitting there.  One of the levees this morning couldn’t handle the pressure when a 12-foot wave barreled over the 8-foot levee.  This flooding left over 100 people stranded and many more still left to be rescued from their rooftops and attics.

Right now the hurricane is waiting along the shorelines maintaining a speed of only 6 miles per hour.  Officials tracking the storm don’t anticipate the it exceeding speeds of over 80 miles per hour only to slow down more once the storm finally hits land.  Luckily for the state of Louisiana, Hurricane Isaac isn’t supposed to be as strong as Hurricane Katrina.

This is the first test for Louisiana after spending $14.5 billion in levees, floodwalls, gates, and pumps to protect the cities.  Hopefully the money the state invested into protecting the land will be beneficial.

With this being a natural disaster that affects a lot of people, I think this is definitely considered news. Some people may not even care about this kind of news, especially when it doesn’t affect them or the area they live in.  Natural disasters are a big deal though and always draw attention so therefore this is considered news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/us/hurricane-isaac-makes-landfall.html?pagewanted=all