Ignorance > Knowledge

I am shocked.  For so many years I've been brought up in a situation that I quite enjoy: ignorance.  The phrase "Ignorance is bliss" springs to mind.  I have grown up with blinders over my eyes, saving me from the disgrace of humanity and the degrading nature we have fallen into, but I have been awaken (quite rudely, I must add).  While reading an article on news.com, I must admit I shed a tear for the victims in this news story.

"Mother in UK forced 14-year-old to get pregnant."
A divorcee living with her three adopted children was denied the right to adopt another child, so she resorted to forcing her eldest child to fall pregnant with a sperm she bought online.  After seven miscarriages the daughter - seventeen at the time - finally gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, but her mother told her not to breastfeed him because "... we don't want any of that attachment thing."  The mother was taken into custody, charged for child cruelty for a five year sentence.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/mother-in-uk-forced-14-year-old-to-get-pregnant/story-fnet08ck-1226631901344

Now this story is very alarming to me.  This woman has three adopted children (from not being able to have them or personal choice, I am unaware) and was seeking out a fourth, but being an only parent I doubt they were allowed to give her another child.  This woman was so determined to have that fourth child (again, it is unknown why) that she must have told her fourteen-year-old daughter what she desired.  What really shook me was that the daughter said that she wasn't forced.  The teenager agreed to the bizarre plan because she thought that if she went through with the pregnancy her mother would love her more.  It can be seen that the mother obviously did not show her love for the children very well.

It is my perception and my perception alone that the woman in question adopted the children with the now-ex-husband.  Here's the story (COMPLETELY hypothetical of course):
A woman and man were married but unable to conceive children of their own.  They decided they would adopt because they had that urge to take care of children.  After taking care of one child, they decided to adopt a second child.  Then a third.  This is where the story gets complicated; they could not handle the stress of the three children (perhaps due to money reasons) and they grew apart, eventually divorcing.  Distraught by the lack of a husband and not wishing to seek out another man (possibly she'd reached a certain age where she could not handle another man), she desired to adopt one more child.  Perhaps this child could fill the hole that was left in her heart, seeing as the other three children she won custody over weren't working.  Their faces just reminded her of the good times she used to have with her husband, so her love corroded and twisted into regret and denial.  Denied the right to adopt once again, she lost her mind.  Nothing could fill the void, so she threw all caution (and sanity) to the wind.  She had developed a fool proof plan ... or so she thought.  She approached her daughter, fourteen at the time, and begged her to go along with the plan, not expecting to actually get a yes from her.  While browsing online she found a website that sold sperm for a reasonable price. It looked legitimate enough.  Attempt one ended badly with a miscarriage.  Attempts two and three didn't work either.  Four, five and six showed no light at the end of the tunnel.  Slowly her sanity, or what was left of it, withered away.  All the money she had wasted on the faulty sperm was starting to agitate her and she began targeting her second-eldest child, who had recently turned fifteen.  Perhaps it's not the sperm that's faulty, she began to think.  Perhaps my daughter has inherited the horrible curse of not being able to conceive.  She began consulting her next option (for she did not consider her children to be actual children, only means of income or breeding) but was stopped by the eldest child once again, now seventeen.  The daughter begged to be given one more chance.  This baby was the only hope of earning her mother's love once again.  Granted one final shot to impress, the daughter tried her very hardest to fall pregnant ... and succeeded!  However, the outcome was anything but desired.  The mother sought a girl, but a baby boy was given life that day.  Not only was the daughter not allowed to breastfeed the boy, she was also not given the love she thought she deserved.  Knowing that nothing good would come from what she had done, the daughter consulted the midwives and alerted them of the situation.

That was entirely my perception of the news article, but it still makes me ill to think about that family situation.  A broken marriage, adopted children, forced teenage pregnancies, a loveless home, a boy brought into a world where it all made sense to the family ...

It's stories like this that make me wish I could live in ignorance.

The Slippery Slope Of Humanity

Tragedy struck the beautiful town of Boston yesterday. Everyone woke up that morning thinking that they were either going to win the marathon that they had been training for or were going to watch they friend or family member win. One particular man believed he was going to turn his girlfriend into his fiance. Another young man of eight years was going to walk the marathon, raising money for charity. Little did they know that yesterday would be the most impacting life of their lives.

About half an hour after the first person crossed the finish line, a bomb exploded in the middle of the crowd. Panic struck the hearts of everyone who heard or saw the bomb go off. However, they only had 15 seconds to think about it before a second bomb exploded further into the crowd. Another two bombs were found, but they failed to explode. No one cared about the actual race. Everyone was too shocked about the fact that people were limbless, faceless and lifeless around them.

The death toll is up to three. There are so many people in hospitals with limbs needing treatment or amputation, faces with parts missing and for some people, brain damage. One person who died was a twenty-two-year-old woman, Crystal, who's boyfriend was running in the marathon. He was going to propose to her after the marathon. The second was an eight-year-old boy, Martin, who was walking for charity. His sister lost her leg in the explosion and his mother is in hospital with brain damage. The third deceased victim has been unnamed. This could be because they haven't contacted the family yet, or the person was too disfigured to identify.

Many more victims are left in hospital with unnatural injuries. No person has been found guilty, but there are a few suspects of the Boston bombings. There is only one question that everyone is asking ...

What is this world coming to?

Taylor, The Bookworm

In our most recent tutorial, we were asked to create an article about the person sitting beside us.  I was placed with a charming young lady by the name of Taylor.  This is half of the interview ...

Curled up in a dark, quiet corner, snuggled up with her most recent David Eddings book, Taylor seems at peace.  No one would ever expect that she would be heading off to football practice to mix it up with boys twice her size in just a few minutes.  To her close friends and family, she is a bookworm.  She is always seen clutching her copy of The Mallorean, mumbling to herself that the story wasn’t going to plan but was still enjoyable.  To her football mates, she is a rough-and-tough chick, not afraid to get her hands dirty.  Sure, once in a while her two worlds will collide.  She may be reclining on her bed wearing her football gear or smuggling her books into her gear bag, but she tries desperately to separate her two worlds from fear of ridicule.  When she is not at football practice or reading, she spends time and earns money at a small café by the name of Brumbies Go.  Even her workmates know that if she is in a bad mood it will be because her favourite character died or she lost a game. 

One fateful day, her coach shattered her world by announcing that she would have to change from football to netball.  Taylor, distraught by the news, demanded why he would make such a call.  Due to her female development, it was considered to be a health and safety risk for her to continue.  Taylor tried it out for a month or so, but netball could not match the excitement and passion that she felt with football.  Surrendering to the side of her that call loudly, she became the person she was meant to be: Taylor, the bookworm.  

The rest will remain a secret.  The tactic we were asked to use was to create a story almost.  Have a beginning, a middle and an end in that order, they told us.  Well, this is my attempt.

'The Norm'

Browsing through some news sites, I feel a deep saddening because I don't see anything warm or positive.  I see death, destruction and disease.  I will provide for you readers a few examples from FoxNews, ABC News and USA Today ...

"New York professor under fire over 'hypothetical' questions about rape"
This story explains that a professor at the University of Rochester thought that the rape of women who are unconscious should be considered to be legal.
http://www.foxnews.com/

"New York man says he was fired for having HIV"
This guy was fired from his workplace (a car dealership) because he told his employer he was HIV-positive.
http://abcnews.go.com/

"Teenage girl lied about gage rape"
A 17-year-old girl bravely approached the police and confess that she had been dragged into a car by five men and sexually abused, only for the police to say she was making it all up.  Legitimately.
http://www.abc.net.au/

"Officer and suspect dead at police headquarters in Mississippi"
A suspected criminal was being interviewed when suddenly everyone heard gunshots and the officer and suspect were dead.
http://www.usatoday.com/

These are all legitimate and a little bit scary.  In the world today, these stories are considered to be 'the norm'.  No one would bat an eyelid at them.  It was things like this that made me doubt my journalism career.

Being the person that I am comes with some pros and cons: I care a lot about a lot of topics and people. This is both a pro AND a con, because I won't be able to report on stories like rape, death or discrimination.  This provides a challenge in a way to find a source of journalism that I can further my career in.  Radio would be difficult because my speech isn't good when it comes to scripts or organised speechs (which eliminates the possibility of being an actress).  News papers have hard-hitting news that I wouldn't be able to handle.  Television is DEFINITELY out of the question, as I am camera shy.  This leaves ... magazines.

Most magazines like Woman's Day, TV Week or Famous would be excellent for me because they provide what most people would consider to be fluff pieces, but I would see it as an opportunity to meet famous people and tell the real stories behind their famousness.  That's where I see myself in five years.  Hopefully that will be my 'norm'.

Agendas

In journalism, there is such a thing as an 'agenda'.  Unlike the normal definition of an agenda, an journalism agenda basically means that a journalist would focus on a story or angle that is more likely to be sold or read.  If a story isn't relevant to something recent, most people aren't going to read it.  However, if a journalist wrote a story about something that happened the day before, more people are going to pay attention to the story.  This also works with content.  When the new Pope was elected, any story that didn't mention the Pope wouldn't have sold as well as ones that did.

With this in mind, consider today's news.  How many stories go unnoticed because of more relevant articles? What important issues have been pushed to the back, only to be overshadowed by a famous pregnancy or a television series drama?  Agenda setting is a real issue, even though most people don't realise.

In a poll, it is more likely that you are going to find people who would rather find out what's going on in Kate and Will's life than in the life of people starving in Africa.  It gives them a taste of knowing the 'issues' of the world.  They feel famous; wanted; important.  When learning about the less-fortunate, they feel sad and useless.  They can't do much to change most of the problems, so they feel helpless.  It's such a contrast.

Agendas tend to highlight the more important stories and shadow those not classified as sellers.  It's up to the journalist to define the sellers and separate them from the rest.