Slide show, smlide show.

I am definitely a little bit late with this as we have been taking care of Winston since his surgery, not sleeping well and being sick off and on for the past couple of weeks. No bueno, to say the least.

One of the requirements for class is that we not only maintain a blog, but that we also answer questions that pertain to multimedia journalism as well as post on certain topics. Last week's topic, which I seemed to have completely passed over (whoops) was to find an effective slide show and relate what makes it news. I found tons of slide shows, but whether or not they are news is questionable.

I found a very interesting article, accompanied by a Slide Show on The Huffington Post that I found rather useful to class. The slide show is short, and features pictures and captions that not only support the story, but elaborate effectively.

Last month, the public radio program "This American Life," retracted a story concerning the working conditions of Apple Inc. in China, which was a huge blow to show, who has maintained journalistic integrity for many years. 

"Host Ira Glass said that actor Mike Daisey, whose monologue formed the basis of the story, had lied to the program during the fact-checking process, and that he and his colleagues had been too trusting of him."

While this is very uncommon for "This American Life," it is not so uncommon for the journalism world to produce "news" that isn't always as accurate as the public would like it to be and instances are shown through the slide show.

As a journalism student, this is a hard pill to swallow. Fact-checking and maintaining the integrity of the story should be number one, however people can spend their whole careers pulling the wool over the eyes of, not only the editors, but the readers as well.

Mentioned in the slide show was New York Times writer Jayson Blair who had fabricated facts in at least 36 of his stories. He made up names and quotes of stories that were important to the public and very sensitive to the times. It blows my mind, that in this day-and-age, with all sorts of ways to find facts, people still skimp on them.

It shows a huge lack of respect for readers and to fellow journalists, who want to in fact maintain the integrity of the news.