MCOM 4003 - Carlin Whaley

 Freedom of Information Act     What is the Freedom of Information Act? Well, let's find out. According to FOIA.gov , The Freedom of Information Act "provided the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government. Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA unless it falls under one of the nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement."     The Freedom of Information Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966. President Johnson stated in his official statement , "This legislation springs from one of our most essential principles: a democracy works best when the people have all the information that the security of the nation permits." This statement has a lot of truth to it because the more the people know and the more access you let the people have to...

 International Media Laws     Living in the United States, we are privileged to not have many media laws. For the most part, we have the freedom to post whatever we please. This isn't always the case in other countries. Some countries allow freedom of speech while others have strict censorship.     In Eritrea, Africa, they take their media laws to the extreme. On the Commitee to Protect Journalist , they are ranked number one among the most strict or censored countries. Individuals who work for the censored state press even have to every careful and even live in fear. In Eritrea, if workers leak information to other counties or they have a suspicion that the workers released information that could be critical then the workers are risking being arrested. In 2021, they had a privately owned media suspended and the journalist was put in jail for the information that they released. Eritrea has the most jailed journalist in Africa. Eritrea has an online control telec...

 Is it Really Clean?     Buying the perfect beauty product can be tricky, especially if are looking for certain ingredients that you prefer to be in your products. One thing that is big in the beauty industry right now is paraben and sulfate-free products for your hair along with fragrance-free face products or products that do not contain parabens.      Vogue states that "Misinformation is the biggest threat facing the clean beauty movement right now." This statement couldn't be more true. It is hard to find healthy products for your hair and body in your local drug store. You never know if the products are actually telling the truth or if they are actually free of all the bad ingredients. Some products will be labeled "clean beauty" or "organic" to try and avoid putting "paraben and sulfate-free" on their products because it is not true. You will also come across products that say "paraben and sulfate-free" but they will strip co...

 Can We Really Trust the News     In today's world, we receive news in a lot of different ways. For example, television, magazines, email, mail, social media, or if you are from a small town like I am, then you receive a lot of news just from gossip, and trust me it spreads like a wildfire. Depending on the age of a person determines where you will usually get your news from. Older individuals are more than likely going to get their information from the television on their local news channel, middle-aged people are probably going to get a lot of their news from Facebook, and teenagers are getting information from platforms such as Tik Tok. To put it into numbers, 31% get their news from Facebook, 13% from Twitter, 22% from Youtube, 11% from Instagram, 6% from Tik Tok, and 4% from Snapchat.       Using Magnolia as an example growing up, you wanted to be the one to know the news and exploit it to all of your friends first. It was always coming to school the n...

  Copyright in the Music and Fashion Industries along with Celebrities          Copyright protects an individual's work such as text, images, music, novels, etc. When copyright is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is in the music industry or the fashion world.            In the music industry when you copyright your work, you have to copyright the lyrics and recordings separately. If you use or copy someone's same sound from a song that the author has copyrighted then you could likely be sued. If you are in the music industry and would like to use a sound from someone else's copyrighted work, then you have to go through the process of getting permission from the copyright holder.            In the fashion industry, you would think that you would be able to copyright your designs or a line of clothes done by an artist but as of right now you are not able to. This is why you see...

           If you look up the definition of "reporter's privilege", it describes it as reporters being protected from being forced to reveal information or their sources after they were sworn to keep it private. When a source reveals information to a reporter, they both come up with an agreement on the confidentiality of the situation. Each state usually has its own laws about reporter's privilege.          In 2001, one of the first cases regarding reporter's privilege was a journalist who was sent to jail for refusing to come forth with her sources about an article she had written a book about a Houston murder. She was ordered a subpoena which she refused to respond to and this was not a smart decision. She spent time in jail longer than any other journalist at the time. After she was released from jail, she informed the jury that if she was subpoenaed again she would go back to jail. She fought the case saying "If that's wha...