“Were It Left to Me to Decide Whether We Should Have a Government
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University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP The rP ospector Special Collections Department 2-28-2017 The rP ospector, February 28, 2017 UTEP Student Publications Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/prospector Part of the Journalism Studies Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Comments: This file is rather large, with many images, so it may take a few minutes to download. Please be patient. Recommended Citation UTEP Student Publications, "The rP ospector, February 28, 2017" (2017). The Prospector. 272. http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/prospector/272 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections Department at DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in The rP ospector by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOL. 102, NO. 21 THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO FEBRUARY 28, 2017 “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter,” Thomas Jefferson see page 2 All Dental Specialist in One Clinic MOST USA DENTAL INSURANCES WELCOME CARRETERA INTERNACIONAL WATERFILL 324 AVE. DE LAS AMERICAS 1411 NTE. 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Although Trump or the repeal of freedom of the this Asian country is trying to reform press, there will be nothing that stops A life without the First Amendment its lack of freedom, in multiple areas the the modern day journalist from their of making money through the traffi c would be somewhat reminiscent of BY RENE DELGADILLO government has still halted all forms of liberties. Everyday at Th e Prospector, we they will receive, and unfortunately, 18th century American life. It would The Prospector free press. Burma’s government owns value our constitution-given rights as remind us of a time when a govern- Th e future those stories have made some people all of the daily newspapers, three televi- journalists, and no man or force could ment, or more specifi cally the colonial generations of become uninformed and biased. sion networks and almost all of the ra- take away the beliefs that are instilled in governors, controlled and censored the the U.S. might Th ere is a higher chance you will dio stations. Th rough the internet, the our day-to-day principles. publications, newspapers and other be in serious Myanmar Internet Service Providers are America is in need of strong journal- miss important political informa- media outlets run by colonists. It would trouble if they tasked to block and censor any proxy ists in this day and age, and we are proud tion about your city and state if you mean the absolute marginalization of a continue their websites that go against their beliefs. to be among those media members who only follow right-wing or left -wing journalist, a priest, a protest, a petition, inability to dis- Th ere are even records of Burmese citi- contribute to this movement. news accounts on social media or any and so much more that makes up the tinguish real zens being arrested for watching BBC When the White House began decid- other news sources with a set political American Constitution. news from World News and Radio Free Asia. ing which media outlets could attend It is a life of unnecessary barriers and fake news. A agenda in their content. An America where the government briefi ngs last week, which limited the constant content monitoring. It is a life 2016 study from Stanford’s Gradu- Sharing news and awareness owned most news outlets, such as Th e First Amendment rights of all Ameri- that we, as journalists, will not stand for. ate School of Education has found through Facebook groups is a great New York Times, Washington Post, cans by proxy, a new era of the Trump “Were it left to me to decide whether less than a third of college students way of helping people, but stop shar- USA Today or CNN, is unfathomable. administration began. One a lot farther we should have a government without from three diff erent universities were Living in a country where someone can from democracy, the Constitution and ing posts if you’re not sure about newspapers, or newspapers without a be penalized for writing something that the Bill of Rights containing the amend- able to fully explain how the political their authenticity. Look at what other government, I should not hesitate a mo- is factually correct is contradictory to all ments allowing us the freedom to agendas of progressive public advoca- media sources are talking about, get ment to prefer the latter.” our inherent beliefs. Even worse, being monitor the government and hold them cy groups infl uence the content of so- in contact with experts and confi rm Th is quote by Th omas Jeff erson con- cial media posts. Th is suggests some a citizen of a country where a resident accountable, and a lot closer to a dicta- what you’re viewing and reading be- tinues to resonate within the journalistic could be punished for reading or watch- torship or other form of government college students are not aware of the community nearly 250 years later. fore sharing them. ing world news is plain frightening. that Th omas Jeff erson and the nation’s authenticity of news on social media Imagining a world where the newspa- It is important to recognize how ac- A journalist’s job is to bring forth forefathers were hoping to avoid. when in comes to political issues. pers are restricted and the press’ content tivists, supporters of certain political news, spread awareness, give insight and A government built on checks and A couple of days ago rumors about becomes censored is hard to envision. beliefs and people wanting to make inform readers about the happenings in balances cannot be truly “checked” possible checkpoints near UTEP en- With the use of modern technology and the world. Without us and without our without a free press. Th is is why we trances by Immigration and Customs money off of clicks will use social the internet, news—legitimate or not— freedom to publish, our country will stand with the numerous media out- Enforcements agents were circulating media as a way of gaining people’s is readily accessible with an endless feed become misinformed, confused and lets who were banned from the White around a Facebook group, causing support. Th ey will write headlines, of information at the reader’s discretion. unconscious about their surroundings. House media “gaggle” last week. concern for some students. UTEP stories and post videos based on lies offi cials said in a statement, “UTEP’s with the goal of getting your attention executive team and the University to gain traffi c. Police have no information to sup- port these rumors.” Besides having the risk of reading Th is trend could lead to a genera- fake and biased news, Facebook pres- tion whose political beliefs and de- ents another problem that may lead cisions are based on biased and fake to a more uninformed generation. news articles, and in today’s political On Facebook, you won’t be able to climate, the last thing this country automatically fi nd all the stories from needs is more uninformed citizens your friends and favorites websites. who believe everything coming out It is important to understand how on their Facebook feed is real. Facebook’s News Feed may block How many times have you been some posts based on an algorithm scrolling down your screen just to fi nd another ridiculous headline that predicts the posts you’re more about Trump or about the policies likely to be interested in. Th is means he wants to implement? It’s become factual and reliable news could be at common to see how many of our the end of your news feed due to the Facebook friends don’t even take the algorithm doing its job. By being at time to actually read the entire article the end, it is more likely the user will before sharing it on several social me- never reach those posts. dia platforms. If your main source for news is Some stories shared on Facebook Facebook, then the Washington Post have caused panic among people in advises that users to click on the op- the U.S. Rumors about visa removals and cancellations for having memes tions “top stories” and “most recent” of President Donald Trump on their to change the order in which they re- JASON GREEN / THE PROSPECTOR phone while crossing the border have ceive news, posts and pictures. been spreading without the confi rma- Th is might help a little, but the tion of any authorities or victims. But real answer to stopping this negative people keep on sharing posts without trend is to become a fact checker, knowing the fear it may bring to oth- check the logos, keywords, web- er immigrants.