Reading Summary 10

Reading Summary by Sylvia Kearney November 16^th, 2013

Reference: REMARKS BY PRESIDENT OBAMA ON SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMS. (2013). International Debates, 11(6), 16-18.

Statement: On August 9^th, 2013, President Obama gave a Press Conference that addressed surveillance programs for the United States. 

Summary: The President explains that with ongoing and reforming technology every feature of our lives is changing. Therefore, President Obama feels that we also need to change our security, to keep all Americans safe with the following changes.

1.     President Obama will work with Congress to follow appropriate reforms to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is the program that collects telephone conversations and records. The president claims that it does not allow the government to listen in to any ones conversation without a warrant.

2.     President Obama will also work with Congress to correct the public’s confidence in the FISC or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He is considering making additional changes to the FISC in order to review certain intelligence activities.

3.     President Obama is asking us to become more transparent. So, President Obama has requested for all of our programs, from the NSA to the Department of Justice etc. to make public as much information as possible. The President claims that several programs will have a public website where anyone can find out what the program is doing and or working on at the time.

4.     President Obama is very concerned about our safety and the possibility of terrorist attacks on the United States. He claims that these steps will ensure Americans that they can trust in the Obama regime. He makes it clear that he is only interested in protecting this country and our allies.

 Comment: After reading Andrew Napolitano’s outtake from his book, How Congress Has Assaulted Our Freedom in the Patriot Act, I was reminded that I did a paper once and remembered that after 9/11 the patriot act would change everything. Napolitano wrote,” The deepest cut came on October 15, 2001 when Congress enacted the Patriot Act. With minimal floor debate in the Senate and no floor debate in the House (House members were given only 30 minutes to read the 315 page bill), Congress enacted this most unpatriotic rejection of privacy and constitutional guarantees.” (Napolitano, A., 2005)

Application: I am not sure if I should believe the Obama regime when our President states that we do not need to worry, that no one is listening in our conversations. I am not afraid. I have nothing to hide in my conversations, since I, a middle class female, working full-time, having only one worry. How can we ever get ahead, just a little bit to maybe go on a vacation or re-model our home?

Additional References: Napolitano, Andrew, former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, “How Congress Has Assaulted Our Freedom in the Patriot Act” Retrieved on November 15^th, 2013 from: http://www.lewrockwell.com/2005/12/andrew-p-napolitano/how-congress-has-assaulted-our-freedoms-in-the-patriot-act/

Image, Public Speaking, and The John Rocker Press Conference

Chris Schippers

Reference:

Barton, M. H., & Turman, P. D. (2003). Image, Public Speaking, and The John Rocker Press Conference. Communication Teacher, 17(3), 7-9. http://ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=31746589&site=ehost-live

Theme:

This article talks about an activity for students, using a mock press conference about baseball player John Rocker, to repair his image.  It teaches students the principles of public speaking and how the use of these principles can be applied to repair a person's public image through press conferences and media releases.

Summary:

·         Society in the United States is overly concerned about public image.

·         It is important for students to recognize how the creation and dissemination of messages can be understood by examining the communication goals associated with creating, maintaining, and/or repairing an image.

·         The article talks about an activity of a mock press conference.

·         This activity focuses on student participation in a mock press conference about John Rocker and proceeds in three steps.

·         John Rocker's actions on the field and in a later interview with Sports Illustrated tarnished his image as well as those on his team and those around him.

·         The first step in the activity is to assign readings to students and then have a brief discussion about the two readings.

·         The second step involves providing students with a copy of John Rocker's interview with Sports Illustrated followed by a handout with strategies for apologia.

·         Examples of the strategies for apologia are: denial, bolstering, transcendence and image repair strategies.

·         After reading the interview and strategies the students are then placed in groups to act as though they were a public relations firm.

·         Each group is to choose one apologia strategy or one image repair strategy which would be most effective for Rocker to use to respond to the public in a press conference setting.

·         They then prepare a 3-4 min statement for him to read in a press conference.

·         The instructor should set a sports press conference atmosphere in which the activity it to take place.

·         The activity emphasizes how statements and strategies are influential in changing public opinion

Application to the Lesson Topic:

This article uses a press conference activity to teach students the impact of the media and public speaking.  This relates to the lesson topic in that it teaches students how to create speaking points and focus on the essential speaking points to get their message across.

Application to Emergency Services:

Even though this article doesn't mention emergency services a single time, it can still be applied to our field.  This message can be used by a PIO or Liaison of a department if they ever have to deal with a lawsuit or anything that questions the character of their employees.  Not to mention, this article offers guidelines on how to prepare a message under short notice, of which a PIO will have to do quite often in their career.

Balancing Acts Need Not Tilt Toward Secrecy

Justin E. Ross

Balancing Acts Need Not Tilt Toward Secrecy

Reference: Jackman, T. (2004). Balancing Acts Need Not Tilt Toward Secrecy. (cover story). News Media & The Law, 28(2), 11.

Theme: The reasons why it is not necessary to hide information from the public.

Summary: When the courts find it necessary to shut cameras out of gallery they still need to allow the public access to what is happening.  This is when a good relationship with the PIO from your community can be very valuable; particularly when dealing with the media.

• ·         There was a clear need to allow the media to have access to the court proceedings

• ·         In order to allow the media that access they need someone had to devise a communications plan

• ·         Posting of court papers and other visuals was received positively by the media outlets.

• ·         PIOs served as a liaison between the courts and the media outlets.  This liaison relationship allowed the media to feed needs and concerns about the information being shared back to the Judges

• ·         This process reduced the need for press conferences.  

Application to the Lesson Topic: This story helps to understand that traditional press conferences are not always necessary, and that you can use non-standard practices to satiate the media's need for information.

Application to Emergency Services:  Understanding that there are other ways to make sure that the media has access to information other than traditional press releases and press conferences.  It also illustrates that there really is not a reason to hide information from the media.  What is important is that you build a trust with them and allow them access to things and ask that some of them are held off on.

 

Justin E. Ross
j_elliotte@yahoo.com
360 609-2839

Lesson10 - Reading Summary

The Peoples Press Conference

Jeff Neal

Reference:

MELBER, ARI; The Peoples Press Conference; Nation; 4/6/2009, Vol. 288 Issue 13, p22-24. 3p.

Theme:
With the technology that exists today we can reach the citizens in larger numbers.  Journalists ans leaders no long need to guess what the public wants, they can ask them.  Through a new website the people can summit questions they want to ask the president or any elected official in the next press conference.  these questions are submitted online and then voted on by everyone in the country as to which questions are the most important to be answered.

Summary:
This article discusses the idea of getting the right questions answered by the president during press conferences. New people would be invited to the press conference armed with questions that are the most important to the citizens.
President Obama promised a more open and transparent government, and to make tis happen has invited questions from media that are are new to the press conferences not just allowing questions from the same media members that have been there for years.
The Nation, Washington Times and other media members have created a forum for the public to summit questions to be answered in future press conferences.  Everyone can participate, in summiting questions and then voting what questions should be answered by the president.  If you have a question you can summit this questions on "Ask The President" on communitycounts.com in the form of a video and then the public will view all the videos and vote as to which questions are the most important to ask the president during the next press conference.
The presidential press conferences of the past have been very exclusive, with only certain media member invited.  And the questions needed to be summited ahead of time and the president would know before the press conference started which questions he would answer.  This would change in this new forum, a journalist would come to the press conference with a list of the top questions and ask them in priority, without the president knowing what was going to be asked.  This would allow for an answer to be given honestly, without time to formulate a standard answer.
Media members have used questions from the public in the past, but there is no way of knowing how many questions they received and had to choose from.  They may have only asked a few people and still selected the questions that meet their own criteria.
One would think that the President and other government officials would love this idea because of their commitment during their campaigns that they wanted to be more involved in the public and know what the citizens of the country wanted from the elected officials.
Application to the lesson topic:
In a press conference the politicians have always had the benefit of knowing what the questions were before they were asked.  This new idea of generating questions will hold he politicians more accountable to he public.  They will have to be more informed on all subjects so they will be able to answer any question asked.  The media will also be more involved with the community they live in,  they will be interacting daily with citizens to help formulate questions.
Application to Emergency Services:
Emergency service managers should implement similar ideas when conveying information to the communities the live in.  If they get out and find out what is important to the community then they will be more prepared deliver messages that the public really needs and ad wants to hear about.  To many times leaders have their own agenda instead serving the public they work for.