One of the most important things I learned from this class is knowing the type of story you need to write in order to communicate effectively with your audience. Communication is very important no matter what type of business field you are going into.

Another thing I learned from this class is how important it is to stay up to date with the news. There is always something knew going on or changing and it is important to stay caught up.

I learned a lot throughout this semester and also improved my writing skills.

My group topic is Obamacare.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/12/tktk.html

This article talks about how the enrollment numbers for Obamacare were lower than expected. They found that only 3% of the target areas actually enrolled in the healthcare act. They are hoping that even though enrollment is off to a slow start, it will pick up soon. They believe that an estimated 7 million people are expected to enroll before the March 1 deadline, but with the technical glitches of the website that goal might not be met.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/obamacare-alec-republican-legislators

This article talks about the Republican strategy to destroy the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare. While the healthcare act is still recovering from the technical issues, Republican officials are coming up with ways to repeal and destroy the act. Their new plan is from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is called The Health Care Freedom Act.

My partner and I have been covering Obamacare all semester for our media project. Signups for the health care reform began on October 1 but had a rough start.  The website wasn’t ready which only gave opposers to Obamacare more reason to hate it. People can register until December 15 to be covered in 2014. The President announced that if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan and you are not forced to register for Obamacare. Obamacare survived the government shutdown but Republicans are still pushing to repeal the Affordable Care Act before the November 2014 election.

Today I will be summarizing the Public Relations Society of America’s Ethics section.

http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/#.UoUsFvlJOSp

The most important practice to a PRSA member is ethical conduct. This section of their website defines what the ethical code that they are supposed to follow is.

The core values of the foundation are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. They believe that these values are vital to the integrity of the organization.

The intent of the free flow of information is to keep the integrity of the organization with the media and to aid in successful decision making. They must be sure to put out truthful and accurate information

Competition, disclosure of information, safeguarding confidences, conflicts of interest, and enhancing the profession are all of the other codes of conduct the organization must follow to be considered ethical.

At the bottom of the website’s page there is a pledge to sign that says you will conduct yourself in all the ways stated previously and that you realize there are consequences if you do not act in ethical manners.

The Baylor website taught me a lot about copyright issues with photos and music. I had no idea how strict it was to use pictures you find online. The best way to prevent yourself from getting sued over using someone else’s pictures is to just use pictures you took yourself. There are some websites that have free photos to use, but you have to check and make sure there aren’t any rules or guidelines for them.

My theme is city skylines.

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-40823005/stock-photo-new-york-city-skyline.html?src=recommended-114734815-5

This site is okay because they use royalty-free stock photos.

http://www.freefoto.com/preview/31-26-3/London-Skyline-at-night–London–England

This site is okay as long as you give credit to the photographer and the website.

https://www.photospin.com/singleproduct.asp?id=473590&search_id=7318622&the_page=1&page_offset=0&browse_id=

This site is okay because they use royalty-free stock photos.

http://www.epitonic.com/#/artists/lana-del-rey/

This song is okay to use because it’s from a free music website.

This week I read the Dallas Morning News. It has a lot of the same categories as other news sources we have read. One thing that was different was that there is a section that shows the weather and traffic. The Dallas Morning News seems to target an adult audience who is interested and possibly lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The first article I read was “The Girl in the Closet”. It tells the story of a girl who was abused as a child and was then adopted. She grew up not having many friends and didn’t really know how to fit in. She always dreamed of having a normal life but didn’t know how.

http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/2013_October/lauren/day8/

The next article I read was “Top Texas CPS official orders more home visits in wake of abuse-related deaths” by Robert T. Garrett. This article talks about how Texas CPS is ordering more unannounced home visits due to recent deaths of foster children. In these visits they will be checking for frequent visitors as well as how the children are being treated in everyday situations.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20131025-top-texas-cps-official-orders-more-home-visits-in-wake-of-abuse-related-deaths.ece

The final story I read was “Tesla builds a fan base by leading the charge”. This article talks about Tesla Motors trying to sell their all electric cars to consumers without going through a dealership. This violates Texas law though because it would harm the car dealership’s multimillion dollar business. Although they can’t sell Tesla cars at a show or gallery, it doesn’t stop buyers from ordering them online.

http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/2013_October/Tesla/#.UmycDfmTjVo

Overall I liked this news source. I enjoyed reading the different stories it offers and the different categories to look through.

The first story I read on the Watergate page was “Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought”. 40 years after the scandal the reporters who covered the story then have been transcribing hours of Nixon’s secret tapes applying meaning to them. After reviewing everything they have concluded that Nixon was far worse than everyone thought he was. He launched five wars during his five-and-a-half-year presidency. The war against the antiwar movement, war on the news media, war against the Democrats, war on justice, and war on history. He also disregarded the law for political advantage and participated in wiretapping and political sabotage long before the Watergate scandal.

I enjoyed the Facebook timeline over Watergate. It helped me see and understand how everything took place by putting it in a form that we see so often today. I liked how there were pictures from the different phases of the scandal. It was interesting to see the reporters that took on the case because you usually do not see much about the reporters. I also liked how there were pictures of the documents and the one with his resignation signature. I thought it was a nice way to portray the events.

In the “Deep Throat revealed” story, it talks about who Deep Throat is and how he helped in the investigation anonymously. Deep Throat was revealed in 2005 as Mark Felt who was the second highest FBI official in the US government. He aided Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their reporting of the Watergate scandal. He gave them information on how to connect Nixon with the scandal and confirmed their stories.

I thought this page on The Washington Post was interesting and very helpful in understanding the background of the Watergate break-in.  I feel like this page is more directed toward an older audience who heard about the scandal when it first happened. Our generation learned about it briefly though school but would probably never think to research it or dig this deep into it. Overall is was a very helpful source in learning more about the major government scandal.

Today I read the Los Angeles Times. I had heard of this news outlet before but this was the first time I had ever read it. It is set up a lot like the Washington Post with the different categories it has to browse through. I found this source interesting to read. One thing I noticed was that there were far less political stories on the front cover than some of the other news sources I have read.

One of the top stories was about a prosthetic leg that could be controlled by brain power. They programmed it to mimic what a real leg would do by studying the nerves in the legs. The test subject for this was Zac Vawter who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. He has nothing but positive things to say for this innovation because it has given him back close to normal function of his leg. The company working on this project is working under a grant from the U.S. Army who is trying to find a way to give back to the soldiers who lost their limbs in combat. This leg is not a normal prosthetic limb; it is powered by two engines which control the movement in the knee and in the ankle. It is supposed to make movement of this as seamless as possible.

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-robotic-leg-20130926,0,7310017.story

A story on California I read was “Analysts see hope for California prison overcrowding solution”. In the past few years, California prisons have been overcrowded, but no one was able to come to a solution. California Gov, Jerry Brown proposed sending some prisoners to facilities out of state to relieve the situation in their own state’s facilities but the court denied that request. The court ordered that more than 9,600 inmates be removed from the state prison by the end of the year. Governor Brown does not want to do this though because those are not the kind of people you want back out on the street. He has appealed to overturn the court’s ruling on this to try to find a better solution.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ff-prisons-20130925,0,2818947.story

There are times when I like grammar, but for the most part I hate it. Using correct grammar makes you sound more intelligent. It is a more proper way to speak and it gives a person more credibility with their audience if they use correct grammar. Although it is the correct way to speak, it is sometimes easy to forget to use it. Especially here in the south, most of us grew up around relatives that said “y’all” and “ain’t” so it is easy to slip into words like that.

I’m really bad about using the wrong verb in a sentence. I will say “shrunk” instead of “shrank” or “laid” instead of “lay” or “lie”. I also don’t know when to use whom instead of who. It’s an easy concept that I have learned before but it hasn’t seemed to stick with me yet.

I think reviewing grammar rules would help me understand grammar better.

My grammar pet peeve is when people use the wrong there/their/they’re and your/you’re. This is probably the easiest thing to remember about grammar, yet so many people use the wrong one.

My partner, Jill Reid, and I chose Obamacare as our topic because there has been a lot of news coverage over it recently. The Republican Party is trying to repeal it while the Democratic Party is trying to move forward with implementing it. Neither of us knows much about this topic but we would like to know more. I hope to learn about the policies that are going to be put in effect. Since the news does not cover Obamacare well enough for people to know the specifics or even the basics of it, I am hoping the articles we read will inform us of these things.