Topic Selection

I spent the last two weeks toying with either Stuff You Missed in History Class, or On the Media as my choice of  podcasts to emulate. Once we looked more into developing our research question, I decided on On the Media. I felt that, though I am a history student, I could ask a more critical question of media today than I could of past events that most likely have been heavily researched and explored. I also started to ask critical questions myself once I listened to some of the On the Media podcasts (including the "I am a Real Person" and some of the podcasts on the NSA security scandals) and it made me want to explore the roles that social media, and entertainment media play with real news events. 

In terms of emulation, I don't wish to mimic or follow in suit of On the Media. Though I have chosen it at a topic, compared to other podcasts I have listened to, I did not particularly like ther storytelling or their means of asking a broader question - in truth, I didn't find that they asked a broader question... It seemed more to pull from the wires multiple sources on one event, and meld them. Perhaps in the podcasts I listened to, the question or an overall theme was more underlying, but if so, that is not the style I wish to emulate. 

For my podcast I would like to look at a less recent topic, for the pupose of comparing its emulation in various media forms. I am considering the early Anthony Weiner scandal, or perhaps the Islamic community center that was built in New York several years ago - both have been played out and "announced" as news via Twitter, and both have been picked up as fodder for late night shows like Jon Stewart, and the HBO series, The Newsroom. 

I would like to compare one of these events as portrayed on more "informal" media as mentioned above, to the true sources released at the time. Are their variants in the stories shared? Is one more dramatic than the other? Leading to my question of: Can events, or news, be properly and fairly expressed outside of news media sources (newspapers, news television). Are the new forms of commuication distorting the news around us? 

With this question, I want to consider that perhaps people (maybe my generation in particular) are less tuned in to true news outlets, and accepting these social and entertainment media as the real story? 

I had (and still have) some reserves on my topic - I have even made a forum on the Moodle page to get some other opinions and advice. Looking at Spark kind of assured my that I should pick something that I have an interest in, which is the case. Personally enjoy Jon Stewart, and The Newsroom, but I know that they might not be the best primary source for news - but this brought me to the question, do other viewers acknowledge that? Watching The Newroom, people have mentioned, do you think people think all of this is true to the real story? 

Spark helped me most with Managing a Topic, and Revising a Topic - I think after further research I will need some revision on my research topic or general set up for the podcast discussion. I think Spark could narrow down their advice on Managing a Topic. I think the set up of when, where, why, what, how, insinuates to students that if they can answer these questions, it means they can continue with their topic (this is with the assumption that students may not click on every link to answer those questions). Morever, the PDF for "Nutshelling" gives questions students can ask themselves about their papers - but my concern with te page is that perhaps everyone cannot identify these issues in their own papers.