MCOM 4003 - Katherine Ledbetter

The Murders of Shannan, Bella, and Celeste Watts      On August 13, 2018, Shannan Watts and her two daughters, Bella and Celeste, were brutally murdered in Frederick, Colorado by her husband, Chris Watts. Christopher Lee Watts was convicted of three charges of first-degree murder, two counts of murder of a child 12 years or younger, unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. Before the murder was confessed, the Watts women were believed to be missing. "As details of their deaths made headlines worldwide, it became clear that Shannan's husband wasn't the man he appeared to be ." This tragic situation was covered in a made for Netflix true crime documentary film- American Murder: The Family Next Door. The documentary follows the Watts family from a first-person view, including footage from Shannan's own Facebook, police body cameras, text messages, as well as news stories. The abundance and inclusion of social medi...

   Is It Too Good to be True?      It's hard to not walk on eggshells when it comes to taking quotes from other sources, as plagiarism can break a career just as fast as it had started. When weighing the legality of the usage of other's work it comes down to the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used in relation to the copyrighted, and the effect of the use upon the potential market of the copyrighted work.  "Fair Use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." - copyright.gov           AliExpress is a major platform "for ecommerce entrepreneurs to find dropshipping products." Products are so cheap on AliExpress because you are most likely buying straight from the manufacturer through a different supplier. Dropshipping is "an order fulfillment method that does not require a business...

  Lack of Shield Law in States Reporter's Privilege is the right not have to testify or disclose sources of information in both state and federal court. The reason behind this is that journalists have a limited First Amendment right not reveal confidential news. News stories and journalists rely on the content of confidential sources to write stories, specifically those that deal with matters of public importance. According to the Oxford dictionary, Shield Law is the law that protects witnesses from revealing their confidential sources in court. Due to the lack of federal shield law, a 48 of the 50 states have passed their own shield laws. Wyoming and Hawaii, on the other hand, has yet to pass this law. As recently as 2021, a proposed shield law was not passed in Wyoming. Hawaii previously had an enacted shield law from the years of 2008 through 2013. The lack of this law limits reporter's ability to report on important and high-stakes stories. Their 2008 law allowed journali...

 Plagiarism in College Sports You've all seen a show or movie that shows college athletes who have other students that do their schoolwork for them. In reality, collegiate athletes have a strict reputation to uphold. At Southern Arkansas most athletes are required a team study hall and coaches even go as far as to punish their athletes for missing classes. Athletes stay under the watchful eyes of their professors, coaches, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA). The NCAA even has a Promoting and Protecting Academic Integrity compliance section on their website; they take academic misconduct very seriously. Being involved with the NCAA, student athletes not only risk backlash with a university for plagiarism, they also risk athletic ineligibility and the future of their careers. Even with scrutinous eyes upon them, some student athletes still attempt to find their way around the rules. In 2014, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after an investigation...

History Always Repeats Itself       If you care about your health, you need to go buy a pack of cigarettes RIGHT NOW. Buy a pack of Viceroys if you care to be healthy- your dentist recommends them! How could you say no to a cigarette; a doctor told you to buy them, they have to be good for you! The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising in any medium. Advertisements must not mislead consumers or leave out relevant information. Before this Act came about, cigarette companies used to advertise their products through the most ridiculous and untrue promotional practices, deceiving the public into thinking they were healthy. I want to focus on that word- deception. Cigarette ads were focused solely on deception, whether or not the companies acknowledged that or not. They wanted to get to the top and outsell their competitors. Through this, their advertising practices became deceptive. In 1937,  the Philip Morris company claimed  ...

Drama! Drama! Read All About It!      One of my core memories from my childhood was being in the checkout like at the supermarket and watching my mom turn all of the magazines and newspapers at the front around. As a child I always thought she was being outrageous, but looking back at it, she had the purest of intentions trying to shield my young innocent eyes from the images and headlines that these supermarket tabloids depicted. Tabloids used be simple  small newspapers "that contained condensed storied hat were easily read by everyday readers". This innocent definition became contaminated once stories of scandals, graphic crime, and celebrity news became the focus of these newspapers.      People access news from their phones, and have almost no need for paper copies. This change in the way Americans access news has drastically affected the circulation of supermarket tabloids. Surprisingly, tabloids still occupy a place in American culture as well ...

Biased News and the Increasing Divide Between Political Parties      FAKE NEWS! America knows this as former president Trump's favorite catchphrase. It was his way of 'calling bulls***', especially when it came to claims regarding himself. He used this phrase so much that by the end of his presidency, every time he claimed something was fake news, it seemed as though he was 'crying wolf'. Despite the over usage of this phrase, news today, especially when it comes to cable news, can skew severely biased, bordering on the line of completely fake news.       It is common knowledge that  Fox News and CNN are on the complete opposite sides of the spectrum from one another, with Fox skewing severely 'right' and CNN skewing severely 'left'. Instead of providing the public with 100% real helpful news, cable news sources care about pulling in the most viewers and unintentionally create a larger divide between the American people. In order to keep their spe...