Mother Jones advertises itself as smart, fearless journalism Essay

Of all mothers, Mother J iodines advertises itself as smart, fearless diaryism. If only we all had mothers who looked this deeply through underway events. This is a unique journal which proceeds itself to ut nearly standards in both a journalistic and moral sense. As the website set ups, they look for terms that ar Hard-hitting, investigative reports exposing organization cover-ups, corporate malfeasance, scientific myopia, institutional fraud or hypocrisy, etc. Its a journal that likes to amount facts, dishonouring facts, round what people care about.The knaves of the journal are ridden with ads devoted to the environment and environmentally concerned companies. Even financial investors advertize themselves as commonalty investors (pg3). A cigarette company has an entire page add with Natural as their larges printed word. Educational institutions also claim add space that contributes to the worldly duty saying pitch yourself, shift the world (pg 21).By using the adds in this journal al whizz, you could help contain animal cloning (pg.33), drink organic coffee (pg 32), invest in economically sensitive companies (pg 25), have got information about fixing your pet (pg 21), and even discover how to control part in the green festival (pg 35). All of it is riddled with the underlying message of social responsibility. In the mission statement make up on the journals website, it says the Mother Jones produces revelatory journalism that seeks to inform and inspire a more honourable and egalitarian world. Notice they used the word world, and not just nation.Both advertisements and articles aim to sway opinions towards helping to change the world. In a single publication, there are articles on global warming, several on current American politics, the possible dangers plastic pose to the environment, oil spills in Brooklyn, education of troubled and disabled students, and the lose of protests on the behalf of todays college students. Its clear that this journal is out to change the world and hold us all accountable for higher moral and ethical standards.But that begs a question what large-hearted of standards? Its tricky to lay a claim on whether this journal is liberal or democrat, allow alone identify any defining moral statement as it has articles reflecting both sides of the generalized locatings of those parties. maybe this sentence taken from the websites advertising policies page can help explain the confusion were in business to produce great public interest journalism, no strings attached. Or maybe this one Mother Jones respects and values free expression and dissenting voices. Sounds very intelligent and fair tremendous almost but whats the catch? Well its clear that a magazine is a business, and like any business you have to sell. Mother Jones does this with shock value. They publish articles about torturing children and one entitled Gay by Choice? It also has an article depicting news corporations as twist and even creating fake news. Mother Jones tells their readers all about the things they cannot trust, and reasons why from the experts who claim it.The writers for Mother Jones are experts to say the least. Most of their columns are compose by freelancers, but darn good ones. Their cover story shoal of Shock was written by Jennifer Gonnerman after a yearlong investigation. Gary Greenberg is a contributing writer who is also psychotherapist, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Its clear that they editors believe, as their website claims, that they assume that our readers are sufficiently smart and skeptical. Though, when knowledge the articles it is clear that a degree is not take to read this journal. Technical terms are not used freely or thoughtlessly. All in all, this journal claims, and lives up to those claims, to be a smart and justifiable journalism. Its a publication thats not a slave to its advertizers, and r espects different viewpoints. I could see favor inclined to stories with shock value, but the overall theme of the journal, of global responsibility, would not be compromised. A Journal of vexIn Jennifer Gonnermans article School of Shock, she describes the extremely controversial disciplinary actions of the Judge Rotenberg Educational concentre located in Massachusetts. The center was originally set up for children with such extreme sortal problems that they could not be a part of a normal classroom. Electric shocks are used on about half of the 234 children within the facility which charges $220,000 a year for each student. These children are diagnosed with sever autism, metal retardation, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or are emotionally disturbed.By relaying the stories of children who have been through traumatic events in the facility, as tumesce as her own personal experience interviewing them and visiting the school, Gonnerman creates a very emotional piece. After read ing it myself, tears nearly ran down my cheek and Im a man who rarely tears. Surprisingly, most of the article is factual, with about informative narrative. The voice of Gonnerman is present, as are her thoughts and opinions, but they are not verbalize outright.By doing this she lets the reader feel through the facts and experience rather than preach to them. It could be very light-colored to push such an article in the face of readers with strong visual images, but instead the images are simply those of children sitting or standing, usually with an adult looking over them. There are no images of children being shocked, but there are also no pictures of children misbehaving. In this way, the article is neutral in its portrayal of the school.Though I cannot imagine anyone who believes that shocking a child with the voltage set forth is an ok thing to do, the article voices both sides of the argument. Numerous examples are given of a extreme behavior such as inducing vomiting, bit ing chunks out of his/her own tongue, setting fires and cutting him/herself. Its a place where any child can go, despite their history or severity of behaviors. In some ways, it sounds like a necessary evil. The writing is clearly seeking to shut the school down, but it does not give a solution for its necessity.It does not give any alternatives for students or parents. I leave the article wondering how else to handle such violent and disturbed children. A Journal of Freelance Of the articles published in Mother Jones, most of it comes from freelance writers. That doesnt mean, however, that just anyone can write for them. A slew of experts and highly educated, and highly published, writers contribute to this journal. But if you dont want to go and amount your doctorate just to be published, here are a few things to think about in order to get published Subject, Experience, and Tone.The Subject, first and formost, must be one of large consequence. Either look to meet a large interes t with a large number of people, or look for a topic that would shock a large number of people. Also, the topic must be something that can be affected or has subsequent consequences. To sum it up in a few words, it should be a new view on a popular subject. As for your experience with the subject, well years of schooling arent compulsory to write for Mother Jones, but years of experience faculty be.Not only will this journal hold your writing and journalistic talents to a high level, but many people who have written on a subject for the journal have also written a book about it and its been published. If youve been published in big name journals like The New Yorker, or Rolling Stone, that might work also. And finally the tone of your writing must be affirmative action. The editors of this magazine seek to change the world with it, so think along the lines of that. Other than a lot of research, aim to persuade readers to take action. Who knows, maybe Mother Jones will change the wo rld some day, and you could be a part of it.