Journalism and Digital Times: Wider Reach and Sloppy Reporting 5 page

Joog had to be stopped somehow!

John Carter dove for the microphone that was sliding around the floor. He missed it, dove again. This time his fingers held it.

“Joog – stop! Stop!” Carter shouted into the microphone. Panting and growling, the great creature ceased his ruthless slaughter. He stood hunched over, the sullen, glaring hatred slowly dying away in his eyes, as the battle continued to rage at his feet.

The apes were now completely disbanded. They broke over the trenches and ran toward the mountains, pursued by the vicious, snarling rats and the green warriors of Tars Tarkas.

John Carter could see Kantos Kan's flagship hovering near Joog's head.

Fearing that Joog might aim an irritated blow at the craft with its precious cargo, the earthman signalled the ship to remain aloof.

Then his command once again rang into the microphone.

Joog lie down. Lie down!”

Like some tired beast of prey, Joog settled down on the ground amid the bodies of those he had killed.

John Carter leaped out of the howdah onto the ground. He still retained hold of the microphone that was tuned to the shortwave receiving set in Joog's ear.

Joog shouted Carter again. “Go to Korvas. Go to Korvas.”

The monster glared at the earthman, not ten feet from his face, and snarled.

Fourteen

ADVENTURE'S END

ONCE AGAIN THE EARTHMAN repeated his command to Joog the giant. Now the snarl faded from his lips and from the brute's chest came a sound not unlike a sigh as he rose to his feet once again.

Turning slowly, Joog ambled off across the plain toward Korvas.

It was not until ten minutes later after the Heliumite soldiers had stormed from their city and surrounded the earthman and their princess that John Carter, holding Dejah Thoris tightly in his arms, saw Joog's head disappear over the mountains in the distance.

“Why did you let him go, John Carter?” asked Tars Tarkas, as he wiped the blood from his blade on the hide of his sweating thoat.

“Yes, why,” repeated Kantos Kan, “when you had him in your power?”

John Carter turned and surveyed the battlefield.

“All the death and destruction that has been caused here today was due not to Joog but to Pew Mogel,” replied John Carter.

“Joog is harmless, now that his evil master is dead. Why add his death to all those others, even if we could have killed him – which I doubt?”

Kantos Kan was watching the rats disappear into the far mountains in pursuit of the great, lumbering apes.

“Tell me, John Carter,” finally he said, a queer expression on his face, “how did you manage to capture those vicious rats, load them into those troop ships and even strap parachutes on them?”

John Carter smiled. “It was really simple, he said. “I had noticed in Korvas, when I was a prisoner in their underground city, that there was only one means of entrance to the cavern in which the rats live – a single tunnel that continued back for some distance before it branched, although there were openings in the ceiling far above; but they were out of reach.

I led my men down into that tunnel and we built a huge smoke fire with debris from the ground above. The natural draft carried the smoke into the cavern.

“The place became so filled with smoke that the rats passed out by the scores from lack of oxygen, for they couldn't get by the fire in the tunnel – their only means of escape. Later, we simply went in and dragged out as many as we needed to load into our troop ships.”

“But the parachutes!” exclaimed Kantos Kan. “How did you manage to get those on their backs or keep them from tearing them off when the creatures finally became conscious?”

“They did not regain consciousness until the last minute,” replied the earthman. “We kept the inside cabin of each troop ship filled with enough smoke to keep the rats unconscious all the way to Helium. We had plenty of time to attach the parachutes to their backs. The rats came to in midair after my men shoved them out of the ships.”

John Carter nodded toward the disappearing creatures in the mountains. “They were very much alive and fighting mad when they hit the ground, as you saw,” added the earthman. “They simply stepped out of their parachute harness when they landed, and leaped for anyone in sight.

“As for the malagors,” he concluded, “they are birds – and birds on both earth and Mars have no love for snakes or rats. I knew those malagors would prefer other surroundings when they saw and smelled their natural enemies in the air around them!”

Dejah Thoris looked up at her chieftain and smiled.

“Was there ever such a man before?” she asked. “Could it be that all earthmen are like you?”

That night all Helium celebrated its victory. The streets of the city surged with laughing people, The mighty, green warriors of Thark mingled in common brotherhood with the fighting legions of Helium.

In the royal palace was staged a great feast in honor of John Carter's service to Helium.

Old Tardos Mors, the Jeddak, was so choked with feeling at the miraculous delivery of his city from the hands of their enemy and the safe return of his granddaughter that he was unable to speak for some time when he arose at the dining table to offer the kingdom's thanks to the earthman.

But when he finally spoke, his words were couched with the simple dignity of a great ruler. The intense gratitude of these people deeply touched the earthman's heart.

Later that night, John Carter and Dejah Thoris stood alone on a balcony overlooking the royal gardens.

The moons of Mars circled majestically across the heavens, causing the shadows of the distant mountains to roll and tumble in an ever-changing fantasy over the plain and the forest.

Even the shadows of the two people on the royal balcony slowly merged into one.

[1] A banth is the huge, eight-legged lion of Mars.

[2] A microcephalic head is one possessing a very small brain capacity. It is the opposite of megacephalic, which means a large brain capacity. Generally microcephalia is a sign of idiocy, although in the case of Pew Mogel, the condition did not mean idiocy, but extreme craftiness, and madness, which might indicate that, since Pew Mogel was an artificial, synthetic product of Ras Thavas, one of Mars' most famous scientists, his microcephalia was either caused by a disease, or by inability of the brain to adapt itself to a foreign, ill-fitting cranial cavity. Pew Mogel's head was obviously too small for his body, or for his brain.

Journalism and Digital Times: Wider Reach and Sloppy Reporting

By: YIng Chan | September 16, 2014

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Editor's Note: GIJN is pleased to present the second of a three-part series excerpted from Digital Journalism: Making News, Breaking News, a new report by the Open Society Foundation's Independent Journalism and Information programs. The report summarizes the findings of OSF's Mapping Digital Media project, the most extensive investigation of today’s media landscapes by any non-governmental organization, with more than 50 country reports since 2011. Its findings on the impact of digitization on media freedom and access to quality news are essential reading. The story below is from Ying Chan's chapter, Journalism and Digital Times: Between Wider Reach and Sloppy Reporting.

Digitization is one of the primary driving forces (рушійний чинник) behind recent changes in journalism, including news values, professional ethics, workflows (інформаційні потоки), working conditions, and newsroom management. The Mapping Digital Media study shows that digital media have not only changed journalism practices in developed countries but have also significantly shaped the way journalists work in emerging markets. Digital media bring opportunities, risks, and challenges to journalism. While digitization facilitates news gathering and dissemination (розповсюдження), it does not necessarily foster (сприяє) better journalism. Plagiarism, lack of verification, and other unethical journalistic practices have increased alarmingly in many countries.

Specifically, when it comes to investigative journalism, digitization has created new publishing platforms and dissemination channels for professional journalists and aspiring (початківці) citizen reporters alike, but in the majority of countries investigative reports do not seem to be having an increased social impact. Some MDM country reports claim that digitization has wrought havoc (спустошувати) on investigative journalism.

While digitization provides opportunities for citizen journalists and independent media to conduct their own research and investigation and in turn publish and distribute their reports, in many countries the accountability (прозорість) of such original content created by citizen journalists is questionable.

The emergence of digital media has enabled minority groups to have a voice in the public arena, but it has not shifted the traditional media’s practice of covering sensitive issues in a restricted, biased (упереджений), or sensational manner.

Almost all candidates in general elections use social media platforms to communicate with voters, but the emergence of new political actors because of digitization is something that has occurred in only a few countries. Digital media have, however, remarkably increased the volume of political discussion and raised the political interest of the general public.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 720