You are a rookie news journalist, and you just completed your first major assignment covering a political campaign, including extensive research of websites to provide the political background of your story. Your best friend e-mails you and asks how it went. Write a 350- to 700-word e-mail to your friend in which you detail the challenges you faced regarding the following:
- Your responsibility as a journalist to provide fair, honest, and balanced coverage
- How you struggled with whether your story was socially responsible
- Assessing the credibility of the political Internet sites you visited for your research (consider Drudge Report, Daily Kos, Politico, Colbert Nation, The Hill, and so forth)
- Your awareness of how political news reporting might influence public opinion and American values