mandyzhou

[mandyzhou]

When Facing the virus, should we spread the truth or fear?

      According to the 2019 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, a more digital subscription is replacing the traditional newspaper as a new form of journalism to people(Overview 118). While TV, Radio, and Print audience remains the same, the New operation has put a lot of attention on their online readers whether they are on their laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Developed journalism organizations such as BBC and CNN each share around 19% and 11% active users within the market, who open their website or Apps more than 3 days per week(119). The top news brands are following the technology trend and devoted to delivering the best and latest news at the fastest speed to catch the viewers.

      Under the situation that coronavirus is ravaging the world, audience from worldwide would like to keep themselves update on the number and cases within and without of their region, and journalism Organization such as BBC and CNN are analyzing and reporting the latest news to their audiences from different perspectives based on their sources. The Diamond Princess cruise ship is formally known as one of the famous cruise based in Japan, but now contains the largest number of Coronavirus patients other than the People’s Republic of China. According to Princess Cruise’s website, it could occupy 2,670 guests along with over 1,000 crews on board. Also, it was lately refurbished in February 2019 and honoured as the Best International Ship in Japan by the Cruise Magazine. The dream vacation became a nightmare when an 80 years old HongKong passenger boarded the cruise in Yokohama on Jan 20. His test result appeared positive after five days he took off with coughing(John). And the following 44 cases out of 3,711 passengers on board gave the ship the highest affection rate of the world(Time). Patients are sent to the local hospital for inspection and treatment while all of the unaffected passengers and crews still remain on board for quarantine.

      As many countries including the United States are planning to help their citizens evacuate the ship, CNN’s report “The US is finally evacuating Americans from the Diamond Princess. Here's why that's made them mad” by Mick Krever, Matt Rivers, Sandi Sidhu and Will Ripley has investigated the emotion and feeling of the onboard American Passengers at this time. In the article, the journalists interviewed several current Diamond Princess Cruises passengers including those who are ready to evacuate, those who complain about the evacuation, and the family member of a suspected American patient. The quotes from them have shown their real-life situation and emotion, and American passengers’ anger toward the U.S. government, even it was the first country that started the evacuation. Not everyone could get on the flight back home, and most of them are still worrying about the potential virus that may catch the flight with them. Even one of the American stated that it will be “' Financially and emotionally devastating”, they are forced to have a 14 days quarantine after leaving the ship, whether in the U.S. or not. A worse situation is facing by the crews, as the worker on the ship, "It is disappointing for all of [them]”, said Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises. Other than the mandatory quarantine, the future cruises scheduled are cancelled means that their income will be highly affected(Krever). In the article, the overview of the emotional feeling on the ship are built through the words of passengers and crews, the authors spent less time on summarizing but more on connecting the quotes, which guide viewers to the real situation on broad and problems shown without directly point them out by data or descriptions, but through the sympathy of the reader.

Work Cited

“Coronavirus: How Diamond Princess Became a 'Super Spreading' Site.” South China Morning Post, 13 Feb. 2020, www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3050517/coronavirus-how-diamond-princess-cruise-ship-became.

Ha, K Oanh, and Yudith Ho. “Fears of Global Coronavirus Contagion as 3,000 Cruise Passengers Go Home.” Bloomberg, 16 Feb. 2020, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-16/virus-fears-grow-as-travelers-on-stricken-cruises-return-home.

Krever, Mick, et al. “U.S. about-Face Raises Questions about Cruise Quarantine.” CNN, Cable News Network, 16 Feb. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/02/16/asia/coronavirus-outbreak-diamond-cruise-us-evacuation-intl-hnk/index.html.

Leung, Hillary. “This Cruise Ship Has the Highest COVID-19 Infection Rate in the World.” Time, Time, 14 Feb. 2020, time.com/5783451/covid-19-princess-diamond-cruise-ship/.

‘Overview and Key Findings’ 2019 Reuters Institute Digital News Report.

“Princess Cruises: Diamond Princess - Cruise Ship Information.” 11 Nov. 2019, www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/di-diamond-princess/.

[mandyzhou]

Which season is the “real season”?

Design by Ruth Basagoitia

On January 22, 2020, news about the U.S. influenza spread widely in Chinese media. The news, titled "6600 people have died of the most deadly influenza in 40 years since the outbreak of the United States", shocked the Chinese society which is being attacked by the virus and flu. However, the authenticity of this article needs to be questioned. According to U.S. media data, "13 million people have been infected in the United States, resulting in 6600 deaths," the article said(Sina). But is it true?

Title in Chinese: "6600 people have died of the most deadly influenza in 40 years since the outbreak of the United States" 

While searching “Bad Flu America” on Google, we can see news from the New York Times and its summary “About 61,000 Americans died of flu that Season, the C.D.C said”. What a piece of eye-catching news!

But which season is “that season”? to understand a thing in detail, you can't just look at the title. Base on New York Times “The Flu Season May Yet Turn Ugly, C.D.C. Warns.”, although the effectiveness remains unknown, the flu vaccine is highly recommended, as this flu season might be even worse than the 2017-2018 season, the most severe season in a decade with 61,000 death (Mcneil). 

In this article, you will find that the number of 61000 Americans killed by influenza, which we saw in the summary of the article, actually refers to the number of people in the 2017-2018 flu season. So it's not that 61000 people died this year, but it's easy to come to this conclusion if you just look at the summary of the article.

However, the number is actually estimated instead of a real number. 

If we want to continue to seek the authenticity of the data, we need to find its earliest source, the official website of Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, (CDC), it releases data on the flu season every year.

There are some key data in it, which may also be the earliest source cited by various media. Here is the chart below. 

cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

It says that between October 2019 and November 11, 2020, 13 million to 18 million people may have the flu, and more than 6000 of them may die from it.

It sounds as if all the media reports are true, but there is a core word, estimates. The CDC also wrote that the prediction is actually based on a sample survey of 8.5% of the 300 million people in the United States, and then a mathematical model. This is not a real statistic, but a conjecture based on a small number of patients.

That is to say, if the CDC samples are from areas with a high incidence of influenza, the prediction may be overestimated. I don't see the specific source of the sample, but it is usually supposed to go to high-risk areas and low-risk areas for more average sampling. Because it's prediction, all the data on the CDC is in a range. For example, the death toll could range from 6600 to 17000, instead of a single 6600, as the Chinese media reported.

And 61,000 were just last year's estimated deaths. Whether it's Google summary readers or readers who are quickly surfing news on the New York Times, they may be misled and panic because they did not read the context.

Although it may be a language barrier, it also shows that the Chinese media did not comply with the SPJ code, "provide context", "identify sources clearly", and "gather, update and correct information through the life of a news story." (SPJ) 

Different from the US influenza incident, in the reports of the Chinese #Metoo movement, victims first disclose their stories on social media, journalists verify the facts and constantly provide the latest information to the public through interviews with insiders, documents. The standardized process helps them provide the readers with the most authentic and accurate information at the first time, while determining the harassment style, and forces the related government or college to start the investigation of cases at the same time (Repnikova).

https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1143591

So far, we have found several information errors in the first reports. Its title, in particular, tends to mislead people into taking predictions as facts. So what kind of attitude we should take in dealing with this information is clear at a glance.

As a reader, when you see some unexpected information, what you need to do is not blindly believe it, but to verify it in various ways. When we look at information like the U.S. flu carefully, on the one hand, we can avoid excessive panic, but on the other hand, we can remind ourselves not to be careless, since every number in the report is living life. As a qualified reporter, we should follow the SPJ code to verify important news through a variety of resources to better ensure our reports are reliable and trustable to the public. 

Work Cited

Mcneil, Donald G. “The Flu Season May Yet Turn Ugly, C.D.C. Warns.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/health/flu-season-severity.html.

Repnikova, Maria. “#MeToo Movement in China: Powerful Yet Fragile.” Women's Rights | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 22 Oct. 2018, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/metoo-movement-china-powerful-fragile-181022082126244.html.

“SPJ Code of Ethics - Society of Professional Journalists.” Society of Professional Journalists - Improving and Protecting Journalism since 1909, 6 Sept. 2014, www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.

“美国爆发40年来最致命流感 已有6600人死亡.” Sina, 22 Jan. 2020, mil.news.sina.com.cn/2020-01-22/doc-iihnzhha4134351.shtml.

[mandyzhou]

Back then

I still remember the days that I stayed with my grandpa, he took me to school, he bought the cherry cake that my mom does not allow me to eat, he grabbed my hand and take me to the park. I  have never seen him be mad at me. He was more handsome than my classmate’s grandpas because he is always smiling.

 Art Source: painting by Geni Gorani

I was fat when I was a kid, and my face was chubby. Everyone I met liked to pinch my face, especially my grandpa. He did not only liked pinching but also rubbed my face with both hands.

 Actually, I didn’t like people pinching my face. Every time he rubs my face, I yell, I run, I protest, but it didn’t work. He still liked to rub. 

  Slowly I started to grow up, I lost weight and became skinny, and no one came to pinch my face anymore, but my grandpa still liked to rub my face. Every time I saw him, he called me by my nickname, I ran to him, and then he started rubbing my face with his smile. I am angry, but I will still run to him the next time. 

Until that time, I went to see him with my boyfriend, he still happily called me, began to rub my face as usual, but he stopped. Maybe he saw my boyfriend's confused expression. Suddenly, he realized that the fat little girl before had grown up, he put his hand down.

He hasn't rubbed my face since then.

And I grew up, to an even taller girl. I got married, I started my own family.

Two years ago, before the death of my grandfather, he was very ill at that time, his mind was not very clear, he often talked some weird words in non-sense, and sometimes even call my mother and my uncle's names wrong.

I took my five-year-old son to see him on that day, and my uncle was sitting by the side of the bed to take care of him. Then my uncle turned around and said to him: “Dad, your granddaughter comes to see you.”

The powerless, weak grandpa, when he heard my name, immediately opened his eyes and asked my uncle to lift him up. We quickly lifted him up. He looked at me, smiled, and then stretched out his hands like back then, then starts rubbing on my face. At that moment, as if when I was a kid again, watching Grandpa's happy smiling face, I could no longer restrain myself.

I cried.

[mandyzhou]

Why I don’t have a brother? : (

[mandyzhou]

Erickson’s dog is not cute, not at all.

I hate dogs.

[mandyzhou]

Why

Why doesn't Apple grow in the ground?

Why don't watermelons grow on trees?

Why does the eagle fly?

Why don't I?

There are too many questions to think about every day

My life is so busy

Why I don’t have a castle?

Why every princess in the book have one?

Why they wear dresses every day?

Maybe they don’t have PE classes in their school.

Why is the sky blue?

Why is the cloud white?

Why am I not a little bird?

Flying in the sky

Why does dad always hang a thing in his mouth?

Why there are clouds coming out of his mouth?

Why can’t I make clouds?

Clouds are so clean and pure

Why Kaela’s dad works in Disneyland?

Why his dad can go to Disneyland every day?

Do they have a house in Disneyland?

Oh, maybe she has a castle, too.

Why Santa always visit during Christmas?

Why Christmas only the last two days?

I want to be with Santa all the time

He will give me all the gifts that I wished before

Why do ducks float on the water?

Why there are bubbles on my hair?

Why does mommy tell me to hurry?

I want to stay with my yellow duck.

Why the sun is so big?

Why the moon is so tiny?

Then how come the moon is closer to me?

Mrs. Julie must be wrong

Why mom kisses me all the time?

Why mom always tells me I’m so cute?

Why can’t I kiss Justin then?

He is cute too

Why cows eat grass?

Why sheep eat grass?

Why are they so big?

Daddy says I need more beef to be bigger and stronger

Why does Ethan have a puppy?

Why do puppies bark and I don't?

Why can't puppies talk?

Is only Ethan able to understand what puppies say?

I want a puppy too.

Why can a puppy walk on four legs?

Why does my mother scold me when I lie on the ground?

The puppy is lying on the ground too

Really unfair.

Why are Mickey's ears above his head?

Why are my ears on both sides?

If my ears are on both sides

Then I won't be laughed at being a smurf, right?

Why can’t grandpa stop pinching my face?

Why can’t auntie stop pinching my face?

I will never talk to them again

Never.

Why I have longer hair than others?

Why Justin and Ethan don’t have long hair?

Do all the girls have long hair?

Mommy does not have long hair either.

Weird.

Why I only have one birthday?

Can I have two birthdays?

Two or more is fine, too

I just want to eat the cake

Why is the cake shop so far away?

Why do they open at my home?

They should think about us.

I don’t know how to drive

Kaela either

Why does mom say I can’t eat too much cake?

Why can she always eat cake?

Why do I ask why?

Forget it

Let's secretly eat this cake

the one with the cherry on the top.

[mandyzhou]

I miss the cherry cake from my birthday.

Will mommy buy me more?

I wanna live with cherry cake.

They are good.

[mandyzhou]

The 6th class in learning to write traditional characters.

It’s so hard...

[mandyzhou]

I am 3 today! 

That cake with cherries on the top is delicious.

Thank you, daddy and mommy, for buying me the cake.

[mandyzhou]

Park day with grandpa.

HE PITCHED MY FACE AGAIN!

[mandyzhou]

HA！

No Diaper anymore.

I am Free~

[mandyzhou]

The Letter

Dear daughter,

I am your father. My friends call me Steve.

Since last August,

You've been growing in your mother's belly for 10 months,

Today,

Is your first day in the world,

From now on you officially open your life.

When Daddy met you for the first time,

You look wrinkled like an old man.

How long have you walked,

From the source of life,

Into my arms and my mother's.

It's a miracle,

You are officially our daughter,

We are officially your parents,

Your mother and I are so proud of this,

Your mother and I really felt it,

How much we love you.

Daddy is 40 this year,

Although not that old,

But I am already elder than you.

Mother and I, as your elders,

We Want to send you some messages today.

Mother gave birth to you today,

She is Exhausted, lying in bed now,

So Let daddy talk to you.

Mom and dad wish you a healthy and happy growth,

Mom and dad will accompany you wholeheartedly.

You only have one childhood,

The magic of childhood,

Is that you will have great imagination and creativity,

So it's important to take the time to go out and play, to go out and discover.

You only have one golden time to learn,

Don't spend it all worrying about the future,

So it is important to take time to study well.

You are only young once,

The days of youth are full of beauty,

So it's important to be beautiful and fulfilled.

Mom and dad want you to find your true interest in life,

Mom and dad will do everything we can to support you.

Mom and dad want you to have your own dreams,

Even though dreams may be mocked,

Mom and dad will firmly believe you.

But life is concrete,

The world is a serious place after all.

When you grow up,

You might graduate, start a business, get married, have kids...

There are so many problems that you need to solve on your own.

So you need to play in your childhood, study hard, have a good youth,

To gain the Independence of your beauty, independence of your thoughts, independence of your personality.

And in the future life, to be independent of the economy, social, career life and so on.

Mom and dad also believe in you,

Will be A good wife who respects and CARES for her husband,

A loving, supportive mother.

Mom and dad wish you in your lifetime,

To pursue your true love and dreams happily,

To grow old together with your beloved husband,

To nurture generations with hope...

Mom and dad are also very hoping,

Every day that you live with mom and dad,

Can feel how much mom and dad love you;

Hope even in dreams,

You can still feel how much mom and dad love you;

And I hope that even when you're wrinkled again,

You can still feel how much mom and dad love you.

Good Night, Baby.

Mar 27, 1989

Daddy and Mommy

[mandyzhou]

She is Here.

It is Cold! I wanna go back ToT