Analyzing My Text's Cultural Setting

Orietta.sberla (2008) "Etica immagine" via Wikimedia
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In this post, I will be answering a few questions on the article I have chosen for Project 2.

• When/where was the text published?
• The article by Tracie Powell was published this past year on December 24, 2014 in Washington, D.C. 
• Where is author from?
• The author is from Washington D.C. and is a graduate of the Law Center at Georgetown University.
• Is she writing about a specific time and/or place?
• She is writing about/listing various events from the past year where journalists have failed to publish ethical or truthful work. 

1. What values, ideas, norms, beliefs, even laws of the culture plan an important role in the text?
The entire article is focused around the value/idea of ethics in journalism. The author writes about several events in 2014 where the media has gone wrong ethically. It is assumed by the author that the audience shares similar values of what readers expect ethically from journalists.

2. Does the text address these cultural values, beliefs, etc., directly or indirectly?
The text addresses the values directly. Powell also provides examples of the loss of these values in journalism, which is the main purpose of the text.

3. What is the relationship of the text to the values, beliefs, etc.? Is it critical of these aspects of the culture? Is it supportive? Does it seek to modify these aspects of the culture in a certain way?
Powell mentions at the beginning of her article that recently, more people have trouble trusting what the media has to say. She believes that because this is true, journalists should be more concerned and careful when writing articles that their audience will consider to be ethical and believable. The values of ethics in media directly correlate to the article because that is the purpose/main focus of the work.