Reference books about Professional Journalism Standards by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Books about Professional Journalism Standards and Rules that Apply to Full-time and Freelance Journalists (Stringers) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I know I have some family members who might be setting up blogtalkradio.com shows, so I want you to make sure that you know the professional standards of journalism and legal ramifications of unlawful behavior by both adults and minors. Minors with malicious intent have been ruled by the Supreme  Court as able to be tried and sentenced as adults.

People who want to do Vine video broadcasting on Twitter and other social media outlets need to know the rules of journalism that are pretty much outlined in the journalism textbooks below:

Principles of American Journalism: An Introduction by Stephanie Croft and Charles N. Davis:

Among this book’s excellent introduction to journalism, it mentions that social media has changed journalism by promoting conversations about article posts through the comment section.

Asking a question or presenting an alternative point of view is a way of promoting conversations and evaluation of ideas in the Knowledge Era.  (Knowledge = analyzing data and using it for profit in business, for example.  Being a software engineer, who can manipulate data instantly is a great skill.)

Also, in my opinion, a journalist who uses a source who is willing to be named and provides verifiable evidence of a claim with a hyperlink to the original study or survey is a much better source than an “unnamed government source,” who does not give any evidence to verify what is being said.

These “anonymous and confidential” sources could be totally made up or could be people whose work is being plagiarized or used by unscrupulous journalists who do not want freelance journalists to move up.

Providing some sort of written evidence with a hyperlink to the evidence would remove these suspicions from the source being quoted. 

The Anonymous “cyber terrorist” organization could just be a bunch of people who went to community college and not to a prestigious university whose Facebook comments are being lifted by media network workers.

The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosentiel

The Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists by Rene J. Cappon

As a final comment, even freelance or “stringer” journalists should have press credentials.  Stalking is a crime even for journalists, because stalking on the computer or in person is a trait of rapists, muggers, burglers, and people who do home or apartment seizures.

Many “paparazzi” are also paid to pose media blitzes for upcoming actors and actresses who wish to obtain media attention.  Paparazzi are not supposed to physically threaten you in any way, including setting off flash photography in your face, which momentarily blinds you, or disturb your sleep.

And, you cannot use a person’s personal telephone number unless they have given it to you.  There is a function on iPhones for caller identification that many women use to avoid taking unwanted calls from salesmen.

The books above have most of the information you need the standards of professional journalism.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Vauban: An Analytical Skills Development Game about Louis XIV's Defender of France by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Vauban:  An Analytical Skills Development Game about Louis XIV's Defender of France by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Level 1 - 

Examine the Vauban fortifications described in Marshal Vauban and the Defence of Louis XIV's France by Paddy Griffith and Peter Dennis.  

Think about how enemies would try to enter France without Vauban's forts.

Level 2 -

Vauban had to deal with war situations such as diseases soldiers could contract from killing diseased adversaries due to malfunctioning weapons resulting in hand-to-hand combat.  

His solution to this dilemma was to create the bayonet, which also saved on precious bullets.  This measure was taken to prevent the spread of disease among the troops and the civilian population, which provided food for the troops.  

The tasks at this level are to:

-figure out general ways to avoid disease in a community

-look at your community using the ways to avoid disease and note down what is being done well

-note down what could cause disease to spread in your community, especially during a natural disaster 

-with a group, work on projects to prevent the spread of disease 

 

-list one item in a separate piece of paper and work on: 

-possible solutions

-budgets for each solution

-action lists

-who will work on each action

-who will accomplish what by when by when 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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I

Civil War Game by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Civil War Game by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Social media sites like Skype.com and Gotomeeting.com have enabled people of both sexes, ages, physical ability, and language ability to analyze battles to see if modern technology could have changed the course of a battle and eventually the outcome of a war.  

The outcomes of war usually determine national languages, textbook versions of national history taught to children, and what language the laws of the country will be written in.

Outcomes of wars and battles are important, because victors write new constitutions and other laws and usually write their version of history in textbooks.

Most battles take place in areas that have certain similar geographical features despite taking place in different countries and at different times in history.  (This is why it is important to study geography, history, and foreign languages.)

For example, the Battle of Fredericksburg (Virginia) is a perfect case study of an uphill battle.

All uphill battles against a supposed superior force appear to be unwinnable unless some conditions might be present:

-the opposing side runs out of food and water

-there is loss of communication ability for relaying battle commands

-there is mutiny among the enlisted due to pay or pension for themselves or spouses

-lack of accurate weather information (This was a crucial element at Waterloo)

-poor morale cause by media criticism, especially of women and children

-lack of money due to disruption of commerce and therefore tax revenue base

In this large battlefield leading up to the hill where  cannons and artillery fired down on troops stood a house that is still standing.  Neither side wanted to ruin it.

This house may have been a pantry, canteen, library, and first-aid station like most Southern homes, but maybe there were some other reasons why that home was allowed to stand.

This is a little game and your Level I tast is to find why that home is still standing.  Is there a well?  A clean toilet?  Figure it out.

Level 2 – find out what those 6 conditions were like at Fredericksburg.  A lot of this information is available in the book The Civil War Battlefield Guide published by The Conservation Fundand edited by Frances H. Kennedy.

Could modern technology have changed the outcome of the battle.  Analyze this situation using the 6 conditions above and some others like electricity, rodents, disease, and strength without arms.  (Read Redwall by Brian Jacques to see what I mean by this.)

This is a stay-at-home or play-with-friends-at-home activity that teaches you about technology, history, and culture.  Victors decide who gets national arts grants.

Level 4 in this battlefield game is to analyze each battle in The Civil War Battlefield Guide in the way I outlined above.  Once you have your analysis done, go to Level 5.

Level 5 – Analyze the American Civil War by looking at what our industry was like. 

France and England bought cotton from the South for their fashion industries.  Fur was bought by these same countries for fox collars for the fashion industry as well from places like Wisconsin and Montana.

Were people in New England the middlemen for purchases of cotton such as New York and Philadelphia?

Did Chicago sell fur and food to England and France?

Find the tax base for money to run the government.

How would you sell these items today to keep money more money in the US and not go to war over cotton, fur, and interest on bank loans?

Cheat 1:  

This book is rather old, but it contains information on traditional immigration and settlement patterns in the United States - The Nine Nations of North America by Joel Garreau.

Cheat 2: 

Read President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  In this short speech Lincoln states that this battle and this war were very important for determining what the United States was going to be as a nation now that it was free of the British.  

The Civil War is looked at in terms of North and South now, but the Mississippi Purchase orchestrated by President Thomas Jefferson also brought in a "West" element to this conflict.  

Lincoln grew up in Kentucky and went to Illinois to run for public office.  He was viewed by both the New England, New York, and the South as a Westerner coming from the rather unsavory and uncivilized territory of Illinois at the time. He also did not have a college education or law degree.

Those were attributes, though, when dealing with the marauding British and Spanish navies and merchant marine companies as well as French interlopers from Canada.

Cheat 3:

Look up Hampton Roads Virginia for a clue and that is all for right now!

Cheat 4:

There are some clues to why the Civil War turned out the way it did in an older book called The Negro in the Making of America by Benjamin Quarles.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Cantonese (Chinese) Cuisine with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Eating Cantonese (Chinese) Cuisine with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When I originally wrote this restaurant review of Chong’s in downtown Monterey several years ago, Chong’s was a Cantonese restaurant (notably featuring dishes with black bean sauce).

Now Chong’s has transformed itself into an all-around Chinese restaurant (notably featuring dishes with hot, red peppers) thanks to books like Fuschia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes for Hunan Province (Hunan is the province next to Sichuan which uses the same ingredients with less fiery results.)

This review remains relevant for comparing the Chinese community of the Monterey Peninsula to that of San Francisco and many other Chinatowns around the country.

When I described this Chinatown situation to the editor of the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000), she was interested in learning more about China and thought Weekly readers might be as well.  The article I wrote follows:

After 40 Years, Chong’s Features the Familiar Dishes and Some Special Cuisine from South China

During a recent dinner party, I asked our friend C., who is Chinese, what his favorite restaurant is in Monterey.

“Chong’s,” he replied without hesitation.

He told me that Chong’s features many dishes from China’s southernmost area of Canton, which distinguishes it from other area restaurants serving dishes from northern China.

Northern Chinese who followed immigrants to the Monterey Peninsula account for the many Northern Chinese restaurants featuring Mandarin Chinese cuisine here.

In most Chinese restaurants around the country, including San Francisco’s Chinatown, you will find Cantonese cuisine.  The overwhelming number of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. came from Canton (referred to as Guangdong by the Peoples’ Republic of China), which includes Hong Kong.

Chong’s take-out menu says its cuisine is Szechuan from Western China, but a look at the menu shows a preponderance of Cantonese classics like shrimp with black bean sauce as well as Chinese-American classics such as chop suey, which were created by Cantonese chefs in America.

After our meals, our server confirmed that all the chefs at Chong’s have Cantonese origins.

The mild climate of Canton and its access to the sea make for a cuisine that prizes fresh vegetables, fish, and seafood served with light sauces.

Cantonese foods are consequently held in high esteem throughout China – similar to the way that French food is esteemed in parts of Europe.

Hong Kong reigns as the capital of Cantonese cuisine and many innovations using new agricultural products with traditional cooking methods come from this gastronomic capital.

When I saw that Chong’s offered steamed fish on its menu, I immediately ordered it while my husband Laurent ordered the shrimp with cashews.

A cup of egg-flower soup comes with the meal along with rice.

Chong’s dresses up its version of the egg-flower soup with tofu rods, chicken, tomato, celery, snow peas, and straw mushrooms.  I liked the soup, but the celery made me think I was eating American soup.

The steamed rock cod I ordered was large – probably twelve inches large from head to tail.  Mounded-up, shredded Chinese chives and cilantro covered the fish, which was surrounded by broccoli with long stems.

Chinese cookbooks poetically call broccoli prepared in this manner “jade tree.”  The fish looked dramatic on the platter with the sauce setting off the greens.

With this glorious dish in front of me, I imagined I was eating in a Hong Kong restaurant looking out at the twinkling lights of the harbor as I inhaled the savory scent that wafted towards us.

The succulent sauce, made from sesame oil, soy sauce, and a bit of freshly grated ginger, enhanced the flavor of the pungent chives and cilantro.  Chinese chives have a more pronounced onion taste than American chives.  These Chinese chives tasted great with the broccoli.

The flesh of the fish slid off the bones, which are big in rock cod, making them easy to remove.  Something this good does come at a higher price than most of Chong’s other menu items.  Even the fussiest foodie would like this dish.

The shrimp Laurent ordered came with cashews.  The shrimp had been stir-fried along with snow peas, straw mushrooms, carrots, and zucchini.  The nutty flavor of the sesame came through in the slightly thickened sauce.  The generous portion makes it perfect for family-style dining.

Laurent and I visited the following day to sample more food.  This time we tried the lemon-chicken and spareribs with black bean sauce.

A light, crunchy crust coats moist, white-meat chicken in Chong’s version of lemon-chicken.  The addition of slightly, sweet lemon sauce makes it feel like eating crunchy lemonade.  This is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes.

The spareribs arrived in one-inch pieces and did require some rather indelicate removal of the bones.  These specialties of the Cantonese countryside are coated with mashed, fermented black beans and garlic before they are steamed.

The flavor of the spareribs is earthy and salty at the same time.  Fermented black beans may require some getting used to, but they are favored ingredients all over South China.

During our two visits to Chong’s, we noticed that Chinese families and workers from downtown Monterey filled the tables.  Chong’s location by the Monterey Transit Plaza helps them fill tables.

End of Article

Once Laurent and I had checked out Chong's, I would take Florence there after school for early dinner while Laurent worked at went to graduate school at night.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Teen in China, and Marrying France

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Sampling Thai Cuisine with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Sampling Thai Cuisine with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget while Reviewing for the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) - Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I loved the Thai food that I sampled at Baan Thai Restaurant in Seaside (California) that reminded me of my life at the University of Chicago when I was in college there.

I queried my editor at the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 100,000) about doing an article on Baan Thai.  She asked me to hold off and do an article on a Thai restaurant in Marina called My Thai that had just opened up.

I eventually took Florence out to this restaurant and Baan Thai several times to sample Thai food as a cultural outing.  You can learn about world history through studying the trade practices and history of spices and food ingredients.  As we ate I would tell her about the information I looked up.

I wrote the following article on My Thai restaurant:

“Thai food is totally individual, befitting a country which has never been conquered, yet it has similarities to both Indian and Chinese food,” notes Charmaine Soloman in The Thai Cookbook: A Complete Guide to the World’s Most Exciting Cuisine.

I decided to see how My Thai in Marina (CA) honors its Indian heritage.  On a recent lunch visit, I ordered Panang curry with shrimp.

There is a major difference between Indian and Thai curries.  For example, the chile paste used to prepare Panang curry is made with many fresh ingredients like cilantro roots, lemon grass, galangal, and kaffir lime zest whereas Indian curries rely on more dry spices for flavors.

I have perused many cookbooks at home to make Panang curry, my favorite Thai dish.  The waiter told me that they thickened the curry by letting it simmer a long time and not adding anything to it like crushed peanuts at My Thai.

My Thai takes no shortcuts in the kitchen, but does not keep customers waiting long for their food.  The curry I ordered arrived piping hot within minutes, tickled my nose with a sweet aroma of shrimp paste and coconut cream.

The orange-pink color of the curry matched that of the plump shrimp.  The orange-pink color contrasted nicely with the green beans and green peppers, sweet red peppers, and carrots.

The sweet-and-savory curry no doubt got its salty flavor from Thailand’s namm pla fish sauce.  I ate each curry-coated vegetable, leaves of Asian basil, and shrimp with bites of flavorful rice.

The carrots and green beans were crisper than what I had expected, but that did not keep me from eating them; I did not want to waste any curry.

The Panang curry came as part of a lunch with a cup of hot-and-sour soup, which had tofu, mushrooms, and slices of galangal in it.

The Thais use galangal like the Chinese use ginger, which it resembles in appearance.

Galangal’s flavor makes me think of biting into perfume that lingers on the tongue.  The woody slices in the soup may not be to everyone’s liking, but I ate mine.

I drank a Thai iced tea made with black tea, sugar, and a healthy does of cream.  This drink is a particularly good antidote for putting out chile fires, if you order spicy food.

The default spiciness of the food at My Thai is mild, so be sure to ask for spicy food, if you like that.

The food was so good that I came back for a weekend lunch with my husband Laurent.  We started our meal with orders of chicken satay and fried shrimp rolls.

The satay was made of flattened, marinated chicken breasts.  Their bright yellow color hinted at turmeric in the marinade and their sweet flavor signaled the use of coconut cream as well.

The grilled chicken came with a peanut dipping sauce, cucumber relish, and strands of carrot and cabbage.  The peanut sauce was rich.  I liked refreshing my palate with the sweet relish.  The tender chicken meat made me want to make a meal out of my appetizer.

The fried shrimp rolls that Laurent ordered looked like skinny baseball bats with shrimp.  They came with a sweet sauce that accentuated the flavor of the shrimp.  We both liked this dish.  We felt we had made a gastronomic discovery.

I drank a Thai Singha beer with the appetizers I ordered.   This crisp lager reminds me of Corona and goes well with spicy food.  Laurent ordered the most well-known Thai dish as his main course, Pad Thai, while I chose Dusit’s Delicious Duck.

The stir-fried noodles and tofu in Pad Thai hearken back to Thai food’s Chinese heritage, yet the salty, sweet, and sour flavor of the dish make it uniquely Thai.

Laurent ordered his version of beef Pad Thai.  It came with a generous helping of crushed peanuts on top as a garnish.  Laurent liked the Pad Thai, but could only eat half of it due to its size.

My Thai calls its version of roast duck Dusit.  Many slices of duck with the skin intact flavored by a medley of vegetables made up of baby bok choy, carrots, sweet red pepper, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and onion made up the dish.

The baby bok choy tasted especially good with the duck, offsetting the duck’s richness.

There were ample servings of meat.  We were able to take home boxes of midnight snacks.

The Bangkok-born owner said that he serves Thai food as it is prepared in Thailand.  In the few months that My Thai has been open, the owner has cultivated a regular clientele, who love the authentic Thai cooking.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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