My online journalism class is wrapping up, like many other classes will be. I have to say this class was a lot more fun than my other online classes and even regular classes.
The final project is due pretty soon — which is not only daunting, but it is also pretty interesting. We were allowed to pick our projects from two choices. My project will evaluate three different countries of varying journalistic rights.
The first section due of our project required us to visit a ranking of journalistic restrictions. Out of 180 countries, the U.S. was ranked 43rd — which to me was very surprising as we are constantly told how great America is, at least in our aspects of rights compared to that of other countries. It also surprised me the countries that were ahead of the U.S.
Costa Rica, for example, was ranked 6th, which, if you compare it to the rest of South America, is more than great. The one thing that did not surprise me was North Korea. as it was ranked 180th.
If you’d like to visit the website the URL is rss.org/en/ranking#. To find out more about each country and why it is ranked as it is, you can click on the chosen country and the “find out more” button.
Annie Blakeley is a rising sophomore at Richmond Senior High School, is a band and chorus student and a member of First United Methodist Church in Hamlet.