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Reporting the Motor City Ethically

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Reporting the Motor City Ethically
Today most people rise to recognize Detroit as a vacant metropolitan city with countless empty houses and buildings that have given the surge to the suburbs of America. Detroit is heart of the U.S. auto industry and home to the Detroit Tigers, the Red Wings, Eminem, The White Stripes, and even Motown. The Motor City once boasted one of the nation’s highest median family incomes, thanks to well-paying jobs connected to the assembly lines of the city. Today however, the 313 has experienced major population and industry rise and decline. A majority of outside journalism, people generally not from Detroit, have recently portrayed the city in a negative light.
Detroit has the most Michiganders and is one of the oldest cites in the Midwest. The city is named after the Detroit River, linking Lake Erie and Lake Huron. The word Detroit is French for the word strait. A French explorer by the name of Antonie de la Mothe sieur de Cadillac founded Detroit. On February 1, 1802 Detroit became a chartered city, covering about 20 acres. It is incorporated as a city of Michigan territory in 1806, unincorporated in 1809, and then reincorporated in 1815, this time for good. The population in 1815 was about 850.
Forty-five years later in 1850, Bernhard Stroh opened Stroh Brewery Company, though the years Bernard acquired several brands including Old Milwaukee, and Colt 45. Almost fifty years later Ford established the Detroit Automobile Company, and a single year later Ransom Olds opened Detroit’s first automobile manufacturing plant. In 1903 Ford started the Ford Motor Company, soon after Henry Ford would move the Ford operations to the suburbs of Dearborn, Michigan. On September 16, 1908 William Durant and Charles Mott founded General Motors in Flint, Michigan. Today, GM is now the only major U.S. automaker that is still headquartered in downtown Detroit. Following GM, Walter Chrysler started the Chrysler Corporation, in Detroit. Like Ford, Chrysler would also move their



Cited: Bok, Sissela. Lying: moral choice in public and private life. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. Print. Detroit Lives. Dir. Robert H. Mast. Perf. Johnny Knoxsville. Palladiumboots.com. Palladium Boots, n.d. Web. Nelson, Andrew. "Rise and Shine Detroit -- National Geographic Traveler." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. "Society of Professional JournalistsImproving and protecting journalism since 1909." SPJ Code of Ethics. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. . Sproule, J. Michael. Propaganda and democracy: the American experience of media and mass persuasion. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Print

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