November 30, 2005
Do I want to be a journalist?
Now that the semester is coming to a close, and I've survived half a year of Newswriting, I find it an obligation to ask myself, do i want to be a journalist?
The answer for me is easy... NO. Now that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy learning about newswriting, or I hate journalists. What I mean is that I had a blast in this class, however I don't think that this is a job that I would enjoy for the rest of my life.
The amount that I learned this semester is truly incomprehensible. Before this year started, I didn't know anything about journalism. And when say I didn't know anything I mean nothing! Now I feel like Dan Rather, well not really, but still I am extremely proud of my accomoplishments.
I found out how to interview people, how to write a NEW way (not always easy), and how to adapt to my surroundings. I don't feel however that this class only helped me academically.
The biggest thing that this class taught me was how to be social. I know that doesn't sound very productive but just hear me out. I guarantee that I would have never gone up to a total stranger and started a conversation before I had this class. In the interview process I found myself walking up to teachers, calling students on the phone, and e-mailing random people, to ask them questions. I ended up getting to know some of these people and I've even made some friendships from it.
The main thing that this class taught me was not to be afraid of what you don't know. I didn't know much about the people that I had to interview, and it turned out that they weren't half bad. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and go talk to a stranger!
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November 07, 2005
Different Style of writing
The reading of chapter 9 involved small details. After reading the chapter, it seems to me that journalism is also like being a detective. The example that the text gave of Jules Loh finding something wrong with Herbert Hoover's pencils really showed how journalists must pay attentions to all of the information about their story. That one little point opened a whole new angle of a story.
Another section of the text was interesting to me. Involving color in a news story isn't as easy as it seems. It read, "Color implies a way of seeing a story so you can show the reader. Adjectives and intensifiers have nothing to do with it-they are, in fact, great decievers." This shows taht newswriting is more of a challenge than other types of writing. Readers need to make their own reactions to the stories with out writers telling them what to think.
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November 03, 2005
Extra blogging for 11-4-05
Due to a 10:00 departure time for the Seton Hill Cross Country team, I will miss EL 227 on Friday, Nov. 4, 2005. Instead, I spent that class time blogging. This is the coverpage for what I've done instead of class.
I blogged about the reading due on Friday.
Chapter 10 and Conclusion
I commented on Katie Aikins' blog.
Comment on Katie's blog
I commented on Lorin Schumacher's blog.
Comment on Lorin's blog
I commented on Lou Gagliardi's blog.
Comment on Lou's blog
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October 12, 2005
Director aims 'to take Greensburg to the next leverl'
This is an article in the October 11, edition of the Tribune Review. It occured in the local section. What I found interesting about this article isn't a bad thing at all. I found that the author really used the inverted pyramid method in his writing techniques. It's usually hard for me to use this because I unconsiously try to put events in some kind of order, either chronologically, or whatever. However, this author put the information about the lead towards the front of the articlce. Then preceded to talk more about the background of Gifford and his family later in the piece.
The only question I have is did the author talk too much about his background? At the end it seemed to get a little off topic. However, it still pertained to the hiring of the man named Gifford.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:31 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 10, 2005
Chptr. 7 Elements of Journalism
In the Elements of Journalism, Chapter 7 talked about Journalism as a public forum. The example at the beginning of the chapter dealt with Cody Shearer. The incident took place on the show Hardball with Chris Matthews. Her Matthews pressured Kathleen Willey into confessing who it was that threatened her(Cody Shearer). However, Shearer was not the one who threatened Willey. It was all a mistake and now Shearer has to pay the price of an angry public because of a journalist's mistake. I was wondering if this is really journalism? Is it forcing people to say what they don't want to because we want the public to know? And if they are wrong, shouldn't they apologize or let everyone know that it was a mistake?
Matthew's ended up apologizing but not willingly. He did it once Shearer's attorney had gotten invovled.
I think journalism should only be the truth. If something is doubted or not totally true, then people should have the integrity to not go out and publish it. Yes, we want our stories to be the most interesting. Yes, we want our's to get the most publicity. But I feel that the most important thing in journalism is making sure that the facts line up and people aren't getting hurt.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 06:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 27, 2005
Weblog Portfolio
This is my weblog portfolio for Newswriting. Blogging is a great way to interact with your peers. This is a new experience for me so I know that this portfolio is a little rough around the edges. However, I do see the importance now of blogging and in the future I will use it more than I already have.
Coverage:
Elements of Literature
A.P. Stylebook
Reporter's Notebook
Depth:
Comparison
WTAE-Pittsburgh Channel 4 TV
Timeliness:
True Learning Experience
Wildcard:
Crazy second half
Xenoblogging and Interaction:
Steelers05-06
Comment on Lorin's blog
Comment on Lorin's blog
Comment on Kayla's blog
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)
Elements of Lituature
In chapter eight of Elements of Journalism there’s a sentence that says, “Story telling and information are not contradictory. (149)” It talks about the comparison between a comforting story and raw data. I think news writing is finding a common ground between interesting story-telling and boring information. Through many of the exercises I’ve learned that it is easier said than done.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
A.P. Stylebook
I’ve read newspapers my entire life and never before realized how precise you have to be. The AP Stylebook is a great source to find technicalities. Sometimes it seems like a pain to have to look up every little detail, however now I realize how important it is to rely on the AP Stylebook.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
Reporter's notebook
The Reporter’s notebook is very useful to me. Actually, one of the things that I used first in that class was the Story Ideas Bank. I thought it was so cool. I often draw mind blanks and this gave me a great spark to bring up some ideas. The only thing was that they were geared towards a younger audience.
Well, for one of our assignments we had to come up with some of our ideas that may apply to an older generation. I have used some of these ideas later.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)
Comparison between my article and the Setonian
I had the opportunity to write a story on the honor’s convocation. It was a great experience for me because I realized how much goes on when the average person isn’t paying attention. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot. There was an article in the Setonian about the convocation. Our articles contained mostly the same information however mine had a different focus than that of the Setonian.
My article was written with the focus of the freshman’s reaction to the convocation. David Denninger’s, reporter for the Setonian, gave more of a coverage of the convocation. For example, he talked about who spoke and who won awards. In my article, I interviewed people who had ideas about what freshman thought about it. For instance, Pres. Boyle talked about how different this year’s freshman class is from others in the past.
Overall it was a great experience and I’m glad that I got the opportunity to talk to some of the faculty and talk to some interesting freshmen.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
WTAE-Pittsburgh Channel 4 TV
I had an “interesting” time trying to find a story that appeared in the newspaper, on the website, and on television. However, I found a story about a diver that drowned in a river. The comparison was interesting because with the television broadcast was not as informative as the newspaper article.
Another interesting point is that the online story, surprisingly didn’t have as much information as the newspaper. I didn’t think that the newspaper article would have had as much information as it did. However it was very informative and it gave the best background, I feel.
It was pretty cool learning how different the three media’s are. I take the television for granted so much, but now that I realized the difference, I’m going to try to pay more attention to the newspaper.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2005
A True Learning Experience
Spot-News Roundup -- News Writing (EL 227)
The Spot news assignment was a very interesting endeavour for me. Don't get me wrong, it was an ejoyable excercise, nonetheless I have a lot to learn.
I had in mind to write on the 1st ever home football game, however due to a cross country meet at Thiel University, I had to switch to a more convienient event. Since I had to be there anyway, I decided to write my article on the Honors Convocation.
This was a great idea because it really made me pay attention while the program was going on. Not that I wouldn't have anyway, but let's just say that there were many opportunities for one to lose interest. I however found that when you pay attention to something, anything, you will always find an interesting piece of information or two. For me, it was awesome to meet so many faculty members. Not just regular teachers either, they were exteremely warm hearted and friendly. This in turn made it easier for me to go and initiate conversations with people that I didn't know.
The program itself was very long and full of information. So I had to try and take as much in as I could. There were many awards and many people speaking which leads me to my first important lesson about newswriting: don't write everything that happened in your article. I realized that with all of the information that I had, my paper would be too long.
One thing that really helped me was that I quoted seven or eight people. I learned that it's always a good thing to quote as many people as you can because you never know what quote will fit where in your story. I'd have to say that getting quotes was probably my favorite part of the whole excercise. During the interviewing process I got to meet friendly professors and students. I even got to talk to President Boyle one-on-one. I really enjoyed this conversation because it made me feel that I wasn't just a student here at SHU, I was someone important in which the president of the University had time to sit down and talk to.
The paper itself was a whole new ballgame. I think that since I had so much information, I felt compelled to make sure that it was all touched upon in my article. What I learned in the two hour workshop on friday however, is that you don't need all of that information. You need to stick with the info that agrees with your lead.
The lead. Another issue for me was that my information did not stay on topic. My paper was more of a feature piece than a news article. It gave a whole overview of the program, and did not follow the "upside down pyramid" theory. I realized that my lead was too broad and I needed to slim it down by picking a narrower topic.
Thanks to the brilliant minds of my classmates, Evan, Kevin, and Michelle, I found out that my paper also consisted of a large amount of wordiness. I could say the same thing with less words which also made my article shorter, and easier to keep the attention of the reader.
I'd have to say that the thing that helped me the most was attending the optional workshop last friday. I believed that my article was "good" and I was confident about it, until I attended that class. Then I realized that I could improve on countless mistakes.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and am glad that I decided to stick with the class. I really like the journalism aspect of English and maybe I'll change my path towards that direction in the future. I met lots of people in the process of this excercise as well and that is always a plus. It was great to feel like someone important, even if it only lasts for a little while and this assignment did just that.
Posted by AndrewLoNigro at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)