It's all so magical...or is it?
Good writing may seem magical, but it's not magic.
Ch. 10 America's Best Newspaper Writing
Good writing may seem magical, but it's not magic.
Ch. 10 America's Best Newspaper Writing
Git back! Gawddammit, git back!
America's Best Newspaper Writing 262
In case you're a little confused on what this is, I'll explain. This is my wonderful blogging portfolio, a collection of all the blogs I have posted over the past couple of weeks for my news writing class. Most of these blogs are about the book we've been reading, It Ain't Necessarily So, but a few deviate.
Here's what I had to say:
Coverage (here's all of it together, every required entry):
Live and Learn
Question the Question
Pleasantly Surprised
Don't skip the boring stuff
How many licks?
Depth (here's where I was a little more analytical in my thinking while blogging):
Don't skip over the boring stuff
How many licks?
Interaction (here's where I responded to my peers):
Discussions (here's where I created a good discussion):
Timeliness (here's where I posted my blog early):
How many licks?
Question the Question
Xenoblogging (here's where I commented on my peers' blogs):
Creating Optimism (the comment primo)
The truth is out there (the comment grande)
For better or for fear (the comment grande)
Wildcard (here's the best exapmle of my blogging skills):
Question the Question
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? A-one, a-two, a-three...crunch ...The world may never know.
...dramatic coverage designed to heighten fear is simply better remembered than more analytic coverage that might lower it. After all, drama is, well, more dramatic than cold-blooded analysis. (IANS 130)
Inside each of us, reporter and newspaper reader alike, is an Alice B. Tolkas demanding to know the answer; but she very much needs to be balanced by a Gertrude Stein inquiring about the question.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to be badly briefed once may be regarded as a misfortune; to do it twice looks like carelessness.
While the clips from the Onion and Saturday Night Live we watched in class were funny, they also pointed out some dissappointing truths about tv news. In The Onion's Something Happening in Haiti broadcast, the news reporter explains what is happening in Haiti based on another reporter's live reports. However, neither reporter seems to know exactly what is going on. Possible predictions range from an election, to a riot, to a coup, to a picnic. While this situation is obviously humorously exaggerated, I've often felt extremely confused about what's really happening during a live tv broadcast. Sometimes, the news is so fresh that the reporters don't seem to know exactly what is going on and, instead of being able to give a true account of the event, they resort to giving several possibilities of what may be happening. When this happens, I always ask myself "What's the point?"
Saturday Night Live also exaggerates a slightly frustrating aspect of tv news in a parody of Wolf Blitzer. Throughout the reporter's newscast, the newsfeed runs along the bottom of the screen with ridiculous statements such as "Ugh. This Iraq stuff is sooooooo boring!" and a desire for "More Anna! Anna! Anna! Anna! Anna!..." (Anna Nicole Smith). Actually this desire is sad but true. Most people would rather watch Anna Nicole Smith than an update on the war in Iraq. No offense to those who watch tv news, but I think I'll stick to reading the paper.
The reporter who stands apart from the mob stands out. Dickerson suggests stashing the notebook and the briefcase, and handing the subject a business card with a note written on the back.