Shameless Digressions

B1-1: Blogging Portfolio – Newswriting

Texts

- Coverage, Interaction: Although recording my ideas in the Reporter’s Notebook isn’t quite my style, the useful checklists on interview and editing have been very helpful to me. I commented on Johanna Dreyfuss’s blog entry about the story ideas that the Reporters Notebook offers.

­- Interaction: The AP Guide to Newswriting (Ch. 8) taught me about that profanity could be used to show someone’s personality. I also found out that putting someone’s opinion in quotation marks is only necessary if it is very unusual. I could relate to Michael Diezmos’s feeling about the abundance of examples in The AP Guide to Newswriting.

­- Timeliness, Coverage: In Elements of Journalism (Ch. 3 - 5) I was able to identify with the feeling of a lack of control that journalists have with quotes. I was also able to identify with the idea that reporting on the personal matters of public officials is harmful to citizens because it’s more internally focused.

Media

- Interaction: I watched the WTAE-Pittsburgh Channel 4 newscast and compared it to the Tribune Review and The Pittsburgh Channel.com for my Media Analysis assignment. I commented on Elyse Branam's opinion on the benefits of television news. I felt that television news was more visually engaging than print news. However, The Pittsburgh Channel.com and the television news both had very short reports and like I mentioned in Chera Pupi’s blog, with television news you have less control because of all the waiting around.

- In the September 20th issue of the Tribune Review I noticed the layout of the paper more than I ever had before. I had never paid much attention to the lines that separate the articles or how the front-page images are always the most shocking. I had also never noticed how great subheadings are for grabbing the reader’s interest.

Articles

- Coverage: I interviewed Lorin Schumacher for my Peer Profile Article. As I noted in my reflection, she had the flu all week and was unable to be verbally interviewed. This made me realize the benefits of e-mail interviewing and not having to be verbally interviewed by her.

- Timeliness: My Spot News Article covered Opening Liturgy and the student’s reactions to the Catholic influence of Seton Hill. I chose to focus more on their reactions after hearing a lot of confusion from some of my classmates. All in all, it left much to be desired. As I mentioned in my reflection: I didn’t have enough positive quotes so the article was bias – which is very bad indeed. From then on I decided to count my quotes to make sure my articles wouldn’t be more objective.

- Here is a list of news story ideas for Homecoming. I have four ideas because numbers two and four are rather weak and I’m hoping that when combined, they’ll be worth one. Wishful thinking, I suppose…

­- Timeliness: Comparing my spot news article on Opening Liturgy to the Communicator’s showed me how nicely a quote from one of the chaplains would have improved my article and helped make it less one-sided. However, one of the reasons I decided not to was because, like I mentioned in Johanna Dreyfuss’s entry, it’s easier to interview students.

Xenoblogging:
- I commented on Elyse Branam's opinion on the benefits of television news.
- I could relate to Michael Diezmos’s feeling about the abundance of examples in The AP Guide to Newswriting.
- I commented on Johanna Dreyfuss’s blog entry about the story ideas offered by the Reporters Notebook.
- I related to Johanna Dreyfuss’s entry "Quotes, Quotes, Quotes" about how it’s easier to interview students.
- I commented on Chera Pupi’s blog and said that although television news is universal, it does not give you more control.

The Comment Primo:
- Chera Pupi “Intro of Elements”
- Elyse Branam “Media Analysis”
- Michael Diezmos “AP guide to News Writing”

Wildcard:
- For lack of a better idea, I’ve decided to blog my “goals statement” essay as my Wildcard.