November 2007 Archives

ok of course theres a process.  Everyone journalist knows that there is sometype of writing and reporting process, what kind of stories would we have if there wasn't.  The only thing about this though, theres steps, and these steps have to be done in order...DUH it wouldn't be a process if there wasn't.  I mean you cant ride a bike byt first pedaling then getting on the bike, you have to get on the bike and then start pedaling. 

"good writing may seem magical, but it's not magic."

we all know this takes work...you can't just snap your fingers and hope everything comes together.  You have to follow step by step, practice, practice practice.  What'd your parents always tell you.  Practice makes perfect.  and they were so true.  as a writer you have to write, rewrite, read, edit, and talk about writing.  these are a must to be a good writer.  First you have to:

*generate ideas                           *get the best and only the best             *revise

*collect the information                 *create a plan                                    

*find a focus w/ a lead                  *draft

To every writer out there, good luck! Just follow these simple steps and in no time youll be producing your very own master pieces.

 

WOW.  this story was so well written.  Hull really knew what she was doing when she was reconstructing this crime.  I think the fact that i love CSI helped a lot because the crime story aspect just totally sucked me in!  I loved how hull broke it up into parts and combined all the parts into one story.  That to me is creative writing.

its more like what a...sentence?  wow i never realized there were so many ways of getting soooo much into one sentence.  Usually in grade school ok 5-7 words make a sentence, this sentence could have been 5-7 paragraphs. well I loved it.  I had a terrible day, and this was a cute little  weather report describing what to me feels like a great spring day, when flowers are blooming and everythings is lightly dashed with color and the world is happy.  Ok so thats a bit of a fantasy in todays world, but still this short little story was bright and cheery and i enjoyed it.  "yes! yes!"  Fusion was just so creative with his wordplay and his humor and his "ecclesiastes."  Way to be creative!

I chose A flower for the Graves as my story from "The Classics."  I thought this story was very good.  I loved the depth of the story and the details, it was almost like I was there and Patterson was giving a speech to the town.  It was meaningful and reached out to everyone in the town.  The part of the story that really caught my attention was the use of WE.  I feel Patterson used the word we to make the story mean more to the people of the town who didn't loose their children.  It wasn't just the killers faults that these children are dead but Patterson made the story affect everyone, because the towns people did nothing to stop the violence problem.

The opinon side of this story and how one person feels relates to my story, because I am writing on the expansion of campus downtown.  My story is solely based on how people in the downtown area feel about the campus expansion, and how it will affect things such as businness and traffic.  I want to find the good and the bad things about the expansion and be able to see what WE as a comunity think is going to happen when the project is complete.

"The concern that the press focuses too much on what is wrong, violent and bizarre

and that it never prints “good news” may be the longest-running complaint of the public."

 

Unfortunately, this is true.  The public never wants to read or hear about the bad news; the victim who was beaten, or the suspect that killed her husband, or the abandoned baby in the garbage can.  No, people wanna hear about the new family bussinnes around the corner, or about how gas prices are going down.  Unfortunately theres never a story with for the good news. Bad news is whats sells.  It makes a good story, and it what the public needs to know.  They need to be aware that someone in their comunity was beaten, or someone killed someone else, or to be on the lookout for the baby, or to prepare for some type of disaster.

 

Theres really no way to fix the reporting problem.  Reporters 'report' what the people need to know, not what they want to know.  Its all about politics when it comes down to it.  What sells, the good or the bad?

Best Practices was a good factual book.  Not something I would like to read on an everyday basis, however it was interesting to find out all the different facts and ways of doing things.  The thing I liked best about this book was it let me see how the 'public' views things.  They don't realize the time and effort it takes to get all the information, pitch a story, write the story, then all the parts of the publication procedure on top of all this, then getting ready to pitch another story before the first one is published.  You have to meet deadlines and qualifications.  The pulic eye just sees the finished story.  This book breaks things down and lets everyone see throught the eyes of the 'public.'  The stories that are written help all people see the different aspects of every story.  One mans words are another mans expression.

Do u make mistakes?  Do your friends make mistakes?  Do your teachers make mistakes?  Ya everyone makes mistakes, but in the news world, theres no room for mistakes.  I never realized how many mistakes the news world actually made.  Its one thing to spell the word and wrong, but to mistake someones name, the date or time of a crime, the area, anything crucial to the story, is another very big deal.

You don't think about it, but news casters on television, they make mistakes too, its not always as obvious, but they do, its just they can correct themselves.  In the news paper or a magazine article, its not correctable till after its printed.  For example, some big time reporter gets a great story, writes the article and prints it, BUT he forgets someones name, or he mixes up the name, then the whole story is wrong.  Unlike on television when you can easily correct yourself the only way you can undo your damage in a news article is to reprint it.  This is ok except, it takes time and money.  First the story needs fixed, then the whole article needs reprinted, and this doesn't exactly happen free of charge.  I guess i never realized how important it was to double check, proof read and make sure everything was perfect.

"Or I bite my hand because I don 't want to lose my decorum.  There's only one judge in the room, and if you lose it, the whole place loses it."

 

Myers really knew what to say to draw in some quick attention.  I believe this whole little story, was something quite creative.  I felt more like I was reading more part of a murder/mystery novel than a news story.  It deffinately didn't have the setup of a news report, more a story, like maybe not the novel thing, but a news magazine something you would read in Time, or News Weekly something, but not in a news paper.

So far this year we've covered many different aspects of  journalism and the news.  In class we learn and discuss with fellow classmates what is good and what is bad in the real world of journalism.  Recently we've read a news story called It Ain't Necessarily So.  IANS was the type of book that gave us reasons to question all aspects of the news.  It made us break down and really think of how the news can create almost a scam.  It gives reasons to doubt what you read, so that you really have to think about everything you read and wonder...is it true?  IANS taught us what to look for when it comes to true flaws in the news and from this we've come to learn how to fix those flaws.

 

Coverage:  Everything was on time woo hoo!!

Much ado about A Lot!

IANS 5 and 6

Streets, Bikes and accidents

IANS 7 and 8

IANS 9 and 10

 

Depth:  Some real personl issues.

Streets, Bikes and accidents

Much Ado About A lot

 

Interaction:  My first real topic to get reactions about!!!

IANS 5 and 6

 

Timeliness:  Heres my blog on the Press Conference

Press Conference

 

xenoblogging: Well I'm new to this one

Since I am new to this blogging thing, I don't think I've really helped anyone with their blogs.  I mean sure I've posted comments on a few people blogs about different things in the past, however I've never started any type of big discussion only added my thoughts about a few things. 

 

Wildcard:  I'm not very good at this blogging thing, but I'm trying so heres my favorite blog!

Iand 7 and 8