October 2007 Archives

         There are many statistics all throughout life.  For example:every one out of eight American women will contract breast cancer.  E. coli bacteria found i meat caused 20,000 illnesses and 500 deaths a year in the United States.  It says that first, the media primarily focuses on events, such as an oil spill or forest fire rather than the risks these things caused.  Reporters that cover things like this often assume that the event poses an environmental risk, or has caused serious ecological damage.  Although, what should be examined is the extent or gravity of the harm.

        I agree with John Graham, director of the Center for Risk Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, when he said, "What constitutes news is not necessarily what constitutes a significant public health problem."  I never understood why something had to happen to someone in order for them to be newsworthy.  I mean I understand but I guess I just dont agree with it.  That is pretty much what Graham is saying.  He's saying that it shouldnt have to be bad or big or dangerous or anything like that in order for it to be newsworthy.

       I like how they used the sentence that reporters report about "events rather than issues, about imediate coinsequences rather than long-term consideration, about harms rather than risks."  This tells a lot about what it is exactly that reporters report about.  It helps people to understand incase they had questions about why reporters report this rather than that.  "Researchers have found that risks tend to be perceived as more serious when there is someone to blame."  This is also another good quote.

      The Fearing Frig Deformities caught my attention more than the others.  I thought it was interesting, for one, because I hadnt heard anything about it before, and it also said some interesting facts.  Such as the deformities of the frogs, like ones with missing legs, withered legs, extra legs, pralyzed legs, missing eyes and even some with an eye growing inside its throat.  Weird but interesting.  This also supports Graham's point.  "Deformed frogs are more unusual than ordinary frogs: you wouldnt expect to see a story about a perfectly healthy frog community."

link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/10/ians_3.php

These chapters talked about surveys/polls and questions to ask at or for the surveys or conferences.  It asks a lot of good questions.  "Newspapers are interested in giving the answers, the findings of polls and the conclusions."  "Often the newspapers fail to provide readers with the questions."  It talks about conflicting surveys.  It tells a lot about how to ask questions, what questions to ask etc.  It helped out a lot.  Also it helped show what to or how to talk to the person on the phone if needed etc. "Tell it like it is".

 

Testing to see if I can get this thing to work.Link

I thought that todays "press conference" was very helpful.  It helped us to see how a real press conference happens, how to ask questions, what questions to ask, and so on.  Also we all pretty much had questions to ask president Boyle and this gove us the opporutnity to do so and find out what weve been dying to know! It was a lot of fun, I was a little nervous at first, not sure what to do or what to expect. It turned out really well and fun! It was a lot of help!

I thought that todays "press conference" was very helpful.  It helped us to see how a real press conference happens, how to ask questions, what questions to ask, and so on.  Also we all pretty much had questions to ask president Boyle and this gove us the opporutnity to do so and find out what weve been dying to know! It was a lot of fun, I was a little nervous at first, not sure what to do or what to expect. It turned out really well and fun! It was a lot of help!

     These chapters talk a lot about stories, good and bad, covered or not covered, interesting or not interesting, appropriate or not appropriate, misleading or not m isleading, etc.  It explains some of the mistakes or problems the paper may face.  To write a story it has to be newsworthy.  These chapters tell us that some not always are.  Which brings up questions like, Should theses stories have been ignored by the media? Would stories like these have made for less exciting reading? Would they have been more accurate?

     It also tells us about "tomoato" statistics: which are cases in which news reporters call attention to alarmingly high numbers of criminal incedents by obscurring the crucial differences that make a few of the incedents far worse than the vast majority of the others.

     I found out that...There are so many thing to write about.  So many things to cover and explore and dig deeper.  Theres a story behind everything!

 

There are many differences in these two things.  The audience for the english essay is your instructor.  With this, it says thast usually the instructor knows more about the subject than the student author.  For the instructor they demonstrate what they know and are supposed to be learning.  For the Personal Perspective, you express your feelings, tell the story of how you came to your present understanding and demonstrate personal involvement with this subject.  For the news story the audience is the general reader, with this usually the reporter knows more about the subject than the general reader.  For the general reader, it is to inform the reader, suppose to be a source of verified facts.  The objective perspective stays out of the story, reports the emotions and opinions of the sources then interview, and it is from the perspective of those who care.

The introduction to the book It Aint Necessarily So, tell a lot about scientific results and all of the things that the scientific news can cover.  It also mentions things about how there are many more things and ways of writing and receiving the news in many different ways.  It also mentions that the media world is vulnerable to many things.  It says that the book mostly covers the inner workings, for example choices, judgments, arrangements, spinnings, deletions, and framings. 

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&id=21820&blog_id=422

I still couldnt figure it out and Im almost positive i did this wrong.  I really tried...I am SO confused.  Since I did manage to get this and the paper says to write about it I will. This entry I believe is the video entry and this really helped me.  For one I had a feedback on the videos and this also helped me with blogging.

This class is called newswriting.  Dont let the name fool you, this class teaches you a lot other than just how to write news.  This class helps you develop your interviewing skills, your writing skills, your ability to find the news and figure out on your own what is newsworthy or not.  Also, this class opens your eyes to the world around you.  I was never interested in the news until I took this class.  Once this class got started I really got into the news and working for the paper is just a bonus.  It is a lot of fun, you get to work all hands on and really get the feel of what writing for the paper is all about.  It is very exciting! 

I actually havnt posted a lot of blogs, being a freshman, and a slow one at that, it was really confusing and hard to get used to.  Plus I had that problem with not getting any of the emails sent out so I was pretty much behind most of the time.  I tried and couldnt figure out how to link some of my entries back to this comment so Im going to try in a seperate one. SORRY

 

The videos we saw today were an example of what not to do in the newswriting business I think.  It was funny and entertaining but not real news.  I think that it was more of way to entertain people rather than keep them informed with what is going on with the world today.  I also think that this portrays what really could happen with the real news at times.  Its not always set as to what happend...youre not always ready when its your turn to talk.  Although this really does or could happen to a real news reporter and I think this video warns you of that!