November 2007 Archives
Chapter ten talks about the craft of writing great stories. It tells us the building blocks of the story. It also talks about the inverted pyramid which we talked about in class. The information in an inverted pyramid is put in level of importance. The lead comes first, then some supporting information then add in some quotes and facts. The lead being the most imortant and it goes down from there.
It also talks about the process of writing and reporting. It says that writing is the result of a number of rational steps, practiced an perfected over time, of constant writing, rewriting, reading, being edited, and talking about writing. It tells us how to generate story ideas, collect information, and finding a focus with the lead, also selecting the best material, creating a plan for a story, creating a draft, revising and clarifying.
Something I found to be pretty interesting was the language of journalism. It says the language of journalism is concrete and specific. Its active and makes meaning early. It is democratic, has a voice and strives for clarity. Knowing things like this kind of helps me a bit more when I write. ike when I get stuck I can look back at this and I feel that it would definatley help me out!
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/abnw_chapter_10.php
I think I would say the Dorthy Thompson one pertains most to my article 2. My article 2 is about the gas prises rising and the commuters commuting. In my article the entire thing is pretty much opinion which is what the Dorthy Thimpson one is. My article will have all or at least mostly opinions from the commuters and how they feel about the gas prises and how having to drive here everyday will affect them.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/the_classics.php
Chapter 15 talks about the new technologies we have. I focused or found an interest most in photography because thats what Im really into more than anything!
In 1829 Louis Jacques Daguerre, a French painter, succeeded in capturing images on metal plates by using sensative salts. This tells us what little technology we had...AKA...NONE! It was a lot harder then. Now a days with all the fancy technology we have we dont have to do anything. the technology does everything for us, its a lot less work than they had to deal with in the past when there was no technology. Today to take a picutre all we have to do is hold the camera up to whatever we are taking a picture of and press a button. the camera does the rest! Nobody ever really thinks much of it but its amazing the things a camera can do these days!
Chapter 16 talks about radio news still being around. They say the reason for this is because the radio allows the audience to do one thing that they cant do while watching TV. This is to drive a car. People like to hear the news and know whats going on but arent always sitting in front of their television set. Now most likely if they arent at home they are heading somewhere else, therefore they are in a car...this is where the radio comes in.
BUT...it says that the radio has suffered yet another blow from two somewhat new technologies, CD and digital music players. They both work in cars but unfortunatley are too slow for news. It seems to me that today there are more people interested in music and less people interested in the news. I'll be honest, I recently got a CD player put in my car and honest to God I have not ONCE used the radio since then. I'm not big on news myself, I guess I see it as if its big enough, I'll hear about it!
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL200/11/stephens_15_and_16/
Ken Fuson is a feature writer for The Des Moines Register. He won the ASNE award for non-deadline writing. He prefers writing long but proves that he can also go short. "He takes an assignment made out of straw and mud and spins it into gold." This tells us just how good he is!
His assignment was to cover the dramatic change of weather in Iowa as winter thawed into spring. Well he wrote his entire article in one sentence. This is very interesting but seems wrong. How is this allowed? I guess as long as its good writing its acceptable. I dont think I would ever be able to pull that off writing about anything. I cant even pull off a normal length sentence right let alone a whole article writen one sentence. Thats pretty cool!!!
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/fuson_ah_what_a_day.php
Anne Hull was a national writer for Florida's St. Petersburg Times. She was a copy clerk there. She won the ASNE award for non-deadline writing. She wrote a three-part series about a crime that happened with a police officer being shot.
Talking about the "Metal Bone", with this Hull combines investigative reporting and the novelist's eye for detail. She rode with the police squad in order to get the information she needed. This shows that this crime/story meant something to her and that she really wanted to write it. "I wanted to bring the mug shot to life and let them learn about the life behind the photograph, and the path that swept this person into the crime." said Hull. This quote paints a good picture of what she was trying to do with her writing and it helps because she gives a pretty good visual.
It says that she consisently populates the page with flesh and blood characters and does this with intensive reporting of specific details. It says that using intensive reporting of specific details is the foundation of good writing.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/best_practices_2.php
These chapters talk mostly about how things with journalism use to be and the speed of the news. Its hard to believe but there were times when we didnt have computers and had to handwrite everything. Lucky for us we've got SO much technology now that we hardly have to do anything. With out all of this technology it would take A LOT longer to get the news out!
It talks about having unidentified sources. It says that some of the information often crucial information, sources will not give journalists if their names are going to be used. They say some of them have a very good reason, for example if they may lose their jobs but others dont always have a good reason or any reason at all. It also tells us that there is a type of journalism called "stunt journalism" which is also investigative reporting.
"Journalists--however clumsily, however imperfectly--pursue truth." This quote tells me that journalists do what it takes to get the truth. Which could be a good thing or maybe even a bad thing at times...it depends on how you look at it I guess.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL200/11/stephens_chapters_13_and_14/
Chapter 12 talks about Fredrick Douglass. It says he became one of the most infuential journalists in American history. I found this to be very interesting because it says he had to guess when his birthday was because they didnt keep records of slaves. A white woman tried to teach him how to read and she was scolded by his master. He didnt know how to read or write and wasnt allowed to learn...BUT he escaped in 1838 and four years later was writing for William Lloyd Garrison.
Douglass ended up writing his autobiography and ended up having his own newspaper called the North Star. This just goes to show that anything is possible. Now...I dont believe that...but in a general sense...well lets just say you can do anything you put your mind to. It may take time and it may be tough but if it was meant for you and its something you want to do, you can!
This chapter sldo talks about how most of the whole newspaper is taken up by commercials or advertisements and that is very true. How many newspapers have you seen with out an ad or something in it...NONE!!!! But why is that?
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL200/11/stephens_chapter_12/
My overall responce to the booklet is...I LIKE IT!!!! I have had many of the thoughts the book talks about. It also managed to open my eyes to even more. I am not someone who reads the newspaper very often unless maybe myself or a friend has a picture or article in it. Other than that I dont really pay much attention to it. I have always had strong views about it. I have always been annoyed by the fact that they seem to almsot only care about the bad things. I HATE THAT. It talks all about how the newspaper is unfair...and although I agree I've never realized how many things it is unfair about.
Some of the things they are unfair about that the book talks about is how they get the facts wrong. I have seen many times when the reporter doesnt have the correct information in an article and it makes you wonder..."Do they even care?" Also it talks about how they sometimes refuse to admit that they made the mistke or errors. Them making the errors in the first place is bad enough and already makes you feel like crap. But maybe if they would admit it and if they showed you that they realized they made the mistake it would show a little bit better that they do care.
A few more things that the book talks about is the reporters tend to prey on the weak, they lack diversity, they allow editorial bias in news stories and they cant admit that sometimes theres no story!!!!!
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/best_practices_1.php
I found the section about "They Concentrate on the bad news" to be very interesting because I have always sais that. I've always thought that they don't care or it's not newsworthy unless something bad happens to someone or something. Well at least the majority of news deals with the bad. The entire booklet talks about how newspapers are unfair, and this is just one of the ways they are unfair. I agreed with this most of all. This has always been something that has bothered me, and its good to see that other people agree as well. "The press focuses too much on what is wrong, violent and bizarre." Its almost as if they dont want to write about the good things. For example, it says, a school superintendent said he could not get a reporter to report on significantimprovements in test scores by a student body of 600, nearly 40% of which spoke English as a second language. Knowing this makes me feel like they really dont care. It's almost like they refuse.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/best_practices_1.php
This talks about how there are many times when the newspaper gets the facts wrong. This is an awful thing to happen. It is crucial for the reporters to get their facts right, they cant write a story with the wrong facts. It would be like a lie. They would be lying to the world.
It tells us that journalists think that spelling and grammer errors, wrong names, wrong titles, wrong addresses, wrong dates abd other similar mistakes have little to do with the press's credibility, but the public sees it otherwise.
It talks about how the ASNE Credibility Study, the sample readers had an identical result. They said that factual errors in the news stories corrode the credibility of newspapers publishing the mistakes. They showed quotes from the public of them saying "I cant believe they got that wrong." That is not what you want your reader saying after they read your articles. You could probably not only get demoted but you could probably even lose your job. It also tells us that at least one-half to two-thirds of all errors in the newspaper were preventable. Now, what does this tell us. This kind of shows us that they may not be paying attention and may not even care. If you were reading an article about yourself and you saw a mistake, big or lilttle, wouldnt you be offended maybe? Wouldnt you feel like they didnt care as much about your article as they did someone elses with no mistakes? I would be offended if it were me. This reading pretty much tells us all the ways the newspaper is unfair.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/best_practices.php
This story talks about Linnet Myers, a government reporter, who ended up leaving that to write fiction. She went to write about Chicago's Criminal Violecnce Court. This revealed many kinds of violence. She would spend her days running from courtroom to courtroom never missing a verdict or a sentence. Then she got moved to features and got a chance to do the things she wanted to do. She wrote a lot about very harsh things. There were many murders trials. Sometimes more than 12 in one day. I think stories like this should be told...people need to know about them, they may be quite harsh but people should know whats going on in the world and especially in their own community!
Humanity on Trial...
"murderers walk these halls, and mothers of murderers, and the mothers of the murdered too."
It says that humanity flows through the court room everyday. After being there a while and listening to all thats going on you start to get use to murder, and you no longer flinch at the blood pictures or horror stories. Then child abuse stories come into the mix and it hurts to see what happened. But its your job to not get involved and to JUST write the story, dont let the things get to you, dont let them effect you because this could effect your story.
Chapter ten talks about the power of the perodical---demesticating news. It talks about the history of journalism and how it can be understood as a long struggle by written and printed forms of news to compete with word of mouth. It says that the newspaper is so much better than word of mouth.
They also bring up the authority of the newspaper. It says the newspaper is influential, organized, informational, and sophisticated. It provides a reliable, regular and readable forums for the news of the world, and it covered the news intelligently but most of all, inoffensively.
If scientists are to build on each other's advances and mistakes, require information on each other's work.
"A scientific laboratory without a library is like a decorticated cat." This quote caught my eye but I was very much unable to figure out what the heck it meant! haha! If anyone has a clue let me know!!
It also talks about the speed of the newspaper. Early printed weeklies began to attract merchants, traders, and financers both with reports on Continental events and with more customized services. Newspapers provided a much more attractive setting for advertisements.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL200/11/stephens_chapters_10_and_11/
Getting back to what constitutes as newsworthy or not newsworthy. Why is it that things have to be classified as newsworthy or not? Why isnt everything classified as newsworthy if everyone knows about it. Why cant just a normal interesting story be newsorthy such as a news article about the moon or something like that. Why wouldnt many people read about that? I mean it is everyones moon right? Therefore it affects or pertains to everyone....so why not read about it?!
The conclusion talks about examining in a focused manner what happens when research findings and news accounts directly engage with public policy decision making. Also, it talks about exploring the underlying presuppositions that guide journalistic choices.
It discusses some challenges for the future such as Global Warming. It tells us that coverage of the climate debate illustrates particularly how well some science stories are treated differently by the mainstream press than others. This leads back to when we were talking about newsworthyness. Global Warming and things dealing with the climate and such affect everyone which makes it more newswothy than stories about the moon and Jupiter for example.
Chapter nine talks about "Blaming the messenger". It does seem to be true that people blame the messenger for the bad news. Its not their fault, its their job and they shouldnt be blamed. They shouldnt be blamed for something that they didnt cause or had no control over what so ever. "Dont kill the messenger". This chapter also talks about how researchers can be bias. For example: they talk about the medical breakthroughs and market profits. The researcher could be against the procedure and when talking abou tit would tend to show some bias...biasness(?) about it.
I like the quote "The substance of the conclusion shouldnt really matter as long as it is significant and as long as it follows logically from the procedures used to arrive at it." Meaning that it doesnt matter how you get the answer as long as you get it and its correct.
Chapter ten talks about the tunnel visions and blind spots of journalism. The tunnel vision and blind spots of journalism are the dangers posed by looking in only one direction for an explanation therefore ignoring alternative explanations that give a rounde, fuller picture of a subject.
The story about AIDS tells us that the article made the headlines by telling the people that the percent of deaths increased from infectious deiseases. But the percentage figure was exagurated because AIDs had not been recognized as a cause of death yet. This is a good example of the tunnel vision and blind spots.
link http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/11/ians_4.php
There are many statistics all thoughout life. For example everyo one out of eight America women will contract breast cancer. E. coli bacteria found in mean 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 constitues news is not necessarily what constitues a signifcant public health problem." I never understood why something had to happen to someone in order for them to ge newsworthy. I mean I understand but I guess I just dont agree with it. That is pretty m uch what Graham is saying. He's saying that it shouldn't have to be bad or big or dangerous or anything like that in order to be newsworthy.
I like how they used the sentence that reporters report about "events rather than issues, about immediate consequences 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 in case they had questions about why reporters report about 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 frog deformities caught my attention more than the others. I thought H was interesting, for one because I hadn't heard anything about it before and also it said some interesting facts. Such as the deformities of the grogs, like missing legs withered legs, extra, legs, paralyzed legs missing eyes and even some with an eye growing inside its throat, wierd but interesting. This also suppors Grahams point. "Deformed frogs are, more unusual than ordinary frogs; you wouldn't expect to see a story about a perfectly healthy frog community."
I commented on Carries blog. She wrote about how it seems that fear is what people want. And it is. I agree. People only read and are only interested in something that scares them or may affet them in a bad way. There is more bad than good wich is also why fear is mostly what people read about.
I also commented on Maddies blog. She also talked about how some things are newsworthy and others aren't, and something big has to happen to you in order to you/ that person/ someone to be noticed or recognized. I agree with Maddie completely.
Dr. Jerz's newswriting class is a big help to not only journalism majors but many other majors as well, such as communication majors, english majors etc. This class broadens our minds and helps us see what the real world of journalism is all about. In this class we talk about things such as what to do and what not to do in journalism. We have many readings that help us understand journalism even more. We read the readings, blog about them, comment on two other classmates' blogs and write a half page reflection about what we got from the readings and what we comented on in the other persons blog. Then, the next day in class we discuss what we wrote about and this also helps us to get an understanding of what other people thought about the readings and see things from there point of view. Whenever we have a question, it is usually answered by another student in the discussion so we dont even have to ask it. Its a lot of help.
Coverage: these are all of the blog entries I have had since the last portfolio.
IANS ch. 6&7..SUPPOSE TO BE 5&6 I made a mistake
Depth:
I got all of my information from the readings. AP Guide to News Writing and IANS book.
Interaction:
Well when the stupid thing actually posted...
Timeliness:
Xenoblogging:
Well as you know I have been having troubles with this since classes started...so I havent really been up to date with the comments needless to say I wasnt the 1st to comment on anyones either.
Wildcard:
I REALLY hope I did this one right!!!!
link http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MichellePolly/
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