April 2008 Archives

     The Best Practices Booklet tells me a lot that I didnt know.  Being a freshman and knowing absolutely nothing about anything, this booklet helps with a lot of the little things but it also helps out alot with all the important things as well.

     I like the quote that says "Newspapers get too much too wrong too often"  Hearing this helps me to see that although it is a widely spread thing, that will be read by many people, it also has mistakes, it happens, which makes me feel a little more comfortable knowing that even the "big guys" mess up form time to time, and its their job to get it right!!!!!!!  Then, it also mentions how the newspaper, often times, does not admit to the errors and mistakes it makes.  Which also makes me feel better about the paper here because when mistakes and errors are made in the Setonian, the Setonian staff will be the first to admit it! (Very admirable, and "rolemodel-ish)

     This booklet also talks a lot about what exactly a journalist is.  And although it may sound stupid, but before I came here, all I thought about when I thought "journalist" was writing.  I guess I can honestly say, that I technically did not know exactly what a journalist was...............yet I came to school for it haha!!!!!!!!! 

     Also, something we mentioned a lot in my News Writing class last semester, is that the newspaper focuses on the bad news.  I guess when reading the newspaper I never really gave it a second thought, that most of the stuff written in there is bad or sad news about someone's family, or a house burning down or anything like that.  I learned that in many cases they'd rather hear the bad stuff and report about that because they will probably end up getting a lot more readers if they write about something that interests everybody rather than a boring story about...i dont know....maybe a story about a kid winning an essay contest or something.   I dont know, but which would you rahter read about...?  A house burning down and the reaction of many....was is arson, or what?  What happened?  Or would you rather read about a little boy entering an essay contest and winning.  Yeah its "Aww" and a little cute, but the house burning down is a lot more interesting.  More than likely everyone would head to that story in the newspaper.

     Another thing that caught my attention when reading this booklet was the fact that they said that sometimes they cant admit that there is no story.  If I was assigned to write an article where there was no story, I would keep digging until I found one, probably since there wasnt one I would be there until my deadline had passed, but either way, this helped me see that theres not always a story when people think there is one.  Which I guess in a way messed me up, because now I might go in thinking what if theres not a story here, what if I dont have to write this article...i dont know....what I do know is that I think I benefitted more from it than anything else.

     This booklet really did help me with a lot of things, especialy being a clueless freshman!  I really liked it and enjoyed reading...for the most part!!!!! haha

 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MichellePolly/