American Lit: What's your thought?

I found this chapter of Kershner to be interesting because it is something that is often forgotten about and because of my interest in law. People believe that there are little laws in media because of the first amendment.

Kershner explins that because of the first amendment there are very little cases in which the government can sue a newspaper. The biggest dangers to newspapers are civil law suits. If an individual feels that an article has harmed them in anyway they can sue a journalist and their organization.

“The court said that newspapers should not be punished for making reasonable errors in such a situation as criticizing a public official unless the public official can prove actual malice”

This quote is important because I feel it shows that newspapers can write news that negatively affects how people see someone, but it must simply be reporting of facts. If there is no ill intent to harm the person a newspaper is protected under the law even from officials.

“A reporter must remain an objective reporter and never act as an agent of the police”

Kershner states a reporter must report the news not become the news. It is the not the reporters job to investigate a crime, but to simply report the findings of a crime by the police. I found it interesting that Kershner states, “Occasionally, members of the public will ask journalist to investigate criminal activity.” While it is true that investigative reporters are meant to uncover information, a proper journalist will recommend contacting the proper authorities.

Reading the article on the death of Gadhafi I am not quite sure of the category this article would be placed under. I believe it would be considered a feature story because even though it touches on a recent event, it is not the main focus of the article being it does not explain what happened and how he died. This article focuses on the affects of his death and how it relates to a past incident.

This reporter mangages to get ahold of very strong sources such as the families of the Seton Hill students which passed away in the plane crash, along with president Boyle. The reporter does not show any opinion as far as i’ve noticed, but does use quotes which clearly show how the families feel.

I do not believe there is much potential for a follow up in this article. The school does not appear to be holding a commemoration ceremony for the students or any similar event so I don’t believe there will be much chance of a follow up article.

via Texts to Read and Review in Class.

It is a common mistake that the words written under a picture used to describe what is going on in the photograph is a caption. This is false as stated by Kershner.

“The cutline must make a reference to the newsworthiness of the photo and completely identify everyone in it.” While it may be easy to confuse the two it is important reporters realize the difference considering the photographer often writes the cutline.

“All people in photographs must be identified with their complete names.”

This is most likely the cutline’s greatest characteristic. I always wondered if it was necessary for reporters to always list individuals in each photo. I always believed if reporters took a photo and did not know the people in it, they could list them as “crowd” or “family”. However Kershner states that if a photographer does not know the people in the photo the photographer can either find their names or scrap the photo. There are few exceptions to the rule such as photos of crowds and other large groups.

via Kershner 30.

“Select the very best photograph available, and make it the lead photograph of the paper”

While this may seem like an easy thing to do, as a photographer I know it isn’t as easy as t sounds. As a photographer for a paper you takes dozens of pictures of the same thing from different angles, distances, and depths, however only one or two of the pictures you take will make it into the paper. Choosing the best is not always easy especially if you have an attachment to one over another.

You may like one photo better than another because of a specific lighting or appeal, but newspaper photography is not art. The lighting, angle, or emotion, is not what is important. It is simply about getting the best picture possible of the subject at hand. It is not meant to evoke subtle emotions or messages, but just help tell the story of what happened in the story.

While the photographer may favor one photo over another, it is important that he remembers what is important, and not let his favor for one photo trump what would be the lead photo because he finds it artistically better.

Kershner 28

I found this chapter of Kershner to be particularly interesting because it discusses and aspect of journalism that I have yet to work on personally. I never truly considered how much goes into laying out pages until I became a member of the Setonian. While I work on the paper I have yet to layout a page myself. Something I’m not really excited to do in the first place.

Reading Kershner I realized laying out a page requires a lot of attention. You may have a large photo you want to use with an article, but if that article is to large you have no choice but to shrink the image because the story is more important than a single photo because you like it.

“Headlines are not called ‘titles’ because they serve a different purpose.” This quote from Kershner chapter 29 stood out to me because it is absolutely true. While some people may call the headline the title, it is something completely different even if it may look similar. Titles can often be vague and unrelated to the story, but a headline is basically a summary of what the article is about.

It is important that beginner or new journalist understand this because they often create headlines, which are truly titles. Without proper knowledge of the difference beginners will simply be writing titles for their articles. I should know I often did this in the beginning too.

Kershner tells of the various characteristics distinct of headlines. According to Kershner headlines:

• Summarize the story
• Use subject, verb, and object (in that order)
• In present tense
• Only capitalize the 1^st word and proper nouns
• Use strong verbs

In this chapter of Kershner he touches upon a very sensitive and stressful time for all journalist. Production Week!! Oh how dreadful and painful this process is, personally since I’ve become quite acquainted with the hell it ensues. This process is by far the most stressful because it is when all the word is put together to create the final product. Be prepared to start early in the afternoon, and not leave to late in the morning all to do it again the very next day.

Kershner discusses how to put out the paper and I believe the most important point he touches upon is teamwork. Without teamwork the paper is a complete mess. You need people talking to each other through out the entire process and not just when it comes down to crunch time. Without teamwork it is possible you end up missing a section because everyone wrote only about news or opinion and no one wrote for A&E or sports. Team work is an important part of any career or job, but I feel that on a newspaper it is extremely vital since your work comes together with several others to create one product.

While the process is painstaking especially if you have a small staff, the feeling of joy and relief you get when the paper is finished and sitting in stacks is immense. The knowledge that you helped to create it causes a great feeling of accomplishment.

As class continues there is so much information and strategies to be learned. Putting together this portfolio two I realize how much new information I’ve been given. This portfolio represents all the new information I’ve been taught such as how to create profiles, proper feature articles, along with so much more.

Depth:

My first entry in the depth section of my portfolio is a response to Kershner 16 & 21. In this blog entry I discuss how to conduct a journalistic interview. I explain the importance of polite etiquette while performing interviews in order to not make the interview a negative experience for the interviewee. Another example of depth is my response to Kershner 11&12, where I discuss active and passive voice. In this response I talk about the differences between the two, and the importance of using active voice as reporters. This section represented a topic I noticed I myself have problems with sometimes. Writing this response I felt I gained a better understanding of the passive and active voice.

Interaction

In this section of my blog I visit the blogs of my classmates learning their opinions on the subject matter. I visited Olivia’s blog where I commented on her opinions of the Sample Profiles. Here I comment on the techniques and strategies she noticed in the two sample profiles we were given. On my own blog Sarah and I briefly responded to my entry Sources: Is It Ok to Peak?.

Discussion

This section takes interaction to the next level, in which we not only comment n each other’s blogs, but we, chat trading ideas back and forth. On my own blog

Katelyn and I discussed Kershner chapter 32. We discussed how feature stories are still news stories, even though they involve more creativity. On Katelyn’s blog I became part of a discussion on Kershner chapter 24.  A brief discussion with Sarah Sources: Is It Ok to Peak?.

Timeliness

This section includes responses in which I turned in my assignment early or on time. This section includes my response to the post “The Invisible Observer”. Also my entry on sample profiles was turned in on time. My Tribune Review assignment was also done on time.

Coverage

This section represents response where I simply did the bare minimum. These responses are not very in depth or commented on. My entry on Meme was a project in which I tried to explain direct address and where commas are placed while using them. This entry included images and a power point displaying correct and incorrect use. In my entry for Kershner 13 I discuss journalism writing as being a form of story telling and how an event can be looked at from different perspectives.

As I sat down ad passed a copy of the Oct 11 Tribune Review to my friend Jordan Forney her first comment was this looks so boring. As she scanned through the first couple pages of the newspaper picking out certain articles to read, she found the information to be uninteresting.  As she finished scanning the entire paper I asked for her opinion of the mechanics or look of the paper. She felt that the pages seemed cramped even for a newspaper, and the pages were too long. “Even though there’s not supposed to be much empty space, it still seems too cramped together. It does not make me want to read it.” She said. I agree with her opinion that the pages do feel cramped.

Even though it has been a while since I have held and read a physical paper, I find that the margins are not this tight and cramped, and that there should be a bit more empty space so the text does not have to be so small. Getting back to the stories chosen for this issue I agreed that they were rather dull. Jordan found the international section along with the page on Halloween to be the most interesting, which is understandable being the local news section is significantly lacking stories of great interest.