September 2007 Archives

"No moment is too private, no event too personal," Kelly McBride, a member of ethics faculty at The Poynter Institute says. I have always felt it would be wrong to release a rape victim’s name, but in today’s world it seems as though the majority feels it different now.

It's not about the majority though, it's about pure human courtesy and morals. If that were me, I would not want the humiliation of that printed publicly. There are things I don't like my neighbors to know.

Some argue that it's a violation of the publics right to know, but that would be like saying, "It’s a violation of the public’s right to know when you bath and at what times, how often you change underwear, and when you clip your toenails." I wouldn't be comfortable telling that to strangers I don't even know.

Of course it's common sense to release the rapists' name. Luckily most reporters agree with me, and even though it's not against the law in most states, still don't release rape victim’s names.

Assignment page

 

The first Story I read was one that happened just yesterday at 7 am. the title was "One hurt in shooting near Castro Safeway in San Francisco" It identified that one person was transferred to a hospital, "

Police said the suspect fled on foot. No arrests have been made and an investigation is underway." It also stated "The victim was shot in the stomach just before 5 a.m." According to the Us Criminal justice chart the shooter is only at the second block, since no arrests have been made and the person is only a suspect.

The second article I read was written about 3 days ago and was about a dog who was shot. It it a bit longer and goes a little more in depth since it wasn't breaking news. It's title is, "Tavern owners offer reward in dog killing"

It reads, "Animal Services is investigating Ruby's death as animal cruelty and have asked the sheriff's office for help tracking down her killer, who also could be charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, according to Stosuy." On the Us Criminal Justice chart, The killer is unkown, there aren't any suspects so this crime is only at the first block, and obeserved crime. the results of the crime may be different from the chart, however, because this is involving an animal, but i'm not sure. 

Assignment page

Chapters 3-5, in <em>Guide to News Writing</em> by Rene Cappon, helped me know how to form a good lead, use just the right amount of words and know how to prevent journalese-ism(that's not a word...) Actually I knew what journalese was but I didn't know that was what they called it. It's just like fluff but it's really big fluff(don't say <em>really big</em> if big doesn't cut it.....) "To write means to choose the right words for each occasion, not fit the occasion to precooked words"(Cappon 48).

I chose for my second article another by Gomez about an accident on San Mateo Bridge where three large trucks'tractor triailers collided. The articles, since written by the same person, left out some important details such as names, and the extent of damage done to the people. They were both very brief and only gave a short re-cap of what happened.
most of the sources were 'officials'; "...according to California Highway Patrol spokesman Todd Thibodeau."
and; "...CHP Officer Mike Davis said."
Link back to EL227 website

Second article

 This is a Link back to the course website. It's my first Entry! (well, it's a test entry..)

Welcome to your Seton Hill University weblog.

The web address "http://blogs.setonhill.edu/FirstnameLastname" is where your most recent entries will appear. New entries will appear at the top of this page, and older entries will slide down the page and eventually move to an archive.

To create and edit entries on your site, go to blogs.setonhill.edu, and log in with the username FirstnameLastname (with your name spelled the way it appears in J-Web, without any spaces, and with capitalization as shown).

I have posted a welcome message on the New Media Journalism weblog, which has links to tutorials and troubleshooting guides.