DerekTickle

Portfolio #4:

It is amazing how fast this semester has went, but I have learned more about news writing, than I ever knew before. All of my blog entries were submitted early, promoted discussion and interaction, and sparked some in-class discussion.

I always wanted to know The Power of Law and Privacy and I discovered that news reporters must be careful when publishing public names. If a person tells the reporter that they want to remain confidental, then they must abide by there wishes. I assume that everyone understands that the paper contains a negative bias and this is because of how the reporters personality and opinion gets incorporated into the article. I told my class to Use Some Positive Judgement in order to make the paper have a more positive angle. Many studies, listed in my article, have shown that negative news gets more attention than positive news. Why? One reason is because of how people like to know what negative things have occurred and why they have. Most people do not always want to read about positive news because there is nothing to talk about then.

During most of this semester, I have learned about the structure of articles and how they are composed. I actually never thought about how reporters use slideshows, multi-media, and pictures in their articles. When understanding What the Great Recession Has Done, I began to think that slide shows are important for the reader to quickly see what is going on. Most readers, in the United States, enjoy watching videos or slide shows because they can understand the information in a quicker way. This usually can be contributed to how the American society is fast paced and wants to get things completed fast. In addition, to slide shows, Dr. Jerz introduced the class to multi-media and interactive films. The example that was given to us was about garbage and recycling and I thought it was A Current Event With An Educational Twist. Since my future withholds a lot of teaching time, I found this interactive site to be very beneficial and news worthy. Recycling is an important part of the world and by teaching it to younger generations, then it may change the perspection of our future students. One downfall to this site was that the videos had a lot of "fluff" in them which resulted in a longer film. Some basic editing could enhance the film, but it was enjoyable.

Another very popular news site that we were introduced to was called Wired, but my first impression was that The Children Are All Linked Together. The Wired news site is a great place to get a lot of information quickly without going to several sites. There are many pictures, links, and writing on the homepage. It is a very creative and busy site for viewers. In addition, to Wired, we were introduced to Harvards newspaper site and I, personally, found it to be more professional than anything. The entire site made me think about Professionalism Without the User-Friendly Quality. One reason for this king of mindset is that the site seemed more basic and professional, than being a site full of pictures, links, and videos. I believe that Harvard wants to maintain their status as being a top university and they do not want to look like modern sites.

Furthermore, the Cavailer Daily made me think about only Color, Caption, and Conception. This news site quickly introduces the viewer to three top stories with pictures (color), short captions (caption), and a lot of links (conception). The entire news writing class seemed divided among which site was more popular, but it seemed that many people enjoyed the Harvard paper and the print edition of the Cavailar Daily. Many students thought that the website had too much going on and was too busy whereas the Harvard site made the reader feel like they were reading a typical newspaper.

My last two blogs of the class involved Haiman and his book about newswriting. The readings made me think about Freedom, Fairness, and Futility, but made me wonder If Freedom Is Free or Free by Chance. These two blog entries of mine discuss how the news seems more bias than they used to be and is this contributed to our society and how much information is available on the internet? The main concern among most of my comments was that the news is bias and un-fair when it comes to politics and elections. I believe that most people know which paper is conservative and which is liberal and this is on reason for the unfairness.

All of the previous entries sparked discussion and a lot of it online and in-class. Josie Rush's entry entitled Diversity- What's the Difference? can be considered one of my comment grandes. This entry was about how the newspaper staff does not usually have a diverse staff and this adds to a lot of the unfairness in the industry. As for the media aspect of the news industry, Jenn Prez wrote about how Interactive Content Draws You In and how the "Tonight Show" has changed over the past several years or even decades. My comment prompted questions about interactivity and slide shows. Kaitlin Monier wrote about A Maestro's Hair which shows how slide shows can teach history and success while also being a news article. In addition, Wendy Scott published What a Waste in relation to the recycables and garbage site. She is interested in starting a recycling center on campus in order to reduce the amount of paper that is wasted each year. This site is only a start for her and hopefully the campus community will help her achieve her goal.

As for Harvard, Josie wrote Ivy League Material? without a positive assurance to whether it was or not. On the other hand, Angela thought that This is ok...I give it a C+ which prompted seven comments from my discussion. This is one example of a comment informative because of how it continues a great discussion and asks questions. Next, Josie said that the Cavailer Daily was A Solid Meh and Angela gave This Website a Solid B. Most of these entries that were listed were consisted link gracious, informative, and grande because of how much discussion they prompted.

Another addition to all of these comments being successful was my thoughtful reflections. They included The Well-Rounded View, An Interactive News Article, Human Duties: A Curiosity to Earth, and Color vs. Coverage. All of these reflections were extra aspects to the blogging community, but they helped spark discussion which gave students a good feeling with a pat on the back.

Finally, after meeting all of the requirements for each of my portfolios, I feel that I have contributed and learned a great amount of knowledge with news writing. My wildcard entry includes Freedom, Fairness, and Futility. This entry discusses how the paper industry has become more unfair over the years and my classmates had a similar reaction. After five comments over three days, the discussion became developed with links to other blog entries.

I would like to finish by saying thank you to all of my classmates who helped make my blogging become successful and worthy of comments. This is my last blog portfolio for my college career since I will be student teaching in the near future. Thanks to everyone and please feel free to refer back to my blogs in the future for academic information and references.

My previous blog portfolios include News Reporting, Bias, and Sensitivity, A Well-Rounded View on a News Reporter's Life, and A Journalistic View on Life.

Click here for the course web page devoted to the News Writing class.

"We don’t have to earn the right to pray. Or assemble. Or speak out. Or petition
the government for change. And news organizations don’t have to earn the right to exercise their free-press rights" (Haiman 71).

After reading the final few pages of Haiman's book, I thought about how the newspaper industry has a right that they didn't even have to pay for. While, I mean the news reporters, but history has shown how much people have paid for freedom. It is a wonderful opportunity that we have as Americans, but do some people take advantage of the freedoms that we have?

If you want to go to church, then you can freely go.

If you want to hold a group meeting, then you can freely do so.

If you want to have your voice heard, then you can freely say so.

If you want to protest, then you can do so as long as you don't distribute police order.

Finally, if a news reporter wants to publish an article, then they can do so without a charge.

All of these rights are given to us, as Americans, but it seems that many people hold the freedom of press to a high position when they get into trouble after publishing an inappropriate article. Where is the line drawn with the freedom of press or speech? This also goes for the other freedoms, too.

If you start a news paper company, then you are automatically given, previously had, the right of the press. What if you abuse the right and take it to far lengths in order to convey a person’s opinion?

There are so many questions that a reader so understand when studying the news industry and I believe that the press has done a remarkable job in delivering the news each day in such a quick time period also.

So, in addition to my other questions, is the news fair with their "freedom(s)"?

Click here for the course web page devoted to Haiman.

I thought that my title would bring you in to read my article!

Anyways, the Cavalier Daily online had great appeal to me because of how much color was involved when the web page loaded.

Also, I like how the top stories were listed at the top and the links to other parts of the site were easily viewable at the top.

The further I scrolled down on the page, below the fold, I began to see how the articles had just titles listed and were not that organized. The only organization that I saw towards the end was the topic headings.

Another positive feature, is that I enjoyed the print edition of the paper because of how it looked just like the Tribune-Review or a typical newspaper. I enjoyed that paper moreso than the online edition, but both of them were pretty good.

Which do you prefer? The online edition or the print article?

Click here for the course web page devoted to Cavailer Daily.

After viewing the Harvard News online edition, I had mixed thoughts. First of all, I really enjoyed reviewing and reading it, but I found myself thinking about other things that I had to do in the day.

Is this because of how it reads from one article to another?

The most major issue that I had is how fast the pictures scrolled on the top. I began to read the first caption and the next thing you know is that there was another picture. I had to wait for the first picture to come back in order to finish reading. This was a little frustrating, but not too bad.

I really liked how there were galleries at the end of the newspaper online. I wish there would have been on top because, like most, we are fast visual learners.

Overall, I give it a B, but check out Angela's blog for the C+ rating.

Click here for the course web page devoted to Harvard Crimson.

Josie Rush wrote a blog entry about “A Solid Meh” and it prompted me to inquire how university papers do not always mean that they are the best. I definitely believe that schools are excellent for designing papers and there layouts, but we must consider a multitude of possibilities. I never thought about how article teasers can throw a reader’s mindset out of place or simply distract them from what they were looking for. The Cavalier online publication was an excellent visual pleaser, but the Harvard paper seemed very professional and collegiate. I think that the Cavalier print production was more pleasing than the online addition. One reason is because it looked like a typical newspaper, but with lots of color and clarity. The main point that Josie made me realize is that all online publications whether in print or not, take a lot of work to complete and that is why we have a choice in what we buy and read.

After reading Wendy Scott’s blog entry entitled “What a Waste,” I began to realize how important visuals are to people and achievement. If you want to start a committee, then you will, most likely, create a poster or flyer that you will post where people walk. The same rule applies when trying to get people to clean up the earth and recycle their products after using them. Wendy proposed a simple, but very important question: “What if one day we ran out of landfill space?” Did you ever hear anyone say that we have unlimited landfill space and the answer is no. If we, as a community, start to advertise recycling with a visual aspect, then the message may get across much quicker, than having someone conduct research. Remember that the first ten seconds that you look at a visual is what stays in your mind. Finally, people need to create web sites that focus their attention to younger generations because these people will be the ones who will have to deal with population and the environment.

USA Today

a. A map of the U.S. shows how many cases of the Swine flu have been reported in each state.

Science Today

a. This article includes links that relates to science and third world countries

Medical Insight

a. This slideshow presentation shows the effects, symptoms, and causes of the Swine flu.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention

a. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted audio links about preparing, spreading, and traveling with the flu around you.

"In the 1930s, public skepticism about the press’s ability to cover politics fairly was very high. It reached a peak in the spring of 1939 when 61% said newspapers were unfair in their treatment of political news. That’s not much different from the result obtained by the Pew Research Center in 1997 when 67% said news organizations tend to favor one side in their reporting on political and social issues" (Haiman 65).

After reading this section of Haiman's book, I found the above quote to be extremely important in today's 21st century news reporting industry. I bet that each of you know what type of paper your hometown has - liberal or conservative?

It seems to be amazing that politics have been named for particular papers. I also believe that this is not a good thing because if someone is conservative, then they might not buy a paper that is deemed liberal. Fariness is the right thing to do, but it seems that a reporter may interview more conservative politicans than liberal or the other way around.

Why is the paper unfair when reporting politics?

Has the media influenced the way articles are reported?

In 1939, Haiman said that more than half (about 60%) of the surveryed people said the paper was unfair, but in 1997 more than half (about 70%) said that the paper seemed unfair.

Why has this number increased with the new types of technology that we have available to us?

If the paper seems so unfair, then why do people read it? Is it because if one is conservative, then they will buy a conservative paper and if one is liberal, then they will buy a liberal paper?

Click here for the course web page devoted to Haiman.

I thought that the very beginning of the slideshow was impressive because of how it gave the viewer an option from the start.

I chose Follow the Garbage and it directed me to another web page that was awesome.

I am going to be a teacher next year and I think that this site will be extremely useful when teaching a lesson about landfills, garbage, or recycling. I was also amazed at the videos and graphics because I actually never followed the entire procedure of garbage and where it goes after being picked up from the house.

As for the recyclables, it was impressive how the truck driver didn't even have to get out of the truck because a machine picked up the garbage. I think that this goes to show people how technology is changing and enhancing the way jobs are performed.

I think that a multimedia news feature is extremely important when it comes to teaching a topic (e.g. garbage).

Is a multimedia feature better to use than writing a news article with links?

Click here for the web page devoted to Arizona Star.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) The original books by C.S. Lewis are charming in that wry British way. Some of that charm was preserved in the cinematic version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it was lost near the end of that movie amidst emphasized battle heroics" (Hart).

After reading Underwire Taking the Pulse of Pop Culture Where the Botched Children’s Book Adaptations Are, I thought how important links are in articles because the reader can immediately go to the related information. Do you get upset when you are reading something and there is a reference that you don't know or can't remember?

Well, I think that links are an instant example of receiving feedback about topics, movies, books, or just about anything. An example from this particular article included "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) The original books by C.S. Lewis are charming in that wry British way. Some of that charm was preserved in the cinematic version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it was lost near the end of that movie amidst emphasized battle heroics.

The example above shows you exactly what I mean because the links are already in place by the author and the reader can simply read-click-learn!

Question:

Do you like web links in articles and are they necessary when talking about movies and literature?

Click here for the web page devoted to Wired.