A Well-Rounded View on a News Reporter's Life

Portfolio #2:

After creating my first Newswriting blog portfolio, I knew that I was learning what a news reporter does each and every day. Each entry was submitted in a very early manner and contained depth, coverage, and discussion.

I always wanted to know how to write a crime report because they seemed so detailed and academically pleasing. I knew there would be one problem that involved the victim of the crime and the police always say Run Quickly, But You Can't Hide. This article created some lengthy discussion and prompted me to respond in order to let my classmates know that there comments were read and well-thought out. In order to gain some understanding in this area, I responded to April's blog entry entitled Questions which presented me with the idea of writing only the necessary words and to not write something twice in order to fill space - this would be called filler. Angela's blog entry entitled Abducted by Aliens concluded as a comment informative. This entry made me re-consider how important it is to only write the facts, when it comes to crime reports, because the reader can quickly conclude that someone was guilty by their style of writing.

The next step that I took in understanding crime reports was studying how one is written and what it involves and I knew that There Is a Manual for Everything. This blog entry describes how a crime article and/or report can make some readers feel uncomfortable and worry if that particular crime will occur in there neighborhood. Richelle and Aja both commented about how a crime becomes more worrisome when the fear is close by instead of in the distance. Matt Henderson wrote a blog entitled Wait a Minute, the Writers Actually Got Off Their Butts and Went Somewhere and this entry made me realize how an article can revovle around people instead of an event or place. Matt, Dr. Jerz, and myself had a discussion and this resulted in a comment grande because of how much discussion we had.

The next important step in learning about Newswriting was to pitch my own story and this resulted in an article about the preparations of Homecoming and how the economic downturn has caused an impact on the campus and the way it conducts events. I had to interview several faculty, staff, and employees in order to gain an understanding of how the event was prepared. Overall, I learned that an article, of any length, takes great detail and time in order get the appropriate quotes and information. It makes a student, like myself, wonder how breaking news articles get published so quickly. After writing this article, I began to compose a sample spot news blog about two articles where news reporters actually traveled to the attraction. In both cases, there was Economic Devastation and Cash for Clunkers because these articles talked about issues affecting community events, but there was a larger issue at heart - the enivornment?

After completing several real-life articles, it was now time to return to Cappon's book and a Blunt News Article. Cappon's book has many real-life and current, in the past several years, articles and this makes for a good read while learning about how to write a news article. Cappon points out, in the text, certain features such as emotion, word choice, opinion and description. In return, Jenn Prex wrote about Careful Wording and how news writing vocab and an article are similar in a variety of ways. Jenn discussed the use of "alleged" in an article and how one mistake can set someone, possibly, free.

Finally, I will conclude this portfolio with a blog entry about the Importance of Information at a Glance. In this entry, I examined The Chicago Tribune and The Daily News. This blog of mine attracted several comments, grande and informative, and made Angela write her reflection on it because it contained so many ideas about the newspaper color and layout. You wouldn't believe how important color is! Jenn's entry entitled Eye Catcher and Angela's I Like Me Some Color made me be the first comment in which a discussion was gathered. Anglea's entry was so informative that I wrote a reflection on The News and Color.

My wildcard entry is The Importance of Information at a Glance because of how much in-depth discussion and interaction it resulted in. I learned a lot from my peers as a result of this entry and it made Angela write a reflection on it also entitled Derek Brings Up a Good Point.

Also, I composed a reflection for each assigned text item throughout this portfolio and the previous one. They include Emotion vs. Academic Words, An Article with a Connection, and Words are Worth a Million Words. All of these reflections link to peers in the class who contributed to my learning throughout the past few weeks in class.

Finally, each student was required to complete a news cycle. Each student had to find two breaking news articles and continually check to see if they got updated. One of my articles was about the budget crisis and another was about a woman who abused animals. The budget crisis has had several updates since the breaking news, but the animal article only had the initial article and a second lead. Please refer to Breaking News: State Budget Crisis in order to see how I tracked each entry throughout a couple of days.

Once again, all of my blogs covered the assigned material, contain depth, prompt interaction, spark discussion, and were all submitted in a timely manner. I look forward to the second half of this Newswriting course because I have already learned a great amount of news law and production. Please refer to my portfolio 1, A Journalistic View on Life, for some previous input and a variety of topics.

Click here for the course web page.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Derek Tickle published on October 5, 2009 5:56 PM.

The News and Color was the previous entry in this blog.

Breaking News: State Budget Crisis is the next entry in this blog.

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