JaraWhite

I have to say I was certainly surprised, when our very own president walked into class on Wed. Probably because minutes before a few classmates and myself were having one of those "imagine she came in" conversations, and she actually did. I was nervous at first, and I think we all were if the akwardness of the first few minutes was any indication. I spent most of that time turning questions around in my head, testing which ones sounded legit and smart. I did get one good question in, and I'm quite proud of myself for that. However, I was cut off by a couple of people,whenever I would go to raise my hand, which I'm not mad about. I thought it was a good learning expierence because in a real situation their will be cut-throat reporters trying to get there quote and I'm going to have to step it up if I wanna play the game.

It is no secret, that we all enjoy reading something that's entertaining, well atleast I do. As a writer I like to write things that will entertain people. However, as a journalist I won't necessarily have that option. Sure their are entertainment sections and magazines, but when dealing with hard news articles, you're not writing to entertain, you're writing to inform.

News accounts, as we stated above, should aim for truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth--not the excitement, the whole excitement, and nothing but the excitement. (pp. 53)

 As we've disscussed in class you have to remain objective, and that means viewing a strory from both sides, or from however many sides there are. We don't have the luxury not to, our careers and reputations, depend on how "truthful" we report stories.

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In reading chapter 1 of IANS I have to say I'm somewhat shocked, but really just disappointed in the news writing world.

As we have argued elsewhere, the media's coverage of AIDS has tended (to reverse the words of songwriter Johnny Mercer) to 'accentuate the negative' and 'eliminate the positive.' As a result, many inherently newsworthy findings about AIDS have not in fact become actual news.

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From reading Stephanie Wytovich’s blog entitled Think, or be burned by the consequences, it managed to re-establish what I had said in my own blog, about carefully choosing your words.

What I really got out of these chapters are that words tell, and you don’t need a lot of them to do the job. Pick wisely, and pick those with meaning.

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I found Chapters 1 and 2 of AP’s Gide to News Writing to be informative. From reading the chapters, what struck me, was that journalism seems to be asking you to throw away everything you’ve been told about writing, with the exception of basic rules. In a quote from E.B. White in which he says,

An adjective habit, or a wordy, flowery, diffuse habit, once fastened upon a person is as hard to get rid of as any other vice (pg 13)

If ever I had a vice, I would say that was it. I’ve always thought it was better to describe everything with flowery words. To my mind set it made papers better, made them more colorful, and interesting to read. I’ve gathered from the book that it’s most certainly not true at least to a certain extent. I think one of the hardest tasks I have ahead of me in journalism will be cutting out the fluff.

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/teaching/EL227/2007/09/ap_writers_handbook_tba_1.php

When I entered newswriting, I don't think I had any clue what I was in for. I thought it would be easy, I'd get to see what it was like to be a news reporter, and decide whether or not I wanted to spend the rest of my life, writing articles. Well, we all know the rule about assuming things. Newswriting is so much more then I ever thought it was. I was excited about being the voice of the people, but what that really meant was now I get to tell the world how "I feel". Frankly that's not what newswriting is about. I have had to and still am learning about how to seperate myself from my articles. It's no longer what does Jara think? rather its about getting information out to the public, so that they can form their own opinions, and make informed decisions.

• What I have provided is a taste to what I have learned and discovered so far into the world of newswriting. Please be kind I'm still finding my way

This blog was in fact a reflection on one of our first readings, and it was when I really became aware of what I was  getting myself into so to speak

The next one was when I realized the precision in which we have to choose words as journalist, and how frustrating and daunting that can become- here it is

This blog was also a reflection, it is a response to the former blog,which was on the same readings. I had found similarities in a peers blog, in relation to what I had written in my own- here it is

• Next is a link to some of my peer's blog entries, in which I left comments:

Madelyn Gillespie

Vanessa Kolberg 

Jacquelyn Johns

• Here are some entires that I feel go in depth; meaning I ask questions, and just really try to engage in the reading or whatever it is I happend to be blogging about:

Naming rape victims in this blog I know there were people who disagreed with me, and I can understand their reasoning. However, what I was trying to say was, if naming a rape victim will help people learn not to condemn those who have been victimized, and learn to support them and help them instead, then maybe we should do it. But only with explicit permission from the victim.

Video Spoofs this blog was about the two video spoofs we watched in class, and my perspective on the message behind them.

• Timeliness- here are the blogs that i completed 24hrs before class, which was pretty much most of them.

On time 1

On time 2

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I thought the video clips we watched in class were hilarious. They were your typical Saturday Night Live spoof, that we have all come to know and love. However, what was sorta unfunny was how close they were to the truth. I am someone whose interested in going into news broadcasting, but I'm not someone who interested in regergitating facts ever night. I think TV networks should take the public more seriously, and try to engage our intelligence. People want to know what is going on in the world, well at least I hope they do. So why are they feeding us info, as if we're to slow to comprehend it. Now to be fair, a part of it is the publics fault. Would they constantly be running stories on Britney Spears and Paris Hilton if we didn't demand it? Most likely not.

for your entertainment