Stuff That I Write About Things

The manual staes that one of the main jobs of a reporter is to “ counteract rumour.” This is a huge aspect of being a reporter that i feel is often overlooked. Most of the time, the news is looked at as a horror movie of sorts, scaring families with exaggerated tales of violence and causing mothers worry about every passtime their child has. however, the minds of the masses can do more with an alleged murder than any reporter could ever dream of. Think of the elaboration on certain happenings just amoung this campus, and then think of the consequences when fraudulnt information is spread throughout an entire community, or even city. Stories, especially those with potentially threatening information, can spread rather quick through the grapevine, and if a legitamate news source doesn't have the actual facts to prove the public wrong, a rumour can wreak havoc on the minds of a community. A lot of the time, the facts are what scares us the most. But occassionally, when a rumour gets taken just a tad too far, we may actually find little bit of solace in the news.

Posted by at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In Chapter four, Cappon basically reinforces the number one pain of newswriting, saying that "Sentences come under special strains in news writing. A lot of facts have to be squeezed into a tight space..." This is absolutely true, and for myself, one of the most frustrating things about creating a legitimate news story. When you're given a maximum amount of space to work with, the facts come first, and the elaboration. It's not easy for a creative writer to arrange facts in the most straight-forward way. With a limited space and an abundance of facts to present to the reader, the news writer is left with almost no room to make the style of the story unique and interesting. Facts are coming first, and adjective's are suffering for it.

Posted by at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sharon Pierce, a fourth year undergraduate student attending Elizabeth Mount College , was struck by a 2004 Ford Taurus, while walking 15 feet north of the crosswalk, leaving her residence of Collins Hall at 8:25 a.m. on Sept. 14.
The driver of the vehicle, Carl Klaushammer, had just picked up a package from the EMC chemistry department and was turning around the east entrance of the Alumni Hall Gallery when Pierce was hit. A first hand witness to the incident, Chief of EMC Security, Robert Chase, reported that a package was taken from the backseat of Klaushammer’s car while he exited the vehicle to check on Pierce.
One of the officers at the scene reported having seen a man running south along College Drive. The man was described as being about 6 feet tall, weighing about 200 pounds and wearing an EMC hoodie. Police began to pursue the suspect, but lost the man in a foot race in a wooded area behind the Chemistry Quad. According to a professor from the chemistry department, the package contained materials that were in route to the Pennsylvania State Museum of Antiquities.
An ambulance was called to the scene of the accident. Pierce was promptly treated on site, having declined transport.
According to Chief Chase, no charges have been filed by any of the parties involved.

Posted by at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The language of journalism makes meaning early.
-Clark & Scanlan pg. 295

I've always been a firm believer of making every word count, and there's really no better example of this in journalism than the first paragraph of an article. Most of the time, 500 words is a lot less than you would think, and if the first hundred words of that don't tell the reader what your trying to say, the next 400 probably wont have a chance. Always open strong. The general public is horribly judgemental whether they have the right to be or not, and if the first lines of an article don't give them what they're looking for, they move on. Cater to reader. If the first paragraph is all that a busy news junkie is going to read of my article, I'm going to make sure it's worth their while.

Posted by at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)