Note: My camera died at the end, which cut out the video.
Dear the rest of my 257 class:
Do not use HP laptops.
You will end up with a lot of problems.
Case in point:
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Inverting in The Sun
Documents suggest police spying earlier than stated
This story is definitely an example of the inverted pyramid structure. It begins with the most important information, adds more details and then ends with other information (human interest, etc.) that adds to the story but isn't necessary to get the core of the story across.
The lead of the article contains all of the most important facts - the who, the what, the when and the where are all there, as well as a big hook. The main body of the story goes into how people and businesses have been investigating into the police force as to whether or not they have been spied on or under surviellance. As the story goes on the audience gets to read some of the more specific details such as what the actual e-mail exchanges were like. The story ends with more specifics about what's going on with the case that help follow up on the main point of the article.
This story is definitely an example of the inverted pyramid structure. It begins with the most important information, adds more details and then ends with other information (human interest, etc.) that adds to the story but isn't necessary to get the core of the story across.
The lead of the article contains all of the most important facts - the who, the what, the when and the where are all there, as well as a big hook. The main body of the story goes into how people and businesses have been investigating into the police force as to whether or not they have been spied on or under surviellance. As the story goes on the audience gets to read some of the more specific details such as what the actual e-mail exchanges were like. The story ends with more specifics about what's going on with the case that help follow up on the main point of the article.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Planning out event coverage
For my first in-class story coverage, I will be attending the "One Maryland, One Book" speaker on Thursday, September 25. The speaker is Cedric Jennings, the subject of nationally best-selling book "A Hope in the Unseen."
The advance information about the event is really just who is speaking and where the event is going to be. Not a whole lot to go on, but I plan on researching the book to better prepare myself.
My main sources will be the people at Cook Library who are helping to sponsor the event. I'll be in touch with them in the next couple of days. I'll also try to talk to Jennings himself briefly after the event.
I haven't quite narrowed down what questions I'm going to ask - I rarely ever write out exactly what I'm going to ask an interview subject simply because not every interview plays out how I want it to. I'll simply try to touch on some subjects, such as what it's like to have a book written about you, what it's like to go and speak to a college audience or how Jennings' Towson experience has been. I also plan on talking to people attending the event and get their views on how the book is and how they thought the speaker was.
As far as additional details, I need to pay attention to the event itself and anything out of the ordinary that may happen.
The advance information about the event is really just who is speaking and where the event is going to be. Not a whole lot to go on, but I plan on researching the book to better prepare myself.
My main sources will be the people at Cook Library who are helping to sponsor the event. I'll be in touch with them in the next couple of days. I'll also try to talk to Jennings himself briefly after the event.
I haven't quite narrowed down what questions I'm going to ask - I rarely ever write out exactly what I'm going to ask an interview subject simply because not every interview plays out how I want it to. I'll simply try to touch on some subjects, such as what it's like to have a book written about you, what it's like to go and speak to a college audience or how Jennings' Towson experience has been. I also plan on talking to people attending the event and get their views on how the book is and how they thought the speaker was.
As far as additional details, I need to pay attention to the event itself and anything out of the ordinary that may happen.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The proper way to Tweet
I picked three different Twitters at random - Blake's, Cory's, and Steven's. Blake is the only one who actually had all three 1-2-3 filing assignments done, so I'll start with one of his I liked.
His headline, "Towson goes green this semester," is somewhat misleading to the story. It doesn't mention the recycling plan, which is the main focus of the story. It also can be read as Towson University implimenting a green plan starting this semester, where in fact the school has had its "Go Green" iniative going for quite some time.
Blake's Twitter.
Steven's headline, "Higher education receives budget cut; Towson affected," is an excellent example. It shows the main focus of the story - how the University System of Maryland is dealing with a budget crisis - while immediately relating it to the people reading it (Towson University students).
Steven's Twitter.
Cory also had a good headline for the same story, which was "Budget cuts lead to hiring freeze at Towson University." It's a standard news lead and jumps straight to the point, which is that Towson is a part of the system-wide hiring freeze.
These, and other student Twitter headlines, are a good way to get attention to a story that may need it.
Cory's Twitter.
His headline, "Towson goes green this semester," is somewhat misleading to the story. It doesn't mention the recycling plan, which is the main focus of the story. It also can be read as Towson University implimenting a green plan starting this semester, where in fact the school has had its "Go Green" iniative going for quite some time.
Blake's Twitter.
Steven's headline, "Higher education receives budget cut; Towson affected," is an excellent example. It shows the main focus of the story - how the University System of Maryland is dealing with a budget crisis - while immediately relating it to the people reading it (Towson University students).
Steven's Twitter.
Cory also had a good headline for the same story, which was "Budget cuts lead to hiring freeze at Towson University." It's a standard news lead and jumps straight to the point, which is that Towson is a part of the system-wide hiring freeze.
These, and other student Twitter headlines, are a good way to get attention to a story that may need it.
Cory's Twitter.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Press releases vs. original reporting
Original reporting:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-target0916,0,7555378.story
Target gives city $300,000
This is a prime example of original reporting. Though the original announcement may have been sent as a press release, the story was definately generated by the name on the article - Justin Fenton. He appears to have been at the scene of the public announcement as evident by the quotes present in the piece and the details he included on the event. A press release would not have gone into that kind of detail.
Press release:
MASN to launch HD channel
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-masn916,0,6590399.story
Okay, I guess I'm honking my own horn here with the MASN story, but can you really blame me? It still applies to a press release-generated article.
The piece is short and to the point with only one quote. The quote is from the spokesperson, and was probably pulled from the release itself (it's very official-sounding and public-relations sounding, too). It doesn't include any information on why the station decided to expand (though I guess I could find that out myself when I go into work on Thursday), how they plan to expand ot any of that other information you'd see in an original report. The whole thing is "Hey, we're expanding!" and little else.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-target0916,0,7555378.story
Target gives city $300,000
This is a prime example of original reporting. Though the original announcement may have been sent as a press release, the story was definately generated by the name on the article - Justin Fenton. He appears to have been at the scene of the public announcement as evident by the quotes present in the piece and the details he included on the event. A press release would not have gone into that kind of detail.
Press release:
MASN to launch HD channel
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-masn916,0,6590399.story
Okay, I guess I'm honking my own horn here with the MASN story, but can you really blame me? It still applies to a press release-generated article.
The piece is short and to the point with only one quote. The quote is from the spokesperson, and was probably pulled from the release itself (it's very official-sounding and public-relations sounding, too). It doesn't include any information on why the station decided to expand (though I guess I could find that out myself when I go into work on Thursday), how they plan to expand ot any of that other information you'd see in an original report. The whole thing is "Hey, we're expanding!" and little else.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Examples of leads and short reports from the NY Times.
LEAD:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/business/15lehman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
"In one of the most extraordinary days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch is near an 11th-hour deal with Bank of America to avert a deepening financial crisis while another storied securities firm, Lehman Brothers, hurtled toward liquidation, according to people briefed on the deal."
This is a summary lead because it contains most of the five W's/H. It also is written to grab the reader's attention without really telling the entire story - though it tells most of it - Lynch is closing in on a deal with Bank of America while other companies are nearing the end of their line. It makes for a good story, and a good lead.
SHORT REPORT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/europe/15russia.html?hp
"MOSCOW – An Aeroflot flight crashed in a central Russian city on Sunday shortly before landing, killing all 88 passengers and crew on board, officials said."
This is a short report because it's essentially something you'd see on a crawler on CNN or MSNBC. It gives you the time, the date, what happened and where it happened in one concise sentance, which is characteristic of short reports. It also works well as a short newspaper brief, which is really what it's being used for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/business/15lehman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
"In one of the most extraordinary days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch is near an 11th-hour deal with Bank of America to avert a deepening financial crisis while another storied securities firm, Lehman Brothers, hurtled toward liquidation, according to people briefed on the deal."
This is a summary lead because it contains most of the five W's/H. It also is written to grab the reader's attention without really telling the entire story - though it tells most of it - Lynch is closing in on a deal with Bank of America while other companies are nearing the end of their line. It makes for a good story, and a good lead.
SHORT REPORT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/europe/15russia.html?hp
"MOSCOW – An Aeroflot flight crashed in a central Russian city on Sunday shortly before landing, killing all 88 passengers and crew on board, officials said."
This is a short report because it's essentially something you'd see on a crawler on CNN or MSNBC. It gives you the time, the date, what happened and where it happened in one concise sentance, which is characteristic of short reports. It also works well as a short newspaper brief, which is really what it's being used for.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
#3
I can't use the writing tips discussed in class, considering we didn't discuss writing tips in class, but I'll do my best to make this a coherent blog post.
PS: I don't know how to make these links work. I'll work on it.
Fire destroys city playground:
The impact of this piece is pretty strong - a playground that was built though money that was raised by a long fundraising period is pretty tragic to begin with, but the fact that it was on the site of old Memorial Stadium (a place many, many Orioles' fans have a strong attachment to) only adds to that. What could happen as a result of this impact would be another strong effort to raise funds to either repair or replace the playground.
The conflict is pretty obvious, considering there was a fire resulting in the destruction of the playground.
It's a timely story because the fire took place just earlier today. Pretty good turn-around for a story.
This story has pretty good proximity, too - it happened in the city, where the paper is located and where a lot of its readers live. If the same thing had happened around D.C., it wouldn't have been reported in the Sun.
This is also a pretty big human interest story, due to the fact that it can evoke a lot of emotion and sympathy for the neighborhood and the people who are effected by the fire.
Loewen takes stride at being a hitter:
The impact of this story is mostly on fans of Loewen and of the Orioles. Obviously, people who aren't terribly interested in sports or baseball aren't really going to be drawn to this.
The prominence of it is pretty good, considering it's covering a major league baseball player. The attention Loewen is drawing is well-deserved and I don't consider it overblown.
This story also has a bit of unusualness to it. It's not every day you hear about a fallen pitcher deciding to come back and learn to bat - much less an American League pitcher. The fact that Loewen has chosen to fight it out and stick around and learn to become a better hitter is almost unheard of. Most guys would just take the rest of the money from their contract and wave goodbye to Major League Baseball.
It also has a bit of currency, but that's mostly because the Orioles are consistently in the news and this story is a bit of a follow-up on Loewen's previous injury.
Md. faces revenue shortfall of $432 million:
This story has pretty much everything needed to be considered news-worthy. Its impact is pretty huge and can be felt by the reader by just the headline - but it continues and gets even bigger as the person reads on to nothing but more bad news for the state of Maryland.
The conflict is how budget cuts are about to happen across the entire state, so that's pretty easy to see as well.
The story is timely because this is a current event - it's happening right now and will continue to happen for the forseeable future.
Obviously, the proximity is because this is happening in Maryland. Any other state and it wouldn't show up in the Baltimore newspaper.
PS: I don't know how to make these links work. I'll work on it.
Fire destroys city playground:
The impact of this piece is pretty strong - a playground that was built though money that was raised by a long fundraising period is pretty tragic to begin with, but the fact that it was on the site of old Memorial Stadium (a place many, many Orioles' fans have a strong attachment to) only adds to that. What could happen as a result of this impact would be another strong effort to raise funds to either repair or replace the playground.
The conflict is pretty obvious, considering there was a fire resulting in the destruction of the playground.
It's a timely story because the fire took place just earlier today. Pretty good turn-around for a story.
This story has pretty good proximity, too - it happened in the city, where the paper is located and where a lot of its readers live. If the same thing had happened around D.C., it wouldn't have been reported in the Sun.
This is also a pretty big human interest story, due to the fact that it can evoke a lot of emotion and sympathy for the neighborhood and the people who are effected by the fire.
Loewen takes stride at being a hitter:
The impact of this story is mostly on fans of Loewen and of the Orioles. Obviously, people who aren't terribly interested in sports or baseball aren't really going to be drawn to this.
The prominence of it is pretty good, considering it's covering a major league baseball player. The attention Loewen is drawing is well-deserved and I don't consider it overblown.
This story also has a bit of unusualness to it. It's not every day you hear about a fallen pitcher deciding to come back and learn to bat - much less an American League pitcher. The fact that Loewen has chosen to fight it out and stick around and learn to become a better hitter is almost unheard of. Most guys would just take the rest of the money from their contract and wave goodbye to Major League Baseball.
It also has a bit of currency, but that's mostly because the Orioles are consistently in the news and this story is a bit of a follow-up on Loewen's previous injury.
Md. faces revenue shortfall of $432 million:
This story has pretty much everything needed to be considered news-worthy. Its impact is pretty huge and can be felt by the reader by just the headline - but it continues and gets even bigger as the person reads on to nothing but more bad news for the state of Maryland.
The conflict is how budget cuts are about to happen across the entire state, so that's pretty easy to see as well.
The story is timely because this is a current event - it's happening right now and will continue to happen for the forseeable future.
Obviously, the proximity is because this is happening in Maryland. Any other state and it wouldn't show up in the Baltimore newspaper.
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