Well I'm taking a class on this next semester, so I suppose all the readings here are going to be good preparation. There's a wide array of readings for this week actually, so I'll list them here and give a few comments on each.
Textbook: I read chapter 23 which deals with ethics. I highlights and describes some of the needs for ethical journalism, as well as some problems that may arise for the modern reporter. The needs include responsibility, Freedom of the Press, independence, sincerety/truthfulness/accuracy, impartiality, fair play, and decency. There is also a few universal tools that journalists use such as the Potter Box to determine where to draw the line for situations, values, and loyalties. Some of the ethical problems for reporters were deceit, conflicts of interest, friendship, payola, freebies, ad pressure, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, and withholding information. The last one was a very interesting read, as many different historical dillemas have yielded many different results.
New York Magazine: I read an online article about the changing patterns of news delivery and technology. The author argued that newsrooms were putting almost all of their newspaper content online- both in printed and news package form- and rivaling the content of television news networks. The article says that the focus of these newspaper sites (NYT and WP in particular) are still to find the news, but the on-air reporting guidelines are so much more linient that reporters have much more freedom and can create a news package with much more depth than a network presentation. I'm not sure if these online video offerings wil lever eclipse the television broadcasts as our main news venues, but there is definitley a growing following of these sources.
tojou.blogspot.com: Yep, I'm blogging about a blog. This specific entry discusses another article written by a reporter about a veteran TV reporter. I think that makes this...a 4th person account. Anyway, here's some of the strong points. The veteran reporter has covered stories for over 3 decades, and still has the drive to find unique stories and specific information that makes his work enjoyable to the audience. His tools for doing this great work include preparation, curiosity, details, and awareness. They use a good "State fair" example to highlight the importance of finding a good story, and not just the 'ho-hum' report on what happened at an event. This comes in handy when on the scene doing a report. You never know what you'll run into, and you always need to be ready to cover the biggest, most unique, or rarest story that arises.
www.cjr.org: The title of this article is "What Journalism Can't Do." It said nothing about not being able to make me millions of dollars, so that was a good first step. It did discuss though, the "psychic numbing" that effects people when faced with an uncountable number of deaths or tragic events. It relates to a person feeling devastated for one person's death or tribulations, but being able to be less affected (or connected to) a widespread problem. The professor who did this study suggests that journalism cannot do much to rouse up the public and solicit action in these large-scale situations, it can only inform and hope that legal and institutional mechanisms can enforce laws and solve problems. The article closes by saying that "Journalism can make a difference, but it cannot make all the difference." Fair enough.
cyberjournalist.net: Well the title of the site pretty much says it all. This article was basically a rundown of all the different tools that make online journalism unique and handy. It apparently was the first document of hits kind to do just a comprehensive storytelling analysis, and the suggestions it gives are used by both independent and network websites. The site lists these facets to assist in online reporting: Use print to explain, use multimedia to show, and use interactives to demonstrate and engage. Here is the breakdown of some information that can be layered on an online news article.
Print (the raw story)
Clickable Interactives (highlight specifics)
Slideshows (presenting multiple images)
Audio Stories (powerful descriptions)
Narrated Slideshows
Live Chats (Q&A sessions)
Quizzes and Surveys (public opinion on topic)
Animated Stories (visual aid without photos or video)
Interactive Webcasts & Streams
Multimedia Interactives (hybrids)
Well that about covers it. This week's readings furthered my knowledge on ethics, technology, and the different techniques and processes to create a good story in print, on air, and online. This will probably prove to be good help for me at NewsWatch, and maybe even for the final too.
Monday, November 26, 2007
CNN meets YouTube
Never thought you'd hear that one...but it's happening. The CNN-YouTube Debate is happening this Wednesday is St. Petersburg, Florida, and it's gonna be something new and exciting for both the Republicans involved, and the nation as a whole.
Sources have said that the questions submitted will cover many wide ranges, and be funny, poignant, tough, and anywhere in between. The questions have all been submitted by YouTube users, and selected to show the candidates' many differences in opinion and policy. The exceptional part of the debate is that the YouTube users will be displayed on a large screen for the candidates to see, so public participation will be one of the driving forces at this event.
This process is not only a huge step for technology, but also it is very big for presidential elections. With the population able to contribute so greatly in such a widely broadcasted hearing, candidates will be paying much more attention to their constituents then that have in the past. No one may know what questions to expect, but the viewers and participants can all be sure that this will be a debate that will be historically remembered, and electronically innovative.
Sources have said that the questions submitted will cover many wide ranges, and be funny, poignant, tough, and anywhere in between. The questions have all been submitted by YouTube users, and selected to show the candidates' many differences in opinion and policy. The exceptional part of the debate is that the YouTube users will be displayed on a large screen for the candidates to see, so public participation will be one of the driving forces at this event.
This process is not only a huge step for technology, but also it is very big for presidential elections. With the population able to contribute so greatly in such a widely broadcasted hearing, candidates will be paying much more attention to their constituents then that have in the past. No one may know what questions to expect, but the viewers and participants can all be sure that this will be a debate that will be historically remembered, and electronically innovative.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Readings 11
Actually, just one reading this week. Chapter 19 in the text book, to be exact. And this chapter focus on my bread-and-butter, Television and Radio writing. Now, I'm a journalism major and not a TV/R guy, but broadcast is my thing and from my work at ICTV, I know a thing or two about the subject. With that in mind, I'll probably add my two cents here and there from NewsWatch producing on the commentary and insight that the book provides.
They say that a half-hour news program only covers the same number of words as one-half of a newspaper's front page. This may be true, but since each story only gets about 30 seconds devoted to it, the content is much more diverse. There are many things to consider when making a story for TV/Radio* rather than just a printed copy. (*Note: I'm a TV guy, so from here on out I'll probably just say TV instead of TV/Radio.)
1. Timeliness: Many papers come out once a week, or report on events happening within the month or future things, but TV is so immediate that CNN and other news networks can air a story as they happen, and not just report on a past event. This also means that if one story is covered for one day (like when the actress who played the Yellow Power Ranger died on September 10, 2001) and something happens the next day, TV stations will quickly pick up the "new news" and leave the rest for the back pages of papers and online sites. Even if something older is covered on TV, writers wil ltry to add and update or sence of urgency to keep the viewer thinking that its still important content.
2. Information: Not really that big to TV people, since like I said earlier not much time is devoted to each story. For long-report TV shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20, in-depth and investigative info is good, but for normal "readers" (30-second stories) the "big news" of the story is much more important that the background.
3. Audio or Visual Impact. This is a big one, especially for me at NewsWatch 16. What it comes down to is that you dont want to sit there and read the newspaper to the viewer, you want to offer something more, like footage of new construction, or a taped quote from a local politician. Sure, you can say what they said, or describe what something looks like, but so can newspapers. With so much technology available to TV/R newsrooms, they need to take advantage of it to captivate their audiences.
4. People. Kinda goes with number 3, but it's a little more specific. Instead of just reporting on an event, or accident, or decision, try and find a person (or "face") to follow throughout the ordeal. This gives the viewer someone to identify with, and gives you something to film, interview and add depth to any story.
The chapter also goes over some smaller things that are important to TVR news production. One example is reading what you write, which reinforces the conversational style of the boradcast. Since anchors will be reading the stories out loud, its good practice to...practice so that the tone of the anchor will be informative, not confused. It's also good to add pronounciations of long or diffucult words, and lead-ins & wrap-ups to give a little background to reports.
A lot of the scripting techniques are complicated, but if you use a program like ENPS then the formatting is built-in. Working at ICTV has definately futhered my knowledge on a lot of topics that are covered in the book, and often I felt like while I was reading, I was listening to my producers from freshman year tell me about how to prepare my stories. Well now I'M the producer, so hopefully I don't mess any of these techniques up.
They say that a half-hour news program only covers the same number of words as one-half of a newspaper's front page. This may be true, but since each story only gets about 30 seconds devoted to it, the content is much more diverse. There are many things to consider when making a story for TV/Radio* rather than just a printed copy. (*Note: I'm a TV guy, so from here on out I'll probably just say TV instead of TV/Radio.)
1. Timeliness: Many papers come out once a week, or report on events happening within the month or future things, but TV is so immediate that CNN and other news networks can air a story as they happen, and not just report on a past event. This also means that if one story is covered for one day (like when the actress who played the Yellow Power Ranger died on September 10, 2001) and something happens the next day, TV stations will quickly pick up the "new news" and leave the rest for the back pages of papers and online sites. Even if something older is covered on TV, writers wil ltry to add and update or sence of urgency to keep the viewer thinking that its still important content.
2. Information: Not really that big to TV people, since like I said earlier not much time is devoted to each story. For long-report TV shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20, in-depth and investigative info is good, but for normal "readers" (30-second stories) the "big news" of the story is much more important that the background.
3. Audio or Visual Impact. This is a big one, especially for me at NewsWatch 16. What it comes down to is that you dont want to sit there and read the newspaper to the viewer, you want to offer something more, like footage of new construction, or a taped quote from a local politician. Sure, you can say what they said, or describe what something looks like, but so can newspapers. With so much technology available to TV/R newsrooms, they need to take advantage of it to captivate their audiences.
4. People. Kinda goes with number 3, but it's a little more specific. Instead of just reporting on an event, or accident, or decision, try and find a person (or "face") to follow throughout the ordeal. This gives the viewer someone to identify with, and gives you something to film, interview and add depth to any story.
The chapter also goes over some smaller things that are important to TVR news production. One example is reading what you write, which reinforces the conversational style of the boradcast. Since anchors will be reading the stories out loud, its good practice to...practice so that the tone of the anchor will be informative, not confused. It's also good to add pronounciations of long or diffucult words, and lead-ins & wrap-ups to give a little background to reports.
A lot of the scripting techniques are complicated, but if you use a program like ENPS then the formatting is built-in. Working at ICTV has definately futhered my knowledge on a lot of topics that are covered in the book, and often I felt like while I was reading, I was listening to my producers from freshman year tell me about how to prepare my stories. Well now I'M the producer, so hopefully I don't mess any of these techniques up.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Bush Who?
John McCain is a smart man, and this article proves it. Sure, he may have over-the-top feelings on the war, may be too old to round up the demographic votes he needs, and too deadset on his ideas to give the people what they want, but he does know how to do one thing: avoid EVER talking about President Bush.
Now as a Republican, it's probably pretty hard to stand in front of lecture halls and polical meetings and not feel like the world is on your shoulders and your party is to blame for what's happened in the last decade. Why? Because you probably are. But while some show their party devotion by siding with their Presidential leader and keeping in line with his decisions, McCain is doing whatever he can to dissociate himself from the lowest approval rating since Richard Nixon.
Now keep in mind, McCain isn't DISAGREEING with the President, he is just DISTANCING himself from the President. There's a big difference. McCain believes in the Republican strategies and subscribes to the "No Surrender" and "Stay the Course" mottos of the party, he just doesn't believe that Bush's name needs to be attached to all of these Republican ideals. And it's working out pretty good for him.
Instead of saying that he sides with George Bush, McCain is now saying in speeches that he sides with General Petreaus. Same ideals, different name. It makes sense to put the military in a larger light though, considering the nation's biggest questions in 2008 will probably have something to do with the war(s) and international relations.
And who would be the perfect man to guide the nation in wartimes such as this? Why a military man of course! Mr. McCain seems to be doing all he can to set himself up as the perfect successor to the right-wing, gung-ho, no-surrender presidency. If the public catches on, his little plan just might work.
Now as a Republican, it's probably pretty hard to stand in front of lecture halls and polical meetings and not feel like the world is on your shoulders and your party is to blame for what's happened in the last decade. Why? Because you probably are. But while some show their party devotion by siding with their Presidential leader and keeping in line with his decisions, McCain is doing whatever he can to dissociate himself from the lowest approval rating since Richard Nixon.
Now keep in mind, McCain isn't DISAGREEING with the President, he is just DISTANCING himself from the President. There's a big difference. McCain believes in the Republican strategies and subscribes to the "No Surrender" and "Stay the Course" mottos of the party, he just doesn't believe that Bush's name needs to be attached to all of these Republican ideals. And it's working out pretty good for him.
Instead of saying that he sides with George Bush, McCain is now saying in speeches that he sides with General Petreaus. Same ideals, different name. It makes sense to put the military in a larger light though, considering the nation's biggest questions in 2008 will probably have something to do with the war(s) and international relations.
And who would be the perfect man to guide the nation in wartimes such as this? Why a military man of course! Mr. McCain seems to be doing all he can to set himself up as the perfect successor to the right-wing, gung-ho, no-surrender presidency. If the public catches on, his little plan just might work.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Readings #10, Post #20
Well its almost Thanksgiving time, but there's still a few weeks left to follow elections and learn new journalistic techiques. The latter of these two will be discusses today, using both an online aid and of course the textbook.
The online helper that I tried out over the weekend was ire.org, which is the home page for the Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. Different pages, such as the "Extra Extra" section and archive listings have great resources for all kinds of journalists- reporters, reserchers, editors- and they are all pretty simple to navigate. The best page is the Initial Search Beat page where you can select at category and topic, and search the enitre database and externam sites for information about almost every topic. I search hurricanes in the Environment category and was pointed right to the National Hurricane Center, which has pretty much all the information you could ever want on the topic.
The textbook also ties some of these strategies in Chapter 18, which covers the broad subject of investigative reporting. A few terms like the opening hypothesis and the hard lead delivery are pretty easy to identify, but the book also defines the "sniff" stage of a report. The sniff is the reporter who noses around (get it) in search of a trail that leads you in the direction to find answers. Like a hunting dog, only instead of trying to shooting a buck, you're trying to make a buck (I'll be here all week). After a story is sniffed out, the real work begins. Like many other stories, interviews and research are key to finding the big news, and making sure every last detail is as accurate as possible. If human sources are used correctly as experts and eyewitnesses, written sources are made less dull and provide the hard facts, and the internet is utilized to its fullest extent to research background information, investigative reports will be both insightful to the readers, and rewarding to the writers.
The online helper that I tried out over the weekend was ire.org, which is the home page for the Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. Different pages, such as the "Extra Extra" section and archive listings have great resources for all kinds of journalists- reporters, reserchers, editors- and they are all pretty simple to navigate. The best page is the Initial Search Beat page where you can select at category and topic, and search the enitre database and externam sites for information about almost every topic. I search hurricanes in the Environment category and was pointed right to the National Hurricane Center, which has pretty much all the information you could ever want on the topic.
The textbook also ties some of these strategies in Chapter 18, which covers the broad subject of investigative reporting. A few terms like the opening hypothesis and the hard lead delivery are pretty easy to identify, but the book also defines the "sniff" stage of a report. The sniff is the reporter who noses around (get it) in search of a trail that leads you in the direction to find answers. Like a hunting dog, only instead of trying to shooting a buck, you're trying to make a buck (I'll be here all week). After a story is sniffed out, the real work begins. Like many other stories, interviews and research are key to finding the big news, and making sure every last detail is as accurate as possible. If human sources are used correctly as experts and eyewitnesses, written sources are made less dull and provide the hard facts, and the internet is utilized to its fullest extent to research background information, investigative reports will be both insightful to the readers, and rewarding to the writers.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Hillary Hilarity
NOTE: The title of this post may or may not fully apply to this story, but I thought it was catchy so it's staying.
Ok, so I was parusing the CNN Political Blogs today and found a pretty interesting story from the Blue camp. John Edwards, former senator and former loser to Dick Cheney for VP has apparently been against Clinton's presidenial bid for a little while now, and he's released several statements about her candidacy.
First, he said that Hillary should be treated no differently in the race because she is a [the only] woman in the field.
The week after, his said that Hillary is using her...womanliness?...to be "the strong woman ready to lead" for one minute, then the next minute becomming "the woman under attack, disingenuously playing the victim card" and avoiding hard questions thrown her way.
Is she doing this? Maybe, but the more all-encompasing question is how her being a woman is really effecting this election as a whole. She has the attribute that no other candidate has, and while it may help her in places like her all-girls alma mater Wellesly College, the odds of influencing all women to vote for her is slim.
I, for one, have this theory: Americans love cool records being broken, history being made, and being able to say "we were there." People will always remember 9/11, and maybe even Katrina depending on where they were, but what better thing to be alive for than to see the first female (or black) president. If Clinton or Obama earn the Democrats' backing for the White House bid, they may not want to rest solely on their unique gender or race, but it may just be the trait that puts their chances over the rest.
Ok, so I was parusing the CNN Political Blogs today and found a pretty interesting story from the Blue camp. John Edwards, former senator and former loser to Dick Cheney for VP has apparently been against Clinton's presidenial bid for a little while now, and he's released several statements about her candidacy.
First, he said that Hillary should be treated no differently in the race because she is a [the only] woman in the field.
The week after, his said that Hillary is using her...womanliness?...to be "the strong woman ready to lead" for one minute, then the next minute becomming "the woman under attack, disingenuously playing the victim card" and avoiding hard questions thrown her way.
Is she doing this? Maybe, but the more all-encompasing question is how her being a woman is really effecting this election as a whole. She has the attribute that no other candidate has, and while it may help her in places like her all-girls alma mater Wellesly College, the odds of influencing all women to vote for her is slim.
I, for one, have this theory: Americans love cool records being broken, history being made, and being able to say "we were there." People will always remember 9/11, and maybe even Katrina depending on where they were, but what better thing to be alive for than to see the first female (or black) president. If Clinton or Obama earn the Democrats' backing for the White House bid, they may not want to rest solely on their unique gender or race, but it may just be the trait that puts their chances over the rest.
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