. . . because it never hurts to get extra credit:
FOR GETTING AN OUT-OF-CLASS STORY PUBLISHED,
I will replace your out of class story grade (which is the average
between your original version and your rewrite grade) with the higher
grade. If your grade was the same with both versions, I will add up to
o.5 to your grade, up to the grade becoming a 4.0.
For
me to count your extra credit, you need to submit to me a published
copy of your work or email me a Web link to your work, along with an
email request to have it applied to extra credit.
FOR DOING A FOURTH OUT-OF-CLASS STORY, for your final grade the three out-of-class stories that go into that grade will be the three (of four) with the highest grades. So if you did four out-of-class stories and one included a fatal, you are making thatfatal go bye-bye.
Plus, in the event you are on the borderline of receiving a higher grade, I will take into account whether you applied extra effort, including whether you did a fourth out-of-class story.
FOR DOING AN OUT-OF-CLASS MINI-STORY
-- which can be between 300 and 500 words, with a minimum of two
human sources, in which you can cover ANY sort of event (subject to my
approval) like a student group meeting or a speaker on-campus -- I
will replace your two lowest practice story grades with 4.0s.
FOR GETTING THE MINI-STORY PUBLISHED, I will replace two more lowest-scoring practice stories with 4.0s.
I
will also consider other extra-credit projects on a case-by-case
basis. Please see me during my office hours to work out other
extra-credit assignments.
THE COMMON DENOMINATOR IN ALL EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTS
is that you are demonstrating to me that you can now correctly
apply skills learned in this class that at one time you did not
apply as well; that you went above and beyond what we are learning
in this class to further educate yourself in journalism; and/or you
are demonstrating ability learned on your own prior to this class
but applicable here. You can expect any ad hoc extra credit beyond
the assignments listed here to include at least one of those
components.
I don't care if you messed up earlier;
show me you can get it right now and I'm happy to replace earlier
grades with something more accurately reflecting where you are at
NOW.
I just want to be clear on this one point
regarding extra credit: extra credit will be applied to replace the
grades of assignments you have actually done, including fact-fataled assignments.
Extra credit will NOT be applied to assignments that you did not turn in, or in which you had a time fatal.
So
if you were thinking of skipping an assignment or two toward the end
of the semester by pre-emptively turning in some extra credit, that
plan won't work.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Out-of-Class #2: A Strong Example ...
... of the strong points cited in the overall round-up blog. Please note those attributes and try to get some ideas for how you can best do your rewrite and third out-of-class story. The author's name has been removed to protect the innocent:
JRN 200
10.24.12
Slug: China
JRN 200
10.24.12
Slug: China
An
impending shift in political power halfway across the world could have a
significant impact on MSU students, according to Yasumasa Komori, an expert in
East Asian politics at MSU.
In
early 2013, the Chinese Communist Party will introduce a new president — Xi
Jinping — whose policies will likely add to the already significant influx of
Chinese international students to MSU, Komori said.
Since
2007, the population of Chinese international students has grown by more than
400 percent to almost 3,500 in 2011, according to the MSU Office of
International Students and Scholars.
These
increases of Chinese students are common across major universities in the
western world, Komori said, and are due to an increase in the population of China’s
upper class amidst the nation’s swift economic growth.
“China’s
economy has grown by very large percentages each year over the past few
decades,” Komori said.
Most
Chinese students who are undergraduates at MSU come from wealthy families,
according to Li Kang, Director of the MSU Neighborhood Cultural Assistance
Program.
“The
average income of a Chinese family is about $5,000 or $6,000 per year, and
tuition and living expenses at MSU can cost 10 times that,” Li said. “Usually
only the wealthy families can afford to send their children here.”
Li
works within the integration process of Chinese students to the MSU community.
He said that employers in China see huge value in students who have been
educated in the western world and can speak English well.
“The
American university system is very highly regarded in China,” Li said.
But
even as an increasing number of Chinese students come to MSU, many have trouble
adjusting to American culture, Li said.
“Often
times Chinese parents don’t realize the difficulties that come with sending
their children to the United States,” Li said.
These
difficulties can lead to resentment between American students and Chinese
students, Li said, which will only increase as MSU’s Chinese student population
grows.
“People
don’t like what they don’t understand,” Li said. “It is so important that we
find ways to bridge the gap between American and Chinese students.”
Komori
said that American students sometimes feel threatened by Chinese students.
“Americans
always hear about China as a growing economic superpower, so they view China as
a threat,” Komori said.
However,
China’s economic growth itself could be under threat, Komori said.
After
nine years of stable growth under current president Hu Jintao, Xi is set to
take over as Chinese citizens demand more transparency of their government all
the time, Komori said.
“Xi
knows that he is taking over a fragile superpower,” Komori said. “The rise of
China’s middle class is dangerous to him because Chinese people are finding
more and more about the how political processes work outside of China.”
Most
of China’s federal decisions are made by a Communist Party panel behind closed
doors, Komori said, and local elections are corrupt and often rigged.
As
the middle class demands more input in China’s governance, it could negatively
impact the nation’s economic growth through unrest, Komori said.
Higher,
Adult and Lifelong Education graduate student Mei Jianyang said that life in
China has been improving for most over the past decade, but few Chinese are
interested in voting.
“Most
people in China are so poor, they only care about having enough to eat,” Mei
said. “China is not ready for free elections.”
However,
she said that as Chinese people grow more educated, she thinks free elections
are possible in a few decades.
“They
will have to get rid of corruption among public officials,” Mei said. “Nobody
trusts the few elections we do have. We know they’re rigged.”
Mei
— who studied history at Nankai University in Tianjin, China — said that when
she participated in elections for university officials, there were communist
party members at the polls who effectively ordered voters who to vote for.
“Everyone
knew how the election would turn out,” Mei said.
Mei
said she came to MSU because of “new opportunities” that would not be available
to her in China.
While
she doesn’t expect Xi to be much different than Hu, Mei said she thinks that
Chinese citizens will demand more transparency from him.
“Access
to the internet has changed the way many Chinese people think about politics,”
Mei said.
Word Count: 721
Sources:
Yasumasa Komori,
James Madison College professor
Expert in East Asian Politics
Expert in East Asian Politics
komoriy@msu.edu
Li Kang, Director of
the MSU Neighborhood Cultural Assistance Program
likang968@gmail.com
Mei Jianyang, Higher,
Adult and Lifelong Education graduate student
meijiany@msu.edu
MSU Office of
International Students and Scholars, 2011 Annual Report
http://oiss.isp.msu.edu/documents/statsreport/11pdfs/Asia.pdf
http://oiss.isp.msu.edu/documents/statsreport/11pdfs/Asia.pdf
Out-of-Class #2: Overall
Each class I have I remember for having done something well, and something not-so-well.
Oddly, what is shaping up as my memory for this class is contradictory.
The good thing so far is the lack of fatals on practice stories. But the bad thing is the unprecedented volume of fatals on out-of-class stories.
We had three more with the second out-of-class stories, bringing the semester total to seven. Which is more than all other semesters I've taught, combined.
And it's the usual array of small stuff. Like saying BBBC News (three B's) when you meant BBC News (with two B's).
Or spelling President Barack Obama's first name as Barrack, with one too many r's. (Ironically, misspelling Obama's name was an example of a fatal in the syllabus!).
Or spelling desert (a dry place) when you meant to spell dessert (a sweet post-dinner snack).
The only lesson we learn is the one we seem to be overlooking at our peril: double-checking each and every name, title, figure and fact after we finish writing to ensure what we wrote is correct and is what we intended to write has nothing to do with talent, just vigilance.
It's too bad, because many people did quite well in this exercise, doing things like ...
... talking to a wide range of sources (instead of just one narrow category of sources).
For example, one of you did a story on how Chinese students at MSU may be affected by changes in Chinese leadership, in which you talked to Chinese students (the obvious central point of the story) AND MSU officials (another important groups, since they oversee the students) AND an expert in Asian politics (a neutral expert!).
It broadly reached across several parties that either have a stake in the issue AND experts who can help readers put those viewpoints into a better context.
... and interviewing sources first-hand (as opposed to simply citing other news organizations and Web sites).
One story on student health was flawed by its over-reliance on second-hand sources, which could easily have been supplanted by first-hand local sources we could have interviewed ourselves. Why cite livestrong.com when we could talk to a health expert at Olin Health Center? Why cite realsimple.com when we could go to a clinic and talk to a local doctor or nurse? Why go to WebMD when we could talk to a professor in the School of Medicine here?
... and structuring stories well with ledes than went to ultimate outcome and end result and nut grafs that filled in details from the lede and telling quotes that hammered home main points ...
... and using frequent attribution, so that readers knew where we were getting our information ...
... and not making assumptions, and finding sourcing for background information. Some people had statements that simply lacked attribution. For example, a statement saying people are wondering whether the electoral college should be scrapped didn't come from out of nowhere. How do you know that? You need to tell your readers that. If you're not sure how, exactly, you know that, then find a knowledgeable source to cite, like a neutral expert.
... and finding and using neutral experts to help readers navigate stories.
For example, one of you who did a story in student diversity spoke with a psychoanalyst about the psychology behind accepting or fighting diversity. Another person doing a story about the Nobel Peace Prize interviewed a history professor here at MSU. A story about college eating habits included comments from a nutritionist. A report on the dude who jumped from the edge of outer space had interviews with the head of MSU's physics department about the science behind the jump.
... and offering data to support your generalizations. One person didn't just write that the population of Chinese international students at MSU has increased, they cited data: it's grown by more than 400 percent to almost 3,500 students in 2011, according to the MSU Office of International Students and Scholars, That's showing me, and not just telling me.
... and offering quotes to support your data and generalizations. For example, the aforementioned story on student diversity had this generalization-and-quote pairing:
Peter Wood, a psychoanalyst in East Lansing, said that how the student was raised at home is a great indicator as to how the student wull accept diversity upon going to such a large school like MSU
"Having trouble accepting differences in people always has the possibility to create stereotypes. With that, stereotypes are something you cannot escape in life; they are everywhere," Wood said.
The generalization/quote package creates a more powerful subsection than if each lacked the other; the generalization provides a basic understanding but the quote adds a human voice and proof for the generalization.
Like I said, lots of good stuff. And lots to emulate and learn from.
Oddly, what is shaping up as my memory for this class is contradictory.
The good thing so far is the lack of fatals on practice stories. But the bad thing is the unprecedented volume of fatals on out-of-class stories.
We had three more with the second out-of-class stories, bringing the semester total to seven. Which is more than all other semesters I've taught, combined.
And it's the usual array of small stuff. Like saying BBBC News (three B's) when you meant BBC News (with two B's).
Or spelling President Barack Obama's first name as Barrack, with one too many r's. (Ironically, misspelling Obama's name was an example of a fatal in the syllabus!).
Or spelling desert (a dry place) when you meant to spell dessert (a sweet post-dinner snack).
The only lesson we learn is the one we seem to be overlooking at our peril: double-checking each and every name, title, figure and fact after we finish writing to ensure what we wrote is correct and is what we intended to write has nothing to do with talent, just vigilance.
It's too bad, because many people did quite well in this exercise, doing things like ...
... talking to a wide range of sources (instead of just one narrow category of sources).
For example, one of you did a story on how Chinese students at MSU may be affected by changes in Chinese leadership, in which you talked to Chinese students (the obvious central point of the story) AND MSU officials (another important groups, since they oversee the students) AND an expert in Asian politics (a neutral expert!).
It broadly reached across several parties that either have a stake in the issue AND experts who can help readers put those viewpoints into a better context.
... and interviewing sources first-hand (as opposed to simply citing other news organizations and Web sites).
One story on student health was flawed by its over-reliance on second-hand sources, which could easily have been supplanted by first-hand local sources we could have interviewed ourselves. Why cite livestrong.com when we could talk to a health expert at Olin Health Center? Why cite realsimple.com when we could go to a clinic and talk to a local doctor or nurse? Why go to WebMD when we could talk to a professor in the School of Medicine here?
... and structuring stories well with ledes than went to ultimate outcome and end result and nut grafs that filled in details from the lede and telling quotes that hammered home main points ...
... and using frequent attribution, so that readers knew where we were getting our information ...
... and not making assumptions, and finding sourcing for background information. Some people had statements that simply lacked attribution. For example, a statement saying people are wondering whether the electoral college should be scrapped didn't come from out of nowhere. How do you know that? You need to tell your readers that. If you're not sure how, exactly, you know that, then find a knowledgeable source to cite, like a neutral expert.
... and finding and using neutral experts to help readers navigate stories.
For example, one of you who did a story in student diversity spoke with a psychoanalyst about the psychology behind accepting or fighting diversity. Another person doing a story about the Nobel Peace Prize interviewed a history professor here at MSU. A story about college eating habits included comments from a nutritionist. A report on the dude who jumped from the edge of outer space had interviews with the head of MSU's physics department about the science behind the jump.
... and offering data to support your generalizations. One person didn't just write that the population of Chinese international students at MSU has increased, they cited data: it's grown by more than 400 percent to almost 3,500 students in 2011, according to the MSU Office of International Students and Scholars, That's showing me, and not just telling me.
... and offering quotes to support your data and generalizations. For example, the aforementioned story on student diversity had this generalization-and-quote pairing:
Peter Wood, a psychoanalyst in East Lansing, said that how the student was raised at home is a great indicator as to how the student wull accept diversity upon going to such a large school like MSU
"Having trouble accepting differences in people always has the possibility to create stereotypes. With that, stereotypes are something you cannot escape in life; they are everywhere," Wood said.
The generalization/quote package creates a more powerful subsection than if each lacked the other; the generalization provides a basic understanding but the quote adds a human voice and proof for the generalization.
Like I said, lots of good stuff. And lots to emulate and learn from.
Friday, October 26, 2012
JRN 200: Video/Blog/Online News #1
Per your request, here are the details of the first round of video/social media/online news assignment. Everything is due via email by 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2 to omars@msu.edu.
If you have any questions on details of these assignments, or if you want to see examples of what these assignments in finished form looked like in my summer 2012 JRN 200 class, please see the appropriate previous recent blog posts.
The assignments are as follows:
Video: Create a news video no shorter than one minute and no longer than two minutes, reporting on the topic of what we've learned sofar in JRN 200 this semester. Your video must include at least two interview subjects from your video group, and no fatals.
When finished with your video, please upload it to your YouTube.com account, and make sure that account is set to public viewing. Then email me a link to your video by the deadline.
Tweets: Live-tweet an event you are following. It can be as simple as a TV show you're watching, or your roommate making breakfast, or some other routine activity. You need to do a minimum of 12 tweets, each with a unique universal hash tag unifying the tweet stream.
When finished with your tweet stream, please email me a link to your Twitter account (and make sure it's open to the public), along with what your unique hash tag is for this assignment.
Online news: You need to write a minimum of two posts -- one preview and one review -- of the same even you're live-tweeting. Each post must be at least 100 words and no longer than 200 words, and each must include at least two relevant hyperlinks.
When finished with your news posts, make sure they are open to the public and please email me links to each post.
Questions? See me ASAP, please. And good luck!
If you have any questions on details of these assignments, or if you want to see examples of what these assignments in finished form looked like in my summer 2012 JRN 200 class, please see the appropriate previous recent blog posts.
The assignments are as follows:
Video: Create a news video no shorter than one minute and no longer than two minutes, reporting on the topic of what we've learned sofar in JRN 200 this semester. Your video must include at least two interview subjects from your video group, and no fatals.
When finished with your video, please upload it to your YouTube.com account, and make sure that account is set to public viewing. Then email me a link to your video by the deadline.
Tweets: Live-tweet an event you are following. It can be as simple as a TV show you're watching, or your roommate making breakfast, or some other routine activity. You need to do a minimum of 12 tweets, each with a unique universal hash tag unifying the tweet stream.
When finished with your tweet stream, please email me a link to your Twitter account (and make sure it's open to the public), along with what your unique hash tag is for this assignment.
Online news: You need to write a minimum of two posts -- one preview and one review -- of the same even you're live-tweeting. Each post must be at least 100 words and no longer than 200 words, and each must include at least two relevant hyperlinks.
When finished with your news posts, make sure they are open to the public and please email me links to each post.
Questions? See me ASAP, please. And good luck!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
JRN 200: We Have A Published Writer In Here!
I'm happy to report that one of youze is an officially-published author. Spartan Edge has posted one of your stories. Here it is.
Now this person can do several things. First, they can start filling out their portfolio with published work, something that employers definitely want to see. Second, they can put on their resume that in the fall of 2012, they were a freelance contributor to a news Web site, adding demonstrated ability to their background.
And like we talked about recently, demonstrated ability is critical to your ability to get an internship[ and a job and, you know, do something with your degree.
A number of other people have indicated they expect to be published soon. We'll share all the examples as they become official and public.
Now this person can do several things. First, they can start filling out their portfolio with published work, something that employers definitely want to see. Second, they can put on their resume that in the fall of 2012, they were a freelance contributor to a news Web site, adding demonstrated ability to their background.
And like we talked about recently, demonstrated ability is critical to your ability to get an internship[ and a job and, you know, do something with your degree.
A number of other people have indicated they expect to be published soon. We'll share all the examples as they become official and public.
Lawsuit/Stats: Fatals
The information we were given for the lawsuit exercise was that it was the East Lansing School District being sued in Ingham County court.
So it would be incorrect to say it was the Ingham County School District, as two of us did.
In another instance in lawsuit, one of us reported the lawsuit sought $50,000 in damages. In fact, it was $500,000. We dropped a zero.
Moving on to stats, one of us said the survey encompasses 11.1 million households. In fact, it was 113.1 million. We dropped a "3."
With the conclusion of these exercises, we have filled up all the spots in the JRN 200 Fatals Club. You are all members. Welcome! The blood oath is pending.
So it would be incorrect to say it was the Ingham County School District, as two of us did.
In another instance in lawsuit, one of us reported the lawsuit sought $50,000 in damages. In fact, it was $500,000. We dropped a zero.
Moving on to stats, one of us said the survey encompasses 11.1 million households. In fact, it was 113.1 million. We dropped a "3."
With the conclusion of these exercises, we have filled up all the spots in the JRN 200 Fatals Club. You are all members. Welcome! The blood oath is pending.
Lawsuit: Legal B.S.
Did you need to say the Dowdells demand a jury trial of all issues triable as of a right by jury?
What the hell does that mean, anyway?
It just means they are asking for a jury trial. So it would have been enough to say the Dowdells demanded a jury trial.
Likewise, did you need to say the lawsuit targeted both the defendants jointly and severally, for the compensatory damages in the amount of $500,000?
No. More legal B.S. You could just say the lawsuit targeted the defendants for $500,000.
Now, I didn't knock your grade for your inability to navigate legal mumbo-jumbo, unless it changed the meaning of things. This is the sort of stuff you'll get the hang of when you actually start covering court cases.
Still, if you're not sure of the meaning of what you're writing, you should ask a source for a layman's translation.
What the hell does that mean, anyway?
It just means they are asking for a jury trial. So it would have been enough to say the Dowdells demanded a jury trial.
Likewise, did you need to say the lawsuit targeted both the defendants jointly and severally, for the compensatory damages in the amount of $500,000?
No. More legal B.S. You could just say the lawsuit targeted the defendants for $500,000.
Now, I didn't knock your grade for your inability to navigate legal mumbo-jumbo, unless it changed the meaning of things. This is the sort of stuff you'll get the hang of when you actually start covering court cases.
Still, if you're not sure of the meaning of what you're writing, you should ask a source for a layman's translation.
Lawsuit: Allegedly
Like we've discussed before, in a lawsuit anyone can allege anything. So it's extra-important to note things are alleged.
The district didn't fail to adequately educate James Dowdell. They allegedly failed to adequately educate Dowdell. We won't know whether that's true or not until the trial takes place and evidence is presented.
The district didn't fail to adequately educate James Dowdell. They allegedly failed to adequately educate Dowdell. We won't know whether that's true or not until the trial takes place and evidence is presented.
Lawsuit: Plurals vs. Possessives
When you are talking about the Dowdells as a family unit, it's plural, as in Dowdells; e.g., the Dowdells demand a jury trial.
When you are talking about a single Dowdell in the possessive form, then it's Dowdell's; e.g., Dowdell's IQ score was 94.
When you are talking about a group of Dowdells in the possessive, then it's Dowdells'; e.g., the Dowdells' lawsuit.
Losta problems with apostrophes and s's in this one.
When you are talking about a single Dowdell in the possessive form, then it's Dowdell's; e.g., Dowdell's IQ score was 94.
When you are talking about a group of Dowdells in the possessive, then it's Dowdells'; e.g., the Dowdells' lawsuit.
Losta problems with apostrophes and s's in this one.
Stats: Flip The Lede
Some of you had good ledes that would have been great ledes if you
flipped the lede; that is, switch positioning of attribution and
substance to highlight the latter.
Here's one lede that could have used a flip:
According to the Current Population Survey conducted each month by the United States Census Bureau, Internet use among households is common in over half of all American homes.
Nice lede, but see how it starts with the attribution before getting to the gist of the story? You can reverse that order like this ...
Internet use among households is common in over half of all American homes, according to the Current Population Survey conducted each month by the United States Census Bureau.
... and you emphasize what is being said over who is saying it. Please note in this case I did not change, add or eliminate any word you used in your lede.
I simply flipped the order.
Here's one lede that could have used a flip:
According to the Current Population Survey conducted each month by the United States Census Bureau, Internet use among households is common in over half of all American homes.
Nice lede, but see how it starts with the attribution before getting to the gist of the story? You can reverse that order like this ...
Internet use among households is common in over half of all American homes, according to the Current Population Survey conducted each month by the United States Census Bureau.
... and you emphasize what is being said over who is saying it. Please note in this case I did not change, add or eliminate any word you used in your lede.
I simply flipped the order.
Stats: A Lot of Youze Guys ...
... were thrown off by the press release starting so heavily with
background about the survey before moving on to what the survey found.
That led many of you to offer generic background on the survey -- it's been conducted since 1942, it polls 50,000 households, ect. -- ahead of what the survey found regarding Internet use -- most households now use computers, and the number has drastically grown over the past few decades.
And it led some of you to lede with the fact a survey was taken, rather than what the survey discovered!
All because something is first in a press release -- or a city council meeting, or a football game -- doesn't mean it's worth prominent mention or a lede. Your lede is based on the Peanut Barrel values we've discussed all semester (and in that case, it's not, Hey! A survey was taken! right?) and where you rank information is based on most relevant to least relevant, and not necesarily the order in which things were presented.
Don't fall for the sequence trap. Rank information on value to the reader and support for your story's central premise.
That led many of you to offer generic background on the survey -- it's been conducted since 1942, it polls 50,000 households, ect. -- ahead of what the survey found regarding Internet use -- most households now use computers, and the number has drastically grown over the past few decades.
And it led some of you to lede with the fact a survey was taken, rather than what the survey discovered!
All because something is first in a press release -- or a city council meeting, or a football game -- doesn't mean it's worth prominent mention or a lede. Your lede is based on the Peanut Barrel values we've discussed all semester (and in that case, it's not, Hey! A survey was taken! right?) and where you rank information is based on most relevant to least relevant, and not necesarily the order in which things were presented.
Don't fall for the sequence trap. Rank information on value to the reader and support for your story's central premise.
Stats: Writing With (AP) Style
Is it internet with a little i, or Internet with a capital I?
It's Internet, with a capital I.
Some of you may have missed that because the listing in AP Style for Internet doesn't say in the text to capitalize it. But in the heading and throughout the definition Internet is indeed capitalized.
The headings for each listing is more than a heading; it also shows the form in which the term is supposed to be used. Things that are lower-cased like international date line are listed as such, in lower case. Things that are usually capitalized are also listed as such, like Internet.
Also, one of the oldest AP Style rules we have around here is that you spell out percent instead of using the percent symbol. No excuse for not knowing that by now. Yet, some of you are still repeating that mistake.
Plus, remember that in first references you should use a full title in caps, like the U.S. Census Bureau. But subsequent references should use the generic title in lower-case, like the census bureau.
Let's get these loose ends tied up, okay?
It's Internet, with a capital I.
Some of you may have missed that because the listing in AP Style for Internet doesn't say in the text to capitalize it. But in the heading and throughout the definition Internet is indeed capitalized.
The headings for each listing is more than a heading; it also shows the form in which the term is supposed to be used. Things that are lower-cased like international date line are listed as such, in lower case. Things that are usually capitalized are also listed as such, like Internet.
Also, one of the oldest AP Style rules we have around here is that you spell out percent instead of using the percent symbol. No excuse for not knowing that by now. Yet, some of you are still repeating that mistake.
Plus, remember that in first references you should use a full title in caps, like the U.S. Census Bureau. But subsequent references should use the generic title in lower-case, like the census bureau.
Let's get these loose ends tied up, okay?
Blog #1: Hyperlinks Are Easy
In traditional print journalism, we work in one dimension. That is, in the text story we put everything a person needs: a lede, quotes, data, background, ect.
But when we are writing online news, we can write in two dimensions: the literal text, and via hyperlink.
Hyperlinks are highlighted pieces of text that, when clicked on, takes the viewer to a new Web page. For example, this is a hyperlink. And it takes us to a Wikipedia entry about hyperlinks.
What hyperlinks do in an online story is allow you to offer background or quotes or video or other related content in a secondary dimension, so that your primary story can concentrate on conclusions and such.
If in print we try to show and tell readers, in online news hyperlinks allow us to tell in the main story, and then show through a hyperlink. Like in this ESPN.com story, where the hyperlinks let us know who is who, without that background overwhelming the text of the story.
In this blog post, hyperlinks include ones to earlier stories from the same Web site, and news stories from other Web sites (including one of my local favorites). See how it offers background in two dimensions?
And that gives the reader options. If they choose to trust your summary, they can leave it at that. If they want more info, all they have to do is click on a hyperlink and -- voila! -- they can get into as much detail as their little hearts desire.
Hyperlinks are real easy to make.
First, you want to highlight a section of text that is directly relevant to what you're hyperlinking to. For example, if you're writing an article about yourself and you want to hyperlink to your Facebook page so people can get background about you, a relevant place to hyperlink from would be a mention of your name.
After highlighting the next, look at your tools bar for wither a symbol that looks like linked chains, or the word "link." Click on that.
When you do, a box should pop up that asks for a URL, which is a fancy way of saying, Web address. Copy the URL and paste it into the box, and then hit "OK."
Then, save, close and publish your item. You should now have a working hyperlink.
And after posting your story, be sure to go to your item just as a reader would, and double-check your hyperlinks to make sure they work.
But when we are writing online news, we can write in two dimensions: the literal text, and via hyperlink.
Hyperlinks are highlighted pieces of text that, when clicked on, takes the viewer to a new Web page. For example, this is a hyperlink. And it takes us to a Wikipedia entry about hyperlinks.
What hyperlinks do in an online story is allow you to offer background or quotes or video or other related content in a secondary dimension, so that your primary story can concentrate on conclusions and such.
If in print we try to show and tell readers, in online news hyperlinks allow us to tell in the main story, and then show through a hyperlink. Like in this ESPN.com story, where the hyperlinks let us know who is who, without that background overwhelming the text of the story.
In this blog post, hyperlinks include ones to earlier stories from the same Web site, and news stories from other Web sites (including one of my local favorites). See how it offers background in two dimensions?
And that gives the reader options. If they choose to trust your summary, they can leave it at that. If they want more info, all they have to do is click on a hyperlink and -- voila! -- they can get into as much detail as their little hearts desire.
Hyperlinks are real easy to make.
First, you want to highlight a section of text that is directly relevant to what you're hyperlinking to. For example, if you're writing an article about yourself and you want to hyperlink to your Facebook page so people can get background about you, a relevant place to hyperlink from would be a mention of your name.
After highlighting the next, look at your tools bar for wither a symbol that looks like linked chains, or the word "link." Click on that.
When you do, a box should pop up that asks for a URL, which is a fancy way of saying, Web address. Copy the URL and paste it into the box, and then hit "OK."
Then, save, close and publish your item. You should now have a working hyperlink.
And after posting your story, be sure to go to your item just as a reader would, and double-check your hyperlinks to make sure they work.
Tweet #1: Tweets Are Easy
Many of you already use Twitter, but you may wonder how to use it for news.
That's easy, actually.
As you probably know, in Twitter you communicate in bursts of text no longer than 140 characters. So you're trying to say a little in a lot of space.
But that's less of a challenge than you may think.
That's because you're not limited to just one tweet. You can do as many tweets as you'd like!
So a single tweet is not a single story. Rather, a collection of tweets are. One tweet may be like sort of a lede, where it sums up the main point. following tweets are like the body of a story, with one tweet offering an update and another some relevant stats, and yet another a quote.
And that's the most basic value of Twitter -- it's another way to relay events live and as they happen to an audience who may not be near a TV or radio or whatever. You can essentially "broadcast" live, just using text sent to mobile devices of readers.
A collection of related tweets are unified by a hashtag; that is, the hashtag symbol on your keyboard (the thing that looks like a criss-cross fry; it's the number 3 key when under shift lock) followed by a unique phrase. For example, tweets at the convention I am going to are joined by the hashtag #ncmc12 (short for National College Media Convention 2012).
You can supplement your tweets with links to a photo uploading site, like yFrog, which can help tell the story beyond the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, and beyond simple words.
You can also link to anything on the Web with the aid of a URL shortener, like bit.ly. What the service does is take a URL and replace it with a much shorter one. Using a bit.ly link here gives you more room to write text without the URL taking up so much space.
Ideally,
the best tweet streams can be put in reverse order and read just like
an inverted-pyramid news story, with (timewise) your first tweet
summing up what happened, and the following tweets filling in details
and offering a chronology as something unfolds.
Now, it's your turn. Your assignment is to live-tweet anything -- the latest episode of your favorite TV or radio show; a sporting event you're attending; your roommate eating dinner; whatever -- and send me a link to your Twitter account (which must be open to the public), with a deadline of the start of class Wednesday.
You will need to send a minimum of 12 tweets, with a unique hashtag applied to each. For this first assignment, I don't care what the news value is of your topic. I simply want to see your technical proficiency in live-tweeting something happening, as it happens.
That's easy, actually.
As you probably know, in Twitter you communicate in bursts of text no longer than 140 characters. So you're trying to say a little in a lot of space.
But that's less of a challenge than you may think.
That's because you're not limited to just one tweet. You can do as many tweets as you'd like!
So a single tweet is not a single story. Rather, a collection of tweets are. One tweet may be like sort of a lede, where it sums up the main point. following tweets are like the body of a story, with one tweet offering an update and another some relevant stats, and yet another a quote.
And that's the most basic value of Twitter -- it's another way to relay events live and as they happen to an audience who may not be near a TV or radio or whatever. You can essentially "broadcast" live, just using text sent to mobile devices of readers.
A collection of related tweets are unified by a hashtag; that is, the hashtag symbol on your keyboard (the thing that looks like a criss-cross fry; it's the number 3 key when under shift lock) followed by a unique phrase. For example, tweets at the convention I am going to are joined by the hashtag #ncmc12 (short for National College Media Convention 2012).
You can supplement your tweets with links to a photo uploading site, like yFrog, which can help tell the story beyond the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, and beyond simple words.
You can also link to anything on the Web with the aid of a URL shortener, like bit.ly. What the service does is take a URL and replace it with a much shorter one. Using a bit.ly link here gives you more room to write text without the URL taking up so much space.
Here
-- again, in reverse order, with the tweets in order of when they
were posted -- is the State News' sports Tweet stream just before and
from the press conference announcing Coach Dantonio's heart attack a
while back:
Report: Football head coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack but is OK.
There is a "important football-related press conference" scheduled for 1 p.m. It is unclear if it is related to reports of Dantonio's health
MSU: Dantonio will remain at the hospital for a few days for monitoring. Return to sidelines at a later date.
MSU: Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell will manage day-to-day responsibilities of head coach.
MSU: Dantonio had "symptoms consistent with a heart attack."
MSU: Dantonio had a cardiac catheterization procedure early Sunday morning.
AD Mark Hollis said Dantonio will not be on the sidelines for the Northern Colorado game Saturday.
Hollis: "This is a time for the Spartan nation to come together, to rally."
Dr. D'Haem of Sparrow Hospital said a full recover is expected.
Dr. D'Haem said procedure is very routine and happens often. Also said he expects no long-term negative impact. Return yet to be determined.
Dr. D'Haem said Dantonio began feeling symptoms around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
Dr. D'Haem: Heart attacks are never good...but I would classify this as a rather small heart attack.
Hollis said he spent the night at the hospital until about 5:30, the returned to hospital this morning at 8.
Dr. D'Haem: "Stress doesn't cause coronary heart disease, but very stressful events can be a trigger."
Coach Treadwell on players' reaction: "They're handling it as well as they can. They love their head coach."
Hollis: "(Dantonio's) thoughts went immediately to his family and then to the football program."
Treadwell said the fact staff has been together for a number of years will make this process easier from a football point of view.
Dr. D'Haem said timetable for Dantonio's return will be taken week-by-week.
There's a lede. There's a nut graf. There's supporting details. There are quotes. There is background. It collectively qualifies as a journalistic story. And you did it within the confines of social media.
This is exactly how The Associated Press wire service has always filed breaking news stories as a story is breaking: line-by-line, with the idea the lines can be pasted together into a story. It allows the writer to push out a story (and an editor to edit copy) much faster than if he or she waited to have a mass of information combined into a story, and yet a reader still ends up with all the information they need to consider the package in its totality.
There is a "important football-related press conference" scheduled for 1 p.m. It is unclear if it is related to reports of Dantonio's health
MSU: Dantonio will remain at the hospital for a few days for monitoring. Return to sidelines at a later date.
MSU: Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell will manage day-to-day responsibilities of head coach.
MSU: Dantonio had "symptoms consistent with a heart attack."
MSU: Dantonio had a cardiac catheterization procedure early Sunday morning.
AD Mark Hollis said Dantonio will not be on the sidelines for the Northern Colorado game Saturday.
Hollis: "This is a time for the Spartan nation to come together, to rally."
Dr. D'Haem of Sparrow Hospital said a full recover is expected.
Dr. D'Haem said procedure is very routine and happens often. Also said he expects no long-term negative impact. Return yet to be determined.
Dr. D'Haem said Dantonio began feeling symptoms around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
Dr. D'Haem: Heart attacks are never good...but I would classify this as a rather small heart attack.
Hollis said he spent the night at the hospital until about 5:30, the returned to hospital this morning at 8.
Dr. D'Haem: "Stress doesn't cause coronary heart disease, but very stressful events can be a trigger."
Coach Treadwell on players' reaction: "They're handling it as well as they can. They love their head coach."
Hollis: "(Dantonio's) thoughts went immediately to his family and then to the football program."
Treadwell said the fact staff has been together for a number of years will make this process easier from a football point of view.
Dr. D'Haem said timetable for Dantonio's return will be taken week-by-week.
There's a lede. There's a nut graf. There's supporting details. There are quotes. There is background. It collectively qualifies as a journalistic story. And you did it within the confines of social media.
This is exactly how The Associated Press wire service has always filed breaking news stories as a story is breaking: line-by-line, with the idea the lines can be pasted together into a story. It allows the writer to push out a story (and an editor to edit copy) much faster than if he or she waited to have a mass of information combined into a story, and yet a reader still ends up with all the information they need to consider the package in its totality.
So really, tweets are just a way of applying old journalistic skills in a new way.
Now, it's your turn. Your assignment is to live-tweet anything -- the latest episode of your favorite TV or radio show; a sporting event you're attending; your roommate eating dinner; whatever -- and send me a link to your Twitter account (which must be open to the public), with a deadline of the start of class Wednesday.
You will need to send a minimum of 12 tweets, with a unique hashtag applied to each. For this first assignment, I don't care what the news value is of your topic. I simply want to see your technical proficiency in live-tweeting something happening, as it happens.
Blog/Tweet #1: Some Examples
For our opening assignment in using social media and writing about breaking news, what I will ask you to do is to pick out anything in your daily routine for which to write an online breaking news preview story, an online breaking news follow-up story, and a live tweet stream as the event is unfolding.
When I say I want you to do anything in your daily routine, I do mean anything. Cover your watching your favorite TV show. Or your roommate making breakfast. Or a game on TV you're watching. Really, anything.
The reason for that is that I simply want you to get used to the technical process, without having to do any real and time-consuming reporting. We will incorporate reporting in latter versions of this assignment.
Now, on these assignments, everyone will get a 4.0 as long as long as we meet the basic parameters of the assignment.
Those include:
-- Each breaking news entry being about the SAME topic, being covered as a preview and then a recap of what happened
-- Each breaking news story staying over the 100-word minimum
-- The breaking news stories being written in a journalistic style, as opposed to a first-person blog-like style
-- Each breaking news item containing two working hyperlinks, inserted onto text
-- A minimum of 12 tweets on the same subject as the breaking news topic
-- Each tweet having a consistent unique hash tag, to allow the tweets to be chained together
The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. So, if your tweets lacked a consistent unique hashtag, you got a 3.5. If your breaking news stories lacked topic consistency AND the minimum hyperlinks, you got a 3.0.
In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0.
These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.
Now, to give you an idea of what the final product might look like, let's look at breaking news/tweet combos from the first such assignment my summer 2012 JRN 200 class, and let's talk about what worked and what can be done better.
And we're off:
Max: Stanley Cup preview / review /tweets #maxonstanleycup
Julia: making pasta preview / review / tweets
Lindsay: rainy day preview / review / tweets #whenitsraining
Molly: making a sandwich preview / review / tweets #bestroomie
Nubia: movies review / another review / tweets #vh1babyboy
Lilly: Bachelorette/baseball game preview / review / tweets #bachelorettelivetweets
Tiarra: TV show preview / review / tweets #funnyshow
Justin: NBA Finals preview / review / tweets #NBAFJRN200MSU
Emily: TV show preview / review / tweets #finallysomedecenttv
Kyle: NBA Finals preview and review / tweets
Katelyn: TV show and scary stuff: preview and review / tweets
When I say I want you to do anything in your daily routine, I do mean anything. Cover your watching your favorite TV show. Or your roommate making breakfast. Or a game on TV you're watching. Really, anything.
The reason for that is that I simply want you to get used to the technical process, without having to do any real and time-consuming reporting. We will incorporate reporting in latter versions of this assignment.
Now, on these assignments, everyone will get a 4.0 as long as long as we meet the basic parameters of the assignment.
Those include:
-- Each breaking news entry being about the SAME topic, being covered as a preview and then a recap of what happened
-- Each breaking news story staying over the 100-word minimum
-- The breaking news stories being written in a journalistic style, as opposed to a first-person blog-like style
-- Each breaking news item containing two working hyperlinks, inserted onto text
-- A minimum of 12 tweets on the same subject as the breaking news topic
-- Each tweet having a consistent unique hash tag, to allow the tweets to be chained together
The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. So, if your tweets lacked a consistent unique hashtag, you got a 3.5. If your breaking news stories lacked topic consistency AND the minimum hyperlinks, you got a 3.0.
In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0.
These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.
Now, to give you an idea of what the final product might look like, let's look at breaking news/tweet combos from the first such assignment my summer 2012 JRN 200 class, and let's talk about what worked and what can be done better.
And we're off:
Max: Stanley Cup preview / review /tweets #maxonstanleycup
Julia: making pasta preview / review / tweets
Lindsay: rainy day preview / review / tweets #whenitsraining
Molly: making a sandwich preview / review / tweets #bestroomie
Nubia: movies review / another review / tweets #vh1babyboy
Lilly: Bachelorette/baseball game preview / review / tweets #bachelorettelivetweets
Tiarra: TV show preview / review / tweets #funnyshow
Justin: NBA Finals preview / review / tweets #NBAFJRN200MSU
Emily: TV show preview / review / tweets #finallysomedecenttv
Kyle: NBA Finals preview and review / tweets
Katelyn: TV show and scary stuff: preview and review / tweets
Vid #1: Your Video Group!
For the video exercise, each person will be assigned to a three-person group with which you will work on the vid assignment and interview each other. Each group has at least one person who told me they have a Flip camera or comparable video recording device; please share whatever video resources you have within your group.
For those of you who don't have a camera, please be sure to get a memory stick or comparable memory device in which to store your raw video.
You may edit your video on whatever editing program you have on your own personal computers (iMovie, ect.). If you lack such an editing program, the open lab on the second floor of the CAS building has such programs already loaded.
You MUST work with your group members and include their interviews in your story. However, additionally you MAY collaborate with other groups in working on this story and ALSO include their members among your interviews. You may NOT trade group members.
Green group: Shelby, Amber, Matt
White group: Tia, Cait, Leah
Sparty group: Nourhan, Danielle, Stephen
Izzo group: Angelica O., Alex, Nick
Breslin group: Carly, Angelica C., Brytanie
Munn group: Alyssa, Liam, Bella
(NOTE: The Munn group of State Newsers is being grouped together only because two of these three people will be at the same convention as I am, and won't be available at most times to work with non-State Newsers in a group. I would rather have mixed them up with the rest of the class, but this is a nod to practicality. Plus, this is my full disclosure of a conflict of interest, so nyah.)
For those of you who don't have a camera, please be sure to get a memory stick or comparable memory device in which to store your raw video.
You may edit your video on whatever editing program you have on your own personal computers (iMovie, ect.). If you lack such an editing program, the open lab on the second floor of the CAS building has such programs already loaded.
You MUST work with your group members and include their interviews in your story. However, additionally you MAY collaborate with other groups in working on this story and ALSO include their members among your interviews. You may NOT trade group members.
Green group: Shelby, Amber, Matt
White group: Tia, Cait, Leah
Sparty group: Nourhan, Danielle, Stephen
Izzo group: Angelica O., Alex, Nick
Breslin group: Carly, Angelica C., Brytanie
Munn group: Alyssa, Liam, Bella
(NOTE: The Munn group of State Newsers is being grouped together only because two of these three people will be at the same convention as I am, and won't be available at most times to work with non-State Newsers in a group. I would rather have mixed them up with the rest of the class, but this is a nod to practicality. Plus, this is my full disclosure of a conflict of interest, so nyah.)
Monday, October 22, 2012
Vid #1: Your First Assignment, Some Examples
For the first video assignment, I am asking you to do a news video on the topic of, what have you learned sofar in JRN 200?
In this assignment, I will split you up into groups, and you will interview your group members for this story.
As long as you meet the basic parameters of this assignment, I will give you a 4.0 equal to that of a practice story. Those parameters include:
-- Videos staying within the 1-2 minute range and on-topic
-- Videos containing at least two human interviews on tape
-- Videos containing NO fatals
The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0.
These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.
Now, in doing a first video people demonstrate a wide range of starting points. Let's get a sense of what those starting points may look like, based on the first videos from my summer 2012 JRN 200 class. Let's point out and discuss good habits and ones that can be a bit better.
Off we go:
Justin
Lindsay
Molly
Emily
Tiarra
Lilly
Nubia
Kyle
Max
Julia
Katelyn
In this assignment, I will split you up into groups, and you will interview your group members for this story.
As long as you meet the basic parameters of this assignment, I will give you a 4.0 equal to that of a practice story. Those parameters include:
-- Videos staying within the 1-2 minute range and on-topic
-- Videos containing at least two human interviews on tape
-- Videos containing NO fatals
The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0.
These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.
Now, in doing a first video people demonstrate a wide range of starting points. Let's get a sense of what those starting points may look like, based on the first videos from my summer 2012 JRN 200 class. Let's point out and discuss good habits and ones that can be a bit better.
Off we go:
Justin
Lindsay
Molly
Emily
Tiarra
Lilly
Nubia
Kyle
Max
Julia
Katelyn
Out-of-Class #1: An Overview
Generally nice job from many people, but there was one area I think many people can improve on, and that's regarding your range of first-hand sources.
Many of you only sought direct interviews for one aspect of your story, entirely ceding other angles to reports you found online or the work of other media.
For instance, let's say you did a story on student voting, as many of you did. Perhaps you interviewed students about it, and certainly they are one important group.
But when it came to neutral experts, you cited other media instead of finding and talking to neutral experts yourselves.
When it came to background data defining the problem, you cited reports you found online instead of seeking neutral experts to give you data directly.
When it came to political campaigns seeking the youth vote, you cited other media and the work they did, instead of contacting campaigns and campaign consultants or even student partisan political groups (like the College Democrats and College Republicans) yourself to get that information first-hand.
And in journalism, we should be contacting all of those groups -- and representatives of the various angles -- ourselves.
That's how we explore subjects; not based on second-hand information, but on first-hand witnesses.
Second-hand info is for term papers. First-hand info is the raw material of journalism. That's what separates the two. And it's going to be challenging for you to get a good grade in this class if you insist on doing the former instead of aspiring to do the latter.
Many of you only sought direct interviews for one aspect of your story, entirely ceding other angles to reports you found online or the work of other media.
For instance, let's say you did a story on student voting, as many of you did. Perhaps you interviewed students about it, and certainly they are one important group.
But when it came to neutral experts, you cited other media instead of finding and talking to neutral experts yourselves.
When it came to background data defining the problem, you cited reports you found online instead of seeking neutral experts to give you data directly.
When it came to political campaigns seeking the youth vote, you cited other media and the work they did, instead of contacting campaigns and campaign consultants or even student partisan political groups (like the College Democrats and College Republicans) yourself to get that information first-hand.
And in journalism, we should be contacting all of those groups -- and representatives of the various angles -- ourselves.
That's how we explore subjects; not based on second-hand information, but on first-hand witnesses.
Second-hand info is for term papers. First-hand info is the raw material of journalism. That's what separates the two. And it's going to be challenging for you to get a good grade in this class if you insist on doing the former instead of aspiring to do the latter.
Rescue: Overall
Many people did very well with story structure, with ledes that got to end result and good nut grafs and decent narratives.
But one recurring problem was within the narratives, where some of us failed to answer a basic question: how do we know all this?
How do we know the boy died? How do we know a tunnel collapsed on him? How do we know he was taken to the Regional Medical Center? How do we know neighbors were angry?
It's because we learned all that from the East Lansing Fire Department report we read.
So, a proper first reference would have been to just that: an East Lansing Fire Department report said.
Subsequent references would simply have been, the fire department report said or the report said.
At a minimum, attribution should have been in EVERY paragraph after the lede. And because this story came entirely from a single source, we wouldn't have been wrong to include attribution in the lede, since the lede is entirely based on information from one source, as opposed to a more typical amalgamation of information from various sources.
Make sure your audience knows where you got your information!
But one recurring problem was within the narratives, where some of us failed to answer a basic question: how do we know all this?
How do we know the boy died? How do we know a tunnel collapsed on him? How do we know he was taken to the Regional Medical Center? How do we know neighbors were angry?
It's because we learned all that from the East Lansing Fire Department report we read.
So, a proper first reference would have been to just that: an East Lansing Fire Department report said.
Subsequent references would simply have been, the fire department report said or the report said.
At a minimum, attribution should have been in EVERY paragraph after the lede. And because this story came entirely from a single source, we wouldn't have been wrong to include attribution in the lede, since the lede is entirely based on information from one source, as opposed to a more typical amalgamation of information from various sources.
Make sure your audience knows where you got your information!
Police/Rescue: Fatals
Our fingers aren't perfect.
When we type, sometimes we type the wrong thing. We transpose letters. We misspell words. It happens.
That's why it's so important we thoroughly double-check our work after we finish writing.
That way we can catch instances where we meant to spell someone's last name as Adler, but accidentally spell it as Alder, with the "d" and "l" reversed.
Which we did not do in one instance in the police exercise, which resulted in a fatal.
In another instance in the police story, we said the crime happened around 1:15 p.m. In fact, it was around 1:15 a.m.
That, too, would have been caught under an adequate level of post-writing fact-checking.
Also, one of us in the police exercise alternately spelled the clerk's last name as DaRoza -- with a "z," correctly -- and DaRosa -- with an "s," and in error.
Meanwhile, two of us spelled it DaRoza and DeRoza, the latter with an "e" instead of the correct "a."
If we did a thorough fact check after we finished writing, we would have discovered we were spelling the same name two different ways, and obviously at least one had to be wrong, and had to be rechecked and fixed.
In the rescue exercise, one of us said the boy was pronounced dead at the scene. In fact, he was taken to Regional Medical Center and pronounced dead there. Same solution to avoiding this outcome.
Also in rescue, one of us said the boy was freed at 5:57. In fact, the boy was freed at 5:24 p.m., and firefighters returned to their station at 5:57 p.m. You know what the solution was.
In another instance in rescue, one of us spelled the name of Wagnor Development Corporation as Wagner, which is a more common spelling but not the correct one in this case. Spell check would have been of no help to us here.
Folks, I know these examples are getting redundant. But it's because we are still failing to do our due diligence and thoroughly double-check the basics like names and spellings before we turn in our stories.
And we need to do that every time and all the time, starting now and ending never. Because journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right.
And it has nothing to do with talent; just simple vigilance. If we're not vigilant for mistakes, then it doesn't matter how good we are.
For those of you keeping track, 15 of 18 JRN 200ers have fact-fataled sofar this semester. Three of you to go.
When we type, sometimes we type the wrong thing. We transpose letters. We misspell words. It happens.
That's why it's so important we thoroughly double-check our work after we finish writing.
That way we can catch instances where we meant to spell someone's last name as Adler, but accidentally spell it as Alder, with the "d" and "l" reversed.
Which we did not do in one instance in the police exercise, which resulted in a fatal.
In another instance in the police story, we said the crime happened around 1:15 p.m. In fact, it was around 1:15 a.m.
That, too, would have been caught under an adequate level of post-writing fact-checking.
Also, one of us in the police exercise alternately spelled the clerk's last name as DaRoza -- with a "z," correctly -- and DaRosa -- with an "s," and in error.
Meanwhile, two of us spelled it DaRoza and DeRoza, the latter with an "e" instead of the correct "a."
If we did a thorough fact check after we finished writing, we would have discovered we were spelling the same name two different ways, and obviously at least one had to be wrong, and had to be rechecked and fixed.
In the rescue exercise, one of us said the boy was pronounced dead at the scene. In fact, he was taken to Regional Medical Center and pronounced dead there. Same solution to avoiding this outcome.
Also in rescue, one of us said the boy was freed at 5:57. In fact, the boy was freed at 5:24 p.m., and firefighters returned to their station at 5:57 p.m. You know what the solution was.
In another instance in rescue, one of us spelled the name of Wagnor Development Corporation as Wagner, which is a more common spelling but not the correct one in this case. Spell check would have been of no help to us here.
Folks, I know these examples are getting redundant. But it's because we are still failing to do our due diligence and thoroughly double-check the basics like names and spellings before we turn in our stories.
And we need to do that every time and all the time, starting now and ending never. Because journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right.
And it has nothing to do with talent; just simple vigilance. If we're not vigilant for mistakes, then it doesn't matter how good we are.
For those of you keeping track, 15 of 18 JRN 200ers have fact-fataled sofar this semester. Three of you to go.
Rescue: Who, What, WHEN, Where, Why
Quite a few of you never said what time the collapse took place. Even
more of you never said when the boy was pulled out of the tunnel, and
at what time the boy died.
Time often matters as one of the five W's. But in this case, it's especially important to the telling of the story.
Time tells you how difficult it would have been for the boy to be okay after being buried for so long. Time tells you how difficult it was to dig out the boy, in that it took so long.
In this case, specific times are important bits of data that help show teh reader what happened, and not just leave them being told by you.
You say it was a difficult rescue. The times help readers see that.
In every story you write, try to determine which data sets help explain the story and show readers what they need to see in terms of evidence supporting your overall angle.
Time often matters as one of the five W's. But in this case, it's especially important to the telling of the story.
Time tells you how difficult it would have been for the boy to be okay after being buried for so long. Time tells you how difficult it was to dig out the boy, in that it took so long.
In this case, specific times are important bits of data that help show teh reader what happened, and not just leave them being told by you.
You say it was a difficult rescue. The times help readers see that.
In every story you write, try to determine which data sets help explain the story and show readers what they need to see in terms of evidence supporting your overall angle.
Rescue: Why Did So Few Of Us ...
. . . make any mention that the city's zoning board was to be
notified about the site's hazard to children, as indicated at the end
of the report?
Isn't that an important detail relating to where the story may go from here, and detailing consequence for what happened?
Also, some of you referred to the site owner generically, but you never named the company directly. Why is that? Isn't that specific and useful information? Wouldn't readers want to know who owns the land, in the same way they want to know who died? Isn't who one of the five W's every story should have?
Finally, if this was a real story you were doing for a real news organization, what would have been some additional steps in reporting this story? Let's get some good answers.
Isn't that an important detail relating to where the story may go from here, and detailing consequence for what happened?
Also, some of you referred to the site owner generically, but you never named the company directly. Why is that? Isn't that specific and useful information? Wouldn't readers want to know who owns the land, in the same way they want to know who died? Isn't who one of the five W's every story should have?
Finally, if this was a real story you were doing for a real news organization, what would have been some additional steps in reporting this story? Let's get some good answers.
Rescue: Was It ...
. . . a fort the kids were building? You know, with gates and turrets and moats and solid stone walls and stuff?
Or a tunnel that was a kind of play-fort?
It's the former, right?
So, why just call it a fort when it was really a tunnel?
It's not wrong that you refer to the fort in some way; just make sure the context is correct. One of you found a great way to say it: the boys were digging a tunnel to create a play fort.
Or a tunnel that was a kind of play-fort?
It's the former, right?
So, why just call it a fort when it was really a tunnel?
It's not wrong that you refer to the fort in some way; just make sure the context is correct. One of you found a great way to say it: the boys were digging a tunnel to create a play fort.
Police: Peanut Barrel Rule
I'm kind of surprised that few of you cited something that to me
stood out like a sore thumb: the fact that the cane-wielding victim was
almost 6 1/2 feet tall, while the would-be alleged robber he beat was
fit but not much over five feet tall and weighed less than half as much as the
victim.
Isn't that a Peanut Barrel-type of item? Isn't that sharp contrast in size what takes an out-of-the-ordinary robbery story (unusual in that the victim beat off the attacker) and make it even more unique?
I'm not shocked that many of you didn't weave it into your ledes, because to do that is doable but a bit complex. I'm just surprised few few of you noted that bit of interest.
Any explanations?
As journalists, it's important that even when we are looking at what we think is a routine event, that we are always on the lookout for something that makes it a bit different and a bit more interesting. Even if that bit of interest is buried in the nuances of a police report.
Isn't that a Peanut Barrel-type of item? Isn't that sharp contrast in size what takes an out-of-the-ordinary robbery story (unusual in that the victim beat off the attacker) and make it even more unique?
I'm not shocked that many of you didn't weave it into your ledes, because to do that is doable but a bit complex. I'm just surprised few few of you noted that bit of interest.
Any explanations?
As journalists, it's important that even when we are looking at what we think is a routine event, that we are always on the lookout for something that makes it a bit different and a bit more interesting. Even if that bit of interest is buried in the nuances of a police report.
Police: Ledes
Let's look at some ledes; first, this one:
The Ingham County Sheriff's Office responded to an armed robbery around 1:30 a.m. today in Okemos.
It's factually correct, but does it go to end resul and ultimate outcome? No. It's like those hypothetical sports ledes we looked at last class: MSU football played a game Saturday night. It doesn't say how things finished, or at least set context. And in journalism, we start with ending and/or context.
The end result was what transpired. This lede got there:
An attempted armed robbery occurred today in Okemos, resulting in one arrest.
That's better, but there's still something missing. It wasn't a routine armed robbery; I mean, the clerk captured one of the robbers. That's different, right? So, why not highlight what makes this different, like this:
A store clerk captured one of two men who attempted an armed robbery at a convenience store this morning, according to an Ingham County sheriff's report.
Now, the reader knows not just that something happened, but what happened and how it ended.
It's fair to say what made this story stand out from other armed robbery stories is that the victim caught the suspect. What made it stand out among stories where the victim caught the suspect is that the victim was lame. This lede captured that extra element:
An armed robbery attempt at Jiffy Foods, 4010 Holbrook Drive in Okemos, was foiled by a clerk who had recently been injured in a construction job.
Yet another lede developed that context -- a lame victim beating a robber -- a bit more. This more anecdotal lede is followed by a nut graf that helped zero in on the basic details of end result:
While many view being cane-dependent as a handicap, Jiffy Foods clerk Terry DaRoza saw it as an advantage that helped save his life in an armed robbery late last night.
DaRoza, recently injured in a construction job, had to resort to violence when two customers threatened him with a knife at the convenience store on Holbrook Drive at 1:15 a.m., according to an Ingham County Sheriff's report.
This lede/nut graf combo did an outstanding job of setting context and offering basic details. Look carefully at how the nut graf answers specific questions created by the lede; e.g., who was the clerk, who was the robber, how did he defend himself, where and when did this happen, ect.
An injured convenience store clerk used his cane in self-defense this morning when two armed men tried to rob Jiffy Foods, according to an Ingham County Sheriff's Department report.
At about 1:15 a.m., Terry DaRoza, 34, beat Timothy Keel with his cane after Keel allegedly pulled a knife on DaRoza at the store located at 4010 Holbrook Drive, the report said.
Then the story starts a chronological narrative. But the reader already known end result and context.
The Ingham County Sheriff's Office responded to an armed robbery around 1:30 a.m. today in Okemos.
It's factually correct, but does it go to end resul and ultimate outcome? No. It's like those hypothetical sports ledes we looked at last class: MSU football played a game Saturday night. It doesn't say how things finished, or at least set context. And in journalism, we start with ending and/or context.
The end result was what transpired. This lede got there:
An attempted armed robbery occurred today in Okemos, resulting in one arrest.
That's better, but there's still something missing. It wasn't a routine armed robbery; I mean, the clerk captured one of the robbers. That's different, right? So, why not highlight what makes this different, like this:
A store clerk captured one of two men who attempted an armed robbery at a convenience store this morning, according to an Ingham County sheriff's report.
Now, the reader knows not just that something happened, but what happened and how it ended.
It's fair to say what made this story stand out from other armed robbery stories is that the victim caught the suspect. What made it stand out among stories where the victim caught the suspect is that the victim was lame. This lede captured that extra element:
An armed robbery attempt at Jiffy Foods, 4010 Holbrook Drive in Okemos, was foiled by a clerk who had recently been injured in a construction job.
Yet another lede developed that context -- a lame victim beating a robber -- a bit more. This more anecdotal lede is followed by a nut graf that helped zero in on the basic details of end result:
While many view being cane-dependent as a handicap, Jiffy Foods clerk Terry DaRoza saw it as an advantage that helped save his life in an armed robbery late last night.
DaRoza, recently injured in a construction job, had to resort to violence when two customers threatened him with a knife at the convenience store on Holbrook Drive at 1:15 a.m., according to an Ingham County Sheriff's report.
This lede/nut graf combo did an outstanding job of setting context and offering basic details. Look carefully at how the nut graf answers specific questions created by the lede; e.g., who was the clerk, who was the robber, how did he defend himself, where and when did this happen, ect.
An injured convenience store clerk used his cane in self-defense this morning when two armed men tried to rob Jiffy Foods, according to an Ingham County Sheriff's Department report.
At about 1:15 a.m., Terry DaRoza, 34, beat Timothy Keel with his cane after Keel allegedly pulled a knife on DaRoza at the store located at 4010 Holbrook Drive, the report said.
Then the story starts a chronological narrative. But the reader already known end result and context.
Police: Nut Grafs
One of youze did a nice alternate lede, but the nut graf fell a bit short. Here was the sequence:
One left in a jiffy. And the other? Not so much.
Jiffy Foods, located in Okemos, was the target of an attempted robbery by two men early this morning.
Then, you start with the chronological narrative of how things unfolded.
First off, the lede was cute and a great teasing set-up for the nut graf.
Now, the nut graf does half of what a good nut graf does, in expanding upon the lede. It says where they left, and what they were doing there.
But the nut graf falls short in another area, and that's answering critical questions created by the lede. Like, why didn't the other guy leave, too? That question was central to your lede, and you leave the reader still guessing after the nut graf.
A better nut graf would say something like this:
Two men walked into Jiffy Foods in Okemos as part of an alleged armed robbery attempt, but only one of the suspects was able to flee after the other was beaten by a clerk wielding a cane.
Now, we can go on to the narrative. The reader knows what the lede meant.
One left in a jiffy. And the other? Not so much.
Jiffy Foods, located in Okemos, was the target of an attempted robbery by two men early this morning.
Then, you start with the chronological narrative of how things unfolded.
First off, the lede was cute and a great teasing set-up for the nut graf.
Now, the nut graf does half of what a good nut graf does, in expanding upon the lede. It says where they left, and what they were doing there.
But the nut graf falls short in another area, and that's answering critical questions created by the lede. Like, why didn't the other guy leave, too? That question was central to your lede, and you leave the reader still guessing after the nut graf.
A better nut graf would say something like this:
Two men walked into Jiffy Foods in Okemos as part of an alleged armed robbery attempt, but only one of the suspects was able to flee after the other was beaten by a clerk wielding a cane.
Now, we can go on to the narrative. The reader knows what the lede meant.
Police: Allegedly
Some more problems with when to use allegedly.
It's not alleged that Keel entered the store. He has a face full of broken bones proving he was there. And it's not a crime to get your ass kicked (though it may be a crime to do the ass-kicking).
What is alleged is whether he pulled a knife, and tried to commit a crime.
So, where does allegedly fit in here?
DaRoza walked behind the counter for the key to the restroom when Keel followed him and exposed a knife.
Before "exposed a knife," right?
It's not alleged that Keel entered the store. He has a face full of broken bones proving he was there. And it's not a crime to get your ass kicked (though it may be a crime to do the ass-kicking).
What is alleged is whether he pulled a knife, and tried to commit a crime.
So, where does allegedly fit in here?
DaRoza walked behind the counter for the key to the restroom when Keel followed him and exposed a knife.
Before "exposed a knife," right?
Police: Attribution
How do you know this?
DaRoza said that he swung the cane as hard as he could into Keel's face.
Is it because DaRoza said it to you?
No, it's not. It's because DaRoza told the cops, and the cops put it in their report. So, proper attribution would be something like this:
DaRoza said that he swung the cane as hard as he could into Keel's face, according to a sheriff's report.
DaRoza said that he swung the cane as hard as he could into Keel's face.
Is it because DaRoza said it to you?
No, it's not. It's because DaRoza told the cops, and the cops put it in their report. So, proper attribution would be something like this:
DaRoza said that he swung the cane as hard as he could into Keel's face, according to a sheriff's report.
Police: Writing With (AP) Style
Was the address of the store 4010 Holbrook Dr., or 4010 Holbrook Drive?
It's Drive, spelled out.
AP Style under addresses says to abbreviate avenue, boulevard and street when it's part of a specific address. But similar words like alley, drive, road and terrace are always spelled out, no matter what.
I know the report had drive abbreviated, but our job as journalists is to translate anything except direct citations and quotes into AP style.
It's Drive, spelled out.
AP Style under addresses says to abbreviate avenue, boulevard and street when it's part of a specific address. But similar words like alley, drive, road and terrace are always spelled out, no matter what.
I know the report had drive abbreviated, but our job as journalists is to translate anything except direct citations and quotes into AP style.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
JRN 200: Multimedia Dowloads Are Here!
From these hyperlinks, you can download both Journalism 2.0 (in either the English, Spanish or Portuguese versions; whatever ya want. Knock yerself out) and the Reporters Guide to Multimedia Proficiency.
Please download BOTH free texts and read each in its entirety (close to 200 pages total) before class on Thursday, Oct. 25.
Also, please read Reporting For The Media Ch. 14 (p. 353-373) by that same date.
Plus, please set up FREE accounts at YouTube.com, blogger.com and twitter.com for use in class, no later than Oct. 25. You may use personal social media accounts, but please be aware that if you do, I will see your personal content and your friends will see your class content. If this is a problem, please set up class-only accounts as needed.
Finally, if you have a Flip camera or some sort of video-recording equipment, please start bringing it to class on Oct. 25.
Thanks!
Please download BOTH free texts and read each in its entirety (close to 200 pages total) before class on Thursday, Oct. 25.
Also, please read Reporting For The Media Ch. 14 (p. 353-373) by that same date.
Plus, please set up FREE accounts at YouTube.com, blogger.com and twitter.com for use in class, no later than Oct. 25. You may use personal social media accounts, but please be aware that if you do, I will see your personal content and your friends will see your class content. If this is a problem, please set up class-only accounts as needed.
Finally, if you have a Flip camera or some sort of video-recording equipment, please start bringing it to class on Oct. 25.
Thanks!
911: Those F@#*ingt Fatals
We had four people fatal at least once on this exercise.
In one instance, we wrote, The brave actions of a 6-year-old girl led to the arrest and conviction of her mother's alleged rapist.
Problem is, a conviction comes only after a trial. We had no information that there had been a trial; only that the individual had just been arrested and charged with the crime.
In a second instance, we alternately spelled the suspect's last name as Caspinwall (which is the correct spelling) and Caspinwell. And in a third instance, we alternately spelled the suspect's last name as Caspinwill and Capinwall, both of which are incorrect.
We know the deal here; we need to double-check names and facts and numbers after we finish writing to make sure what we wrote was what we intended to write; and we need to make sure we used names and terms and numbers consistently, and fix any inconsistencies.
In a fourth instance, we wrote bail was $25,000. In fact, it was $250,000. Same advice as the spelling fatal. And in the same story, we reported the alleged rape as having happened on Madison Avenue. In fact, it was Wilson Avenue. Again, same advice as the spelling fatal.
For the semester, we now have 15 out of 18 people with at least one fact fatal. Only three of you to go.
In one instance, we wrote, The brave actions of a 6-year-old girl led to the arrest and conviction of her mother's alleged rapist.
Problem is, a conviction comes only after a trial. We had no information that there had been a trial; only that the individual had just been arrested and charged with the crime.
In a second instance, we alternately spelled the suspect's last name as Caspinwall (which is the correct spelling) and Caspinwell. And in a third instance, we alternately spelled the suspect's last name as Caspinwill and Capinwall, both of which are incorrect.
We know the deal here; we need to double-check names and facts and numbers after we finish writing to make sure what we wrote was what we intended to write; and we need to make sure we used names and terms and numbers consistently, and fix any inconsistencies.
In a fourth instance, we wrote bail was $25,000. In fact, it was $250,000. Same advice as the spelling fatal. And in the same story, we reported the alleged rape as having happened on Madison Avenue. In fact, it was Wilson Avenue. Again, same advice as the spelling fatal.
For the semester, we now have 15 out of 18 people with at least one fact fatal. Only three of you to go.
911: Identification
Probably the hardest thing about this exercise for you was identification. You had competing interests at work here.
First, you should have been operating under the general journalistic premise that we do NOT name rape victims in almost all cases.
And on this point, this is where we did a bit worse than previous semesters when virtually no one did that. Here, three of you DID name the victim by name.
Earlier in this semester, we discussed when and when not to name victims in stories. In most cases we DO name victims, but a notable exception in American journalism regarded the names of rape victims.
In general, the current rule of thumb is that in weighing the benefit to society in knowing who exactly was victimized versus the harm that would come in terms of stigma to the victim, we do not name rape victims expect in rare circumstances, like a victim wanting to intentionally put a name and face to a victim to promote greater societal understanding, or a rape victim whose alleged attacker wasn't convicted in criminal court but who is facing a lawsuit for money in civil court.
This wasn't one of those times.
Then, there is the concern of making a virtual identification; that is, giving so much other information that it is easy for anybody to identify the victim.
Three of you named the victim's daughter. A daughter only has one mother, right? So that would be real easy to narrow down who the victim was if you gave the girl's name.
Also, one of you listed the exact home address where the crime took place. Only one family lives in a home, right? Again, you took a huge step in virtually identifying the victim.
Even though an exact address would expose the victim, don't readers still deserve to know where a crime took place? I mean, a story is much more relevant if it happened on your street or in your neighborhood than if it didn't. Some location is necessary to establish relevance.
A couple of you handled it in a smart way: you simply said the incident happened on Wilson Avenue. No street address included. That gave readers enough information to better set proximity, without giving away the victim's home and creating a virtual identification.
Now, what about the suspect's name? I think only under the rarest of cases would you not name the suspect. He's central to the story. As a society we need to know who among us is considered dangerous, and who among us is being locked up like a zoo animal by our authorities.
The only time in my whole journalism career when I didn't name a suspect was in a case around 1992 -- really early in my professional career -- where I was covering the trial of a teen accused of raping his own mother.
My editors went back-and-forth on how to handle it before deciding they wouldn't name the victim or the suspect, because naming the latter would identify the former. And there was a big ol' editor's note added ahead of my lede to explain their reasoning.
So exceptions are rare. Either the circumstances are amazingly twisted and unique or the suspects are juveniles and a particular media organization has rules about naming kids.
Again, this ain't one of 'em.
I also thought important to the story was noting that Caspinwall was a neighbor of the victim. Readers need to know if this crime was totally random or if there was some sort of link between the victim and attacker. Readers have more reason to worry if someone is willy-nilly breaking into random homes, as opposed to attacking a neighbor, right?
But only about half of you noted the link.
Note I say Caspinwall was a neighbor, not her direct neighbor. A neighbor -- or even better, a nearby neighbor -- could be somebody next door or down the street, right? So using neighbor in the generic doesn't necessarily narrow the possible victim pool to a single house or two.
Next, is the suspect's home address needed? I think some identification of where he lives is noteworthy. Wouldn't readers really want to know if an alleged rapist and home invader lived by them? Wouldn't you?
Also, there was something else that I think you owed the reader: an explanation of why you weren't naming the girl or listing her exact address.
Even though you're following journalistic rules, your readers probably don't know those rules and may simply be wondering, why the hell aren't there any names or exact addresses in this story? It wouldn't have hurt to have a simple background sentence somewhere in the story, like this:
The names of the girl and victim and the exact address where the crime occurred is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim.
That way, you are being transparent with readers about why they're not getting the level of information that other non-rape stories would include. A couple of you did do something along those lines.
Admittedly, this was a confusing exercise. You had many different factors tugging at you. It's really a tough situation for a young reporter to find himself or herself in. In a real-world setting, you'd definitely want to bring an editor in the loop to help make the best judgments that give the readers the most information while at the same time minimizing harm to the victim.
But here, I wanted to test your judgment and see how you responded. And I figured you'd appreciate the lesson much more if we did it this way, as opposed to just lecturing about it.
And in all fairness to you, how you handled these circumstances were a smaller-than-usual part of your assignment grade here. I gave you a break because I didn't want you to suffer a penalty on this one, but I did want you to have to think about it before we discussed it now.
Finally, this is how I would have handled it: I WOULD NOT name the victim or the girl. I WOULD name the suspect and even use HIS home address. I'd say the victim lived nearby, but I wouldn't specifically say they were direct neighbors.
That way, readers know who did this (and know exactly where the sicko lived) and the general area where the crime occurred and that it wasn't a random crime, while at the same time limiting the ability to identify who the victim was.
This is the sort of stuff you'll have to think about all the time in deciding what is the best way to tell your story.
First, you should have been operating under the general journalistic premise that we do NOT name rape victims in almost all cases.
And on this point, this is where we did a bit worse than previous semesters when virtually no one did that. Here, three of you DID name the victim by name.
Earlier in this semester, we discussed when and when not to name victims in stories. In most cases we DO name victims, but a notable exception in American journalism regarded the names of rape victims.
In general, the current rule of thumb is that in weighing the benefit to society in knowing who exactly was victimized versus the harm that would come in terms of stigma to the victim, we do not name rape victims expect in rare circumstances, like a victim wanting to intentionally put a name and face to a victim to promote greater societal understanding, or a rape victim whose alleged attacker wasn't convicted in criminal court but who is facing a lawsuit for money in civil court.
This wasn't one of those times.
Then, there is the concern of making a virtual identification; that is, giving so much other information that it is easy for anybody to identify the victim.
Three of you named the victim's daughter. A daughter only has one mother, right? So that would be real easy to narrow down who the victim was if you gave the girl's name.
Also, one of you listed the exact home address where the crime took place. Only one family lives in a home, right? Again, you took a huge step in virtually identifying the victim.
Even though an exact address would expose the victim, don't readers still deserve to know where a crime took place? I mean, a story is much more relevant if it happened on your street or in your neighborhood than if it didn't. Some location is necessary to establish relevance.
A couple of you handled it in a smart way: you simply said the incident happened on Wilson Avenue. No street address included. That gave readers enough information to better set proximity, without giving away the victim's home and creating a virtual identification.
Now, what about the suspect's name? I think only under the rarest of cases would you not name the suspect. He's central to the story. As a society we need to know who among us is considered dangerous, and who among us is being locked up like a zoo animal by our authorities.
The only time in my whole journalism career when I didn't name a suspect was in a case around 1992 -- really early in my professional career -- where I was covering the trial of a teen accused of raping his own mother.
My editors went back-and-forth on how to handle it before deciding they wouldn't name the victim or the suspect, because naming the latter would identify the former. And there was a big ol' editor's note added ahead of my lede to explain their reasoning.
So exceptions are rare. Either the circumstances are amazingly twisted and unique or the suspects are juveniles and a particular media organization has rules about naming kids.
Again, this ain't one of 'em.
I also thought important to the story was noting that Caspinwall was a neighbor of the victim. Readers need to know if this crime was totally random or if there was some sort of link between the victim and attacker. Readers have more reason to worry if someone is willy-nilly breaking into random homes, as opposed to attacking a neighbor, right?
But only about half of you noted the link.
Note I say Caspinwall was a neighbor, not her direct neighbor. A neighbor -- or even better, a nearby neighbor -- could be somebody next door or down the street, right? So using neighbor in the generic doesn't necessarily narrow the possible victim pool to a single house or two.
Next, is the suspect's home address needed? I think some identification of where he lives is noteworthy. Wouldn't readers really want to know if an alleged rapist and home invader lived by them? Wouldn't you?
Also, there was something else that I think you owed the reader: an explanation of why you weren't naming the girl or listing her exact address.
Even though you're following journalistic rules, your readers probably don't know those rules and may simply be wondering, why the hell aren't there any names or exact addresses in this story? It wouldn't have hurt to have a simple background sentence somewhere in the story, like this:
The names of the girl and victim and the exact address where the crime occurred is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim.
That way, you are being transparent with readers about why they're not getting the level of information that other non-rape stories would include. A couple of you did do something along those lines.
Admittedly, this was a confusing exercise. You had many different factors tugging at you. It's really a tough situation for a young reporter to find himself or herself in. In a real-world setting, you'd definitely want to bring an editor in the loop to help make the best judgments that give the readers the most information while at the same time minimizing harm to the victim.
But here, I wanted to test your judgment and see how you responded. And I figured you'd appreciate the lesson much more if we did it this way, as opposed to just lecturing about it.
And in all fairness to you, how you handled these circumstances were a smaller-than-usual part of your assignment grade here. I gave you a break because I didn't want you to suffer a penalty on this one, but I did want you to have to think about it before we discussed it now.
Finally, this is how I would have handled it: I WOULD NOT name the victim or the girl. I WOULD name the suspect and even use HIS home address. I'd say the victim lived nearby, but I wouldn't specifically say they were direct neighbors.
That way, readers know who did this (and know exactly where the sicko lived) and the general area where the crime occurred and that it wasn't a random crime, while at the same time limiting the ability to identify who the victim was.
This is the sort of stuff you'll have to think about all the time in deciding what is the best way to tell your story.
911: Allegedly
Did Andrew Caspinwall rape his neighbor?
Not exactly. Caspinwall allegedly raped his neighbor. He allegedly broke into the home, too.
Until someone is convicted in court, they are alleged to have done criminal actions.
Not exactly. Caspinwall allegedly raped his neighbor. He allegedly broke into the home, too.
Until someone is convicted in court, they are alleged to have done criminal actions.
911: Quotes
A big part of this story -- if not the central focus of this story --
was the little girl's bravery. And you had some telling quotes in the
911 transcript, like these:
Somebody's hurting my mommy.
Hurry. My mommy's crying.
My mommy. What'll happen to my mommy?
I'm afraid. Will he hurt me, too?
Great quotes. They're telling. They set context in a special way -- they sound like things you'd imagine a 6-year-old girl would say, right?
Yet some of you didn't use any quotes in your articles!
We've talked about the concept of showing and not just telling readers; that is, don't just tell them something happened; show them the proof.
Those quotes are the "show" part. Don't be afraid to use quotes that support and prove your key points.
Also, the quotes also humanize the story. It's not the dry legal jargon of a crime taking place; it's the quivering voice of a scared little girl. It emphasizes people, and when it comes down to it, all stories are not crime stories or business stories or political stories; they are all people stories -- stories about what happened to people, or what people did, or what may affect people.
Let the humanity shine through in your stories, when possible. Such quotes aren't necessary, but they do help.
Somebody's hurting my mommy.
Hurry. My mommy's crying.
My mommy. What'll happen to my mommy?
I'm afraid. Will he hurt me, too?
Great quotes. They're telling. They set context in a special way -- they sound like things you'd imagine a 6-year-old girl would say, right?
Yet some of you didn't use any quotes in your articles!
We've talked about the concept of showing and not just telling readers; that is, don't just tell them something happened; show them the proof.
Those quotes are the "show" part. Don't be afraid to use quotes that support and prove your key points.
Also, the quotes also humanize the story. It's not the dry legal jargon of a crime taking place; it's the quivering voice of a scared little girl. It emphasizes people, and when it comes down to it, all stories are not crime stories or business stories or political stories; they are all people stories -- stories about what happened to people, or what people did, or what may affect people.
Let the humanity shine through in your stories, when possible. Such quotes aren't necessary, but they do help.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Speech/Meeting: A Few Fatals
Sorry to see a total of three fatals on these exercise.
In one instance in the speech assignment, we referred to Michigan 's Surgeon General Tom Izzo. In fact, he is the U.S. Surgeon general who was speaking at the Michigan PTA convention in East Lansing.
Please make sure you are double-checking the titles of individuals, and that what you wrote matches what is in your notes.
In another instance of the speech assignment, we offered this quote:
"They are serving up new treats 0 and new tricks.
This was the actual quote:
"They are serving up new treats -- and new tricks."
We accidentally replaced the hyphen with the number zero, and we left out the closed quote mark indicating the end of a quote.
In the meeting assignment, we identified one speaker as Charrow Lane. In fact, according to the information that was an address; the speaker was Roy E. Cross, who lives at 101 Charow Lane. (And yes, we also misspelled Charow as Charrow, so that's a double-fatal.)
Again, please make sure you go through your work line-by-line, fact-by-fact and quite-by-quote, comparing what you wrote to the information in your notes; and make sure what you intended to write was, in fact, what you wrote.
For those of you keeping score, 14 of 18 of you are now members in good standing of the JRN 200 Fatals Club.
Still, except for the fatals explosion with the first out-of-class story, you all have done an exceptional job of minimizing fatals this term. Let's make sure we stay vigilant and keep those fatals at bay, especially with future out-of-class stories, okay?
In one instance in the speech assignment, we referred to Michigan 's Surgeon General Tom Izzo. In fact, he is the U.S. Surgeon general who was speaking at the Michigan PTA convention in East Lansing.
Please make sure you are double-checking the titles of individuals, and that what you wrote matches what is in your notes.
In another instance of the speech assignment, we offered this quote:
"They are serving up new treats 0 and new tricks.
This was the actual quote:
"They are serving up new treats -- and new tricks."
We accidentally replaced the hyphen with the number zero, and we left out the closed quote mark indicating the end of a quote.
In the meeting assignment, we identified one speaker as Charrow Lane. In fact, according to the information that was an address; the speaker was Roy E. Cross, who lives at 101 Charow Lane. (And yes, we also misspelled Charow as Charrow, so that's a double-fatal.)
Again, please make sure you go through your work line-by-line, fact-by-fact and quite-by-quote, comparing what you wrote to the information in your notes; and make sure what you intended to write was, in fact, what you wrote.
For those of you keeping score, 14 of 18 of you are now members in good standing of the JRN 200 Fatals Club.
Still, except for the fatals explosion with the first out-of-class story, you all have done an exceptional job of minimizing fatals this term. Let's make sure we stay vigilant and keep those fatals at bay, especially with future out-of-class stories, okay?
Meeting: Ledes
Ledes got a bit choppy in this exercise.
I suspect a large part of that came when you didn't have one dominant idea to hook your lede upon; instead, one approach many of you took was to have a lede with multiple angles, which is one legitimate way to do it.
Problem is, in doing so many of you reverted back to old habits and overlooked some basic lede rules.
Let's look at some hypothetical ledes on this exercise, which included multiple items worth writing about. First, there's this one:
The Grand Ledge School Board discussed several issues at its meeting last night.
That lede doesn't have any errors, but it doesn't say anything. That's the problem, readers don't know what they were doing. It would be like doing a sports lede that read like this:
The MSU football team played a game Saturday night.
Not a lede that works, right? So let's evolve the school lede to include what those issues were, like this:
The Grand Ledge School Board discussed its budget, evolution vs. creationism in textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.
That's better, but it's still short in that it doesn't go to end result; that is, what ended up happening. Again, let's do a comparable sports lede:
The MSU football team played Notre Dame Saturday night.
Again, a lede you would never write. So let's now add ultimate outcome to the school lede, like this:
The Grand Ledge School Board approved a new budget and voted to keep evolution-based textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.
Now, readers know what was discussed, and what happened, And the football lede will now do the same:
The MSU football team beat Notre Dame 63-0 Saturday night.
When working on ledes, think about ultimate outcome and end result. Think about bringing up what happened, and not just that something happened. Be specific and conclusive.
I suspect a large part of that came when you didn't have one dominant idea to hook your lede upon; instead, one approach many of you took was to have a lede with multiple angles, which is one legitimate way to do it.
Problem is, in doing so many of you reverted back to old habits and overlooked some basic lede rules.
Let's look at some hypothetical ledes on this exercise, which included multiple items worth writing about. First, there's this one:
The Grand Ledge School Board discussed several issues at its meeting last night.
That lede doesn't have any errors, but it doesn't say anything. That's the problem, readers don't know what they were doing. It would be like doing a sports lede that read like this:
The MSU football team played a game Saturday night.
Not a lede that works, right? So let's evolve the school lede to include what those issues were, like this:
The Grand Ledge School Board discussed its budget, evolution vs. creationism in textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.
That's better, but it's still short in that it doesn't go to end result; that is, what ended up happening. Again, let's do a comparable sports lede:
The MSU football team played Notre Dame Saturday night.
Again, a lede you would never write. So let's now add ultimate outcome to the school lede, like this:
The Grand Ledge School Board approved a new budget and voted to keep evolution-based textbooks and summer school at its meeting last night.
Now, readers know what was discussed, and what happened, And the football lede will now do the same:
The MSU football team beat Notre Dame 63-0 Saturday night.
When working on ledes, think about ultimate outcome and end result. Think about bringing up what happened, and not just that something happened. Be specific and conclusive.
Meeting: Ledeing A Subsection
With subsections of stories, you want to lede with the end result first, just like with a lede.
What some of you did, though, was lede a subsection with something like, something was discussed, and then ended the subsection with the end result, like the board approved the plan.
What you wanted to do was start the subsection with, something was approved by the board, and then detailed what the proposal was and what discussions took place.
So let's look at a hypothetical subsection done right, and wrong. First, the wrong:
In other business, the board discussed creationism vs. evolution in textbooks. The current books feature evolution.
"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.
Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "Thaat's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."
In the end, the board voted 10-0 to keep the current books.
Now, the right way to do it:
In other business, the board voted 10-0 to keep current textbooks that teach evolution. Some parents had argued for a switch to the teaching of creationism.
"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.
Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "That's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."
See the difference? In the latter version, we know right away at the start of the subsection what was the end result. Just like a lede. Think of subsections as mini-stories, and look for the mini-story lede to go to end result and ultimate outcome.
What some of you did, though, was lede a subsection with something like, something was discussed, and then ended the subsection with the end result, like the board approved the plan.
What you wanted to do was start the subsection with, something was approved by the board, and then detailed what the proposal was and what discussions took place.
So let's look at a hypothetical subsection done right, and wrong. First, the wrong:
In other business, the board discussed creationism vs. evolution in textbooks. The current books feature evolution.
"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.
Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "Thaat's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."
In the end, the board voted 10-0 to keep the current books.
Now, the right way to do it:
In other business, the board voted 10-0 to keep current textbooks that teach evolution. Some parents had argued for a switch to the teaching of creationism.
"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.
Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "That's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."
See the difference? In the latter version, we know right away at the start of the subsection what was the end result. Just like a lede. Think of subsections as mini-stories, and look for the mini-story lede to go to end result and ultimate outcome.
Meeting: Transitional Phrases
In stories where you have multiple sub-issues, like a meeting story,
it's helpful to have a new subsection started with a transitional
phrase, like
In other business, the board ...
Also, the board ...
In other news ...
Also at the meeting ...
Also approved (or rejected) was ...
Such transitional phrases help clearly delineate when reporting on one matter ends and another begins.
In other business, the board ...
Also, the board ...
In other news ...
Also at the meeting ...
Also approved (or rejected) was ...
Such transitional phrases help clearly delineate when reporting on one matter ends and another begins.
Meeting: Did You ...
Write about everything that happened at the meeting? Or just the things you thought were most newsworthy?
And how would you rank the newsworthiness of the items that took place at the meeting? These were the things, in order of occurence:
1. Retiring teachers honored
2. New budget approved that includes construction of a new school, pay raises
3. Board keeps summer school intact
4. Board decides to keep current biology textbooks and not teach creationism
5. School volunteers honored
Does the order of importance match? How would you rank these things, in terms of importance?
The importance ranking should match your order of presentation.
Our job as journalists isn't to necessarily record everything, and put things in the order in which it took place. That's stenography. Rather, we decide what was most important, and rank things in the order of importance.
What did you do, and why?
And how would you rank the newsworthiness of the items that took place at the meeting? These were the things, in order of occurence:
1. Retiring teachers honored
2. New budget approved that includes construction of a new school, pay raises
3. Board keeps summer school intact
4. Board decides to keep current biology textbooks and not teach creationism
5. School volunteers honored
Does the order of importance match? How would you rank these things, in terms of importance?
The importance ranking should match your order of presentation.
Our job as journalists isn't to necessarily record everything, and put things in the order in which it took place. That's stenography. Rather, we decide what was most important, and rank things in the order of importance.
What did you do, and why?
Meeting: A Good Example Of A Well-Done Story
Note the to-the-point lede and the strong nut graf and telling quotes tight grafs and ranking of information in order of importance and newsworthiness. Here we go:
The Grand Ledge school board voted
to keep using the same biology textbooks in Grand Ledge schools last night
despite complaints from citizens that the books do not teach creationism.
After a lively public hearing that
about 100 people attended, the board voted 6-3 to continue using the current
textbooks.
“We’ve seen your biology books,” Grand
Ledge parent Claire Sawyer said. “I don’t want my children using them. They
never mention the theory of creationism.”
The debate went back and forth
among members of the public in attendance.
“Evolution isn’t a theory,” Grand
Ledge parent Harley Euon said. “It’s a proven fact. Creationism is a religious
idea, not even a scientific theory. People here are trying to force schools to
teach our children their religion.”
After the vote in favor of the
current textbooks, the board said they encourage parents to discuss the matter
of creationism versus evolution in their individual homes.
In other discussion, the board
opted to continue remedial summer classes for one more year, but to examine
whether the remedial classes are worth their cost.
The classes, which the board said
cost about $2.1 million, are set to stay for at least one more year after a 7-2
vote.
The classes are only used by about
900 students each summer, according to board member Umberto Vacante.
“If we’re going to spend that kind
of money, I think we should use it to help and reward our most talented
students,” Vacante said. “They’re the ones we ignore. We could offer special
programs for them.”
Superintendent Greg Hubbard
disagreed with Vacante’s assessment.
“Some of these summer students have
learning disabilities and emotional problems, and they really need the help,”
Hubbard said. “This would hurt them terribly. Without it, they might never
graduate.”
In budget discussions, the board
announced that $9.3 million of the $618.7 million in next year’s budget will be
spent on the construction of a new elementary school on West Madison Avenue.
The school will be completed and open in two years, the board said.
The school will be completed and open in two years, the board said.
The board said teachers and
administrators are set to receive wage increases of 4.5 percent and six
percent, respectively.
Meeting: You Don't Need "That"!
"That" is one of the most unneeded words ever. Let's look at this sentence:
The board said that in its decision that parents should talk to their children about the issue and provide their home with the religious training that they feel to be most appropriate.
Now, let's get rid of the three references to "that." This is what's left:
The board said in its decision parents should talk to their children about the issue and provide their home with the religious training they feel to be most appropriate.
Now, what's different? Besides the loss of an unnecessary word?
Most of the time, you don't need "that."
The board said that in its decision that parents should talk to their children about the issue and provide their home with the religious training that they feel to be most appropriate.
Now, let's get rid of the three references to "that." This is what's left:
The board said in its decision parents should talk to their children about the issue and provide their home with the religious training they feel to be most appropriate.
Now, what's different? Besides the loss of an unnecessary word?
Most of the time, you don't need "that."
Speech: The News Is The News!
Make sure you state not just that something took place, but what it
was precisely that took place. This otherwise-solid lede did not:
U.S. Surgeon General Tom Izzo spoke at a Michigan PTA convention in East Lansing yesterday about the issue of alcohol consumption among adolescents.
The problem here is you don't know what he said. Did he say he thought it was bad or great? That he thought it was awful? Or that he encourages all kids to get blotto?
You simply don't know based on what you offer. This next lede was much clearer:
U.S. Surgeon General Tom Izzo criticized the alcohol industry for targeting Halloween as their latest marketing opportunity at the Michigan PTA convention in East Lansing yesterday.
Note how it doesn't just say Izzo spoke about the alcohol industry; it says he criticized it. Correctly finding and using such a word to describe the contents of what he said is teh difference between a vague lede and an exact one.
Finally, just for the hell of it, let's look at what I thought was a very nice lede/nut graf/telling quote combo:
So much to like here. First, a specific lede that I think fairly uses the work passionate. That word isn't based on your opinion; rather, it's based on your viewing his words in whole through conventional wisdom and factual basis. His argument had an edge to it, right? So, you're not offering an opinion, but an analysis.
That's the difference. An opinion is based on your feelings. Analysis is based on your reasonable interpretation of facts.
Second, the nut graf expands upon the lede. The lede says Izzo condemned the alcohol industry; the nut graf says how and why -- because of its marketing that promotes kids drinking.
Finally, you bring things full circle with your telling quote, so that readers don't have to take your word for it that Izzo was passionate and condemning -- you show the reader Izzo's words.
U.S. Surgeon General Tom Izzo spoke at a Michigan PTA convention in East Lansing yesterday about the issue of alcohol consumption among adolescents.
The problem here is you don't know what he said. Did he say he thought it was bad or great? That he thought it was awful? Or that he encourages all kids to get blotto?
You simply don't know based on what you offer. This next lede was much clearer:
U.S. Surgeon General Tom Izzo criticized the alcohol industry for targeting Halloween as their latest marketing opportunity at the Michigan PTA convention in East Lansing yesterday.
Note how it doesn't just say Izzo spoke about the alcohol industry; it says he criticized it. Correctly finding and using such a word to describe the contents of what he said is teh difference between a vague lede and an exact one.
Finally, just for the hell of it, let's look at what I thought was a very nice lede/nut graf/telling quote combo:
U.S.
Surgeon General Tom Izzo delivered a passionate speech condemning the
alcohol industry’s target of the traditional children’s holiday,
Halloween, at the Michigan Parent Teacher Association meeting in East Lansing last night.
In
the speech, Izzo shared his concern of the alcohol industry’s festive
marketing techniques this year and how it’s association with Halloween
is promoting dangerous alcohol consumption among youth.
“This year the alcohol industry has given new meaning to those innocent words of childhood. They are serving up new treats –and new tricks,” said Izzo.
So much to like here. First, a specific lede that I think fairly uses the work passionate. That word isn't based on your opinion; rather, it's based on your viewing his words in whole through conventional wisdom and factual basis. His argument had an edge to it, right? So, you're not offering an opinion, but an analysis.
That's the difference. An opinion is based on your feelings. Analysis is based on your reasonable interpretation of facts.
Second, the nut graf expands upon the lede. The lede says Izzo condemned the alcohol industry; the nut graf says how and why -- because of its marketing that promotes kids drinking.
Finally, you bring things full circle with your telling quote, so that readers don't have to take your word for it that Izzo was passionate and condemning -- you show the reader Izzo's words.
Speech: How Do You Know ...
. . . this?
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 4.6 million teenagers have a drinking problem.
This is kind of a trick question. You DON'T know this because the NIAAA told you, or because you read their report. You know it because Izzo cited the report, right?
So, correct attribution would be something like this:
Izzo said 4.6 million teenagers have a drinking problem, citing National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism figures.
Be sure to attribute a source, or even the source of a source, if need be.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 4.6 million teenagers have a drinking problem.
This is kind of a trick question. You DON'T know this because the NIAAA told you, or because you read their report. You know it because Izzo cited the report, right?
So, correct attribution would be something like this:
Izzo said 4.6 million teenagers have a drinking problem, citing National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism figures.
Be sure to attribute a source, or even the source of a source, if need be.
Speech: Good Quote
This one was:
"Let us not make this year, the year they robbed the kids of Halloween," Izzo said. "For their sake and our own, let us keep Halloween sane, safe -- and sober."
Telling quote. It really got to the point of what many of you hooked your stories upon.
Then why did so many of you use it late in your stories?
The better a quote and the more it directly supports your central premise of key premises of your story, the more prominent and higher up that quote should be.
Many of you ended your stories with a great quote, like this one. I get the feeling that you're trying to create what in writing is called a satisfying ending; one that offers a conclusion.
In traditional English composition, such a conclusion is necessary. In journalism, since we start with the conclusion it is not. On most regular straight news stories, it's completely fine to simply let the story trail off, even if it seems like the ending is abrupt.
If you're writing in inverted pyramid style, you rank information in the order of importance, so your story should essentially trail off. If you're writing a chronology, you can stop writing just short of the conclusion since your reader will already know how things ended; they learned that in the lede.
The notable exception would be if you were writing some sort of feature narrative, which we really don't get into in this class. So, nyah.
"Let us not make this year, the year they robbed the kids of Halloween," Izzo said. "For their sake and our own, let us keep Halloween sane, safe -- and sober."
Telling quote. It really got to the point of what many of you hooked your stories upon.
Then why did so many of you use it late in your stories?
The better a quote and the more it directly supports your central premise of key premises of your story, the more prominent and higher up that quote should be.
Many of you ended your stories with a great quote, like this one. I get the feeling that you're trying to create what in writing is called a satisfying ending; one that offers a conclusion.
In traditional English composition, such a conclusion is necessary. In journalism, since we start with the conclusion it is not. On most regular straight news stories, it's completely fine to simply let the story trail off, even if it seems like the ending is abrupt.
If you're writing in inverted pyramid style, you rank information in the order of importance, so your story should essentially trail off. If you're writing a chronology, you can stop writing just short of the conclusion since your reader will already know how things ended; they learned that in the lede.
The notable exception would be if you were writing some sort of feature narrative, which we really don't get into in this class. So, nyah.
Speech: If This Were A Real Story ...
. . . who, if anybody, would you contact for reaction/rebuttals/comment after the meeting?
Speech: No First-Person!
In journalism, we do not use first-person references outside of quotes.
That means if you are writing about problems facing our youths, you need to take out the "our" and either leave it unfilled or replace it with something that's non-first-personish, like the nation's youths.
Using first-person references betray our standing as unbiased observers with no personal stake in the outcome.
Our, we, I ... if not in a quote, take it out.
That means if you are writing about problems facing our youths, you need to take out the "our" and either leave it unfilled or replace it with something that's non-first-personish, like the nation's youths.
Using first-person references betray our standing as unbiased observers with no personal stake in the outcome.
Our, we, I ... if not in a quote, take it out.
Speech: Punctuation and Quotes
Still having some serious problems on punctuation and capitalization around quotes.
When a quote ends a sentence, followed by attribution, then the end of the quote gets a comma -- even if the quote was the source's spoken word -- and the attribution which follows is lower-case.
So if I say this:
"You guys rock."
Then this is how it should read:
"You guys rock," Omar said.
And this is NOT how it should read:
"You guys rock." Said Omar.
Also, general journalistic practice is to simply say said, even repeatedly and without having to come up with a different word for "said." I know it looks weird, having graf after graf with he said and she said and whomever said, but in journalism we just use said over and over and over again.
No matter how much I've been marking up people's papers with copy-editing symbols noting how it should be, it seems like the same mistakes are being made over and over.
Please made sure you are reading your returned papers and following my copy-editing marks as translated by the handout you got during the first few days of class.
When a quote ends a sentence, followed by attribution, then the end of the quote gets a comma -- even if the quote was the source's spoken word -- and the attribution which follows is lower-case.
So if I say this:
"You guys rock."
Then this is how it should read:
"You guys rock," Omar said.
And this is NOT how it should read:
"You guys rock." Said Omar.
Also, general journalistic practice is to simply say said, even repeatedly and without having to come up with a different word for "said." I know it looks weird, having graf after graf with he said and she said and whomever said, but in journalism we just use said over and over and over again.
No matter how much I've been marking up people's papers with copy-editing symbols noting how it should be, it seems like the same mistakes are being made over and over.
Please made sure you are reading your returned papers and following my copy-editing marks as translated by the handout you got during the first few days of class.
Speech: A Good Example Of A Story Well Done
Just a nice example of a good lede, good attribution, and a good sprinkling of facts and quotes.
Halloween used to be about costumes
and candy, but kids are now being tricked to associate the holiday with a new
treat — alcohol.
Yesterday,
just days before Halloween, Surgeon General Tom Izzo spoke at a PTA convention
in East Lansing about how alcohol has bombarded Halloween.
“Halloween
and hops do not mix,” Izzo said.
Izzo
said the wide acceptance of alcohol could be part of the reasoning behind why
young people drink.
Izzo
said according to the National Coalition on Television Violence, the average
American child sees 75,000 drinking scenes on television before the age of 18.
“Alcohol
is the number one substance abuse problem among America’s youth,” Izzo said. “In
fact, it is the only drug whose use has not been declining, according to our
most recent National High School Senior Survey.”
Izzo
said according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,
currently 4.6 million teens have a drinking problem.
Izzo
said alcohol affects most organs, and can be contributed to diseases such as
hypertension and cancer of the esophagus.
“Let
us not make this year the year they robbed the kids of Halloween,” Izzo said.
“For their sake and our own, let us keep Halloween sane, safe — and sober.”
Speech: Titles and Commas
If you have a formal title ahead of a name, then there is no need for a separating comma and you do capitalize the title. So you do this:
U.S. Surgeon General Tom Izzo said ...
...and NOT this ...
U.S. Surgeon General, Tom Izzo said ...
... in the same way you would say this:
Capt. Crunch said ....
... but NOT this ...
Capt., Crunch said ...
Now, if that title is not being used as a direct title, but as an identifier separate from the name, then do use lower case and commas, like this:
The U.S. surgeon general, Tom Izzo, said ...
... and this ...
Tom Izzo, the U.S. surgeon general, said ...
... and this ...
Crunch, a captain, said ...
... and this, too ...
A captain, Crunch, said ...
U.S. Surgeon General Tom Izzo said ...
...and NOT this ...
U.S. Surgeon General, Tom Izzo said ...
... in the same way you would say this:
Capt. Crunch said ....
... but NOT this ...
Capt., Crunch said ...
Now, if that title is not being used as a direct title, but as an identifier separate from the name, then do use lower case and commas, like this:
The U.S. surgeon general, Tom Izzo, said ...
... and this ...
Tom Izzo, the U.S. surgeon general, said ...
... and this ...
Crunch, a captain, said ...
... and this, too ...
A captain, Crunch, said ...
Speech/Meeting: Writing With (AP) Style
Is it an eighth-grader or an 8th-grader or an eighth grader?
It's the middle one. AP Style, under grade, grader:
Hyphenate in combining forms: a fourth-grade pupil, a 12th-grade student, first-grader, 10th-grader.
Note there is no exception made from the general AP numbers rule of spell out numbers under 10, and use digits for 10 and above. Also note that the examples given appear to adhere to that rule.
Now, in first reference is it PTA or Parent-Teacher Association? Did anybody look under PTA?
Finally, if the number is at the start of a sentence, do you spell it out regardless? You tell me. We've been over this one time and time again.
Please review AP Style under grade, grader and numerals.
Is it 5 percent, or 5%, or five percent, or five %?
It's 5 percent, with "percent" spelled out and the number 5. And even though the number is under 10, whenever a percentage is used then the numeral should be presented as a digit, and not spelled out.
How do I know all this? AP Style, under percent.
Also, we're still having some issues with properly labeling streets. Let's revisit AP Style, under addresses:
Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.
Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures with two letters for 10th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St.
Before the end of the semester, we are going to have an AP Style quiz that will be equal in weight to roughly NINE current events quizzes. So be sure to be boning up on your AP Style!
It's the middle one. AP Style, under grade, grader:
Hyphenate in combining forms: a fourth-grade pupil, a 12th-grade student, first-grader, 10th-grader.
Note there is no exception made from the general AP numbers rule of spell out numbers under 10, and use digits for 10 and above. Also note that the examples given appear to adhere to that rule.
Now, in first reference is it PTA or Parent-Teacher Association? Did anybody look under PTA?
Finally, if the number is at the start of a sentence, do you spell it out regardless? You tell me. We've been over this one time and time again.
Please review AP Style under grade, grader and numerals.
Is it 5 percent, or 5%, or five percent, or five %?
It's 5 percent, with "percent" spelled out and the number 5. And even though the number is under 10, whenever a percentage is used then the numeral should be presented as a digit, and not spelled out.
How do I know all this? AP Style, under percent.
Also, we're still having some issues with properly labeling streets. Let's revisit AP Style, under addresses:
Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd. and St. only with a numbered address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number: Pennsylvania Avenue. Lowercase and spell out when used alone or with more than one street name: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues.
Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures with two letters for 10th and above: 7 Fifth Ave., 100 21st St.
Before the end of the semester, we are going to have an AP Style quiz that will be equal in weight to roughly NINE current events quizzes. So be sure to be boning up on your AP Style!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Out-of-Class #1: Some Good News, Some Bad
Some people did very well on the first out-of-class story. Nice ledes, good attribution, a nice range of sources from different perspectives and sides of an issue, and a lot of original reporting that didn't rely on what you found online from some other news source.
Then again, we had some struggles. And most of those struggles are normal with a first out-of-class story, for which you have not much -- if anything -- compare it to.
There was a lack of attribution, where I didn't know where you got the information from.
There was an over-reliance on other sources for your information, as opposed to you getting quotes and data directly from first-hand sources yourself.
There were instances where you interviewed a narrow set of sources, like just one set of people in a complex issue. You may have just talked to one side of an issue but not the other or neutral experts. It seemed like some people stopped on the first and most obvious source group and didn't ask themselves, "Who else would be a good source to talk to about this? Who else would have good information that is relevant to this issue? Who would be a neutral expert, and how do I find them?"
There were some cases where stories were way too wordy and overloaded with paragraphs that took up space but really didn't advance the story or say much of anything in particular. This is journalism and not a term paper, folks; filling a story up with fluff to make the 700-word limit will get you an equally-empty grade.
And some people treated this like a term paper, rather than a news story. What I mean by that is, with a term paper you are filling up a space with relevant information to satisfy an arbitrary standard sought by a teacher.
You have presumptions, and you simply fill the space between presumptions with whatever seems to support the presumption. There really isn't much research of exploration or curiosity or even much consideration that there may very well be a surprising twist out there that may be found if you do enough digging.
And that's not journalism.
In a news story, what we are doing is exploring an issue, and investigating it like a detective would a crime scene. Yes, we have some presumptions that we start with, but during the course of our investigation we are seeking sources that either confirm or deny our presumptions or even take the story in a whole new and unexpected direction, based on following the facts.
It's just like a scientific experiment: you start out with a theory, but that theory is just a starting point. Then you fact-test the theory by gaining real-world evidence. Then, you see what the evidence says -- whether or not it has anything left to do with your original theory -- and only then you decide upon your lede and your nut graf and what information you have is worth sharing with your audience.
Still, those problems I expected. What I didn't expect was four people fataling the first out-of-class story.
That was a shock for many reasons: first, I've never had more than one person fatal any out-of-class assignment. Second, I've never had a class with this few fatals to date on practice stories. I thought fact-checking was one area we were doing pretty well.
And the frustrating thing to me was that it was clear that the fatals all came from the simplest of mistakes, and were ones where the most basic principles of fact-checking were not being followed.
One person fataled in an election story while talking about a student, saying:
Having worked at the poles before she was even old enough to vote ...
You meant polls, as in a place to vote, and not poles, as in a vertical rod, like those used by strippers.
In another case, you spelled the first name of MSU police spokeswoman Florene McGlothian-Taylor as Maureen.
We need to make sure we don't take anything for granted, and seek spellings of names even when we think it's a common name with a common spelling. Don't assume anything; if they say their name is Jack Smith, ask them if it's the common spelling and if they can spell it out, letter-by-letter.
Yes, as a professional journalist I learned this the hard way, too.
A third person fataled when they referred to the Gallup Poll (the name of the poll) as the Gallop Poll (as in, a horse that gallops). A fourth person misspelled colleges (schools of higher learning) as collages (a collection of images).
Early on in this class, I talked about how doing all the little routine things in journalism -- like thoroughly checking your work to make sure what you wrote was what you intended to write, and that it was accurate as compared to your notes and the facts -- was something that you could never take for granted. It's not.
And it has nothing to do with talent, just vigilance. In the same way American can have the best army in the world, it doesn't really matter if the one night the army takes the night off, Canada decides to invade us.
Or if we're trying to stay in shape, and instead of running our miles every day we start to cut corners and slack here and there. Eventually, the pounds will start showing.
The fact is, you could be the world's best journalist, and you still have to do all the little and annoying things -- like checking routine facts -- if you want to stay ahead of making mistakes. Because when you're processing thousands of words a day in a professional environment and on deadline, a mistake is always waiting to catch you at a lax moment and bite your ass.
It's why The New York Times has the best journalists in the world, yet they still have a copy desk.
So there's no big thing to learn from the fatals, other than if we want to do things the right way, we have to do things the right way completely and each and every time.
This job isn't about writing. It's about getting it right. I'm sorry some of you have to learn that lesson in a very harsh manner.
The good news is, you have a rewrite. You have other assignments. And I will offer a wide range of extra-credit opportunities that will do two things: prove to me that you can do all those little things right (along with the big things), and give you an opportunity to repair your grade and (hopefully) essentially make these fatals go away when it comes to your final grade.
But we have to start making sure we're following all the steps, every time. No more short cuts. No more assumptions.
Each and every one of you is capable of doing this, and doing it well. But we need to do all the things we're supposed to do for that to happen.
Then again, we had some struggles. And most of those struggles are normal with a first out-of-class story, for which you have not much -- if anything -- compare it to.
There was a lack of attribution, where I didn't know where you got the information from.
There was an over-reliance on other sources for your information, as opposed to you getting quotes and data directly from first-hand sources yourself.
There were instances where you interviewed a narrow set of sources, like just one set of people in a complex issue. You may have just talked to one side of an issue but not the other or neutral experts. It seemed like some people stopped on the first and most obvious source group and didn't ask themselves, "Who else would be a good source to talk to about this? Who else would have good information that is relevant to this issue? Who would be a neutral expert, and how do I find them?"
There were some cases where stories were way too wordy and overloaded with paragraphs that took up space but really didn't advance the story or say much of anything in particular. This is journalism and not a term paper, folks; filling a story up with fluff to make the 700-word limit will get you an equally-empty grade.
And some people treated this like a term paper, rather than a news story. What I mean by that is, with a term paper you are filling up a space with relevant information to satisfy an arbitrary standard sought by a teacher.
You have presumptions, and you simply fill the space between presumptions with whatever seems to support the presumption. There really isn't much research of exploration or curiosity or even much consideration that there may very well be a surprising twist out there that may be found if you do enough digging.
And that's not journalism.
In a news story, what we are doing is exploring an issue, and investigating it like a detective would a crime scene. Yes, we have some presumptions that we start with, but during the course of our investigation we are seeking sources that either confirm or deny our presumptions or even take the story in a whole new and unexpected direction, based on following the facts.
It's just like a scientific experiment: you start out with a theory, but that theory is just a starting point. Then you fact-test the theory by gaining real-world evidence. Then, you see what the evidence says -- whether or not it has anything left to do with your original theory -- and only then you decide upon your lede and your nut graf and what information you have is worth sharing with your audience.
Still, those problems I expected. What I didn't expect was four people fataling the first out-of-class story.
That was a shock for many reasons: first, I've never had more than one person fatal any out-of-class assignment. Second, I've never had a class with this few fatals to date on practice stories. I thought fact-checking was one area we were doing pretty well.
And the frustrating thing to me was that it was clear that the fatals all came from the simplest of mistakes, and were ones where the most basic principles of fact-checking were not being followed.
One person fataled in an election story while talking about a student, saying:
Having worked at the poles before she was even old enough to vote ...
You meant polls, as in a place to vote, and not poles, as in a vertical rod, like those used by strippers.
In another case, you spelled the first name of MSU police spokeswoman Florene McGlothian-Taylor as Maureen.
We need to make sure we don't take anything for granted, and seek spellings of names even when we think it's a common name with a common spelling. Don't assume anything; if they say their name is Jack Smith, ask them if it's the common spelling and if they can spell it out, letter-by-letter.
Yes, as a professional journalist I learned this the hard way, too.
A third person fataled when they referred to the Gallup Poll (the name of the poll) as the Gallop Poll (as in, a horse that gallops). A fourth person misspelled colleges (schools of higher learning) as collages (a collection of images).
Early on in this class, I talked about how doing all the little routine things in journalism -- like thoroughly checking your work to make sure what you wrote was what you intended to write, and that it was accurate as compared to your notes and the facts -- was something that you could never take for granted. It's not.
And it has nothing to do with talent, just vigilance. In the same way American can have the best army in the world, it doesn't really matter if the one night the army takes the night off, Canada decides to invade us.
Or if we're trying to stay in shape, and instead of running our miles every day we start to cut corners and slack here and there. Eventually, the pounds will start showing.
The fact is, you could be the world's best journalist, and you still have to do all the little and annoying things -- like checking routine facts -- if you want to stay ahead of making mistakes. Because when you're processing thousands of words a day in a professional environment and on deadline, a mistake is always waiting to catch you at a lax moment and bite your ass.
It's why The New York Times has the best journalists in the world, yet they still have a copy desk.
So there's no big thing to learn from the fatals, other than if we want to do things the right way, we have to do things the right way completely and each and every time.
This job isn't about writing. It's about getting it right. I'm sorry some of you have to learn that lesson in a very harsh manner.
The good news is, you have a rewrite. You have other assignments. And I will offer a wide range of extra-credit opportunities that will do two things: prove to me that you can do all those little things right (along with the big things), and give you an opportunity to repair your grade and (hopefully) essentially make these fatals go away when it comes to your final grade.
But we have to start making sure we're following all the steps, every time. No more short cuts. No more assumptions.
Each and every one of you is capable of doing this, and doing it well. But we need to do all the things we're supposed to do for that to happen.
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