Pulled Quotes

The journalists covering the Auburn University killing story for the Atlantic Journal Constitution did a quality job gathering sources that covered all the facts. Even when some sources did not yield information, measures were taken to ensure that at least mention of the missing facts were present. Lauren Burk, an 18-year old student, was murdered last Tuesday by Courtney Larrell Lockhart. The suspects mother claims that 16 month service in Iraq has changed her son, hoping that information might mitigate the judgments her son will be facing.

The byline of this article shows that this story was a collective effort utilizing other  reports as well as numerous journalists from the AJC.  This probably explains the thoroughness of the information gathered. The basic information of the events are at the beginning. The 5 W’s and the H are answered within the first handful of paragraphs including the events that supervened the murder that eventually led to his arrest: car jacking and robbery in a Newnan Wal-Mart. Within the first paragraphs, however, additional information is brought to light that sparked, as it should have, more journalistic investigation.

Firstly, mention of the suspects mother apologizing to the victim’s family is the precursor which yielded the claim that Lockharts military service is to blame for his inimical actions. This inspired the search of character witnesses that knew the suspect before his military service which can be found several more paragraphs down. Sources included neighbors who knew him when he was younger. Lockhart’s character was evinced with more information regarding his dishonorable discharge from the army after “punching a sergeant.”

Police investigators were also interviewed from Newnan, who were on the look out for Lockhart after his robbery and car jacking at a local Wal Mart. His military record was looked up, but that did not yield any crucial evidence, though there is a mention that authorities were not releasing his information.

The only sources that I would have liked to have seen interviewed were Auburn University officials describing the exact impact on the campus of the students death, additional safety measures they were planning to initiate, and other relevant, valuable information.  Perhaps a longer journalistic project can come out of all this regarding the Iraq war and it’s effects on military personnel as they are reintegrated back into our society.

Continuing our class discussion of story structure, I found myself editing a story I was reading.  Clifford Krauss’s article on the Energy Challenge was very informative, yet seemed to misuse many of the components of a well written story.  

Krauss first lead readers to believe that they were reading an article about a Texan who became rich off of his wind farm.  In reality, Krauss buried his lead in the third paragraph.  Instead, his  article focused on the Texas state initiative to lead the U.S.  in generating wind power.  Furthermore, he introduced an experts fact without attribution in the seventh paragraph. 

Moreover, Krauss switches the concentration of the article from Texas development to National development of wind energy numerous times without transitions.  Perhaps, the organization of his story can be reorganized, over even moved to grouped paragraphs on the same topic. 

Lastly, Krauss randomly drops references to Boone Pickens, who should be referenced as T. Boone Pickens.   Krauss never really connects all his information on Pickens and his investments into one section.  This diverted attention away from the importance of Pickens. 

Krauss fails to identify Pickens as the prominent tycoon who has been a leader in the oil industry, and who know has decided to invest billions of dollars into alternative energy.   This infomation should have been connected to Pickens urgency to gain a monopoly in the new alternative energy market.

In Sunday March 9th of USA Today there was an article titled, “Police: Convicted killer charged in 6 Tenn. slayings”. I thought that this article was exactly what a newspaper article should be like. It covered all the 5 W’s and provided readers with all the information needed in a short and precise way. I think that this article was a perfect example of what future journalists should follow when writing an article for a newspaper. I really liked the background information provided to readers from the police report and quotes from detectives. I thought that the writer really provided readers with the information on why this man, Dotson, killed so many people and his reasoning behind it. However, while I think that the writer provided readers with all the information necessary for this article in a short, precise way, there was still some information that I would have liked to know outside of the article.  I would have liked to know what the argument was all about that triggered the killing. I would have liked to know who Hollis Seals and Shindri Robinson were in relation to the killer. I also would have liked to know who was the source that reported and called in the homicide to the police. It would also be nice for readers to know, where the funeral services are going to be held (especially if this article was written in a local paper) and how long Dotson will be charged in jail for, for this homicide. Honestly, I thought that this article was really great and it personally provided me with all the information necessary to know about this tragic event. While I still had some questions, I do think that fulfilling all my questions asked could have been extraneous and could have made the article a little too much for readers to read.  

An article found in USA Today was entitled “100 bodies found in Baghdad mass grave,” however, this title was slightly misleading.  Upon seeing the title, I thought the entire article would be about the grave site, how it was found, and other information of that nature.  Only a small portion of the article was about this though.

The majority of the rest of the article was about the fight between the Shiites and Sunnis and the ties the United States has to the area if land that the grave was found in.  Also mentioned was the fact that the U.S. is working on a deal to solidify their presence in that area.  While this information was all quite interesting, I wanted to know more about the 100 bodies that were found, not about the politics of the area.

With a title like “100 bodies found,” the author should not surprise the reader by discussing the topic of the title for a few sentences and then change topics for the rest of the article.  It is almost like false advertisement.  As I finished reading the article, I was confused as to the point the writer was trying to make, as the information seemed to be a composite of various recent facts and events from that area.  I think that an article should focus on one main idea with various related and supporting ideas branching off of it, and this article did not accomplish this.