Pulled Quotes

This story appeared on CNN.com called ” From $70K to food bank, one family’s struggle.”  It was set up in a different way from most stories we have looked at in class and that I have seen so far.  The author tries to frame the story as a human insterest sotry by centering it around this one family with an anecdotal lead and conclusion, but the real story is hidden between those. 

 The 7th paragraph down seems to be working as a nutgraph and brings up the real reason why this story is newsworthy today–increasingly severe economic problems in the Middle-class.  I think adding this human interest aspect to the story helps make it more interesting to the reader.  And if anyone else has been looking at this like I have since I graduate soon and will have to meet this problem head-on myself, you will notice that this story also makes the problem a little easier to understand because it using this one woman’s story as a scary example of how fast and hard economic changes can happen.

 My one biggest criticism to this piece, though, is that it does wait so long to slip the larger picture in.  I feel like it could have been briefly mentioned in the lead by saying something like “Patricia Guerrero is facing a problem far too many other Americans are also facing.  She was laid off in February from a $70K job and within weeks was forced to go to a food bank.”

This is probably not the best written lead in the world, but I just want you to see what I mean.

Plus, I totally did not know the phrase was “making ends meet,” instead of “making ends meat.”  I will have to investigate and see where that came from.

In a Daytona Beach News Journal article titled, Man falls to death from hotel balcony; a story is told of a 31-year-old Ocala man who accidentally fell six stories. The article is effective in addressing the who, what, where, and when, but they why is amiss. The why is actually the most interesting aspect of this story other than the fact that he fell without any explanation. Another crucial aspect of this story is the fact that the presence of drugs and or alcohol has not been confirmed or denied. This kind of incident is prevalent in drunken spring breakers, yet this 31-year-old man has fallen to the same end. The time of the accident, almost 3 a.m, suggests that some time of mind-altering substance was used. While this was most likely a breaking news story and was put together quickly, the article could be improved drastically if some interviews were conducted. Obviously whomever he was with while he was sitting on the balcony could shed some light on the situation. Also, hotel management stated that it was “not a spring break hotel.” Does that mean that falling off balconies is some degree worse or better if it isn’t drunken college students? If the fact that it “isn’t a spring break hotel” means that there aren’t drunken people roaming around, then the story is even more bizarre. It seems hard to believe that there is no more information to this story.

The recent article World Food Program calls for donations as U.S. aid drops has helped intensify my respect for journalism (or at least for USA Today.) The article was far from the best I have ever read but it did, however, live up to my expectations of clean-cut, to the point, relevant news. Lately, as my knowledge of journalistic principles has expanded, I have found myself unsatisfied after reading many news stories. I am often left with obvious questions I felt should have been answered and I question the inclusion of irrelevant information. After reading this article, though, I felt satisfied and, perhaps more importantly, knowledgeable about the topic. The reporter included vital statistics that added to the overall understanding of the recent food donation decreases without overwhelming readers with extraneous numbers. Throughout the article she not only introduced some of the issues facing aid organizations, but explained their effects and possible future solutions. Through this article the author provided readers with an unbiased look at an important issue that will soon gain more widespread global attention. Reading this article really made me wish that all news could be this straightforward.