Pulled Quotes

I recently read an article in USA Today about a college in Connecticut that currently allows girls and boys to room together. What struck me as odd, or maybe just annoying, was that in the 1st paragraph I have no idea what they are talking about. And even in the 2nd paragraph, there is still confusion about what is taking place. So far, I know that Erik and MIchelle share a room, there’s “no funny business” and they have their beds situated next to each other “like Lucy and Ricky in “I Love Lucy.” Finally, by the 4th and 5th paragraph, we are given information about background and detail surrounding what brought on this idea. It turns out there are several other dozen schools that allow coed dorms rooms. The rest of the article is a slew of quotes, showcasing each side – some people are against it, some people are for it. 

I think an article like this is newsworthy for my age group since we’re all in college (well, I’m graduating soon), and I’m sure there are some students around here who only wish they could room with a guy. A few fellow classmates were sitting near me when I found this article, and both said it would be “so cool” to be able to live with a guy in a dorm room. I beg to differ. 

A recent Associated Press article in the Seatlle Times told the story of a man who was denied a liver transplant due to his marijuana use, which was approved by his doctor to help him face symptoms of hepatitus C.

I think that this article was going for a human interest appeal.  There’s a picture of a withered old man, hooked up to tubes and wires in his hospital bed, that appears right next to the story.  It’s a sad picture, and evoked sadness in me, the reader. 

However, the emotional appeal wasn’t enough to keep me from wondering about the holes in the story.  Why was he denied the transplant- was it for ethical reasons, or because marijuana use has some kind of physical effect on people that is not conducive to a major organ transplant surgery?  The article never reaveals the answer to this question, which I think is inexcusable on the author’s part. 

Further, the man is reported as having been turned down from numerous hospitals and nursing homes due to his marijuana use, which, again, was approved by his doctor.  Again, why?  Am I the only one who thinks that it’s not an unreasonable for a health facility which doesn’t provide marijuana to deny a patient who is obviously relying on it?

And finally, the article states that he was arrested in December for cultivating marijuana in his home.  Again, more questions arise- was he sent to prison?  How did he obtain a prescription for it if he was arrested for growing it?  And did his status as a felon have any sway in where he stood on the organ donor waiting list, or was that a detail that was brushed under the rug as well?

The Associated Press released an article by Justin Pope yesterday that highlighted some of the pitfalls and redeeming qualities of course evaluations at the collegiate level.  Pope did a great job of finding reliable sources to speak to- professors, teaching advocates, and researchers- but fails to leave out a major demographic for this piece: students. 

Some of the highlights of this article are towards the end, when Pope discusses some of the facts that influence how students evaluate their professor.  Things like attractiveness, gender, grading patterns, and the availability of chocolate in the classroom tend to influence how well or poorly received an educator’s valiant efforts towards the eradication of stupidity are received. 

However, I can’t help but wonder why he left out such an important group of people when he decided who to interview.  Researchers can say all they want, but students are the ones who fill out those evaluations- so why weren’t any of them spoken to?  He asserts that some students don’t really think about these evaluations as much as they ought to, but I think that in asserting that belief, he’s undermining the students who really do see the value of their thoughts. 

This piece sort of works as a feature about Kristi Upson-Saia, but again, I’m not quite sure about his choice of focus subjects.  She’s an assistant professor at Occidental College, and she claims that these evals “can be devastating.”  My only questions, though, are (a) why haven’t I ever heard of Occidental College, and (b) why didn’t he focus on someone with a higher rank than an assistant professor? 

I was disappointed by the end of this piece.  I feel like there wasn’t enough thought given to his subject matter, nor was there enough variety in his research. 

Yesterday afternoon I was writing a journal for my mass communications class. The assignment was something like “choose a media-related story and study it.” Thanks for the specifics! Not. 

Anyway, I Google-newsed “media” and stumbled upon this article, which discusses the findings of a poll of Indians and their feelings about media.

According to the article, “As many as 52 per cent of those polled in India said it was important to have freedom of the media, and an equal number said that people should have the right to read whatever is on the web.”

While 52% is more than half, it was exremely surprising to me that there were still 48% of polled people who didn’t think freedom of the media was important, and who didn’t think they should have the right to read everything on the Internet.

Furthermore, “56% said that people in India should have the right to read publications from other countries, including those that could be considered enemies.”

Quite honestly, why wouldn’t 100% of people want to know what their enemies are up to?

I thought this was an interesting article because it showed such a high contrast between India and the United States. Though it doesn’t really go along with any of the major news values, the story was concise and had a strong lead.

For several weeks now people have been discussing the gradual decline of our economy and according to USA today Home Depot and Disney Stores are really facing the consequences. In the article “Disney to Shutter 98 Stores; Home Depot closing 15.” it is obvious that these stores have not been doing so well.

However, the article fails to state the exact loses of each store. Disney, which is known for its high priced merchandise and over advertised goods and services is finally facing the biggest burn, having to close 98 stores. The article does not state specifically where these stores are or if they are only in the U.S or abroad leaves little indication as to how many malls will soon have other stores opening in their place. Home Depot, which is also a large name store has reportedly had to close 15 of its stores which is a significant amount less than Disney. The reason for this sudden loss is somewhat unclear as the article does not state how much the two stores have lost. 

The other interesting part to this story is that Home Deport still plans to open 36 new stores in the next year but no where does it state where they will get the money for this. The only other question that seems left unanswered is what will happen to the many employees that work for these companies? Are they out looking for new jobs? I guess we will have to assume for ourselves. One thing is clear, be sure to stock up on Disney merchandise and your hammer and nails now because who knows if these stores might go out of business for good.

The article “Teller pregnant with twins shot in robbery” on msnbc.com is pretty much your ideal news story. I was surprised by how much this article followed the traditional journalistic rules we’ve been taught in class, since that usually isn’t the case in today’s news stories.

The lead clearly spells out who may have been involved (two teenagers), what happened (shot a pregnant teller), where it occurred (Indianapolis), and when it took place (Tuesday morning).

One thing I noticed in this article is that early on the writer lets the reader know that the woman is in critical condition. This is something I’ve noticed that most news writers are good at doing: giving the most important information, even if it happened last, early on in the piece. One of my big mistakes at the beginning of this semester was that I would leave those important details until the end of the story. Seeing writer after writer give bits of crucial information early in their stories has helped remind me to follow this way of organizing the content in my news stories.

The second paragraph, and other paragraphs that follow, basically reword the lead in a more specific way, which is one of the key things to remember in news writing. In class this semester, when Professor Dehnart mentioned that paragraphs in inverted pyramid style should be written this way, I started noticing that that is exactly how good news stories are written. As soon as I started applying this rule, I started getting the hang of writing inverted pyramid style news stories.

The second paragraph names one of the police officers involved and gave a little more detail about the teller. As the story progresses, the writer gives details about the shooting which enhance the story, but aren’t necessary. The writer also starts including more quotes from the police chief and another police spokesman as the story progresses, to give some extra insight into the case.

As well as being written in inverted pyramid style, this story is also newsworthy because it has proximity (since it happened in the United States) and timeliness (since it happened this morning). This article has a great deal of impact. A story about a woman and her two unborn children being put in danger usually has an emotional impact on readers, and therefore has news value. It also has impact because everyone goes to the bank, so technically this could happen to anyone. This story could hit a lot of readers close to home.

Every time I write a blog for this class, I try to find a random article with the most engaging and concise information. After all, a journalist’s job is to hook the reader and lay out the facts, right? So as I scoured different online news sources, the article, “Man planned Superbowl gunfire, feds say,” caught my attention and was, I thought, a great example of proper journalistic writing.

Within the first sentence, the article covers the who, what, where, when, why, and how, and the rest of this concise story even includes a quote from Kurt William Havelock’s father and gives readers some background about why Havelock was willing to “shed the blood of the innocent” as he stated in his manifesto.

As it turns out, he was denied a liquor license for the bar he wanted to open in Tempe, Arizona, which was going to be (try not to laugh) Halloween-themed. The bar was either going to be called The Haunted Castle or Drunkensteins. Finding out this bit of information definitely bumped the stories likeability up a notch for me. Not only was this story journalistic, but it managed to adequately entertain.

We’ll never know if Havelock would have really gone through with firing off 200 rounds of ammunition, and this story isn’t big enough to have had any real news coverage, but the article is a great read with all the important facts and even some humor.

It may be coincidence, but lately I have been thinking about how all encompassing the internet has become, and wondered if people still listen to the radio anymore. Let’s face it, the internet offers everything. You can download podcasts, music of practically any genre, videos of any kind, I could go on, but it is en endless sea of possibilities. You don’t even have to turn on your TV anymore. Networks such as ABC, FOX, and MTV now offer full episodes of their shows on their website. Why even get out of bed? 

So, when I found this article in The New York Times about NPR (National Public Radio), I got a little excited. It turns out, they are trying to revamp their image. From what the article suggests, it seems there will be new programming. Although, I think I became a little confused midway through, mainly because the article’s title is “Public Radio Tries to Reignite Its Public,” yet the first line reads, “Public radio is drawing its largest audience ever.” 28 million listeners to be exact. So, wait, what is going on? Okay, I keep reading, and I come to find out that, yes, I am infact right, there are creating a new morning program. It seems this is happening in order to freshen the genre that is NPR. The only people I know who listen to NPR include my parents, my gay best friend, and private car drivers. Although, I must admit, NPR has a calming effect on its listeners, especially in comparison with other radio stations that scream rhymes and raps about the station you are tuned into, catchy ads, long commercials. NPR is more mellow. 

The article serves to re-inform the public about a media outlet that has sort of lost its audience in a way. It does have a high volume if listeners, but who are they? And, is NPR’s style updated enough for the changing and growing internet generation? The answer is no, but I think they’re realizing this. 

The SATs are a frightening part of high school. To sit in a room for four hours while taking a standardized exam sends chills down my spine. In addition to the Math and various English segments, the SATs are now including a writing comprehensive section. That is something I would not have a problem with, writing is easy, it is the multiple choice that gets you.

Studies are showing that the writing portion of this exam predicts a student’s GPA after their freshman year of college. Really? That is very interesting, but how? Many students struggle with standardized exams and do poorly because of the pressure. I would like to know how this can predict one’s grades if he simply does poorly on the SATs, but extremely well his freshman year? I could believe there might be a correlation, but a prediction? I just don’t know about that, it seems a little too in-depth and too extreme to predict for something so unpredictable.

Critical linguistic commentary on story, More than 1,000 flee from Calif. wildfire

This story is remarkably straightforward and solid.  No fluff, no editorializing, no unneeded quotation are on offer.  Word choice is professional, yet still creative at times.  Take, for instance, the phrase “wildfire slowly chewed its way…” in the lead.  Chewed here exemplifies interesting, descriptive word choice.  So does “A fixed-wing water tanker,” which differentiates the plane from the aforementioned helicopters, while sounding brighter than simply “airplane.”  

The one and only quote is worthy of its use.  It comes from the main source in the story–a relevant one, by the way–who tells that the fire is “pretty serious,” and provides needed information that the author now doesn’t have to add: “Some of these areas have not burned in over 40 years.”  That there aren’t other quotes is smart because the story is well-rounded and complete as is.  Interviewing evacuees of homes might have been the next seemingly pertinent option in line, but, since no homes have been damaged yet, their words would have done little to add to the story as it currently reads, for the interviewees likely wouldn’t have had anything important to say. 

To criticize the writer a little (after all, I claimed “critical” linguistic critique), he/she could have clarified a sentence by reordering it or adding a comma. It is written “…a San Gabriel Mountains foothill community of about 11,000 popular with artists.”  This sounds funny.  It should either read “…a foothill community popular with artists of about 11,000″ or “…a foothill community of about 11,000, popular with artists.  I know the author is trying to save space and trying to put the newsworthy population figure ahead of the town’s less dire popularity with artists.  However, if length restraint keeps a “that” or “which” out of this sentence–which would make it sound a whole lot better–, newsworthiness should keep the comment about artist out too.  Besides, such an aside makes me wonder if it artists like to live there, or if it is a great subject for paintings.  

The author ends the story well, noting that another fire is burning outside of San Diego.  This reassures the reader that they now know everything crucial that concerns this fire.  It also establishes a related, important fact, without going into a new story.  

In April 21st USA Today on page 3A there was an article written by Chris Joyner called “Cremation industry awaits tougher controls.” While I thought that this article was very well written, I did encounter a few problems, well issues that I personally thought were some problems. I felt like the writer did more background research more than personal, interview type of research. While there was a good amount of information provided to the reader, it kind of felt like a tease because the writer didn’t supply enough detail on all the information provided.  I also would have liked to see more quotes from more sources. I also had some questions that I felt were left answered in the article. First off, what does Joyner mean by regulating cremation? How do they regulate? What are these regulations in each state? How do they determine between honest and dishonest operators? Or is there nothing to determine this by?  I also wanted to know why do they think people are choosing cremation lately? Why do they think the rate of people choosing cremation has increased? Even though having the writer’s opinion would be bias to the article, it would have been interesting to know; instead the writer could have quoted someone who gathered these statistics.

The last thing about the article was while I thought that lead of the article was great, I did think that it sounded more like a feature lead more than like a straight news lead. Even though there is no problem with feature leads, I felt like the rest of the article didn’t seem to fit into a feature news story. 

The Onion reported on a Columbia University cultural anthropology major interning at NASA whose goal is to walk on the moon before his internship expires in Late June. Ryan Hodson lists his people skills, stellar work habits, and outgoing personality as sufficient credentials in joining the NASA astronaut crew.

This story is one of the most positive, uplifting stories I’ve read in a while, and that, in my opinion, gives it its newsworthiness. A guy my age whose out refilling staples, organizing magazines in the break rooms, and moving the cold sodas to the front of refrigerators has dreams and ambitions that are impregnable. He’s faced some steadfast resistance from higher ups who say that they will never allow an intern to participate in a space walk. Hodson, however, brushes that aside claiming that that’s what they say to all the interns so they don’t get their hopes up. Hodson has been busy dropping hints and voluntarily providing his experience with g-forces and advertises that he doesn’t need the training to go to space–which will save NASA hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The publishing of this story is really important to people living in the discouraging times we live in. The fact that there is someone out there who is putting his dreams and ambitions on the highest shelf is a model that everyone should live by. He’s going against the status quo of just accepting failure and that egregious word that we’ve been hearing too much of lately: “No!”

USA Today reported on the California shark attack and the aftermath of this event.  Friday, a shark attacked a triathlete 14 miles down the shore from San Diego.

This article used the inverted pyramid method of news writing, starting out with the lead.  I found this lead to be a decent one, as it included the who, what, where, and when of the story.  The article then went from specific information to general, ending with some basic information about shark attacks in the United States.

One aspect of this story that I liked, was that the reporter used quotes from both a person who braved the possibility of a shark in the water and a person who decided to stay on land for one weekend out of the year.  This provided both sides of opinion about the shark attack.  I also liked the fact that the writer included information on previous shark attacks in the United States, including the latest ones and the last fatal one that is known.

To round out this story, the writer also included general information about sharks, allowing the reader to have the whole picture, instead of limiting it to this one, isolated incident of a shark attack.  Overall, I found this to be one of the better articles that I have read from USA Today.

As federal health advisers seek to further clarify warnings of the risks of Lasik eye surgery to patients, an AP author’s review of the case for such warnings really hits home.  The author’s lead is powerfully gripping: The story opens with “In fury and despair, patients harmed by Lasik eye surgery told federal health advisers Friday of severe eye pain, blurred vision and even a son’s suicide.  The advisers recommended that the government warn more clearly about the risks of the hugely popular operations.”  These two sentences provoke further reader commitment by establishing the captivating aspect of the story, which is that it provides information about a procedure that is apparently risky, yet still “hugely popular.”  Although, in general, the remainder of the story makes Lasik’s risks seem reasonably tolerable when compared to its likely benefits, the author was wise to open the story with an alarming assessment of the procedure because it is more attention-grabbing than a rosy one would have been.  Besides, the remote–yet real–danger of the operation establishes the basis of the news.  

Comprehensive and balanced attention to both sides of the issue sum up further qualities of the story.  It provides touching testimonials from injured Lasik patients who push for clearer warnings.  It balances those testimonials with fairly safe-looking statistics on the operation.  The result is an unbiased piece that reveals all the information one could want to know about both the controversy and the basics of the procedure.  To round it all out, the sidebars offer explanations to readers’ procedural inquiries, including insight into what doctors should consider foreboding warning signs in characteristics of potential patients.  

The human-interest angle, intertwined with straight-forward reporting of a timely and, in a way, controversial issue, is the lure for the reader.  Hook, line, and sinker were the pros and cons, which built an insightful and enticing, back-and-forth argument for better understanding of, more regulation for, and future studies on the practice of Lasik.   

I have read many stories in USA Today that have included unnecessary info-graphs and sidebars. Many times, such additions provide redundant information in a slightly different form than it appeared in the story with the sole purpose of filling up space. Such stories would be better served by cutting out the charts, graphs and bullet lists and finding a more useful purpose for the extra space.

In the recent article “Knowing rights if flight’s canceled may get you a seat” I found just the opposite to be true. The article highlights the importance of knowing your air travel rights in a time when wide-spread cancellations are becoming more frequent. An anecdotal lead starts the story out, followed by a paragraph highlighting a rise in airline cancellations that has left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded in recent weeks. The story then introduces Rule 240, a “secret weapon” that supposedly offers fliers a remedy when faced with long delays and grounded flights. Details follow in the next paragraphs which explain where the rule originated, how to use the rule and other useful information for travelers. After that point in the story I stopped reading the actual article because of the large info-graph smack-dab in the middle of the page. The graphic lists all of the major airlines with a breakdown of how to use Rule 240 and what consumers can expect when using the rule with each different company. Basically, the box provides the most important, most relevant information travelers could want from the article without them having to read the entire thing. In this case, the sidebar overshadows the written article to a fault, distracting readers like me from even finishing the story.