No Holds Barred?

Should a judge be able to force a journalist to burn his source?

A judge has ruled that Toni Locy must pay up to $5,000 per day until she discloses the source(s) that named former Army scientist Steven Hatfill “as a possible suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks.”

Locy is a writer for USA TODAY being held in contempt of court for refusal to disclose her source. In response, The Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press is filing an amicus curiae brief along with “18 news organizations and 14 professional and trade organizations.”

Monday USA TODAY reported that “Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, endorsed a federal law Monday to help reporters protect confidential sources, but he did so with reservations.”

Rightfully so, because I don’t think any party with power– whether it be the government or the press– should have power that cannot be accounted for. My sentiments echo that of McCain’s when he said to a group of newspaper execs saying, “he trusts that ‘you will not do more harm than good, whether it comes to the security of the nation or the reputation of good people.’”

 

Caring Awards winners leave readers feeling warm and fuzzy

A recent USA Today article called “Caring Awards honorees push the limits of reaching out” left me feeling not only warm and fuzzy but, more importantly, satisfied with the information I got in the amount of time I spent.

The article was one of the shortest I have read in USA Today while also being one of the most effective. The lead of the article is what really set the story apart for me. The lead tells readers exactly what happened, who it happened to, why it happened to them and where it happened all the while including some sense of personality with an anecdote at the very beginning. Following the great lead was a short background section that provided readers with important details about the actual organization sponsoring the awards, how winners are selected and even a tidbit about previous honorees.

The article was broken into two sections, a beginning with background information about the awards and a middle/ending with a short blurb about each of this years 10 honorees. This organization system worked well for the article because it provided a consistent flow that made the information easy to soak up. Each honoree was featured, organized from the oldest to the youngest, with a short paragraph about the accomplishments he or she has made.

This article, with its effective lead, flawless organization and cheesy yet appropriate quotes, is one that I will surely call upon again in the future as a prime example of successful journalism. (As a side note, I did have one question when I finished reading: why are the “young people’s” ages included and the “adults” ages are not?)

“Planet” freezes over on the BBC

An article in USA Today called “Another sweeping special when “Planet” freezes over” is a good example of journalism that is effective yet forced at the same time. The article is very short but despite that still packs quite a punch of information, maybe too much in fact. 

The article focuses on a new series inspired by the successes of Blue Planet and Planet Earth. The new show, Frozen Planet, is an 8 hour event exploring the icy reaches of the North and South poles. Because it is not set to air in the UK until fall 2011 and in the US until spring 2012, the author of the article decided not to divulge too many actual details about the show (or maybe he couldn’t that many.)

 Rather, this article served to start a buzz about the show. And the big buzz the author was trying to create is about the emotional and physical struggles the crew is experiencing over the two years it will take to film the show. By including information about how dangerous and treacherous the job will be the author is using an emotional appeal to try and sell the show to potential viewers. Another use of heavy emotional appeals comes when the author puts a “green” spin of the show and the article. Global warming is a very hot (excuse my pun) topic right now that many people are emotionally connected to. By tapping into such issues the article gains an extra sense of urgency and relevance, making both the show and the article seem more prevalent than they may actually be.

After the emotional appeals the author switches gears and includes technical information about the type of equipment and filming techniques used to make the show possible. The technical part is then followed background information about the successes of similar shows in the past. By including such a wide array of information about the subject the author makes the article seem jumbled. The show itself is still very far off and this article is one of the first covering the subject. Because of that the article seems like a random array of any facts the reporter could get his hands on.

Although the article is effective in creating an initial stir about Discovery’s new endeavor, the lack of organization and direction in the writing makes me think it is just too soon to even introduce the project that is still 4 years away.

Red Sox jersey + concrete = curse?

According to USAToday, a construction worker gone awry was foiled in his attempts to curse the new Yankees stadium when the Boston Red Sox jersey he had planted under two feet of concrete was removed.  This article was written by an unnamed Associated Press writer, and is both a good and a bad piece.  As a source of entertainment, this piece is good for a chuckle.  But as a model for inverted pyramid style, this piece loses its humor and becomes just plain sad. 

 

The lede is effective, and summarizes (in very, very basic terms) the whole point of the article.  The next few paragraphs are logical and follow a recognizable progression, moving from the general to the specific in a fairly decent way.  Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there.  The second half of the article switches into a chronological story, which fails not only to place the more important facts higher, but it also fails to even mention some pretty heavy details. 

For instance, the author states that the man who planted the jersey might be facing criminal charges.  Criminal charges….?  For what?  I didn’t realize there was a law against playing upon a bunch of Yanks’ superstitions. 

 

Also, the article mentions that the jersey is a David Ortiz jersey, Number 34.  Was it an authentic jersey worn by Ortiz, or just a knock-off that the construction guy bought? 

 

This article definitely is not stellar, though like I mentioned earlier, it is entertaining.  After all, this article signifies that the long-standing rivalry between the two teams is no longer limited to just the diamond; apparently, it can extend into the concrete of the stadium, as well.

One year later: Virginia Tech, revisited

In light of today being the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy, I am going to focus my post on a recent article in USA Today that tells the stories of several victims and survivors who are finding ways to channel their grief into advocacy and art. 

Donna Leinwand’s piece utilizes a narrative lead, telling the tale of Michael Bishop’s struggle to cope with his son’s death in the massacre that took place last year.  Leinward plays on natural assumptions that the victim was actually a student, though she reveals a few paragraphs later that Bishop’s son, Jamie, was actually a 35-year-old professor.  At first I didn’t like the delayed-information approach that Leinwand took, but now I can see where the sudden shock of being corrected in my mis-assumption actually kept me interested.  As is customary to features, several of Leinwand’s word choices- “slaying,” “budding,” “slaughter”- are much more editorialized than would be expected in a strict inverted pyramid piece.

Another standout feature of this piece is its length.  Ordinarily, I would have not read the entire piece, but the various stories were interesting and played to my emotions (which, I’ll just say right now, isn’t all that hard to do).  Nonetheless, I think that this piece works despite its length because people are still interested in this tragedy.  Thus, I think that Leinwand really worked off of the timeliness of this piece’s subject matter and created an effective piece of journalism that will be appreciated by mourners and interested citizens alike.

Changing the pace: feature stories

Based upon our class discussion of feature stories and different leads,  Nanci Hellmich’s human interest piece on a man’s struggle with weight loss, “Coming right up: Improved health,” was the most interesting.  Found in the Life Section of USA Today, the story discussed the life changing eating habits of a restaurant chain owner. 

 

Hellmich began with a narrative lead explaining the point of interest, the location of the story, as well as the focus and direction of the story. 

 

In her second paragraph she introduced details that would induce interest and appealed to human emotion.  She begins her story by explaining who she is focusing the story around.  Instead of introducing the nut graf in the second paragraph, she explains the newsworthy quality of the topic. 

 

Her third paragraph is the nut graf, explaining the basis for the story, more details, and other emotional appeals.  However,  I found her feature story to be jaunting after reading several articles in the inverted pyramid style.   In addition, Hellmich uses a chronological order to format her details. 

 

Furthermore, the use of present tense and more details led the diction in the article away from concise, and efficient wording.  The wording was extremely free flowing, and excessive, yet still left questions for the readers.

 

 

Recent findings in the rise of STDs among African American girls

I found an article in last weeks USA Today in the Opinion section about the increase of Sexually Transmitted Diseases among adolescent African American girls. The article was entitled “Black teen STD rate needs our attention;” it was an interesting article to me and the lead did a good job of pulling in the reader.

I felt it had a strong point of view as well as incorporating the facts and percentages of STDs among African Americans and Caucasians. It was something the writer, Yolanda Young, found to be a topic that deserves to be brought to the attention of the younger generations. The article gives the message to make a difference in the ways teens are living their lives. The rise in numbers is due to poor communities and sexual experiences beginning at a younger and more vulnerable age. I think it should be more newsworthy instead of an opinion piece. The writer has a strong opinion and feels this is an important and influential issue going on in the world around us; therefore, I find it should be made more newsworthy and should be longer to include more information for those readers that want to learn more and to live a healthier lifestyle.

Oyster Eating Championships

I’m not sure if ‘human interests’ is a fitting label with which to describe the focus of the USA Today story on the results of The Acme World Oyster Eating championships, but reading it sure made me interested in the unique humans who participated in the event.  

 

The anecdotal lead, which includes the names–”Deep Dish” and “Crazy Legs”–of the champion and one of his competitors, respectively, introduces a story founded solidly upon the iron bellies of those in participation.  Writing that “Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti looked down at the litter of empty oyster shells in front of him and savored the sweet taste of victory…For Crazy Legs Conti, the bitter taste of defeat could be washed away only by beer”  is an informal, yet good, way to provide the ‘What’ of the story while simultaneously generating interest in its colorful characters.  The paragraph quoted above also has the effect of drawing readers in to find out more by omitting the name of the championship, which is saved for the second paragraph.

 

The second paragraph is creative in its manner of revealing information: the name of the tournament and the day on which it took place, the way the championship belt looks, Bertoletti’s skinny appearance, age, residency, and winning number of mollusks munched, and the zoological term for the class of animal under which the contest’s fare falls is all cleverly fit into in two sentences using a total of only 42 words.  

 

The third paragraph is noteworthy for its strategic quotation of Bertoletti.  It reads, ‘ “I could probably do a couple dozen more, especially if they were charbroiled,” said Bertoletti, who holds the endurance oyster-eating record, having downed 53 1/2 dozen in 2007 before calling it quits.  ”Although they’re great raw.” ‘  These two sentences answer questions likely to arise in the minds of readers at this point: how the oysters were prepared (a relevant factor when considering the gastrointestinal challenge behind Bertoletti’s feat), and how many Bertoletti can eat without a time restaint–avoiding a ‘ “reversal of fortune” ‘ to add a record to the champ’s resume.

 

Next comes the results for the third place finisher, Conti.  The emphasis on Conti in the lead, and mention of him here before that of second place finisher Lee, is logical for a few reasons.  First and foremost, Conti has a great name for a human interests piece–his real first and middle names are Crazy and Legs, respectively.  Secondly, Crazy Legs provides a good quote for the next paragraph about the oyster’s lack of an aphrodisiacal quality when devoured in such high quantities.  Finally, the eccentric competitor is featured alongside of Bertoletti in the photo used for the story.  

 

At this point, the writer credits Juliet Lee for her second place finish.  This is reasonable, as I just said, but the next paragraph could include her name, if possible, to make things flow better.  If Lee is a professional eater who competes year-round in Major League Eaters events, the seventh paragraph’s sentence should be precluded with “Lee is one of…”  If Lee is not a pro, then it could be precluded with “While Lee was a unexpected entrant in the event, Bertoletti and Conti are two of…”  If none of the podium finishers are professional eaters, then it should read, “All of the podium finishers ousted (the) dozen professional eaters who compete in Major League Eaters events year-round [that] squared off at the French Quarter Festival on Saturday.   

 

The remainder of the story is solid, and it closes with a good quote:  ’ “I feel good about that; my goal was 15 dozen,” Zukowski said.  ”I had only eaten one raw oyster in my life before this and I thought I’d vomit after it.  I had them.” ‘  This shows the determination of the competitors, and is funny because most readers have probably lost any appetite they may have started with once they have finished reading this piece.  

 

 

Graffiti closes down school!

I read an article on April 13 in USAToday that talked about a Michigan University that has closed temporarily because of threatening graffiti messages in the men’s bathroom. The article immediately caught my eye because of the lead and headline.

The lead was very informative and gave a good deal of information in less than 25 words. It definitely answered the who, what, where, why and how very straightforwardly. I thought the journalist did a great job at giving as much detail as possible. My first question when I read the lead was “what did the messages say that were so threatening that could have caused a school to close down?” Next sentence after the lead answered my question (threats about an even that would occur on April 14).

I thought the journalist also was very effective at using the inverted pyramid, he gave the most juicy and relevant facts first then went into background. Overall the story was well written with some good sources, such as head security officers at the campus and campus officials.

Box office hits

In Monday, April 7th USA Today there was an article on page 1D by Scott Bowles called “‘21′ pays $15.1 million.” Personally, as a journalism student I thought that this article was poorly written. I felt that there were many questions left unanswered and many statements were very vague which in return made it very difficult for the reader to understand what was being written. Some of the questions I personally had as a reader were,  why did they call it Kevin Spacey’s film? Is he just the most famous person in it or did he write, produce or direct it? What did Bowles mean by a slew of newcomers? How do analysts project how much money a film will make? It could have been an interesting fact for readers to know. Also what is Preston-Sturges comedies? The reader should be aware of this statement in order to understand the article and the claims that the writer is making. And why does Bowles also claim that these Preston-Sturges comedies rarely catch fire with U.S. audiences? Also why is Hollywood in a slump? See, there were many questions in this article that were left unanswered and I felt were crucial for the reader to understand what the article was all about. Also, Bowles failed to really have any credible sources or quotes from the sources that he did use. 

I honestly think that the only thing well done in this article was that the lead was written well. Besides that, I think that the article was poorly written and could have included a lot more valuable information. 

The battle of the bags in Minnesota

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had an article called Biodegradable bags my not be as green as they seem.  This article seemed very comprehensive, and well organized, but there were some interesting formating.  Some of it made me wonder if this story text was just cut and pasted onto the web without being looked at. 

One line “1 percent of bags are recycled” was sitting on its own, and is obviously not a real sentence because there is no period and this phrase is repeated two paragraphs down.  So it would seem to me that perhaps this was one of those free-standing quotes pulled from the text to bring emphasis to something.  To me that seems like slopy website management.  These are the kinds of things that will make a story look better on the web.  And having a phrase that repeats itself like this is distracting in this format.  It works well in a printed paper that is layedout properly, but not when it is plain text stuck in with everything else. 

This article also had just two labled “sections” but they are not very well spaced and seem like extra stuff that is just not needed.  Plus, the titles for these sections do not seem to match all the subject following it.

The last thing I wanted to comment on was the line that I think  I will call the “toot your own horn” line.  This was a line thrown in the article literally as a side note: (The Star Tribune is considering using biodegradable plastic bags for newspaper home delivery.)

This is something that could, and I think should have been integrated into the article itself instead of taking such a tactless short cut.  This also breaks up the story more than need be. 

More Cancelled Flights for American Airlines

An article in USA Today reported on the recent groundings of hundreds of planes flown by American Airlines.  I found these to be one of the better written articles that I have read from this news source.  This is because the writer provided background information about the problem, as well as information about what is happening at the moment and is expected to happen in the near future, regarding the grounding of the airplanes.

I found that the lead contained the most important news, that the airline will return to normal schedule soon, and continued on with the rest of the mews and information after this.  The style used was the inverted pyramid and the article ended with general information about the problems the airline had encountered and was fixing as of when the article was written.

One thing that I think would have been interesting to include would be information on what parts of the United States would be effected the most by the grounding of the flights or if it would be equally distributed.  Also, it would have been nice if American Airlines provided a statement as to how they would successfully ensure that the problem with safety compliance would not happen again.

Canceled Flights Suck

I liked the structure of the article by the Mercury News reporting American Airlines flight cancellations. There seemed to be two stories: the first was the impact the cancellations had on travelers and figures from the FAA and the airline. The second story concerned the details of why the flights were canceled.

There also was an efficient use of sources. Both travelers and officials were used in the story which yielded a much broader picture. I also thought the attention to detail proved to be effective in the story telling though.

What caught my attention was the last line, however. It seems like the journalist is setting himself up with a follow-up story when he adds the quote from one of the frustrated travelers. One of the important stories is the background of what caused the apparent negligence of the airline. I think readers would be ultimately more interested in that, and maybe perhaps the future of the airline, the industry as a whole. Also, a link or brief outline of the FAA rules and regulations might of helped in this story.

Rice VP Rumors

Here’s a story from Yahoo News about Condoleezza Rice as a possible vice presidential candidate for John McCain in 2008.

The main interesting thing about this article is that it seems to make a story out of nothing. The lede is: “U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left slightly open the chance on Tuesday that she might be interested in running as vice president on Republican White House contender John McCain’s ticket.”

“Left slightly open” is sort of ambiguous language, which is sort of betrayed later in the story when it says that Rice refused to make a “Shermenesque” denial of her openness to being vice president. She did, however, say “That said, I am going back to Stanford. I am going back to California,” which is a pretty clear denial. How newsworthy is it that Rice didn’t deny the media in its own bizarre terms?

This was reported in several sources, but to me it doesn’t really seem like a story as much as a projection of the media’s wishes on to Rice. After all, it’d probably be a hell of a lot more interesting race to cover later this year if there was a black woman going against a black man (not to mention the ratings).

Student Terrifies Subway!

At 29 years old, you’d think that Gregory Kats would know whether or not a science project was fit to bring to school or not.  However, according to a recent Associated Press blurb, he found himself stuck on a subway as his project for the New York City College of Technology started smoking in his backpack.

I must commend the unnamed author of this article for sticking to inverted pyramid and keeping all of the absurd details in an organized and logical order.  However, I was disappointed that the only quotes were from Kats.  What about the passengers on the subway?  What about the police who questioned him?  What about the College of Technology?  I think there were a lot of overlooked sources who could have added more depth to the story. 

After all, I’m sure that the passengers who saw Kats’ project (which was a box with a motor, wires, and a small battery) could have added some colorful commentary.