Post by: Daniel Gross

Photo by: Barbara Haddock Taylor /Baltimore Sun

In today's issue of the Baltimore Sun, an article was published on Towson President Robert Caret. This was a traditional feature article that touched on his goals for the University and what he has done to pave the way for the University to prosper within the community.

This article is a perfect example of a Wall Street Journal formula. The article starts out using a specific example of Caret and explains something specific about his life.

It continues by writing into the nut graph where general background is noted about the Towson president. This way, readers understand who the subject is. The body of the story certainly gives a slew of information regarding Caret and his current endeavours with the University and why he might be newsworthy at a time like this.

This would be a great article to read if you are looking for a well-formed feature article.

Click here to see the story on the Baltimore Sun's Web site: Robert Caret

There's a great difference between a summary and a feature lead. Both are inteded for very different purposes and for very different stories. 

Summary leads do just how they sound - they summarize the story. These leads typically stick to the facts and describe the issue as simply and to the point as possible. These summaries are best for hard news stories or stories that are breaking. It is the quickest way to tell others the necessary information.

Feature leads are completely different. These are intended to be pleasing to read and understand. The are typically used for softer news stories or human interest stories. These leads are when the basis of the story usually comes in the second or even third paragraph. The first is designed to pull the reader in with a catchy tidbit or interesting description. 

Both leads are very effective but are both for very different stories. Below are a couple examples:

Baltimore Sun

Parrots Throughout the House

Fox News

Dear Mr. President:

This is my second semester of my sophomore year and I am even more excited to dive into the world of multi-media journalism than I've been before. After learning a great deal in Journalism and New Media I and sharpening the skills that I've already grasped, I am now ready for JNM II. I believe there is still so much more for m to learn even though I feel as if I am already becoming a professional journalist.

Currently, I serve as the Associate News Editor at The Towerlight. Here I am able to write stories on deadline, edit other's stories, create headlines and cutlines, make executive decisions and assemble the layout of certain sections. I am fortunate to be in this position and know that it is bringing me forward in my path to mass communications. Here is the link to my staff profile: Daniel Gross - Assocaite News Editor

Apart from The Towerlight, I also co-own a media production company that formed in Southern Maryland, where I am from. Change of Scene Productions (www.changeofscene.net) has now been in business since 2007 and we are always looking for opportunities to create a project and increase our experience. We offer video documentaries, promotional videos, photography, Web design, graphic design, wedding videos, and much more.

There are many things that I have already experienced that has made an impact on my future career. Starting from publishing a weekly class newspaper in my fourth grade class, I've more recently interned at The Enterprise, a community newspaper in St. Mary's County and worked for TheBAYNET.com, Southern Maryland's #1 online news source. At this salaried job, I was a reporter, photographer, Web developer and sales associate. Check out the news in Southern Maryland by clicking here.

I am very interested in video, photography, broadcast, reporting, writing, Web design, graphic design and almost any aspect of journalism and new media. I find it is very important to publish information and stories in a non-biased voice and find a way to most effectively distribute information to the masses.

Here is a link to my personal Web site

In this season of "The Wire," there are a number of specific issues the show focuses on in concern to the newsroom and journalism across the board. There is a strong focus on the corporate ownership of newspapers well as recent trends in print journalism.

One aspect that stood out to me is the shows portrayal of newspapers in society and how the Internet relates to its success, or failure. In the show, one of the characters involved with The Baltimore Sun, envisioned a paper that did not have a focus on the Internet and did not want to see newspapers fade out and Internet sources fade in. The show explained that even the corporate owners of the Sun agreed with this vision for a long time and had a means to keep the paper the way it was, without the assistance from a Web site.

This however, could not last, which brings the show to illustrate what is changing about news and the newsroom. The paper was forced to make significant job cuts because the paper was receiving a significant less amount of readership. More people, especially younger readers were choosing not the read the print newspaper due to the Internet being available to them.

This focus on the show actually brings about a number of topics including job cuts, corporate ownership and the era of print journalism fading away. I think the show portrayed an accurate message of what is going on in the newsroom today.

This issue, in a way scares me because I fear that going into the journalism industry; it may be tough to keep a job. Print journalism is, I believe, dying out and only the journalists with great multimedia skills are left. Even so, this only makes me aware that, while in school, it is my duty to become as prepared as I possibly can be by learning so many new aspects of reporting that have become very popular in today's society.

"The Wire: Season 5" has done a great job at illustrating what is going on in the world of news and sort of helps open the eyes up to aspiring journalists, letting them know what they are getting in to. The characters in the episodes say that this trend was coming along and for the most part did not want to see it be present. THey, as well as the corporate owners saw a desire to have the paper maintain it's print aspects but society would not allow this to continue without there being significant changes.

There are so many important factors that are essential to proper journalism. Any reputable journalist must maintain several characteristics within their reporting at all times. It was difficult to choose only three important rules for journalistic writing because all of the rules I find very important. Below is a list of journalism rules that every journalist must not avoid.

Objectivity -
Journalists must maintain an objective standpoint whenever covering a news event or writing about a particular story. When a journalist looses their objective traits, the reader is then reading solely opinion instead of hard news.
Example: "Sen. Barack Obama will soon take office and will do a wonderful job as the nation's new president."
----This example clearly shows an objective viewpoint toward this topic and does not reflect journalistic qualities. The reader does not want to know how the reporter feels about the subject but instead wants the information as it stands. That is why objectivity is one of the most important traits to a journalists.

Accuracy-
I cannot stress enough the importance of accuracy for a journalist. A reporter that does not report accurate information looses all credibility for their stories. Being able to report accurate information is one of the most important elements to a story.
Example: "A robbery occurred on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Bank of America, causing the bank's entire savings to be stolen."
----If the Bank of America was not the bank that was robbed and if 5:30 p.m. was not the right time of the robbery, this statement will spawn all sorts of problems among society and those that may be involved with this situation. These are extremely important facts to write correctly. That is why accuracy is very important because being accurate is one of the first steps to producing a newsworthy story.

Plagiarism-
There are many rules and limits that hinder journalists each day. Plagiarism is one of these rules that journalists are forbidden to do. Plagiarism is taking other written works, someone else's information or another person's quotations and using it in a reporters own story. This is highly forbidden and could result in a loss of job.

This is one of the most important aspects to a journalist because it could result in very extreme penalties.

To learn more about journlism ethical issues read SPJ Code of Ethics

Many Web sites take on creative multimedia strategies to increase the viewership of their content and make a much more pleasent experience while visiting the site.  

In this time in society, the avergage audience is no longer content simply reading words on a screen but are looking for anything interactive that they can hear, watch and click on. This makes them feel as if they are a part of the story or involved in the Web site. 

Many great examples of these sites float across the World Wide Web as they recieve a tremendous amount of traffic. One that I found is dedicated to a specific plane crash that occured, commonly known as Flight 401. 

It is an amzing story of tragedy and survival and the Web site has decided to preservec the story and give an accurate depiction of the event to the viewer. 

Learn the story and interact with the site

Screenshot of Web site: www.miamiherald.com

The site offers a number of videos that tell the story from different perspectives, has a streaming song to play that was composed after the event took place, and even a simulation to watch with sounds to see and experience the crash first hand.

One thing that I would've certainly tried to add to the site as far as audio enhancements would be to have streaming clips of short interviews with different survivors. I would even maybe include the clips with short photo slideshows of each of them.

Other than that, this is an overall very well formed Web site.

     

Outside of Stephens Hall at Towson University, sunlight shines on a statue of the school's mascot, the Tiger during a fall day in November.

     

Blake Savadow 

Sophomore

Mass Communications 

Students study and walk to class outside of 

the Cook Library during a cool, fall day on 

Monday, Nov. 3. 

Ways to Improve:

There is always room for improvement. I have noticed a number of things I could to enhance the quality of my photos and photo taking ability. For one, I need to keep an eye out for an interesting shot, meaning the angle, lighting or subject matter of the photo. It is also important to use the rule of thirds so the viewer is more attracted to the photo. My main concern is understanding which settings I should have my camera set to when shooting under certain conditions. This takes repeated practice. I need to continue to take photos in different situations that call for a different combination of shutter speeds and aperture settings.

Photo illustration by Daniel Gross

This article was found from The Baltimore Sun's Web Site. (www.baltimoresun.com)

Man shot, wounded by city police during drug stop

By Justin Fenton

September 26, 2008

A man was shot by city police yesterday morning after he reached for an officer's handgun during a drug stop, police said. 

Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman, said three officers on dirt bikes were in the 700 block of Lennox St. in the Reservoir Hill area about 10:45 a.m. when they approached an apartment complex and stopped to interview a man who they believed was involved in drug activity. 

Police said the man began to fight with the officers, and the altercation moved into an apartment stairwell. Clifford said the man grabbed at an officer's gun, and the officer fired at the man. The man, hit in the shoulder, was taken to a hospital with a wound that was not considered life-threatening, Clifford said. 

This article shows a great example of the inverted pyramid style of news stories.  The reporter chooses to place the most important and relavent information at the top of the story in the first paragraphs.  This way, the reader will be more intreagued to read on and at the very least they will have read the things that are most important to know in the story.  

Click here for Justin Fenton's full story

Photo taken from www.twitter.com

After reviewing a number of Twitter profiles and reading sample headlines of recent stories published in The Towerlight (www.thetowerlight.com), I was able to see many good examples of headlines and story briefs. Below are a few examples I found when perusing a few Twitter profiles.

__________________

"By Decemer, about 2,800 new recylcing containers will be placed throughout Towson campus in order to promote the RecycAll program," Towson student Katelyn Mattingly wrote in reference to a recent article in The Towerlight.

• For one, this tweet interested me because I wrote this story for this issue and I found the RecycAll topic interesting when doing the research for the story.
• Two, I thought that this post gave a great insight to the story by covering most of the 5W's to prepare the reader for what they are about to dive into.
• The wording is also using an active voice, which makes for an exciting appeal to the story
• Also, as a future tip, I would say that it would've been best to start with something other than the "When" W, as the when side of the story is not as important as the what.
• I also think it gets a bit wordy when using words like "in order to." This would be great wording for maybe further down the story but for a lead into type sentance, I would have been a little more to-the-point.
• Very good post though, i enjoyed this piece.

Click here to view Katelyn Mattingly's Twitter page

"Sean Schaefer throws four interceptions to help Richmond come back after last year's dramatic last-minute loss to the Tigers," Towson student Carrie Wood wrote in reference to a recent story published in The Towerlight.

• I thought this was a great exampl of an active, concise headline. It is written i a way that draws the readers attention. It is organized in a way that puts out the most important information first. It is very clear at what the story will be about when reading.
• In this headline, she includes all of the major W's for this story without rambling on or making the headline too extensive.
• I especailly enjoyed how she tied in this event to previous occurances with the same teams. That certainly makes for a more interesting story.

Click here to view Carrie Wood's Twitter page.

"Quaterback Sean Schafer struggled, with four interceptions and one touchdown, to lead the Tigers to a loss," Towson student Amber Kowens wrote in reference to a recent story found in The Towerlight.

• I thought this was another great exapmle of a story headline. It is very cler and to the point, addressing the main thoughts of the story.
• It does not neccessarily cover all of teh 5 W's like the "when," but overall it is a headline that will pull the reader in to the story.
• I mostly like the simplicity of the headline because I think it would generally attract more readers. It is much easier to understand than some others.

Click here to view Amber's Twitter page.

Photo taken from www.twitter.com

Exxon fined $4 million for gas leak

By Nick Madigan and Arin Gencer

Baltimore Sun Photo taken by Patrick Smith

Article Brief:

In what officials say is the largest environmental penalty ever levied by the state, ExxonMobil Corp. has agreed to pay $4 million to the Maryland Department of the Environment for a 26,000-gallon gasoline spill at a Baltimore County service station almost three years ago.

Under the agreement announced yesterday, the oil giant could face an additional annual penalty of $1 million if it does not stick to a cleanup schedule that could last several more years in Jacksonville.

The settlement stemmed from a $12 million lawsuit filed against ExxonMobil by Maryland's attorney general, Douglas F. Gansler. He said in a statement yesterday that the agreement was a significant victory for the environment and residents of the area "who have had to live with this contamination for too long."

The settlement was more than twice as large as a $1.9 million civil penalty levied against the Potomac Electric Power Company for a leak in April 2000 that sent about 111,000 gallons of oil into the Patuxent River from an underground pipeline at the Chalk Point Generating Station, the state's largest power plant.

See the full story from The Baltimore Sun HERE

Article Summary:

This article is a great example of an original reporting story that shows many signs that this is a fully functioning journalistic story.  There are definate clues that usually tell the reader if the story is something that an actual journalist researched, interviewed and wrote from scratch.  Below is a list of clues that helped me come to my conclusion:

• Article shows a byline, emphasising the fact that it was written by the person and that they should take full credit of their work.
• The article has a good length to show that it was not taken from a short press release or police report.  This story is almost a full two webpages in length.
• There are many quotes throughout the story to illustrate that the reporter was able to seek others out and capture a number of voices to boost their story.  This makes their story more credible as well.
• There are multiple chunks of facts about Exxon and the surrounding area the story is dealing with, to show prior research when writing the story.  

These are all ways in which one can see that there is no press release here; this is full blown journalistic writing at its finest.  

A look at a convergent media-based textbook with discussion question responses

By: Daniel Gross

All the News: Writing and Reporting for Convergent Media by Thom Lieb, is a book that no journalist in today's world, should go without reading.  I found this evident after reading the first two chapters of this book.  Lieb does a phenomenal job at explaining how the industry has taken a major shift in its presentation of news in media.  

Chapter one in this book explains a number of introductory factors in the field of journalism including steps to find the news, conduct research, write advanced news stories, and incorporate diverse voices in the news.

Discussion Questions:

1. Where do you turn for news? Do you use different sources for different types of information? Why do you use the sources you do? Do you use multiple outlets of the same type (Web Sites, Magazines, TV networks)?

• If I am looking for some news information and am seeking to be educated about domestic or world events, I turn to both Fox News Live and CNN first on TV.  I also make sure to go to MSNBC before finishing my time toward TV.  I then go online and depending on the event, whether it be national, local or international, I look through Yahoo News, Fox News.com, The New York Times online (nytimes.com) and CNN.com because I enjoy the layout of their Web Site.  
• I mostly use these same news sources for all news events whether it be crime, health, life or business.  However, I mostly turn to Fox News Live for political news.
• I use the sources I do because I think for the most part they are fair and equally representing of many issues.  I choose the most credible and trusted sources so I can have accurate information and I look for the highest rated news networks or sources because those are usually the ones that keep a level of interest during their broadcasts or stories.

2. When an important story occurs, how often do you check for updates on it? Does this depend on the media that are available to you?

• When an important story occurs such as a terrorist attack, a major storm comes through a major city, etc. I generally keep my eyes on some sort of news source every ten minutes.  I will check and hope for updates about every ten minutes on a particular high interest story.  
• If I am watching TV, the updates will come fairly quick, sometimes small updates at a time, and when on the Internet, stories also appear relatively quick and usually will say something like "news alert," so the audience knows they are updating a story.  
• This does depend on the media that is available to me.  Sometimes I may be in a vehicle and hear about a story from a friend or relative.  In that case, all I can do is listen to the radio. 
  

3. Do you use blogs? If so, for entertainment, news or opinion? Have you ever created or contributed to a blog?

• I do and have used blogs a number of times for a number of different things.  At this point, I mainly only use blogs for opinion articles or to learn about someone else if they have similar interests.  I generally do not go to blogs for news because I feel it is not as credible as the trained and paid professionals that do news reporting day in and day out.  
• I have created and also very frequently contribute to blogs as well.  I find it is a great networking tool and means of establishing or recognizing yourself in your career field.  My blog in which I created (danielgross.blogspot.com), mainly deals with my thoughts, my work, or news stories that I have had published in a credible news source.  At this point, my blog still doesn't really have a main focus on a particular topic.  

4. How does your interest in a story relate to the number and type of sources you use to learn about it? The time you spend learning about it?

• My level of interest on a story greatly relates to the time and commitment I will spend on that story to research, watch, read etc. If I do not have a strong interest, I may read one article online and then move on to something else, instead of going through each form of media for that story.
• Also, if it does not interest me very much, and I am confused about some of the content it says, I will many times not bother with finding out what I do not understand.

5. When you're reading or watching news, how long does it take you to reach your limit with a given story? Is there such thing as "too much news" in a report?

• Well many times in broadcast news, the networks will have something called a "24-hour news hole."  This can many times result in a repetition of facts or footage and that is where I see it as getting too much news.  
• It usually takes me to midway through the point where a network has begun repeating the facts they stated earlier.  Now if they continue to give out new detail and other facts about the story, I generally keep watching or reading, because I think you can never know too much about a certain story or topic.

Chapter two have a main focus on journalists being able to determine what is actually newsworthy with given stories.  In every story that have to decide what is news and what is not.  According to the author, it is a very complex process that is in the hands of the journalist to accurate provide information to the public.  

Discussion Questions:

1. Newspaper executives increasingly note a loss of college-age readers.  Are newspapers and other traditional news media relevant to 18- to 24-year-olds? If not, what would it take to make them relevant?

• The recording of a loss of college-age readers is merely to do with college students or people or that age, being so attached to convenience and technology that they are instead logging onto their computers for news and information.  Newspapers are certainly relevant to those in that age group because the same information found in newspapers are found online.  The difference is that it is faster, easier and free to find news on the Internet, therefore explaining the loss of readership.  
• I am honestly not sure what it would take for newspapers to gain readership in that particular age group.  The only thing I feel that would might work would be to somehow have exclusive news only found in print media and have the print media to be sure to include many graphics and photos to meet the advanced and technology feeling standard. 

2. With the public having so many choices of print, broadcast, and online news sources, what are the implications for determining what's news.  

• In today's industry it is hard to determine what is actually news, because every company in every type of media has done something to make sure there is a 24-hour around the clock fill of news stories so that the public always has something new to read about.  The trouble is that not all of these stories are breaking or even very newsworthy.  
• Actual news that is newsworthy, however can be determined by looking at the top headlines of front page of the news source.  Media companies will generally keep the actual news to the front headlines of the media source while filing all of the other holes and gap with fluff or human interest stories.  

3. More and more Americans are picking their news outlets to reflect their viewpoints.  Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What's gained and what's lost when we no longer have a shared national network?

• I certainly think that it is a good thing that people are able to choose which viewpoints and opinions that would prefer to listen to but to answer this question I have to go back to the root problem of having varying networks and sources in the first place.  Because the different netowrks are so varyied, I would expect people to turn to specific outlets as opposed to switching one out for the other.  If we had un-biased, completely objective, news networks without their own opinions then I would not expect nor want people to turn to one network over the other because the news would be the same.  
  
• There is great deal of loss when we no longer have a shared national netowrk because many times facts are now skewed and we end up hearing more opinions than we ever needed to hear come out of the mouths of the reporters.  
• The only small gain from something like this is the fact that people that have different views can go to their safe haven of a netowrk.  People have different viewpoints.  So now, they have the option when looking at news to go with the netowrk that shares the same viewpoint as they do.  

Photo by: Daniel Gross

Brett Roegiers

Graduate from the University of Florida- Multimedia Journalist

Click here to see his webpage:

http://brettroegiers.com

Roegiers is a recently graduated student from the University of Florida that has experienced a number of different forms of multimedia along the way.  He has worked The Independant Florida Alligator and has interned for the Gainsville Sun as well.  

This journalist works mostly with web deisgn and Flash media but has also dealt with a number of journalistic story assignments.  

I am not certain, but I would say that this person's backpack is always containing his laptop computer (most likely a Mac Book), an iPod, a voice recorder, USB drives, a digital photo camera, writing utensils and a notebook.

After viewing Roegiers' Web Site and communicating with him, he had been freelancing with the Miami Herald and is now a multimedia journalist with CNN.com.

Jared Silfies 

Journalist Student

View his blog on wordpress.com at:

http://jaredsilfies.wordpress.com/

In my opinion, afer reading over Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., talks a great deal about the importance of keeping a professional verbage and English language when writing.  Writing should not be taken lightly, especially in a time when multimedia is becoming more prevelant in today's journalism.  

The book is trying to tell journalists like Jared Silfies to not forget the importance of writing and reporting correctly and to the English standard.  I don't think this book is saying that there is a problem with how the industry has evolved and is continuing to evolve, only that there should still be a strong emphaisis on the words and sentence phrasing of stories and other writings.