This week at Towson University, I plan on covering the newly adapted use of hybrid vehicles and expand the shuttle service for TU faculty employees and students. This is yet another initiative Towson has taken to "go green" and conserve the environment.  The school is already highly involved in the assisting of food waste and recyclables for student, they now are looking into their own carbon footprint. They have decided to drive and use hybrid faculty vehicles on campus. The extended shuttle service will also provide a more efficient means of commuter students arriving on campus. 

This should be an interesting event. I plan on interviewing a number of faculty members that are some of the decision makers and spokespersons for these projects such as Steve Showers, associate vice president of facilities management, Darcy Accardi, assistant vice president for civic engagement and others, as well as some students. 

I will research the programs that are dealing with these ideas to increase Towson's "go green" initiative and base a lot of my research on the primary interviews. 

I will most likely ask questions like:

-when did these ideas first come about?

-What is the overall goal in doing such things?

-How will this help Towson/Environment?

-What significant changes are there?

-How many cars are now hybrids on campus?

-What expansions have been made to the shuttle routes?

-What feedback has been received from students?

For a photo, I will shoot a number of car and shuttle pictures and maybe even some students walking to illustrate their use of alternative means from driving. 

For audio, I plan on getting clips of a shuttle bus speeding up or slowing down or even people loading or unloading from the bus. I may also use some of the audio interview I conduct. 

 To see Towson's Go Green initiatives click here

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.

By Towson University journalism student Daniel Gross

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On Friday night, instead of staying in or having a night out around town, about 56 students chose to race around Towson’s campus in an effort to win $500, $200 or $100 to a store of their choice. Sixteen teams gathered in Paws in the University Union to begin the Campus Activities Board's Friday Night Live event, "The Amazing Race: Towson."

Among these 16 teams, two freshman and two sophomore resident students decided to form a team earlier that day to compete for a chance to win a cash prize. Some of the teammates had little knowledge of "The Amazing Race," the television show, but felt that they had a fair chance of winning.

“We have a good team and everybody has their own individual skills,” sophomore English major Jasmine Pitts said. “We have a good shot at winning.”

While waiting in Paws, the team received their first clue and began to brainstorm ideas.

“The clue says, ‘go to the residence hall that rhymes with the word hen.’ Now at first we thought the Den but we realized that’s not a residence hall, it’s an eatery,” freshman and education major Jim Grandfield said. “Then we thought Prettyman because it’s technically a residence hall but it’s “m-a-n,' not 'm-e-n.' The only one that rhymes with 'hen' is the Glen, those are the Glen Towers, the Complex."

The determined group got off to a slow start at the Glen Towers, the race’s first stop. Teams had the task of arranging ten residence halls listed in order from earliest built to newest built. The team’s first attempt at this was not a great advancement, having only one residence hall correct.

 After completing their first stop, the team continued to go to each station around campus, jogging to some, walking to others. Residence Tower, 7800 York Road, the beach volleyball court at Burdick Hall, Towsontown Garage and Towson Center were all designated locations the clues told the students to locate.

“I didn’t realize that it would be this much physical activity. I haven’t worked out in a while,” Grandfield said.

At each location, CAB staff members were present to distribute the next clue for each team.University Residence Government members were also present as the event's cosponsors.

“It’s really exciting watching how frustrated everybody is and excited and running up and down the stairs,” URG president Alex Newman said who was stationed at the Towsontown Garage activity. “Then when they finally get [the answer] they bolt off in a direction when they haven’t even read the clue yet and don’t know where they’re going.”

While racing around campus, freshman electronic media and film major Latia Blake constantly gave words of encouragement to her fellow teammates. “Brian, this is your idea, you better put a pep in that step,” she said to her teammate, sophomore Brian Wright.

The group of four was able to complete each task, find each location and make it to the finish line in Paws, but not before about six or seven of the 16 teams had already finished.

“It was definitely hard. I wasn’t expecting this much running but you know, I met some new people, new friends, had fun,” Grandfield said. “It was a good way to spend a Friday night and I’m just going to sleep in tomorrow.”

Two groups ended up tying for first place, getting $400 for each team. A group of five Student Government Association members were one of those teams.

“Overall it was a lot of fun. It really showed the meaning of teamwork and I think we can take whatever we learned today about teamwork into the real world,” SGA senator Ryan Lodge said.

The other first place team was also pleased with their success.

“We saw that there was $500 up for grabs and we were just like, ‘oh that’s ours,’ and it was,”junior and theatre production major Jeremy Garnes said. “I thought it was rough because we had to run all the way around campus but you know, we worked cooperatively as a group.”

CAB and URG staff worked hand in hand with making preparations for the event. From the feedback that staff members were given, students enjoyed certain activities like the piggy-back ride challenge at 7800 York Road.

“I’m glad that everybody came back with smiling faces,” URG director of special projects Chelsea Harris said. “Everybody was heated about who was going to win what and that just shows how passionate they were about winning the race.”

According to Ryan Grasso, the CAB programming chair, many students mentioned that they would like to see this program again next semester. “Everybody was out of breath when they came to the finish,” he said.

     

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

Photos courtesy of www.towson.edu

For my news event coverage, I plan on attending the next SGA meeting at Towson University to listen to what issues are currently happening throughout the school. I think this will be a great, newsworthy event to cover, especially seeing the many different things that have happened on and off campus recently. I predict that the SGA and their student guests may have quite a few things to say in regards to a recent fight that had broken out in the union, the new school budget for the next fiscal year and the appointment of new freshman senators into the SGA. After attending the meeting, I will obviously have to hone my story topics down, to understand what is truly newsworthy and what specific aspect should be covered.

___________________________

What advance information is available about this speech or event?

The advanced information that I have is what I know are major topics in the student community right now. I am aware that the SGA covers new and appropriate topics at their meetings. There is also advanced information from any of the members on the executive board that I will speak to prior to the meeting so that they will be able to prepare me of what I might look for.

_________________________

Who will be your main sources?

My main sources will certainly be any of the members on the executive board of the SGA, most likely SGA president Kristen Guy or vice president James Torrence. The newly appointed, freshman senators will also be points of contact because they will have prevalence at the meeting. David Satterlle, director of new student programs, will also be a good source for this story, since he will be tackling the issue concerning the fight that broke out.

_______________________

What questions will you ask?

When the meeting is over, I might ask the exec. board what they thought of the meeting, ask them what they thought of certain student reactions and how they plan on helping in hte situation. For the freshman senators, I may ask them what they think of the SGA, why did they want to join and what they hope to accomplish this year.

_______________________

What additional details will you look for?

In addition, I will also look for certain reactions for others in the audience or in the SGA. I will look for other issues to develop or come out of the freshman senators being elected or other issues concerning the major fight on campus.

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.