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:

Here at Towson, most resident students have become very used to seeing multiple fliers posted throughout the lobby of their residence hall and sometimes even up and down the hallways. Typically, these papers are updates for meetings, new club advertisements, or upcoming events that the building staff or Housing and Residence Life wish to promote. 

Drury University in Springfield, MO, has actually banned the posting of papers within residence halls. In replace, each residence hall on their 

campus now has a built in video LCD screen to display announcements. Just as the Bursur's Office is going paperless with their bill paying system, so is this university with their methods of announcing. 

Now resident students there can view all upcoming announcements via an electronic video screen. According to the article published in The Mirror the resident assistants are actually enjoying putting together the slide shows.

As far as funding, these screens will also have advertisements implemented into their broadcast of images. There are also a number of other benefits to having these screens that University officials say will improve the campus. 

The only downside was that some students felt the money spent should have gone elsewhere. 

To view the article that was published on February 4 click here.

I thought this article was put together very well. It seemed to address all of the important issues that come along with this switch from paper to video. Drury U is not the only college that is doing this so it may have been good to look into other Universities for a comparison. 

Have you ever walked through campus, passing students left and right going to and from class? Have you ever slowed your life down when this moment occurs, to get a feel for the students around you, almost as if there is a beat or rhythm to the footsteps of each passerby?

This is what I have come to understand as the Towson University student beat.

For the Spring 2009 semester, I will be assigning myself to the Residence Life story beat. Anything as far as on-campus events, issues concerning resident students or updates in residence halls are all fair game for coverage. This is a broad scope of ideas that will string together throughout the semester. All of these posts will be designed to analyze, observe, or inform the student body of Towson University.

There is much to be reported on, considering there are over 20,000 students enrolled this year. There are also two additional residence halls on campus. Above all, there is an ever-growing amount of initiatives and programs designed for students at this university.

For resourceful information try some of th e links below:

Housing and Residence Life
TUPD Crime Log
Campus Event Calendar

If wanting to submit a news tip or story suggestion contact Daniel Gross at: dgross7@students.towson.edu

Article by Daniel Gross

Photo taken from: TowsonTigers.com

Towson University's student athletic program has been voted one of the nation's best college athletic program's in the nation, offering 20 different sports for the intercollegiate program. This is now Towson's 30th year of NCAA Division 1 competition. The college growth and student enrollment has also consistently risen in the past years and continues to do so. The University now publicizes it's current enrollment status of over 20 thousand students. 

But where are the fans? Where are the crowds that wear there school colors with pride and stand and yell for their favorite player at a Towson Tiger sporting event? 

The recent men's basketball CAA conference game vs. Drexel was a perfect example of this lack of enthusiasm this university has come to have. Throughout the entire game, although the stands were filled seeing that it was a bi-semesterly "black out" game, there was no one to be seen standing up or at times even paying attention. There was only one small section, the "student section" where a group of students choose to remain standing for the entirety of the game. 

This group would even scream chants to the rest of their fellow Towson students, yet none of these so called fans would stand up or cheer for their team. 

There were many scenarios throughout the game in which naturally the play on the court would result in a standing ovation. At one point, there was 45 seconds left in the game, with the Towson Tigers down by only four points, an easy situation to pull out ahead.

Despite these suspenseful conditions, the fans remained in their seats. This was all while, the visiting teams fans, were all standing up together to support their team and make sure they would come home with a win. 

This goes to say a lot about the intention of the students at Towson and where the holes are within the strong athletic program. The athletic and sports programs directors have put a number of fan involvement/excitement program in place. These programs however, still do not seem to enhance the experience of the fan and attract a stronger commitment to spectator sports. Much of the issue lies within the actual fans. The issue of becoming more excited and showing sincere support is the first step and strengthening the fan base.

To look through the many sports programs offered go the the Towson Tigers homepage

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

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