The Art of Storytelling

The past semester has been an interesting experience in Newswriting I. I find that news looks different to me now. I tended to focus on the content before, but I focus now on the process. How writers write, how broadcasters speak, and how tweeters tweet are all ways that journalists tell a story. The word story is peculiar to me. I often associate it with fiction writing, but in this case its the truth. Why do readers need to be captivated by the writing rather than the truth itself. The way one writes or tells the story is what makes it a big story or a small story. If a story isn't interesting to read, it's a small story, no matter how important. A big story, however, can be created from an insignificant piece of news just through how one tells the story. For those fiction writers out there, maybe try your luck telling the news.

Start to "Jaws" Story

The body of 17-year-old, Chrissie Watson, was found early this morning after what has appeared to be an attack of some kind. 

Watson, an Amity High School Senior and member of the varsity swim team, was seen leaving a beachside party with Christopher Hoggenbottam. Hoggenbottam notified police after losing sight of Watson. 

Both Watson and Hoggenbottam, a sophomore at Trinity College, were seen leaving a party in which alcohol and possibly marijuana were involved around 11pm. The party was on a remote side of the island, and like most of the beaches in Amity, are safe for the public.

Paintball guns, really?

UNH police had to break up a large party in the middle of the day on Saturday, and did so with tear gas and paintball guns. After breaking up the day party on Madbury with tear, officers attempted to march students down garrison using paintball guns as force. In a video account of the events, police seemed unable to answer the whys, and seemed to take extreme measures under the circumstances. One thing that I found peculiar about the aftermath of the events was that the video was taken down. In what has turned into an investigation on how it was handled, the video was considered to be evidence. Either way, it seems to be a restriction on the freedom of the press. Even the girl who was filming was yelled at and push by police for not moving. Keep in mind, she was just walking down the sidewalk minding her own business.

Boston Marathon Notes

The coverage of the Boston Marathon was extremely intriguing, yet disappointing to me. In a time where confusion covers a nation, the press' job is to clarify and inform. In the case of the Boston Marathon last week, it did the total opposite. Sources like the CNN, Fox News, and The New York Post went for speed over accuracy. Reports with no merit were flying around the country so that news companies could have something to report when they didn't even know too much about the truth. It is times like these that remind me to put the truth before the story itself. Find the facts, check them, check them again, and then check them a third time. Maybe if journalists did that, the chaos and panic could have been subdued.

Fluffy the Spotted Leopard

The world’s only known spotted leopard, known for it’s kill first ask questions later mentality, escaped from its cage at the Durham Zoo late last night leaving the small New Hampshire town in panic. 

Fluffy, the name of the 10-year-old Romanian spotted leopard that inhabits the Durham Zoo, is considered harmless by many. “Fluffy would never hurt anyone,” said one of the zoo-goers as he exited the zoo with his daughter. Never-the-less, this rare breed of animal is known for it’s killing ability. In fact, the cat is known for it’s appetite for children under 8-years-old.

The zoo’s chief zoologist, Kitty Smith, says that this priceless animal, whose species is on the brink of extinction, isn’t dangerous unless provoked or cornered. “If these cats are cornered,” said Smith. “Their defense is to kill, and kill quickly.”

When the zoo opened this morning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, that is until the discovery that Fluffy had gone missing. James Petronkis, of Newmarket, NH, first noticed the disappearance of the rare breed of leopard. “I knew something was wrong right away,” said Petronkis. “Fluffy usually draws the straw up into a nest when she sleeps, but there was no nest.” Petronkis, a big fan of Fluffy, tried to get the attention of the zoo officials, but after being reassured the leopard was just in her little. After finally getting them to further investigate, Petronkis was right, the cat was gone. 

Chaos broke out after the discovery, as zoo attendees were told to evacuate the zoo. Kids were crying, and many parents were unhappy with the zoo’s handling of the situation, many of them requesting their money back.

While the zoo was being evacuated, zoo officials were holding a press conference inside to address concerns on the threat at hand. Gerry Durrell, the director of the zoo, explained the mystery behind the escape of Fluffy. “ Everything about her cage seemed normal,” said Durrell. “The door was shut and did not appear to have been tampered with.” It was also noted that the fencing was unbroken.

Not knowing where or how far the leopard could have traveled, Durrell was unable to answer questions after getting teary eyed over the possible fate of Fluffy. 

Police Chief, William Blair, assures the public that all that is possible is being done to locate the animal peacefully, but if need be, deadly force will be used. “If possible, Fluffy will be shot with a tranquilizer,” said Blair. “But if necessary, we will shoot to kill.” Police will be searching the grounds of the zoo for signs of the animal, but expect to move out into the town of Durham soon as they believe she is no longer within the zoo walls. The State Police, State Wildlife Department, as well as the National Guard will be in on the search.

As the search continues, chief zoologist Kitty Smith is making a few suggestions if a run-in with this animal occurs. “We urge anyone who encounters Fluffy to get slowly to the ground, go limp, and lay still,” said Smith. “Avoid eye contact at all costs.”

The Art of Journalism: Dying?

I saw an article the other day on PBS's Media Shift. The article analyzes the effect of twitter and other social media ont he foundations of good journalism. What I thought was interesting was that they argue that although twitter leads to perhaps more people informed with up-to-date news, twitter actually makes one's understanding of what is going on more shallow. The article argues that by condensing news into 140 characters, it makes it difficult for the reader to fully understand what is going on. It is then concluded that twitter news may not be as good as it seems, and could possibly undermine journalism and the work of trained journalists.

WUNH Experience

Sports Journalism is not only a passion of mine, but something that fascinates me as a whole. I have recently started being on the 91.3 WUNH Durham every week talking sports, and it has turned into another type of journalism for me. While the Boston Globe offers in depth analysis of games and teams, radio allows for the same thing but through collective conversation. I think that aspect is missing from sports journalism on paper. A lot of it is opinion based and to be honest it goes unchallenged. People can write whatever they wish about a team without argument  That is the best part about radio to me, personally. It's almost as if everyone on air must become verifiers of the news being presented.

Reflection

In my own writing, I have noticed that deciding what lead to use is one of the hardest parts. It defines the story and can either limit or activate creativity. From there, I usually know how to expand my stories and I have a good feel for how I want them to flow. I also find that if my idea is still abstract in my head, it comes across that way on the page. My new goal is to make sure I know my point before I start writing. Sometime I start writing and hope one comes to me, but it makes for a weak story.

In Class Narrative.

The train sped down the track with the gunman on board and James Doyle not far behind. Doyle’s car was gaining on the gunman’s train, but the people inside were under an immediate threat. Within the walls of the train, the passengers were beginning to sense a problem after the train had ceased to stop at the last station. And then, without warning, a shot. The gunman had open fired on transit police officer Sunny Grosso. With people on the train now in panic, the gunman had to use Peter Howe, one of the train’s conductors as a hostage and stowed himself away in the conductors area in the front of the train. The train continued to speed along at a fast rate. The passengers in panic, and the gunman slowly realizing his chances of success.

Witness Accuracy: 90% Recall

Mock "I Have a Dream" article...

100 years after President Lincoln’s famous Emancipation Proclamation, Dr. Martin Luther King said that a world of racial equality still only exists in a dream. 

King, who spoke Tuesday to hundreds of thousands of black and white men and women on the National Mall, questioned the promise that had been given by our founding fathers that all men had the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

“It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds," King proclaimed.

He acknowledged that even 100 years after Lincoln freed black men and women from slavery, they still live in oppression. But this does not hinder his dream. Dr. King spoke to the energetic crowd asking for forgiveness rather than hatred, and for peace rather than violence.

“In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” said King

In a very Lincoln way, Dr. King acknowledged that in order for this nation to be great, we must stand as one, but the hatred will further divide. It was made clear, however, on Tuesday that the black community would not go quietly. While violence was not the answer in King’s message, it didn’t stop him from dropping a threat to the men in congress.

“Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual,” said King.........

Evoking Emotion: delayed lead

A lead in another metro article this week reads as follows, “Louis Bourgoin seems an unlikely symbol of the latest battle over health care spending. The 68-year-old retired shipyard worker is undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer. He lives in a state once renowned for its efforts to insure the poor, and Mainers stood to benefit even more under President Obama’s health care plan.” This article is concerning the Governor of Maine’s decision to reject federal health care funding, and his cutting of 44,000 Medicare patients. The lead in this case, is a delayed lead. It’s goal is shock and awe. It tries to show readers how people are effected by the Government’s decision. It tries to evoke emotion from the reader so that he/she will read on. In my opinion, it is very effective in doing so by choosing someone who is going through a sickness that most people have a personal connection to at one point or another. This makes the article real for everyone.

Evidence comes in different forms.....

In the metro section this week, there was an intriguing article entitled “Odds favor cardinal in Ghana as the next pope”. This article predicts who will be elected the next Pope. In an interesting fashion, the article makes the statement of who has a chance to be the next Pope using betting odds: “For gamblers laying wagers on the election of the next pope, the smart money is on Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, a strong favorite at 11/4 odds at the Irish Internet gambling company PaddyPower.com.” The article continues to use the odds of the Red Sox wining the next World Series in comparison. This tactic, as a lead, grabs the readers attention, and acts as a delayed lead. Although we understand where the article is headed, it is unclear the specifics of the claim that Turkson will win. The article goes on to explain why he is the favorite, and the actions people may have to a african Pope.

Leads: The Two Styles

      The strengths of writing a summary lead are that it is short and too the point, and extremely effective when writing breaking news stories in which the reader must learn what happened within the first few lines of the story. The downside to this type of lead is that it lacks an artistic spin, or an ability to tell a story in a more creative way. A good example of a summary lead appeared in the Boston Globe this Saturday entitled "Report of a gunman inside MIT unfounded, authorities say". This article was overall pretty short and to the point, but one could get the gist of the article within the first two sentences. Within those first two, we already understand why it’s news. 

       The delayed lead allows for more creativity in the telling of the story, but can lose a reader when the point of the article does not come until later. In order to avoid this, the article must grab the attention of the reader not by telling the synopsis of the story, but rather using emotion and other tactics that evoke a response.

Boston Living Center: Summary Lead Example

Larry Kessler, age 70, recently took over as executive director for the Boston Living Center, the region’s largest refuge for people living with HIV and AIDS, which has seemed to have made its resurgence over the past year.

Nightclub Fire: Soft Lead Example

Despite the horrors of the fire, former Governor Don Carcieri described it as “our people’s finest hour.” A time where the population of Rhode Island stood together as a support system for the families who lost loved ones.

Angela Bogart was apart of one of those families, and ten years later, can’t forget.

‘‘My mom lives in me in everything I do. I hear her voice wherever I go,’’ she said. Bogart was 19-years-old when her mother died in the fire.

On Sunday, ten years after the 2003 nightclub blaze, Bogart, as well as many other families of the fire victims, gathered in West Warwick, RI in honor of their fallen loved ones.

Summary Lead Example

Alex, an African Gary Parrot whose intelligence and ability to talk has influenced the world of animal psychology, died at age 31 from what appeared to be natural causes.

Sports Journalism: What you think.

Sports Journalism is probably one of the most read forms of news media in the world today. Being a top form of entertainment, the world of sports journalism lends itself to much more interpretation then the rest of the news world. In reading the Boston Globe this week, I noticed that sports journalism takes up much of the front page headline space. I then proceeded to read the articles and what I found was interesting. Most of them were not play by plays. or game summary’s, or even first hand accounts, but rather offer analysis of what the writer thinks are the greater trends. The article are about their own expectations for new players, or criticism of Lebron. This field differentiates from most of the news world, because the opinions of others are excepted within sports journalism. When you read the articles about the russian meteor, you want to know what happened, not what the writers think of the event. In sports however, we enjoy hearing the “experts” interpretation.

Organization, Dependent on Content

When Journalist write an article for their specific news outlet, there are many different ways that they can portray there information. In the Boston Globe, most articles are written in the traditional way, with a lead followed by the rest of the inverted pyramid. But in some articles, the writers find a more effective way to illustrate their stories to the reader. In an article entitled “How to find savings on smartphones” in Sunday’s paper, the story is told through bullet points and subcategories throughout the article. This is the best way to inform the readers of the topic. The key throughout the stories in the Globe is that they let the content of the articles determine how the article is written. What ever makes the material more informative, and more intriguing to the reader should be how the article is written. In the particular case of the smartphone article, it is written as instructions, which is affective in that the article’s goal is to instruct people how to save money on smartphones.

Opinion: Is it considered news?

An interesting idea that should be examined in the world of Journalism today, is the concept of whether or not opinion columns should be considered news. Often, in national media, television news is built of opinion or news spun in a way to please a certain constituency. In print news, these biases or opinions are more often illustrated in columns. In the Boston Globe, columnists such as Joanna Weiss write how they see the world and the news as it unfolds. She wrote this week in an article about Facebook’s downfall, “If people are slowly turning away from Facebook, it’s not because the company has overreached or gone over to the dark side. It’s because we’ve come to realize that people are boring.” Is this writers opinion news, and does it belong in the news world. I think there is a place for it, but people should always read it with a grain of salt. These columns are not written through reporting or fact, but rather a reaction to real news.

In-Class Article (Based on provided information)

A violent, single-car accident occurred on Tuesday evening around 9:00pm trapping two young females for over 45 minutes and sending them both to the hospital.

The driver of the car, Jamie Peterson, a seventeen year old resident of Belmont, was driving along Mile Hill Rd when the white Ford Mustang swerved off the road, hit an embankment, and flipped onto its roof.

Josie Cradall, a resident of Mile Hill Rd, witnessed the accident from her window. 

“I’ve never scene a car going so fast on this road,” said Cradall who lives across from the Ponderosa trailer park. “It’s a dirt road, and it’s really easy to lose control.”

Peterson managed to escape the vehicle, but rescuers had to use all force necessary to save the female passengers. They were both taken to Memorial Hospital in Belmont. 

One girl has been stabilized at Memorial Hospital, but a hospital spokesperson confirms that the other has been airlifted to Mass. General Hospital in Boston to be treated for a brain injury.

Tom Carrol, seventeen-years-old, was also driving on Mile Hill Rd that evening. He told police that had been following the Mustang with his truck when the vehicle suddenly sped up to take a turn. He says that the next thing he knew, the car was belly up.

Observations from "The Globe"

Through my readings within the Boston Globe, I noticed a lot of different stylistic tools that I can use in my own writing, but the attribute that intrigued me the most is that a news story can be told many times from different angles, by different reports, all within the same issue of a paper. I chose to look at the stories surrounding the big snow storm that hit the northeast this week. The front page was covered with pictures and headlines about the impact the storm had on people, as well as what it destroyed in its path. When reading the articles, it was fascinating to me how a story could be spun many different ways to make it intriguing to the reader. Some articles concerned individual people and their struggles with the storm, some concerned the meteorology, and others were about the impact the storm had on closings and parking bans as well as power outages. All had a different portrayal of why the storm was so bad. I found that very intriguing. An event can have many stories written about it, but the key is to pick the most interesting angle to hook your readers.

Adapting to the Specific Requirements in News Writing.

Honestly, adapting to the requirements of news writing is relatively difficult. Unlike most pieces of writing one writes in their college career, news writing does not give room for fluff. Fluff being the language used to further describe, in an artistic way, what has already been stated. In news writing, there is room for fact, and sometimes not even enough room for all the facts that you have. I have found that an easy way to make the adjustment is to get as many facts as possible. The more reporting, the easier it becomes to write the article. I have found the once a lead is written, the rest of the article becomes easy to write with all the facts that I have collected. Another challenge that has come up when writing my articles has been “showing my hand” (so to speak) at the beginning of the article. In most writing, especially novel writing, you can save the outcome for the end, actually, you are supposed to do so. In news writing, you must give a synopsis of the whole story within the first few sentences. Otherwise you lose your reader, and this is a challenge.

What I noticed from the text...

One thing that I have noticed through my readings of the textbook is how there is no one formula for Journalism. There may be standard form such as the inverted pyramid and the development of a lead, but Journalism leaves room for creative presentation. One may, if they chose, tell their story in different forms if it fits the needs of the story being told. It is an intriguing idea to me that the form is based off of the necessities of the story. Yes, most stories are told in a conventional way, and that design will almost never fail. But in contrary to that, form can be changed to make a story more effective. One can use bullets, changing paragraph size, as well as rearranging the facts and the order of which the story is told. Whatever it takes to grab the readers eye and keep them reading is the correct style and formation for an article.

Little Red Riding Hood Lead

A local Huntsman saved young village dweller, Elisabeth, known as Little Red Riding Hood, as well as her Grandmother after they’d been eaten by a wolf. Elisabeth was making the 30 minute trek to her grandmothers when the attack occurred.

The attack occurred early yesterday morning when Little Red Riding Hood was trying to deliver a basket to her Grandmother who had been rather sick.

What is News?: A Collaborative Effort

When sharing my definition of what news is, I realized that I have left out much of what the news embodies, but also that some people have a misconstrued view of how the news works. Firstly, Brittany  had a great point when she said that Journalism is "unescapable". The news that we receive today is constantly being thrown at us through Twitter, Internet Sources, Television, and even the old fashion way; through word of mouth. I think that this concept is important to include in any definition of modern day news, because it helps define the types of news we see today. I would argue that this concept, however, gives us a shallow view of a story. Another idea that was said throughout our discussion was that news is always honest. As I wrote in my previous post, in the perfect world, yes, this is true. But it is a reality of news today that there are agendas that news corporation feel obligated to follow for usually financial. This should be considered when contemplating the reality of news in our world today.

What is news?

In my opinion, news is the reporting of information through some sort of medium that informs the public. In order for the information being provided to be considered news, however, I believe that the intentions of the news source must be for the greater good. Whether it is to create a better informed population to promote the effectiveness of Democracy, or to bring attention to an issue half-way across the world that we would otherwise ignore, news must contribute to the betterment of society. Although, there may be different kinds of Journalsim, news, at its core should not be bias or contain an agenda.