Reading Journal 10/1

As I trekked around numerous publications this week looking for interesting articles, I came across some good material. An article that particularly caught my eye was called “Subway train strikes, kills man in lower Manhattan” found in the New York Post. The article was about 20 year old Brian Freely, a mugger who jumped in front of a moving subway car in order to avoid police. What initially caught my eye was the lead… “A punk who robbed a victim at knifepoint and fled into a downtown Manhattan subway was killed early today when he tried to leap onto a passing train and was struck, authorities said.” I thought it was very odd that the author referred to Freely as a “punk”. Although it was probably true, it seems like an inappropriate word choice for someone who had just passed away. Nonetheless, I think this is a good example of how language is used to draw your reader in. By using this abnormal word, it made me want to read the rest of the article. Another thing that I noticed was the piece was only about ten sentences, so it was very short and simple. The author had no angle and no details, it was just cut and dry reporting.

As I continued my observations on ledes I drew my attention to an article published in the New York Times called “For Female Marines, Tea Comes With Bullets” by Elisabeth Bumiller. The piece is about a gun skirmish in the Afghani combat zone, however the lede states “MARJA, Afghanistan — They expected tea, not firefights”. Although the article mentions the female soldiers drinking tea with Pashtun natives, that fragment of information was not the gist of the article. That’s why I was curious as to why that was chosen as lede-worthy. I think this is just another example of how journalists need to use multiple techniques to draw in their readers, one of these being wit and humor. It interests me to compare the work we have been doing in class to some of the pieces that I read in publications. Methods such as the inverted pyramid and the traditional lede are always a foolproof way to write an article, however, it seems that these procedures can be tweaked every once in a blue moon.

Reading Journal 10/1

While flipping through the New York Times this week, it became clear to me that it is always easier for me to get through news articles concerning art and culture. Although I do read political and economic articles, the arts is where my passion lies. At the present moment, Carol Vogel of the New York Times has caught my eye as one of their standout writers. Her voice is familiar and comfortable, yet informative and intelligent. One article I enjoyed most was her write up on pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who is opening a black-and-white exhibit at The Morgan Library on Friday, October 22nd, 2010. Carol opens this article by jumping right into the content, rather than pointlessly introducing the author in a mundane format. She starts off right away by telling us the artist's source of inspiration, which is mundane images such as ads for foot medication, hot dogs and BB guns. Although I have yet to see the exhibit, Roy's style seems similar to Andy Warhol's, which is hugely positive in my mind. It makes sense that Vogel is writing about Lichtenstein, because she has done articles on rare Warhol pieces that were being sold in the past.

Vogel's style makes me reflect on my own, and inspires me to cut out extra words and go straight for the content, something I have always struggled with, but steadily improved upon. Her opening sentence for the Lichtenstein article is "Inspired by mundane images, Roy Lichtenstein managed to create art that has become the stuff of legend: illustrations of advertisements for things like foot medication, hot dogs and BB guns, not to mention his signature reinterpretations of comic book images." (NY Times) Her use of specific examples and a somewhat sweeping statement ("the stuff of legend") in the first sentence really grabs her readers and gets them hooked, allowing her to easily segue into the real content with no awkward transitions. I find this no nonsense approach to be extremely inspiring because it eliminates fluff and forces the writer to only include vital information in a succinct way. After following Vogel's work this past week, I am convinced that I must truly tailor my writing style to be more acute and less frilly.

response two

This week while keeping up with the news I have realized how media-crazed our society is becoming and how our intense interconnectedness and our openness to share personal details in public forums may one day haunt us, and even have deadly repercussions as it did this week with the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi.
As outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogs become more mainstream, the line of what is truly news worthy and what is personal becomes blurred, to a point where many people can not tell the difference.

I've been following the case of a freshmen student at Rutgers who secretly taped his roommate's sexual encounter and broadcast it live on the internet. The student, Dharun Ravi, 18, was asked by his roommate Tyler Clementi to stay out of the room for a few hours the night of September 19th while a guest came to visit. The New York Times reported that Ravi left on his computer's webcam and sent out a message from his Twitter account that said 'Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”
With many students receiving each others updates on a minute to minute basis because of their mutual accounts on sites like Twitter and the rise of smart phones, many students at Rutgers were able to see this message and it quickly became a hot gossip item on campus.


Two nights after the initial incident, Ravi posted another online message saying “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it’s happening again.”


In details released on September 29th, 2010, it was announced that Clementi killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River on September 22nd. Clementi even left a pseudo-suicide note as a status update on his Facebook page '“Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” I feel like this update, even as a final goodbye, illuminates just how committed we are to our social networks, and that maybe we as a generation are beginning to see them as an extension of ourselves in a very literal way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/nyregion/30suicide.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

Reading Journal Three

This week I paid special attention to the use of quotes in articles, since this was an aspect of my second news article I did not do so well! I decided that I do not necessarily like the use of quotes in all articles, and sometimes find it more affective when the writer simply says, ‘so-and-so has said’. Often I found that the direct quotes were a little bit weak and did not necessarily add to the story as a whole, but were added out of necessity –so that it is believed the writer actually spoke with the interviewee at hand.

For example: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/nyregion/24newark.html?ref=mark_e_zuckerberg

In this article the quotes are not very descriptive and they do not offer anything more to the story than what the writer could not have explained himself. They are also included in the same paragraph as the other writing- something that Prof. Chaplin advised me not to do. Probably, placing quotes in their own paragraph is an older form of news writing and not as necessary/ strictly followed in online news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/nyregion/24newark.html?ref=mark_e_zuckerberg

This article I found to be very informative, and used no quotes at all. It is also much more direct and to the point, perhaps adding more of the writer’s voice than other news pieces on the same story, but I appreciate it and do not find that it detracts from the objective authoritative-ness of the writer either. There is one quote at the bottom of the article that is entirely pointless, and a little bit abrupt since it is the only quote.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-facebooks-founding-face,0,2058473.story

here is another example of quotes used where I did not find the quotes to be so necessary. They are all right, but somehow distract me from the tone the writer has set, and I find that quotes are typically not as article as the rest of the piece, so they have a tendency to throw it all off.

http://atlanticwire.theatlantic.com/opinions/view/opinion/The-Life-and-Philosophy-of-Mark-Zuckerberg-5003

I do like quotes used in this way though! It is not a standard format of a news story, so I feel like the quotes work better. This article is set up with bullet points, and the quotes are placed in their own box on the page. They are completely on their own, and do not even have quotation marks or a she said afterwards. It is implied, and set off by a colon. I think this is my favorite use of quotes in an article, where the quotes actually make up the beef of the story and are a necessary aspect to the story and a part of the writers intention when beginning the article.

Weekly Response

Small Details Count


"He rarely strayed from work or home. On days off he drank a few Budweisers and watched sports, especially his beloved Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots. Rogers wouldn't let him smoke inside, so he sat on the porch with a Marlboro and headphones listening to Aerosmith or Celine Dion.

‘Oh, my gaaahhd, she's the best sinnga on the plaaaahhnet,’ he would say in his New England accent.”

Last week we began discussing which sort of details should we incorporate into our articles. It was said small details allows the readership to identify with the person or people in question in our article pieces. We briefly spoke about the new definition of “who” in the list of “W’s” (“who, what, when, and where”) that is now being defined by some as “a character”. The character(s) featured humanizes an article, and the small details surrounding the protagonist of our piece can either make us empathetic towards them, or feel like we know them better than most people we see everyday.
Earlier this month an obituary was published detailing the death of Neil Alan Smith. A modest middle-aged man employed at the local Crab Shack, who died after being struck by a vehicle on his bike coming home from work. After this appeared online on the St. Petersburg Times website, an offensive off-hand comment was posted declaring, “A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.”
The comment was immediately flagged for its inappropriateness, but not without attracting the attention of the Andre Meacham, a Times staff writer, who addressed the comment by writing an incredibly well-done profile on the deceased that can be seen here, http://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/hit-and-run-victim-was-quiet-and-dependable-co-workers-say/1124721#tpcccf.
Meacham’s employment of details in this piece is so effective, one feels grief and the sense of loss of this man, who without the tactless feedback of the anonymous poster, whose humble accomplishments would never of been brought to the public’s notice. Meacham portrays him through various lenses of the people who knew him best. Although he was a private man, Meacham is able to depict him with clarity with the usage of anecdotes from neighbors, co-workers, and his roommate.
Details like the descriptions of his hands—“the palms of his hands wrinkled and white”—pays homage to the ten years he served at the Crab Shack working as a dishwasher. The inclusion of his affinity towards Celine Dion and the New England Patriots shows he was a man with diverse tastes that may not be expected of him, and the descriptions of his generosity shines light onto the inner workings of a man who was much more than a dishwasher at the Crab Shack.
Meacham’s profile is exemplary perhaps because of its unexpectedness. He succeeds in creating an emotional piece because it allows the reader a glimpse into a world of a man most would not automatically think to show a pressing interest in (and exactly the falsehood Meacham wished to disprove), and is all the more bitter-sweet because we know from the beginning he has already died, leaving the reader with a haunting sense of the larger picture that lay behind the few lines that comprise an obituary.

CNN Official Interview: Andrew Shirvell of the blog 'Chris Armstrong Wa...

I read a rather sad article today on BBC World News with the headline "Student kills himself after gay sex footage put online" which struck me as a perfect example of the microcosm/macrocosm type of news article which we were discussing in class. While the circumstances which motivated the student to jump from the George Washington bridge are definitely news worthy, the writer of this article appears to draw the connection between this event and two other key issues going on in the world: gay rights and cyber bullying. This isolated event is therefore made even more significant by the fact that occurred amidst its larger, societal conflicts. Because of these issues in addition to the high level of international media attention surrounding the case of the departed's roommate and his friend (the two responsible for the filming and viral spreading), I can imagine that the judge handling the case will give the two are rather severe sentence (up to 5 years in prison). In addition, I think they should post some sort of profile about the deceased, perhaps to make his case a bit more human like we talked about in class and not "just-another-gay-suicide".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11454786

In tandem with this tragedy has been the Anderson interview of Assistant Michigan AG, Andrew Shirvell, over his six month stalking and cyber-bullying of Chris Armstrong, an open gay student and president of the student body at the University of Michigan. TV journalism, although very different from written publications, it seems is in some ways more transparent. In class, we discussed a journalist’s responsibility to accuracy and to be as transparent as possible -- striving not to omit certain details from a story in order to imply an idea to the reader which suits the journalist's own agenda. In a typical news article, many of the visual details between the Cooper and Shirvell would be omitted. However, by watching the interview, although this is subjective, one generally does get the impression that Shirvell is as strange and inappropriate as his actions toward the student have been - aspects of his character which may have been lost in a typical news articel. Thus, TV has the ability to portray new stories with characters, as we discussed in class, much easier than the written word seems able to. In addition, Cooper’s questions appear very direct and seem to voice the public’s own queries into this situation. The television journalist seems to be much more of a representation of the public, becoming the physical connection between us as the viewers and the subject of his interview -- unlike a typical news story where we rarely get to see the questions which the interviewer asks.

Reading Journal No. 3

Taking in consideration of this week’s readings, I wanted to look into different ledes, approaches, and styles of writing which to me, can be infused into one (as in they are developed and incorporated from one another).

This week, news from New Jersey about a Rutgers student committing suicide has shocked many around the nation. Tyler Clementi was caught in a pornography-like scandal—his roommate, Dharun Ravi and Ravi’s friend Molly Wei (considered to be his accomplice) have been charged with invading Clementi’s privacy. Ravi was using his web camera to view and live stream Clementi engaging in sexual acts with another male. Upon discovering Ravi’s “malicious” act, Clementi had sought out for help but it was not enough to stop him from jumping off the George Washington Bridge last Wednesday.

Hundreds of articles have been written about Clementi and many have taken different approaches. With The New York Times’ most recent article, “Before a Suicide, Hints of Online Musings” journalists Lisa Foderaro and Winnie Hu focused more on the post-incident. Within a few days, the incident has gotten many LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) organizations involved, voicing their opinions to all that can hear. Clementi’s suicide has caused many people to get involved in not just his case, but make the gay community more known. At the same time, Foderaro and Hu did not want to cancel out Ravi and Wei from the story. Also doing a post-reporting approach, the journalists chose to give a good view of the two Rutgers students.

Some of the quotes included:

“I don’t think he would intentionally harm someone,” he said. “He’s not that kind of guy. He likes to make people laugh, but not at their expense.”

“She’s probably one of the nicest girls I know,” Mr. Lin said.

“There should be punishment, but five years of jail is extremely harsh. I’m sure these children did not intend for this child to go out and commit suicide.”

By including quotes that spoke highly of Ravi and Wei, the journalists/news story is trying to get us to give sympathy towards them, even by saying that the whole incident may have just been a “harmless prank” which the incident was constantly labeled as in other news articles.

As compared to a local newspaper, AM New York, the news story showed more sympathy towards Clementi. On the front cover of Thursday’s paper was a photograph of Clementi and the title, “Sex Cam Suicide.” Even before one reads the news story, a reader may become biased for Clementi just by taking a look at the cover. Karen Keller quoted Clementi’s last Facebook status “Going to jump off the bridge. Sorry.” It followed with the actual news lede: “Days after his roommate allegedly streamed live video of him having sex with another man, 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi left those chilling words on his Facebook and jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge.” Since this news story was released the day before, it was just informing the readers of the most recent news of the time. As many other news stories released on September 30th, not much was given about the aftermath like The New York Times’ article.