Dealing with Journalist's principles and responsibilities

Reading chapters 14 and 15, I found a few issues that are important for journalists to follow....

One of the first issues I looked at was the need for accuracy. In our book, it says "at a bare minimum, accuracy means getting the facts straight." To me, it's one of if not the most important thing you can do as a journalist.

To have a real story, you have to make sure your facts are correct and not just something made up. Getting the source to state their name, age, profession and title is a start. The book states the best way to make sure your facts are straight is to check information obtained from interviews against original sources. A reporter should never assume anything, and if you have to double check and triple check things, it's always better to do that then just assume things are correct.

Another issue of importance is linking to source materials. When comparing online material to traditional news formats, linking to source materials is a way to lead readers to the conclusions that a reporter comes to. It's just another way to connect everything in a story and give it some more background as well as making it more of a well-rounded story.

And the last one that I came across was being forthright about mistakes. Dr. Lieb mentions that despite the best intentions, a journalist might make an error that could potentially be libelous. It's truly important to retract a statement as soon as possible, so as to not get yourself in trouble. It would be harder for the offended party to prove actual malice. Important to note is that retractions should be frank, and should dispel any idea of possible reckless disregard for the truth. The libelous material should never be reprinted.

Phototaking 101

Usually when people take pictures they will hold the camera any which way and take shots that they think will be good shots. But after the class discussion yesterday, I learned more about taking pictures the right way than I had ever learned before. I have always been aware of using different angles, being lower or higher, to get some pretty cool types of pictures but when you are actually taking them in the middle of the moment, you may forget. It's not always the first thing on your mind to stoop down or stand on something to make that shot look better.

But after class Wednesday, these sort of tips make you more aware that doing these kind of things will make the picture "pop" and come alive as Dr. Spaulding mentioned. One of the things I remembered about taking better pictures is that you need to fill the frame when taking photos of people or news-story type pictures like in the frame link. Sometimes the shot works both ways, but depending on the situation it's better to get rid of all the "junk" space that can confuse the reader as to what the story is about.

Dylan Rothman, left, a junior business major at Towson University and Kenny Walters, a sophomore business major at Towson University, rock on a see-saw for their support of testicular cancer research. The 48-hour event organized by Delta Sigma Phi went towards the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Having a ball in the Fall

THE PIECE: The story I plan on covering this time around involves the Joppatowne 15-19 Fall Ball team and their journey towards the Harford County championship and it being possibly the last time a lot of the kids play together on the team. A lot of the kids on the team have grown up together and played baseball for years with each other, so I want to write this story as kind of a going out piece on them and seeing where they go from here as they start whatever journey in life they go through.
The questions I want to cover:
1. I want to find out why the team came together this season after not having a team for the last few seasons....
2. I also want to get a sense of how the community feels about the team and their shot at winning the championship, in the same sense interviewing some of the parents and finding out their feelings.
3. I want to ask the coaches what they want the kids to take from this experience and how they can apply it to their life, if possible after baseball ends.....
SOURCES:
I plan to speak with coaches (Head coach and assistants), some parents, possibly a player and also the organizer of the team because I am curious as to how and why they got the team together.

I already have some advanced information such as the team record and how they raised some of the money for the team (although I want to find out more about this). This should be a neat story to cover because I know quite a few of the players from my days coaching them.

Question 2 looking to work for residents of Maryland

With the nation's economy spiraling out of control, and with no quick fix or easy answer to correct the problems, the trickle-down effect starts to find its way to the states of this country. In this state of Maryland, it's no different. With residents worried about taxes being raised and the risk of jobs being lost, not to mention numerous other negative factors, something had to be done to alleviate the problems, and it seems at least a few of those problems, could have an answer, albeit, a controversial one.

On November 4th, along with electing the 44th President of the United States, Maryland will be voting on Question 2, which would approve and support the Maryland slots referendum looking to help schools and colleges, along with keeping millions of dollars that Marylanders spend at regional slots in Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, in-state.

The fact that 660 million dollars in new state funding by 2012, will result in no tax increases and also help make schools and colleges stronger, was music to my ears, as it should be to everyone else that struggles each semester trying to come up with money without fear of colleges having to raise tuition in the midst of the fiscal crisis.

While the proposed bill is controversial, in that some opponents, like Comptroller Peter Franchot, say gaming shouldn't be going on in this state and that slot machine gambling is corrosive to the state's economy , the referendum is quickly picking up steam, right before it's set to be voted on.
To some, voting for Question 2 is more of a moral and value-based issue, and do not want facilities near residential areas or numerous ones popping up throughout the state. While these are valid concerns, looking at For Maryland- For Our Future's website the solution represents a minor expansion of existing gaming, only allowing 5 facilities in very specific areas and no more than 15,000 video lottery terminals, and the so-called "slippery slope" which prevents further expansion of gaming anywhere in Maryland.

This should be great news to those looking for something, anything, positive to come out of government programs that are trying to help generate revenue to improve areas that need to be improved, and while I don't gamble myself, anything that helps prevent future tuition increases as well as helping teachers receive pensions and have more resources for the classes they teach in, has my vote.

Tweet, tweet, tweet

Taking a peek at a few of my fellow classmates tweets today, I came across three that I thought represented good newswriting.

The first is Ed D'Adamo who's lead about the Green campaign making it easier to recycle caught my interest and made me want to read on. He followed that up with specific information on how many containers would be installed and the implications on the students in his short report.


Cara Flynn: Cara's lead about the hiring freeze had an active voice using the subject-verb-object form. She used the who and what effectively in her lead, and then gave good information using a direct quote from Towson University president, Robert Caret. I could see something like this as a crawl along the bottom of CNN's screen.


And finally, Chantel James also used the who and what describing the Tigers opening game loss to Richmond. In her short report, she gave nice examples of when and how without repeating things she said in her lead.

Summary Leads and Short Reports

Short reports and summary leads share similar ideas. They both share the fact that the first sentence or two of most news stories are to summarize the story quickly.

The only differences between the two are minor, and that is leads are written in past tense and include a time element.

Short reports have different forms that can be expressed to the audience such as crawlers or newspaper briefs like one I found about, "Man fatally shot by police had threatened with rifle replica." The story is fairly short, concise and gives you the most important information. Most times the contributor will continue the story with updates.

In order to construct a solid short report or lead, there are four tips to accomplish that:

1. Be as specific as possible.
2. Avoid backing in.
3. Be concise.
4. Use active voice.

Here's a good example of a summary lead right on the front page of the Sun's website.

Law enforcement officials today arrested nine people after 18 federal raids that netted heroin, automatic weapons and bags of cash. It was the second major takedown in two days. On Wednesday, officers raided a West Baltimore home and seized seven kilos of heroin, $200,000 in cash and automatic weapons.
The information presented is specific, was concise and used active voice, all key in writing a good summary lead. I found myself immediately drawn into the story and wanted to read more. Both stories have the tips that you can use to write a successful short report or summary lead.

News? What's news?

News, defined in it's simplest form, is 'a report of something new'.



Pretty boring definition if you ask me.



In looking at how we really define news, we find that there is a far broader idea of what the meaning of news really is and the way to do that is to look at all the information and decide what's most important to the audience. As mentioned in the reading in our book "All The News" by Thom Lieb, news really is a complex process that depends on journalists remaining engaged, interested and informed. In order for that to happen, journalists should try to abide by the nine news values that most stories will have within them.



Impact, prominence, unusualness, currency, conflict, timeliness, proximity, affinity, and finally, human interest.



Looking at The Baltimore Sun's website today, the value of impact in a particular story immediately jumped out at me. Impact is the primary key when looking at news values as discussed by Professor Lieb, and its effect on the audience. Laura Smitherman today wrote about how Maryland faces budget deficit of $432 million and the prospects that it could rise to nearly $1 billion by next year.

This story has impact written all over it because it could affect many Marylanders who are already falling under hard times because of the nation's economy the way it is. Residents will now start to worry because they have no idea of where cuts could be coming from and it seems neither does the state's leaders. Direct impact such as this is definitely a big measure of newsworthiness.



The second story I read, was about the fire today at a playground on the spot of the old Memorial Stadium on 33rd street. This story can be identified by not one, but two values in my opinion. The first would be timeliness and how recently it happened. This occurred a little after 2 P.M. today and has been updated a few times throughout the afternoon and into early evening, so it is a continuing story and still under investigation as the possibility of arson is being discussed. But it relates in this way because it is a playground where children play and the thought of there being injuries or worse would have been devastating, but also would have had a huge impact on the community and the region. There is a second value tied into this story as well.

Proximity refers to physical nearness, and this is in the heart of a community, so generally people in the area will be very concerned, taking into account this happened at a playground. Luckily, no one was injured or killed, so a tragedy was diverted in that aspect and they have vowed to rebuild.

The third story is a tad bit lighter of a topic and invokes happy thoughts to most folks around these parts. Baltimore Ravens rookie quarterback, Joe Flacco made his first NFL start last Sunday and delighted fans with his 38- yard touchdown run, the longest in NFL history by a quarterback in his debut, leading his team to the win.

This one has to do with prominence and the fact that Flacco's name is well-known throughout the area now by fans that are starved to have a legitimate starting quarterback for the team, and so far it seems he's headed that way. I know I'm hoping for just that.











Fire photo courtesy of Herman M. Heyn / Special to The Baltimore Sun

Ravens Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney / September 7, 2008