to be accurate, or to be first, that is the question.

This week, Cope is throwing some new, really interesting journalism information our way. I never realized how very little the media cares about the accuracy of the information they are feeding to the public.  Instead, it is an immature competition as to who will get the breaking news story on live television first.  In chapter 12, Maclean says "In an internet environment, increasingly defined by the ability to get the story first...".  Multiple forms of media are only focused on being the first, not the most accurate.

It just doesn't really make sense to me I guess, what's the point of rushing to be the first if it isn't accurate, because relaying false information is only going to get you in trouble. Like we said in class, the public isn't flipping through news stations when we watch the news to see who said what first, we're watching it because we want to know what's going on in the world.  I get that each station is fighting for the highest ratings, but your ratings aren't going up if your news station has a reputation for inaccurate news.

"If a working definition of accuracy is "getting things right," then accuracy comes in two basic flavors: facts and emphasis" (p176)  I really liked this quote.  When writing a story, if you get the facts wrong someone will inevitably call you out on it.  We need to check and double check on things like dates, name spellings, locations, times, etc.  Challenging the accuracy of the information journalists receive is the most difficult part about writing.  You can't just trust anyone.  Check and double check your sources.  The accuracy checklist is a great tool for new journalists.  There are of course many more reporting basics we are learning about, precision and balance being the two mentioned in chapter 12.  I'll get back to those next time, that's all for now...


Ciao!

Developing Story Ideas

So, less is better sums up what I learned in class today.  When your writing a story, the reader wants to know what your talking about from the jump, not 3 paragraphs deep in the article.  Developing the story idea seems to be the more difficult part for me.  In chapter 11, Holladay tells us that "The key to developing any idea into a story idea is to explore it with the right people. Stories always come from people."  I have been so stumped on finding a news-worthy topic to write about,  I think I may just resort to a poll.  What does everyone want to hear about?  What is everyone interested in?  Why are these questions so hard for people in our generation to answer?  I also learned that I really need to figure out this RSS asap, looks like it could definitely be of some help to my situation!

"Equality is the prime rib of America"

"She's not doing it to be rich, she's doing it to change the world." says Christopher Johnson, one of the many fans/supporters in the crowd for Lady Gaga; who protested at a rally in Portland, Maine on behalf of gays in the military. The "Don't ask, don't tell policy" is what Lady Gaga was fighting for the government to repeal. I like it when celebrities actually use their influence to do things that are beneficial to the world.  I completely agree with her and think it's one of the dumbest policies I've ever heard.
 If someone is willing to go fight for our country, who the hell are you to tell them that they are banned if they don't hide the fact that they're gay?  Are people actually still that narrow-minded? iT's 2010 for god sakes. I looked further into this...(by google-ing Don't ask Don't tell) and found this on Wikipedia."the policy prohibits anyone who "demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because "it would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability."   What a load of BS, seriously.  How about get rid of all the homophobes who don't respect those willing to fight for their country along side them.  Go GaGa, I hope this rally gets Washington's attention!

Hot new artist discovered.. check it

If your into music, check this out ;0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fifkj8rTN4Y

Go Green or Go Home

iT's like, totally in style.  All the new rage, well, has been for a while now, is mission "Go Green". Everyone I know has a recycling bin.  My question is, how often do they actually use it?  Polluting reminds me a lot of smoking.  You know its bad for you, but it won't affect you for a long time so currently you don't give a shit.  People know how bad it is for the environment, but the world isn't going to blow up tomorrow because you threw your gum wrapper on the sidewalk.  Not saying that all people are careless assholes, but there is a lot of them. I see plenty of people tossing trash into the street from their cars.  I get that sometimes you just want to throw something out but keep a trash bag in your car or something.  Sometimes I can't come to terms with how lazy people are.  Now, I'm not saying I'm some angel who has never polluted in my life.  I use to be one of those lazy assholes when I was younger and didn't really care.  I grew up and stopped polluting when I went to school my freshman year of college at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.  This school with its gorgeous campus and "go green" modo gave me a whole new outlook on how beautiful nature is, as corny as that sounds. It might not have an affect on you now but it will affect your children and grandchildren one day.  Anyways, I read an article in The Street today about another promise Obama failed to keep.  The promise of a greener future.  He seems to be heading in the complete opposite direction by paving $50 billion dollars worth of new roads.  More roads, more industrialization, more cars being bought, more gas being burned.  I thought the plan was to organize a way to overhaul our abuse of transportation for a greener future, but I guess Obama had other plans for us.  More roads, less renewable energy resources. Sounds good..Sorry for putting all the blame on Obama, but if somebody's going to make some moves I'd say he's our best bet. If you take anything out of this post, try a little harder not to pollute.  It will make you feel better about yourself,and you wont be living up to the stereotype that all Americans are lazy as hell.  Which we are.  So throw your McDonald's bag away when you get to your house and not out your car window, okay fatty?  That's about sums up this bashing sesh, more to come soon.
Xo
Lauren


http://www.thestreet.com/story/10854417/3/todays-outrage-obamas-50-billion-is-paving-a-road-to-the-past.html

It's the quality of the journalism that counts, not the awards

Well, the awards count too of course.  This week's reading called "What's a good story" was about recognizing quality in journalist's work.  It says the first place to look for advice on how to be an excellent journalist should be from a judge in a journalism awards program.  Some look for a piece that sucks them right in, keeps their attention, is fair, contains important interviews or facts/ statistics.  The list goes on and on.  A lot of the words used are repetitive when describing what characteristics make up a good journalist...(Accuracy, initiative, originality, creativity, balance, worthiness).  The list goes on and on.  All of this is important of course, but what is a writer without an eye-catching topic to write about?  Professor taught us today that coming up with an interesting story is half the battle, or 50% of the work.  I completely agree.  Once you have the topic you can get rolling, but my biggest problem is picking something interesting enough to keep people captivated.  It's good to be aware of what is expected of you in your writing, so keeping an outline of some basic guidelines helps.  As broad as these 5 terms are they still help remind you of what is expected; Discovery, examination, interpretation, style, presentation.  These skills are crucial to good journalism versus being a mediocre writer.  All of these facts on how to become a good journalist are important, but experience and practice is what I need to be concentrating on right now as well. Everyone knows you don't get better at anything without practice, right? More to come. . .

un dia en la viDa

A day in the life. I'm thinking that this is mainly what my blog will be about.  A typical college student just trying to make something out of myself.  That is all I seem to think about lately, how you can't stop yourself from growing up. To be honest, I feel as if I've been living in a scrub state for the past 2 years. My life is great, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I am going to be doing the same thing over and over again until I graduate; school and work.  Then when I finally graduate, I will have a diploma and still be doing the same job I am now probably, which is waitressing.  Now don't get me wrong, waitressing is great money and an easy job to have when you're in school.  The thing that drives me crazy is all the waitresses/ waiters I work with all graduated and are still doing the same job as me! I guess what I'm saying is I fear the thought of waitressing for any longer than I have to...mainly because I have been since I was 17 and I am ready to move on to a job that I can actually be passionate about; a job that doesn't involve telling anyone the "Fresh Fish" specials or giving bottomless sodas to 12 year olds; (They really slug em' down). Colleges won't let you off easy though.  They make you take ridiculously unnecessary classes and call it a "Core Curriculum", when really it is just a waste of money in reality.  What will taking U.S. History and the Constitution or Biology do to impact my future career as a newscaster?  "Newsflash: Numerous new species of fungi were discovered..."  I would have already changed the channel at that point.  I just think that with all the money we spend on school we should be able to take classes that interest us; we shouldn't have to take useless classes because the state requires it.  If the state paid for our education then I would have no objection, but that is not the case now, is it?  Sorry if this sounds like a rant, which it completely is, but that is what good classes let you do.  This blog is for my journalism class, something I am very interested in taking.  That's why I'm sitting here ranting about these foolish classes rather than reading Chapter 16, the Reconstruction from 1863-1877.  I decided to check out the Globe's website instead of that boring reading assignment, mainly because my Professor works for them and we talked about the Globe in class today.  First headline on the list, "How Paul Pierce spent his Summer Vacation", followed by "Reports on Brady's extension Unconfirmed".  I just read the article on Pierce, and then the comments left by fellow bloggers after.  One of the comments was the following.. aldrichpma wrote: So all and all you didn't do anything to improve yourself or this team and you still complained, and you will still report to camp overweight. Great. Congrats on getting married. This really made me laugh for some reason, but then again it also made me think; I hope no negative bloggers rip on me when they're having a bad day. Anyways, that's about as far as I checked into boston.com tonight.  Copeland, (my professor) was right, the $$ making stories, as dumb as they are, are what get people's attention in society today. I guess I'm going to leave it at that, I should go brush up on my U.S. History.
xO
Lauren    

Laulau Land

Hey yA'll!
Let's get involved!...First off, this is my first blog post so I'm kind of excited.  Second, how freakin' hard is it to figure out what to name your blog?  It is now 1:30 in the morning, I have been brainstorming blog name ideas for around 3 days now.  I think creating the name may be the hardest part to starting a blog.  I'm going to keep this short and drop these wise words from a fortune cookie I had earlier at P.F. Changs; "The secret to vast riches begins with a single penny."  It's sad how when people open fortune cookies and read their cookie's prediction that they actually think the fortune they receive has something to do with their lives. - I am one of those people.. which brings me to this blog post's title: laulau land.  That's where I spend most of my time; In my own head, not to be confused with "la la land", which is where crazy people reside usually.  Anyways, school manana. buenas noches ;0) 


..ZZzzZZz