Profile Story

When Gary Lane first got accepted to the University of Maine in January of 2009 he never thought he would become a participant in the University’s Alpine Race Team. He claims that he is “just average” right now, but his performances have steadily increased since the beginning of the season.

Gary started skiing when he was nine years old with the sole expectation of having fun. He is still having fun but now he is doing it as a part of a team. He said, “When the opportunity came, I had to take advantage.” Although his skill level has dramatically improved, little else seemed to change. When he was a young boy growing up in Groveland, Massachusetts, the nearest major ski resorts were about two hours from his house; he is in pretty much the same situation in Orono as far as driving goes.

As well as being a part of the team, he is also a member of the University’s Ski Club, and the Maine Outing Club. Even with all of these different activities, Gary still managed to earn a 3.0 grade-point-average for the first semester of his freshman year.

Gary’s next race will be at 9:30am this Saturday at Hermon Mountain. It’s just a short drive from campus which will be “a nice change of pace” because his previous races have all been at least an hour away. He’s not too concerned with how well he will do in the race, he said that he was “nervous at first, but [he’s] now becoming more at ease with the pressure”; he also believes that the future is “wide open with possibilities.”

Newscast Critique

The video that I chose to review was from the Bangor news channel, WVII. It was a clip from the newscast that focused on an 18-year-old that was being charged with murder. There were many unscripted parts of the newscast because the reporters asked the suspect’s friends what there opinions were on his conviction. This made the assignment more difficult but there were still numerous changes that could have been made to the scripted parts of the broadcast.

One of the first things that I noticed in the video was that the reporter used unnecessary words in her story that could have been taken out to make the story more brief. An example of this is when she said “According to a court affidavit, two groups of teens had planned to meet last Wednesday evening to fight. The altercation ended up taking place on Cumberland Street that night.” The word “had” in the first sentence is not necessary nor is “ended up” in the second sentence. I think these two sentences could have been made into one shorter sentence like, “According to a court affidavit, the incident took place during a planned fight between two groups of teens on Cumberland Street, Wednesday night.” I would rather the statement be made this way because it sounds more brief and does not repeat things like the time.

Overall, there were not many errors, or changes that needed to be made to the newscast. The entire clip was done using active voice but if I had been in charge of editing, I would have made the statements more assertive. The reporter seemed to speak with a very “unsure” tone; frequently using terms like, “has been” or “had planned.” If she had taken out the extra words like “has” or “had”, she would have been more convincing, or seem more knowledgeable on the subject.

Citations:

http://www.wvii.com/ (Carr in Court-video)

Citations for Convergence and Consolidation in Journalism

Mencher, M. (2008). News reporting and writing. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Convergence and Consolidation in Journalism

Journalism in America faces a major problem not in the future, but now. Large corporations are taking over numerous news sources which is causing a consolidation in the industry. This affects each and every person in this country that keeps up with current events from the media; whether it’s in a newspaper or magazine, or even the internet and television, people are being affected.

Every news source that is owned by different people or different corporations has their own ideas on what should and should not be published. All news reporting is based on company policies and the owner’s preferences. This allows for a type of diversity on what is reported on and eventually published. Dissimilar points of views are needed in the journalism industry and should not be limited to a few companies’ policies.

There is no denying that people favor some news sources over others, and the people have the right to chose what they want. The availability of this choice shrinks everyday that the larger corporations invest more into the convergence of news sources.

A statistic from Melvin Mencher’s News Reporting and Writing claims that “four of five newspapers are owned by groups…” as opposed to fifty years ago when “families owned almost all the daily newspapers” (p. 74-75). It sounds like these “groups” or large corporations are monopolizing on the industry, but legally they are doing nothing wrong. Does a change need to be made?

What’s best for the owners of the large news reporting corporations is not what is best for the majority of people living in this country. Most of these corporations are more interested in money, which means more focus advertising and less focus on news reporting and journalism. The quality and selection of reporting should be just as important to these corporations as it is to family owned newspapers. News reporting and journalism isn’t just about putting out what will “sell,” it’s about getting the necessary information into the minds of the people.

Citations for Article Critique

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/22/2798705.htm?section=justin

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8473891.stm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=acPSsTx3SqcI

Article Critique

The title of the news article that I chose to critique is, Religious gang war leaves hundreds dead; it was written by Andrew Geoghegan for the ABC News website earlier today.

Geoghegan did some things in this article very well but he could’ve focused some more time elsewhere to get a more believable and complete story. I am in no way claiming that the information stated in the article is inaccurate but there is a bit to be desired as far as sources and verification go. It is vital that a story has the facts but without the sources to back them up the reader could lose confidence in the journalist’s information. As might be the case with this sentence, “It is unclear what sparked the clashes, which also forced about 17,000 people to flee their homes.” Where did the “17,000 people” statistic come from? Is it just a guess or is it fact? The reader would not know the answer to either of these questions which weakens the believability and accuracy of the article.

I cross checked this article with other reports from BBC News, and Bloomberg on the activity in Jos and the statistics were the same. However this does not change the fact that the statistics should be cited the best they could be.

The stand-out components of this story were its brevity, objectivity, clarity, and selectivity. This may sound like a lot of things that Geoghegan did well, but little more could be asked of these components. He wrote the article in seven sentences and still managed to fit in the necessary information. The other articles that I read on the subject were significantly longer but they had included a short history of the sectarian violence in Jos as well. The brevity of this article helped make it clearer than the other ones that I had read.

A main goal of journalism is objectivity, to tell the story without introducing your own opinions into the article. Relating to this are the components of balance and fairness, which were both executed perfectly. Not a single sentence influenced my opinion to which side was right and which was wrong.

An entire discussion on whether or not this article appeals to the human interest in America could be started. While I am interested in international news, I don’t believe many other Americans would read this article because it does not have a strong enough impact on their lives. We live in a selfish society and while there are exceptions, most people would rather read about what’s directly affecting them. I also believe that people would like to think that they care about this situation but the fact is that not many people are willing to take the initiative to try to find a solution to the problems, if there is one. This last paragraph is my own personal opinion and I apologize if others disagree.

Burdan of Morality in Journalism

“What role should journalists play in society?” An important question that was put in my mind after reading the summary of an online talk show at philosophytalk.org. Dale Jacquette, a guest on the talk show and a Professor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University believes that “journalists are obligated to provide relevant truth telling in the public’s interest.” I believe that the one major ethical problem with this statement is that not everything should be published in the “public’s interest.” If the public wants to know something that compromises the privacy or any other rights of someone else then it should not be published under most circumstances. This is why there are laws but if by some chance the piece of information is not covered by any law then the journalist needs to make a judgment call. There is a large responsibility that comes with being a journalist, and part of that is being able to make a morally sound decision on what and what not to publish.

A dilemma from Melvin Mencher’s book, News Reporting and Writing is that a young woman charged a member of the Kennedy family with rape, and then different news agencies published the woman’s name when it was discovered. Was this in the public’s interest? No, there was no real reason to publish her name. All it did was sacrifice her right to privacy after a reportedly traumatic incident. The moral thing to do would’ve been to ask the woman if they could reveal her identity and if they did not get recorded permission then they shouldn’t have revealed it.

In my opinion journalists are supposed to relay information to the public but without compromising anyone’s rights unless it is significantly for the greater good of someone else, not out of some “obligation” to report to the “public interest."

Mencher, Melvin. "The Morality of Journalism". News Reporting and Writing. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008.

"Ethics in Journalism". Philosophy Talk. 1/14/10

www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/EthicsinJournalism.html>.