Bureau Blog

Working as a bureau reporter was very interesting. It gave me some good insights as to what one would expect when interviewing different people and how they will react to certain questions. Of course, not everyone wanted to participate in the interviewing process. They either were evasive of the questions or gave one word answers. On the other hand, some people were very cooperative.

Working in a group also has its ups and downs. For example, when you have a large group of people (or even just a duo) going out and trying to get people to interview, there are many different ideas and questions going around and taking turns takes some getting used to. I think that it was important for our group to come up with a formula of sorts so that the interviewee wasn’t overwhelmed by all the questions shooting around.

Dealing with the group as the bureau chief was a little different, and I must say, more comfortable for me because sometimes when I am in a group I don’t feel like I can have as much input into what is going on. But as the bureau chief, I felt very effective in gathering the quotes from my team members and putting them into a story that was cohesive and fluid. I’ve always felt that I worked better as a behind the scenes sort of person rather than someone who does the “leg work.” I feel that my skills lie in writing and not interviewing people as much, though I don’t have that difficult a time going up to random people and asking them questions. I also think that being a bureau chief gave me some level of control on the piece and I liked that because too many people trying to write the same thing can get coagulated in a way and the story might not come out as glossy as it could if there was only one or two people writing it.

It was hard to interview people as effectively as would be necessary for a professional journalist when there was not much time for preparation. It was more like an informal survey rather than an interview when we were asking people questions about their tuition or being an international student. It also hard to plan when to be back on time especially when we had to run all over the campus and sometimes we wandered astray from our “designated area” in search of more people to interview. That made it especially difficult in getting back in time to try and help the bureau chief in writing the piece.

I thought that the bureau reporting days were good experiences for us to have as potential professional journalists. Working in a team is both beneficial and sometimes difficult but with enough practice and working with many different people, those kinds of skills can be strengthened. Getting the story down with everyone’s quotes was difficult but with a good team, we got it done on time.

Media Blog

The first obvious difference between the print edition of the New York Times on November 10, 2009 and the online edition of both the New York Times and USA Today is that in the print edition, there is much more body content of the stories. Online, the New York Times does a very good job at keeping the ledes to the more important stories short, sweet and still interesting to the reader in order that they might click on the link and read more of the story. USA Today has no ledes on its website, just links to the stories.

On the online versions of the newspapers, there are many more pictures to help aid in the telling of a story. On print edition of the New York Times, the pictures are much bigger in order to draw the attention to the story. Online, however, there are more pictures to help tell the story and this makes up for the lack of print on the actual page. The online versions of the newspapers seem to be supplementing pictures for text so that readers who are just “cruising” on the internet can catch a glimpse of story and decide whether they want to read it or not. In the print edition of the New York Times, editors can assume that people who are reading the newspaper have time to actually sit down and read it. Because of this, there is more text on the front page so the reader can receive more information from about the story. The online versions need their pictures so that readers can have a faster glance of the story without having to read too much into it, but if the reader so chooses, they can also click on the links to the stories and read on.

Concerning the writing-style approaches that were used within the three editions of newspapers, the online newspapers seemed to be able to contain more information and more quotes because they do not require such a strict command on space. The print edition, however, has to follow a much more rigid structure to be able to fit inside of the newspapers’ printed capacity. USA Today’s articles, however, are much shorter in comparison to the online edition of the New York Times. It seems that the goal of USA Today is to just say exactly what happened and remain as objective as possible.

As far as commentary goes, I felt that USA Today handled that the best what with their articles being so short and simply reporting the facts. The articles were presented in a simple manner and basically just “told it how it was” without delving too deep into it. As for both editions of the New York Times, I felt that they were trying to cram a little more insight into the articles. They have different views from many different people from different backgrounds as compared to USA Today. As to whether which newspaper is more biased, I do not know.

Christian Century: Centuries of Christians

I believe that this site is an Evangelical publication because it seems to cover many different aspects to the Christian faith. There are several articles about Protestant and Catholic views.

Chinese Video Game Struggle...........*nodding off*

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/world/asia/07china.html?_r=1&ref=world

The only saving grace for this article was its humor. The lede that the journalist used to bring in the readers' attention felt as if they were making fun of this ridiculous situation where the Chinese government was making a big deal about World of Warcraft... don't they have bigger things to deal with?

Blogging for Christians (Skriva vissa saker om Jesus)

The Christian perspective on sexual purity, holiness and commitment are very much the "butt of the joke" within a secular world view. Time after time, Christians are put down for not following the crowd, sleeping with multiple partners, not getting drunk or high and definitely not supporting homosexual marriage. How should Christians react to such criticism? Should we shoot back insults or arguments or should we behave in a manner that is Christ-like? What does that mean? Following are a few articles relating to these complex issues.

http://www.godandstuff.com/?p=317

http://www.christianblog.com/blog/ladyvogue/true-love-waits-how-to-acheive-purity-in-a-sinful-world/

http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/life-with-christ-blogspot

http://www.libertymagazine.org/index.php?id=609

http://pursuingholiness.com/category/general/blogging/

http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/apostolic-messenger

http://www.christianblog.com/blog/annmunro/gods-word-will-not-return-void/

http://www.kayschristianblog.com/2009/07/gods-word.html

Media Week 1

This past week was one that connected with me on a deep level (like a Mariana Trench level of deepness). For one, my lovely girlfriend came to visit me last Thursday and I got the chance to drive (by myself) to LAX and pick her up! I was so excited and so was she. We embraced and kissed and love reunited was the scene. Torrey Conference was also a grand part of the past week in which many learned how to deal with the suffering in their life in a godly and faith-based manner.

But now my week took a turn for the worst when I discovered that we had a paper due in my Foundations of Journalism class when, all along, my syllabus was apparently lying to my face. Indeed, it is a dark Friday...

Snickers Propoganda

Snickers is the best candy ever made. Don't believe me? Look at the picture (left). Now, having stared at the chocolatey caramel goodness, look someone close to you in the eye (preferably a family member for accountability purposes) and tell them that this chocolate bar does not look good and does not make your eyes grow and your stomach call for SATISFACTION. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! The way the golden caramel ebbs and flows like a river from one bite to the next!

"Hungry? Grab a Snickers!" is the motto for this beloved of chocolate bars. I say, "Just because!? Grab a SNICKERS!"
*Picture snagged from GOOGLE somewhere on another blog which was most likely taken from somewhere else*