Monday
an article that i thought had a pretty good lead was the one about violence in Tuscon. This lead started out by setting the scene. it made it more dramatic by mentioning the blood and the bullet hole in the home, which was a very good start to the story.
Also, there were a couple articles that I noticed doing a good job of trying to keep the reader reading past the jump to the later page. These articles were the story about international trade and then the one about economics and roads or urban sprawl.
The article about trade was in the middle of discussing a seeming contradiction between countries agreeing to promote trade and actually implementing barriers to trade. since it was an interesting discussion, I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen.
The article about expanding urban sprawl with stimulus money made me go on to the next page because it mentioned New Hampshire right before the jump. Since i live in NH, I naturally wanted to know what was going on.
This made me think how the sentence or two before the jump to a different page is almost like a second lead: in the first lead you need to get the reader interested in the story as a whole, and right before the jump you need to re-catch their interest so that they will actually go on reading.
Tuesday
an article in today's paper that i think qualifies as a local issue story is the one about the strip-search of a 13-year-old girl at her school. since there seem to be some people on the side of the girl and some on the side of the school, it seems to be a very interesting issue.
another interesting story was the one that discussed how candy sales seem to be rising since the start of the economic crisis. This is interesting because it gives a completely new angle to the economics issue.
it was interesting to see that there were two different stories about suspected terrorists and their trials. this is something that you don't see too often, so i wonder if they meant to put them both in the paper the same day as some sort of larger strategy, or if it just happened to work out that way.
then there was a development in the AIG case: someone is trying to convince people who work there to pay back their bonuses. I think with stories as big as this one, it is important to follow up with developments as they happen.
Wednesday
and interesting front-page story was the one about how a school is trying to implement a new grading system. it discussed a NY school that has changed to giving out number grades instead of the normal letter grades. This story then went on to make it a national issue as it discussed the fact that this school is not the only one implementing this new grading system, and by talking about what educators in general think of this strategy.
in yet another article with an economic twist, today's paper discussed prison costs. this was something that i had never really thought about as an important cost, but it was an interesting thing to look at through the economics lens.
another article that caught my eye was the one about the debate over the first amendment and political campaigns. this seems to be an issue that is focused on politics but could lead down a slippery slope of banning things in the future.
Thursday
one of the stories in today's paper started out as a local story and then broadened out to a national issue. this was the story about tent cities and homelessness. it began talking about one man, and one city, and then broadened out to discuss similar situations across the nation.
the budget story, although not the most interesting topic for me, had a couple of writing things that I thought were well done. The first was in the lead. While this was not a dramatic story, and therefore could not have a tremendously dramatic lead, this story did a good job of using creative words like "loped" to set the mood. This story also made me want to keep reading past the jump to a further page because of the way the writer set up the story right before the jump. the sentence before you would have to move on to a later page was in the middle of explaining what the writer called a "paradox," and then ended in the middle of explaining what paradox s/he was talking about.
The story about Mrs. Clinton going to Mexico is one that probably would not have caught my eye if Mrs. Clinton was not involved. This is an example about how stories are much more newsworthy if they involve famous people.
And finally, I liked the story about the online age quiz. I'm not sure exactly what I liked about it, but it almost made me want to go online and try out that quiz for myself.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Times 3/9-3/13
Monday:
One article that caught my eye was the one about health care in Romania. This story took two issues that seem to be on everyone’s minds—healthcare and money—and combined them in one story. I think this is a great idea for any story: if one issue makes a story interesting, think of how much more interesting it could be with two issues!
A story that is an example of a national story written with a local angle is the one about college tuition in Rhode Island. This story gives a new/different outlook on the immigration issue because it focuses on students at a local school.
Another article that I thought was interesting was the one about corruption in China. It was interesting to see the human interest side of the story while still gaining a legal and cultural perspective.
Tuesday:
One article that caught my attention and then lost it was the one about the voting law. This article caught my attention just because I usually am interested in justice and court related stories.
However, the story was written in a confusing way, confusing enough to make me not want to finish reading it. Since the authors didn’t do a good job of explaining the issue, I got frustrated enough to stop reading.
I thought that the story on the killings in Africa was written very well. This story looked at something you read about occasionally but found a completely new angle on it. It was very unusual to read that the killings could actually make a country more stable than it was before. I appreciated this story because it was able to take something familiar and make it new.
Wednesday:
A story today that did a good job of taking a big issue and humanizing it was the story about people who need to live in motels because of the hard economic times. I think that everyone is so tired of hearing about bad economics that people who want to write about that need to find some new way to present it. This article did just that. It told you the story of a family who was kicked out of their home because of the economic time, and then you wanted to read more about that because you wanted to find out more about the family.
However, this wasn’t the only story that related economics to something else, so maybe it’s just that everything is related to economics these days.
Even the article about stem cell research combined the story with money issues. since most stories have a strong financial aspect to them, many authors seem to be taking that rout because they know that people are thinking about it and therefore will be interested in their stories.
Thursday:
Today there was a story about whether or not print newspapers will cease to exist. It is always interesting to read newspaper stories about papers, so this story caught my eye.
Today’s paper also continued this week’s trend of talking about China. This story talked about yet another way that the Chinese are resisting their government, which is very interesting to see. I don’t know why the paper decided to run a bunch of stories on China this week, but I think it is an effective tactic: if you get people to start thinking about something, and then run a bunch of different stories that are somehow related to that topic, you will probably get more people to read your stories.
Today there was yet another story that used economics as a starting point. This story was discussing home makeovers and organizing, and yet it added in the issue of finances. This goes along with what a lot of stories were doing earlier this week, where they take a couple issues and find a way to discuss both in order to make your story more interesting. I think that most of these stories did a really good job of that.
One article that caught my eye was the one about health care in Romania. This story took two issues that seem to be on everyone’s minds—healthcare and money—and combined them in one story. I think this is a great idea for any story: if one issue makes a story interesting, think of how much more interesting it could be with two issues!
A story that is an example of a national story written with a local angle is the one about college tuition in Rhode Island. This story gives a new/different outlook on the immigration issue because it focuses on students at a local school.
Another article that I thought was interesting was the one about corruption in China. It was interesting to see the human interest side of the story while still gaining a legal and cultural perspective.
Tuesday:
One article that caught my attention and then lost it was the one about the voting law. This article caught my attention just because I usually am interested in justice and court related stories.
However, the story was written in a confusing way, confusing enough to make me not want to finish reading it. Since the authors didn’t do a good job of explaining the issue, I got frustrated enough to stop reading.
I thought that the story on the killings in Africa was written very well. This story looked at something you read about occasionally but found a completely new angle on it. It was very unusual to read that the killings could actually make a country more stable than it was before. I appreciated this story because it was able to take something familiar and make it new.
Wednesday:
A story today that did a good job of taking a big issue and humanizing it was the story about people who need to live in motels because of the hard economic times. I think that everyone is so tired of hearing about bad economics that people who want to write about that need to find some new way to present it. This article did just that. It told you the story of a family who was kicked out of their home because of the economic time, and then you wanted to read more about that because you wanted to find out more about the family.
However, this wasn’t the only story that related economics to something else, so maybe it’s just that everything is related to economics these days.
Even the article about stem cell research combined the story with money issues. since most stories have a strong financial aspect to them, many authors seem to be taking that rout because they know that people are thinking about it and therefore will be interested in their stories.
Thursday:
Today there was a story about whether or not print newspapers will cease to exist. It is always interesting to read newspaper stories about papers, so this story caught my eye.
Today’s paper also continued this week’s trend of talking about China. This story talked about yet another way that the Chinese are resisting their government, which is very interesting to see. I don’t know why the paper decided to run a bunch of stories on China this week, but I think it is an effective tactic: if you get people to start thinking about something, and then run a bunch of different stories that are somehow related to that topic, you will probably get more people to read your stories.
Today there was yet another story that used economics as a starting point. This story was discussing home makeovers and organizing, and yet it added in the issue of finances. This goes along with what a lot of stories were doing earlier this week, where they take a couple issues and find a way to discuss both in order to make your story more interesting. I think that most of these stories did a really good job of that.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
soft lead
Soon after the Durham zoo opened this morning, visitors were forcibly removed from the zoo while chaos erupted inside.
Police officers and zoo workers took out their high-powered rifles or their pistols in a search for a dangerous spotted leopard said to be missing from her cage. The search covered the whole zoo, from behind buildings, to inside trash cans and the cotton candy concession.
The police department called in the New Hampshire State Police, the state Wildlife Department, and the National Guard to help with the search.
This panic took place after zookeepers couldn’t find Fluffy, the zoo’s spotted leopard, this morning when the park opened. Since Fluffy could be dangerous, zoo workers and the police department worked hard to find her as soon as possible.
“We are searching the grounds of the zoo, but so far we haven’t a clue,” said Gerry Durrell, the director of the zoo. “She may have left the area and she could be walking around Durham at this point.
Later this afternoon, a zoo worker found that Fluffy had not left her cage at all, but was sleeping soundly under a pile of hay.
Police officers and zoo workers took out their high-powered rifles or their pistols in a search for a dangerous spotted leopard said to be missing from her cage. The search covered the whole zoo, from behind buildings, to inside trash cans and the cotton candy concession.
The police department called in the New Hampshire State Police, the state Wildlife Department, and the National Guard to help with the search.
This panic took place after zookeepers couldn’t find Fluffy, the zoo’s spotted leopard, this morning when the park opened. Since Fluffy could be dangerous, zoo workers and the police department worked hard to find her as soon as possible.
“We are searching the grounds of the zoo, but so far we haven’t a clue,” said Gerry Durrell, the director of the zoo. “She may have left the area and she could be walking around Durham at this point.
Later this afternoon, a zoo worker found that Fluffy had not left her cage at all, but was sleeping soundly under a pile of hay.
first zoo story
Mayhem ensued at the Durham Zoo this morning when zoo workers discovered that Fluffy, the spotted leopard, was missing from her cage.
Officials immediately closed the zoo, and removed all the visitors. A few minutes after zookeepers realized Fluffy was missing, police officers arrived at the zoo to help with the search.
Kitty Smith, the zoo’s chief biologist, said that Fluffy is “extremely dangerous,” and that whoever finds her should be very careful.
Police Chief William Blair said that the officers would work with the zookeepers to find Fluffy as quickly as possible to prevent any harm to come either to her or to people in the nearby residential neighborhood.
“We will first search every inch of this zoo,” Blair said. “We are concerned because this is a residential neighborhood with an elementary school and we don’t want Fluffy wandering around after the kids get out of school.”
Gerry Durrell, the director of the zoo said that Fluffy’s cage looked normal this morning when workers began feeding the animals.
“The door was shut and did not appear to have been tampered with, and the fencing was unbroken,” he said.
The first sign that something was wrong came at about 7:30 when James Petronkis, a visitor to the zoo, went to see Fluffy in her cage.
“Everything seemed normal, until I got to the cage,” Petronkis said. “Then I knew something was wrong right away.
Petronkis said that he told a guard Fluffy was missing, but none of the zoo workers did anything for about half an hour.
As soon as zoo workers realized Fluffy was missing, they cleared the zoo of visitors and started a search with the help of police officers. Some officers and zoo workers brought out their high-powered rifles, while others simply carried pistols.
The search covered all corners of the zoo. Searchers looked behind buildings, in trees, in trash cans.
Blair said that the National Guard offered five helicopters with infrared sensors to help with the search for Fluffy. The police department asked both the New Hampshire State Police and the New Hampshire State Wildlife Department to send people to help.
Both zoo officials and police officers explained that the search was so urgent because Fluffy could become dangerous, even deadly.
“We have got to find her before 3 pm,” said Blair. “If we don’t, it could be a very messy night.”
Officials immediately closed the zoo, and removed all the visitors. A few minutes after zookeepers realized Fluffy was missing, police officers arrived at the zoo to help with the search.
Kitty Smith, the zoo’s chief biologist, said that Fluffy is “extremely dangerous,” and that whoever finds her should be very careful.
Police Chief William Blair said that the officers would work with the zookeepers to find Fluffy as quickly as possible to prevent any harm to come either to her or to people in the nearby residential neighborhood.
“We will first search every inch of this zoo,” Blair said. “We are concerned because this is a residential neighborhood with an elementary school and we don’t want Fluffy wandering around after the kids get out of school.”
Gerry Durrell, the director of the zoo said that Fluffy’s cage looked normal this morning when workers began feeding the animals.
“The door was shut and did not appear to have been tampered with, and the fencing was unbroken,” he said.
The first sign that something was wrong came at about 7:30 when James Petronkis, a visitor to the zoo, went to see Fluffy in her cage.
“Everything seemed normal, until I got to the cage,” Petronkis said. “Then I knew something was wrong right away.
Petronkis said that he told a guard Fluffy was missing, but none of the zoo workers did anything for about half an hour.
As soon as zoo workers realized Fluffy was missing, they cleared the zoo of visitors and started a search with the help of police officers. Some officers and zoo workers brought out their high-powered rifles, while others simply carried pistols.
The search covered all corners of the zoo. Searchers looked behind buildings, in trees, in trash cans.
Blair said that the National Guard offered five helicopters with infrared sensors to help with the search for Fluffy. The police department asked both the New Hampshire State Police and the New Hampshire State Wildlife Department to send people to help.
Both zoo officials and police officers explained that the search was so urgent because Fluffy could become dangerous, even deadly.
“We have got to find her before 3 pm,” said Blair. “If we don’t, it could be a very messy night.”
Friday, March 6, 2009
the times 3/2-3/5
Monday:
Following what appears to be the trend lately, today’s paper focused mainly on the economy. There were many different angles discussed, however.
One thing that was interesting was the discussion on Europe’s economy. There was an article discussing European economic troubles in general, and one discussing the problems in Ukraine. Both of these caught my eye for a couple reasons. First, it was interesting to see how the economic crisis was affecting people outside the United States. Second, both of these articles mentioned Eastern and Central Europe, which is where I spent last semester while I studied abroad in Hungary.
Another angle that they took on the economic crisis was discussing how it changed the number and type of students applying to public colleges and universities. It discussed how many people who are academically qualified to attend higher level private colleges are actually going to public schools. This is because it costs so much less to go to school at a public university. This story is an example of how you could take a national issue (the economic crisis) and relate it to something happening locally (like applications at nearby colleges.)
Tuesday:
An article that I found very interesting today was the one about the women’s homes in Afghanistan. As part of my Justice Studies major, I’ve thought a bunch about the issues around women’s homes here in the US and it was interesting to get the international perspective. Also, we hear so much about how it is awful for women in that part of the world and it is good to see that people are finally starting to do something about it.
Another story that was interesting was the one about how some doctors in Maine are now learning basic dental skills because of the state’s lack of dentists. It’s the side of health care that we don’t hear about as much, and I have never heard of doctors being dentists as well. It was a good human interest story made better because I am interested in what goes on in Maine because I work there during the summer and know a lot of people who live there.
A local New York story that caught my eye was the one about some kids having school on a snow day. That was a cool story as it showed kids that actually liked having school while others were off, which is something you don’t see very often.
Wednesday:
Today’s paper had another interesting Google story. It talked about Google’s idea to try and scan every book in the world. It focused on the ironic mode of advertizing for this project: putting ads in newspapers. I think that was a good angle to take because it gave the article humor and also allowed it to explain everything that Google was doing while still relating it back to that point.
An article dealing with a major issue going on now was the one about organic food. It discussed both sides of the issue: how many people believe that organic food is not only more “natural,” but it is also healthier; and the reality that many times it is not. This was made timely by discussing the recent salmonella poisonings and how the peanuts responsible were from organically certified plants.
An article that I think would catch a lot of people’s attention is the one about debt collecting. This story had a good headline that caught my attention, and then discussed an issue that everyone is thinking about: money. This story put an interesting spin on things, though, as I never really thought about people looking to collect debts owed by dead people. This story had a good lead and kept it interesting, so it wasn’t just another story about hard economic times.
Thursday:
This paper had a couple follow-up stories from earlier in the week. It had a story talking about how the Sudanese leader now had a warrant issues against him. This story was showing what was going on after an article earlier in the week talked about how arresting this leader could end some times of relative peace.
There was a story about the police in Pakistan. This story showed their response to a shooting on Tuesday. It was interesting to get a second story on this event, as the first just sort of explained the event of the shooting, and the second one explained people’s reactions and plans on what to do next.
A major issue story was the one about the ban on same-sex marriage in California going to court. This is an issue that has major conflict all over the country, which makes it very newsworthy. The court date gives it its timeliness, but the article itself seems to fall short of these issues. It focuses a lot on the legal aspects of things, and just is not written in a very interesting way. While there are some good quotes, there are too many legal-sounding phrases that don’t need to be there and make it harder to read.
Another court story that was much more interesting to read was the one about legal actions against companies that make unsafe drugs. This article was made interesting by talking about how it would affect normal people as well as the drug companies. It gave an example of someone who lost their arm because of faulty drugs, which is an extreme example sure to get people’s attention.
Following what appears to be the trend lately, today’s paper focused mainly on the economy. There were many different angles discussed, however.
One thing that was interesting was the discussion on Europe’s economy. There was an article discussing European economic troubles in general, and one discussing the problems in Ukraine. Both of these caught my eye for a couple reasons. First, it was interesting to see how the economic crisis was affecting people outside the United States. Second, both of these articles mentioned Eastern and Central Europe, which is where I spent last semester while I studied abroad in Hungary.
Another angle that they took on the economic crisis was discussing how it changed the number and type of students applying to public colleges and universities. It discussed how many people who are academically qualified to attend higher level private colleges are actually going to public schools. This is because it costs so much less to go to school at a public university. This story is an example of how you could take a national issue (the economic crisis) and relate it to something happening locally (like applications at nearby colleges.)
Tuesday:
An article that I found very interesting today was the one about the women’s homes in Afghanistan. As part of my Justice Studies major, I’ve thought a bunch about the issues around women’s homes here in the US and it was interesting to get the international perspective. Also, we hear so much about how it is awful for women in that part of the world and it is good to see that people are finally starting to do something about it.
Another story that was interesting was the one about how some doctors in Maine are now learning basic dental skills because of the state’s lack of dentists. It’s the side of health care that we don’t hear about as much, and I have never heard of doctors being dentists as well. It was a good human interest story made better because I am interested in what goes on in Maine because I work there during the summer and know a lot of people who live there.
A local New York story that caught my eye was the one about some kids having school on a snow day. That was a cool story as it showed kids that actually liked having school while others were off, which is something you don’t see very often.
Wednesday:
Today’s paper had another interesting Google story. It talked about Google’s idea to try and scan every book in the world. It focused on the ironic mode of advertizing for this project: putting ads in newspapers. I think that was a good angle to take because it gave the article humor and also allowed it to explain everything that Google was doing while still relating it back to that point.
An article dealing with a major issue going on now was the one about organic food. It discussed both sides of the issue: how many people believe that organic food is not only more “natural,” but it is also healthier; and the reality that many times it is not. This was made timely by discussing the recent salmonella poisonings and how the peanuts responsible were from organically certified plants.
An article that I think would catch a lot of people’s attention is the one about debt collecting. This story had a good headline that caught my attention, and then discussed an issue that everyone is thinking about: money. This story put an interesting spin on things, though, as I never really thought about people looking to collect debts owed by dead people. This story had a good lead and kept it interesting, so it wasn’t just another story about hard economic times.
Thursday:
This paper had a couple follow-up stories from earlier in the week. It had a story talking about how the Sudanese leader now had a warrant issues against him. This story was showing what was going on after an article earlier in the week talked about how arresting this leader could end some times of relative peace.
There was a story about the police in Pakistan. This story showed their response to a shooting on Tuesday. It was interesting to get a second story on this event, as the first just sort of explained the event of the shooting, and the second one explained people’s reactions and plans on what to do next.
A major issue story was the one about the ban on same-sex marriage in California going to court. This is an issue that has major conflict all over the country, which makes it very newsworthy. The court date gives it its timeliness, but the article itself seems to fall short of these issues. It focuses a lot on the legal aspects of things, and just is not written in a very interesting way. While there are some good quotes, there are too many legal-sounding phrases that don’t need to be there and make it harder to read.
Another court story that was much more interesting to read was the one about legal actions against companies that make unsafe drugs. This article was made interesting by talking about how it would affect normal people as well as the drug companies. It gave an example of someone who lost their arm because of faulty drugs, which is an extreme example sure to get people’s attention.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Students in Portsmouth who have disciplinary problems may have to spend an extra day in school.
Parents and students are opposed to a suggested change in school rules that would cause students with disciplinary issues to attend classes on Saturday mornings.
The Portsmouth School Board discussed a motion Monday night to require students with discipline problems to serve their detentions on Saturday mornings. This would replace the existing practice of in-house suspensions, which take place during the school week.
Tim Steele, a member of the School Board, presented the motion during the meeting. He explained that the change to Saturday morning detentions would hopefully lead to fewer in-house suspensions. This would allow students to serve their detentions without missing any class time.
Steele said that smoking is one of the major disciplinary issues dealt with at the high school.
“I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms,” Steele said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one.”
Peggy Bacon, whose son attends Portsmouth High School, was opposed to the idea.
“I work six days a week—including Saturday morning,” Bacon said. “It’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday. Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well?”
Bacon was also opposed to the cost of this program. Steele said that this new policy would cost about $3,000 a year to pay for staff.
“I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference,” Bacon said. “And the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturday s.”
Bob Farley, who lives in Portsmouth, said that he agreed with the motion.
“Parents can whine all they want about this,” Farley said, “but maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids.”
Farley said that kids aren’t learning any respect for rules.
“Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up,” he said.
Senior Lisa Gallagher was one of five Portsmouth High students to attend the meeting. She said that although she had never served a detention, she is opposed to this proposed rule change.
“I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty,” she said, “so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week.”
The discussion of the issue ended with a 5-3 vote to table the issue until the next School Board meeting. At this meeting, which will take place on March 7, Steele will present figures on in-house detentions from this school year.
The Portsmouth School Board discussed a motion Monday night to require students with discipline problems to serve their detentions on Saturday mornings. This would replace the existing practice of in-house suspensions, which take place during the school week.
Tim Steele, a member of the School Board, presented the motion during the meeting. He explained that the change to Saturday morning detentions would hopefully lead to fewer in-house suspensions. This would allow students to serve their detentions without missing any class time.
Steele said that smoking is one of the major disciplinary issues dealt with at the high school.
“I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms,” Steele said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one.”
Peggy Bacon, whose son attends Portsmouth High School, was opposed to the idea.
“I work six days a week—including Saturday morning,” Bacon said. “It’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday. Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well?”
Bacon was also opposed to the cost of this program. Steele said that this new policy would cost about $3,000 a year to pay for staff.
“I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference,” Bacon said. “And the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturday s.”
Bob Farley, who lives in Portsmouth, said that he agreed with the motion.
“Parents can whine all they want about this,” Farley said, “but maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids.”
Farley said that kids aren’t learning any respect for rules.
“Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up,” he said.
Senior Lisa Gallagher was one of five Portsmouth High students to attend the meeting. She said that although she had never served a detention, she is opposed to this proposed rule change.
“I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty,” she said, “so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week.”
The discussion of the issue ended with a 5-3 vote to table the issue until the next School Board meeting. At this meeting, which will take place on March 7, Steele will present figures on in-house detentions from this school year.
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