Thursday, November 20, 2008

The three most imortant rules for a journalist to follow

In my opinion, the three most important rules for journalists to follow are accuracy, fairness, and using taste and sensitivity in determining what to put into a story. If a journalist is not reporting accurately, then basically their whole story is a lie. As our book, "All in the news", tells us "...if a piece of journalism is not accurate, it has no value." In order to prevent a false story, a journalist must always check and double check all their facts including sources names, titles, phone numbers/web links, all quotes attributed correctly, etc. In addition, it is also important that a journalist strives for fairness; basically representing both sides. It is important to present all facts from both sides so that you, as a journalist, are not giving your audience a biased story and instead are providing your audience with enough information to make their own decision about the story. When reporting, it is also important to use your own taste and sensitivity. This is especially important when dealing with stories about showing people that have died. You want to get your story out, but it is more important that you show respect to the family of the deceased. There are ways to get your message and story out without being too graphic or gory. A journalist must consider whether showing a picture or video clip of a person dying will really serve a greater good.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Towson's efforts to go green

The event I plan on covering is tomorrow's GA for University Residence government. URG is an organization that represents all the students in residence halls as well as providing events for the students living on campus and promotes student concerns. As part of their efforts to help Towson go green, URG ensures that every floor in every residence hall has a way to recycle and as well have created a new position to help plan going green events. For my potential sources I plan on using Chelsea Harris, who is the director of special projects(basically event planner) as well as the Kathrine Douraghty, who is in the new position concerning going green. As well, I will be attending the executive board meeting so I will potentially use all the board members and in addition the building reps. Some questions I have are do feel your recycling plan is working and helpful to students, what other going green plans/events do have, why do you feel going green is important to Towson/URG/residents, what prompted you all to create this new ex. board position?. Some photo opportunities are the executive board meeting, the actual GA, and pictures of the recycling in the residence halls. For audio opportunities, I would like to use discussions during the GA or an interview with Katherine.

Friday, November 7, 2008

What audio can add to a story

One website I found that makes good use of audio is the abc network's homepage. As soon as you open this web page, audio comes on right away; you hear all about the current programs on abc and when you can watch them. This adds a lot to the site. First, the site viewer immediately knows what shows abc has to offer without having to click anything. Also, their audio serves as extra advertising for the network and may help bring in viewer to other abc shows. However, I do think abc could improve their audio just a little bit. While it is attention grabbing and helpful, their audio tends to get annoying after a while. It seems like it will never end! So, the only thing I maybe have more in their audio so the same things don't play over and over.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Picture Time: Mugshots and More




Towson students embrace the fall winds while walking through campus.



As a journalist, it is important to be able to take your own pictures and take them well. One way to take better pictures is to check for the right lighting, you don't want it to be too bright or so dark that you can't see the object in the picture. To make sure your lighting is right, you can use your hand and circle around to check where the light is best. Also, be sure there are no objects, such as trees in the background that look like they are sticking out of some one's head. Another way to take a better picture is to fill the frame; get in close. This way the viewer has a better understanding and appreciation of your scale. Finally, try to catch expected events or use alternate angles to make a shot more interesting.