Author Archives: EJohnson

Posts: 3 (archived below)
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Memos

Posted on January 29, 2014 by EJohnson
Mary Sharmaine Tan
Memo
January 29, 2014
 As an athlete and martial artist, I’ve consistently lived an extremely active lifestyle, which has driven me to develop an interest in health and fitness over the past few years. I’m not entirely certain where I plan on going with this particular topic, but it is definitely something that I’d like to explore and look forward to touching upon in some way.
                As for story ideas, I was thinking about looking into some fitness crazes that are currently taking over the fitness industry. I could possibly do a piece on the most popular crazes in New York or the most beneficial. For example, Crossfit is becoming more and more popular amongst a variety of age groups. If it’s possible, I’d interview people who’ve been training in Crossfit, including those that choose to compete and those that are taking part simply as a way to stay in shape. I would showcase the wide range of exercises and routines that Crossfit has to offer as a way for people to get informed and possibly try it out for themselves. Another idea piece could be about healthy eating habits, since exercise and diet do go hand in hand. I would try to highlight the top most popular diets being used by New Yorkers. I’d try to interview people who are currently on those particular diets, or people who have tried them.
For this particular topic, I think that using an audio slide show feature would be best for capturing the audiences attention and understanding, but I also look forward to learning about other methods and ways to deliver a story.
Aaron Ferrer

Even though I am open to different topics, since I transferred to Baruch and became Journalism major in addition to writing for the school’s student independent newspaper, my focus has always been sports writing. I used to play and I enjoy writing so I wanted to combine the two.

I used to keep a composition notebook full of stories when I was a kid, not journalistic but I knew I always wanted to write. I would probably choose sports as a potential topic because of my familiarity with covering the games, interviewing to obtain quotes, and fact checking statistical data. Basketball is my favorite sport, it’s the one I enjoy the most writing about, followed by football and baseball. However, I have started to become more familiar with hockey and swimming and I hope to expand my knowledge into other types of sports. Also, the sports topic doesn’t have to focus specifically on what happens in the game, it could be about gain or loss of revenue, ticket and concession prices and how they affect fans, and fan rivalries among other things.

If I had to choose a topic other than sports, it would probably be along the lines of crime. It could be either about crime in relation to things like the living costs in an area, property value, were places that are now gentrified previously high in crime?, if so how does that impact the previous residents. Also, how can crime impact the educational institutions in the area? Those are simply ideas however; there are several possibilities on crime.

Those are just two potential topics, with sports being my most comfortable to write on, but if another topic comes up that appears more interesting, even if I have never done it before, I would not mind using it as my topic.

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What Is News?

Posted on January 29, 2014 by EJohnson

What is the difference between information and news?

News Values

1. Is it new?

Did it just happen?

2. Is it timely and relevant?

Is it pegged to a specific event?

3. Is it local?

Know your audience. People care about things that affect them and their communities. Does a national audience care about the story of a small-town diner in Ohio? Maybe, if it’s told in a way that reveals universal truths. But would it work if a small-town newspaper in California tried to do that story?

4. Is there conflict/controversy?

Legal battles, violence, any sort of political controversy, personal hurdles, “My neighbor’s tree is blocking my view.”

5. Is it in the public interest?

Bad weather, how-to stories, human interest, breach of public trust, hypocrisy.

Types of Stories

Spot news – breaking news, events

Day 1 story vs. Day 2 story

Hard news vs. soft news – where is the line?

Feature stories

  • “Evergreen” stories
  • Trend stories
  • Profile

Structure of a news story

The inverted pyramid

Lede

  • Very top of the story: should hook the reader
  • In short breaking news stories, usually sticks with who, what, where, when, why and how
  • Well-known journo expression: “Don’t bury the lede.”
  • Room for creativity in feature stories: anecdotal ledes, humorous ledes

Nut graph

Via Poynter: The nut graf tells the reader what the writer is up to; it delivers a promise of the story’s content and message. It’s called the nut graf because, like a nut, it contains the “kernel,” or essential theme, of the story. At The Philadelphia Inquirer, reporters and editors called it the “You may have wondered why we invited you to this party?” section.

The nut graf has several purposes:

    • It justifies the story by telling readers why they should care.
    • It provides a transition from the lead and explains the lead and its connection to the rest of the story.
    • It often tells readers why the story is timely.
    • It often includes supporting material that helps readers see why the story is important.

Body

  • Background information, statistics, quotes

Kicker

  • Finish with a flourish: your best quote, something that looks to the future, or lingers in the reader’s mind

And finally… how does this structure apply to multimedia journalism?

Fundamentally, it’s all storytelling.

What makes a good story?

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Hey there

Posted on January 27, 2014 by EJohnson

Welcome, all. This is the class site where we’ll post assignments.

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