Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Second Story Ideas
Second idea is from the heart. It is about adopting rescue dogs and the whole process that you have to go through. It is not like going to a shelter and just picking any dog that you want. You have to send in a request for a rescue dog and then go through a whole interview process. I want to know more about it and get the facts. I think anyone who is interested in getting a pet would be curious to know. And it is a good way to get the word out that these animals need help.
Special Leads
Obama to send up to 1,200 Troops to Border
Los Angeles- President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on law enforcement there to combat drug smuggling after demands from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that border security be tightened.
I think that this lead works great. It is a narrative lead that tells you what the story is about but also has some elements of a summary lead. It is summarizing what the rest of the article is about and what Obama is doing but then it tells this picture about sending the troops in. The lead could improve by saying what Southwest boarder they are sending troops to because that part did confuse me a little bit.
The Seattle Times
'Top Kill' another BP gamble
HOUSTON — As BP prepared Tuesday for its most ambitious effort yet to stop the torrent of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, company officials emphasized the procedure known as a "top kill" had never been tried so far underwater, that it might be delayed again and that it might not succeed.
Both of these are a little wordy to what we were taught in class about the 35 to 40 words. It is not a first lead story so there are not hard hitting facts. Its a on going summary lead. Since there have been so many stories about BP you cant really call it a second day lead story but it does have the characteristics of one. It is updating you in what is going on with BP and what they are now calling "top kill". It does not summarize the whole story, it just gives a brief part of what a top kill is.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Second Day Lead
Friday, May 21, 2010
Construction on Daggy Hall
Daggy Hall is under construction this summer for roof and gutter repairs that have been having problems throughout the recent school years. This construction is not in relation to the previous budget cuts of the Theatre Department.
Brown Contracting is the company involved with the construction on Daggy Hall this summer. They were unable to follow through with making a comment.
Washington State University Facilities Operations, Timothy L. Rundquist said, “Daggy Hall the last several years has been leaking and forming ice in places around the building that have become hazardous for pedestrians.” He also continues to say, “A leaking roof also leads to deterioration of a building itself. Thus, the reason for the project is to preserve the building and extend its life, and to make the area around it safer for building users.”
Rundquist continues to inform that the work itself includes new shingles on sloped portions of the roof, new ethylene propylene diene monomer, which is a type of roofing rubber. The EPDM will be on the high, flat roof over the stage fly loft with new gutters all the way around. He says that this roof should last between 30 and 50 years with normal maintenance efforts.
The reason that the construction is taking place now, instead of before the budget cuts were made is due to student activity said Rundquist. Daggy Hall is on the edge of campus and gets an excessive amount of foot traffic and has garage parking. He concludes that the upgrade of the building is to ensure safety to the students and the incoming and outgoing traffic of the garage.
The construction of Daggy Hall is in no correlation with the Theatre Department being canceled last fall of 2009 due to the budget cuts. Many students have been angered with the budget cuts and are now questioning why the building is being fixed now if it is no longer in existence said Professor Ray Pritchard of the Theatre Department. Pritchard said that students don’t know that Washington State University has two budgets; one that determines budget cuts and another that is involved with campus building maintenance.
Pritchard said that the inside of Daggy Hall was upgraded last year with almost half a million dollars into the project. He said, “Jones Theatre received new seats, the interior was repainted and a state of the art lightning system sound reflecting panels was put in.” and “the green room that is used by theatre students was also gutted and painted and refurbished.” All of these advancements in the Jones Theatre were made weeks prior to the budget cuts.
“That it is ironic that they did all this work on Jones Theatre, yet their department was still cut,” said Pritchard. His feeling is that the money that was used for advancements to the theatre should have been used instead to keep the department alive.
The Theatre Department does not know of any other department at WSU that will be moving into the building. The Speech Department is also located in Daggy Hall and is being relocated to Spokane. The Interior Design Department is the only department left in the hall that has not been cut. There has been no word from them if they are staying in the building or relocating to a different area.
Pritchard said that even though the Theatre Department has been cut, in fall 2010 and spring 2011 classes will still be offered. The class will not be as largely based as they had been previous years with a wide variety to choose from. The classes being offered will focus more on letting students who need to finish up their major or minor in Theatre. Other theatre classes will still be offered, but not the variety that was seen before the department was cut.
Pritchard does reveal that the Theatre Department had a meeting with the Provost, who is in charge of the main WSU Pullman branch, on Tuesday May, 18th to further discuss the life of the Theatre Department. The shutting down of theatre has not been finalized and fights for it to stay open will still continue next school year.
Daggy Hall construction is still undergoing and does not have a definite time-line of when it will be done. The Theatre Departments hopes that the new roof and gutters helps by fixing the problems, allowing for a better building in the future.
Contacts:
Timothy L. Rundquist
Architectural Supervisor, A&E Services
WSU Facilities Operations
(509) 335-9076
Ray A. Pritchard
Instructor, Acting
Theatre and Dance
Daggy Academics 316
(509)-335-2715
Thursday, May 20, 2010
International News
Al Jazeera English does not seem like a controversial site to me personally. I could understand where the concerns are with the news that they broadcast and that they are located in the Middle East, but it does not seem like they are harming anyone. I read the other stories that were given on whether or not they should be allowed in the U.S, and I think it should be. I think that if they can keep their stories under-wrap and not try to talk about issues that could cause a huge up roar, then I think that cable companies should agree to have their channel. It’s understandable that they say no because we do already have so many different networks that offer news constantly throughout the day. The question is if they do get through to U.S networks, will they continue to broadcast how they do or will they change tactics and start showing stories that they feel the public needs to see to understand the Middle East struggles. I’m not a big news watcher in the first place for the exact reason that I don’t want to always see stories about the war and about conflicts in the Middle East. I truly change the channel and find something else to watch.
1. I think that they internet will help promote their good nature image because there is not much about terrorist attacks or stories in the Middle East. When opening the site, the front page is filled with world news, not just news in the U.S and not just news in the Middle East. They are offering a wide variety of news articles and videos to watch from. I think that having the broadcast be in English does give them a good upper hand in trying to win over the cable companies.
2. Like I said earlier in the paragraph above. I do think that they should be offered in the U.S. I think that getting cable companies to accept them though is completely another story. Companies are so afraid to let something like this in to their companies that can be seen as something so controversial.
3. The news that they broadcast is world news in a sense. There are stories that I did not see in the New York Times today when I read it. A couple articles were similar in the New York Times like Al Jazeera online, but they were more in depth and discussed worldly facts rather than comparing it to something in the U.S. Yes, some of their stories do have something to do with terrorist attacks or they discuss the Middle East but all together it focuses more on what is going on around them.
4. The Code of Ethics is a very nice list to be followed. I truly don’t know if they have followed that just by listening to a few short videos and reading two articles. It seems like they are doing a good job on delivery a world view of the information and showing a clear knowledge of the facts. There has not been any mention in any of the articles I read if they were wrong and they had to correct themselves. Maybe if I spent a couple hours looking through things I could find more evidence to support their code of ethics, but for the first glance it looks fairly news worthy. Their number six though about trying to do news without being biased is a nice thought but as everyone knows almost impossible. A biased opinion is going to slip out somehow, even if not intended to sound like it.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Examples of Summary Leads
New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — A man driving a Toyota minivan crammed with explosives steered into an American convoy Tuesday morning here, killing 18 people, including five American soldiers and one from Canada. At least 47 people were wounded, nearly all of them civilians caught in rush-hour traffic.
Noble acquitted in hit and run
Daily Evergreen
A Moscow man was acquitted last week of injuring two pedestrians on the WSU campus last December in a hit-and-run.
Renton Police looking for suspect in shooting Saturday night
Renton Reporter
Renton Police are looking for a suspect in a shooting at about 11:20 p.m. Saturday in the 2500 block of Edmonds Avenue Northeast.
Renton power outages caused by a beaver
Renton Reporter
Beavers are the prime suspect of a power outage that affected about 350 people Saturday.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tag Cloudss
Friday, May 14, 2010
Three Pitches
Go to Komo 4 News online and start reading the pages, notice any trend that is started to set in, might get a feeling of depression that runs through you. This feeling is not anything new to the public reader. The very first article on Komo’s news page is about a killing list that was leaked at a school, scroll down even more and you will find the sports. Articles on sports should be thrilling and exciting to read, but somehow even the articles on sports are nothing happy about. The articles include the Mariners loosing and a bad review about Griffey. Stories like these are just a few that pop up before the end of the scroll bar. Komo online is not the only problem, just watching their news broadcast audience’s get a feeling that the world is an awful place. Komo’s leading story is not on the happy tiding of local women, it is about mass murders across the seas or killings in the local area. The “Big four” have also been subjected to this behavior or reporting hard-hitting depressing news. CBS, NBC and FOX all have been doing this for years now. This media outlet is directed towards anyone who watches the news, reads a newspaper or has access to the internet. First source to be interviewed is Chris Rose, a former Komo 4 News employee. She would be able to give insight on why this trend has become so popular in news television. The second source is Charlene Emory; she is a student at WSU and is a major in Broadcast News Journalism. She would give her opinion on how this affects her career in going into the news business.
Second Idea: Construction on Daggy Hall
The big story across campus has been the budgets cuts that have made to countless departments at WSU. Two of the departments that have been cut are located in Daggy Hall; speech and theatre department. The two departments have been told that they will not be continuing at WSU after this upcoming school year, although construction has been taking place on the Hall. Questions arise walking by the hall on why these remodels are happening now after the department has already been cut. Is another department moving in to the hall? Why was this not done at the beginning of last year before budget cuts were made? If the school doesn’t have money for these departments, than how do they have money for construction? The media outlet for this would be students, faculty and the Pullman community. First source interviewed would be Ray Pritchard, a theatre professor. He is still here during the summer so he could give an insight on what he has been told by the President and the construction company on what is going on. His reaction on why construction is starting now, after his department was already cut. The second interview would be the company that is doing the construction on Daggy Hall. Interview one of the workers on the scene and have them tell what exactly they are doing to the building and why they are being requested upon now and not earlier in the year.
Third Idea: 12 to 12 cancelled
The Daily Evergreen ran two articles in March and April about the twelve to twelve sorority requirement tradition being cancelled. This tradition of binge drinking the day after bid day on Saturday has been a Greek community tradition for years. Not only do sororities participate in the all day even but also fraternities do as well. The articles in the daily evergreen discussed how this would benefit the Greek community by making requirement week safer for the girls. Women in different sororities were interviewed that agreed with this new rule being activated. Many Greek affiliated students were outraged though that just because seven women were hospitalized it meant taking away the loved tradition. Certain sororities feel that just because these mistakes were made by these seven girls that not all sororities should be at fault. Taking this angle on the story is allowing for the girls involved in the involved to tell their side. This media outlet would be the Greek community, students at WSU and the Pullman community. The Pullman community was involved immediately after 911 were called. Leeza Whalen was one of the girls hospitalized last Sunday during 12 to 12 and she will be the first source. Hearing what her side of the story is and how she led herself to drink into the hospitalized will represent the other girls who also went to the hospital that day. The other source interviewed is Sarah Bridges. She is in Leeza Whalen’s sorority and her view on why sororities should get punished will be the topic. She will be able to share how it feels to be part of one of the sororities that had to go through the embarrassment of that day and also how she feels about every sorority being affected after her ‘sisters’ actions.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Huffington vs. Drudge
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The truth in Ecuador
Right after watching the 60 minutes I thought if this was the whole truth or if this was just one biases look at the story. I know that 60 minutes is supposed to be a credible source and that they want you to believe everything you see on there is true, but in hindsight they make you see what they want you to believe. They are able to cut out put together different pieces to make it look a certain way when they air it. They made you feel sympathy for the people of Ecuador, which after what happened you feel like you should feel bad. This was my first reaction after watching the segment about Ecuador and Chevron.
Then we watched the second video and my entire opinion changed about 60 minutes. I dont know if it was right or not but it did certaintly change. After watching Chevrons version of what happened it was easy to see that they didnt really have any hard facts like 60 minutes did. When they interviewed people, they called themselves "experts" and it was only Chevrons "experts". How are we supposed to know if they are really experts, we should just believe it because they tell us to. At least with 60 minutes they interviewed the farmer who talked about the pollution ruining his fields and what not and then they interviewed the Indians that lived in the lands and also the head lady for Chevron. Oh and by the way who I wanted to slap in the face when she was on 60 minutes.
I am not sure who is right in this story and what really happened over ten years ago but it seems like 60 minutes was able to deliver hard-hitting facts racther than just out-lashing and saying its not their fault like Chevron did. When they did their side of the story it just made me more irritated by the situation for how they presented their information. I don't know if my feelings would have been different if I had watched their side first and then watched 60 minutes, but all in all I still feel that Chevron should take blame for what has happened in Ecuador.