Journalism Class - Tuesday November 8

[jerusalem-s.livejournal.com]

Spider has a mug of coffee and a slightly more cheerful look on his face. He's seated again on the top of his desk and sharing his cigarettes with his cat. Swinging his heels, he addresses the class. "Grading's almost finished, up to and including the midterm, and I'd have to say that I'm impressed. Well, with those of you who are still with us, anyway. Attendance has been above and beyond the call of duty and participation has been very, very high. Grades, credit and attendance reports will be available by Friday for the curious."

Taking a swig of coffee, he gave his students an evil grin. "Which means that the final project for the term is going to be a doozy. I'll be giving you over a month to put together the article that I'm asking for, however, and I'm in final negotations with a few people before actually assigning it, however. I am very, very pleased with the amount of class participation."

There was a pause as he waved the cat away from his coffee before she got cigarette ashes in it. "Today I have an ethical question related to yesterday's discussion on slant - specifically the remarks concerning the journalist who seemed to draw from only one source and leave a great deal of detail to one side. Some of this is due to editing for space, some of it is sloppiness. When you have only a very specific number of column inches in which to tell your entire story... what do you cut first?"

Comments

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce answers almost immediately, "Anything that distracts from the main purpose of the piece. If your reader gets distracted, your story loses impact, and chances are good the reader will forget about it by the time they've finished their tea and toast."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Any type of flowery, overly descriptive language," John answers. "Description is fine but overuse of similies, metaphors and purple prose isn't necessary for most news items."

[chasingangela]

"I guess you start by cutting details? You try to keep in as many points of view as you can, but maybe each side gets to say less."

[soldtoarmenians]

"If it's a story that's betting the farm and the lunch money on the skew working, you might be better off cutting a piece of solid evidence for your own side," Xander says, thinky-face (which strongly resembles indigestion-face, but he hasn't had lunch yet, so it must be thinky) in place. "If you have enough to spare it. And leaving in a weaker piece or statement from the opposite side. Makes it look like you're giving them balance, makes you look unbiased, but behind the scenes you're actually showing how strong one side's argument is."

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

Jake heads directly for the coffee.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I would start by trying to reword sentences. A lot of people tend to write in a flowery, rambling style that not only doesn't read well for a paper, but uses valuable space."

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

D'anna mentally groaned when Spider spoke of the final project. Whatever he had in mind, she dreaded it. She made a mental note to stock up on film, coffee, cigarettes and possibly booze before then depending on what she could wheeled her Aunt into sending.

She considered the question the professor put forth for a moment or two, "First cut whatever isn't absolutely necessary to the feel of the piece. Then go back and check for word and sentence length. Remove what you can, shorten what you can't and see where that leaves you."

[nightsmoonchild.livejournal.com]

Opinion.

Well, that is opinion the writer of the piece doesn't exactly agree with. he'll support his own opinion and omit everyone else's in an effort to make his own point in that much less space.

[teen-twin.livejournal.com]

He's heard a few other people say it, but his first reaction is that description would be cut first. To make room for the facts. And the author's personal slant to the story.

[lady-jessica-bg.livejournal.com]

Irrelevant details, less than succinct language, and if you're trying to be unbiased, excessive interpretation and quotes from the spinners.