Ethics Critique

The American Journalism Review article provides a lot of insights into the problems today associated with journalists using social networks like Twitter and Facebook. I think that the best solution in the article is having two profiles, one for public/professional use and one for personal use. This reaches a happy medium between a journalist needing to stay unbiased on their professional site but also being able to display some of their personality to their friends and family.

But even without two accounts, in today's world, people are much more understanding of journalist's being human. I don't think people my age buy the idea that journalists are completely unbiased, but would rather have a journalist show true parts of his/her personality. Just look at our guest speaker Shira Levine's Twitter account. She is a legitimate journalist who has written for a number of large and national publications. But her Twitter feed is a combination odd news tidbits, requests for sources on a story she's writing, and links to her own news articles. Many consumers today are smart enough to recognize when she is just being herself on Twitter and what other information is actually hard news.

The editors and managers, though, have a difficult job. It is tough to limit what a person posts online, what with free speech and all, but I understand the need for journalists to represent their papers in all that they do. I don't know, though, if in most newsrooms that a kind of generational gap exists between editors and younger reporters. As new reporters continue to enter professional journalism, that means more and more reporters will have grown up with the Internet and social networking being a part-an essential part- of everyday life. It will become me and more difficult to keep journalist's from using Facebook, so again a two profile system seems like a viable solution.

Plus, with the way technology and the Internet is advancing so quickly, editors' policies made today about social networks will probably be outdated within a few years. Not many people could have predicted the enormous growth that Facebook has had, and probably even less people could have predicted Twitter's rise in popularity. In a few years, who knows what the next big thing will be? As people become more interested in letting everyone else know exactly what they are doing, it's not impossible to imagine a time when nearly all of our actions are broadcast out to the world.

Multimedia Ideas for Final Project with Examples

From the Cheney CNN article, they used two videos, but the video with Wolf Blitzer did not provide any new information. It is a new way of packaging the information, but if I used video I would like to provide more new information than the same information. The video is integrated well into the story, though, and it opens pretty seamlessly into the same window that the story is already in.

On abcnews.com, there is an article about Akio Toyoda's testimony on failures in Toyota's cars. In the article, they use many different multimedia including links, pictures, and videos. They are implemented well, as in the CNN article but they also provide much greater outside information. The video I thought that was the most interesting was a video of experts recreating the acceleration problems in the cars. This was not mentioned in the article, but it gave great background and insight onto why this issue is such a big deal.

In this article from the New York Times, it is a story about work strikes that our occurring in Greece. The article has links that will show other stories that relate to institutions and companies mentioned in the article. In the same way, I could provide links to outside resources that hold more information about the topic, like the Lantern's Twitter and Facebook pages.

Comparing articles about Cheney's latest heart attack

The two articles I am comparing are about former Vice President Dick Cheney's latest heart attack, suffered on Monday. One article is from cnn.com, the other from foxnews.com
In short, I thought the CNN article was better overall. The CNN story had two videos and a photo, while the Fox article only had a photo of Cheney. The CNN videos also enlarged when you pushed the play button and opened on the same page you are already on, so new windows and tabs were not opening unnecessarily. This helped provide a good integration of the videos. Then when the videos were stopped, they shrunk back to the smaller size and moved out of the way. This does not automatically make the CNN article better, though, as one of the videos was pretty useless. It simply rehashed, and in some places had older information than, what the article had. One CNN video focused on Cheney's medical history and brought in CNN's medical correspondent, and that provided some insights onto what care Cheney was probably receiving at the hospital.
As for the text of the article, I also preferred the CNN article, especially when it comes to the sources that were used. The Fox article relied on family members and friends of the family for information, and only used the response from Cheney's office once, and not in the lead. The CNN article used information from that statement in its lead, using a more reliable source than his family, which Fox used.
Another small part of the CNN article that I like is the story outline. CNN now uses it in just about every article on the Web site, and it is a small bullet-point list of facts. This is placed near the top of the story and is called "Story Highlights." This gives 3 or 4 facts that offer a good outline of the story so one can get the basics of the story in just a few moments. It is great for the Web, and it can give a little more detail than just reading the lead would, but is much faster than reading or even skimming the entire article.

Chad Ochocinco and Relationship with Fan through Twitter

Chad Ochocinco, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, is one of the most prolific celebrity users of Twitter out there. This story details Ochocinco's relationship with a fan, Chris Kernich. The two communicated with Twitter, like Ochocinco does with many of his fans. Sadly, Kernich was killed in an altercation, and the story really focuses on how Kernich's friends and family used Twitter and Facebook to reach out to Ochocinco while Kernich was still fighting for his life.
One aspect of the article I liked, that probably could only have been done online, was the direct incorporation of Kernich's Twitter messages into the article. They are off set fro the article's normal text, and reminded me of a new chapter title in a book. They were used almost as transitions and helped set up what was about to come. The messages also acted as a decent alternative to not being able to interview Kernich himself. The story was still able to give some life and personality to Kernich through his own words, instead of relying on family members to describe him.
One thing that I could see as a problem, though, has to do with Twitter itself. There is a bunch of shorthand and symbols that are used to keep messages under the 140 character limit. To the uninitiated, this can sometimes make Twitter messages hard to read. It was a little cumbersome to read some of the messages, as many "@" symbols and abbreviations covered the messages. When using Twitter, one's mind can get into the swing of reading Twitter messages, but when put right next to normal English text, the transition can sometimes be a little jarring.

Final Story Outline

Interview Lantern general manager John Milliken
-discuss business side of the paper
-how positions are chosen, budget, advertising, printing
Sit in on a budget meeting
-more business side of the paper
-does business affect the stories/content besides the advertising?
Interview Lantern editor Everdeen Mason
-how stories get chosen
-how she became editor
-What are the editor's responsibilities?
Interview sports editor Zack Meisel
-sports dept. will be focus of article
-how stories are decided on
-what goes into making a story?
--from pitch, to reporting, to writing, to submission, to editing
--how photographers and graphics people work with writers, if at all
--does sports section differ from the rest of the paper?
-follow the development of a single story or photo
Visit the newsroom on an average day
-get a sense of the mood
--rushed? hectic? relaxed? fun? serious?
-how many people involved?
-deadlines
***Added in class***
became a fan of The Lantern Facebook Page
-has over 1800 fans
-can easily contact involved readers of The Lantern
-stories are posted here the night before the paper is published
-usually active discussions on each article via comments
became a follower of The Lantern's twitter account and The Lantern sports twitter
-stories also posted here early
-has over 1400 followers
-can easily contact even more involved Lantern readers

Broadcast Video and Script

There's my broadcast video, and here's my script.


In today’s top news, more than 3 hundred thousand people are still without power Sunday morning in the eastern U.S.
A massive storm dropped over 20 inches of snow in most places, including more than 2 feet in Washington, D.C.
The storm caused two deaths on Friday.
A father and son were killed in a car accident in Virginia.
Elsewhere, two planes hit in midair near an airport in Colorado.
One plane carried two people, and the other just the pilot. All three were killed.
Internationally, Iran’s President mah-MOOD ah-mah-DIH-nee-zhahd ordered greater enrichment of the nation’s uranium Sunday morning.
Iran holds that its nuclear program is peaceful, but many in the West believe Iran is trying to build an atomic weapon.
Turning to entertainment, Oscar nominations were revealed on Tuesday.
“Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” had the most nominations with 9, including best picture and best director.
The other best picture nominees include “Up,” “District 9,” “Inglorious Basterds,” and “Up in the Air.”
In sports news, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New York Knicks 113 to 106 on Saturday.
LeBron James scored 35 points in the first half and finished with 47. This included 24 straight points during the first half.
The win was the Cavs’ 11th in a row, tying the longest mark in the NBA this season.
On Sunday, the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31 to 17 in Super Bowl 44.
It was the first Super Bowl win for the Saints, and Drew Breeze was the game’s MVP.
This Super Bowl Sunday, as it usually is, was another great spectacle.
But how much better does Super Bowl Saturday sound?
With the game on Sunday, people can’t enjoy the day as much, knowing the work week begins the next day.
Moving the game to Saturday would increase viewership, and would also increase the amount of money spent at restaurants and other businesses.
With the day off after the Super Bowl, the game would be much more enjoyable, and profitable, for everyone.

Test Video

Testing embedding a video from my computer. That "crash" was a chair falling. Taken with my laptop's web cam.

Concert promoter/ticket seller has new Dallas Senior VP; Caterinicchia has produced 3000 shows

Live Nation Entertainment, the largest producer of live concerts in the world, has announced Danny Kat-er-in-eek-ee-uh as Senior Vice President of its new Dallas office.

Kat-er-in-eek-ee-uh will oversee the daily operations of the local staff.

Kat-er-in-eek-ee-uh has been an independent concert promoter in Dallas since the 1960s.

He has brought many big names into the Dallas area, including the Eagles, Paul McCartney, and Guns N’ Roses.

Kat-er-in-eek-ee-uh was formerly the Senior Vice President of AEG Live, another national concert promoting company.

In January, Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in an $889 million deal that was approved by the U.S. Justice Department after a year of negotiating.

Picture Test

Yet another test. Exciting blog so far, right?

Video Link Test

Testing a video link. Play me off!