A recipe for a well crafted news story: Stab with a metal stick and burn at the stake

A recipe is often considered cheat sheet, or inside scoop on preparing a dish and its crafter usually assumes that it will turn out better than average because of the guidelines (or recipe) used to complete the project. The same can be said for news writing and Pete Ellertsen has the inside track on the perfect mixture for writing a news story…and he calls it the shish-kebab.
“News writing is about reproducing the rhythm off common speech. In other words, you write like you talk…if you don’t people aren’t gonna read it. When you write for the public you are writing for people who don’t have to read your stuff so if you don’t write with your reader in mind you will inevitably lose them. People aren’t dumb, but they are busy and they really need to have things laid out for them so that they are easily digestible.”
Although he is now a tenured instructor in the Arts at Benedictine University in Springfield, IL, Ellertsen’s first job out of high school was for a small daily paper in a little town in Tennessee called Oak Ridge. The town’s major industry was a nuclear power plant. The people who lived in Oak Ridge ranged from researchers and developers with PhD’s, to coal miners who may not have completed the 8th grade. “It’s tough to write for a vast difference in educational levels…It is possible, but you have to use small words, short sentences and explain things relentlessly.” This is why, Ellertsen explains, it is so important to write like you talk.
Ellertsen also stressed the importance of taking notes when interviewing someone for a news story. The quotes really are the meat of the story so the whole point to note taking while interviewing is to give yourself enough information to recreate the quotations later. “In school I was going for facts and important concepts. In the newspaper business I was taking notes for exact words.” When I finished a story I would look back over the story and try to figure out what the main points were in the quotes. Then, once I had that, I would look back through my notes to find three or so more quotes and weave them in the same way.” Ellertsen also stressed the importance of explaining every quote and using transitional elements to move from one point to another. Well it all certainly seems simple enough; quote, explanation, transition…steak, onion, green pepper….
“In the end, it all kind of came together like the meat and the vegetables in a shish-kebab.”

Obama takes a stand on feminism by taking it all off...

The most recent issue of Ms. magazine has a picture of President Obama on the cover. Obama is ripping off his white collared shirt revealing a t-shirt underneath which says "this is what a real feminist looks like."
This ad says far more that just those words. I feel that the feminist magazine is using the political presteige of President Obama to help redefine their image. Feminists are generally thought of as angry lesbians who aren't ever happy about anything. This ad is meant to help change public opinion in that regard. The ad itself makes President Obama look cool and rebelious. He is ripping off his collared shirt and red tie as if to be getting rid of conservatism, which coinsides with femisist ideals.
Not only is Obama a man, which counters what we stereotypically think of as a femisit, but he is also 'the most important man in the nation.' Without coming out and saying it, the cover screams "if feminism is cool enough for the President it must certainly be cool enough for the rest of us."

Bye Bye Blago

The SJR says it all in the lede to their cover story of the Friday, January 30, 2009 newspaper. "He's gone" is all it said, but those two words said it all. It was what the entire state of Illinois had anxiously been waiting for; after being impeached over one month ago, Governer Rod Blagojevich was officially removed from office Thursday afternoon. A first in state history and the first time impeachment and susequent removal from office has happened in this country in over twenty years. Luitentent Governer Pat Quinn was sworn in only minutes after Blago's removal. The Illinois Senate's vote was unanimous...another first in state history.

A random sidebar: The restaurant where I am employed celebrated the event's of yesterday by running a martini special last night, "The Impeachmentini." Needless to say we ran out of martini glasses...stay classy Springfield.

The inverted pyramid...it's a triangle no matter how you look at it

The inverted pyramid is a way to discribe the basic structure of a news story. The most important information in a news story is at the beginning (or the top of the pyramid). This information generally pertains to "who," "what," "when," "why" and occasionally "where" and "how." The story then moves on to the body where the writer develops the information from the lede and gives details, facts and quotes to support the information in the lede. Conclusions are not always necessary in a news story. The basic news story is designed in this fashion so that the least useful and relevent information (toward the end of the story aka the bottom of the pyramid) can be cut out easily.

Stories written for magazines, such as Newsweek, are composed much more like standard essays using an introduction, main ideas and susequent development, and a conclusion format to structure the information. However, when writing for print media like Newsweek, the introduction is called a lede (just like in a news story) and the conclusion is called a kicker. These stories also include a billboard, or a brief announcement of the main points of the article which is located between the intro/lede and the main points or the story.

Two opportunities announced for SCIBU students

SCIBU has many clubs and organizations available for student involvement. Pete Davis, Editor and Chief of the SCIBU Newspaper, The Bulldog, announced today that the paper is looking for part time staff to work for the paper. There are many different components of the paper that may appeal to a diverse group of people, such as Sports writing, News writing, Entertainment, Opinion pieces, and also Photography and Web design and layout. P. Davis guaranteed that staffers never have to write about anything that they aren’t interested in and said he would be more than happy to have additional help on the staff. There are also internship opportunities available at the Bulldog, giving student the chance to write for the school paper in lieu of going to class. Students interested in learning more about working with The Bulldog can contact Pete in person MWF 1-3:00 in room L18 (Resource Center).
Katie Davis also discussed an exciting opportunity for SCIBU students. K. Davis is the Co-founder of the PR Club at the college and is looking for new members. The club’s first meeting is tonight at 5:15 in A104. PR Club plans to work with local non for profits and small businesses and assist them with their public relations endeavors. The Club hopes to help these businesses and organizations formulate the components of PR campaigns, plan events, create media contracts, create fliers, brochures, news releases, format newsletters and design web pages, as well as developing and updating social media outlets. PR Club will give students exposure to working in a PR firm, and give them networking, internship and scholarship opportunities. K. Davis can be reached at katie_davis@sci.edu for more information on PR Club.

I'll make a note of it...

209 Note taking:
Why take notes?
to help you remember the important stuff and review for tests
I. Taking notes in an interview:
-to remember all info for your story
-keywords are important to help you recreate the dialogue later
- don’t waste time with articles and prepositions etc.
-go back and recreate sentences same day…otherwise you might not be able to remember what your shorthand means
-Spelling:
Always make sure you have names spelled correctly, even if it means you have to ask them to spell it
-to get quotes
Exact words people use
“Substantially accurate re-creation of what was said”


Pete Davis-Editor and chief SCIBU Bulldog
Good way to learn to write
Never make you write about something you aren’t interested in
Sports
Entertainment
Opinion Columns
Photographers
Web?
Any way you think you can help Happy to have you
Intership possibilities- 3 credits, work in lou of going to class
Contact Pete:
Office-Resource Center MWF 1-3 L18

Amie Suter- Opinion Editor
Wants to know about student opinions-what do you love hate etc.
Contact Amie at bulldog_opinion@sci.edu

Question 2a: the one that won't go away

My attitude toward the media coverage of government before taking this course was curiosity. I had just taken Media and Government last spring and so this class was very much in keeping with many of the themes from last semester. I enjoyed both of these classes very much because of the open dialogue that we always shared in the classroom and the opportunity to look at things from new and different perspectives. Having watched the primaries play out last spring and discussing many of the media issues in regards to that, I was curious and excited to take this class and interested in seeing the election, and it’s coverage, play out in real time. I feel that I am a much more concerned and aware citizen than I was prior to these courses and that learning about politics in this type of forum has helped me to become far more knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the world around me.

One of the things that I will take away from this class and found so valuable was the websites and articles we viewed. I now have an RSS feed to many of these websites on my Google homepage so that I can access the information anytime I want. I feel it is important to be up to date on current events including politics and that due to the varying opinions in the world you have to seek out multiple sources of information and draw your own conclusions.

There is not anything that I wanted to learn and didn’t. I enjoyed this class very much and felt very fulfilled by the structure and dialogue.