Freedman: Writing

"I have never begun to write an article until I knew exactly what it was I wanted to say."

"Writers need to read books that way, not as spectators but as apprentices."

"I recognize that nothing sounds very poetic in the basic hard news story or the “human-interest” news-feature, and magazine, radio and broadcast journalism all have their comparable templates. At their best, though, these forms are our sonnets, our haikus, our iambic pentameter, and we gain something by learning how to express ourselves, indeed how to bear witness to the world, within their rigors."


Freedman gives a lot of solid advice in this section, but I really could identify with the third quote above. When I sat down to write my first story for this class, I wanted to really grab the reader’s attention with a lead that was intricate and thought provoking. Unfortunately, I just ended up rambling and never got to the point of the story. When Chris told me to tighten up the lead in class, at first I felt like that would take all the creativity and personal flavor out of the writing. At that point, I hadn’t quite grasped the concept of the news lead and its purpose.

What I’ve come to realize a bit more since is that the type of hard news story we’re writing in this class follows a certain structure. While it’s more difficult to give these stories as much personal flair as it would be while writing something like a feature, I think the story as a whole becomes a vehicle for our thoughts and visions, like Freedman mentions above. I love baseball, so my article was a piece of me, at least on some level. I think that was an important realization for me, and it will definitely help me in the future.

Freedman "Reporting" Tips

“A large part of reporting, particularly for a profile, is observing. When you watch a person doing whatever he does, you inevitably capture him revealing himself.” P. 53

“But you must understand that technology is a tool, not a value, and a double-edged tool at that.” P. 63

“Great journalism comes from the curmudgeons, the iconoclasts, the dissidents, the lonely individualists, who insist on pursuing what fascinates or outrages them and tracking it to the ground.” P. 65

“Reporting requires context, a knowledge of how a momentary event fits into the larger flow of politics or culture or history.” P. 58

“I want you to use them (anonymous sources) with wisdom, discernment, and discretion.” P. 81

I fully agree with what Freedman says about technology. Take the web, for instance. While it certainly makes research more convenient for journalists, you have to be careful about the source of information found online. I’ve worked for two years as a web programmer, and I know how simple it can be to put a web page up containing whatever information one pleases. Wikipedia, as Freedman mentions, is a great example. I personally feel that that the site is a great jumping-off point, but since anyone can edit any page, it should never be used as an actual source. Often times there are links to more reputable sources at the bottom of every entry page.

If you understand the risks of using the web as a research tool, you can fully harness its benefits. I plan to look up graduation statistics from reports published by non-profit education organizations as well as demographic data from local universities. I feel that as long I stick to academic institutions and other trusted sources, the information will serve my story well as context and statistical evidence of my points. Used responsibly, technology can be a valuable tool.

Email News Release

Subject: Census Bureau Report On Value of College Degrees

United States Department of Commerce
Greg Smith
gsmith140@gmail.com
(814) 404-6393
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2008

Census Bureau Releases Report On Value of College Degrees

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s census bureau released a report today that details the earning potential of various college degrees. The report, titled “What’s It Worth? Field of Training and Economic Status”, shows that college graduates with bachelor’s degrees in engineering who work full time earn the highest average monthly salary among those with bachelor’s degrees. The report also shows that those with those with vocational certificates in engineering earn an average of $600 more per month than those with non-technical certificates. Those with professional degrees, such as doctors and lawyers, top the entire earnings scale.

Here is a breakdown of the report’s key statistics (degree with average monthly earnings):

• Professional Degree- $7,224
• Master’s Degree- $4,635
• Bachelor’s Degree- $3,767
• High School Diploma- $2,279
• No Diploma- $1,669

• Bachelor’s of Engineering- $4,680
• Bachelor’s of Business- $3,962
• Bachelor’s of Education- $2,802
• Master’s of Business- $5,579

For the full version of the report, please visit the U.S. Department of Commerce website.

Analogies
1.) The security desk looks like the control room of a Naval submarine, with its tall bank of computer monitors.

2.) The dining hall was like a bar on a Friday night—people flowing in, loud music pouring out.

3.) The two mail room workers lumbered out the door with the intensity of two bears who just awoke from hibernation.

Pirates Story- 1st Draft

Each year, as spring training arrives, baseball fans across the nation gear up for another season. They look forward to another 162 hard-fought games, they get excited about summer nights in the ballpark, and they carry hope of a possible championship season, as every team starts with a clean slate.

Even here in Pittsburgh, a city that has endured 15 consecutive seasons of sub-.500 baseball, Pirates fans can still take solace in the fact that it’s a new year and the team has another chance to turn things around. Unfortunately, for local businesses that deal in Pirates merchandise, the outlook is not quite as bright.

[Is there a need for more of a transition/nut graph paragraph here?]

R.J. Kowalski, who owns Greentree Sports Cards, says that the Pirates were kings of the local sports card business when he began working in the field in 1992. Coincidentally, 1992 was the last year the Pirates fielded a winning team, and since then, business for baseball cards has dwindled much like the team’s winning percentage.

“They [the Pirates] have almost totally killed baseball sales for me,” says Kowalski, behind the counter of his Greentree shop. “When I started, baseball was my top seller, but now hockey and football are neck-to-neck, with baseball in a distant third.”

Kowalski says the decline in Pirates business for his store was gradual and began around 2000. While he admits that he does have a couple of lingering die-hard Pirates customers, he points out that Steelers and Penguins cards easily outsell the Pirates 50-to-1.

However, the decline in local baseball card sales does not seem to be a microcosm of the national scene. Even with professional football reigning as the nation’s most popular sport, by Kowalski’s estimation, baseball cards are in the same range as football in sports cards sales on a national level. Kowalski’s sales show the drastic effect the Pirates’ woes may be having on the local sports card scene.

The story is much the same at another local business, Hometowne Sports, which does most of its sales in clothing. According to general manager Mike Snyder, the Pirates have always been far behind the Steelers in sales for the local chain, whose first store opened in 1996.

Last year, the Steelers accounted for $2.7 million of Hometowne’s overall sales, or around 70%, said Snyder. The Pirates, in comparison, accounted for $210,000, or a little more than 6%. In fact, the Pirates have never come remotely close to the Steelers in sales, and the Penguins more than doubled the Pirates in sales at Hometowne last year as well, leaving the Pirates in last place of the three local professional teams.

Aside from the Pirates losing streak, Snyder offered other reasons why the team’s sales pale in comparison to the Steelers. Snyder says that while there are various chances to attend Pirates games throughout the summer, fans only get eight to ten Steelers games a year, and when they attend a game, they have no problem opening their wallets.

“People come from all over the nation, and the world, to see a Steelers game,” said Snyder. He adds that while these die-hard fans are here, they spend much more on the merchandise than Pirates fans. Snyder adds, “I think there always has been and always will be fans of the Pirates, but they’re not the big spenders [in our business].”

While Snyder also acknowledged the lack of variety in Pirates merchandise as a factor, he admitted that the team’s poor play certainly affects sales in a negative fashion. In fact, after going over these two businesses’ sales figures, there is no doubt that the downfall of baseball merchandise in the city has coincided with the Pirates losing streak. But can baseball make a triumphant comeback in this football and hockey-crazed town?

While he admits that a Pirates playoff run this season would definitely spike interest in baseball cards, Kowalski says that it would take a sustained run of a combination of winning seasons from the Pirates and losing efforts from the Steelers and Penguins to make the card market look like the early 90s.

Snyder, however, was less optimistic when asked if a streak of playoff appearances by the Pirates could close the gap between them and the Steelers in sales.

“Pittsburgh is such a football town, the fan base, the so-called Steeler Nation is just so big, I just don’t think it could happen.”

Shaun White Story

Professional snowboarder Shaun White was arrested last night for second degree criminal tampering at a local resort, police said.

According to a report filed by the Breckenridge Police Department, the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge has video evidence of White, 21, discharging a fire extinguisher in the resort’s game room. Resort security guard Sean Fay told police that he saw a white man and a white woman enter the game room yesterday evening. Soon after, Fay noticed that the game room fire alarm had been activated, and he found the room filled with dust and smoke. Fay spoke to the man and woman after the incident, but left momentarily only to return and find them missing.

Officer Steven Block of the Breckenridge Police arrived at the resort after the incident, where he was shown video surveillance by Fay, according to the report. Block then left the scene to attend a briefing.

After Block’s departure, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office arrived and detained White in relation to a stolen vehicle it found outside the resort, according to the report. When Block learned of this, he returned to the resort and identified White as the man who discharged the fire extinguisher based on his distinctive shoes, which Block noticed in the surveillance video. Block then served White a summons, after which White was driven back to his hotel by a Burton Snowboard Company representative.

No arrests were made by the Breckenridge Police Department in relation to the stolen vehicle.

Thoughts on "Temperament"

Loyalty Oaths

I found Freedman’s advice on loyalty oaths of particular interest, because it is one of the topics that always pops up in my mind when I think about the field of journalism. He uses as an example a beat reporter who spends an entire season with a sports team. I’ve often pondered how difficult it must be for a baseball writer (who can spend seven or eight months out of the year with a team) to straddle that fine line between having a personal relationship with the team and being a journalist with integrity. If you build a working relationship with the star left fielder and then criticize his relaxed views on steroids, you’re taking the risk that he may never give you another interview. Of course, if you let him off the hook for his opinions, readers may cast you aside as a frivolous apologist. I think it takes more skill than people realize to be in that delicate position.


Seeing A Story From All Angles

To paraphrase Lee Bollinger, whom Freedman quotes early in the section, perhaps the most important trait of a journalist is to set aside one’s own beliefs and to see all angles and points of view. I believe this to be true, but unfortunately, you don’t always find this approach in journalism today. I hate to pick on Fox News (okay, I don’t), but the reason that they’re not taken seriously in terms of journalistic integrity is that they report everything with a wild bias to one side of the political spectrum. However, the sad part is that it’s not just Fox that engages in this practice; some liberal outlets can oftentimes be accused of similar behavior. Whatever the political leaning, I feel that the reader or viewer is cheated when a story is covered with a particular bias. As Freedman says, sometimes it is not a two-way argument, sometimes fact wins out. But regardless of that, a real journalist should give the audience the full story every time, not just half.

Practice Pyramid Story

A man was stabbed in his automobile last night on Route 534 after picking up a hitchhiker during a heavy rainstorm.

Charles Jefferson, 64, of Cranford, was traveling to visit his mother when he stopped to pick up the female hitchhiker along the isolated, rural road. As Jefferson pulled away, the woman drew a knife and demanded money.

When Jefferson produced only two dollars from his jacket, the woman became angry and stabbed him in the left thigh, the left side, and three times in the right arm. The woman also struck Jefferson in the head with an unidentified object. She then exited the car and fled the scene on foot.

Jefferson remained in the car until he was discovered at 3:15 AM by Police Officer Larry David of the Cranford Police department, who was patrolling the area. An ambulance was soon dispatched and Jefferson was transported to Memorial Medical Center, where he was treated for the knife wounds as well as a concussion which resulted from the blow to his head.

When questioned by Officer David, Jefferson mentioned that he usually does not pick up hitchhikers, but that he felt compelled to because of the rain. He described the suspect as white and in her late teens with a thin build, and long, straight, dark hair. She was wearing a black leather jacket with a gold “Cranford High School” logo, as well as blue jeans and white sneakers.

The Cranford Police Department has issued an alarm for the suspect.