My Research Paper Interviews

I was not sure if there was supposed to be a blog entry due today. But just incase I decided to do one anyways.

Over spring break I didn't go anywhere very fun I just came home. But while I was home I did two interviews for my research paper. I am doing my paper on journalism and diversity.

I spoke with two editors from different papers, and they both happened to be female.

I thought their answers to my questions were very interesting. Both of them talked about how they did not think about diversity on a day-to-day basis and in their papers they tried to let it happen naturally. In addition since they are the local town papers they said that they try to cover what the town is interested in.

So for instance some towns are very interested in the children and their performance so those town’s papers tend to focus a lot on the high school and how people perform. Whereas some towns focus on festivals and events about their ethnic group because the town has become 70% Hispanic in the last few years.

Both women said that they did not put certain percentages on different groups of people. They said that typically gender, race, age, geography, and class did not factor into the story at all, unless it was specifically about that. For instance, they said that they did not go out and try to find specific people. They do not have quotas. Additionally, they said that if the story was about a woman’s award for something then of course the story would focus mostly on woman, but only because that is who the story is about.

It was also interesting to hear that they said that there are times when they do not print a picture if it may display certain groups in a bad or stereotypical light. For instance, one editor said they were doing a story about vandalism that was happening in a neighborhood. The people were caught and it was three white boys who were doing it to older people. So they wanted to do a story about how not all young people are bad and not all old people are grumpy and complainers. So the photographer went out to try to find a picture of old people and young people. He walked around the neighborhood since they do not set up pictures. But the only picture he could get was three black boys and a white old man. The paper decided to not run the picture because it gave the impression that the vandals were all black boys.

I also asked the editors how they felt being women in this industry, and they both told me that was a dated question because it is becoming much for 50-50 men-women. However, they did say that there are not a lot of minorities. They say that all of the minorities go to work for big papers and do not go to the local papers. Finally, they said that the ages of the people working was pretty spread out across the board.

I think that the interviews I had were very interesting, and I think I learned about from their perspectives and gained a lot for my research paper.

Seven Deadly Sins...

For this week’s blog assignment, I decided to look at the lecture topic for this week and I read the websites assigned. I found the article from Poynter called “The Seven Deadly Copy Editing Sins” to be very interesting.

The website can be found: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=5441.

One of the main reasons I thought this article to be so interesting is because I think that all seven are very true things that people can be found guilty of doing. However, making sure to avoid these really does make for a better copy editor.

The seven are: arrogance, assumptions, sloppiness, indifference, ignorance, laziness, and inflexibility.

First, there is arrogance. I think this one happens because people just want to do things their way and do not take a second look to see if it really makes sense to the reader. I think this one is easy to overcome by just thinking about layouts and how things look. The editor needs to think if it will be easy to understand and be able to follow if they are the reader of the newspaper.

Secondly, there are assumptions. I think this is an extremely easy mistake to make. This is because editors want to be able to trust their reporters and think that they got everything right in the story. However, the editor cannot assume this, they need to go back through the story and double check to make sure that everything checks out and is correct. Because if it is not correct, the newspaper ends up looking rather stupid. Therefore a copy editor can just take more time and double check the math the reporter has, make sure names are spelled right and that words are spelled consistently throughout a story.

Thirdly, there is sloppiness. I think this happens because people just do not take the time to do things correctly and make silly makes. To correct this sin, it is best to just make sure to everything correctly and give it your full attention.

The next sin is indifference. I think that this one is just not being creative and giving eat story and each event its own attention. Meaning that everything needs individualized attention to make sure it is placed and ran in the way it should be.

Next, there is ignorance. I think this one is all about not being informed and not really knowing what is going on. And since this is news, copy editors should know what is going on. Therefore, people need to stay informed and know what is happening when and where and know who is who and what position they may hold. Just being informed can help solve this problem.

The sixth since is laziness. I think this one is probably the most common. I think that because people are tired or just do not want to do what they have to do all the time. People need to take their job seriously and not slack off because if they do, it can have large repercussions. Therefore, to combat this deadly sin, people need to focus on work when they are not and not be lazy while doing it.

Finally, there is inflexibility. This is when people just do what they are comfortable with and when they do not want to try something new. Also they may not want to change something or do something differently because it might take longer or change a lot of things. To not do this people just need to be able to roll with the flow and do what they need to when they need to because it is the right thing to do.

I think that all of these are very true and almost everyone is guilty of committing them at one time or another. But I just think that people need to stay focused on work and do it to their best ability and their editing will be good.

Going Digital...

For this weeks blog I was trying to think of a good topic to write about and I was thinking about the Rocky Mountain News. And I found an article about the editor, John Temple.

http://cbs4denver.com/local/scripps.rocky.denver.2.947032.html

This article is from CBS in Denver.

It said that John Temple is trying not to give up and let the closure of his newspaper keep him from reporting. However, he does say that there has to be a new way to look at journalism now. He thinks that in order to stay in business he needs to report about local events and move on-line and go digital. He says that he knows he cannot compete with the New York Times or CNN.com. However, he remains very confident that he can get people to pay for an on-line local service.

So I started to think about this. And I am not entirely sure that I agree with him on everything.

Now, I do agree that he should not give up and he needs to continue to make a living and since he loves journalism he should try and remain in this field. In addition, I also think that he is correct with his ideas about moving to the digital world. I do think that that is where eventually the news is going to go because with each generation we are becoming more and more digital people who want information now.

I do think that it is important for people to know how to make on-line material also, and it is important for people to learn how to do this. And I think that if people who are currently in the newspaper industry should learn this so they have less reason to be laid off. If they know how to make on-line content then they have a better change of not being laid off. Furthermore, in case they do, they have a better chance of finding a new job quicker I think.

I also think that it would be good if there were a place Temple could report about local news. Because I believe that even though national and international news is very important, it is also key to know what is happening around you on the local level. One way I think this is possible is through his ideas of putting it on-line.

However, this is where my ideas differ slightly with Temples. I do not think that there will be a large amount of people willing to pay for local news. The reason I think this is because people have become so accustomed to getting things and information for free on the Internet, at least recent information. Furthermore, I think that people would be able to find local information out in other ways that by paying for a website like one he is suggesting.

I just know that my generation has learned to get things without paying for them on-line, so if he were to create content that you had to pay for, it would not work very well.

And I think that this is where the current problem that newspapers are facing, which is to make on-line content and also make a profit from it. I think that when that problem is solved the newspaper industry might be able to breathe easier, at least for a little while.

Would you print these photos?

When looking at pictures, sometimes it is difficult to decide which ones to print and which ones not to. For this week’s assignment, I am supposed to look at these photographs and decide if I would run them in the newspaper or not.

For the photos with R. Budd Dwyer, I would definitely print some of them, but not all. I think that I would print 1a because this picture shows what is about to happen but is not too graphic and really I do not think would offend anyone.

For pictures 2a and 3a, I debated whether I think these should go in print or not. However, I think that they still are ok to print because he has not shot himself yet; he is simply moving the gun around. Although, I think that 3a is worse than 2a, I think that if I had room to print all three pictures then I would.

Now, for 4a I would not print this because it is after he shot himself. I just do not see a reason for why this picture should be ran. Because showing the other pictures and then telling the reader that he shot himself all the reader to visualize and know what happened. The use of this picture is really not necessary. Therefore, I would not print picture 4a.

With the next group of pictures, I am again supposed to talk about what I would do with them.

For the first picture, I think that I would print this. Because although it is very sad, it bring with it a lot of emotion. However, I do not think that the picture is distasteful in anyway. I think that the picture very adequately captures the boy’s grief for his dog. If this happened locally, I think I would still print the picture, unless the family was very adamant about it not being run.

For the second picture, I think that I would run this but probably not if it was local. This is because if you do not know the people then there is not as much of a connection. But if you do know these people then this picture might be very disturbing. So if it was taken from somewhere else and a national story then I would run it. Otherwise, I am not entirely sure, but I think that I would not print it because I think these emotions could be shown through writing and reporting.

For the third picture, of the woman who was killed at the printing plant, I do not think that I would print this. Because it is very morbid. I think the fact that this person is dead because a disgruntled employee killed seven people, it should not be ran. I think that there are better ways to get the message across of what happened besides showing this kind of picture. I just think that a lot of people would be offended by seeing this picture.

For the fourth picture, I think this is the one that I had the most trouble with. Because I really do not like this picture. Seeing a young boy in this predicament really grosses me out. And I do not like looking at it. However, on the other hand it is amazing to me that this boy lived. Therefore, it is almost interesting to see the position this boy was in and that he lived. Because I am not sure that you can adequately describe this position. Therefore, I think that I would run this picture, however, I would not run it huge. But only because the boy lived I would run it. Had the boy died, I would not run the picture.

Finally, in the last picture, I would not run this. I think that it is horrible what happened. And I really think that this can be told through words and the picture is not needed. In addition, it is hard to tell what is going on. Without the caption there I do not think I would know what was happening in the picture. Therefore, because the picture itself is really not very good and you have to really look at it to know what is happening I would not print it.

Outsourcing

For this week’s blog entry I decided to Google “copy editing” and see what I could find. I ended up finding an article in “Business Week” from July 8, 2008 called “Copyediting? Ship the Work Out to India.”

It was actually a really interesting article, mostly about a company called Mindworks. This is a company that is located in India and has been around for four years. Mindworks is a company that does outsourcing for newspapers and other publications in the U.S. and Europe. However, they have only been editing for American papers for this past year. The article states that they do work that journalists and copyeditors usually do.

I did not know until relatively recently that some papers outsourced their copyediting and other jobs to other countries. And I am not sure how I feel about this.

First of all, sending these jobs to other countries is creating less jobs here for American citizens to have. In addition, people in other countries have other ways to talking and probably ways to edit things. Therefore, I feel that when editing is done in another country, they might fix or change something in a way that we would not read over here. Even though they would have certain rules and learn how we edit and read here, I feel that there are some things that could still potentially be overlooked.

However, the article states that “Mindworks claims that it helps publications cut costs 35% to 40%.” So I suppose that if this is true then there are some positives to outsourcing copy editing. Because since the newspaper industry continues to struggle every year with work being moved to the internet and just having high costs of being in business saving money wherever they can is beneficial.

However, as I continued to read the article, I came across the part about how the people in India go about copyediting. And they say that they never actually contact the reporter. I just think this is a little bit ridiculous. I feel that if the copyeditor needs clarifying or needs to discuss something about the story then the first person they should talk to is the person who actually wrote the story. However, Mindworks states that they do not. I feel that if the person editing doesn’t talk to the reporter when they need clarification then they could end up changing the story to mean something else. I think that this system could just lead to potential problems and some libel issues.

After reading and re-reading this article I still do not know where I stand on the issue of outsourcing journalism and copyediting. I agree that there are both positives and negatives to this. So I guess that only time will show if this is actually good or bad based on what happens while outsourcing.

Plagiarism is horrible.

At first I was having trouble deciding what to write about for this week’s blog entry. So I decided to instead work on my speech for Communication 321 class – Persuasive Speaking. For our first round of speeches we’re giving statement of fact speeches. I chose to do the topic of obesity in America, specifically to children. So I spent almost two hours doing research and finding good articles to support this statement. Then I started to plan out my speech. But I wasn’t entirely sure what my teacher wanted the outline to look like, so to make sure I went to his website and checked his sample for the first round of speeches. And what do you know, but the sample was on childhood obesity. And the research that I had found was almost identical to what his sample was. So after all that work I did, I had to start over because I did not want my teacher to think I had cheated and copied his example.

So this experience I had reminded me of last week’s lecture topic on plagiarism. And it made me think that I have no idea how those men could plagiarize their stories. Just knowing that I had the same topic as my teacher’s sample made me freak out that I would get in trouble. So, I just do not understand how these men could live with themselves knowing what they did and on purpose.

I then decided to do a Google search on “journalism and plagiarism” and I found an interesting article by the Poynter Institute.

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=70511

I especially thought that his advice was good about what an editor is supposed to do to make sure that people do not plagiarize. I thought number 9 – 12 were great. They all say to pray. And although this may seem a little ridiculous, I think it is true. Because an editor can only do so much to catch and try to prevent plagiarism and then the rest is up to the reporters to do the right thing.

I just wish that people were more honest and didn’t steal other people’s work. Because it’s just a lie and I don’t see how people who do take others work can live with themselves and continuously do it over and over.

This also made me think about the issue of which is worse fakes or plagiarizing something. And I still am not sure because I think both are horrible. However, I think if I have to make a decision then I would say that plagiarism is worse. I think because it is truly stealing and that is first of all legally wrong. While faking something, is just creating new ideas and is not necessarily against the law. I also think that plagiarizing is morally wrong and people should just not take other people's ideas, use them for their own, and then benefit from those stolen ideas.

In addition, I also think it is ridiculous how people like Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass are making a lot of money based on their stories which have been turned into movies. However, I think it is good that what they did has been revealed and they are being made examples for what not to do: plagiarize. People really should learn from their mistakes and not repeat them by making things up and pretending to report on them.

William Safire's On Language columns

For this week’s blog assignment I read a website from the New York Times. It is called “William Safire’s On Language columns.” (the website is http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/magazine/columns/on_language/index.html?qu&scp=1-spot&sq=on+language&st=nyt)

This website basically just has links to the columns that William Safire writes for the New York Times.

Each column is about language, how it is used in a certain case and what it means in that instance. I found some of the articles to be interesting, but to be honest I thought that some were confusing because I was unsure of exactly what he was talking about.

However, there were some that I found interesting. For instance, I enjoyed “Haircut.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11wwln-safire-t.html) It starts off by explaining how the Detroit News has a headline called “Haircut Politics Bad for Big Three” and The Asia Sentinel in Hong Kong has a headline called “Asia’s Top Tycoons Take a Haircut.”

The article then goes on to talk about how he thinks “haircut” was started as a metaphor. Safire says it is “probably based on the weakening effect of the biblical Delilah’s shearing of Samson’s invigorating mane.”

Next he talks about how “haircut” currently can mean “a sudden loss of equity or drop in income.” I think this is very interesting because usually when you think of a haircut, in its traditional meaning you would not think of it as a bad thing, however, these newspapers are using it in their headlines with a negative connotation.

Another column I thought was interesting was called “Metaphor Mix.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/magazine/26wwln-safire-t.html) The part I liked the best was: “In the second presidential debate, Barack Obama said, ‘Senator McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I’m green behind the ears.’ Obama apparently confused one century-old metaphor, green around the gills, meaning ‘nauseated,’ with another, wet behind the ears, meaning ‘immature, gullible.’”

I think that it is funny this phrase was used wrong. They are both very unusual metaphoric phrase to use, I think. And that is why I think it grabbed my attention because I would not have caught it or known what it meant has it not been explained to me.

I read some of the other articles William Safire read however I did not find many others that I really enjoyed or that really made sense entirely.

I think that this website is good for people who are interesting in language and what words mean when they are used in certain places. However, I think it was less helpful and more just informational and interesting.