Ch. 7 & 8; "The State of the News Media"

Our textbook for this course is "News Reporting and Writing," by the Missouri Group. By Wednesday, we have to read ch. 7 and 8, as well as an online commentary entitled, "The State of the News Media."

Basically, Ch. 7 introduces you to the inverted pyramid. The Missouri Group breaks it down and explains-- in great detail-- how one should write a news story. Littered with plenty of annotated examples, journalists should be able to understand that in order to write the effectively, the important facts (who, what, where, why, when, and how) must come first. Leads are categorized and grouped so that even the most novice writer could understand the basics of journalism.

Ch. 8 describes "writing to be read." Topics range from writing with fluidity to accuracy in reporting, to creatively engaging the reader in the story. It's interesting that they spend an entire section devoted to keeping opinions out of the story, including proper ways of naming people: a female police officer should be called a "policewoman," not "policeman," etc. They (the writers) also go into detail about the proper terminology for ethnicity, race, religious beliefs, and gender preferences.

In today's world, I think journalists should have enough sense to know not to label people, especially with derogatory names.

The chapter then goes into breaking down sentences into complex, simple, and compound sentences. They even describe what transitions are. These are essential terms to know for basic writing, not just journalism, and to me, should be included at the very beginning of a writing textbook, not towards the end of chapter 8.

It's interesting that they encourage journalists to use figures of speech. While it shows, rather than tells readers, figures of speech may allude to cliches, a "no no" in journalism.

"The State of the News Media 2007" is an annual report of American Journalism made by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. It explains that journalism is not dying, but growing, in many different and unexpected ways. While print journalism is declining, many newspapers are putting greater efforts into their online versions. Methods of obtaining advertising and attracting readers are slowly, but steadily changing.

The study found that copy editors were being reduced- a scary fact. Without copy editors, mistakes may flourish, and in a profession where accuracy matters, how can readers be sure that what they read is correct?

The "new" field of digital journalism is gaining attention from the rest of the news media -- NBC decided to make cuts in it's broadcast news programs to focus more online. Online seems to be the way to go, with viewers declining in T.V. newscasts, broadcasting choose to shake up their anchors to attract young viewers. The most notable shift in television was Katie Couric's move from co-host on the "Today" show on NBC to the sole anchor for CBS's Nightly News program. CBS wanted her to bring in more ratings, which she did -- at first.

I took ch. 7 & 8 as refreshers, welcoming me back into the world of journalism, not having written a news story in a month. "The State of the News Media 2007" intrigued me, although it stated facts that I, as a journalist, already know: the journalism profession is slowly, but determinedly, changing.