Guided Assignment--Interview with a Blogger

For this assignment, I chose Gregory Holeman's blog, GregoryHoleman.net.  Holeman writes very often witty observations from Springfield, MO.  He is a writer, with longtime involvement in national and regional magazines.  I found his blog to be insightful and interesting, so I was excited to see what he had to say to our proposed questions.  

I wasn't sure if we were supposed to include everything or make this into a story, but I felt that since this is a blog, and a little more relaxed, I'd just let you see what exactly he responded:

My first question, "Do you consider yourself to be a journalist?" was  answered, "Yes, I am a journalist. I even have a diploma from a journalism school, if that means anything these days. I am also an independent writer and magazine editor, so most of what I do is reporting and analysis (or editing) paid for and published by mainstream media. The blog is a small part of what I do, a self-indulgent pastime that doubles as a minor publicity tool for my writing career. 

Would I be a journalist if the blog was the only thing? That's a really interesting question—one that may not matter much from a practical point of view. Even though they're not connected to a newspaper, TV station or whatnot, there are a few local blogs that do some very good stuff that you might have found in a traditional newspaper or culture magazine at one time. Randy Turner's reporting on campaign finance and Bureau of Mockery's satire of the right wing come to mind. Turner, of course, is an ex-newspaper editor, and the guy behind the Bureau sells car engines for a living."

2.  How would you compare the way you write with the way other journalists (in the news) write?  

Holeman replied, "There's not a lot of daylight between how I write on gregoryholman.net versus in a local magazine or newspaper feature. As a magazine person, I strive for storyline, depth, context, accuracy and flair in my writing. You can find these qualities in traditional newspaper features, too. On the other hand, speed, accuracy and concision is the name of the game for reverse-pyramid newspaper and broadcast writing, and I'm not a breaking-news person."

3.  Do you think you do original reporting?  What kind, if so?  

Holeman's response was: 

"Original reporting is a costly, time-consuming form of created intellectual property, so I'm unwilling to do it unless there's a bang for my buck. For this reason, the blog doesn't really contain Q & As, interviews, or much in the way of news/features.

It's a lot cheaper to do analysis using all the information available on the Internet. All it costs is time. I collect primary and secondary sources in order to synthesize a point about whatever I'm writing about (often something in the local news), and I always try to back up my arguments with facts from major reputable sources, e.g., the Census, major international news organizations.

The funny thing is, I've actually been meaning to blog more fun things like book reviews and especially recipes, as food always draws a lot of visitors to the site and racks up a few more cents from Google Ads."

I wish that our media would stop playing that good old fashioned "fear card."  

I have no doubt that our country does have a lot to fear.  Our economy is bad, no doubts in my mind.  And we should fear what will happen if we keep pushing away the ideas for electric cars or at least economy-friendly vehicles.  

But I would for once like to see every side of news.  Even some...God forbid...good news!  One of my favorite shows is CBS Sunday morning.  Although it makes me seem like a senile 85 year old, I actually enjoy positive stories.  I was thinking as I watched these stories the other day that this show really was an elegant and uplifting view of our country.  Like the story of an older woman who had always wanted to dance but was tied down by a dud of a husband... after he passed away, she began dancing and hasn't looked back.  Now, in her 90's, she dances at every opportunity she can find.  A simple story, but actually heartwarming and what I feel America needs to hear about every once in a while.  I know practically speaking we are going to hear about the bad.  But why not give us some of the good?

Ethics found even in pictures

According to the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics, journalists should, "show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage." When I read the article on News-leader.com "Families get help with high food costs" I couldn't help feeling that the people in this article were somehow subjected to unfairness.

The article demonstrates how much less the cost of food is when shopping at discount food stores, such as ones devoted to the underprivileged. This is all in good taste when demonstrating how much the economy is struggling, and what people are doing to make ends meet. However the picture from The Newsleader of the shoppers with their food seen below seems to exploit them, stereotyping them as the poor citizens who will stoop to shopping at the discount food store. Even if those people didn't mind having their picture out there for all to see, it seems to show little compassion for them.I also felt that the way the article was set up was not entirely unethical. "Seeing others show up...is a sign The Kitchen isn't just focused on the displaced or poverty-stricken during the economic downturn,"said Kitchen representative Lisa Hamaker in the article. While it wasn't altogether biased, it seemed to imply that the "displaced or poverty-stricken" were not the main concern of these kitchens anymore. Perhaps the article was being written for the middle to higher class, not the impoverished. But this doesn't seem like the most ethical thing to be promoting.

Liberty High School Journalism teacher Anne Bertoldie, of Liberty, Mo., agreed that this story could have been handled differently. "A good journalist should be aware that anyone could read their work. You should never justify someone else's dignity for the sake of a good story. Good stories will come into play if you're looking for the right news," said Bertoldie.

No news here

I just wanted to post this story because it seemed rather ridiculous. I was searching for unethical news, but instead found news that had absolutely no information. Below is the link.

Newsleader story

Where Are the "I Voted" Stickers?

Voters Were Not Guaranteed a Sticker to Prove They Voted Today

The perks of getting an "I Voted" sticker are many.  There was promised free doughnuts, coffee, ice cream, or chicken sandwiches for anyone who sported the sticker.  But for some, even when doing their national duty, that option wasn't available.

This can be seen as a hinderance, or a more positive sign that voters really decided to turn out this year, like the voter in the above YouTube video.  

The polls were open early this morning, and there was a rush to get to the booths.  More locations had been opened for the anticipated record breaking turnout for the 2008 election. There were reports of waits from four to six hours in some locations.  Like in the Clayton, North Carolina polls, as seen below, they were opened closed at various times but the trend of voting this year was definitely high.  

MSU freshman Cory King, 18, of Willard, Mo., was definitely disappointed with this lack of stickers.  He sarcastically said that "people might think [he was] a terrorist now."

Either there was not enough communication about how many stickers were needed, or there was just an amazing unforseen turnout of voters.  Whatever the case, I think it can be considered a good thing that we ran out of stickers.  And if you really voted, you probably could technically still get free food, because I'm pretty sure it's against the law to bribe people to vote.  

Guided Assignment 10/29/08

From the press release given to us the week of October 27th, we were given the task of finding the information that could be turned into a story, branching from that particular news.

I would take this story in the direction that the local car markets have been suffering, because I think that would be huge in relevance to our community. I would gear toward the customers thinking about trading or selling their larger vehicles, because it's a bad time to do so. The NADA appraisal guide is great for finding that accurate information needed, but that's not all to the story we're given in the release. There could be stories about hybrids surging over SUVs, or the demise of the large vehicle industry altogether.

This goes to show that there is always more to be found, and our job as reporters is to look deeper than the surface and get people info that really applies to them.

VP's

As election day comes frighteningly near, I have to say that I'm concerned that no matter who wins, there will be some sort of repercussion. I know this is terribly generalizing, but we do have to think to ourselves, "If the president dies, who do we want to take over?" So which is more likely to die while in office? To me, the jury's still out. I had heard talk (just talk, I can't find a source to prove this) of an enthused McCain supporter yelling out at a rally, "Shoot Obama!" I also heard from one of my college professors that McCain has a one and six chance of dying while in office from a heart attack...I have no idea how close to accurate these speculations are, and don't want to think about them being true. I just think our country needs to take that into account as well.