Glad the parents went to NY the day AFTER this happened.

Through the past few days while I have been scrambling to get my blog ready for grading, I have kept seeing articles about the terroist attempt in Times Square. Each day, more and more, are added to the articles. As a grand finale, the media coverage on this event will be discussed. Everytime I go back to the New York Times website I am thrown into different articles relating to this attempt. One was when it happened, it showed the video of the suspected victim. The next was how they got the bomb out of the smoking SUV. Today, it is photographs of the house the victim lived in. Then, about three hours later, that same suspect is admitting to playing a role in the terroist attack. All of these occurences were seperate headlines at one point on the New York Times website.

1. I find it amazing how quickly new articles are being published to the web about an ongoing story. I think this definetly shows the strength that online journalism has gained. Who knew that this would be possible to have a different headline in a matter of hours.

2. The packaging for this entire incident has become astonishing, in a good way. You can click on any of the articles that relate to it and are able to link yourself to any other article that relates to it. This is another strength of online journalism. There are so many layers, and you are the navigator on what you would like to learn about the subject. There is also a slideshow attached, a media graphic that shows how the bomb was laid out in the car, and a video from the Department of Justice.

3. A weakness maybe, however, can there ever be too much information thrown at you all at once? This may be one of the online journalism's down falls. I feel that after searching for articles on that I would like to blog about, it seems hard to find something that doesn't relate to the attempted bomb. This is still something I am not entirely sure about. I think it is wonderful to have access to so much information concerning something like this, but already in three days, I feel that it is getting old.

4. Thank goodness my parents flew out the day after. :)

Insects and Art

While wondering through the interweb, I came across an interesting article in an unusual place. It was a piece done about art, and it was in the science section of the New York Times online. Right away, I was intrigued. It is an article discussing how various artists are going all natural by using items that come straight from the earth in their artwork. I think that by putting a peice like this in the science section is a way to read something that you would not normally read. I appreciate the idea of thinking outside of the box when doing such peices, especially stories that can relate to not just one group of people, but multiple. The image shown above uses soil for the skin, moss and leaves for the extremeties.

The introduction to this article directly addresses the who. It discusses an artist that collects cockroaches to use in his artwork. It is a well written introduction that makes you say 'what?', let me read more!

"The word organic means different things to different people. To the gardener it means compost heaps. To the chemist it means carbon compounds. To the artist, Fabian Pena, it means American cockroaches, those chunky nocturnal creatures often seen skittering around drainpipes or on the street."

I thouroughly appreciate introductions such as this because they are something that I struggle with in my writings. They create a reason for the reader to continue on. I feel that mine tend to make a reader want to stop. Hopefully one day, my introductions will entrap a reader (or one of my photographs), enough to engage them and have them continue learning on about the story. After all, isn't that the point of journalistic story telling?

Importance of Blogging and Pirates

Some believe bloggers can be as much as a journalist as those who write for the New York Times, others believe this not so. However, in this case, Jason Kottke, blogger, produced by the New York Times, succedes at both. He had found a video of Dutch commandos raiding a Somali Pirates Boat. Along with his explantation of what is happpening in the raid, there is the video. Yes, an actual video of commandos capturing pirates. Sadly, these pirates were nothing like those seen on television from "Pirates of the Carribbean", but it was truly interesting to watch. Blogging, may be the next step to further journalism. This blog, that is posted on the New York Times website, also has links to other website details regarding the raid of the Somali Pirates. If you would like to watch this new step in visual reporting (which is also extremely amazing that this camera was placed on the commando's helmet) then click here. I think the conglomeration of media is finally truly succeeding in merging media and blogs together, especially like the one in the link.

Leads

In this post I would like to discuss the importance of a good lead. I personally dislike boring ones that get straight to the point in normal journalists' stories. I appreciate the ones that keep you reading through the first paragraph and continue to engage you throughout the peice. One article that I believe does this very well is published by the New York Times. the article is called, "More Wander Off in Fog of Age". The introduction can be found here. I like that it doesn't give it the entire story away in the first sentence. One thing that gets me about leads in journalism is that they often have to follow rules and be so precise, but my favorite are when these rules are not followed, as shown in the example from above.

Another thing, besides just the lead, that I enjoyed about this article was the multimedia packaging that was concurrent with the story. It help give the story an emotional appeal which is much needed when discussing a topic such as dementia. Without this intriguing lead and multimedia packaging, the emotional appeal would not be attached.

Another emotional appeal that is attached to this publication is the quotes. I had discussed good quotes in one of my previous posts, but here is an excellent one that makes you aware of the immediacy of such a problem...

"We've had them die in as little as seven hours because they just kept going and don't realize they're getting dehydrated," Mr. Langston said.

MediaStorm

Mediastorm

This website is one of the best journalistic media websites I have ever seen. He and his team have created short documentaries that are more journalistic and cross-platform of story telling, pictures and audio. Brian Storm (creator of mediastorm) is sponsored by the Washington Post. He brings multimedia and journalism to a new level. One of his stories, "The Ninth Floor" is an epic story telling peice of people who live on the ninth floor of an abandon building. They live there to keep their addiction alive. For three years these addicts were followed. Some went to jail, others sunk deeper into their addiction. They had no valuables because everything was sold off. This story that is told has some extremely beautiful (and horrifying) photojournalism peices I have ever seen. There is also audio and texts that excentuate the story amazingly. In some of the other stories that have been created there is some video. However, I enjoy the purely photographic ones. A lot of these peices probably could not be shown on regular newspaper websites because there are often controversial shots including nudity, drugs and alcohol.

These media cross platforms create some of the most impactful and storytelling peices of journalism I have ever seen.

Weeds.

Throughout my J105 class, we have learned the importance of the who, what, when, where, why and how. One story that I believe was an excellent example of these was on the New York Times website, "Rise of the Superweeds". The first few paragraph talk about the farmer (the who) in the midwest (the where) who has started using herbicides because of recent growth of weeds (the why). This has started because of "drug resistant supergerms" and therefore weedkiller is being mixed with other toxic herbicides (the how), and will possibly lead to more expensive food prices (the what). This has changed dramatically in the past ten years (the when) and can be seen in an interactive graphic.

I really liked the interactive graphic because it shows where these superweeds have grown prevalent and resisting herbicides. Each year can be seen getting worse and spreading. According to the article at least 22 states have been infested with these Round-Up resistant weeds.

We have also discussed quotes in this class and what quotes are appropriate and what are just down right useless. This article has one quote that I think was very well placed. I think that it shows how impactful a quote can be, and that if it wasn't used and worded differently then it would not have the same impact.

"It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen," said Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts.

I really hope that they can find something else then harmful herbicides to help the crops, I think farmers often times get the short end of the stick and people take advantage of our fresh food that we consume.

Looking at Multimedia

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/health/policy/26safrica.html?hp

The above link will connect you to the article "South Africa Redoubles Efforts Against AIDS"

The one thing I would really like to discuss about this article is what we have been discussing in class. It is one of my favorite things and the new step for journalism. It is about inserting links, video, photo, audio to online articles. Online journalism has completely taken a turn to make interactivety easier on the user. One thing I liked about this article was the links on words such as South Africa and AIDS. These links to other pages occured throughout the article, including names and other locations. Once you click on these links you are able to find out more about the subject. The link to South Africa gives you the general information and other new stories that involve South Africa. Another thing I like about online journalism is the clarity of images. Photojournalism can now thrive on the internet because the photos are able to be seen with clarity rather than the fuzzyness that newspaper dots give the photographs. An example from the article is shown above.

Children and Philosophy

The Examined Life, Age 8

by: Abby Goodnough

This article is a light hearted philosophical view through children's eyes. It discusses that a Professor and his undergrad that go to a charter school and use children's books to discuss philosophy. Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg believes that children can discuss philosophy at a young age and that through children's books they can learn to express themselves. I found this to be a very intriguing article and it was nice to read something that didn't have to do with death and war. Goodnough does a wonderful job in designing the flow of the article and a lovely introduction that engages you to keep reading.

"A few times each month, second graders at a charter school in Springfield, Mass., take time from math and reading to engage in philosophical debate. There is no mention of Hegel or Descartes, no study of syllogism or solipsism. "

This introduction makes you realize that these are just children but are still taking a very mature step in there life. The kids even said that it was nice to express themselves and that they ultimately loved to do this activity. So far Wartenberg has done this 6 times in the school system and believes that there is to many standards that teachers are trying to meet that they forget analyzing concepts can be a very important maturation step in life.

The impact of this article makes your realize that it is important to teach children other things then just math and science but that outside of the box thinking is very important to do.

Meth

With Cars as Meth Labs, Evidence Litters Roads
by: Susan Saulny

"To get rid of your meth lab these days is to put it in a plastic bag, then throw it out the car window..."-William V. Wargo.

How classy is Indiana these days? Instead of blowing up their homes, they can now blow up their cars. Meth is being made on the move in vehicles and then tossed out windows. The story then goes into detail about why these meth labs are becoming transportable these days.

It was a nice journalistic stand point because it is very impactful. There is the chance that one of these people could be driving by you and possibly harm you or others. I think it is also an emotional peice with the possiblity of hurting others. In part of the article they described a dead deer next to a dumb site and they said it was because of the trash that was left. That is terribly sad.

Whoops!

Indy Star Pulls Duke Illustration

The Herald Bulletin: April 3rd, 2010

By: Scott Underwood

This doesn't have a whole lot to do with journalistic story telling, but i thought it was a slightly amusing incident that occured in the Indianpolis star on April 2, 2010. Some 30,000 (or so I heard, not nesicarily from this article) copies of the Indianapolis Star went out before noticing how innapropriate the photo was.. The article did cover peoples strong emotion towards Duke, however upper management found this photo illustration to be over the top and decided to change the later issues that were printed that day. I found it quite surprising that this happened to a newspaper. I know newspapers go through a lot of editors and to just change it mid way though the day is surprising. According to the editor, the page was done by a page designer that works for the Star. When I had first heard about this, I heard that someone tampered with the publication before it went to print with out anybody knowing. However, with the hand and pen it was obviously an intentional design that really does correlate with the story, meaning multiple people had to see this before it went out to press. Anywho, one must wonder whta made them change their mind so late in the processes of printing that days newspaper?

Salt Pit Death

Salt Pit Death: Gul Rahman, CIA Prisoner Died of Hypothermia in Secret Afghanistan Prison.
The Huffington Post
Adam Goldman and Kathy Gannon

This article discusses about how a CIA Prisoner died of hypothermia in a secret Afghan prison, known as Salt Pit. It starts out the lead as the inmates calling it "the dark prison". This intro into the article intrigues you to find out more about what happens in this prison and why someone died from hypothermia. The article then tells you the five "w's" within the first couple of short paragraphs while intriguing you to continue to read further. "Inside a chilly cell, the man was shackled and left half-naked. He was found dead, exposed to the cold, in the early hours of Nov. 20, 2002." From this quote you understand that this man was not treated right and something wrong and unlawful was happening within this situation. I found it interesting that this type of thing still existed and it led to the findings of more abused prisoners inside the CIA.

" The CIA's program of waterboarding and other harsh treatment of suspected terrorists has been debated since it ended in 2006. The Salt Pit case stands as a cautionary tale about the unfettered use of such practices." I really liked the wording in this paragraph. I think it helps tell the story by wording in a very precise manner and describes the incident in a unique way that I would have never thought of.

I found it extremely sad that the death of this man has just now been revealed. Later in the article they discuss that the family was never notified and no one knew where this man was. Granted, he was a terrorist, but cruel treatment of people should never be used on another human being. No matter who they are.

INTERNATIONAL / AMERICAS

Missionaries Go to Haiti, Followed by Scrutiny

By MARC LACEY and IAN URBINA

Published: February 16, 2010

As a broad band of religious groups rush to Haiti, what seems to divide missionaries most is how long they have been working in the country.

I enjoyed still seeing that efforts are continued to help out in Haiti. The article discusses a bounty of religious organizations still continue to volunteer their services. I was also intrigued by this... "Some of them arrived on John Travolta’s Boeing 707, which he flew down loaded with tons of relief supplies, and when not doing relief work they sang classic rock songs at a crowded bar full of aid workers inside the United Nations compound." I think its nice that not only are they volunteering, but during the wee hours they are off they are still able to have a good time. But honestly, I wasn't sure how i felt about them mentioning this. You would think that if they had time to drink and sing songs they would have time to help some more out in suffering Haiti. Granted, not all of their time can be sent on volunteering but shouldn't a large part of it be? On a lighter note however, I thought the wording of this next quote was very well written with good use of language to set the image in your mind. "Moved by awful images of the Jan. 12earthquake, a broad band of religious groups has swept down here in recent weeks. But rather than fostering a universal spirit of interfaith cooperation, the hasty assemblage of religious organizations has sometimes created tensions among them." Ultimately, I am very happy that efforts are continued in Haiti, and from what the article said, there are always efforts in this country. I think that is an important idea to remember. Of course in times of need it is important to help these countries, but most of the time these countries are always in need of something, and we as a society should not forget what is continually going on in the world around us.