Article 1: Humans vs. Zombies Game at UF Draws Worry Over Toy Guns. Written by Lise Fisher of the Gainesville Sun on March 10, 2010.
As the game draws to a close, I was especially interested to see what kind of official news coverage HvZ would get. So far a lot of the coverage has been negative, which has really pissed me off. Then again, without the conflict in the story, I doubt the average non-UF adult would care to read about it, so the Sun has put an argumentative spin on it. This article was all about the safety issues the UFPD has brought up to the moderators of the game, most of them to do with nerf guns. Personally, I thought the whole article sounded silly, and that's not just because of my personal involvement in the game. I mean, who wouldn't laugh when they think of bright, neon-colored nerf guns as a "security threat"? Fisher also attributes the security tension to the recent shooting of that doctoral student a few weeks ago, which has been drawing protests. If I were writing this article, I definitely would not have made it quite so serious and instead focused on the light-hearted side of things.
Article
--------------------------------
Article 2: Latest Monkey Sighting: Eating From St. Petersburg Bird Feeder. Written by Mike Brassfield of the St. Petersburg Times on April 11, 2010.
This title was so absurd, I just had to click on it to see what it was all about. And, according to this story, I have been out of the loop for quite some time because I had no IDEA that there was a wild monkey roaming around the Pinellas-Hillsborough area for the past year. I live in that area, and I have never heard such a story. My favorite part about this article was how it was a good mix between video and text. The text portion of the article was short, but it contained all the important summary points of the story. The video portion was also short, only about a minute, and it gave a better view into the story. Obviously. I mean, some guy took video of the monkey, and I would not have known what a rhesus monkey looked like off the top of my head. It was definitely cool, and I'd like to see the future of online journalism head in this direction.
Article
---------------------------
Article 3: Pregnant Chicks Who Brag Too Much. Written by Cara Litke of Cosmopolitan Magazine in the April 2010 issue.
Okay, this was a little weird and not usually what I read. I was about to navigate away to something more "news-like" and something structured a little more traditionally... but then I thought, "Why not?". Technically, (though I'm not really sure) the accounts that these people send in to be published could be considered a form a journalism, just not a professional one. I mean, honestly, all Cara Litke really did was put together a montage of stories from different women with pregnant friends, then make a quick summarization of some advice from an expert lady. So really, it was all thanks to the ladies. I just really liked this a lot because I can relate with the women who are SO frustrated about hearing about someone's baby going to be born. None of my peers are in that position, but I've had relatives who were just as annoying. For example: my Aunt had an entire blog/website devoted to the development of her fetus!! Weird.
Article 3
----------------------
Article 4: Pope's Ivory Tower Past Adds to His Detachment. Written by Vanessa Gera of the Associated Press on April 11, 2010.
To make my last article of this journal memorable, I specifically searched on the Yahoo! homepage for more updates on the Vatican molestation scandal. I was not disappointed. In this latest edition of the debacle, the Pope's leadership and background are ripped apart and scrutinized by his peers and by everyone Gera talked to. Now, in a time like this where people are outraged at the behaviors of these perverts, most are happy to hear what they want-- and what they want is insults and backup. It probably wasn't in the AP's best interest to have a completely fair article where sources are defending the Pope's decisions. Pretty much everyone in this entire article has something to say about Benedict XVI's leadership issues. I would have liked to hear from someone who could defend the Pope a little because, pun intended, shouldn't people have a little more faith in their leaders??
Article
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
JOU Articles: week 12
Article 1: Hot Tub Time Machine Leaves Audiences Drowning for a Laugh. Written by Daniel Feingold of the Minaret on March 31, 2010.
I was especially happy to review this article because it was written by a friend of mine who is a freshman at University of Tampa. Ironically, even though he is a freshman, his opinion articles are regularly printed in the school paper and he loves showing them off. Therefore, I have decided to listen to him and actually read his articles. First of all, the main problem I had with it is that his editor didn't really read Daniel's story. The title implies that overall, Daniel did NOT like the movie Hot Tub Time Machine, when really he found it quite enjoyable and exactly as the previews advertised. So there's one problem. The only other problem I had with Daniel's writing was how he referenced all the actors in the movie. He wrote with this strange assumption that the average reader had actually HEARD of any of the dudes in this movie other than John Cusack and the Daryll from The Office. When there are unknown actors like that, you either go into greater detail so everyone understands or you just stick with the main stars. That's my opinion.
Article
------------------------
Article 2: Zombie Nation. Printed and posted in Editorials section of The Alligator on April 5, 2010.
Okay, maybe I'm not allowed to be reviewing this because I'm immersed in the subject of the story itself, but there's no rules against conflict of interest for the reader, right? As one of the participants in the ongoing, on-campus zombie apocalypse, I was especially critical of this coward's stupid article. They didn't leave their name for fear of retaliation, I'm sure, and I was outraged at the disdain this person had for a harmless and fun activity. The article was full of cliches about basement-dwelling nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons, dueling with lightsabers, etc. It just made them sound like a hater, because they couldn't give one real reason why they would have a problem with such a fun activity other than discrimination against nerds. And so what? Plenty of nerds play Humans vs Zombies, but there are tons of "normal" kids, too. Also, because I was hyper-critical of this jerk, I noticed he/she used "their" at one point instead of the contraction "they're". Idiot! I know this person isn't really a staff member, but come on, it's clear the people at The Alligator just wanted to make people mad. It worked.
Article
----------------------------
Article 3: Two Bicycle Stops Net Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, Morphine. Written by Karen Voyles of The Gainesville Sun on April 5, 2010.
Ah, back to my favorite arrests-in-local-areas stories. I felt that this was a well-detailed article that showed good dedication to journalism, but it wasn't awesome for other reasons. It was good because it managed to get a lot of information in a story that usually will only have a quick blurb about "so-and-so was apprehended", "no details yet", etc. It was nice to have real police reports included in the article. On the downside, though, there were a couple of errors that weren't spelling per se, but rather a word that is spelled correctly, but no one caught it because it's simply in the wrong tense. Also, if I had written this article, I probably would have added a little more information about the contraband found on the criminals. For example, what exactly is "cannabis", and why is a "Psilocybin" mushroom particularly dangerous? I mean, I'm not stupid, but a little aside between some commas would have been helpful.
Article
-----------------------
Article 4: 11-Year-Old, Mom Stabbed When Son Fights Intruder. Written by Kim Janssen of the Chicago Sun-Times on April 5, 2010.
Okay, so I decided I'd try to get away from what I usually read by navigating to a paper I don't usually check up on. Unfortunately, as soon as I saw the above headline, I couldn't help myself. This story wasn't particularly long or special, but its simplicity made for a great read. I had all the information I needed to paint a picture of the attack as well as the bravery of such a little boy. My eyes actually misted up a bit because the picture included with the story was so tragic-looking yet heartwarming; after all, there were no deaths of innocents. Honestly, more online articles should include pictures because the visual aid is really important to connect the reader to what is happening in the story. At least, I believe it does. Oh, and the simplicity I was talking about? In no way was it Rick Bragg-caliber, but I arrangement of words was fluid and poignant, which is his specialty. Janssen just kin of reminded me of him for a second.
Article
I was especially happy to review this article because it was written by a friend of mine who is a freshman at University of Tampa. Ironically, even though he is a freshman, his opinion articles are regularly printed in the school paper and he loves showing them off. Therefore, I have decided to listen to him and actually read his articles. First of all, the main problem I had with it is that his editor didn't really read Daniel's story. The title implies that overall, Daniel did NOT like the movie Hot Tub Time Machine, when really he found it quite enjoyable and exactly as the previews advertised. So there's one problem. The only other problem I had with Daniel's writing was how he referenced all the actors in the movie. He wrote with this strange assumption that the average reader had actually HEARD of any of the dudes in this movie other than John Cusack and the Daryll from The Office. When there are unknown actors like that, you either go into greater detail so everyone understands or you just stick with the main stars. That's my opinion.
Article
------------------------
Article 2: Zombie Nation. Printed and posted in Editorials section of The Alligator on April 5, 2010.
Okay, maybe I'm not allowed to be reviewing this because I'm immersed in the subject of the story itself, but there's no rules against conflict of interest for the reader, right? As one of the participants in the ongoing, on-campus zombie apocalypse, I was especially critical of this coward's stupid article. They didn't leave their name for fear of retaliation, I'm sure, and I was outraged at the disdain this person had for a harmless and fun activity. The article was full of cliches about basement-dwelling nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons, dueling with lightsabers, etc. It just made them sound like a hater, because they couldn't give one real reason why they would have a problem with such a fun activity other than discrimination against nerds. And so what? Plenty of nerds play Humans vs Zombies, but there are tons of "normal" kids, too. Also, because I was hyper-critical of this jerk, I noticed he/she used "their" at one point instead of the contraction "they're". Idiot! I know this person isn't really a staff member, but come on, it's clear the people at The Alligator just wanted to make people mad. It worked.
Article
----------------------------
Article 3: Two Bicycle Stops Net Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, Morphine. Written by Karen Voyles of The Gainesville Sun on April 5, 2010.
Ah, back to my favorite arrests-in-local-areas stories. I felt that this was a well-detailed article that showed good dedication to journalism, but it wasn't awesome for other reasons. It was good because it managed to get a lot of information in a story that usually will only have a quick blurb about "so-and-so was apprehended", "no details yet", etc. It was nice to have real police reports included in the article. On the downside, though, there were a couple of errors that weren't spelling per se, but rather a word that is spelled correctly, but no one caught it because it's simply in the wrong tense. Also, if I had written this article, I probably would have added a little more information about the contraband found on the criminals. For example, what exactly is "cannabis", and why is a "Psilocybin" mushroom particularly dangerous? I mean, I'm not stupid, but a little aside between some commas would have been helpful.
Article
-----------------------
Article 4: 11-Year-Old, Mom Stabbed When Son Fights Intruder. Written by Kim Janssen of the Chicago Sun-Times on April 5, 2010.
Okay, so I decided I'd try to get away from what I usually read by navigating to a paper I don't usually check up on. Unfortunately, as soon as I saw the above headline, I couldn't help myself. This story wasn't particularly long or special, but its simplicity made for a great read. I had all the information I needed to paint a picture of the attack as well as the bravery of such a little boy. My eyes actually misted up a bit because the picture included with the story was so tragic-looking yet heartwarming; after all, there were no deaths of innocents. Honestly, more online articles should include pictures because the visual aid is really important to connect the reader to what is happening in the story. At least, I believe it does. Oh, and the simplicity I was talking about? In no way was it Rick Bragg-caliber, but I arrangement of words was fluid and poignant, which is his specialty. Janssen just kin of reminded me of him for a second.
Article
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
