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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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