Don't stress but DO STRETCH

This is wonderful advice for would-be journalists. And others too. Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html?em&ex=1210219200&en=df42aea0a77e7ad3&ei=5087%OA

Public Records are your friends!!

(Material from The Baltimore Sun's Guide to Public Records is used liberally in this post.)

USE PUBLIC RECORDS

   They will make a difference in your reporting because too many writers don't use them. Spend a little time looking at forms, both ones you fill out in your daily life and some you can just ask for in various offices. They will give you ideas of the kind of information that is available.

Remember we are a "paper" or computer society and so are obsessed with record keeping. Comedian Mitch Heldberg (check it out on youtube) has a hilarious joke about getting a receipt when he buys a donut. He cannot imagine a scenario, he says, in which he would be pressed to prove he'd bought a donut! Still, you get a paper record of your transactions in Dunkin' Donuts.

Computerization has made collecting and seeing paper records easier. That is a good development for journalists, but the fear and paranoia over loss of privacy that has accompanied this is not. Be sensitive to the fact that people worry about their secret information becoming known, even while they support the idea of finding out secret information about other people. Yes, it's contradictory.

Records are good but they can be wrong. Talk to people, the people who created the reports are good, and ask them to explain the records. Also talk to the people whose lives are being described in the records you use to give them a chance to make corrections or full explanations.

And records can be public or PRIVATE and still obtainable and useful. Diaries, letters, a canceled check, a resume submitted to get a job, lists, these are all potentially important to your story telling.

KINDS OF RECORDS:

The Basics:

1. Births and deaths

2. Marriages and divorce

3. Wills

4. Voter registration

5. Police records

6. Criminal court case files

7. Civil court case files

8. Lawyers' files (depositions are public and lawyers sometimes share)

9. Liens

10. Bankruptcy court case files

11. U.S. Tax Court case files

Real Estate

1. Land records

2. Assessments

Regulatory agencies

1. Federal agencies that oversee the environment and worker safety, as two examples

2. State and local agencies that oversee such things a restaurant conditions, housing, building code and fie safety inspections. Construction generates lots of local-government records from planning and zoning approvals, site plans to occupancy permits. 

3. State licenses for professionals such as attorneys and doctors

4. Environmental protection agencies

5. Hospitals -- owners records are kept by state health departments usually and annual reports on profits, costs, average stays and daily room rates are filed with a state health agencies.

6. Charities keep and must provide 990 forms that show where their money goes and what top officials earn

State Government

1. Guides to how state government work are invaluable in helping you figure out who you need to talk to and how things work.

2. Motor vehicles -- usually a small fee to get info on an individual's record

3. Boat licenses

4. Ethics-financial disclosure forms required for elected state officials and others.

5. Campaign finance information (start with county Board of Elections)

6. Road and bridge inspections

7. Gun permit records (start with county clerk or sheriff)

8. State comptroller keeps info on alcohol and tobacco taxes and on state contracts

10. State archives

Business records --There is a whole separate set of financial, banking and public corporation records that were outside the scope of this course but which you should explore in your future. Beside this class of paper, investigate businesses by thinking of them as if they were a person. They are "born" or incorporated, buy and sell property, are regulated, trade and sign contracts sometimes with the government and generate news. Just as for a person each of these events generates records you can secure.

Internet sources on public records:

1. www.brbpub.com BRB is a company that charges companies and people to dig through public records for information. But on its website you'll find "free resources" that will give you ideas about finding records.

2. www.idiganswers.com  This is the web site of Joe Adams, a terrific Florida editorial writer who has been a life's study and published books and guides on the use of public records in that state, where unlike NY, many records are accessible. On his site he posts newspaper and other articles based on public records and shows how they were done.

Happy hunting.

Model Meeting Story

For those of you who covered the Albany Common Council meeting April 21, here is the Albany Times-Union story against which you can compare your work.

Please note that first names are used, possessives and plurals are correct, questions about background are filled in. My one criticism is that the article does not explain what the Department of General Services actually does, as the name does not make it clear.

COUNCIL APPROVES JENNINGS NOMINEE

By Tim O'Brien

ALBANY -- The Common Council approved Mayor Jerry Jennings' pick to lead the Department of General Services Monday despite concerns over some employees trading trash for cash.

Nick D'Antonio won appointment to the $94,448-a-year job by a vote of 31-1. D'Antonio has been second in command at the department for about five years.

Some departmental employees and council members lauded the nominee for improving service and responding quickly to concerns. Others raised concerns about allegations in 2006 that D'Antonio cursed at former employee Roy Charland after he revealed workers were selling scrap metal for cash.

"In the last five years that Nick D'Antonio has come down to the department, new ideas he brought with him have energized the department," said Roy Bargallo, deputy chief supervisor.

Earl Filkins, president of AFSCME Local 1961, agreed.

"He did straighten out a lot of problems we had down there," he said. "He's done a great job."

Resident Elise Van Allen cited 2006 stories in the Times Union about the sale of discarded appliances for cash revealed by City Comptroller Tom Nitido. At the time, Charland said D'Antonio reminded him that his brother and son still worked for the department.

"Under the eyes of Nick D'Antonio, the citizens of Albany were defrauded," she said.

Council member Michael O'Brien said Nitido's report found no illegality. D'Antonio has said the funds were used for office parties.

"Commissioner Nitido said in his report use of the funds would have been permitted if carried out under the city's purchasing system" O'Brien said. "He also said he round no evidence of systemic fraud."

The report was referred to the district attorney's office. Councilman Corey Ellis said the district attorney's office would not say if the case is resolved so he was not comfortable voting for or against D'Antonio.

Councilman Dominick Calsolaro, the sole "no" vote, praised the 14-year city employee as responsive but said he was concerned he did not have an engineering degree or other more advanced degree.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

I hope many of you caught what Lucy had to say Tuesday night about the use of anonymous sources, a topic we have visited in class.

She said she would never say we don't use too many. Anonymity is always an easy fallback way to get someone to talk to us about uncomfortable issue and blame.

But, she is clearly not among those editors who have outright banned used of unnamed sources. Without them, she said, the public is not going to hear the truth about such matters as intelligence mistakes, back-room budgeting and military matters. There is a place for this journalistic tool.

The difficult part is to determine if there really is no other way to get information from other sources, multiple sources or documents than to put it in the mouth of a person with a hidden identity.

Lucy Dalglish on anonymous sources

I hope many of you captured what the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press had to say about use of anonymous sources Tuesday night. We have debated this a bit in class. She would not ever stand up and try to say we don't use too many anonymous sources, she said, first.

Indeed, it's too easy to grant annonymity to people to get them to loosen up and talk.

Modern day IF Stone?

Check out this article -- with video -- about a producer on Jon Stewart's Comedy Central show whose stock in trade is comparing what officials and pundits are saying now with what they have said in the past.

The Post has dubbed this investigative humor because it involves digging up stuff out of the past and because it's frequently funny to see the twists and hypocritical turns officials take.

Stewart uses all this to excellent comedic effect but it's not an insignificant past time. Legendary investigative reporter IF Stone was a rigorous watchdog of government through much the same technique. He read government reports. He looked at minutes of meetings, He compared what officials said through a multitude of speeches and they he charted the changes and discrepancies. This is all on-the-record stuff, no anonymous sources, no leaks. He just paid attention and read widely.

Get the lesson in that?

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article2008/04/29/AR2008042902827/html

A photographer's interviewing trick

Philippe Halsman was a great portrait photographer for Life magazine (Remember Bruce Squiers' speech?) who shot many celebrities and stars in his day from Marilyn Monroe to Richard Nixon.

There is a link between photographing and interviewing people. Fashion photographer Richard Avedon spoke about how he was given permission to bore into people when they let him shoot them. Nothing is out of bounds. That's a good way to think about questioning people. The trick for photographer and for reporter is to get your subject to let down barriers and fear so that you can really "see" more.

Halsman's technique for doing this was to get his subjects to jump.

Just jump.

And oddly enough they did, including society dames and royalty. It was so unexpected and silly, and seemingly non-threatening that his subjects did as he asked. There is a book of Halsman's jumping picture but that was not the point. What he did in shooting those jumps was loosen up his subjects and get closer to them.

Nice meeting coverage

Some nice work on the meeting assignment.

I commend these for you to check out because they are meeting stories, rather than stories about covering a meeting; they are limited to what the reporters thought was the most important items on the agenda,  rather than reports on the entire agenda; and there are some nice touches of colorful reporting, description and quotes:

 Anand (http://anandbalasar.blogspot.com)

Aimee (http://aimeeHx3.blogspot.com)

Bridget (www.bridgetjoy.blogspot.com)

Sam (http://samh-jrl2008.blogspot.com)

A scheduling change

I apologize for another abrupt change in scheduling but it's necessary to accommodate a speaker.

Originally I had told you we would meet Monday and then Tuesday night you will attend the Lucy Dalglish speech in lieu of class on Wednesday.

But Steve Gourds who is going to talk to you about digging up information on people and places using public records can only meet with us on Wednesday, April 30. So, I am rescheduling that class and I will give you the follow Monday May 5 off instead. 

You may well need this -- Your final papers are due to me May 7.

Let me go over the rundown of work owed between now and the end of the semester.

If you have turned in everything to date in on time, you will owe me:

1. The final story

2. A blog item about Lucy Dalglish, the Tuesday April 29 speaker.

3. A blog item on what finally you have discovered about the person who's name you were assigned toward the start of class.

4. A blog item explaining what Swift Boating is

5. Rewrites of any stories handed in on time that you want a chance at redoing.

As always, call, email or let me know if you have questions or problems.

Swift Boating

Jo-Ann Armao talked a lot about the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election. This was an example, she said, of how journalists striving for a kind of fake balance did a poor job representing reality to readers. 

The quizzes on the notes you took today reveal that none of you know what the Swift Boat campaign was.

Yet, no one asked the speaker to explain.

So, now please look it up and write a one-paragraph explanation because I am asking.  Thank you.

How to take better pictures

Taken as a group, the photos you turned in for our last class had these common problems:

1. They were blurry, grainy or otherwise technically lacking. Digital cameras far surpass cell phones, although I did allow both. The library lets you check out digital cameras. Try one or experiment with the one you have.

2. They were shot from too far away. The closer you are to your subject matter the more dramatic and effective the shot is likely to be. If you can't get close, use a telephoto lens or try to figure out how you might get a different shot that emphasizes some other angle of the story. This is superior to sticking with your original idea anyway and getting a lousy photo.

3. They showed "things" or "places" but no people. We humans like photos with life forms in them, preferably fellow humans, preferably pictures close enough to see their eyes. The one exception in this class was Bridget's shot of one of the routers destroyed by vandals on campus and the subject of a front-page ASP story Tuesday.

Check out this illustrated FotoFinish guide on "How to Take Better Pictures." http://www.fotofinish.com/resources/centers/photo/takingpictures.htm

The good news is -- NO CLASS on WEDNESDAY

I would like you all to go to hear a leading national expert on First Amendment and press law issues.

Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, will be speaking at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, in the Standish Board Room, which is on the Third Floor of he Science Library.

Please plan to attend and to write a 250-500 word news article on her address in your blogs by the end of the day Friday, May 2. If you choose to tell the story in an alternative form -- through pictures or audio -- that will be acceptable.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Journalism lessons in bite-sized chunks

Ted Pease calls himself a professor of interesting stuff. He runs a website at http://tesdword.blogspot.com or you can sign up to get a once-a-day posting about journalism/writing/civics. Send a note to ted.pease@gmail.com

I find these, well, interesting as he says, but they sometimes lead me to other issues and names I want to know more about. At any rate it's a way to learn more without a huge investment of time you don't have.

Today's offering, for example is Timidity:

"Without newspapers, without someone telling us what is happening, all kinds of mischief can occur. It can be pretty serious, such as corporate and government corruption. Of course, unless newspapers really dig for stories, we won't be able to root out shady goings-on. And today, many newspapers seem tame and timid, far from the old newspaperman's challenge to 'comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.'"  A quote from Bangor Maine Daily News columnist Steve Cartwright, 2008

The "old newspaperman" quoted in the quote is Joseph Pulitzer. Look up Pulitzer's platform. It's not really a piece of flooring but a statement about the role of journalists. Pretty inspiring stuff.

Where'd all the men go?

Speakers and several of you have commented about the overwhelming number of women in the class compared to men.

Essayist Nancy Gibbs in Time magazine 4/14 writes that 58 percent of undergraduates nationally are female right now. In a few years the ratio will probably tip to 60/40. Black men are outnumbered on campus by black females 2 to 1.

The essay was not as strong on reasons as it was on numbers.

As to journalism, New Media Women Entrepreneurs, a project of the McCormick Tribune
Foundation (all that by way of letting you as readers know the numbes look credible):

Women make up two-thirds of all J-School students -- but only one-third of the full-time journalism workforce.

Also:

only 15 percent of executive leaders and 12 percent of board members in top communications companies

just 40 percent of the TV news workforce and 25 percent of TV news directors

and only 14 percent of Sunday morning TV talk show guests.

Stop the Presses!! Most students believe they deserve A's

Here's an analysis of the editorials you did on the grade you feel you deserve:

Of 18 students:

* 7 wrote that they deserved A's.
*5 wrote that they deserved A-'s
*1 wrote he/she deserved a B
*5 did not do the assignment (not good!)


The techniques used to persuade included:

1. Flattery as in: "I've truly enjoyed this class and I am so happy I discovered journalism."

2. Honesty as in: "I know I have slacked off quite a bit at times, but I try my best to get myself back on track."

3. Mild coercion as in: "If I received lower than an A- in this class I will be very disappointed both in myself and the professor."

4. Favorable self-assessment as in "Although far from achieving the level of journalist, I have been surprised by myself as this is my first journalism class, and (I) already feel leaps and bounds ahead of w(h)ere I was before this semester started."

5. Empathy as in: "It must be hard for a teacher to decide what grades a student should get."

Bruce Squiers does your photo assignment

Daily Gazette shooter Bruce Squiers knows the assignment you are all working on -- to shoot a news photograph on campus over the next two days. He sent along a shot done recently showing how he might have responded to this assignment. Here's the note he sent about this picture:

"Attached is a fairly recent photo of a U of Albany shot I made, a basketball game.
Remember how I told the class that good photos usually have an "unusual" moment? This one has a player on his back on the floor, appearing like he might get stomped. (He wasn't)."

Those of you looking for Broadcast Experience....

A notice from Journalism Program Director Bill Rainbolt:

HotNewz.tv is a Web television news service aimed at a predominantly college-age audience -- with well-experienced broadcast journalism professionals on the senior staff, and with college correspondents from around the country providing much of the on-air content.

HotNewz.tv wants UAlbany students to get involved as broadcast journalism correspondents (they will be the first from the SUNY system). The HotNewz.tv people say they are looking for "any story that will be of interest to college students across the country . . . news, sports, politics, interesting profiles, commentary, music videos, whatever."

One of the anchors of HotNewz.tv and the CEO will present information about the service and would like to talk with UAlbany students who are interested in submitting footage and stories. This would be a great opportunity to get experience and materials for a resume.

The main studio is in New York studio, but the local correspondents would be based here, in the Capital District.

When: 2:45-3:45 Thursday, April 17
Where: Humanities 354
Who: One anchor and the CEO of HotNewz.tv

Note to the class from speaker Jo-Ann Armao

Rosemary:
Thank you for the invite to the class. I always find it interesting to hear
the questions and concerns of a different generation. In thinking about my
presentation, I fear I might have given short shrift to the writing part of
editorials. It goes without saying that it is the writing where everything
comes together and that often is the toughest part.

It's important that the writer really know what it is he or she wants to say.
There can be no throat-clearing. Some find it useful to write a headline
first. That really focuses your thinking. The lead, just as in straight
reporting, is the hardest to write. It has to be forceful and state clearly
what the whole piece is about. The second graph is generally considered the
background section. When providing background, the writer should also not
be afraid to infuse opinion.

The rest of the piece is arguments to buttress the lead. Unlike news
stories, it is important to have a kicker that sums up and makes a final
statement.

One final word: be careful with adjectives. They can be powerful friends
but some, like shameful, are overrused and trite.

Cheers
Jo-Ann

To Name or Not to Name

Classmate Hope Still got a great quote from a student she was interviewing recently for the Fountain Day assignment. The only trouble was, the student didn't want his name used. To be identified with his words would identify him as an underage drinker.

So should the quote have been used or not?

Anonymous Sources
What is a name? While yes, when a name is not on paper, it's a means of addressing someone, of giving their identity and being a word to call. But on paper, in an article where the person is not the main focus, but the words they say contribute to the point being made, what does it matter? If something they say does in fact deem itself important enough to be attributed to a person by name, they by all means the journalist should use wise discretion and include the name; but if a quote just adds flavor to the story, and the speaker would rather not be named, then I see no harm in not including it.

As for an editors demand for a source that will allow his or her name to be used, perhaps a speaker might not be as candid if he or she knows that their words will be attributed. Illegal activity or unsavory behavior is most certainly not something a person would want associated with their name. But if that information helps along a story, then it seems ridiculous to rule out useful information for the sole reason that the speaker does not want to be named. This is most especially true if the alternative is a nameable source with inferior comments.

Even some of the most intriguing and influential stories have involved anonymity; does the name Deep Throat ring a bell?
It seems quite evident that journalists must use their discretion when deciding if appropriate to include an anonymous source. While editors ultimately have control, it seems they should be willing to lose a "Bob" or "Sally" for decent information.
Posted by hope123 at 6:12 PM 0 comments

UAlbany journalism students as they....

listen actively and devise clever questions to elicit the best information from class speakers. Right?

Add photos to your blogs to attract attention -- and learn a new skill.

Like this:

Washington Post editorial writer Jo-Ann Armao talks to UAlbany reporting class Monday, April 14.

Some common errors in the Fountain Day/Tulip Festival stories we can all learn from

1. Use only two verbs to describe people talking: SAID or SAY. Any other word will be colored by a little nuance you don't want in your story.

Where SAID or SAY is neutral and plain, CLAIM indicates the person speaker is lying or that you think they may be lying. As in "Hillary Clinton claims to have seen snipers in Bosnia."

STATE or AVER means the speaker spoke forcefully or with feelings, and if they just SAID something that is an inaccuracy.

You cannot really "laugh" words, although that is something I see in copy all the time.

2. Leads are not opening paragraphs in an English paper. If you pose a question, use a quote or write more than three lines, I am giving the lead back to you for reworking. Try to summarize or illustrate the main idea of your story in that first SHORT sentence.

3. You as reporter and the reader as audience are not really buddies. Keep some distance. Don't talk about "our school" or "our country" or "the war we are waging." Your interest in reporting is getting at all sides and possibilities of the truth, not, like the reader who is allowed to have a "side" he's pulling for.

4. Please try in writing journalism not to give your editor -- professor -- what you think she wants to hear. The many stories about Fountain Day that came in claiming that it's as much fun now that things are tamed down and "safe" just do not ring true. Sean Bailey scored the best and most real quote from one of his sources who said. "My freshman year things were so much better. They made it so overly obvious it was organized by some geeks and the school. It went from a college party to a corny kiddy festival with a castle bounce."

5. You cannot do journalism without talking to people and using their voices. If you did a lot of research and wrote the most authoritative report in university history, it's still a report and not a STORY. These efforts got an F.

A new news source from Amanda Baskind

Your classmate Amanda found an interesting source of information which resulted in a Fountain Day story different from and more detailed than others in the class. I asked her to blog about it so we could share the information with you:


When I was given the assignment to write an article about some aspect of the University at Albany’s Fountain Day, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about; the history of Fountain Day. In the past, many alumni have told me that the most infamous of the Fountain Days occurred in 2004. Fountain Day 2004 was characterized by mischief and mayhem, giving the university a terrible reputation as well as driving it to the top of Princeton Review’s list of top party schools in the nation. Thus, I decided that for my news story, I would focus on the problems of Fountain Day 2004 as well as the changes that occurred as a result to Fountain Day 2005.
Where to start? I began my research online. I looked at articles featured on the university website, articles published in the Times Union, and any other piece of information that I was able to dig up on Google. I became frustrated when I realized that my classmates were also writing about Fountain Day and were conducting their research the same way I was. If I continued doing the research the way I had been, my story would have been virtually identical to the stories that my peers were writing.
Then I remembered that my boyfriend had once told me about a university historian. When I asked him about it, he said that he used the historian four years ago, when he was a freshman, writing a research paper about the history of Greek Life at the SUNY Albany. He told me that the historian was located on the third floor of the Science Library.
The next day, I found myself wandering around the third floor of the science library. I came across a room and entered. I soon learned that the university historian was on a “sabbatical.” However, I was going to be able to dig through the university archives with the help of a woman who works in the archives office.
I put my backpack in a locker and entered the completely silent room. The woman and I decided that the best place to look for information about the history of Fountain Day was in old issues of the Albany Student Press, or the “ASP.” Since my previous research showed that Fountain Day was originated in 1978 by two students, I looked in the 1978 April and May issues of the ASP and came up with nothing. I proceeded to look in the 1979 April and May issues of the ASP, and once again, came up with nothing. I continued this process until I reached an article about Fountain Day in the 1982 April ASP. Since my story was to focus on Fountain Days 2004 and 2005, I pulled out the Fountain Day articles in the 2004 and 2005 ASPS. TO gain a better understanding of Fountain Day, I also looked at the Fountain Day articles featured in the 2003, 2006, and 2007 issues of the ASPS. Needless to say, I left with more information than I thought I would. I was especially happy because I uncovered a lot of information that could not be found doing a Google search.
I think that the university historian and archives is a gem. While it is hidden on the top floor of the science library, and quite frankly, is difficult to locate, it is a very helpful place to find information about the history of the university.

A collection of great news photos local and national we will talk about in class

Photos by Bruce Squiers

What's in store in the week ahead

Jo-Ann Armao, Washington Post


Bruce Squiers, The Daily Gazette, Schenectady


We will have two speakers coming in next week. Please try to make it to class. My admonitions and threats of lowered grades seem not to have helped, but you are adults, so make your own decisions.

I hope you will come and be prepared with lots of questions, good, bad, personal, impertinent, probing, weird. There are no stupid questions.

Monday we will hear from Jo-Ann Armao, a Washington Post editorial writer. She was for nine years the assistant managing editor for local news at the Post, the highest news position ever held there by a woman. OK, not counting Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher during the Watergate years.

She will be talking about editorial writing and how it differs from news writing. You will be given an assignment to blog about after this. It will be due by end of day Wednesday.

Wednesday, our speaker with be a senior photographer from The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, Bruce Squiers. And again after this class, you'll get an assignment to post to your blogs no later than end of day Friday.

Opportunity that may interest some of you

Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 6:11 PM
To: C2008
Cc: C2008
Subject: FW: Campaign 2008: Leadership in Communication Program



Dear Colleagues:

I am writing to those interested in political communication about a
program that The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars
is sponsoring in conjunction with the Democratic and Republican national
conventions this summer. It is a three-week program that will involve
students in journalism and communication to engage in fieldwork
assignments with the media at both conventions. We have about 10 spaces
left in the program, so I would appreciate your passing on the
information to advanced students in the field-- undergraduate, graduate
or forthcoming May or August graduates. This is an exceptional
opportunity because the conventions are rarely held back-to-back as
there are this year.

Students spend two weeks in Denver and then head directly to
Minneapolis-St. Paul for the Republican convention.

For more information, please direct your students to:
http://www.twc.edu/faculty

The online application is at http://www.campaign2008.info
. Students should select the Leadership
in Communication program option when applying.


Thank you for passing along this information.

Sincerely,
Gene Alpert

=======================================
Eugene J. Alpert, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
The Washington Center
for Internships and Academic Seminars
1333 16th St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Http://www.twc.edu
New! Campaign 2008 Website and Application:
http://www.campaign2008.info
email: genea@twc.edu
Toll Free Phone: 1.800.486.8921
Main Phone:: 1.202.238.7900
Direct Phone:: 1.202.238.7984
Fax: 1.202.238.7700
=======================================

Pulitzer Prizes

The Washington Post piece we talked about in which violinist Joshua Bell played to an unappreciative Metro system of commuters won a Pulitzer Prize for feature reporting this week.

And Bob Dylan whose poetic lyrics can teach all kinds of writers won a special honorary Pulitzer this year for his contribution to music and American culture.

To see all the winners -- and read some of the best reporting and writing in the world of journalism -- check out: www.pulitzer.org

Covering a Meeting

Your assignment is to cover and to write a story about one of these meetings in the city of Albany or towns of Colonie and Guilderland.

Your story should be at least two pages long and it is due by midnight the DAY AFTER the meeting you choose to attend. Thus, the last assignment should be in to me no later than April 25.



4/7/2008
Common Council Meeting
The Albany Common Council represents the residents of the City of Albany as the legislative body responsible for setting the governing policies of New York State’s Capital city.

4/9/2008
Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting
The Board meets twice monthly to consider applications for variances to the zoning regulations, special use and parking.
...
4/9/2008
Albany Housing Authority Meeting
The Albany Housing Authority provides housing accommodations for persons of low income.

.
4/16/2008
Historic Resources Commission Meeting
The Historic Resources Commission reviews and makes recommendations regarding new construction, alterations and demolitions.

4/21/2008
Common Council Meeting
The Albany Common Council represents the residents of the City of Albany as the legislative body responsible for setting the governing policies of New York State’s Capital city.

4/23/2008
Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting
The Board meets twice monthly to consider applications for variances to the zoning regulations, special use and parking.

4/24/2008
Planning Board Meeting
The purpose of the Planning Board is to approve the subdivision of City of Albany property and to review site plans for landscaping, parking and drainage before large-scale projects are constructed.


or
Colonie Town Board April 10 and 24

or
Guilderland Town Board April 15

A journalism professor complains about students -- do you have an answer back for him??

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=9WdWMfPrdR9HJDmcJcW5pMkf4bvmpvgp

Three children killed by their father in Baltimore

Here is the story as it has developed after a couple of days as reporters have had time to track down records and more sources.

Please read this story from the Baltimore Sun and another from the = Washington Post and be prepared to discuss them in class Wednesday:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-castillo0401,0,6527538.story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040101063.html

Beware tricksters

Journalists must figure out what the real story is from clues, some of which conflict, that come from people and documents. They have to know when people are lying, which will be frequently, and they have to remember that if something sounds fishy or just doesn't seem right, it's probably not. Trust that instinct and hold off publishing until you do more reporting.

The frightening thing, however, is that if someone really wants to fool a reporter, they have a good chance at succeeding.

Two recent stories reminded me of why it is that I never gloated when a competitor got caught in a hoax. It could have been me, I knew.

Spirit magazine, the on-flight publication of Southwest Airlines, ran a funny-if-it-were-not-so-scary article about Greg Packer, a loony guy whose hobby is getting quoted in newspapers and other publications. To achieve this end he's stayed overnight in lines in order to buy the first ticket to events -- or the first IPhone sold. He also attends sports events and celebrity book signings and he hones in on reporters looking for "color," descriptions and quotes that bring a news event alive. He's perfected the colorful, pithy quote. The AP has warned its reporters about him and directed he not be included in future stories, but he's still become for some critics, the embodiment of shoddy journalism, as the magazine put it. The full story is at http://www.spiritmag.com/2008_03/features/ft4.php.

It's not only inexperienced or small-time journalists who get snookered. The Los Angeles Times just issued an embarrassing apology for a story that wrongly cast blame for the murder of Tupac Shakur on rap superstar Sean "Diddy" Combs. The mistake resulted from the paper's reliance on fake FBI files and responsible were several excellent investigative journalists. The newspaper wrote a detailed story examining what went wrong, but to paraphrase one lawyer quoted in that story: the newspaper had better just take out a checkbook.
Read more at http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-tupac27mar27,1,1401838.story

Advice for student journalits on Writing Good Ledes

This is from retired Cleveland newspaperman Richard Ellers:

"I've been a believer and follower of the idea that a good lead is the hook on which you hang your story, ever since my first Journalism class with Miss Alvina Trentleman in her high school journalism class.
Headlines help, but good leads suck the reader into the whole story.
I think I remember that Miss Trentleman actually drew a hook on the chalk board, alongside the list of five Ws and the H.
The sense of a good lead was so firm in my mind that when I had my first real reporting job, my City Editor used to harangue me when I'd have trouble starting a story.
"Write the story, you can add the lead later," he'd yell.
That never worked for me, and sometimes he'd hang over me as I tried.
That was in the dinosaur age, not computer, just real hard copy.
He would glower from his desk as I'd pull and toss a sheet from my typewriter.
I needed a good lead because because the lead points to where you are going.
I'm not talking breaking news here. Major news has to start with the facts, and that alone will keep the reader interested.
But soft news and features need more.
I had one state editor who complained that I wrote to many "but" leads, surprise twists, where I'd state that you'd expect so-and-so but this was such-and-such.
One other point about features and soft news: I tried not to start on a story with a fixed idea of what was happening.
Often, I'd find a story angle I hadn't expected, just because I took the time for a wide-ranging interview.
I did have trouble with one editor who always asked "what will your story say?" To which I might answer "I won't know until I get there."
To me, reporting is like digging for diamonds, you need to go through a lot of information to find the valuable nuggets.

Of possible interest to you!

Ozier Muhammad, a Pulitzer prize
winner and staff photographer for The New York Times, will speak and
present a slideshow of his work at Russell Sage College.

"Chronicling Events Locally and Globally Through a Lens - More Than
Three Decades of Photojournalism"

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
12:30 pm
Bush Memorial Hall
1st and Congress Streets, Troy, NY
Russell Sage College Campus

This presentation is part of the College Readership Program at Russell
Sage College, and is cosponsored by The New York Times. Complimentary
speakers are just one of many resources provided to colleges and
universities participating in The New York Times College Programs.
Please contact me if you'd like additional information on these programs
and resources.

Business Card for Julia Ziyatdinova

Here's the information on the card Dr. Ziyatdinova passed out today 3/19:

Julia Ziyatdinova

Kazan State Technological University
Associate Professor Ph.D. in Education
Head of the Department of Foreign Languages
in Professional Communication

Home tel. +7 843 236 68 70
Office tel. +7 843 231 89 78
Mobile tel. +79033442406
e-mail: uliziat@yandex.ru


(hmmm, a note of caution. Following the rules of accuracy checking from Bill Ristow I checked this email and the notice came back as undeliverable. It is exactly what is on her card. It may be that the server in Kazan is down temporarily, but there is a problem.-- Rosemary)

One other tip for you as you write your stories for publication -- The man who spoke at the horrible history class and to whom she referred in her talk with us is James Pasquill in the International Education department. Here's his contact:
JPasquill@uamail.albany.edu

Freedom of Information (FOI)

You need to know what this is and how to fight for it.

In a democracy, the idea is, the workings of government should be transparent. That means that when officials meet to make decisions, we all get to be there with them if we want. And when they make those decisions, pass laws, order investigations, keep track of their business, we get to see all the paperwork (or computer files) we want.  Open access to records has been the law of the land in the US since the Lyndon Johnson years. That's at the countrywide level. Each of the states has its own FOI or Sunshine law.

This is much more than many countries in the world, as befits a superpower democracy, like ours. But don't kid yourself. Getting records is not always easy or automatic as reading this might make you think.

PLEASE PICK UP ONE OF THE FREE COPIES OF THE ALBANY TIMES UNION ON CAMPUS TODAY (3/19)!!

In a couple of stories by a University of Missouri intern working at the paper, you'll see how things really work. In NY State, for example, death records are considered private. You can't get them. In other states where the records are open to inspection by the public and press important stories have been done on issues of public health, hospital efficiency and government performance. Reporters and scientific researchers here cannot do similar work.

The TU also found that most public agencies just kind of ignore requests for information despite the law.

A way to proscrastinate, fight world hunger and build your vocabulary

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Fact-checking and accuracy

In class Monday 3/17 we talked about the importance of completely accurate copy and ways to avoid mistakes.

Here is a method recommended by Seattle Times editor Bill Ristow and it's a good one. The trick is to actually take these steps -- even when you believe you've done a fine job already and you have to move on to do a lot of other things on your to-do list.

1. Print out your story in hard copy, preferably in a narrow column format. (Because it's harder for the eye to read all the way across a full page.) Bump up the type a bit whenever possible for the same reason.

2. Move away from your computer so you aren't tempted to tweak and massage when you are supposed to be editing. Change venue for a fresh look at your story. Make sure you are working in good light and using whatever eyewear is needed.

3. Use a bright highlighter pen to mark every verifiable fact in your story: names, dates, numbers, titles, locations, etc. Treat all facts big and small, as equal.

4. Proofread backwards -- that is from the bottom of the story to the top. You want to avoid reading it as a written piece because flow and sentence structure and rhythm will seduce and blind you. You'll see the big picture and miss words and punctuation. You can also read with a ruler over the line above so that all you can see is the line you are checking at that moment. This is a classic proof-reading technique.

5. Check every highlighted fact against your original notes and whenever possible with a second source. Call phone numbers and log into web addresses to verify them. Try not to rely on your memory --especially for things you THINK to be true. Pay special attention to numbers because it is so easy to transpose them. Read them aloud while you're facting checking them against source material and try to look at each number individually.

Wednesday Assignment

You will be working Wednesday, March 19, on your second graded assignment.

Instead of our usual meeting place, please go to Lecture Center 20. There you will be joining a class of Russian language students to talk with Dr. Julia Ziyatdinova from Kazan, Tatarstan.

She is head of the Department of Foreign Languages in Professional Communication at the Kazan State Technological University. Her interest include crosscultural communication, language acquisition, distance learning and educational administration. Dr. Ziyatdinova is vising UAlbany from March 16-24, funded by the Tartar stand government to consult with SUNY faculty and administrators in Albany, Geneseo and Canton. She likes taking about her country and Tatar culture. Last year she was the host and translator for a SUNY delegation that went to Kazan. Her English is excellent and she is an enthusiastic scholar.

She knows you are practicing your interviewing skills and is willing to answer questions about her country, her life, her work.

Your assignment is to research and form some questions for her, attend the talk and ask questions, and write an article about this that will be due March 21 (before Spring Break please.)

This is the second assignment you've been given on difficult interviewing, talking to people who don't share a common background or similar experiences with you.

We will talk about this in class Monday, March 17.

The Office of International Education is interested in possibly publishing the best of your articles.

Putting someone under a microscope -- Using public records

If you have not already, here are some of the places you can go to find out information about the individuals you are researching. (This compilation is from the archives of IRE especially Don Ray and Jennifer LaFleur).

1. telephone directories and reverse directories (These list phone numbers by address and addressed by phone numbers so that if you know either of these things, you can find out the other about your subject.)

2. County Board of Elections have voter records that tell you name, address, prior address, date and place of birth, occupation, party affiliation, phone numbers sometimes, and how often they have voted.

3. local newspapers

4. state licensing boards -- contractors, electricians, barbers, private investigators, doctors, nurses, morticians all need to be licensed. Check the state of your subject's license.

5. County clerks keep marriage licenses, divorce and probate records

6. County assessor keeps track of names and address of people being sent property tax bills.

7. City clerks keep business permits and building permits and often, pet records

8. Municipal Court Clerk -- look up civil and criminal case files in this low-level court and traffic court.

9. U.S. District Court -- bankruptcy files and federal-level civil and criminal cases. Also naturalization and citizen records.

10. Department of Motor Vehicle drivers license (this does cost a small fee) and vehicle registration

11. Deeds and mortgages (online mostly now)

12. for candidates and public office holders check campaign finances and financial disclosure forms

13. college alumni offices and yearbooks. High schools too

14. resumes

15. gun permit databases in county clerks (or sheriffs) offices to find out if someone is allowed to carry a concealed weapon

16. Who's Who directories

SCANDAL! Part II

The governor resigned today, an event the media has speculated about, predicted and awaited by since Monday. 

Some of the predictable scandal-coverage we saw since my last posting:

*Ganging up. Read the bylines on the NY Times and you'll see that 20 reporters from that one newspapers alone were working the story, going after every angle and seeking new sources.

*Repetition. As the coverage heated up there was increased competition for new, fresh angles. But they are hard to come by and so you saw MANY outlets writing about supportive wives and about NY's predicted first black governor. Other predictable stories: how the Mayflower Hotel in Washington likes the publicity; the mass of reporters covering the spectacle; the shut-down of Legislature in Albany including budget negotiations.

*Bringing in the experts. The search for new voices requires that journalists bring in people knowledgeable about the subject of the scandal. This has been particularly amusing in the Spitzer case where the subject is prostitution and the fall of the mighty. Thus we have ex-Madam Heidi Fleiss answering "professional" questions about what unsafe sex the governor wanted to buy and a former call girl turned writer opining in the NY Times about the value of sex workers.

*Hunt for the prize source. That would be the prostitute the governor visited Feb. 13. She'll probably surface and she'll be asked what she had to do to earn more diamonds in her rating.

*Hand wringing over how much to tell the public. Should we go into the "prurient details" or only tell the people what they need to know? Do we have to respect the feelings of the governor's poor family? Does it make a difference that this is a sensational tabloid story of the sort that has people clicking though Internet listings for more details??

Unfolding of a scandal

shot from Newsday via Internet


Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostitution problem that came to light 3/10/2008 is a textbook case of how scandal is covered by the multitude of media these days. A chronology of how it has played out includes these elements:

*Jockeying for trophies The New York Times breaking the story on its web site rather than on paper in order to avoid being beat by television reporters. James Odato, a reporter for the Albany Times-Union, wrote in his story on the scandal today that: "The allegations, first reporter on the New York Times Web page, came to light after a reporter from the Times Union began asking questions last week about Spitzer's use of a state airplane for a trip from Buffalo to Washington, D.C. (where he met the hooker) on Feb. 13. The paper then made a formal request for the records of Spitzer's Washington, D.C. trip."


*Repeated airing of the governor's odd press conference in which he sort of apologized for bad behavior -- without saying exactly what he did.


*Sharing Newspapers, broadcasters and web sites picking up the stories from each other -- some with sketchy or no sourcing on their own to verify the information being used.


*Bad sourcing Media including New York Times and Washington Post referring to "law enforcement" or other anonymous sources.


*Saturation coverage including a two-hour special by an Albany TV channel yesterday even though there was hardly enough news to fill that time slot.


*Sidebar coverage Stories began appearing about topics related to the scandal including women who stand by their man featuring a saddened Silda Spitzer at the odd news conference but also referring to Hillary, Sen. Larry Craig's wife and others. In this case the effect of Spitzer's possible resignation on Hillary's presidential campaign. (Can you tell me why?)


* Comic relief Late night humorists love political scandal. David Letterman came up with a list of Eliot Spitzer's top 10 excuses (No. 7 was HAVE YOU BEEN TO ALBANY?) Tabloid newspapers also cash in on the rich comedic material. The headline in the Daily News 3/11 was "LUV GOV."
see http://polijamblog.polijam.com/

*World-wide play within hours of the story. Last night friends in Wisconsin wanted to know if I was watching the Spitzer Sex Bulletins and this morning colleagues in Sarajevo told me they thought my governor looked like a Stalinist. (There is no such thing as sexual harassment or sex crimes in eastern Europe.) Look up Spitzer on www.youtube.com

* Journalism ethicists wring their hands over how the story is being covered. See http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=139277

*Bloggers gleefully dissect the story and its implications. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

*The public blames the media, as in: Why don't they write about all the bad things Bush did? or The media just loves tearing a man apart.

ASP article on The Paper

How does this compare to the news story you did?

A UK Journalism class's take on the Prince Harry deal

I asked Delroy Alexander, a former business and investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune who is now a senior tutor at the Journalism Center at Harlow, the UK's oldest reporter training facility, what his students thought of the deal the press there made with the UK Army to hide the prince's whereabouts. Here's his report:

In each of my lessons this week, I posed the question...Was it right for the national media to agree to an embargo over Prince Harry's Afghan expedition.

Almost all the students said they believed the Government was right to try and impose an embargo, for Prince Harry's safety and that of the 180 soldiers in his outfit. Many did not think it was a big deal, could not see that any broader issues might be at stake and almost all thought it was justified and a good thing.

Then I posed a serious of questions, which were hotly debated. What if the stories in the paper were not that Prince Harry was out there but that he had been shot and killed a week ago. Would that change people's opinion.That posed a clear dilemma for the students. Many began to question the media's role, suggesting that they would be upset at the idea that something like that could happen without people knowing.

I also asked the question of whether there might be other things happening that we don't know about. That drew sharp silence and a pretty pensive mood. Some people responded by saying they were comfortable with it, in the national interest. Others said they were not. That it was worrying that this could be done.
We discussed how it was possible for a few powerful people to decide what we all read. I mean, there are eight national newspapers, lots of TV and radio stations, Internet sites etc. How is it possible to keep something like this quiet. Also, once The Drudge report had written about Prince Harry...extensive coverage was given. Even though he remained at the front with his platoon.

We looked at the broader role of the media. That it might be uncomfortable....but one of our essential jobs is to gather news and tell people about it. I asked whether it was our job for the reader to decide what we publish and why. We then looked for other examples of censorship....which is what we called this, even if it was voluntarily.

Many war examples came to mind. Stories that might not be published, images that might never be seen. We talked about the impact on reader trust and believability. That picking and choosing on behalf of the reader was a dangerous game. That readers have in many respects a right to decide for themselves. But if they don't know, how can they decide about an issue and make informed decisions.

We discussed whether this undermined the Government's argument that it was worried about Harry's safety. If he was still there and detailed accounts of where and what he was doing were readily available, why had he not been flown home immediately. I asked what kind of stories we might have seen of Prince Harry fighting the enemy and his triumphant return if the news hadn't leaked out. I asked about the PR value of the person third in line to the throne, looking like a hero...instead of having to return home on the retreat over fears to his safety.
We also discussed war coverage in general. That enemy forces often target scenes where the media has cameras and reporters to gain publicity. If the army is comfortable with average soldiers being at risk due to media coverage, why should they be a different standard for the Prince.

I also asked if Prince Harry had exercised any choices. Given his position,was it not his choice to go and potentially put his colleagues at risk. We then did a quick exercise, where I pretended to be a journalist wanted by a group called the Christian Warriors. The group, had been blowing up journalists and publicly said they were going to get me. I had 24-hour security but had warned everybody that I might have to leave at short notice if there was a threat. I asked whether it was fair for me to put the rest of the class at risk.....most said absolutely not. I then asked...well why should Prince Harry be any different?

After this we summed up, with the help of students.
There was growing concern about the whole idea of an embargo and why the national media had gone along with it. There was concern about the role of journalist and the tough decisions we sometimes face. We agreed that part of that responsibility meant holding rich and powerful people, like the Prince,to account for the decisions they make. And that he and the Army had a public relations interest that may have gone beyond just his safety.The media had a broader role than just being aware that it may put his safety at risk. It appeared comfortable with the idea that its reporting might threaten the safety of many ordinary soldiers. But when approached by some powerful people they had colluded with them to keep facts away from the public.There was broad concern about potential other issues where an embargo may have taken place and the rationale for it. In general, the students felt after the discussions that embargoes, even this one, were hard to justify.

News from budgets

To repeat the lesson from class 3/5: budgets are about much more than numbers. Learn to cope with scary, complicated presentations by thinking of government or institutional budgets like your personal budgets. They work the same way.

*Power. Find out who is making decisions about where money goes in the budget and you know who has the power. (Do you decide on expenses and then hit up your parents or work extra hours to get the revenue? Then you have power. Do your parents give you a set amount you must work with? Then they have power.

*Priorities. You can always tell what's most important to a person or to an agency by looking at what they spend the most on. Know that it is always the priorities of the people with power that will get funded in a budget.

*Comparisons. In class we looked at one month's budget. If we had compared this to the budget for February of 2007 we could have made many more discoveries. Have sources of revenue changed or gone up or down markedly in a year? Why? Did expenses for some category go up a lot? Again, why?

*Basic questions. Is the budget balanced? If expenses outpace revenues, you have a deficit or debt. How is that being handled? If revenues outpace expenses you have a surplus. What will happen to that "extra money"? Is this a one-time-only surplus due to something extraordinary (a big birthday present from Grandma this year?) Is there any emergency or "rainy-day" money set aside?

*How good a job is the government doing? Does a budget need constant revision? That means planning has been inaccurate or someone isn't being careful about sticking to a budget.

*Language. In talking about your own finances, you do not talk about "shortfalls" or "deficits" or "revenue decreases." Use the same simple language you would use in writing about government officials "spending too much" or "spending more than they were supposed to." Talk about "more money coming in" or "extra funds found..."

Some things should always be included in budget-based stories. They are:

1. The total amount of the budget you are talking about

2. The percentage increase or decrease the new budget represents

3. Any significant shifts in the way money is split up among the categories in a budget -- and are there any new categories being funded

When working on government rather than personal budgets, there are some things you must learn.

1. What is the difference between a capital and an operational budget?

2. What is a general fund?

3. What is assessment of property for tax purposes?

story structures

From http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Train/Res/Write/sstruc.asp By Steve Buttrey

This is a good summary of the different ways in which you might think about organizing your news stories:


Inverted pyramid. The inverted pyramid remains a common story form, perhaps the most common. It gives the reader the most important information first, then follows with information of diminishing importance or interest. The inverted pyramid helps the scanning reader who wants to learn the most important information quickly and doesn’t necessarily want to read each story to the end. The inverted pyramid is easy for editors to cut quickly from the end. The inverted pyramid has fallen into disrepute because of its weaknesses: It grows less interesting or more trivial as it goes, virtually inviting the reader to stop reading. The inverted pyramid doesn’t engage the reader. If you’re writing most of your stories in the inverted pyramid, you should try branching out. Don’t use the inverted pyramid to write a long story. Because the story gets increasingly less important or less interesting, a long story in this style has a lot of wasted space. As the information diminishes in importance, your readership will narrow. The inverted pyramid can be effective for a short or medium-length routine story.

Martini glass. This story form...starts out as an inverted pyramid, giving the reader the most important news first in a straight lead, following with other news in decreasing importance, just like the inverted pyramid, which becomes the top of the glass. At the bottom of this triangle is an olive, the nut graf or set-up for a brief narrative. The narrative follows in a straight path, the stem of the martini glass. The story ends with a conclusion that wraps up the story, perhaps fulfilling a promise you made up in the “olive” paragraph or resolving the conflict laid out there. While an inverted-pyramid story can cut from the end, the martini-glass story needs this ending, the base of the glass. If you must cut, you probably will need to shorten the stem. This is a different description of what Roy Peter Clark of Poynter calls the “hourglass,” structure, which turns from inverted pyramid to narrative with some sort of transition like “It started with …”
Conflict/resolution. Ken Fuson of the Des Moines Register says every story at its heart is a story of conflict and resolution. Establish your conflict early and clearly. Unfold the plot as your characters pursue the resolution. Ideally the resolution will provide a powerful and fitting end. Because we write many news stories before the conflict is resolved, you sometimes need to alter this approach. Instead of resolving the conflict, your story becomes about the quest for resolution or the frustration of waiting for resolution.

Circular story. This story starts in a particular place, usually with an anecdote about a character or with a particular scene. The anecdote leads to a larger story, usually an examination of an issue. The story concludes back where it started, with an insight from the initial character about the issue or by resolving how this issue affected the introductory scene. The circular structure also can work with a narrative or feature story.

Sidebar. A sidebar generally should be short and tightly focused. It should make a separate point from the main story but on a related topic. When you have good information on a topic that doesn’t fit in the main story, consider a sidebar rather than forcing it into the main story.

Five boxes. Rick Bragg uses and teaches this approach, which helps organize both your story and your material as you report. He sets up the story as a series of five “boxes,” as explained in an interview with Chip Scanlan of the Poynter Institute:
The first box is your lead and perhaps the following paragraph or two. This is where you draw people into the story with an image or detail that captures their attention.
The second box is the nut graph, summarizing the story (more on nut graphs later).
The third box leads into the body of the story with a new image or detail. This may work almost as a second lead.
The fourth box is the material that rounds out the story.
The final box is your “kicker,” ending with a powerful quote or image.

Q&A. Question-and-answer format is most effective as a change of pace or a sidebar. It works only with tight editing and with a character who speaks clearly and colorfully. Long, rambling quotes bog down a story, so the Q&A runs the risk of becoming tedious and loaded with jargon. You want to produce a brisk transcript with pointed Q’s & crisp A’s. Be sure to tell the source you will publish an edited transcript. Then acknowledge in the introduction that you have edited the transcript. Edit out the jargon and clutter. Try not to edit in much, if anything. You might change a pronoun to the person’s name or add a couple implied words to make a conversational fragment into a clear sentence. But you don’t want to put words into the character’s mouth. If you edit heavily, run the transcript or the passage in question past the subject.

Roundtable. This is a variation on the Q&A, with multiple sources providing the answers. When it works best, you have just a few questions, each launching a lively discussion among the characters with little input from the reporter. This might work as a sidebar or final installment for a series on an issue. Perhaps you have laid out the problem effectively over the first three days of a series and your fourth installment is a discussion of possible solutions. Again, you will need to edit heavily. Even with heavy editing, the roundtable often needs considerable space to work effectively.

Debate. Still another twist on the Q&A is a debate, or joint interview, perhaps with two political candidates or with advocates of opposing positions on a hot issue. Without television cameras or an audience, you get the candidates or advocates together to answer the same questions in a less formal setting than a debate. You don’t need to time answers, but tell the candidates in advance that you will edit the transcript to give them equal or similar space. Provide the equal space over the transcript as a whole, rather than for each question. One candidate may provide more substance on a particular question while the other addressed it briefly. But even the space out in the long run. Or you can interview the candidates separately, asking the same questions and editing the answers into a transcript in debate style. Be sure to tell the candidates in advance how you will present the information and disclose to readers that this wasn’t a live debate but one created through interviews and editing. This edited debate allows you to press for answers when candidates dodge the initial question and lets you omit questions that elicited platitudes from both candidates.

Blog. Whether you’re writing a blog for your web site or writing in blog style for a print story (perhaps about a blogger or about blogging), a blog takes on a different style from traditional print stories. If you blog a breaking news story, it unfolds in reverse chronological order for new readers. Entries should be brief and brisk, so you can post them quickly and move the story along for readers refreshing frequently online. Write each post as a distinct unit, readable by itself but tied to the rest. Readers will read in different ways: Some will follow the story closely and reading each new post in order. Some will check in occasionally, reading the newest post and scanning for other updates of interest. Some will start with the most recent post or two, then scroll to the bottom to read the coverage in order. As important developments break, some background and summary are in order, because those posts will be read most closely.

Brief narrative. The brief narrative is effective for simple stories about a single incident. A routine police story or light feature may be a brief narrative. You can unfold the brief narrative in a variety of ways. If you’re writing a news story, you may need to give the reader the news first before you begin the narrative. Start with a summary lead, telling the basic news. You might follow with a paragraph or two of context and/or explaining why the story is important. Then you start at the beginning and tell what happened. You might open with the who, what, when and where, then use the narrative to tell how and why. With a feature story, the brief narrative can start at a key moment, then jump back in time and unfold chronologically. Or you can start at the beginning and let the story flow chronologically. In a feature, you might want to use suspense and tension to keep the reader moving, rather than giving away the end at the top, as you may have to do with a news story. A brief narrative may develop just a few story elements.

Long narrative. A long narrative is an especially effective approach for a weekend story or for second or third-day coverage of a big news story. It also works in feature stories. In the long narrative, you don’t want to give away the whole conclusion, or perhaps any of it, at the top of the story. If you’re writing a narrative about a major news story, the reader will already know the what of the ending, but may not know the why or how or the background or all the details. A long narrative needs to hook the reader quickly and give the reader a reason to stick with you. Tension and suspense, even mystery, are important elements of the long narrative, but confusion is not. Give the reader an early hint, or promise, of what’s to come early in the story. The promise sometimes plays the role of “nut graph” in the long narrative. The promise may raise a question that the reader can expect you to answer by the end of the story. It may lay out the mystery that you will solve or establish the conflict you will resolve. Story elements are crucial to the long narrative. Develop the characters carefully so the reader cares about them and wants to know what happens to them. Help the reader picture them in her imagination, even if photographs will accompany the story. Place the characters in a setting and transport the reader there. Put the characters into action in the setting. Use sensory detail to help the reader see, feel, hear and even smell the scenes. Use dialogue to help the reader hear the characters. Capture the key moments in memorable scenes where your narrative slows (or accelerates) to highlight the drama.

And another publication opportunity

The e-journal "transcending silence" is published by undergraduates through the Women's Studies Department at UAlbany, but it is open to submissions from all undergraduates in the University.

The journal is looking for your work in these areas: original nonfiction essays, film reviews, book reviews. papers, poems, fiction, photo essays, music video, artwork, spoken word, graffitti art, drawings, photography.

It might be a good place to get some publication credits. Guidelines are available at:www.albany.edu/ws/journal/guidelines.html

This is hilarious

We spent a class turning nursery rhymes into news stories. Click here to see what how the well-know nursery tales have been bent, folded, puffed up and otherwise rewritten.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYytaZo6Hco Ricky Gervais on Humpty Dumpty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9l1AQKunXQ Bullwinkle the Moose on Tom Tom the piper's son

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnkaW4oU3lQ Kermit the Frog, journalist, interview Little Miss Muffet

Opportunities for UAlbany journalism students

Here's some information on two prestigious paid media internships being offered during the Summer of 2008 to UAlbany students.

The John Ben Snow Foundation Internships: $7,500 will be available for 3 interns ($2,500 each) to work on a media internship in a geographic area roughly defined as "Central New York," meaning from Rochester east to Utica, and down to the Pennsylvania border. (Obviously, the boundary lines are not exaclty and firmly drawn.) The internship can be in just about any kind of media, except pure advertising. Students will find their own internships, or can ask for the UA Journalism faculty to help secure internships.

New York Daily News Internship: for an hourly wage of $10-$12, one student will rotate among several editorial departments on the Daily News. Students will be able to earn 3, 4, 5, or 6 credits in either internship program. Each of these opportunities will involve an application process with a deadline to be determined (probably sometime in early-to-mid April), and selection by the Journalism faculty.

More specific details and application materials will be coming soon from the Journalism Program.

In honor of a class spent talking about apostrophes and contractions...

I share with you this amusing 2/18 New York Times article By Sam Roberts. See? Even a punctuation mark can become a news story.

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.

“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.

Americans, in particular, prefer shorter sentences without, as style books advise, that distinct division between statements that are closely related but require a separation more prolonged than a conjunction and more emphatic than a comma.

“When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life,” Kurt Vonnegut once said. “Old age is more like a semicolon.”

In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a “New York sentence.” In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.

Semicolons are supposed to be introduced into the curriculum of the New York City public schools in the third grade. That is where Mr. Neches, the 55-year-old New York City Transit marketing manager, learned them, before graduating from Tilden High School and Brooklyn College, where he majored in English and later received a master’s degree in creative writing.
But, whatever one’s personal feelings about semicolons, some people don’t use them because they never learned how.

In fact, when Mr. Neches was informed by a supervisor that a reporter was inquiring about who was responsible for the semicolon, he was concerned.

“I thought at first somebody was complaining,” he said.

One of the school system’s most notorious graduates, David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam serial killer who taunted police and the press with rambling handwritten notes, was, as the columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote, the only murderer he ever encountered who could wield a semicolon just as well as a revolver. (Mr. Berkowitz, by the way, is now serving an even longer sentence.)
But the rules of grammar are routinely violated on both sides of the law.

People have lost fortunes and even been put to death because of imprecise punctuation involving semicolons in legal papers. In 2004, a court in San Francisco rejected a conservative group’s challenge to a statute allowing gay marriage because the operative phrases were separated incorrectly by a semicolon instead of by the proper conjunction.

Louis Menand, an English professor at Harvard and a staff writer at The New Yorker, pronounced the subway poster’s use of the semicolon to be “impeccable.”

Lynne Truss, author of “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,” called it a “lovely example” of proper punctuation.

Geoffrey Nunberg, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, praised the “burgeoning of punctuational literacy in unlikely places.”

Allan M. Siegal, a longtime arbiter of New York Times style before retiring, opined, “The semicolon is correct, though I’d have used a colon, which I think would be a bit more sophisticated in that sentence.”

The linguist Noam Chomsky sniffed, “I suppose Bush would claim it’s the effect of No Child Left Behind.”

New York City Transit’s unintended agenda notwithstanding, e-mail messages and text-messaging may jeopardize the last vestiges of semicolons. They still live on, though, in emoticons, those graphic emblems of our grins, grimaces and other facial expressions.

The semicolon, befittingly, symbolizes a wink.