Non-linear Story

For my final assignment, I will tie together all the projects I completed this semester into one. With my trunk I will detail the events covered by my beat this fall while trying to tell the story of my blog in approximately 200 words. In addition, I will create a Google map illustrating where all the different bars and hot spots are located along the York road corridor.

My next original reporting story will probably be in an audio format though I'm still trying to settle on a topic. My best idea right now is to interview people around Towson one night and ask them what makes going out in Towson so worthwhile.

Slideshow ideas

Yet again, my idea for this assignment is to chronicle the evening of Troy, the Towson hot dog vendor. I would take some shots of him working, the food he is preparing and other landscape shots that detail the bustling intersection and paint a picture of exactly what it looks like at midnight on a weekend evening.

Though, as I've come to realize, plans can fall through at the last minute just as they have already with Troy. Knowing this, one of my backup plans include doing a slideshow on the nightlife activity on the streets of Towson. This would show how busy the corridor of bars along York road can be on any given weekend night. I'm sure I'd find some interesting things and people as well.

Editing Techniques

Analyzing a feature on NHL player Alex Ovechkin on ESPN, there were plenty of noteworthy editing techniques to discuss. Interspersed between snippets of game footage are clips of Ovechkin and his teammates and coaches being interviewed by reporter Rachel Nichols. In some of these shots, the camera only captures the side of the subject's face while in others, the camera is shooting the front of the face. These clips are short so the differing styles of shooting the subjects does not come off as awkward or forced.

Natural sound is used in multiple instances. One example is the background noise and the echo of the ice rink as pucks ricochet off the boards/glass as Ovechkin stands on his skates alongside Nichols. Perhaps the best example of nat sound is the revving of Ovechkin's Mercedes engine as Nichols profiles his penchant for speeding over 100 MPH on the Washington D.C. beltway.

Another aspect of this feature that makes it a good example of solid editing are the many differing clips of game action juxtaposed with Ovechkin's personality off the ice. What makes it all come together is perfect sequencing. Never did I feel lost or confused while watching this. Instead, I was glued to the set as the shots kept coming.

Here's the second, more action-packed part of the interview via youtube

Audio story ideas

For my audio story, I'd like to do a bit more preparation in order to secure the story and the interviews in advance. I really, really want to interview the hot dog guy for this story. I think the audio aspect would work perfectly. I would interview the vendor about the who/where/when/why/etc. aspect of his business while also interviewing customers as to why they are here.

For natural sound I could record people ordering their food and also pick up the noise of cars passing on York road. Perhaps even pick up the drunken banter that is so common on that intersection. I feel this story has a lot of potential. It's just up to me to make it to the corner on an upcoming weekend night and talk to him about it. Right now, this is my first and only idea for this piece. His answer will dictate where I go from there.

Broadcast ledes

1. Print lede: No one has ever told 7-year-old Dominic Osorio that he has brain cancer. Instead, his mother devised a story and made him the lead character. When Dominic undergoes surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, he is not a patient; he is the Dominator, waging war with an evil enemy that he calls a megazoid.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/bal-md.ha.dominic07oct07,0,4549865.story

Broadcast lede: A 7-year-old Bel Air boy is using superpowers to fight cancer.

2. Print lede: The student editor of Towson University's independent newspaper The Towerlight has stepped down after a standoff with President Robert L. Caret over the publication of an explicit sex column.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.towson07oct07,0,1014303.story

Broadcast lede: Uproar over a sex column in Towson University's student newspaper has led to the resignation of its editor.

3. Print lede: Baltimore County police announced an arrest in the fatal shooting Sept. 19 of a 31-year-old man in the Lansdowne area near the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bal-shooting-arrest1007,0,1100733.story

Broadcast lede: Baltimore County police have arrested a Brooklyn man in a fatal shooting just blocks away from the UMBC campus in Landsdowne.

Wall Street Journal formula

The Wall Street Journal style of writing can be found in the New York Times article "Balancing Act May Help Division II Define Itself" by Katie Thomas.

Thomas begins with an anecdotal lede:

• "University presidents in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association sometimes joke that they experience “ticker envy,” a yearning for the visibility that comes with a spot on the ESPN ticker."

Next, Thomas explains the general purpose of the story in the nut graf appearing in the fourth paragraph:

• "Now, members of Division II say they hope they have found their niche by offering a haven from the kind of big-time college athletics that are increasingly seen as overly commercial and exploitative."

It's at this point that Thomas uses quotes and facts to solidify the story. She first discusses specific actions taken by Division II schools such as these:

• "Under a proposal expected to be approved at the N.C.A.A. convention in January, Division II members plan to shorten the seasons in 10 sports, as well as cut back practice time in football."
• "[...]the proposal would also reduce the seasons in four sports by allowing students to report to school about a week later than they currently do. Football would not lose any games, but players would begin their preseason practice one week later. The proposal would also establish a weeklong “dead period” around Christmas in which athletes could not participate in practices or games."
• "Bob Fortosis, the athletics director at Eckerd College in Florida and a member of the Division II management council, acknowledged that the Division II proposal was rooted in a desire to cut costs, but that the motivation was also to give students more time on campus. Division II’s effort to redefine itself dates to the summer of 2005, when about 150 university presidents and chancellors met in Orlando, Fla., to discuss why several members were leaving for Division I."

From here, Thomas narrows in on how two Division II athletes were affected by the perceived stigma of playing at a Division II school; Ronnye Nelson and Maddie Dickinson:

• "Nelson’s path to Valdosta was not as simple as the division’s slogan implies. A star quarterback from Albany, Ga., Nelson said he spoke to several Division I universities but that interest waned after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his senior year. In the end, Nelson decided to attend Valdosta because it was close to home and 'they win a lot.'"
• "The decision was more straightforward for Maddie Dickinson, a junior goalkeeper at Seattle Pacific University, the 2008 Division II soccer champions. 'D-I has a great reputation and it would be great to play there, but it definitely wasn’t what I was about,' said Dickinson, who is from Vancouver, Wash., a three-hour drive from Seattle. 'It was about where I was comfortable, and where home was.'"

Finally, Thomas concludes with a quote that leaves the story with an open-ended feeling:

• "Norton said she saw Division II’s rebranding efforts as positive. But when asked whether perceptions had shifted, she said, 'Not yet.'"

Summary ledes vs. feature ledes

A summary lede is typically used for news stories with the goal of passing along the who, what, when and where to the reader in 25 words or less. On the other hand, a feature lede sets the scene while deferring the purpose of the story for the nut graph somewhere within the first three paragraphs. A feature lede can, at times, take on a more literary tone which gives the writer additional flexibility and room to be creative. While a good summary lede displays the most important facts first, a good feature lede builds the foundation for which the rest of the story is built upon.

Examples of recent feature ledes:

1. From The Washington Post: "Alzner shows another side for Caps" by Tarik El-Bashir

"Karl Alzner is reminded of the daunting challenge he faces each time he walks into the dressing room at the Washington Capitals' Arlington practice facility. It's right there along the wall to the right -- the locker stalls of the seven defensemen who helped the team advance to within a game of the Eastern Conference finals last season.

Alzner wants to have a fulltime spot along that wall come Oct. 1, when the Capitals open the season in Boston. But, barring a trade, injury or the unlikely decision by management to keep eight defensemen, he knows that will only happen if he outperforms one of the incumbents over the next two weeks."

El-Bashir sets the scene in the first paragraph, taking the reader where they can't go - inside the team's dressing room. It's the second paragraph that El-Bashir uses for his nut graph. In other words, it's the second paragraph that tells the reader El-Bashir's purpose for writing the story.

2. From the Calgary Herald: "Theo's making it difficult for Flames to say no" by George Johnson

"He's becoming a kind of rash, this audacious little beggar. And those inside the Calgary Flames' family who figured the Theo Fleury experiment was nothing more than an annoying lark, a stunt, a PR nuisance destined to quickly run its course, are starting to break out in hives."