Chapters 1, 2, and 3...and Britney? No? Not Britney? Okay.

Okay, I am seriously distracted by the B-Spears performance that occurred almost 2 and a half hours ago. She needs a hug, desperately.

To the reading!

Chapter 1: The Nature of the News

• We learn about relevance, usefulness, and interest again. What I found most important and memorable was that relevance+usefulness=interest. I think this is a great way for journalists to stay on track with what they are writing about. It'd be easy for someone to write about, say, Britney Spears' awkward and uncomfortable performance at the VMAs and justify it by saying it was interesting. But, where is the relevance and usefulness? Honestly, no where. There is no place in hard journalism for this bullshit. It belongs elsewhere.
  
• Now for my rebuttal of previous bullet point. I'm not going to hide it, I still love all the distraction and entertainment. Famous people will always intrigue me. I love writing about the ridiculousness of the entertainment business. I can't help what I love.
• I really liked that journalism was described as, "a culture's conversation with itself." I believe that to be so true. There is so much that goes into what everyone reads and sees on the news everyday. I wish I could explain this quote further but I am at a loss for words.
  
• One new thing I read about was civic journalists vs. traditional journalists. I am now picturing the two groups pulling a West Side Story fight with all the glorious snapping and high-legged walking. Back on track Lizzy... I found the debate to be very interesting and can't decide which side I am on. Jay Rosen does a great job of summing up what each side believes in.
• 78% of people surveyed believe that the news media are biased. Who are the other 22% of the people? I want to meet them and shove the news media in their face. They must live in a box.
• That is not saying that I believe all of the news media to be biased in any way, shape, or form. I do think that a great portion of it is biased. It's not so spectacular.
  

Chapter Dos: The Changing News Business

• Turns out, times change! Wait, am I the only one with a horse and buggy? What is this thing you call a cell phone?
• We learn, again, that the newspaper industry is shrinking. DUN DUN DUN. It's still making money but it seems rather screwed for the future.
• Advertising drives the media marketplace. No matter how many times I read about this stuff I still get disturbed.
  
• Charts! Lots and lots of charts! Flow charts! Pie charts! No box-and-whisker plots though, those are my favorite.
• I thoroughly enjoyed how the textbook uses the word maestro to describe the team leader. I would feel like an utter fool if I ever had to call the person leading the reporting team by that word. But...if I was the leader I would insist on being called maestro.
• I really liked how magazines were referred to as "print cousins" to newspapers. Is that the best they could come up with? Seriously, cousins??
  
• Really though, I enjoyed the section about magazines. I love magazine writing. I love the perfection that magazine articles have to live up to. There is no room for errors and little mistakes anywhere. Fact-checking is much more thorough and the beauty of writing is taken more into account.
• The broadcast news section was much like what was in the textbook for Intro.
• The online portion of the chapter said that most of online media serves to be "public bulletin boards." I found this to be a peculiar, but rather true description of what online news is.
  

Chapter Three: Interviewing

• Interviewing-having conversations with sources. Really? I had no idea.
• Much of this chapter we have learned in previous journalism courses, it's a good refresher though.
• You would have to be an idiot to not prepare before an interview. How would you expect to ask any questions if you didn't know anything beforehand? The truth is though that you need to do a lot lot lot of preparation. To be able to conduct a good interview you need to know practically everything about your subject.
  
• Hope that the person you are interviewing brings their dogs. Amazing icebreaker.
  
• As informative as this chapter is, I think the only way to learn how to interview is to go out and do one. J-Research really helped me in my interviewing skills.
  

66 pages of a textbook in one read isn't so wonderful.

And, my poor Britney. She is getting attacked in every article I'm reading.

From 9/9/07