Twins Baseball Frustrating

Chocolate Chocolate

Bruschetta Burgers

Drawing Inspiration From Music

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/health/01autism.html?th&emc=th

International

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/washington/02military.html?th&emc=th

Local News
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/42367297.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

http://www.startribune.com/politics/42319262.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Evaluating One Blog Story (2nd local news link)

This was yet another week of fascinating stories to read about from the economic crisis to how getting into college is easier if you have a fat wallet.  The most interesting story to read involved the floods that are happening in northern Minnesota and Fargo due to the Red River.  The article contained lots of information regarding the problems including that the Governors of both Minnesota and North Dakota may have come up with plans of flood prevention worth $1 billion.  Even with an article providing good details, I still wanted more information on this topic.

For the past, few class periods we have talked about finding good online resources, so I decided to research and find other sources on the floods that are happening.  There were many articles and web sites regarding the floods, but I needed to remember what I learned in class and learned from reading the textbook on obtaining useful sources like avoid unnamed sites, is the information coming from useful places (government agency, educational institution or a credible organization), use the most current information, using a narrow search field, etc.

Here are the other sources I found on this topic:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hw95ek5Sllmi4SoQ_N4HJvwHE0ZAD97AELA80

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/612815

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/610102

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/27/fargo-red-river-flooding-_n_179977.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/business/02aigweb.html?th&emc=th

International

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/asia/05china.html?th&emc=th

Local News
http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/40824657.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU

http://www.startribune.com/local/40795997.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUT

Evaluating One Blog Story (2nd local news link)

With the economy still in crisis, the news articles continue to talk about the stimulus package and today there was a headline talking about what Minnesota gets from it.  The article was a very interesting read since it discusses that MN will be getting $94 million from the package for public transportation projects, which this states needs.  After the 35W bridge collapse back in 2007, it seems all the roads in MN are getting worked on making it difficult to get around to places.  Everything in this state always seems to be under construction so this money is going to be very useful.

This past day of class, we talked about interviewing and all the steps it takes to conduct a successful interview.  After reading, I have a few suggestions that could have made this article a better read had it actually been an interview and contained some quotes.  I would want to know more about the developments of this story like what does MN plan to do with the money; what sort of transportation projects will be happening in the future?  This article could contain more or in other words it needs to advance the story.  Another element I would propose to talk about are the pros and cons to getting this money.  Besides these tips, I do believe this was a fascinating read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/business/24bailout.html?th&emc=th

International

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/world/asia/26pstan.html?th&emc=th

Local News
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/40263322.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

http://www.startribune.com/local/40350597.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBDia_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Evaluating One Blog Story (2nd local news link)

The headlines for this week continued to be very interesting to read, but do the articles supply sufficient detail about each story?  This past class period we discussed that the best news stories are those with lots/relevant details in them, giving readers information so they can create a picture of what happened.  To demonstrate the use of plenty of detail in news stories, we read an article entitled “Gunman helps two gang member flee court,” that really gave a person a visually image of what occurred during this event.  So I am going to compare this piece of literature to my last news link to see if it comes close with providing a lot of detail.

This local news story talked about the recent job loss numbers in Minnesota, mentioning the thousand of workers out of work due to the economy along with the percent of unemployment growth that has climbed over the recent years.  Although this article gives numerous facts and figures, it forgets to mention what kinds of jobs are affected by this economy (besides stores employees like Best Buy and Circuit City and other types of jobs including manufacturers).  How about other kinds of jobs like construction, factory, etc workers, aren’t they affected by the economy at the moment?  This article does a very poor job of stating how the recession is hurting many kinds of professions and therefore it is lacking relevant details that people would want to know about.

It was clear by the end of the comparison that the news story read in class provided better detail making it a more fascinating article to read.  It is definitely true, detail gives a person an image to visualize since they have a lot of facts to paint a picture of the event with.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/us/18cabinet.html?th&emc=th

International
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/world/asia/18afghan.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Local News
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/39775502.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/39758432.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBDia_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Evaluating One Blog Story (2nd national link)

There are still lots of headlines talking about the Stimulus package, especially since it was signed this past Tuesday.  In Wednesday’s edition of the NY Times, there was an article entitled Obama Team Has Billions to Spend, but Few Ready to Do It.  The headline alone made me what to read the article however once I opened it, I found myself losing interest quickly because to me, it did not have a very strong lead for such a hard news story.  In class, we have been discussing how important leads are so I decided to rewrite it to make it more effective.

WASHINGTON- Virtually no one in Obama’s cabinet is prepared to spend the $787 billion signed into law this past Tuesday due to near standstill after tax problems caused key jobs to remain unfilled leaving the government largely unassembled.

I feel if I had read this lead, I would have been willing to finish the article.  The most significant of the story is definitely the subject, so I made sure to begin with the what as opposed to any of the other 5 w’s.  The why was also important, since people wanted to know why the money isn’t being spent so I made sure to include that as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/economy/11bailout.html?th&emc=th

International
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/world/asia/09pstan.html?th&emc=th

Local News
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/39470307.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/39467922.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

Evaluating One Blog Story (1st national link)

There has been a lot of talk this week about our economic crisis, especially in Monday’s edition of the NY Times.  The article entitled U.S. Bank Bailout to Rely in Part on Private Money was very interesting to read so I decided to evaluate this story by analyzing it to see if it has any of the news elements we have discussed in class so far.

The title alone describes a current issue.  Our economy has been struggling for quite sometime making it a on going event and problem that people are interested to read about.  The main topic of the article is how to bailout the banking system that is in financial crisis right now and this demonstrates conflict/change since the main concern is the question of who is going to buy the contaminating assets that wiped out the capital of many banks?  This definitely brings up a big conflict that needs to be fixed.  Lastly, this article also displays the timeliness news element since it is a story that is happening now and many people are affected by this.

February 5^th 2009, NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/us/06explode.html?ref=us

International
February 3^rd 2009, NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/world/middleeast/04iran.html?th&emc=th

Local News
February 5^th 2009, Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/local/39133982.html?elr=KArksUUUU

February 5^th 2009, Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/39176992.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

Evaluating One Blog Story (2^nd national link)

So far in class, I have been doing assignments on Newsu.org and the most recent was a course entitled News Sense: The Building Blocks of News.  After taking this course, l learned the fundamental qualities of news, which included information like how to verify facts using multiple sources and necessary skills it takes to develop the mindset into reporting and writing the news.  One lesson was judging the newsworthiness of stories by prominence, importance, human interest, timeliness, proximity and meaning or in other word’s the five w’s of a story.  The course states that good stories must contain two or more of these dominant qualities in order for it to be news, so I am going to evaluate one of my top five stories of the week to see if it possesses these elements.

Blasted all over the news recently was a doctor that was injured by a bomb near his car.  This article made headlines all over the nation, but did it contain any of the elements listed above?  First of all, the story displays prominence since it describes the who that was involved, which was the doctor.  This story is happening now in Arkansas showing timeliness (when) and proximity (where).  Lastly, the article contains the most important element and that is the what.  It is showing importance/human interest to other doctors that this might be a threat and warns them to be careful.  The last element, meaning (why), is not displayed since it is unknown why someone did this terrible thing, but the article still is newsworthy since it contains 5 of the 6 qualities and therefore it qualifies as a good news story.