Smokey Thursday (300 Word Feature Story)

Another popular smoking spot, a group of unknown faces standing in a circle, cautiously puffing away. There is no better place to meet an interesting stranger.

“What it is” a smoker’s greeting to a curious bystander who meandered into the woods to join the group. Perhaps smokers are not as bad as kids are told and have simply been given a bad reputation from society. Made out to be low lives who spend their time in front of a TV rather than doing actual work.

Perhaps hidden under that veil of smoke lies a person with a background, with a story, with a life.

Robert Ward, 19, of Boston, Massachusetts is an example of a person beneath the smoke.

Rob, born and raised in Boston has lived an exciting, interesting, life. One that many would be envious of.

He has been smoking Marijuana since he was 14 and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

He doesn’t mind the money he spends for a good time, which has exceeded, to this date, over $5000.

His life however, does not fit the “pothead” label.

He went to Boston Latin school, the oldest public High School in America.

He spent a year in Italy, mastered the language, and adopted the culture.

He’s joined several college clubs.

He scored an 1830 on the SAT’s.

Perhaps the most interesting part of his life is that he managed to overcome the smoker’s stereotype and get into college.

“I’m the only one to leave Boston for college out of all my friends”

And yet he takes some time out of his day, almost everyday, to enjoy a few hours with new friends and complete strangers in the best way he knows how.

Its just so fascinating, who or what you might find while walking around in the woods one smokey Thursday night.

Irish and French Soccer. What happened??? (Clip file 2/15)

While paroozing the various websites relating to news New York Times, Talking Points Memo, and CNN I came across the story about the French and Irish soccer match from Wednesday. Now I’ve been a soccer fan for a long time and nothing annoys me more than a bad call which makes the whole game change for the worse. I’ve seen about 30 different stories all about the game that sparked major outrage among soccer fans everywhere. The story I chose to write about is the one I found on CNN.com “Ireland outraged after French handball nixes World Cup hopes” The title itself is enough to grab the readers attention and make them want to read on. The lead only helps this, it’s short, sweet, and to the point “Soccer star Thierry Henry became the villain of Dublin on Wednesday.” One of the more interesting parts to the article is when they quote Henry who was the one responsible for the two handballs that were not seen by the referee. He actually admits to committed the penalty which surprised me. I love when a writer can capture the emotion felt by those affected by the game and funnel it to the reader. After finishing the article I too felt a bit of anger towards the French national team. Another thing that I liked about the article is that it referenced other instances of cheating not caught by officials in various other matches. I always like when an article references the past because I feel that it helps their argument and provokes the reader into learning more about the other situations or instances. It’s also great to see that this is a popular story for blogging about, I have already found several some expressing personal rage others simply commenting on happened. All in all this was a fantastic article. It was well written, sparked the same anger in me that many Irish are feeling now, and made me want to follow up with the story to find out what is happening if the game will be looked at especially since the player actually admits to cheating. Good stuff, lets see if any other crazy things happen this year in the World Cup Qualifiers or next year in the World Cup itself.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/19/henry.handball.world.cup/index.html

7 Months, 10 Days in Captivity NYTIMES (1/15 Clip File)

This article, written over 4 days in October really stood out among the others I normally read in the online version of the New York Times. It was written by David Rhode who writes for the NYTimes blog “At War” which I have been reading for some time now. I love to read stories that are broken into parts because I find that they can jam so much detail into a story. This one certainly does not let the reader down. The way that the New York Times creates interactive graphics to go along with stories always makes me want to read on and this one was just full of various features. Since it follows the kidnapping of Rhode there are plenty of maps and pictures that perfectly fit the mood of the story. Since this story was written on a personal level I was able to enjoy reading it as not just an article but as if he was telling a story, which he indeed was. Another point that made this article particularly interesting was the fact that Rhode escaped and was able to write it. Usually when a person is kidnapped by the Taliban there is very little hope that any good will come out of it. But when a journalist who has experience in covering wars is able to be kidnapped, escape, then write in great detail about what happened that just astounds me. He was able to give a report that almost none would be able to. The interactive features as I said before made me want to keep reading this article. I particularly enjoyed the video that goes along with each part, an interview with Mr. Rhode. I love reading about military journalism and this story is one of the best examples that I ever read. The lead was so powerful that one couldn’t help but read on “THE car’s engine roared as the gunman punched the accelerator and we crossed into the open Afghan desert. I was seated in the back between two Afghan colleagues who were accompanying me on a reporting trip when armed men surrounded our car and took us hostage.” Even as I write this blog entry I am filled with the excitement I felt when first reading this article day by day and waiting for the next one to come out. I really hope to see more like this one in the future, a story so well written, and so compelling, that one cannot help but waiting to read the next part to discover what happens next.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world/asia/18hostage.html

Some Points about Photojournalism

I feel that photojournalism does a lot of things better than print journalism if it is presented right. I feel firstly that it provides emotion that words cannot express. An example from the video that shows Nachtwey’s view of this is “Journalism provided a a channel for peoples natural sense of generosity and the readers had responded” this was in relation to the picture of the family living on the railroad embankment. By taking a picture that at the time had no real meaning to the photographer but yet appealed to people (the readers) generosity and thus had made people want to donate and help a person that they saw in just one simple photo. Another thing that photojournalism does better than other forms is that it is a way to show all aspects of a story. I personally, when reading an article from the New York Times online like to go through slide shows associated with that story after I read it so that I get all parts of the story and understand what it actually looked like. A good quote from the video that Nachtwey says about explaining how photojournalism tells all parts of a story is “Photographers go to the extreme edges of human experience to show people whats going on”. A comment associated with a photo can also tell a full story. I enjoyed how in the video how Nachtwey read the title of each photo after telling the story behind it. I feel that even if there is a vague explanation for a group of photos I gain a general sense of what is going on. There are however somethings that print and other forms of journalism do better than photos. One of the major things that other forms do better is that they can be much more detail and tell an intricate story through one type of journalism. Photos can tell a story but the details have to come through print or narration. I feel that this is the main thing about photojournalism that other forms can do better. In the end I feel that Photojournalism alone can tell stories with narration or extended comments however I enjoy it more when it is coupled with some other form of Journalism such as print because I read the story for the details then look at the pictures to tell what certain details in the story look like.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/james_nachtwey_s_searing_pictures_of_war.html

Reflections on Reporting

Before this class I never really had to do actual research and interviews and simply search for a story. In my High School we had no newspaper (because we were too small and no one read it apparently) so the only Journalism class was a senior class that taught me almost nothing about actual reporting but felt more like an English class. In the beginning I was and still am a little doubtful of interviewing. Not the interview itself but rather finding someone to interview. I feel that the process is a bit difficult. I never really had to do a lot of research in order to find some one of interest for a story. In my High School class we never even discussed interviewing. However there are many sides to reporting that I love. The perfect example for this is the spot story assignment. I loved how my group could take literally no story whatsoever and by the end of the day we had a rough draft written. I’ve found it particularly surprising how many stories there are to be found in the world even within 10 minutes from school. Reporting in general is a lot more complicated than I ever thought and I feel its very possible to get used to the process it’s just going to take some time. In the end I love reporting (Just not the interviews yet) until I get used to all aspects of it. It is a major part of journalism and I can’t wait to master the process.