Monday, October 03, 2005
Journalism Assignment 2
Here it is, yet another school night where I have to be to work at 6:30am and I've labored till 1:44 am not getting even half way done with all my home work. I have a Spanish test Wednesday and a music reading lesson I haven't even practiced for...now that's not like me....not practicing my music reading is a sin. I really want to kick butt on my upcoming Spanish exam because if I don't Melissa, a girl, in my class will never let me hear the end of it. I always tease her because I beat her by one point on our last test. I've been listening to the new Death Cab for Cutie CD as back ground noise as I studied today...its weak so far although there are a few specific strong songs....I would love to elaborate but my disaster zone of a room is calling for my finger tips to aid in a cleaning relief effort as a category 5 storm called “Hurricane Work 40 hours per week while taking a full time college load” has hit. Until next time here is one of the papers I worked on today:
I followed the news stories of Felix Doligosa Jr., a Rocky Mountain News staff writer, from Sept. 14 through Sept. 30, 2005.
It was interesting to note that of the eight clippings I found of Doligosa’s, between the two week period, four of them were related to sexual abuse charges made against men involved with the Catholic Church. It would seem that some reporters would cover certain beats for the newspaper he or she worked for, but I was intrigued by the congruent specifications that the four stories shared. All stories involved adult men who were part of the Catholic Church and who sexually abused teenage boys, years ago. Decades later the victims have come out in search of damages for what their alleged assailants had done. The stories in which my observations occurred were: Men sue diocese, religious order over incidents in 1960s found on page “8A” Sept. 15, 2005; Sexual abuse charges are filed against Archdiocese of Denver found on page “31A” Sept. 21, 2005; Burke was accused in sex assault on teen found on page “5A” Sept. 23, 2005; Priests’ alleged victims seek grand jury inquiry found on page “25A” Sept. 29, 2005.
A general complaint made by the public is that the news is too negative. I felt that this assignment was a perfect opportunity for me to subjectively quantify these claims. Was my writer’s story written about subjects that were negative or positive? I would consider seven out of the eight stories, written by Doligosa, involved negative topics. That means if Doligosa was batting for the positive team he would have a batting average of .125. The lone positive article was written about Colorado’s contributions in raising money for Hurricane Katrina victims. This story was headlined; Residents contribute $6 million to Red Cross for hurricane victims found on page “4A” Sept. 14, 2005. The negative stories included the four sexual abuse articles mentioned above as well as: Robbery suspect fatally shot by officer found on page “26A” Sept. 30, 2005; Man has hearing in shooting at barbecue found on page “18A” Sept. 26, 2005; Non-paying employers put on notice found on page “14A” Sept. 15, 2005.
My objective view of these articles is that it is too superficial to deem these stories as negative solely based on their content. An article’s positive/negative merit should be based on what effects its contents could create. For example, this recent surge of articles reporting Colorado men coming forward detailing their inflicted sexual abuse, made by members of the Catholic Church, are educational. This is an import issue that should be brought to the attention of the Colorado community. The education of these situations could foster information on better ways people could approach these issues involving sexual abuse. Some questions involving sexual abuse are:
Is a person taken seriously when such issues are reported?
Who can a person trust to report these issues to?
What are the procedures in reporting these issues?
What are some of the signs of a sexually abused child/teenager?
What counseling is made available for these youths?
What counseling is made available for the perpetrator of the actions?
What are the preventative measures the Catholic Church is taking in regards to these issues?
These are only a few of the myriad of questions that could be answered through detailed reporting on this topic. I consider such education not only important but positive. Doligosa’s article headlined Non-paying employers put on notice could also be considered positive based on the influential effects the story could have. This article reported “that 90 percent of all day laborers have not gotten paid on at least one occasion.” Doligosa’s went on to write about what options a day laborer has when attempting to recoup uncollected pay. So, viewing from the perspective on the positive effects a story has, Doligosa wrote six positive articles and two negative stories. This would bring his batting average up to .750 for the positive team. (Cooper’s Town, here Doligosa Jr. comes.)
In regards to Doligosa’s writing approach in general, his stories were short typical straight news articles that used the inverted pyramid style. I felt he ineffectively wrote one lead and effective wrote the other lead in the two stories he experimented with the use of “soft leads.” In his story Non-paying employers put on notice Doligosa’s delayed lead went as follows, “Wayne Johnson knows how to put up drywall and lay carpets.” This lead was boring because it utilized the name of someone I don’t know and it described the actions of things I don’t care about. The lead failed to elaborate on the focus of the story, which was how day laborers could collect unpaid wages. The second paragraph read, “But when it comes to workers’ rights and recouping unpaid wages, Johnson doesn’t know what to do.” This statement did not encourage me to read further because Johnson is not news-worthy in and of himself. In comparison, Doligosa’s lead to the story headlined, Sexual abuse charges are filed against Archdiocese of Denver, did effectively use a delayed lead. The opening paragraph to the story evoked the question, why does Roger Colburn freeze when people hug him? The subsequent image of Colburn being pinned down compelled me to read further. It was Doligosa’s use of compelling anecdotes and concrete images in which he made Colburn news worthy and successfully utilized this lead style. Finally, I found this assignment interesting. It enabled me to critically observe, both subjectively and objectively, how news stories are written by an individual reporter. I saw the importance in finding a niche within a news organization. It seemed that Doligosa was the “go-to” reporter when it came to stories about sexual abuse, in regards to the Catholic Church. I was able to come to a broader conceptualization about the positive and negative nature of straight news writing by realizing the important impact it has on educating the public. I also learned how to effectively write a soft lead by observing Doligosa’s tangible examples of how-to and how not-to write such a lead.
Here it is, yet another school night where I have to be to work at 6:30am and I've labored till 1:44 am not getting even half way done with all my home work. I have a Spanish test Wednesday and a music reading lesson I haven't even practiced for...now that's not like me....not practicing my music reading is a sin. I really want to kick butt on my upcoming Spanish exam because if I don't Melissa, a girl, in my class will never let me hear the end of it. I always tease her because I beat her by one point on our last test. I've been listening to the new Death Cab for Cutie CD as back ground noise as I studied today...its weak so far although there are a few specific strong songs....I would love to elaborate but my disaster zone of a room is calling for my finger tips to aid in a cleaning relief effort as a category 5 storm called “Hurricane Work 40 hours per week while taking a full time college load” has hit. Until next time here is one of the papers I worked on today:
I followed the news stories of Felix Doligosa Jr., a Rocky Mountain News staff writer, from Sept. 14 through Sept. 30, 2005.
It was interesting to note that of the eight clippings I found of Doligosa’s, between the two week period, four of them were related to sexual abuse charges made against men involved with the Catholic Church. It would seem that some reporters would cover certain beats for the newspaper he or she worked for, but I was intrigued by the congruent specifications that the four stories shared. All stories involved adult men who were part of the Catholic Church and who sexually abused teenage boys, years ago. Decades later the victims have come out in search of damages for what their alleged assailants had done. The stories in which my observations occurred were: Men sue diocese, religious order over incidents in 1960s found on page “8A” Sept. 15, 2005; Sexual abuse charges are filed against Archdiocese of Denver found on page “31A” Sept. 21, 2005; Burke was accused in sex assault on teen found on page “5A” Sept. 23, 2005; Priests’ alleged victims seek grand jury inquiry found on page “25A” Sept. 29, 2005.
A general complaint made by the public is that the news is too negative. I felt that this assignment was a perfect opportunity for me to subjectively quantify these claims. Was my writer’s story written about subjects that were negative or positive? I would consider seven out of the eight stories, written by Doligosa, involved negative topics. That means if Doligosa was batting for the positive team he would have a batting average of .125. The lone positive article was written about Colorado’s contributions in raising money for Hurricane Katrina victims. This story was headlined; Residents contribute $6 million to Red Cross for hurricane victims found on page “4A” Sept. 14, 2005. The negative stories included the four sexual abuse articles mentioned above as well as: Robbery suspect fatally shot by officer found on page “26A” Sept. 30, 2005; Man has hearing in shooting at barbecue found on page “18A” Sept. 26, 2005; Non-paying employers put on notice found on page “14A” Sept. 15, 2005.
My objective view of these articles is that it is too superficial to deem these stories as negative solely based on their content. An article’s positive/negative merit should be based on what effects its contents could create. For example, this recent surge of articles reporting Colorado men coming forward detailing their inflicted sexual abuse, made by members of the Catholic Church, are educational. This is an import issue that should be brought to the attention of the Colorado community. The education of these situations could foster information on better ways people could approach these issues involving sexual abuse. Some questions involving sexual abuse are:
Is a person taken seriously when such issues are reported?
Who can a person trust to report these issues to?
What are the procedures in reporting these issues?
What are some of the signs of a sexually abused child/teenager?
What counseling is made available for these youths?
What counseling is made available for the perpetrator of the actions?
What are the preventative measures the Catholic Church is taking in regards to these issues?
These are only a few of the myriad of questions that could be answered through detailed reporting on this topic. I consider such education not only important but positive. Doligosa’s article headlined Non-paying employers put on notice could also be considered positive based on the influential effects the story could have. This article reported “that 90 percent of all day laborers have not gotten paid on at least one occasion.” Doligosa’s went on to write about what options a day laborer has when attempting to recoup uncollected pay. So, viewing from the perspective on the positive effects a story has, Doligosa wrote six positive articles and two negative stories. This would bring his batting average up to .750 for the positive team. (Cooper’s Town, here Doligosa Jr. comes.)
In regards to Doligosa’s writing approach in general, his stories were short typical straight news articles that used the inverted pyramid style. I felt he ineffectively wrote one lead and effective wrote the other lead in the two stories he experimented with the use of “soft leads.” In his story Non-paying employers put on notice Doligosa’s delayed lead went as follows, “Wayne Johnson knows how to put up drywall and lay carpets.” This lead was boring because it utilized the name of someone I don’t know and it described the actions of things I don’t care about. The lead failed to elaborate on the focus of the story, which was how day laborers could collect unpaid wages. The second paragraph read, “But when it comes to workers’ rights and recouping unpaid wages, Johnson doesn’t know what to do.” This statement did not encourage me to read further because Johnson is not news-worthy in and of himself. In comparison, Doligosa’s lead to the story headlined, Sexual abuse charges are filed against Archdiocese of Denver, did effectively use a delayed lead. The opening paragraph to the story evoked the question, why does Roger Colburn freeze when people hug him? The subsequent image of Colburn being pinned down compelled me to read further. It was Doligosa’s use of compelling anecdotes and concrete images in which he made Colburn news worthy and successfully utilized this lead style. Finally, I found this assignment interesting. It enabled me to critically observe, both subjectively and objectively, how news stories are written by an individual reporter. I saw the importance in finding a niche within a news organization. It seemed that Doligosa was the “go-to” reporter when it came to stories about sexual abuse, in regards to the Catholic Church. I was able to come to a broader conceptualization about the positive and negative nature of straight news writing by realizing the important impact it has on educating the public. I also learned how to effectively write a soft lead by observing Doligosa’s tangible examples of how-to and how not-to write such a lead.
# posted by Nick D @ 1:24 AM 
