Shooting Story in The Boston Globe

I found this article to be interesting because the first sentence was not a hard lead, but the rest of the lead was. It gave one piece of information but it was very vague. The story started, "The violence stretched across 25 miles in Orange County and was as brutal as it was fast-moving." This seems like a big news story, so I was really surprised that it started like this. They may have done this because the headline already was detailed enough that the reader knew what happened. I still wouldn't have started a story like this though. I think they should have started the article with the next sentence, "In less than an hour, a 20-year-old student wielding a shotgun killed a woman in his home and two commuters during carjackings early Tuesday, shot up vehicles on a Southern California freeway, and committed suicide as police closed in, authorities said." I think they should have just put the 25 miles pieces in that sentence or a sentence that followed. It would have pulled the reader in quicker and let them know what was happening.

I feel that the rest of the article was very well done though and I think that they had a good number of sources. They talked to police and witnesses, which made it much more interesting. People enjoy reading quotes by people who were connected to the incident so interviewing witnesses was a good idea. Overall, I found this to be a good story despite the lead.

Unbiased Journalism

When I started my article about the student senate and the student athletic fee I intended to write an article that showed the whole story from both sides. I was going to interview student senate members as well as the athletic department and hear what each ad to say. After the student senate meeting I approached a member who was against the resolution and asked if I could meet with him the next day. He agreed and I was on my way. When I returned to my dorm though I had an email from someone I knew on Student Senate and he wasn't happy. He said that Student Senate saw me ask the guy to talk and they were upset that I would include an opposing view point. They asked me not to speak to him because it would make it harder for them if they had an opinion going against them.

This really threw me because no one has ever asked me to do that. I had wanted to include both sides of the story, but at the same time I didn't want Student Senate to be mad at me. I realized that that's part of the job though and that I couldn't let what they thought affect my article. I emailed my editor for TNH and he agreed. He said that we aren't here to please the Student Senate and that we had to write the whole story. I was so happy that he said that because I knew it was the right thing to do. So, not only did I interview Student Senate members and Mark Rubinstein, but I also talked to the athletic director. It made for a more well rounded article and I think it's important to always show both sides. I don't want to come off as biased because I don't think that it's right. My job is to tell the story and make people aware of everything going on.

Hard Lead vs. Soft Lead

I don't have a preference for hard leads over soft leads because I think it really depends on the type of story being written. Each does have it's own strengths and weaknesses though. For hard leads I believe a strength is that it puts all the information out there for the reader. They're quick and to the point which is convenient if the reader is just trying to the gist of the story without reading the whole thing. A weakness of a hard lead is that they can sometimes be too intense. A story might not call for a hard lead so using one can come off as strange and unnecessary. For soft leads, I believe a strength is that they can be fun. They're more relaxed and can feel like reading a story as opposed to a news article. A weakness is that they can take a little longer to get to the point, which may cause some readers to lose interest.

In the Globe I've found that hard leads are usually found in stories on the front page as well as in other stories that are considered big news. For example, the main story on their web page today was about a man who discovered a lost plant species. The lead was a hard one and put a lot of the who, what, where and when right into the first sentence. An example of a soft lead can be found in their lifestyle section where there's an article that talks about the appeal of Manchester to traveler's. The lead sets a scene of Manchester and doesn't offer many clues as to what the angle of the story will be.

Storm Related Anecdotes

"I sat in my lounge for like two straight days because my roommate had everyone in the world sleep over in our room to stay out of the storm." -Bridget Shanks

"I was walking to this party with two of my friends and they got too cold and and wanted to go back. I still wanted to go though so I walked the rest of the way there backwards cause it was so windy." -Sarah Geromini

"I slipped and fell on the ice on my way to class and a couple people laughed at me. Some asked if I was ok, but then I had to sit through class with wet pants." -John Bull

Tracking Down Sources

This week for my article I'm writing about The One Event which took place at Hoco on Monday night. Seeing as I wanted to do a recap of the event, I only had today to do my interviews and write the story. Going into this I knew that this might pose a problem with contacting my sources, but I didn't expect it to be a big issue. I called the the restaurants that participated in the event and was able to speak with three of them. Not all of the managers/owners were in when I called, which is why I wasn't able to talk with all of them. When I called Popovers they said that their manager wasn't in, but they gave me the number of their event coordinator. It was helpful that they were able to direct me to somebody else.

That part of contacting my sources was easy, but I also wanted to contact Deb Scanlon, the manager of Hoco. I already have a good relationship with her because of past articles I have done for The New Hampshire (TNH) in which I interviewed her. I thought it would be easy to contact her and that she wouldn't mind talking to me for five minutes on the phone since we already have an established relationship. I called her twice and left a message once, but she didn't answer or reply. I thought of going to her office, but I know that she is very busy and that her secretary won't always let you in without an appointment.

I then called other people that work at Hoco, such as David Hill, another manager. He didn't answer his phone either though. Lastly, I resorted to going onto the UNH Dining Facebook page and sending them a message. I explained my article and attached my questions, asking them to please respond. I know that email interviews aren't the best way to go, but I was running out of options. I'm still waiting for their response.

While I can still write an article with the information I have, it'll be nice to have quotes and more details from someone who works for dining. I plan on calling Deb Scanlon in the morning before class and seeing if I can finally talk to her. I know that this might not work out though and that I'll be cutting it very close. I think that in the future I'll remember to contact my sources ahead of time and set up an interview time. I almost always do this, seeing as I've been writing for TNH for some time now, but with my busy schedule it slipped my mind and I thought that I could have easily got her on the phone. Next time I'll have to be more careful when thinking these things.

UPDATE: (added half an hour after original posting)

Deb Scanlon just called me and said she was squeezing me in before rushing out the door. I'm so thankful to have good connections and it goes to show what a difference it can make to stay close to your contacts/sources.

Old Romantic Sends Messages in a Bottle

When I'm reading the news, it's obviously important to read the main news stories and major headlines, but what I really enjoy are the unique human interest stories. I found this story when scrolling through the lifestyle section of The Boston Globe's website and it caught my eye immediately. 

Sean Bercaw is a 51-year-old man who has been sending messages in a bottle since he was 10 years old and living at sea with his family. Since then he has sent out more than 250 bottles and has received responses from 45 different people from places such as Nicaragua, Grenada, the United States, and more. What strikes me the most about this story though is that even as a ten-year-old boy, he was very scientific about what he was doing. He would record the longitude and latitude of where he would throw the bottle, as well as the date, and would request that the person who found it to report back with their location. Doing this has helped Bercaw to track the ocean and its currents. 

Bercaw does find what he's doing to be very romantic, but he's not looking for love. He simply enjoys hearing from people and finding out how far a bottle has traveled. As printed on The Boston Globe's website: “Anyone launching a bottle is investing his or her hopes and desires in the bottle being found,” he says. “The cool thing about it, is it’s not simply black and white: succeed or fail. Even if no one finds it now, there is always that possibility. That hope always exists that some one may find it a hundred years later.” 

The article then went on to talk about the history of messages in a bottle, the environmental concerns, and it's relevance in pop culture. Recipients of Bercaw's bottles were also interviewed which made for a very interesting and well rounded article. I also found this article to be quite inspiring and I'm thinking that I might like to send out my own message in a bottle and see what happens.

Link to Article

Car Accident Article

On Tuesday evening while driving down Mile Hill Road in Belmont, M.A., three teenagers were involved in a car accident. The driver suffered no serious injuries while the two passengers were taken to the hospital.

The driver of the car, seventeen-year-old Jamie Peterson of Elm St. in Belmont, flipped the car at around 9 P.M. This occurred after he swerved and hit an embankment. According to Lieutenant Judith Barkus of the Belmont Police Dept., the two passengers were female but their names are not being released at this time.

The first witness on the scene was seventeen-year-old Tom Carroll, Jr., who had been driving behind Peterson at the time of the accident. He said that he saw the car speed around the corner and after that it was on its roof. “I though the worst,” Carroll said, “They were flying. It’s hard to see kids your age in something like this.”

Josie M. Crandall of 27 Mile Hill Road was another witness to the accident and notified the police after she saw the car flip. “I’ve never seen a car going so fast on this road. It’s a dirt road, and it’s really easy to lose control,” she said.

Peterson managed to crawl out of the car on his own, but it took rescuers 45 minutes to free the girls using the Jaws of Life. The victims were taken to Memorial Hospital in Belmont where one was in stable condition. The other was airlifted to Mass. General Hospital in Boston where she is being treated for injuries that are yet to be released.

Safety conditions are now being looked into for Mile Hill Road seeing as this is not the first accident to occur there. Two local teenagers were killed in the same spot on December 24, 2005. The road has no streetlights and its safety is becoming an issue.