Top news of the last week

               Put your top news in the comments below. (And sorry I didn't get this up sooner. I'd saved it in drafts.)

Using Audacity

I've sent you via email a brief tutorial on using Audacity to edit audio files. Here's a more in-depth one.

Next week we'll talk more about broadcast writing and how to write scripts.

Be thinking about a story you'll want to do for a final radio package. I'll be giving you examples soon, but always be thinking like a reporter and pondering what interesting stories you're aware of that listeners might want to hear. These will be feature pieces.

Top news and a story that shows instead of tells

We're back on top of the news this week, though I hope you were reading last week as well. Post your top stories in the comment section below.

Here's a story I read recently that I loved for its wonderful description of how Terre Haute, Ind., is trying to get a murder of crows to move along.  The reporter does a masterful job of putting us there, letting us watch as this 72-year-old woman patrols the crows' haunts and keeps them on the fly. The journalist, Dan Berry, doesn't just say she shoots fireworks at the birds. He writes:

She steps out. Loads her launch pistol as calmly as if she were adding milk to her tea. Leans Mannix-like on the hood. Fires, and fires again. The first shot sends a screaming firework over a housetop and into the trees. The second booms louder than the wail of the freight train passing by.
Black bits burst into the air, but soon return to where they were moments ago, like a jigsaw puzzle of a night sky reassembling itself. Then comes that taunt again: caw-caw, caw-caw.

There's a lot more like that that follows. Read the story and study how he paints a picture for his readers. That's your goal.

How reporters write, and stories they especially like (plus your top stories)

The New York Times ran a series of Q&As today with seven journalists who talk about finding interesting stories and how they set about writing them once they've done the reporting. You will find some interesting tips here.

You can also post your top stories of the week (ending Oct. 24) below.

Remember the Steve Jobs cartoons we talked about?

We're back to top stories of the week...

Please submit your top stories this week....

Writing feature stories

I promised links to some of the stories we looked at in class. I'd like you to read them for both their excellent reporting and compelling writing.

Julie Sullivan's Oregonian story about a family's faulty gene

Melissa Dribben's Philadelphia Inquirer story about an Amish family's life five years after their daughter was shot by a man who took over her school.

Roman Stubbs' Kaimin story about UM football player Jimmy Wilson.

Former Pollner professor Chris Jones' Esquire story about film critic Roger Ebert.

See you in class Tuesday with your classmate profiles.

News, and a future assignment

Once again, post your top news stories of the week in the comments below.

I hope you found Thomas Nybo interesting and inspiring. He's doing important work. And it wasn't too many years ago that he was doing exactly what you are now in Jour 270.

We'll talk about this in class, but be sure to put on your calendar an event that you'll cover on the evening of Oct. 17. It's the T. Anthony Pollner Lecture, delivered by this year's Pollner professor, Karen Coates. If you have to make arrangements to be able to attend, please do so soon. More to come in class...

Top news, plus a bonus site

Post your top news stories of the week in the comments section of this blog post.

And, if you'd like to view a brief online chat about using quotations in news stories, you can click on this site at the Poynter Institute. It's pretty elementary, but might give you some insights into what a few journalists have to say about using quotes in news stories. The Poynter Institute is a well-regarded media think tank. That sounds boring, but a lot of what its faculty has to say is quite interesting and followed closely by journalists across the country.

One of its most popular Poynter sites is the Romenesko blog, which features posts about media news, ethical transgressions in the media and other items of interest to journalists. It's here.

And now, on to the news...

More news to use

Got news? Post your summaries, and include links if available, for your top local, national and international stories. Prepare to discuss why you made those picks. Also, don't forget your reading: Pages 14-19 and 48-51.

It's never too late to correct mistakes

Take a look at this correction from the New York Times on Wednesday of an obituary that ran in 1899. When a relative of the subject of the obit wrote to correct a few facts he found in reading the story in the Times' archives, the paper looked closely at the obit and found other errors. The Times ran a story that included corrections of all the errors in the obit.

The Times is famous for its corrections. Each day on page 2 it runs corrections of any errors brought to its attention. Here's a typical one from the Wednesday paper:
An article on Monday about Eliquis, a new stroke-preventive drug from Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, misspelled the brand name of the drug most commonly used now for that purpose. It is Coumadin, not Coumidin.

Does that seem excessive? What is your opinion about newspapers that run corrections, but don't tell you what the original error was? What about TV stations, which almost never correct their errors? Does running corrections affect your credibility?

Your weekly news assignment

By 5 p.m. every Wednesday you'll need to post to this blog your assessment of what were the top local, national and international stories of the last week. Submit them as a comment to this post, using your real name or your initials.
Here's an example from last week:

Libyan rebels topple Qaddafi
The more than 40-year reign in Libya of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi appears to be over as opposition fighters entered his compound in Tripoli on Tuesday. There was no immediate sign of Qaddafi in the residence.


Hurricane Irene nears U.S. coast
After blasting through the Caribbean, Irene is headed to the east coast of the United States. It is expected to make landfall near Charleston, S.C., on Saturday morning. (Update: While the force of the hurricane along the coast was not as strong as expected, it caused severe damage to parts of New York and Vermont.


Wildfire threatens West Riverside, east of Missoula
A fire that started Monday night in the mountains north of this small community continued to burn on Tuesday as more than 100 firefighters worked to contain the blaze that had grown to 1,000 acres.

Now it's your turn. Register to comment on this blog and post your top stories of the week by Wednesday at 5 p.m. Later I will assign someone to lead the discussion each week about the top picks.

Welcome to Journalism 270

We'll spend the semester learning to identify news and gather information — both in writing and digital form — and exploring ways to communicate the most essential parts of that information in concise news stories. You'll learn about critical thinking, intelligent questioning, and strong, clear writing. Whether you are most interested in print or online reporting, photojournalism, or broadcast news or production you will need to be a good writer. Work hard, but look as well for the fun and excitement that journalism offers.