Interviewing

An interview is a conversation between two people, an interviewer and an interviewee, where the interviewer asks the interviewee questions to get information on the person. A journalistic interview is different from other interviews because in journalism, you might not reveal your sources. Also when you interviewing someone in a journalistic interview, the article will not be about the person you are interviewing. To prepare for an interview you must know what questions you're going to ask. You can't just make up the questions; interviews are supposed to be fast. Things you have to remember when you are interviewing the interviewee are think about what you ask the person. One bad question and the interview is over. Find an interviewee that you know will give you some details, once they see how much intelligence you have they'll give you more information. Ask them questions that will make them tell you what's happening in their perspective. Remember to ask a follow up question so that the interviewee will give you more information about the same idea. After the interview you should read over what you have and make it into a good opinion on whats happening. You use the information from the interview by stating that someone said this or someone said that. For example, you could say, "This person says that the school should have a longer sports season." Some information about interviewing is write down whatever you feel is good. Don't write EVERYTHING word for word or you can't keep up.

Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/, September 17, 2012

Sparkminute, http://www.sparkminute.com/2011/11/07/30-tips-on-how-to-interview-like-a-journalist/, September 18, 2012

James Glen Stovall, Journalism, Pages 142-143, 156-162

Media Release

Media release is a part of a story that could be reported on. Media release is also called press release. We use media release because it is good for reporting and safe to use. What I mean by safe to use is since it's newsworthy and something you can report on there is probably a way less chance that you will get into hot water with what you reported. Plus it might be a hurricane article you would have to write about so it probably won't affect anyone. Well, except the people that have to experience it but what I mean is it won't affect anyone racially, religiously, etc.

Now that you know why media release is used, it's time for me to show you an example of media release. In the picture to the right. It's a bit small so I'll explain it. It states that a fellow officer has committed criminal harassment. This officer has been suspended from his duty as a charge. This is good media release because it is a part of the story and it was okay to report. A probable reason why it is okay is because it didn't have anything inappropriate and it didn't say HOW the officer criminally harassed and WHO the Officer criminally harassed.

Media release is important because it's safe and it's good. It won't get us in trouble. I will use media release to get the details and not get in trouble with anyone. I'll try not to be offensive or not mention names. That way I won't be in hot water if i report something. I will use media release to make the best of this trimester of journalism.

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_release, September 12, 2012

TMS, http://tmsjournalism.blogspot.com/, September 12, 2012

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism, Pg. 173,72

Inverted Pyramid Structure

The Inverted Pyramid Structure is a metaphor that illustrates that the most important part of the story goes in the beginning.

The inverted pyramid structure has the climax up on the top like you see in the picture to the left. You do that so the reader doesn't get bored of your article and move on. Then the less interesting information comes after. Like the picture on the left you can see that the climax is on top, the body of course is in the middle, and the minor details are at the bottom. In the regular pyramid usually its the minor details going up to the most important details on the top so it's not so good for journalism.

An example of inverted pyramid structure is the San Francisco Chronicle in the article the journalist gives all of the important details about Obama still having hope that he could win the election. I know this article is using the inverted pyramid structure because I read and read until close to the end where i got bored and looked at a different article. This Writer effectively used the inverted pyramid structure by telling the climax right at the beginning.

By using the inverted pyramid structure, I'm sure my posts would become even just a little bit more popular. Why? Because I have all my important and most interesting information in the beginning so that the reader would keep reading until the very end or until they think that my minor details are boring. her way is fine as long as they like it. The inverted pyramid structure is very important in the class because without it, I don't think anyone will like our blog if it's all this junk instead of the interesting facts. People just won't like it.

San Francisco Chronicle Newspaper, http://sanfranciscochronicle.ca.newsmemory.com, September 4th, 2012

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid, September 4th, 2012

James Glen Stovall, Journalism, Pages 124, 172-174, 199, 344

Bias in Journalism

Bias means to take a side and make it seem like it's the better one. Bias is sometimes a good thing and sometimes it could be a bad thing.

Bias is needed in journalism because if you don't include bias, you won't be able to list all the available facts. Some can be very important too. There are four types of bias in journalism/media. Advertising bias, Corporate bias, Mainstream bias, and Sensationalism. To make sure the readers won't think you're lying, include as many sources you can whenever possible. Also, check that your sources are correct to avoid error so the reader doesn't have the wrong idea.

Here is an example of journalism bias. Some say that Johnny Depp robbed a bank last night. I think that's true because it seems that he has been a trouble maker his whole life. To make this UNbiased, don't write "I think" because then the reader would know that you are writing in your own opinion not the witnesses'. Instead, write what other people say so that even if it's wrong, you probably won't be punished because you backed up your facts with sources. Then magic happens and you have your article.

Bias is important to this class because it can give readers the wrong idea and I don't think we want that to happen. It can really offend someone and give the everyone who read the article a completely different perspective than they had before. Though sometimes we will need bias to get all of the facts that are needed in the article. I will try to make use of this by sometimes using bias, but only for including every single detail in the story and to still tell the true details.

wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias, September 4th, 2012

OWL, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/03/, September 4th, 2012

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism, Pg. 231-243