Plagiarism in the workplace

By: Hannah Pickett

One would think that plagiarism is simply applicable in a college or education setting. Surely no one would be dumb enough to think they could get away with plagiarizing as a professional, right? Nope.

At my job, I rely a lot on e-mail to attain statistics. Area coaches e-mail me their stats and one of my writers, an adult, e-mails her stories in to me as well. Monday, the area football coaches sent me their side of the stats. In one coach's message to me, one of my writers, and the Earlham newspaper editor, he wrote: "Here you go. Not much detail, too many touchdowns to get too wordy. As always, change anything that you see fit."

I then realized that he had attached a document named "newspaper article." This raised a red flag to me as an editor since he had attached an article. I opened it, saved it, and set it aside since I was still waiting on the writer's stories. The other red flag that came to mind was the coach's choice of words-as always. To me, this meant that he had been doing it all season.

The next day I received the writer's articles. I opened her football article, and realized that it was identical to what the coach had sent. The writer had spelled out the numbers, but other than that there were no differences between the two.

I was frankly outraged and shocked that a grown woman would think she could get by with this and still get paid for it. I called my publisher and he was very unhappy too. I sent her an e-mail saying that plagiarism is not tolerated in an education setting and is most certainly not tolerated in a journalism setting. Her pay was cut since she did not write the article and she is on probation.

I think plagiarism is sometimes overlooked in a small town newspaper setting. Typically newspaper plagiarism is taken from more reputable, classier sources. In this case, I would have never caught it had it not been for the e-mail the coach sent. Where is the line of plagiarism drawn between providing useful information on a game and actually writing the article? Or is it even considered plagiarism?

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Publish 2 provides a link to journalism

By: Allison McNeal

Journalists may be able to use a new tool to bookmark Webpages and organize links through an Internet browser window.

The new tool called Publish 2 was developed to promote link journalism in newsrooms.

This site allows links to be tagged, edited, and selected for republication on a news Web site, or on a microblogging site, like Twitter and Delicious.

Publish 2 was designed exclusively for journalists and can be implemented in newsrooms, which can allow reporters can create a list of links around a news item and can create more editorial content for news Web sites.

Along with online journalists, newswriters could also benefit from this new tool.

Print reporters could use the Internet to post blogs easier and to get their information out to the public faster.

"An individual newspaper could get their whole newsroom to this and tap into what everybody's already reading and finding, and essentially create their own different wire service or just to publish these links on their Web site," co-founder and chief executive Scott Karp said.

One key factor to this technology is to obtain editorial control over what links are published.

Many customers do not want to see individuals use links or information that is unreliable, which could pose a huge debate on what information is correct.

"The same fact checking process that is used by newsrooms for stories needs to be developed for links," Karp said.  "Editors can have access and the final say over the links included in their title's news group on Publish 2 before they are republished on a Web site."

A way that journalist can validate information is by allowing a newswire feature, which will compare other journalists sources and information to validate that the story is correct.

According to Karp, other sources of information may be from other competitor's sites, but this mutual linking could have a positive impact on news organizations.

Publish 2 could also help newspapers break away from The Associated Press model, in which newspapers could still provide regional and national news to individuals.

"The AP story is a commodity, because it's published on 1,000 other Web sites too," Karp said.  "If there's a particular story that breaks, a page of links to other interesting reporting [of that story] is probably of more value to the reader than the commodity story that they've already read in all those different places."

With this new tool of technology, will journalists and consumers embrace Publish 2?  

Could this company change the business model of the newswire for publishers?

These questions will have to remain largely unanswered until individuals start to use and understand this new journalism tool.

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Who gets the credit

By: Kayla Miller

Studies are now showing that the color red is driving men wild. Though who is getting the credit for the study?

Reuter's reporter Will Dunham reports that a psychology professor, Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, had founded that red is the color of romance. According to Dunham, Elliot is the only one getting the credit for it.

From looking at NBC's version of the article, they had given credit not only to Elliot but to a woman researcher by the name of Daniel Niesta. Now who is this?

I don't know what Dunham is thinking, but it is necessary to get the facts right. Not giving credit to someone that deserves it probably isn't a smart thing to do.

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Just the facts, Ma'am

by Peter Merchlewitz

I can't tell if it's John E. McIntyre wonderfully droll speaking voice or just his knack for blogging about odd-ball journalism topics, but every Wednesday, I always like take a peek at his blog, whether it works for the BNR class or not. But this week, I just have to comment on this weeks submission.

Apparently, in his blog, McIntyre talks about his police reporter colleague, Peter Hermann, and how cops use their own language when talking to news reporters. Here are a few examples taken from McIntyre's blog:

Exited the premises: “Left the house.” Houses and apartments are always premises. And people, as if they were following stage directions, always exit.

Altercation: “Quarrel” or “fight.” Once someone gets shot or stabbed, the "altercation" has "escalated." Afterward, the “perpetrator” exits the premises.

Ejected from the vehicle: Think “thrown from the car.” It’s always a “vehicle,” not a “car,” even if the officer knows full well that it is a Ford Crown Victoria the size of your parents’ first house.

Discharged his weapon: “Fired his gun.”

The unit block of X Street: Never just “the first block.”

Failed to negotiate a curve: “Ran off the road.”

But the part I love the most about this most recent blog is McIntyre's reference to the old cop drama "Dragnet". Suffice to say, I feel like one of the fortunate one who've actually listened to, not watched!, to this old show. For you see, my grandmother was cleaning out her attic while she was getting ready to move into a smaller house when I stumbled across a collection of old time radio shows containing shows from "Gunsmoke" to "Amos and Andy", "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and of course "Dragnet", old 1950s cigarette commercials and all.

For you see, listening to these tapes inspired me to pursue a career in voice acting, and thus changing my major from Vocal Performance to Corporate Communications. It's also a little dream of mine before to graduate to start a radio show here at Simpson where my friends and I would act out these old radio shows using old radio transcripts found on the Internet, like "Guy Noir: Private Eye" from Garrison Keillor's NPR show "Prairie Home Companion".

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Newspaper self-flagellation

By: Callie McBroom

Romensko is reporting a new response to "judging a newspaper by the number of copies in the market." That response is that it "makes no more sense than counting the number of television sets to evaluate a TV station," which obviously doesn't happen.

Matt Baldwin, vice president of research for MediaNews Group recently made a very good point. He said, "I'm continually baffled by the newspaper industry's insistence on self-flagellation when it comes to reporting circulation declines and the maddening failure to properly position the reality of media transformation."

He also points out that broadcast television and radio companies never seem to bring attention to the numbers of audience members that are turning away from their services everyday. And he's right. Pointing out the declines only makes things worse.

Additionally, just because circulation is down doesn't mean that other avenues to access newspapers aren't available. In fact, visitors to websites may even be increasing more than readership is decreasing.

Baldwin believes that "telling the whole story is our ultimate responsibility - to readers, consumers and advertisers alike." Because reporting the whole story is the purpose of journalism, it should be a priority for newspapers.

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Buying the Oval Office

By: Kelsey Knutson

It is not news to anyone who has had their eyes open these past few months; the spending that has been going on in this campaign is tremendous. 

From Sept. 8 to Oct. 4 alone the candidates together spent over $28 million. This amount of spending is a 64 percent increase from the spending of the 2004 presidential race. Money clearly equals power. 

Democratic candidate Barack Obama is venturing into a new form of media campaigning by spending just under $2 million for 30 minutes of air time on Oct 29. This has never been done before. This broadcast can be seen on CBS, ABC, and NBC.

In the past, presidential candidates have spent money on long ads on cable networks but never on the national networks. The last time a presidential candidate bought a 30 minute ad was Ross Perot in 1992. 

Each candidate has spend an enormous amount of money. Obama has spent more than McCain; however, that is only because he has raised more. (A lot more) But does the advertising spending really mean anything now? No. The advertising meant a lot more the campaigns six to seven months ago. Even way back to the primaries. People now have made up their minds.

However, the point is that the media has become the main force in these presidential campaigns. It is the most efficient way to get a message across to the country. But don't be fooled - political scientists say that just because one candidate outspends the other doesn't mean he/she will necessarily win. 

Money equals power, but when it comes to elections the people still hold the ultimate power. 

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Colorado newspapers plan to play dumb as the election inches closer

By: Kathryn Lisk

With the election less than a week away, the public is more interested than ever in where each presidential candidate stands on important issues. Generally, society counts on news sources to provide crucial information regarding either candidate and newspapers are dedicated to doing so.

However, 13 weekly papers across the front range of Colorado owned and operated by Colorado Community Newspapers has decided to leave any information regarding the election or either presidential candidate out of their weekly papers to give readers time to establish their own views.

This attempt to prevent media interference on readers is ironic because without including any important information about the election, readers will not be capable of fully establishing their own stance.

I understand that a reader could be offended when a newspaper endorses a candidate that differs from their candidate of choice. 

However, keeping all information from the reader regarding either candidate seems a bit extreme. Newspapers are supposed to provide readers with news. 

In a heated election like this, political news should not be avoided.

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Fading fast

By: Alex Jones

It is not new news that print forms of media are going out of style but which newspaper will be the first to discontinue it's daily print edition?

Christian Science Monitor will be the first nationally read newspaper to discontinue the printing of the paper daily and move to only printing weekly. The more important move for Christian Science Monitor is the shift to the internet. 

Great emphasis is being placed on the paper's Web site which will be updated continuously through out the day. The newest technology is also being researched to place on the Web site which is expected to attract more viewers.

The Christian Science Monitor has been declining in readership for the past 40 years but has high hopes when looking to the future. Implementing this newer form of the paper in April 2009. 

It's only a matter of time when all newspapers move completely to the internet. 

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Unbiased?

By: Sarah Harl

Kelly McBride, columnist for Poynter Online, a source for "everything ethics," speaks her mind on "gotcha" interviewing in a recent column.

McBride is referring to recent interviews conducted with John McCain and Sarah Palin by Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. It was argued by some that these were more interrogations than interviews designed to embarrass the duo, specifically Palin.

McCain described his displeasure with the reporting, saying he felt the journalists were not providing all of the necessary information to make the questions clear and straightforward.

McBride proceeded to give the readers a textbook explanation of deceptive journalism, and how what Couric and Gibson did was not considered deceiving journalism, and was therefore not biased.

Now, it is true that none of these questions were out of order: McBride is correct about that. What she fails to understand is that people find it biased when you drill Senator McCain and Governor Palin about hypothetical situations of country A invading country B, and then you ask Senator Obama what he likes to do with his family.

If Obama had been as aggressively interviewed as the Republican ticket, there probably would have been inconsistencies in his story too. And that is what is unfair about this situation: not that Palin and McCain were asked tough questions, but that Obama has consistently not been asked the same questions.

So McBride could have saved the lecture in fair journalism, because it can simply be achieved by asking both candidates the same questions in the same way.

Unbiased.

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A worry for journalist

By Kellie Green

As a journalist class many of us may be interested in becoming journalist at some point in our lives. Will it become harder to become a journalist than what it was like in before?

The reason I decided to write this blog was because I saw a blog on poynter.org saying that USA Today was laying off a lot of their journalist and workers.

In the article in USA Today it says that Gannett, "which is the largest newspaper publisher" is cutting 10 percent of jobs. There was a fear that some people at USA Today might loose jobs but it was clarified that this wouldn't happen.

What I began to worry about is the future after this cut. We know that newspapers are not making as much as they had in the past, is it going to get worse in the future.

If it does get worse then there might be cuts in the need for journalist. The article doesn't say what exactly is getting cut but it does say that no jobs at USA Today are going to be cut.

It does send a scare to journalist now and future journalists because they are cutting either their jobs or jobs near them. Hopefully a career in journalism will always be around and never be threatened of disappearing.

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It's easy being famous

By: Gabe Gilson

If you were to watch any college football on a Saturday, possibly on ESPN, you would get the analysis of many people that know football. Of course, all the analysis is coming from former players and coaches that played and coached football.

It seems to me like no matter how good of a speaker, journalist, or analyst one may be, if you were once involved with a big time college football program your chance of getting face time Saturdays in the fall on ESPN is easy. Take Lou Holtz for example. Holtz is 71, deafer than a bat and about as easy to understand as Sloth from The Goonies. Whenever he does give an opinion, it is usually something insanely and annoyingly biased about team he used to coach, Notre Dame.

Holtz is not the only example of people hired on ESPN because they “know” football. Mark May, who used to play offensive line for the University of Pittsburgh, Lee Corso, who coached most notably at the University of Indiana and Desmond Howard who won the Heisman Trophy playing at the University of Michigan. All of these “experts” are not very good at providing the most essential information to the college football fan.

Not everybody on ESPN who comes from a football background is horrible at their job though. Kirk Herbstreit, who played quarterback at Ohio State University, does a great job providing excellent insight into the college football world. Maybe it was the excellent education he got but he always seems to have the right thing to say at the right moment.

If I wanted to be a college football analyst on ESPN, I think it would be very hard without doing a lot of coaching or making myself well known in the world of college football. It is really too bad that the only people who are hired these days are they big time football boys.

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Everyone knows who Diddy is voting for...

By: Jessica Hartgers

If any of you have been paying attention to American pop culture you have noticed that Sean "Diddy" Combs is taking every advantage of any publicity he has gotten to promote Barack Obama in the race for presidency.

Diddy, who is one of the most recognized male celebrity, is openly honest with his political beliefs. For example, he sports shirts that say "I heart Michelle Obama." But the question is have any of Diddy's millions of fans asked him why he supports Obama? My guess is no.

While Diddy is clearly not the only celebrity to voice his opinions in the media, he is a very influential person and I wonder how many of his fans see his great support for Obama and decide that they themselves are going to vote for Obama also, without making an educated decision.

The responsible thing for Diddy to do would be to use the journalists and free publicity to educate viewers instead of influence them.

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Swinging the axe

By: Lexie Hagerty

It isn't a surprise these days that newspaper and magazine advertisements are going down. Every other media news story is about a newspaper or magazine that has now cut more employees due to the decrease in ad sales.

However, Mediaweek's article about one specific magazine still came as a huge shock to me.

Rolling Stone had to let go of seven employees in the last couple of days, a cut of less than 2 percent of the magazines 400 full-time employees. It is a slow start, but cuts are inevitable.

The media world should have seen this coming with such an old magazine, but yet it is still so hard to believe. This is Rolling Stone we are talking about. The magazine that any celebrity would kill to be in or even mentioned in.

If Rolling Stone can't overcome the new change in media, there is definately no hope for any of the smaller printed media.

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The Drudge Report’s accuracy

By: Sara Crouse

The Drudge Report has been known to produce high profile stories over the years. The Clinton Scandal first emerged on the Drudge Report. The Drudge Report has also been known to exploit its fair share of baloney.

Rarely, does a local or national paper generate a story idea from The Drudge Report for fear of its contents being too outlandish. Papers and news sources educate the public on current events, and any source that may not give true information is often disregarded.

Earlier today the report published “2001 Obama: Tragedy that ‘Redistribution of Wealth’ not Pursued by Supreme Court.” Fox News was quick to jump on the news, rather than casting it aside as hushed gossip during a drink with a coworker.

Fox News’ hasty decision to pick up the story will come back to haunt them. The attack on Obama’s statement appeared to many as a harsh blow from extreme Republicans picking a fight.

Whoever first reported the statement forgot to recognize it’s origin from a long interview, in which Obama addressed issues concerning civil rights cases focusing on minorities rights. In context to the interview, the term ‘wealth’ meant qualitative wealth, rather than quantitative economic wealth.

Interpretation of the initial quote can be described as Obama’s support for the redistribution of civil rights, but not through economic means only.

It’s important to base reporting interpretations from the entire interview, rather than picking and choosing. While The Drudge Report said Clinton had options, a journalist/reporter has only one option. That option is presenting the truth.

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Deadlines come and go

By: Taylor Browning

One thing I've come to realize it that a deadline is not the end of the world, just the end to your project at hand.

I thought about our stories we are writing in class and thought about the reporters for major newspaper and multimedia outlets. Being assigned a strong project with a short amount of time, on the national news basis, would be really difficult to accomplish.

With the election coming up and newspapers trying to find new angles on the subject, it would be even more difficult to create, research, and write more and more articles on the same thing, but with a twist.

I am thankful we get to relate our stories to Simpson Campus, or else I would probably still be researching and writing my first story!

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NRA gets shot down by Virginia newspapers

By: Erin Floro

The National Rifle Association has proposed to several newspapers in Virginia and other states about wrapping their products in plastic anti-Barack Obama advertisements on Election Day. The plastic wrap would read: "Vote for Freedom... Defeat Obama."

Although the Richmond Times-Dispatch originally told employees they would accept the NRA's deal, they now report that the newspaper's wrapping will not feature the gun lobby's political advertisement.  The Virginian-Pilot also rejected the proposal.

This tactic may be unusual, however the current scheme is not the first time the NRA has employed ads in newspapers. Two years ago in Montana, the gun lobby used a similar technique to support a candidate for re-election in the U.S. Senate.

The newspapers' say they rejected the proposal to prevent appearing as though they only endorse one point of view.  The Pilot's policy, for example, is to sell space on its print pages to candidates or interest groups of varying persuasions.

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Breaking news in Northeast Iowa

By: Quinn Albrecht

There has been some late news coming from Northern Iowa today. A woman and her two children went missing sometime Sunday evening and where reported missing Monday morning.

The three were found about 8:00 am Monday in rural Littleton. 

This would not be such a strange situation, had this been the first time these three have been in the news. In December of 2007 the woman, Michelle Kehoe, and her two sons, Sean and Seth, plunged into the Iowa river in Iowa City. Several people passing by helped recover the three out of the icy waters.

I remember this story very clearly and thought it was fairly odd. No further investigation followed the accident however. The accident got extensive news coverage at the time. This recent accident is receiving a lot of coverage as well, but the Buchanan County Deputies are keeping a lot of information to themselves at this time.

They say that there is not public threat at this time and no warrants have been issued. I am concerned with the large media coverage that is hitting this very small town, but there is no news to report on at this time. When do news stations decided to let something like this go, and move to the next big story.

There are two main new stations in the area, and the one that is the furthest away, seems to have better coverage of the story. It seems that to one station the story is dying before it even gets started.

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MTV: get out the vote campaign

By: Shauna Agan

While watching MTV tonight I saw a commercial where a bunch of young adults, including the members of Fallout Boy, were sitting around having conversations about the election. In this particular commercial, a young man was speaking about how many opportunities Barack Obama is providing for minorities and that this has never happened in a campaign before.

As I continued watching my show and more commercials came on, I saw four more MTV made political commercials. Two were repeats, but two were new commercials.

One of these commercials featured musical artist Pink. Pink was briefly explaining the need to voice your opinion and vote.

In the end of Pink’s commercial, she expressed that she had the right to her opinion just as Sarah Palin has the right to her opinion. To me, this insinuates that their opinions are different, and Pink is an Obama supporter.

The final commercial I saw was another group of young adults in a conversation about the election. While I cannot remember exactly what was said in this commercial, I do remember that the commercial supported Obama also.

These commercials do not specifically tell individuals to vote for Obama, but rather they promote the power of voting. However, every one of these commercials does mention support for Obama somewhere in them.

MTV has a lot of power and influence, especially within the community of young adults. Teenagers and young adults are the target audience for MTV.

By running these ads, MTV is campaigning for Obama and promoting his name to young voters. I do not have any problems with MTV running advertisements for Obama because MTV has a right to voicing the opinion of their company just as any other company has the right to voice their company’s opinions.

The problem I do have with these advertisements is that MTV has always been about getting out your vote no matter which candidate you vote for or which party you are in favor of. These commercials do promote individuals voting, but they also add towards the end of all of them that they are supporting Obama.

If MTV wants to openly endorse Obama, they should do that rather than running commercials that just insinuate they want Obama to win.

Furthermore, I believe that commercials promoting to get out and vote and voice your opinion should be separate from commercials supporting Obama. It is okay to have both, but MTV should keep them separate so it does not look like they are saying get out and vote for Obama.

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New Gen. New Times

By: Adrian Aitken

As technology advances today so must the media to keep up with the times. Newspaper publishers especially need to keep this in mind because the medium has been around for quite some time with little change.

Recently publishers have begun uploading videos onto their respective websites including Simpson's own. Even now this technique alone has become outdated and the New York Times are combating it.

Videos are being uploaded to the Times' website in high definition bringing the company into the latest generation of technology. To usher in the new format the site itself is getting an overhaul.

The entire library is being transferred to the high definition format and given a wide screen format. Also the videos are given their own window to enhance downloads and the quality of the video. Another piece now added to the site includes a "most viewed" videos section for quick picks.

By staying caught up with the times and technology newspaper publishers have a chance of increasing their lifespan a little longer. Also upgrading the site may attract younger people who could become customers in the future which is also need to stay alive.

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The bashing is getting out of control.

By: Katie Anthony

I will begin this by just stating that I am a supporter of Barack Obama and that this blog is going to be extremely biased and it could possibly make a lot of people angry. Somehow, I'll live with that.

Today in class we discussed the scandal that happened over the weekend with the woman that faked the "B" in her face claiming (stereotypically at that) that an Obama support had sexually molested her. Considering the "victim" ended up confessing to doing this to herself (after, of course, realizing that the "B" was backwards) it got me thinking.

This "victim" talked to both Palin and McCain after the alleged incident. Not to mention the amount of "free publicity" she got for McCain and Palin. Now, I'm not saying or implying by any means, that McCain or Palin supported her doing, but are McCain supporters getting desperate?

This evening in Dayton, Ohio, McCain gave a speech at his rally. However, it was reported by Slate that his message could be summarized into one word; "Boo." This headline got my attention because it read "Political Halloween," and those two words normally don't go together.

McCain seems to have fallen back into the Obama bashing, again, grasping at anything he can get his hands on in order to get his number back up. However, and correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe the results were that the more McCain bashed Obama, the lower his numbers got.

Call me crazy, but I think that McCain really is grasping at all straws. I'm not sure what's going on in his head, but I don't understand why they [politicians] find it necessary to bash each other. I realize it may be "part of the race," but I think that the media can find another angle to report on.

For me, the bashing has become old news, and doesn't need to be reported on over and over and over again.

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The bad stuff means the most

By: Jessica Hamell

Why is it that the bad stuff said about the candidates gets the most attention? It isn't what they say they want to do that gets the top spot. It's what relations they have with certain religious figures or what their supporters fabricate.

The news went wild Thursday and Friday about a McCain supporter who thought up a fabricated story about how an Obama supporter had attacked her. Even after they knew it was a fake story people were still going crazy about it.

People have been saying that Obama has been connected with terrorists when he was just on a committee with them. Some people even believe that he isn't even American. If that was the case, I don't think he would be running for president, obviously.

Isn't it more important what the candidates are say or what they want to get done? The people in today's society pay way to much attention to rumors that they hear about the candidates and not about their ideas.

Their ideals are what are going to make a difference in our lives and this country, Not who they were connected with in their past or news about their supporters.

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Sale decisions

By; Sarah Keller

Have you ever had trouble making money decisions dealing with sales people, such as getting insurance on a rental car, or more likely for college students; insurance coverage on cell phones? I am sure at some point you have come across a salesperson who has tried to get you to take some kind of warranty, whether it be over an iPod, camera, or something completely different. If you are like me you probably have had trouble deciding whether it was a good deal or not, whether you would be saving more money or spending more.

Luckily people like Ken and Daria Dolan from Wallet Pop had people like me on their mind and decided to make a blog about “When salesmen put you on the spot: Answering eight common questions”. In the article that they wrote they answered questions on what are good deals and what are bad deals to take up. They make valid points, points that will help me to be able to say yes or no to a salesperson the next time I am asked if I would like coverage on a certain type of plan.

I might not be asked if I would like fuel coverage anytime soon on a new car because I do not plan on buying a car anytime in the near future (as discussed in the article), so I do not have to worry about turning them down, but I was asked recently if I would like a three month free trial of magazines, it sounded tempting, but luckily I turned the offer down. I am glad I did, because according to the article, I would eventually have had to pay the subscriptions off, and it would have been charged to my credit card. I really enjoyed reading this article, it gave me a lot of insight on things I was not previously aware of, and I would recommend people reading it because it really does give you valid information.

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Newspapers endorsing candidates

By Austin Bates

By now you've probably heard of various newspapers endorsing one of the presidential candidates. Recently, the Chicago Tribune made news by endorsing a democratic nominee for the first time in its 161 year existence. The Los Angeles Times also made news by endorsing Barack Obama after 36 years of endorsing no one. These are just a few of the many papers across the nation that are endorsing political candidates. So the question becomes whether their actions have an effect on who the next president will actually be or not.

According to NPR reporters, it does. Specifically, Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher says that editorial endorsements of candidates can determine who the next president might be. He related that in 2004, when John Kerry ran against George Bush, in the remaining 15 toss up states, he looked at the number and size of newspaper endorsements. Based on that, he says he correctly predicted what candidate would win what state 14 out of 15 times.

Now this is of course an unofficial method, and anecdotal at best, but the question still remains: can a newspaper endorsement influence who the next president will be? I would say "yes" as well. A newspaper, despite recent declines in readership, is still a very trusted, very much respected source of information. To many, a newspaper might be the most trusted source of news available. So when these papers then endorse a political candidate, why wouldn't their readers, especially the dedicated ones, instantly jump on board with their judgment?

Another question I have is whether these papers should endorse a candidate. After all, as I mentioned, newspapers are one of the most trusted sources of news by many, so should they be tainting that trust, that reputation of mostly unbiased reporting with a political endorsement? Politics is one of the fastest ways to alienate people in a discussion, so why would a newspaper, especially at this time of their existence, risk alienating many potential readers by endorsing a candidate?

My thoughts are that they should never endorse a political candidate. After all, when reporting news, one is supposed to remain objective, unbiased, and outside of the current events (with most topics). While you might argue that endorsing a candidate is something else entirely, I think that it ultimately isn't, and makes a paper, in general, look opinionated. If a newspaper can have an opinion on a political candidate, who's to say it might not have an opinion on other topics that it's reporting on?

Bottom line, a newspaper probably shouldn't endorse any political candidate, ever. Reporting avenues get accused too often as it is with having an agenda.

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Presidential Debates

By: Katie Schaefer

What is it about the presidential candidates always saying bad things about the other?

Now I understand how by making one presidential candidate look bad, it'll make the other look good, but it always makes them look bad too.

Nobody likes a person that talks bad about everyone around them, but isn't that what the presidential candidates are doing?

I realize that Barack Obama isn't going to go around praising John McCain, but he could say how McCain does have some good points in his plan.

The public would have a lot more respect for a candidate that has his own ideas, but can also admit when his opponent may have a good idea.

Someone has to win, though, and no matter what things aren't going to change. Presidential candidates are still going to put down each others plan.

With all of the debates going on and Nov. 4 closely approaching, Obama and McCain are neck and neck in the polls.

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Time to focus on the real issues

By Liz Tjaden

The fault could be placed on the media. Or it could be placed on the craziness that comes when a huge election is approaching. Whichever it is, not even the best journalist could have made this story up.

On Oct. 22, a woman in Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, claimed she was attacked because she was a McCain supporter. Standing at the ATM, she recalled that her attacker, a black male, knocked her down and carved a ‘B’ on her face after he noticed she had a McCain sticker on her car.

Friday it was discovered that the incident had been fabricated. The woman had been attacked by mental health issues in the past but not by an angry Obama supporter. Maybe this story needed some fact checking but the reporters were only telling us what they had heard from the police. The media cannot be blamed here for the story being false but maybe for giving it so much coverage in the first place.

It’s time to get back to the real issues and celebrate the upcoming holiday by carving pumpkins, not faces.

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Journalistic hierarchy in sports

By: Hannah Pickett

In the journalism world, there is a definite hierarchy of news-topics taking precedence over others and stories having hierarchies over others.

In the small-town sports newspaper world, winning teams take precedence over losing teams. In the case of Winterset, however, certain sports take precedence over others as requested by the publisher.

For instance, in the fall, football is the key focus, regardless of how the team is doing or how well the other sports-cross country and volleyball-are performing. In the winter, wrestling takes precedence over basketball, again regardless of the grapplers’ success. In the spring, track has a hierarchy over soccer and golf, and in the summer softball reigns higher than baseball.

This season Winterset and I-35’s football teams are arguably the worst and most embarrassing in the schools’ recent history. Earlham football is doing alright, though. This week Winterset and I-35 will lose another football game, and Earlham may or may not pull out a win. Thursday night, two cross country teams and seven individuals qualified for state.

According to my publisher’s requests, all three football teams will be on the front page, the only color page of the section, and the cross country teams will be on the second and third pages.

I am the sports editor and will write all of these stories as well, and I take issue with the losing football teams getting press on the front page and state qualifying runners getting the shaft. I plan on disputing this, as it is not objective whatsoever.

Where is the line drawn in a small town newspaper between being objective and running what the publisher, aka the cash cow, is more interested in? My guess is that this would never be an issue in a larger town. Where do small town, private newspapers get off running what the cash cow has a personal interest in?

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New tool for journalists is unveiled

By: Allison McNeal

Journalists use a variety of tasks and functions to get the inside scoop on a story.

Since many companies use different tactics, organizations like the World Wide Web Consortum (W3C) have started to develop semantic tools and language to integrate these functions.

Web 3.0 recently was introduced to showcase semantic tools, which are applications that are used to show different formats and can be understood by new applications that are used in reporting.

"The semantic web is an engineering solution that will allow [new applications] to be meshed and available for use by machines globally," journalism.co.uk said.

With this new tool, projects like OpenID, Friend of a Friend, and Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities have started to open up.

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different Web sites, and allows users to have control of their login.

Businesses also benefit by allowing a lower cost of password and account management, while drawing in new web traffic.

Friend of a Friend gives makes it easier to share and use information about people and their activities like photos, calendars, and weblogs.

It also can be used to transfer information between Web sites and to automatically extend, merge, and reuse it online.

Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities can be used to enable community sites to merge their data and enables new kinds of usage scenarios for online community site data.

This organization also allows innovative semantic applications to be built on top of the existing social World Wide Web.

According to journalism.co.uk, an individual could do a search on Facebook and get results back from within that site, but also blog results from Technorati, comments from Flickr albums, and YouTube videos.

"In the semantic web, it is not just people who are connected together in some meaningful way, but documents, events, places, hobbies, pictures, you name it!" said John Breslin, the founder of the Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities project. "And it is the commercial applications that exploit these connections that are now becoming interesting."

Even though these corporations believe that the Internet will allow individuals and different systems to interact with each other, will consumers want to embrace this new tool?

If a consumer searches Facebook or MySpace, will they want to be have results pop up from other Web sites?

While there may be no clear answer, only journalists and consumers will have to put this new tool to the test in the months and years to come.

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Journalists lie to tell the truth

By: Kathryn Lisk

Last week, my blog was centered around the idea that journalists must ensure that they get their story right before running it.

 Most people would assume that telling the truth to everyone involved in the story would be included in this. But is it?

On The Media examined several cases where journalists went undercover and lied about their identity to their sources in order to cover a story. 

Nellie Bly used her theatrics to fool workers of an insane asylum. She spent 10 days as a patient and once she was released, she wrote a two-part story about the unethical conditions. Her efforts led to more funding within the facility.

On the other hand, Ken Silverstein took undercover reporting to the next level. He called himself a consultant in the market for a Washington lobbying firm and was equipped with a new suit, fake glasses and even false business cards. 

I understand that certain stories cannot be written without undercover journalists. In Bly's case, her reporting led to a positive change. However, as an editor, I would never encourage one of my reporters to go undercover. 

If the public expects its news source to be reliable and truthful, reporters must remain truthful to all members of the community. Even to those who may not be honest with reporters.

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Internet videos: Not just for college students anymore

by Peter Merchlewitz

It seems that being a news reporter just isn't enough anymore. According to Beet TV, the Wall Street Journal is now training their new employees to not only edit, but also produce videos for their online version of the paper. As of June 2008, the Wall Street Journal has trained 185 print journalists to produce such videos.

These acts of journalism in the Internet Age just further emphasizes the importance of multi-platform journalists being able to produce news through different mediums.

I can't help but give kudos to the Communications Department at Simpson for having the hindsight to update their curriculum in the direction of new journalism abilities, thus helping students gain more experience to make them become more desirable when looking for a career in news writing in the real world.

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Media Madness

By: Kelsey Knutson

A recent Fox News article reported that most of the McCain coverage in this election has been negative.

The report showed that 57% of the media coverage of McCain is negative while only 29% of the media coverage for Obama is negative. Is this right? Or does it actually matter?

Statistics like these lead people to believe that certain media groups are biased one way or another to a candidate. Especially with 24-hour news coverage of the candidates and their campaigns we begin to see opinion and "not so objective" viewpoints coming into news reports. However, you get different bias' with different media outlets and stations.

For example, Fox News is considered "more conservative" where as CNN is considered "more liberal." Does this actually matter?

I say no. I say the media plays a large role in how people view candidates; however, I also feel as those people who actually care enough to watch certain news channels to listen to what is going on in the campaign are also people who know what bias' they are hearing. 

People already think what they think and know what they know. Which channel or station they choose to watch (that has which ever bias it has) just reinforces already existing views. 

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Halloween scare

By: Kayla Miller

I was clicking on practically every link on the Des Moines Register Web site (once again) when I came across a link that I had to blog about.

Well let me ask this. What or who would you want to be for Halloween this year? A cowgirl? A pumpkin? Heck no, you want to dress up as a superhero, right? I can tell you are dying to be either a Hillary Clinton or Sara Palin superhero! Yeah, I could say that's not really what I was thinking either.

I went to search out the new and funny Halloween costumes, and I can most definitely say I ran across a "funny". I would have never thought of dressing up as a politician.

How is this news? Well, people love to see different, new, and funny things. People like me do anyway. Crazy costumes of lady politicians will make the news considering it is election year.

All I got to say to the ladies (or men-- if you choose) is if you choose to be Palin, be sure to wink and most definitely wear those glasses.

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Tweeting Journalists

By: Callie McBroom

Journalists now have a new tool to use in their reporting. Twitter. This is a rapidly growing social media service that provides a way to stay connected and communicate with others quickly and frequently.

One website describes the twitter experience as "an ongoing Headline News version of what’s happening in the minds and worlds of people you know or find interesting." This can be good for helping journalists engage personally with people and spreading news quickly.

Amy Gahran suggests using twitter on beats. She says, "Beat reporters can use Twitter on an ongoing basis to give their communities a window into, and opportunity to assist with, reporting projects -- as well as spread the word about their work in order to drive online traffic and spur public discussion."

Twitter can also be very useful when combined with blogging. Which as we know as become very important to the news industry. Maybe Twitter can add to this and help out the industry even more.

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Kids vote for Obama

By: Alex Jones

Nickelodeon, a popular television station for children held an election recently that only kids can get involved with.

Accessing Nickelodeon's Web site kids are able to vote for their pick in president. This year over 2.2 million viewers voted. Naming Barack Obama as the kids' choice for president.

Nickelodeon has held this mach-election for kids every election year since 1988. Viewers have picked the next president of the United States correctly 4:5 times. 

Kids were able to vote online from October 12-20th. The network sees the mach-election as a chance to get kids involved and excited about the voting process. More viewers turned up this year to vote than ever before.  

This process is incredibly important for kids. They are able to get involved, get informed and therefore are more aware of the voting process when they are old enough to vote. 

This method also keeps the younger generations who aren't yet old enough to vote, interested. Obviously it's working, check out the voting numbers!   

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Where do these rumors come from?

By: Gabe Gilson

Earlier this week, my favorite football team, the San Francisco 49ers, fired their head coach Mike Nolan. The firing was not something that anybody did not see coming as the 49ers slipped to 2-5 and have been having a lot of problems offensively.

Since the firing, Mike Singletary has been named the interim coach, changing his role from the team’s assistant coach. Singletary is a good short-term fix but everybody in the media knows that he will be just that and will most likely not be the head coach at the end of the season.

Because of this, the rumor mill all over the NFL and college football is lighting up. Many people try and speculate who will be the next coach based on what makes sense. One man that makes sense to fill this void is another Mike, Mike Holmgren (side note: the NFL is filled with coaches who are named Mike. It is really odd how many there are named Mike) Of course, Holmgren says he will stay away from football next year and does not want to coach for awhile.

Another man that would be a good fit according to those in the media is current USC head coach and former NFL head coach Pete Carroll. Bad thing for the 49ers, Carroll will decline to comment on the coaching situation. This basically means he knows he is the head of a college football dynasty and will not leave there anytime soon.

Here is how easy I think it is to start a rumor like this. Bill Cowher, who is a former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, might be the next 49ers head coach. He has been out of the league for a couple years, wants to coach again, and could possibly be a good fit.

The rumor mill in the NFL is worse than any other professional sport just because of situations like this. In all likelihood, Singletary might be the coach of the 49ers next year. Is he the best fit? 49ers fans may not think so. The media might not think so but, maybe instead of formulating opinions on who the next coach might be, they could just talk about how poor my team is.

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Being truthful

By Kellie Green

I think that it is great that the news tries to be accurate on everything that they do. In an article that I read on The New York Observer they talked about how the New York Post had earlier this month had post a statement about Michelle Obama.

The statement had said that Michelle Obama had ordered a lobster and caviar dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. However, the statement was false. Michelle Obama was not even staying at the Waldorf-Astoria.

The New York Post reported today that this was an incorrect statement and that they apologized to the Obamas and stated that they were misinformed by their source.

I think that it is great that the New York Post did this. It shows that they really care about the truth in their news. They should have made sure of the facts before the paper was printed but it does help that they tried to correct the incident in the end.

Having true statements is essential to have in articles because statements can always lead to something bigger. Like in this case, where the Obamas were being scrutinize for something that they didn't do.

Journalists should always check their facts to make sure they are true. However, if they do make an error it is great that they come out and admit it and correct it.

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That's where he's getting all that money...

The Barack Obama campaign recently confirmed that members of the media would have to pay top dollar in order to cover the senator from Chicago's Grant Park on election night.

While the cheapest option (a single 2o amp circuit) is going for $165, top spenders can get all of the luxeries for a mere $1,870.

$715 will get a reporter the cheapest credentials. What the campaign fails to mention is where, exactly, that money will go.

Journalists have the right and reponsibility to bring their viewers and readers the best information they can on the eve of this very important and historical election. And by making this move, the Obama campagin is eliminating smaller news sources from the mix of those that will be covering the event.

What will Obama start putting charges on next? The Washington Monument, perhaps? This is the exact same man who says that we need to finance more government sponsored programs for the under-privlidged, yet raises more money for his own personal campaign than any other presidential nominee ever.

And this latest taxing of the press seems to bode well for the future of this country. It seems like once long ago we tried to get away from the man that was taking our forms of communication. Maybe history does indeed, repeat itself.

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Rachel Maddow doubles audience

By: Erin Floro

MSNBC has a new host for the 9 p.m. prime-time hour that is doubling the cable news channel's audience. Rachel Maddow's liberal news program, "The Rachel Maddow Show," has averaged better ratings among 25- to 54-year olds than "Larry King Live" 13 nights since airing on Sept. 8.

The number of viewers has climbed from 800,000 to 1.7 million in her short time on cable television. This makes MSNBC competitive with the top leading news networks, CNN and Fox News. Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, says it usually "takes two to three years for a show to find its audience." Maddow is finding her audience almost immediately.

She accounts for her show's success on "The Countdown," hosted by Keith Olbermann. Her show follows directly after his both in time and similarity. She is retaining over 90 percent of his viewers.

Interestingly enough, Maddow doesn't even own a television and has never watched Mr. King's program or Fox News. She wants to remain original on air.

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All I want for Christmas

By: Lexie Hagerty

I read this cute little article on Broadcasting and Cable about what the average consumer wants for Christmas.

In previous years, the top three choices ranked from most desired to least desired were computers (#1), "peace and happiness (#2), and televisions (#3). This year, televisions have dropped to number six, while computers still rank in the top two.

Those who said they would buy a TV, 85 percent said it would be an HDTV or at least a 40 inch screen. About 28 percent of those people said they would buy a TV simply to prepare for the DTV transition.

After learning these statistics, I think the TV is headed in the same direction that the CD and the newspaper have gone. Soon, there won't be any left and they will become an item of the past.

It is sad to think about, considering the TV was such an extraordinary invention, but I know that people will get over the loss quickly when they are introduced to new technology.

My only question is what will this new technology be like and how crazy will it be?

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Colorful Reporting

By: Adrian Aitken

One of the topics this election period brought up in the early part of the campaigns was if America was ready for an African American president. I believe this to be an okay idea to focus on because whether you like it or not is a big deciding factor. Yet to report on this the reporter needs to be objective and sensible.

Quinn and Tennent are two radio talk show hosts on The War Room with Quinn & Rose who discussed Colin Powell in regards to his racial status. Rather than focusing on his achievements and advancing his race the pair talked about which race he belonged to.

At one point they agreed Powell was a white man as he served on the Bush Administration. The hosts agreed the public as a whole also thought the same way. They then moved on to stating that after Powell left he became "black by popular demand," as stated by Quinn.

Quinn and Tennent are tarnishing the media by taking such a hot topic and playing with it like play-doh. The media isn't seen in a good light as it is now, but this type of reporting does not help. I'm not sure if the radio hosts were punished by the FCC for calling Powell an Oreo, but their credibility must have taken a dive.

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Anti Web sites

By: Shauna Agan

Every once in awhile there are objections to certain media outlets and the way they report certain stories. One student in China had enough disapproval with the American media that he created his own Web site.

Jin Rao, a Chinese student, created the website anti-cnn.com. This Web site is designed so he can express his concerns about the distortions in all the Western media, and not just specifically CNN.

This site generates around 500,000 visits per day. The majority of these visits are from individuals who live in China, but many are from non-China residents.

Rao believes that the Western media does not expose the facts correctly. In an interview he conducted on China Central Television, he said his purpose in creating this Web site is to inform as many individuals as possible the truth about the people of China.

Rao would like peole to know that it is the Chinese police, and not the rioters, who killed people during the Tiebetan unrest, a series of activities to protest the Chinese rule in Tibet. He says the Western media makes it sound as if the individuals are the ‘bad’ people and not the government.

Web sites like these allow individuals to express their side of the story, especially when they believe the media is not doing them justice. I think more people should speak out when they don’t think the media is presenting the stories correctly.

One similar Web site is foxattacks.com. I think more Web sites or media sources should be devoted to showing different individuals’ perspectives on how media reports stories incorrectly.
Although I do not necessarily agree with personally attacking one individual Web site, I think it is a good idea to research inaccuracies or distortions in all sorts of media and present them to the public. Many individuals are apt to believe whatever they are told from the media, so Web sites such as anti-cnn.com are a great way for individuals to show their side of the stories media is publishing.

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First Amendment Issues

By: Quinn Albrecht

A Florida high school has hit a rough patch in producing a long time running student news paper. The Red and Black has been around since 1899 and currently is putting out an addition daily. 

One of their writers wrote and article and printed it that the administration was unhappy with. While it was being printed, they cut the article out of all the copies of the newspaper, over 2,000 papers.

The local media has picked up on this story and is running with it. The article was about the achievement gap of white and black students at the Hillsborough High School.

The article was not run because the administration felt that the article could harm students self esteem. Where does the First Amendment come in and protect these students, don't they have a right to print this, and a right to know?

The principal felt that he had the legal right to take that article out. Also, the students involved are not supposed to talk to other news outlets about this story.

Would the administration been better off leaving this alone, of did they in fact save their students from harm.

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Curiosity killed the cat

By: Katie Anthony

For this particular blog entry, I decided to do a little bit of investigating. After story two for class and hearing "TOPIC LEAD," "TOPIC LEAD," "TOPIC LEAD," over and over again, and getting frowned upon for leads that were more than 30 words, I wanted to see how true those rules stand for real journalists. Honestly, I'm grasping at any straws I can get my hands on that will help leads not suck as much for me.

The one thing I struggle the most with leads is writing a mere topic lead. Some of us don't have the creativity like Gabe Gilson does, and if you don't believe he's creative, I'm 90 percent sure he's the only student who has hyperlinked the urban dictionary in his blog.

For my investigating, I went to GoogleNews and made a collaboration of random leads that consisted of one or two leads per section (news, entertainment, sports, etc). Overall, my findings weren't what I wanted them to be. Simply put, we've been taught correctly in class.

I was hoping to find that in at least one section the leads would run over 30 words, but all of the leads were 30 words or less. In the sports section, the two leads I pulled were both under 20 words.

There is no hope for people like me who suck at leads.

In simple terms the media may be changing, but AP style is here to stay.

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Racism and Presidential candidates

By; Sarah Keller

I have been curious as to whether racism would play a factor in how people vote fore the next president. I read an article from AOL news over this subject. The article did a pretty nice job of reporting. It talked about how people who are normally considered “racist” are actually thinking about voting for Obama because of his educational background and half a Caucasian ancestry.

The article did however discuss that some people who said that they would not discriminate based on the color of skin are the ones who are voting for McCain. I am really glad that this article was written. I think that it is important for people to read about how racism could affect the presidential outcome.

Racism is a real issue that is at hand and one that needs to be discussed. It needs to be known that the next president of the United States should not be elected based on the color of his skin but rather the way he can lead our country, I feel as though some people tend to forget that key detail at times.

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Online magazine gets a clean 'slate'

By: Sara Crouse

Slate Magazine is an innovation all its own. Online magazines were relatively unheard of before 1996. Then Slate was launched with the hopes of providing an easier way to get all the latest news stories.

Slate had its difficulties in the early years though. The magazine had trouble adjusting to things such as basic web layout and fundamentals of HTML.

One reviewer, Jakob Nielsen, said, “Slate is mainly a failure due to its inability to adjust to the online medium, though it sports several promising innovations and appropriate uses of the Web.”

Besides poor adjustments to online media, Slate was also lacking in its journalism foundations. The articles were simply too long for readers. Almost all stories were well over the traditional 500 word limit.

It seems Slate has adjusted since its beginnings. In fact, its internet reach has grown 175 percent since its subscription went entirely free. Slate does offer the option of a paid subscription to certain columns if you prefer them delivered to your e-mail inbox.

Perhaps the most helpful thing for readers is Slate’s design of displaying the top headlines from national papers. Slate does a great job of giving readers quick access to the top stories of the day from various papers.

Today, the articles are still long, but they are easier to navigate. Articles are grouped into sections, and even provide hyperlinks to as many as three other opinions concerning the article.

Just this weekend, Slate took another step in making its magazine even more user friendly. The website over went a redesign that now feature three top headlines. Users can take their pick.

The redesign was also necessary for Slate’s most recent adaptations to innovations in journalism. Slate now has six blogs linked to its site. Video and podcasts also display the day’s newest stories.

The online magazine has come a long way since its start in 1996.

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AP losing newspaper membership

By Austin Bates

Recently, the Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, among other newspapers, announced Thursday that, in two years time, it would end its contract with the AP, from whom it gets wire services from. Other companies have announced or considered similiar moves, but none as prominent, apparently, as the Tribune Company.

This got me to thinking about what the AP's future might be. Currently, the AP, among other duties, offers wire services, multi-media content, and national sports teams coverage. Non-contributing members of the AP have to pay fees to use this material, and this seems to be the chief reason why some papers are ending their contracts (the two year notice to the AP is actually required by contract).

In another report, AP's Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll pointed out that while the Tribune Company ending their contract is worrisome, this is not the first newspaper to leave the AP. Most cases have been confidential before, though.

In any case, the profit downturn for newspapers seems to be the driving force behind some of them leaving, seeking to cut costs by ending the fees some have to pay.

By all accounts, the newspapers that are leaving will do more harm to themselves than to the AP, as the AP is looking to move toward more profitable ventures in the changing landscape of journalism, and newspapers in general are still struggling with this issue.

The AP, by its nature, has more news information, more media, from more spots, more completely than any single newspaper could hope to have, since the AP is a coalition of newspapers contributing to a central source. Apparently, some of the newspapers, with the changing percentage of actual news in their papers, are seeing the AP's services as less and less important.

Still, in the end, I wonder if the newspapers won't come back to the AP several years from now, hoping to remedy a continually decreasing level of profit. I see the AP as continuing to go strong, by the blessing of sheer mass of information and services, while individual newspapers who shun the AP's services could be "left out in the cold", figuratively speaking. I know that, considering the AP is the heart of many news feed services, the writer of the book on standard newspapers style writing, and has been around since the mid-19th century, I wouldn't readily leave their services behind.

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Gas Prices

By: Katie Schaefer


Gas prices are as low as they have been in months. The price for gas hasn't been under $3 since Feb.


How did prices get so high? Why are they just now starting to drop?


Gas prices were getting so high because the price of crude oil was starting to raise. The amount of crude oil available was also starting to drop.


Still, even with these two factors how can we go from gas being $2.81 a year ago to gas becoming $3.83 the average just a month ago?


Everyone can remember when gas use to be $.99. Crude oil prices kept raising and raising until we got to where we are today. A month ago gas prices were the highest average they have ever been. Just now gas prices are finally starting to drop and become affordable again.


Experts expect that crude oil will once again drop from &74.50 to $50 a barrel, which will bring the prices down below $2.50. Some places, like Indianola, has been fortunate to already have prices below this. Walmart has their gas prices at $2.39.


As prices soared we saw less and less people on the road. Even today as "low" as the prices are, people are still hesitating to take long vacations or fly anywhere. The prices of gas fluxtuate so much that people are still worried about where and how they spend their money.


With prices starting to drop, though, people need to start taking vacations now before they start to rise.

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Harmful or helpful?

By Liz Tjaden

The LA Times endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president on Thursday Oct. 16. This announcement comes as the first Democratic endorsement from the newspaper and the first endorsement of any presidential candidate since 1972.

The real question is whether this “celebrity” support has any influence on the actual voters come election day.

People want to be associated with a “winner” and to be comforted by their decision. Endorsements from these stars or companies help voters feel at ease with their choice of candidate, and therefore can be very helpful.

The idea of endorsement can be compared to parodies from Saturday Night Live and shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Some argue that this form of media has no influential power whatsoever, while others feel that they actually help people define their own perceptions of reality. When they see, for instance, Sarah Palin’s actions being exaggerated by Tina Fey, it helps point out her actual flaws through comic relief and gets the viewer interested in finding out more about her.

Ultimately it depends on the individual and whether they allow these endorsements and programs to affect their choice in the voting booth come November.

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Cadidate projects

By; Sarah Keller

I came across an article on MSNBC talking about products made based off of the presidential candidates. I decided that I needed to blog about it because I found it really funny. The article discussed how people are making items such as dolls, Pez dispensers with the candidate’s heads, shirts, and even Sarah Palin paper dolls and lipstick.

I found this article to be entertaining and well reported. It might not be the most important article to write or for me to blog about, but it sure was entertaining to read about how people are making Palin lipstick, glasses, and high hills.

It just goes to show that the election is becoming as much as a show and part of the entertainment industry as some movies and television shows are. One can almost compare the candidate’s fame to such things as Hanna Montana shirts and dolls. I think that the election should be taken more seriously than just making funny items having to do with the presidential candidates, but I did find the article funny and enjoyable to read, and I must admit that I did enjoy looking at pictures of the items that are being made.

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Small town newspapers rely on reporters' honesty

By: Hannah Pickett

With my job as a sports editor, I am in charge of two correspondents from two surrounding towns. These correspondents cover the sports in their town/school, email their pictures, stats, and stories to me, and have relatively no face to face contact with me.

Since we cover three schools, it is difficult for me to keep up with every sport at every school, which is why I rely heavily upon our correspondents from that particular school. This past summer, one of our correspondents' daughters was playing softball for a team that should have made it to state, but didn't.

About halfway into the season, I started to notice a trend while editing her stories. Every single story highlighted the game with her daughter doing something incredible. I found this a bit fishy, because her daughter had the type of athlete to make game-clinching plays for the win. Also, I had received quite a few emails saying that the game didn't actually pan out the way it was reported. So, I headed to one of the team's games the following week.

Our correspondent's daughter warmed the bench until the bottom of the sixth when she pinch hit. I talked to the coach after the game and he said this girl had seen action in two games this season. I confronted our correspondent about it and she started throwing a fit, denying everything.

The publisher, the editor, the correspondent, and myself had a conference call later to discuss the repercussions her choices had on the company. For the next few weeks, we printed retraction after retraction, and I had to double check every single claim she made in her article.

This goes to show the importance of reporting the facts straight. You wouldn't think that in a sports section you could get away with fibbing through a story, but in this case, she did for a few weeks. I felt like a complete idiot because a sports editor is supposed to catch this type of error, but I had no way of knowing. She even changed the stats to match her story. The score always matched up with the actual score, too.

We could have been slapped with so many lawsuits for libel because of her ulterior motive to put her kid in the spotlight. Not only did she make a fool of herself, but of me, the editor, the publisher, and the entire publication in general. Needless to say, she is no longer employed.

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Google not phased

By: Alex Jones

Google is optimistic despite the current global economy's uncertainty. 

Pulling in 30 percent profit year-after-year Google is precise with their spending and has invested its previous earnings very conservatively. Rather, the company has saved and earned interest on their money resulting in $14.4 billion profit. 

 Google is also involved in a "currency-hedging" program that saves the company from the fluctuations in currency markets. This program has already started saving the company money. 

Another strategy the company uses is avoiding negative notions regarding the current economic situation. Rather, the company keeps a positive outlook on the situation believing that more people will look to Google in the future for bargains online.  

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Media is going to get hit

By: Alex Jones

The economy is plummeting leaving many people and businesses to suffer. 

The media industry is no excuse. Some experts predict that the media market will go through a non-profitable stage for the next few years. 

It is predicted that many big print names will fall. Traditional media is not adapting to the newer online trends of media (such as blogs) and are therefore losing money.

Another observation made by researchers is that readers now want a say in what is covered in the media. Previously the media tended to publish news that was thought the readers should know, now the information has moved towards information the readers want to know.

This new way of presenting the media is another reason why more readers are looking online for their news needs. There are more media sources online, more opinions and readers are able to participate more in the news.

Promoting the news as more of a conversation where there is communication between the media and the readers will help companies stay alive during this trying time. 

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Newspapers start to rely on advertisement rather than content

By: Allison McNeal

Many newspapers have started to merge toward online advertisement.

The World Association of Newspapers stated at the world digital publishing conference that more than 800 U.S. newspapers have signed up for Google's online advertising, which is promoted through Google's AdWords Print Ad Systems.

Since this advancement, Google's advertising has gradually gained opposition by many industry leaders.

Moritz Wuttke, chief executive officer in Asia & China of the media sales company Publicitas, said that "it's time for newspapers to stop putting 'all their ads in one basket' and start challenging Google."

He also stated that it was unnecessary for Google to have so many companies join their network, because newspapers should work with other individual companies to expand their organizations.

Other companies, such as Comcast, Dell, and General Motors, are trying to gain more support and money through micro-blogging sites like Twitter.

Micro-blogging allows individuals faster access due to technology and is a common social networking site.

Online newspapers have invested heavily in micro-blogging sites, such as one Web site in China, which spends 80 percent on blogging compared to 20 percent on traditional advertising.

Even with the move toward blogging, "newspaper companies need to regain their advertising spending from other non-media companies," Wuttke said. "To overcome this competition newspapers need to copy Google and other online sites, by looking at the sales channel and [their] pricing model."

Will companies want to face the competition? Or will they align with Google and other large media corporations?

If companies want to gain revenue and become a media giant, online newspapers will start to move toward independent organizations.

This movement would showcase the content of newspapers, rather than placing emphasis on advertisements.

Micro-bloggers and other individuals will have to wait and see what online newspaper organizations will decide in the months to come.

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More problems for newspapers

By: Callie McBroom

Some newspaper companies are making decisions to drop news services provided by the Associated Press. This is related to AP's recent plans to change the rate structure for their services.

The newest newspaper to give notice of their plans to drop AP services is Tribune Company. This company owns 9 big daily newspapers, including Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. And before this, at least 4 others pledged to do the same.

The plan causing so much controversy would only provide some of the stories it is currently providing now for a lower price. The rest of the coverage would be available for an extra fee.

AP expected the plan, that will go into effect as of 2009, to save members money overall. However, many companies believe that this plan is not cost-effective for their operations. This has led to them giving the required 2 years notice to AP to drop services.

The question now is will these changes help or hurt the newspaper industry's major problems

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Getting it right

By: Kathryn Lisk

During class, we have often talked about how hard it can be to get a story right. Whether it's AP style, quoting sources, or simply understanding the topic, there are so many factors that can cause a journalist to get a story wrong.

In the presedential debates that took place Wednesday night, an article from the Washington Post was misleading about what Joe Biden's proposal for Iraq was and a blogger from Media Matters for America was quick to notice.

What was interesting was that Washington Post's Michael D. Shear didn't misquote anyone. He stated exactly what John McCain said in the debate. However, he didn't clarify that McCain's statement about Joe Biden's Iraq proposal was incorrect.

In the Media Matters blog post, the blogger states exactly what was said in Shear's article and then clarifies where Biden actually stands on the issue. This informed the blog's readers that both McCain and Shear had misinformed their audience regarding Biden's stance on Iraq.

I found this article interesting because it shows those learning about journalism just how hard it is to be accurate when writing a story, which is an important lesson to learn.

If any of us in Beginning Newswriting could learn this lesson from others' mistakes, we would surely save ourselves a headache as journalists in the future.

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Media Matters

By: Kelsey Knutson

After the third debate is finally over, we can all breathe a sigh of relief - kind of. 

McCain and Obama went at it again Wednesday night battling over the economy and taxes on national television. The national stage was a media hot spot and just another opportunity for each candidate to get their voices out there before this November's election.

Not only are the debates an opportunity for media attention and a chance in the spotlight go gain attraction, but the many ads and commercials that have been aired recently show the significance of the media and the effect it plays on voters' opinions.

The way a news story is portrayed in the media (be it Fox News or CNN) the bias or lack there of can effect the the way a vote goes.

McCain and Obama have effectively been using the media to get there messages heard this election season. Each candidate has spent millions of dollars on television ads just so the average American can catch a glimpse of them everyday, and also so they hear what they have to say. 

The candidates have worked hard and have done a great job, but let's hear it for the press who have been working twice as hard to bring YOU the news. 

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Woman journalist has come a long way

By: Erin Floro

Boston University Communications professor, Caryl Rivers was recently awarded the Society of Professional Journalists Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement honor.  She began her journalism career 40 years ago as a sports reporter, which was unusual because most assignments were given to males to cover athletes.

Her notable career has spanned over four decades.  She has gone from interviewing local swimmers and baseball players to attending press conferences with important political figures such as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Rivers is now a role model for potential female journalists.  As a Washington newspaper correspondent she has covered such issues as, the civil rights movement, the Kennedy presidency, and Vietnam.  She has written 14 books and continues to contribute to major newspapers in the United States.  While appearing as a panelist on a Boston television program, she focused on discrimination in the media against women.

She feels that she is paving the way for her students in the field of journalism, especially women.  By looking at her accomplishments, she hopes that they are inspired that anything is possible.

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Risky business

By: Jessica Hartgers

The McCain campaign is in attack mode and taking out all aggression on Obama and the democrats.

Opinions of McCain have started to drop as the republican presidential nominee has taken a negative tone and is throwing personal attacks in the direction of Obama. As a result, Obama looks to have a clear lead in the recent polls, whereas before the margin was smaller.

With three weeks to the upcoming election the topic is on every one's minds. Why would McCain use such tactics this close to election day? The McCain campaign is at an all time low and it is critical that they recover from this drop.

McCain's intentions were to use the personal attacks to decrease Obama's rankings, however they were viewed to the public as "low blows" and resulted the opposite for McCain. Majority of voters think that McCain has spent too much time attacking Obama in a time that he needs to be explaining his plan of action for presidency.

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