I plan to cover a speech by Marcia Lausen on Election Design Reform. This event will be taking place on Thursday, September 25 in the Center for the Arts on Towson's campus. She was the advisor for Design for Democracy, which was an initiative of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. She works with designers, researchers and policy makers to improve election designs after the confusing 2000 presidential election ballots. I found a few websites online that describe Marcia Lausen and her work so I was able to find advance information through those sites.

My main sources for this event is the Baltimore Chapter of the AIGA because they are co-sponsoring the event. Also Marcia Lausen is going to be available for questions after the event so she will be a main source.

I plan on asking just a few simple questions.

How did you get involved with the Design for Democracy?

Has your experience working as the advisor for Design for Democracy been what you expected?

Was the public involved in the designing process?

I will also be taking notes during the program and if she says anything that I would like to be expanded upon I will ask that as well.

I also will be looking online for the new design so I could ask her specific questions on the new ballot.

Twittering

Carly Wellham

Lead- "Go Green RecycAll program hits Towson." Good, short and precise lead.

Short Report- "Recycling will be made less confusing for Towson students with more labels on bins." Explains the who, what, and how in the short report.

Caitlin Moore

Lead- "Budget Cuts stops new hires." In active voice, and also very precise but leads me want to read the article.

Short Report- "As freezing process remains, Towson University plans to keep there options open, while looking for part time faculty members." Explains the who, what, where and begins on why the budget cuts are occurring.

Cara Flynn

Lead- "Towson football loses to Richmond." Her lead is in active voice but

also is a very simple one line lead into the story it is almost a headline but still can be a considered a lead.

Short Report- "The Tiger's 45-14 defeat, in Richmond Saturday afternoon, was due in part to four interceptions thrown by quartarback Sean Schaefer." This short report is one compound sentence which describes the 5w's. Her short report is very good and incorporates everything that is needed in a short report.

Short reports and leads...

A lead is pretty simple to define.

It is a concise and sharp statement of a news stories' vital details. The main difference between a lead and short report is that leads are written in the past tense.

Short reports are exactly that a short report.

The short report gets the basics of a story out to the public it states the who, what, where, when, why and how known as the 5w's and the h. Sometimes short reports cover a breaking news stories and will just give the a few details until the whole story can be written. Short reports are updated regularly to give up to the minute details of a situation.

An example of a short report would be that of Gas prices on the rise. This report is a simple 4 sentence story that is packed with information. It says why, where and what caused the prices to rise, who is feeling the effects and when the prices will rise.

LA train wreck death toll rises to 18; 135 are injured is a good example of a lead. The lead in to the story is one sentence which is packed with vital details of the train wreck. It tells what happens, who was effected and when the accident happened. This is the lead in to the story which goes into major details of the crash.

Photo credit- Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2008

What exactly is Newsworthy?

For a story to be considered newsworthy it usually has to contain several of the following qualities, impact, prominence, unusualness, currency, conflict, timeliness, proximity, affinity and human interest. Most stories you read in a newspaper or watch on television contain at least one of the qualities or it wouldn't even be considered newsworthy. I chose three stories from The Baltimore Sun that contained the newsworthy qualities. 

The first story I chose is Fire Destroys City Playground. This story is considered newsworthy for many reasons the first being impact. This playground was used daily by hundreds of children and now there lives have been impacted by this fire that destroyed a place where they could go and have fun. Another reason why this story was story is newsworthy would be timeliness. Stories that are recent and new are more newsworthy than those that happened a few weeks ago. This story was just published this afternoon and the fire occurred only hours before. Proximity is the physical nearness of the event. This fire was at Memorial Stadium which is right in Baltimore only minutes from Towson. 

The second story I chose is Md. Faces Revenue Shortfall of $432 Million. This story definitely is newsworthy. It impacts the lives of all Marylanders because we all pay taxes and this story is saying taxes could go up or projects that were supposed to happen this year around Maryland might be delayed because of the budget. This story also displays conflict, many people are at odds with the Governor and other officials because of this terrible information that was released. People all over are asking why and how did this happen, when this happens it causes conflicts between the government and the people. 

The last story I chose is an entertainment story and some people might consider it pointless and not newsworthy but according the the definition of newsworthy it is. Officer Testifies that rapper Lil' Wayne had gun on bus, is a story is a about a celebrity that is prominent. Prominence is one of the newsworthy values because naturally people are interested in stories that contain celebrity figures, we want to watch the prominent figures because as a society we focus on being like celebrities and knowing every move they make. This story also has a since of unusualness because not everyday does a rapper bring a gun on a bus. 

Test links

Whats in your backpack?

A backpack journalist is someone who is always ready to catch a story. They are people who carry the essentials with them at all times, such as a camera, voice recorder and notepad. They are people who are able to multi-task and capture all aspects of the story; they are able to get interviews, photos and videos. Jared Silfies keeps a multitude of items in his backpack. He keeps his laptop, digital camera, cell phone, flash drive, notepads and pencils, and of course The Elements of Style and his planner. I have actually not read The Elements of Style yet but I did just buy it today after hearing it is a must have book. After seeing that Silfies carries this book everywhere with him it shows me that he is dedicated to make his stories accurate and professional.


One journalist whose portfolio I found to be outstanding was Patrick Smith. He is a photojournalist from Baltimore, Maryland who actually went to Towson and served as the photo editor at The Towerlight. He works as a freelance journalist in the Baltimore area and is a photo intern at The Baltimore Sun. Patrick probably carries a digital camera, USB cord, computer and notepad in his backpack. He needs to be able to upload his photos to his computer and take notes on what he just photographed. Under each picture he writes a few lines on where, when and why he decided to snap the photo.

About me...

Hi everyone! I am a sophomore at Towson and I am majoring in Mass Communication with all three tracks if that ends up to be possible. I really love Towson and I have been enjoying it since I started here which was only a year ago but its great. I am a senator in the SGA and I am the managing editor of Tower Echoes which is the yearbook on campus. I also work in the Provosts office, so I definitely keep myself very busy. I just moved off campus this year to a local apartment complex so I am still very close to campus. I have great roommates and I am really enjoying life off campus, although I am on campus more than I am at home. I love warm weather and the beach, I also love to travel. There are a few quarky things that I do, one of which is that I am obsessed with the weather. I am constitently checking weather.com and am facsinated with hurricanes and tornados. I would love to go chasing a tornado one day! So thats a brief summery about myself but I will probably expand on my hectic and crazy life at some point through these blogs.