Towson to take on Japan in exhibition

The Men’s Lacrosse Team is taking on Japan in an exhibition game on September 26th at 7:30pm. The game is being played Unitas stadium on the Towson University campus. I want to focus on the Japanese team for the article. I never knew Lacrosse was played in Japan, let alone on a level to travel the world and play. I’m also interested to see their style of play and as a former player I could provide some possible insight. I can also Get the Towson Player perspective see how they thought the team stacked up to the NCAA’’s best. I also want to know what kind of equipment they use. Is it American or do they have their own manufacturers. Lacrosse is a sport huge in Maryland but the same isn’t true for all of the United states, how big is it in Japan? How fast is it growing? These are some of the questions I will answer in my piece.

leads done right

There were a lot of great posts on twitter, It seems like a great site for journalism students to practice their skills as well as just keeping in touch with friends. The first twitter that caught my eye was Mike McGregor's page which I found to be concise and well written. Another page I found to be well done was Melissa Hales. She kept is short and sweet but still incorporated all of the pertinent information. The third twitter account I thought was great was Christina Gunther’s. I found her site to have the best facts tucked into the lead and short reports.

All in all I think twitter is a great tool for learning to write leads and short reports because of its character limit on each post. The posts I highlighted represent good news writing to me because they did the most with the space they had, there is no room for wasted words on lead writing.

Just the facts sir.......

The use of leads and Short reports is intended to wet the appetite of the consumer. The person is presented who, what, when, where in a quick orderly fashion. This is effective because if they are truly interested the reader will later look in to finding out the why or how of the story. Short reports are organized in different ways depending on the medium. Broadcast or web bulletins are 1-2 sentence, they are reserved for urgent situations like weather emergencies. E-mail alerts are another way news outlets keep users up to date. You can also tailor the alerts to subjects that interest you like stocks or fantasy sports. Yes now surfing the internet can an even lazier activity. Short reports differ from leads in that leads are written in the past tense. It is used to draw the reader into the article. There is not just a quick update on breaking news like short reports tend to be.

I found an example of a summary lead on the New York Times website. It read “The engineer of the commuter train that crashed into a freight train in California on Friday, killing 25, is said to have been exchanging text messages before the accident.” (New York Times) this is a summary lead because it is first off in past tense, it’s very specific mentioning all the details of the story before the newest addition about the conductor text messaging. It’s also avoided being wordy and speaks to the reader because of the loss of life being mentioned.

The Short report example I found was “In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street history, Lehman Brothers said it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, while Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for about $50 billion.” This is out there displaying the need to know facts in an orderly and efficient manner. You got who, what, when and where. And if they hooked you, you jump on board double click and find out the why.

Sources:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/business/15lehman.html?hp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/us/15crash.html?hp

What is News?

News is a device for the public to stay informed. News is a collection of data which is interpreted into information and presented to the public. What is being reported in the news depends on the medium greatly also. This is because some mediums are better suited to certain news stories. For example, sports work well with television because of the visuals while politics are more appreciated in the print media (except all those cable news network’s which give me seizures). Once you identify your audience and the medium you can make decisions on what news t cover, in this case on the baltimoresun.com I was able to find stories that are definitively news worthy.

This story is definitively news worthy to anyone living in Maryland……]

A short term fix for a long term problem is what the Maryland state government has in mind for its budget issue. Officials voted for the first time in 20 years to increase the limit on the state’s debt by 1 billion dollars. The story most definitively has a large impact on the people who live in Maryland. Governor O’Malley’s administration has said without the increase the state would have to stop 800 million dollars of projects planned for two next 2 years. This makes it a prominent issue with the governor and comptroller Peter Franchot calling his offices a “sobering window” of Maryland’s economy according to the article. This article is unusual because officials haven’t voted to change the debt limit in two decades. It also is a recurring issue, the budget and debt that is. There is a sense of conflict because it seems that because the state office tax collection hasn’t stood up to the plan this is a desperate move to cover their ass. Not a very honest move in the eyes of the voters. Also the Republicans in Maryland are adding this to the list of over spending by the O’Malley administration. The Stories is also brand new only published on the site today the 9^th. The audience also directly pertains to the Maryland area because this means increased taxes for them in the future.

Another Article I found that directly pertains to the Baltimore area is the finalized plans for the Michael Phelps homecoming. News-worthy for many reasons, most importantly because he is the greatest Olympic athlete to ever compete. Winning every event he competed in and along with his previous medals becoming the most decorated swimmer ever in Olympic history is more than news its history…….So guess what? They are having a parade!!!

That’s right a parade from Towson to Rogers forge with events following at fort McHenry. So this article is making the public aware that the most prominent figure in sports right now in the world will be rolling by our little college on October 4^th. This even lacks conflict and currency but its unusualness and prominence blow it away. I will be proud to go watch Phelps roll by and wave, if I was form Maryland or even better Towson it would be one of the proudest moments of my young life.

The third article I found another big time sporting news event. Tom Brady, Americas golden boy or most hated depending on your zip code has gone down and it’s not looking good. After a hit to the knees that the NFL has ruled legal he’s sustained major damage to his knee and will require surgery and several months of rehab. That’s right within the first hour of the first Sunday of football the entire landscape changed, a newsworthy feat at least. Tom Brady is of course the reigning MVP of the league so there is no player more prominent. Its impact affects all fans especially here in Baltimore because this increases the raven’s chances of getting a playoff spot. This article is very recent because Brady was only injured 2 days ago.

In the end what makes news is more the subjective act of the journalist to focus on certain things, They can’t cater to their entire audience (especially in print) but journalists do have the power to make issues known and stir up some dust to gain attention. Information is one of the most powerful things on the planet, just ask a victim of identity theft.

Photos provided by

wikitravel.org/en/Annapolis (anappolis state house)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2004-09/14206835.jpg (Phelps homecoming 04)

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/07/tom-brady-goes-down-1/ (Brady injury)

Links for journalism backpack

Pictures of Nick Trost with celebrities from various jobs

http://jaredsilfies.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/mobile-journalism-kit/

http://www.nicktrost.com/

Backpacks and utility belts

Backpack journalist is a team describing the new media journalist who carry a lot of great equipment with them so that if in a wi-fi area they could publish their material or get it to their editor. the link provided shows this journalists utility belt including a digital camera, because you may only get one chance for that perfect shot, a lab top so he can write and communicate instantly. It also includes an audio recording devise because a great quote is much more powerful then the most beautiful paraphrasing. he also carries a digital video camera and style guides because any writer who think his work is complete and perfect is insane. the fact that he carries the style guide says good things about his ambition and drive to be a better journalist.

I looked closely at NickTrost.com, the website for a 20 year old journalism and Spanish major at the university of Washington. On his site he has links to video of his broadcasting of various university athletics. His backpack would hold all the things that Silfies would but also a tie and jacket for those live breaking news digital broadcasts form the field.

the Intro Music

It makes sense to introduce myself because well you only get one first impression. So here goes, I’m Matt Dockery and I just began my 5^th semester here at Towson University. I am studying Mass communications and haven’t decided on a track yet so I’m exploring all my options and taking class in PR, Advertising and Journalism. I’m 20 years old and a die hard sports fan. I love the Super bowl Champion Giants, New York Met’s and anything to do with basketball.

So, I was raised on Long island and I loved being a kid there, opportunity for boyhood stupidity was at the max (but where isn’t their?). I had great sports franchises to follow. Great pizza, I can’t stress the importance of this enough. The greatest city in the world a 40 minutes away. The beach 20 minutes away. We get some snow, certainly enough for snowmen, sledding, and pegging the mailman with snowballs. Summers were filled with stickball, manhunt and most importantly no school.

As I grew older things shifted from where do we ride our bikes to where? To, were do we ride to get beer? House parties always ending with sever regret from the owner and a strange sense of accomplishment by the masses. Then S.a.t.’s, College essays, Prom, and it’s off to college.

Now I’m here at Towson studying Mass Com really just trying to figure things out and learn a business along the way. Truth be told I don’t know what I want to do but I know I want to where sandals on weekends and never stop playing wiffel-ball.

I have always enjoyed story telling in all forms. A great film, book, song even a knee slapper form your uncle bob. I personally never wrote anything outside of school till well into high school. Last semester I took a gen-ed advanced writing course and had my most enjoyable challenge since coming to school, See I’m a cynic so when it comes to school and mundane memorization I don’t buy in. but when I’m presented with a genuine challenge that is legitimately interesting a jump at it. This class also seems like an enjoyable challenge. I guess those ideas grow from my resentment of the way education as an intuition has become more big business then anything else.(or maybe I’m just pissed because of how much text books cost.) Yea I know rants on a blog wouldn’t make a change but it could entertain and who knows maybe even teach you something. (Though its most likely irrelevant)