News Lead

This news lead is from an article I read in the Miami Herald website this afternoon:

Girl slashed with razor at middle school
By WANDA J. DeMARZO AND HANNAH SAMPSON
wdemarzo@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Two girls were taken to Broward General Medical Center after getting into a confrontation at school shortly before 9 a.m. Friday.

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/58245.html

The lead is a summary lead, since it moves straight into the "who, what, when, where, why, and how's" of journalism. It especially places an empahsis on the "what" and "who," since we learn that two girls were taken into the hospital after getting into a physical confrontation. I think this summary lead proves effective since it solely focuses on what happened, rather than trying to "spice things up" in order to grab the reader's attention. It sums up exactly what happened in just a sentence, which is important for people who are on the go and want to read a story in the quickest amount of time possible. While I would have liked the lead to mention that one of the girls was injured with a razorblade, I realized that the lead didn't need to have this piece of information because it was already located in the headline. Overall, I think it is a good and effective lead for this kind of story.

Absence of Malice

While I could not see the first half of the film and am still a little confused over what exactly happened in the movie, I felt that Absence of Malice portrayed a rather negative and cynical view of the media. While we as journalists know that the character Sally Fields played was sloppy in her work ethic as a reporter, the general public may not know this. For the most part, they will see the media as the enemy in the film, which is probably an accurate portrayal of how society sees the media. They see the media as something that should not be trusted. Megan Carter (Sally Fields) was irresponsible in her reporting and work ethic and did not seem to realize just how her words were affecting innocent people. It was frustrating to see her act in such a way, especially knowing that audiences would see the film and categorize her as the average journalist - a story hungry wolf. In a way, this film has made me realize that I really do need to be careful with what I say, do and write throughout my career. I don't want to be classified as an enemy to society, simply because I want a story. I would like to change this negative viewpoint that has been bestowed upon journalists and change what society thinks of the media as to something more positive.

first post.

Here's a meaningless little first post.