My last official day...

Onlookers,

Today is my last day in the news room before school begins. Throughout the day, I edited pieces in the paper which will be published tonight. In between edits, I have looked at the articles and stories for this upcoming year for the Courant and feel completely confident looking at everything and making little nit picky edits from AP Style Guide. Not only that, but I have come up with many ideas for the next school year pertaining to editing and integrating the print medias.

Some ideas:

1). When the print comes out, have the first featured (first article seen - biggest one) article of nchscourant.com be the same article that is on the front page of the print.

2). Pay more attention to the type of article (conversational v. informative) to create an appropriate headline. 

3). Create comprehensive check lists for editors and reporters which integrates AP Style Guide and Strunk & White into the curriculum (reference them in the check list so people understand where the idea is coming from and then they are indirectly reading those publications in general) 

4). Photos in all media must be clear, active, and colorful - always use the same image for a story in all medias. (Also when publicizing it.) 

Most importantly: let all reporters and editorial staff flourish - lead them in the right direction and then let them create. 

On Aug. 29, I will be taking photos and writing an article as a follow up to Dog Days of Summer. 

What I plan to take photos of:

- Owners and pets participating in events such as 'doggie duets' and 'family resemblance'

- Children playing at the Toddlertime nursery school and Let's Dress Up activities 

- Doggie massages 

- People taking packages from venders

- Dogs in general 

- People getting food from venders

- Speakers giving demonstrations during their talks

My column did not make it in the paper this week because of space. I also need to edit it a little more in general (rushed it a little bit and didn't completely feel confident when I sent it out.) 

So last day in the office.

Last time reporting from the New Canaan News, News Room.

Sara McCloskey has signed out. (after editing for a few more hours)

(7 hours in office, 2 hours writing column) 

Dog Days of Summer Article

This past week (Aug. printing 21st) I wrote an article called "Chamber lets the dogs out in New 'Canine'" about the dog days of summer. That article itself went on the bottom of the front page that day. Here is the over view for edits:

Questions:

Originally asked basic questions on how dog days of summer began and what's going on this year. Ashley added other questions that: focused on the 'family friendliness' of the event and the change of location. Also, I specifically asked about how and why specific speakers/ venders will participate in the event.

After the article was written - going by AP Style Guide:

PR should be spelt out: Public Relations

co-chair: co-chairwoman/man

Numerical numbers 1 to 10, above those numbers - spell out

Spell out 'percent' instead of using '%'

Ellipses: word (Space)...(Space). Word of new sentence

Style of New Canaan News:

No Mr. or Ms. - just last name.

Information not in the lead (ex. Aug. 29th from 1 to 4) - the lead needs to be 'cute' to grab people into the article. Also, it should be conversational because the event itself is meant to be fun.

Instead of using the word 'previously' to start a sentence use 'the first.' In general, use transitions often in new paragraphs.

Hit enter so a quote stands alone when framing them.

Later on, I will be taking photos of this event.

In the past year, I really have only written three articles this being my fourth. I felt very confident with my finished product. It was intimidating speaking to adults about their business and professions, but overall I was able to get good quotes for the article and successfully frame quotes with out bias. After writing this and reflecting on my question asking skills, I feel more confident looking for good quotes in articles and understanding how it would be difficult for a first year journalism student to come up with questions. Also, I can totally understand why a student would be intimidated by a teacher or any other adult while interviewing. I literally felt like I was back in J-liz 1 while interviewing, but when you interview more often you get more comfortable with it. Overall, because I had to take a step back and go on interviews instead of just edit articles - I can understand and remember how hard it is to put together an article. This will help me next year because I will be more understanding with first year students and can advise them with issues pertaining to interviewing and nerves.

Full Article

This week I came in on Monday and I started to work on a full article about an event happening soon. I have had to play phone tag to contact people for the past three days and will officially complete the article later today. Once it is published there will be a ton more to share.

While here Monday I also wrote another column. Ashley (EIC) looked it over and I will give critique once published. 

Live from the News Room,

this is Sara McCloskey signing out

(5 hours Monday, 3 hours at home, 7 hours in office today) 

Learning about integration

While reading the paper and looking online for New Canaan News, I noticed how the front page article and the headline stories are always the same (Scott Deicas story). Also, the primaries were on the front page of the August 6th edition and the updated version was on the front page online since the outcomes occurred (located in the news box). 

Also, for columns: in the paper they cover a whole few pages because there is a ton of room. The same articles are online and are updated in the opinion's box. This box method allows specific articles and stories to be highlighted for that given day. Also underneath the box other recent stories are listed. The listing method allows for the catchiness of the headline to grab readers. For the past few years, our staff has been trying to work on headlines and specifically how to make them stronger. Working with a listing formating system would help our staff to understand how important headlines are in both print and online media. This also allows for more content to be seen by viewers. 

Letters to the editor: 

From the school's hated database (wikipedia) I found a definition for what a letter to the editor is. It is "a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication." Sure, I understood that at first glance but the thing is - they are extremely powerful and readers take them very seriously. There were vicious arguments through letters to the editor attacking other writers in response to their views. Also, along with the 'critical' or 'praising' aspect of the letters - they can clarify when a person is misquoted which is similar to our commenting feature on the nchscourant.com. Power in the written word and freedom of speech. 

Formating wise: New Canaan News has the online version in the logo itself and does not refer letters to it's online edition as ONLINE (in the logo, it does in the web address). Also, sometimes without referring to an article there will be a "NewCanaanNewsOnline.com" at the bottom of a page. Advertising without being extremely obvious.

Looking out for more integration tools.

Still Live from the New Canaan News - News Room,

Sara McCloskey

(8 hours for all of today)

Fourth of July Photos: Why they were specifically picked.

Seven photos were picked for the Fourth of July spread on Page A3 of the July 9th edition of New Canaan News. Belinda Stasiukiewicz, the calendar manager, explained to me why these specific photos were chosen. Here's a summary of what she said paraphrased:

" There needs to be a dominant photo and the photo of the flag was prominent so I made bigger. All of the photos are clear and fit together. The kids were picked because it showed what people were doing. fireworks were bright and colorful - we always like to have bright and colorful photos with a lot of action. Also the shape of the photos helped me choose which ones would work. What you're trying to find are a bunch of clear and colorful pictures which all fit together well with the space on the page. "

What I need to look for in good photos:

- A strong focal point on the page when there are a bunch of photos

- Clarity: fuzzy isn't great

- Action

- Color / Brightness

- Shape created when the photos are together (atheistically pleasing) 

- What fits on the page

Catching all of you up.

Hello readers,

For the past few weeks I have been away at a pre-college program, but I have still been working on a few things for New Canaan News.

One: Fourth of July photographs.

These photos needed to tell a story of what was going on with New Canaanites and the events going around. I walked around taking pictures and actually ended up getting a few shots of the fireworks themselves. 

First off: I went to the play area. There were a ton of kids and parents around and I tried to get shots with a ton of people in them so everyone could see how crowded it was.

Second: The band. The band plays every single year and I tried to incorporate visual interest by capturing not only the conductor, but the American flag. Around them were a ton of people sitting and eating their dinners with yet another American Flag. 

Lastly: I was able to snap photos of the actual fireworks which was amazing because I have never been able to do that before! 

The photos used on Page A3 of the July 9th edition of the New Canaan used consisted of all of these: mostly the fireworks. In total there are seven photos all taking up one page. 

*This might be interesting to do next year with the paper because online has so many slideshows. If we were able to put a huge event on one page (if space allowed) it would be very interesting and would break up the texts well. Later on I will be discussing why these photos were chosen with Ashley and see why they these seven were better than the rest (I took probably fifty to choose from so this will be interesting.) 

My Toy Story article did not come together very well. The quotes were not strong enough because my question asking was very basic and it was difficult to get a good story out of it. Because of this, I ended up reading a book over vacation called: The NPR (National Public Radio) Interviews 1994 edited by Robert Siegel. Even though this is radio reporting, it was interesting for me to see the kinds of answers specific questions would draw out of people. Also, it helped me to see how to incorporate research into question asking. (I have executed similar things in previous articles, but I needed a little check up after my Toy Story fail.) 

One good example:

Liana Hansen's interview with Joe Franklin on August 1,1993

Hansen had gone through some previous interviews that Franklin had done with other people [Montel Williams] on his own show and used that information to interview him.

'Hansen: You asked Montel Williams, who now does his own dailey show. You asked him what he thought the role of a talk show host was in these days and how much influence a talk show host could have. I want to ask you the same question. What do you think the role of a talk show host is? How, maybe, that role has changed over the years." 

With the Toy Story article: I should've gone through and found memorable quotes about 'growing up' or other main themes in the movie and used that to ask people questions. Then the question would be more specific.

In the end, I turned that article into an opinions' piece which did not run because of complications and much editing. (getting a critique later) 

On the note of opinions' and columns - I started a column about my summer in the city which on part ran on August 6th 'to my fellow commuters'. Things that were edited were mainly technical: No. 1 instead of Number one. (Once again I will be receiving a critique later.) 

Live from the News Room,

Sara 

(Toy Story: 7 hours including interviews, writing, and movie itself, Fourth of July: 4 hours, Column 1: 2 hours, Column 2: 2 hours, NPR: 10 hours)