Hot Yoga

Ok, so what is wrong with this picture? I'll give you a hint, "Loose Weight, Feel Great!" Yes, it is official. Editing 420 has turned me into an obsessive grammar checker. This is a sign that my sister and I drove by in Naperville over Thanksgiving break. She explained that hot yoga is a group yoga class where they turn the heat way up. While reading the sign and contemplating how disgusting this form of exercise would be, I suddenly realized that the sign said "loose" instead of "lose." I assumed they did not mean that if you have "loose" (adjective) weight, then you feel great, so I told my sister to turn the car around. I explained to her how I needed a picture for my editing class. I couldn't believe a sign about physical fitness would get such a common statement wrong. Plus, my sister said that the sign had been there for a while.

So, like a crazy person, I jumped out of my car, grabbed my camera, squatted by the sign and took a picture. Luckily, I had my camera on me that weekend. The street was very busy, and I'm sure people were thinking, "Man, she is excited about hot yoga." Anyways, I was left wondering who writes these signs? Did the hot yoga place just leave the editing up to the company who printed the sign? Did anyone read this over? Either way, I think a mistake like this is ridiculous, and I am very tempted to call the number.

The moral of the story is that this class has made me much more conscious of the words printed around me. Now, because of this new obsession, I am finding myself squatting next to a hot yoga sign by the side of the road and taking pictures. That's normal...not.

Research

I spent a lot of time this weekend doing research for my Editing 420 research paper. I've done quite a bit of research on the web, but this afternoon I ventured to the library. I was able to find some articles and one really good book at the Communications Library, and then I ventured to the History, Philosophy and Newspaper library in the Main library. While there, I used the microfilm newspapers and the viewing machine. Although I hate trying new technology, it was extremely useful and I was able to look at some really good stuff that I would never have found online. I really recommend doing this if your topic allows.

Now I'm in the process of going through my research and developing a concentrated thesis statement. My topic is image coverage(with focus on fashion) of First Ladies and how newspapers frame information about them. It is still broad at the moment, but I want to focus my research on Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and (soon to be First Lady) Michelle Obama, showing how the increasing image coverage have enforced both positive and negative stereotypes of these women. The only source I'm worried about finding is an editor to talk with me about these topics. What do you all think about the topic? I'm open to suggestions.

Obama Wins!

Last night, Barack Obama was elected the first African American president of the United States. Newspapers around the world covered this event, and it may be safe to say that almost every newspaper in the country and many around the world had a front page dedicated to his victory. On newseum.org, hundreds of front pages of newspapers are available to view. Here are some that I liked and some that I disliked...

Likes:

The first one that caught my eye was the Bakersfield Californian. I think it was the dark picture covering the entire page with white text over it was really striking. Although there is no other text on the front page besides a quote from Obama, I think it was effective and powerful. In a way, I think it was smart to just let him do the speaking.

Another page that I thought was interesting was The Record Searchlight in Redding Calif. I thought the photograph above the fold would have been very eye catching at a news stand. Also, there are charts and other photographs that are very informative below the header. There is also local election coverage at the bottom, which is important to include for local audiences.

Another one that I really liked was the Staten Island Advance, in N.Y. I think this graphic with a photograph of the first African American president placed in the middle of photographs of the past 43 white presidents, is both eye-catching and extremely powerful. I think newspapers that did a special edition like this were smart. I am sure some will disagree with me and think more text is needed, but I think this graphic tells a story better than words could have.

Dislikes:

At first I thought I liked the front page of The Sun Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., but after viewing it longer, one of his daughters is positioned behind him and is out of the photograph. This was a very bad photo choice, since the newspaper decided to publish a photo of his family, they should have made sure everyone was in the picture. A few other newspapers used this photograph as well.

I was also disappointed with my hometown newspaper, The Peoria Journal Star. There was not one thing that I absolutely hated, but come on, give the readers a little bit more than a photograph of Obama waving. And to make matter worse, the main story was just an associated press story. It would have been nice to see a staff writer cover the story. It was just "bla."

I also did not like the head line used in the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Maine that said "Oh-Bama!" I commend the paper for trying something different than a headline dealing with the word "Change," but I don't think a play on Obama's name is necessary on such a historical day. Plus, we were were taught to be careful when dealing with word plays with names. The Register-Gaurd of Eugene, Ore. did a similar headline that read "Oh!-Bama"

Here's one paper called the Mississippi Press that decided to publish Halloween costume photographs on the day after the election. I think the page speaks for itself. Could this paper be ignoring Obama's victory? My guess is yes. Look at the "Old Crab" illustration on the bottom of the page...so very sad.

Busting J-School Silos

"Busting J-School Silos: What Will it Take?" by Amy Gahran brings up some important issues about the future of journalism. Journalism is changing, but are schools preparing students for the real world? In my opinion, news editorial courses at U of I do a great job at preparing students for a future in print journalism; however, the future for print is changing. More focus needs to be placed in multimedia, and a solution to this would be to collaborate with broadcast journalism students. I think required classes that combined writing along with video would be very useful. I know there is one multimedia class offered next semester, but it conflicts with the graphics class that is required (which is disappointing). In terms of other departments, I think ideally it would be a great to combine with other schools such as business and computer science, but I think it would be extremely difficult to get professors at other departments on board. They have their own curriculum to worry about, and until there was an absolute need for it, I doubt it will happen.

In regards to copy editing, I think there need to be more of a focus on copy editing in other journalism courses. I think in every reporting class there needs to be more of a collaboration between students to edit stories. For example, news rooms could be simulated in the class room where people cover different beats and edits occur before the stories are due. I think to overcome some of these obstacles, professors must take the initiative to change their own course work. I agree when Gahran says, "They're already way out of time to sit around considering: it's time to act." In addition, I think students need to be pushing for it as well. If enough students are asking for it, I think the journalism department will respond accordingly.

Fashion in Politics

I don’t know about any of you, but I am absolutely sick of the coverage of fashion in politics. I know that historically a candidate’s looks has been somewhat important, but it seems like this year women in politics are being subject to much scrutiny about their dress. Is this really all there is to write about these women? Who cares that Hillary Clinton rocked the pantsuits or that Sarah Palin is a fan of shiny shoes? Even the potential first lady’s are being analyzed for their dress. As Bass writes in the article Fashion in Politics Remains a Tricky Business, “If we can't judge the style of the man, we assume we can judge the man by the style of the woman he selected to be his wife.” Sadly, this is true in society, and since people have this preconceived notion, journalists are giving people what they want by writing about their dress. There's even a blog called Mrs. O that is dedicated to following the fashion of Michelle Obama. How ridiculous.

Match-o-Matic II

A friend forwarded me this really interesting political quiz on ABC news online called Match-o-Matic II. The survey asks you to choose a quote that best aligns with your political view point, and at the end of the survey, it shows which presidential candidate said each quote and what candidate is your best match based on the answers you gave. The topics range from the economy, foreign policy, health care, immigration, abortion, gay marriage and global warming, among others. Surprisingly, some of the quotes pulled to generate the survey were not as clear cut as I thought. Of course, regarding such topics as foreign policy and abortion, it was sometimes obvious what candidate said the quote.

I found this quiz interesting because of the quotes that were chosen for the survey. It would have been easy to use two very opposing quotes about each topic; however, the editors who made this survey tended to pull quotes that at times had very subtle differences. I think the purpose of this was to illustrate that you do not always know a candidate’s position on an issue. At least for me, I found myself confused in parts. Overall, I thought it was a very creative and interactive way to educate people about the election. You should check it out, and let me know what you think.

Headlines

One of my favorite shows is the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and in my opinion, the best part is definitely the “Headlines” portion on Monday nights. While searching the web, I found that all of the ones featured on the show are posted on his website, and some of them cracked me up. He features not only errors in headlines, but errors in advertisements, news stories and photographs as well. I mean some of these are so obviously bad, I can’t believe that they got through copy editors. You should take the time to check them out, but here are a few that made me giggle. (You have to click "next" on some of them to see the whole thing)

Photo caption of McCain

“Study Shows Frequent Sex Enhances Pregnancy Chances”

A photograph of Laura Bush next to President Bush

“Seahorse Farm now offers riding lessons”

It may be worth a good laugh to scroll through more than just these. While they are hilarious, we must remember that journalists are the ones writing the comedy…