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…

Photo Response

If I were the editor at a newspaper trying to decide if these photos should be used, my final decision would be no. I used the Minimize Harm section of the SPJ Code of Ethics to help me make my decision, and I also relied on my gut reaction to them. The section of SPJ Code of Ethics that I think applies to each photograph is “Journalists should be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.”

When dealing with the first photo of a boy grieving over a dog, I also considered the section that says, “Journalists should show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.” Since a child is involved, I think this photo should definitely not be used.

Pictures 2, 3 and 4 are photographs of the dead. I think these were the easiest to decide upon. How would these families feel if these pictures were published in a newspaper? The publishing of these photos would be a harmful intrusion into these families’ privacy. Under the minimize harm section, it says “Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.” I do not think there is an overriding public need to see any of these three photographs. I think a news story without a picture would be sufficient in informing the public about what happened.

The last two pictures of the boy with a spike through his mouth and the sexually assaulted woman would also fit under the SPJ criteria of “A journalist should show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.” I think running these pictures would not show good taste, although I was torn about the last photograph. In my opinion, the picture of the boy is too gruesome to be in a news paper, even though I assumed that he survived. Also, I was absolutely mortified about the picture of the girl, and at first, I could not image how anyone could even consider running it. This photograph was the one that I struggled with the most. I did notice that her face is blurred, which would minimize harm. After thinking about it some more, maybe there is an overriding public need to see this event. I am still not sure how I feel about it. I’m sure some editors would run it, but I think my final decision would be no.

I do not think it matters if these events were local or not. I think the same SPJ standards should be applied. Along those same lines, I do not think it matters where or how you play the photos. I think the same criteria should be considered whether publishing them online or in print.

Number Error

I visited my hometown this weekend, and as I was reading the Peoria Journal Star, I found a blatant number mistake in the article “When’s a good Night Out Against Crime?” Along with being an extremely lame and boring story about when an event called “Night Out Against Crime” should be held, the reporter and editors did not pay attention to a series of percentages regarding a survey that is being conducted.

The seventh paragraph of the article said,
“The survey has received 43 responses already; 46 percent prefer a return to the early August date, 39 percent preferred September and 18 percent prefer a nonspecific other date.”

After doing some simple addition, I figured out that 46+39+18=103, not 100.

Not only do the numbers not match up, I think 43 responses are not enough to mention in the story. Who cares that 43 people think this? Peoria has a population of about 130,000 people. If I had to report on these results, I would have simply stated, “So far, the majority prefer…” This just goes to show that if numbers are going to be used to support a story, they need to be correct. These are not just numbers that are confusing; they are numbers that are absolutely wrong. My guess is that the reporter received a press release with this information and did not double check it himself. For the summation to be off by 3 percentage points is a big mistake for a publication to make.

(On a side note, the verb tense in this sentence is not constant; the author switched from “prefer” to “preferred” back to “prefer”)

Yay for editing

I recently started an internship at Alumni Magazine here on campus. Although it’s not paid (bummer), I’ve started to greatly appreciate proper editing. Last semester, I worked at the Daily Illini, and my stories were published after two or three edits. I understand that at a newspaper, editors are more rushed and deadlines have to be made, but I often felt like more changes to my stories were needed. However, at the magazine, stories go through a series of edits. In fact, I have proofread stories more than once. I know I may sound weird saying this, but I really enjoy the editing process. Yes, I said enjoy. Here are two mistakes I barely caught while proofreading various stories.

1. Communism- (pg 206 of the AP stylebook under political parties and philosophies)

-Capitalize Communist, Conservative, Democrat, Liberal, Republican, Socialist ect. when they refer to a specific party or its members. Lowercase these words when they refer to political philosophy.

2. up-to-date- (adj) and it is indeed hyphenated.

Both of these were errors in stories that were proofread by multiple people. I know that these were relatively small mistakes, but they needed to be caught in order to maintain the publication’s credibility. It’s hard to describe, but it was a really good feeling finding these errors and fixing them. More than likely my find will go unnoticed when the issue is published, but it makes me proud to know that I contributed to a story to make it as perfect as possible. Many of you are probably thinking “What a nerd,” and maybe I am, but I have come to discover the love of proper editing.

Thanks for reading. I'll continue to keep to up-to-date with my editing discoveries.

Outsourcing editing

John McIntre couldn’t have said it better in his article, “Getting What You Pay For.” Outsourcing editing is ludicrous. I want to know what journalists actually think this is a good idea, and if there are still some out there, please change professions. In my opinion, copy editors are arguably the most important piece of the writing process, especially editors who work at the same publication. Like McIntre stated, there is more to the copy editing process than simply changing language.

This article makes me think of Jayson Blair, Steven Glass and other journalists who were caught plagiarizing their stories. It just shows that copy editors are needed to fact check and question writers so publications can keep their credibility. I know, as a reader, I would not trust any publication that decided to ship the copy editing process to another country. For instance, copy editor from India would not be able to tell if a reporter was exaggerating their story. Whereas, a local copy editor might get a “feeling” or a “hunch” that something isn’t right.

Some may argue that reporters should be able to edit themselves or that reporters are more important than the editors at the publication. Well, think again. Writers are not perfect. (Just look at my previous blog entries; I’m sure there are mistakes). When I was a reporter for the Daily Illini, I appreciated the editors going through my stories multiple times. I was sometimes rushed when writing my story to make a deadline, and because of this, errors were always found. It just proves that proper editing is imperative to any story. On this website, www.whyeditingmatters.org, created by the American Copy Editors Society, it shows what people are saying about copy editors. I thought it was interesting to read what others are thinking. Check it out.

A No-Paper Newspaper

“A No-Paper Newspaper: After years of hype, ‘e-newspapers’ are getting closer to reality. Can they save a shrinking industry?” by Daniel McGinn of Newsweek Magazine discusses what might soon become a reality in the newspaper industry.

Unlike Crosbie who thinks newspapers will soon diminish altogether, McGinn reports on how they may just take on a different form. McGinn discusses how Amazon has already developed the Kindle, an electronic reading devise; however, he said, “Instead of offering well-designed pages that entice readers to skim a story they might otherwise skip, today's e-newspapers merely list headlines or tops of articles, which makes it hard to decide what's worth reading.” Also, these e-readers are without color.

This article explains how several companies will soon launch a new type of e-reader with the dimensions of an 8.5-by-11-inch piece of paper, and unlike the Kindle, it will use a flexible, plastic screen that would not crack. To me, the thought of “electronic paper” blows my mind, and it is hard to picture this as a reality. Even if companies work out the cost issue, I do not see the public catching on to this invention.

I agree that it may be better for the environment, but there is a certain enjoyment experienced when reading an actual newspaper that could never be replaced by an electronic devise. Also, in my opinion, the dimensions of this paper are too small and would distract readers, even if there was a way to scroll and browse news stories. My last objection to this invention is that I absolutely hate reading long information off of an electronic screen. Sure, e-mails and short news articles are bearable, but the thought of reading a long article on a PC screen makes me cringe. In the future, I hope that I never have to wake up and go to my “e-newspaper” for the morning news.

Response to "Transforming American Newspapers"

When I finished reading “Transforming American Newspapers” by Vin Crosbie, I was bothered, to say the least. I even began reevaluating my own professional goals. When I graduate I want to work at a major newspaper or magazine; however, Vin Crosbie, a newspaper industry consultant, is telling me that newspapers are slowly dying without much of a solution. I knew before reading this article that newspaper readership was on the decline, but I seriously thought, like others I assume, that the putting content on the internet could be an answer. Crosbie stated that his position very clearly when he said, “Yet adding multimedia, convergence, interactivity, Web 2.0, and 'citizen journalism' to what their newspapers have always done aren't cures but merely balms and accessories. No matter how well intentioned those New Media prescriptions are, no matter how much more animated or responsive multimedia and interactivity can make daily newspapers, adding those will prove to be little more than analgesics.” These sentences struck me the most, and when I first read this, I immediately disagreed. It was not until the second part of the series did I start to consider his point.

In the second part of the series, he made some interesting observations that I have never considered to be the reason for the decline in newspaper readership. For example, I agree with his point about how editors pick stories and how this way of choosing stories varies in relevance to the readers. I also agree with his observations of the increase of news information in the last 35 years. Now, magazines and other publications draw readers who have special interests. In addition, Crosbie said online access has created a “virtual cornucopia” that can satisfy these interests as well. I completely agree with this statement. The stories I enjoy reading or want to know more about are stories about health and fitness, but you have to search for these types of stories in newspapers. I subscribe to magazines and read content online to fulfill these interests. Crosbie used the example of YouTube, but I did not exactly agree with this argument. I do not see how these videos, which are mostly a joke, are replacing the news.

Crosbie said that nothing will change if it newspapers in print and online keep producing a general interest product. I understand Crosbie’s point, but if newspapers begin to publish special interests, I think newspapers will just turn into magazines. I still believe there is a need for newspapers with everyday current events that may or may not be in a reader’s specific special interest. Everyone needs to know what is happening all over the world, and in my opinion, newspapers are the best attempt to do this. There has to be other solutions. I am going to stay an optimist because this is the profession that I am soon entering.