11/6 Class Recap by Jialin Li

2nd Clip from Broadcast News with Holly Hunter and William Hurt

I. STEFANIE STORY CRITIQUE:

Pass your story to another partner to write down:

3 things that are working

3 things that can be improved

(in accordance with good broadcast writing)

II. STORY WRITING PRACTICE:

Boswirth story lead critique

Lead written by our professor:

A forty-year-old man is facing multiple charges tonight after eating his breathalyzer results.

A forty-year-old man bit off more than he could chew today by eating the results of his breathalyzer test.

Pay attention to tense, conciseness, attribution, and

balance the funny tone appropriately,

      III. WATCH A CLIP:

We watched a clip from Broadcast News, a movie that looks at the danger of broadcast reporters focusing too much on entertainment instead of news.

We followed with a talk about the differences between broadcast journalism and print in terms of the reporting job.

Culver said he considers himself an entertainer.

Rivalry between print and broadcast journalism

Print has more in-depth stories, while broadcast journalists are forced to cover multiple stories at the same time.

IV. We wrote another Stefanie Ferguson story based on the following development:

Stefanie was arrested (today) at a small town called Oroville in Washington state near the U.S.-Canada Border. She was with her boyfriend, Karl Magnuson. “All we wanted was to be together,” she told reporters as she was led off in handcuffs. Magnuson later told reporters he broke up with Stefanie. “I can’t have a girlfriend who’s stuck in jail for two years,” he said.

Write a broadcast story on this latest development that includes any necessary background so that story makes sense to viewers. Include all interesting details from previous version. Deadline: 10:30 p.m.

Homework:

Read Chapter 15 Writing for Public Relations

BROWSE: nationalcherryblossomfestival.org

Come up with two questions about PR or the festival that you will ask in class. (We will have the guest speaker next week)

Review this blog post and the stories professor returns to you.