This week I looked at the Los Angeles Times for my blog post. I am evaluating the September 26 publication of the Los Angeles Times. This particular news outlet seems to focus on local, California news. It also touches on national and international news but you can tell it is clearly no their dominant focus. The main topics they cover are local, U.S., world, business, sports, entertainment, health, and style.

One of the top stories on the website was “21-year-old man arrested in Dodger fan’s slaying, S.F. police say.” This article debriefs the reader about the progress of the police search for the murderer of Jonathan Denver. The article said that San Francisco police confirmed that Michael Montgomery is in their custody in connection with the fatal stabbing of Denver. Denver and his brother were in San Francisco to watch the Dodgers play the Giants; this is one of baseball’s most famous rivalries. After leaving the game, Denver and his friends encountered a group of Giant fans and began arguing about the rivalry. The argument quickly escalated into a quarrel that resulted in the stabbing of Denver. Denver was declared dead at the San Francisco General Hospital on Wednesday night. After this traumatic event, authorities said they would provide extra security at Thursday night’s game. They said that even in a historic rivalry like this violence is unacceptable. The Giants said they would have a moment of silence before the game Thursday in order to honor the passing of Denver.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-suspect-arrested-dodger-fan-20130926,0,1542965.story

One article that caught my interest was “Downtown San Diego condo market’s long drought may be ending.” The reason why this article got my attention is because I am in love with San Diego. Besides Chicago, I would consider San Diego my favorite city. The article let readers know that San Diego’s condo market’s future is looking bright. After not completing one unit since 2009, Canadian developer, Nat Bosa, plans on constructing a 41-story luxury tower near the waterfront. Bosa sees this as a huge business opportunity because of the dramatic rise in prices this past year.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-san-diego-condos-20130927,0,3524017.story

Another article got my attention was “Glitch delays online tools for U.S. health insurance marketplaces” because it has to do with my group media blog project. The article points out two delays in important online tools that are supposed to be ready on Tuesday to enroll Americans in insurance under the Affordable Care Act. One problem is that small businesses in certain states will have to use paper forms to sign up their employees for health care instead of the online tools. The other problem is that Spanish-speaking Americans will have to use an English-language enrollment system until October 21. This is due to glitches in the Spanish-language online version. Even with these glitches, a White House spokesperson Jay Carney said that everyone will be able to enroll on October 1.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obamacare-delay-20130927,0,2496119.story

I think the Los Angeles Times appeals to people in the west coast and more specifically California residents. I think this for the reason that the articles seem to be centralized around local news in California. Even though the geography of the audience seems to be narrow, I think that the spectrum of ages that read the Los Angeles Times is broad. I think younger ages can find topics that appeal to their interests while older adults can stay up to date on current events.

I did enjoy reading the articles of this paper. One thing that I liked about the paper was that you can tell they continuously update their website. I liked this because as the reader it is good to know that the things you are reading are current and up to date. I thought the articles were to the point and flowed nicely. I think I would recommend this paper to those who wanted to stay updated on events that happened on the west coast.

I absolutely hate grammar. I am not going to try and beat around the bush and pretend that I only dislike it at times. NOPE! The thing about grammar that drives me nuts is punctuation. I believe that as long as you can be clear in communications there is no point for irrelevant punctuation. Maybe I have such strong feelings about this because English was never my favorite subject growing up therefore, I never cared to fully commit myself to learn the techniques of grammar. Nonetheless, I feel like grammar today is cluttered by unneeded and unwanted semi colons and commas. I guarantee many students, just like me, throw both of those around because we don’t really understand them and feel like our writing is lacking punctuations. I believe I feel so strongly about this also is because my generation largely depends upon technology such as texting, twitter, and facebook. I feel that through those media outlets the majority of users never have perfect punctuation but they are still able to get their point across clearly. So truly I do not see the point of punctuation at times.

On the other hand, being a business major I understand that it is a necessity of mine to become well versed on all different uses of  grammar. Not only is grammar a way to see how knowledgeable an employee is but also can help make a great impression in different networking opportunities. So, with my future in mind, I think it will be very beneficial for me to become less close minded on the issue of grammar and expand my knowledge of the uses of it. Therefore, I think it would be important for me to look up different uses of punctuation and practice using them in my everyday writing.

Along the lines of my grammar pet peeve, I think I made it clear that certain forms of punctuation frustrates me because of my lack of knowledge on how to use them correctly. But other than that, I do not really have any word usage pet peeves. In the long run, as long as I understand what you are trying to communicate with me, I truly do not care.

Katie Scott and I chose the topic of Obamacare because it is one of the key focuses of the media at this time. I know when we were trying to choose I topic Obamacare intrigued me because I have certainly heard of it but I could honestly say I did not know much about the topic. I hope to become more knowledgeable about the different ways Obamacare is going to change our healthcare system and be able to create my own informative opinion on the subject. I feel that it is important for my generation to be informed about matters such as this own and that is why I am kind of ashamed I do not know a lot about it. Therefore, I cannot wait to begin researching this subject and see how different news outlets broadcast this topic.

While I was browsing through the Baylor Lariat to find an article that uses quotes in an effective manner and I came across an article called BU to honor years at The Case. The article informs the reader about the Baylor Alumni Network, the Baylor “B” Association and Baylor Athletics’ plan to honor those who had the opportunity to play in Floyd Casey Stadium as it is the final season Baylor Football will compete there. They decided to celebrate a different decade of the history at Floyd Casey at each home game. The following quote is effective because it summarizes what the purpose of honoring the previous years at Floyd Casey: “We came up with the idea last spring just as a way to commemorate previous players and say goodbye to The Case,” Fertsch said. The article said how Baylor has been honor past players by decade starting with the 21^st century first. This quote informs the reader about what the plans for this weekend will be: “For our third game, which is going to be our third decade reunion, we will celebrate players from the 1980s,” Abercrombie said. “This decade included several bowl games and a conference championship. Many of those guys went on to play in the National Football League and we’re expecting them back as well.” I think this quote is valuable because if you think about the main audience of the Lariat it is mainly students. Clearly, the majority of students do not know about the football teams from the 1980s but the quote does a great job to give the students background of the teams.

Personally, I would only want to be quoted in a newspaper if it was for softball. Otherwise, I feel like the chances of me saying something wrong is highly probable. But if I had no other chose but to be an interviewee, I would choose my words carefully.

For my third media blog post, I was assigned the Huffington Post. This particular media outlet is different from the past two I have evaluated because it is only online. Having only heard of the Huffington Post I was unsure what to expect but what I found on September 19^th publication was not out of the ordinary. It had its’ front page that had a much wider variety of top stories than previous news outlets I have evaluated. But along the lines of topics it covers the expected ones such as politics, business, technology, and world news while also covering other interesting topics like comedy, weird news, and a voices section. One other comparison I found interesting is that the articles published by Huffington Post do not seem to have a common length to them; some are rather length while others are unusually short. I think this is because they do not have to tailor their work to fit a hard copy, such as a newspaper.

The top story that I read was House Votes To Cut Food Stamps By $40 Billion. This story covered the passing of a bill in the House of Representatives to reform our country’s food stamp program starting in 2014. The House said that the goal is to make people want to find jobs by limiting the time they can be on food stamps. This article made the point that the purpose of food stamps is to assist those who need a helping hand when they just lost their job, not to support someone who does not feel like working.  This bill, if passed, would change the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in multiple ways. Beneficiaries will be required to pass drug tests and be able to prove their poverty through income and asset tests. Additionally, states will be able to deny benefits to people who are able to work that are choosing not to search for work. The article also said how both republicans and democrats feel about the passing of this bill in the House. Republicans see it as a way to motivate people to find jobs and to make sure those taking advantage of the foot stamps no longer could while, democrats called this bill a useless assault on the poor and stating “you don’t matter, you are not worthy of our help.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/food-stamp-cuts_n_3957509.html

While browsing the website, I came across this article How To Get An iPhone 5S On Launch Day (No Guarantees). This article caught my interest because I am in the market for an iPhone 5S because my poor iPhone 4’s screen has been shattered. This article said that the supply of the 5s is going to be extremely limited and some of the color options might not even be in stock with the capacity some people want. The article mentioned how the “space grey” model will be the one mostly in stock with a majority of 16 GB and 32 GB capacity with an inadequate amount of 64GB. Apparently, the go to place to get your hands on the new 5s is a RadioShack that looks like it “has been out of business for three-and-a-half years, then you’ll have no problem.” The article thinks that it’s smart to go to RadioShack because the Apple store is going to have the longest lines while who even thinks of RadioShack anymore.  The best advice from this article would be “if you want a 5S, just pray,” Steve Kovach said. So I guess with the little hope I have left in getting an iPhone 5S tomorrow, I better get on my knees and send a prayer to the Big Guy upstairs. And if you find yourself in the same tight spot as me, I wish you happy hunting! J

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/iphone-5s-launch-day_n_3956514.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

Another article that caught my eye was Britney Spears’ ‘Piece Of Me’ Las Vegas Residency Finally Confirmed With Singer’s ‘GMA’ Appearance. This randomly caught my eye because as weird Spears had acted in the past I still must admit I loved her as a kid! This article mentions that Spears will start a residency with Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino for two years in Las Vegas. Spears mentioned she wanted to sing her classics while spicing it up with her new material. This is also exciting to me because there just might be a chance I can see her when the Baylor softball team heads to Las Vegas in February!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/britney-spears-piece-of-me-las-vegas-residency-confirmed-gma_n_3940192.html?ir=Entertainment

I believe the content on the Huffington Post is geared toward a younger audience compared to news outlets like the Washington Post. The Huffington Post captures readers in college all the way through the lower thirties because it has the current political news while also keeping the younger generations interest with more laid back topics. I enjoyed the content of this news outlet because it appealed to the vast amount of random things I might be interested in. One thing I did not like was the arrangement of the materials on the front page; it made me work harder looking through all the topics to find one I was interested in.  I think I would read the Huffington Post again if I wanted to know information on a topic quickly because their articles do not get lost in the uninteresting details.

I find it rather funny that finding an article in a well-established newspaper is not as easy as it sounds. While searching through The Washington Post I finally found an article that embraces the clear-cut rules of good writing. If you want to see firsthand what good writing consist of please follow the link by clicking here or you can continue reading as I point out parts of the article that display great writing.

One of the important rules if not the most important rule is that good writing comes to the point quickly.

“BEREA, Ohio — Trent Richardson didn’t fit into the Browns’ plans. They’re pushing forward without him.

Cleveland traded the powerful running back to the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday, a stunning move just two games into this season and only one year after drafting Richardson in the first round.”

This article’s lead does exactly what it is supposed to do by getting to the point and hooking the reader into the message.

According to the good writing rules, it is essential to have short paragraphs. The paragraphs in this article were all either 2 to 3 sentences besides the following excerpt because it is a direct quote.

“I think people make it more pressure than what it is,” he said. “I just like to play football. At the end of the day, I’m going to play football like I’ve always been coached. The way I’ve always played. I’m going to be physical, fast, I’m going to be up-tempo, I’m going to be the one who’s trying to lead by example. No matter what, that’s a big reason why I fought through injury last year with broken ribs and two knee surgeries, because I know that being a first-round pick what the expectations are of you, and me being the man that I am, the athlete I am, I’m not going to sit down unless my legs are broke.”

The following is an excellent example of using short words in good writing.

“The former Alabama seemed to have it all: power, speed and good hands.”

One more good writing technique this article displays is the use of short sentences.

“A two-time Pro Bowl pick, McGahee was most recently with Denver.”

I may have only shown you four of the seven rules for good writing but the importance of these rules are that they make it easy for the reader to flow through the article by making things short, sweet and to the point.

Writing leads in the inverted pyramid styles is definitely not what I am used to. Growing up you’re expected to write in a way that rather cluttered by descriptive words but when writing leads you have to do the opposite. At first it took sometime understanding what was important to my audience as opposed to whats clutter. But after some practice it became easier to decipher what is important to the article I am writing. Although, I will admit I am far from perfect at writing leads and have a lot to learn. I believe that now I can recognize the inverted pyramid style in newspapers because I know the objectives of writing these leads.  I also enjoy hearing other classmates leads. I feel like It always helps to hear the way others write their leads so I can compare and try to broaden the ways I write my own leads.

Yesterday, September 11, I had the chance to read The Washington Post and see what it had to offer. The Washington Post is a well-known American newspaper established in Washington D.C. This newspaper became renowned for their coverage of the infamous Watergate scandal that resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Over the years, The Post has continued to write a multitude of articles covering politics, business, tech, sports, and global news.

One of the top stories I came across was Obama takes Syria case to the public in White House address. This article is about Obama’s speech on Tuesday addressing the public and Congress about the choice to attempt diplomatic actions to get Syria to turn over their chemical weapons. Obama stressed that if this initial attempt of diplomacy does not work then the United States must be prepared to strike with our military. Obama reasoned that if the United Stated chose to look the other way it would result in regimes that are hostile to the United States to become bold in their actions towards us because they would see us as weak. Obama appeal to the people not only through diplomacy but also through emotional appeal by stating it was the United States responsibility to punish countries that used weapons of mass destruction in World War I and the Holocaust and so is it now. Obama turned to Congress because he knew if he felt the diplomacy Russia proposed did not work his decision to strike would be stronger if backed by lawmakers. Many state representatives and United States officials weighed in on their opinions of Obama’s address throughout the article. Many believed Obama’s alternative purpose of this address was to make his case for force a lot easier when the route of diplomacy fails.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-takes-syria-case-to-the-public-in-white-house-address/2013/09/10/11b5356a-1a36-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html?tid=auto_complete

Another story that interested me was Apple’s iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C: Three ways the rumor mill got ahead of the tech giant because I am in the market for a new iPhone. This article addressed the important announcements and rumors of Apple’s event on Tuesday. They shared that while Apple’s 5c iPhone is a less expensive phone then its’ other models it does not necessarily fall into the bargain category that Apple is putting it in. This phone comes in an array of five colors and has an unusual plastic case that makes it a cheaper model ranging from $99 to $199. This article also mentioned that Apple’s new iOS 7 software will be released to the masses on September 18. Additionally, this article shared that speculation of a new iPad, iPod Touch, iWatch, and new software for Apple TV were simply rumors, stating that Apple has not officially released any announcements on those items.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apples-iphone-5s-and-iphone-5c-three-ways-the-rumor-mill-got-ahead-of-the-tech-giant/2013/09/11/4feef086-1af5-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html

The next story to catch my eye was Roger Goodell on the Redskins name. This article summarizes an interview Goodell had with LaVar Arrington and Chad Dukes on 106.7 The Fan. Even though Redskins’ owner, Dan Snyder, vowed to never change the name of his organization, Goodell stated they must listen even if only one person is offended. Goodell believes that the Redskins’ franchise unifies its players and fan bases under its’ name and traditions that go along side it. While it is important for Goodell, as the commissioner of the league, to address this issue, he stated it is ultimately Dan’s decision.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2013/09/11/roger-goodell-on-the-redskins-name/

I believe the audience that The Washington Post appeals to best would be higher educated adults that enjoy consistently updated news specifically on politics. With The Post’s geographical location, it allows them to relay top political stories fast and accurately.  This definitely would draw in political junkies to be avid readers of their newspaper.

I did enjoy reading The Washington Post due to its’ easy navigation and well-written articles. I found it was simpler to read and comprehend these articles over The New York Times’ articles. While these articles were simpler to read I did not think they left out any important information because of that. Therefore, I would rather read The Post over The Times because it made me more knowledgeable in different subjects while keeping the effort of reading to a minimum. This is important to me because I would rather spend my time playing sports than sitting down and browsing through a newspaper but now, I know of a news outlet that makes this task more enjoyable.

The New York Times is one of the most world-renowned news outlets today. It has continued to be a very popular publication throughout the years because of its array of topics. This well-established newspaper covers issues on current events around the world, political issues, business, sports, the arts, and various others.

Today, September 5, I evaluated one of the paper’s headlines, Sharks and Nature Cooperate For Solo Cuba-to-Florida Swim. Diana Nyad story interested me due to her never die attitude. In this article, Nyad, who is 64-years-old, overcame the 110-mile route from Havana, Cuba to Key West Florida. What is intriguing about this story is not only her age but also the fact that she has been failing at this swim for over 35 years. She said that every time she failed she was heartbroken and vowed it would be her last but those feelings never did stick around. After each failed attempt, she would evaluate herself and see how she can improve to make the swim more bearable. While swimming without the aid of a shark cage, Nyad had shark divers ahead of her to ward of predators with special zappers. Other obstacles she had to overcome were the extremely venomous box jellyfish and the unpredictable currents. But fortunately for her the currents moved her along swiftly, allowing Nyad to finish the swim in 53 hours. What many can learn from Nyad is to age is not a reason to give up on your goals and yourself.

http://cn.nytimes.com/sports/20130903/c03nyad/en-us/

As I was further, looking in the newspaper another article caught my eye titled One State Had a Plan And Saw It Through.This touches on the successes of Massachusetts’ educational system after implementing the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. This act contained the input of more money into the schools, higher academic standards and test students had to pass in order to receive their high school diplomas.  At first, the results were trivial and not benefiting areas with low-income families. However, with time the standards set by this act gave the teachers and students clarity of what is expected of them and accountability on the teachers and administrators behaves. The schools chose to teacher with more hands on learning and building on general ideas in each subject from year to year. This is what has led to Massachusetts’ eighth graders ranking second in the world for science and sixth in mathematics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/science/expecting-the-best-yields-results-in-massachusetts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Another story that caught my eye was the article Leads Named for ‘Fifty Shades’ Film. Of course, in the past year Fifty Shades of Grey has been quite the buzz as the best-selling novel by E.L. James but now it is official headed to the big screen. The actors playing the lead roles of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey are Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam. Many of the fans have shared their initial concern through social networking sites on these rather unknown stars. The start date to begin filming is still unknown but the director will be Sam Taylor-Johnson. This movie is to be release in early August of next year.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/fifty-shades-film-gets-its-christian-and-anastasia/

While scanning through various styles of articles I believe The New York Times appeals to the masses. Its broad overview of many topics is what gets the attention of a multitude of readers. I believe this particular news outlet attracts the vast range of readers in college all the way to retired executives because it keeps the news current and does not clutter its paper with unwanted articles

I am surprised I actually enjoyed reading this newspaper because I tend to stick to sports news and not worry about anything else. However, while reading The New York Times I enjoyed seeing the variety of topics they covered throughout their newspaper. It kept me interested which is a hard thing to do with how active of a person I am.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to extend a warm welcome to all my readers! My name is Jillian Reid and this semester at Baylor I am apart of a class called Writing for Media Markets. Through out the semester, I will be providing you with my evaluations of various news sources.

I am currently a Junior Distribution Management and Technology major in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. I am from Mokena, IL and I am the second baseman on the Baylor Softball team. I have a very competitive personality that I blame on my two older brothers; I always felt the need to keep up with them when I was growing up. Another thing I blame on my brothers is my love for sports. In my house, loving sports came natural which, explains why the majority of my news outlets are sports related. ESPN is my favorite outlet to get the latest news about all sports, whether that is online or watching it on television. This year is my first year participating in a non-profitable fantasy football league thus I have been doing research via nfl.com, cbssports.com, and sports.yahoo.com. Beyond my world of sports I enjoy keeping up with current events online but to be honest, I do not keep up with them as well as I should. Yahoo is my main source of current events online. I also must confess my addiction to picking up magazines in the grocery lines or at airports. My two favorites are People and Cosmopolitan.

I cannot wait to share with all of you my adventures of the vast market of media outlets our world offers us today. I am very excited to broaden my perspective of what other topics the mass media has to offer. I hope you have enjoyed getting to know a little bit about me and that the beginning of your semester is off to a fabulous start! Sic’ Em!