2-11-2013

The media outlet I chose this week for my media blog post was my hometown paper the Brainerd Daily Dispatch. It is a small paper that covers mostly local and state news and sometimes-national news, but not very often. It is located in the beautiful city of Brainerd, Minnesota. The population of the town is 10,000 people. So it’s a small town city in a small community.

The top story of the week was how there is 30 retirements expected for Brainerd School District. It talked about there being 30 school district employees are retiring that compiled over 800 years of experience that is walking out of the door in the district, because they are retiring. It talks about the employees experience and also their years of commitment to the school district. It goes over how the school board will be looking over at how to replace the members. Bob Nystrom the treasurer of the board was absent at the meeting that they went over what jobs that were going to be replaced and that they were looking for replacements.

The first article that caught my interest was one talking about the Selling of skateboard jumps to the local ski resort . It talked about how the local ski resort bought all of the skateboard jumps from the local skate park for $1. It talked about how it the park had paid over $100,000 a few years ago. But now because of the recent downturn in the economy, the park could not keep up with the maintenance and the constant cost of trying to clean up from the local vandalism.

The next article I found was talking about, Snowmobilers from across state gather in Brainerd Lakes. The article talked about 300 snowmobilers from around the state gathered at a resort in Brainerd and the group would snowmobile around the trails in the community. It talks about how the trails in Brainerd are the most pristine snowmobile trails in the world. The article also talks about having a youth movement to have kids get more into snowmobiling young. In the article it talks about how snowmobiling is a lifestyle, talking about the feeling you get suiting up and getting ready to go snowmobiling.

I feel that the audience for this paper is everyone in the community. In this community it really relies on the Brainerd Dispatch for their daily news. This media outlet appeals to me, I grew up reading this paper and I still read it almost every day, for information about my local town.

-Will Nystrom

2/05/13

Texas billionaire, Ross Perot plans to convert a local park into an amusement park.

Plans to demolish a 20 acres local park on the edge of town and replace it with a new theme park. Which has seen a handful of resident’s that have given opposition to this proposal.

Several residents have protested outside the building, carrying signs that said “no to Perot.” Ken Miles leads the opposition against Ross Perot, when talking to Miles he said, “A nice city park with green space is not the same thing as a commercial operation with a huge parking lot. This is ruining our city.” With this planned construction, there has seen a good amount of opposition.

Perot has adamantly answered the opposing by saying, “the city is in need of economic development, and that’s what I do best.” Perot has wanted to always have an amusement park for himself. Most town residents do not agree with Perot’s logic.

-Will Nystrom

2-4-13

The media outlet I covered today was the Waco Tribune-Herald. Its general topics in regards to news it covers are local news, statewide, and national, it also has a sports section. The topics the Waco Tribune-Herald cover are the topics that are the most popular day to day, I wouldn’t say that it covers one more than the other. This paper covers Waco and also the area around it, mostly just central Texas.

When opening the website the feature story is talking about newhomebuyers in Waco. In the article it talks about how the new housing market has changed the way people develop houses. Now we have more “pocket neighborhoods”, which mean its smaller houses with lower maintenance cost. The article shows the relationship between the market today and how the buyers are much tighter with their money than from the real-estate markets from years past.

An interesting article that appealed to me was about the Navy Seal being shot. In the article the “American Sniper“, it talks about how highly decorated the ex-Navy Seal, Chris Kyle. It gave background of his life and talked about the view by the Iraqi’s of him, which wasn’t good. Then at the end of the article it talked about Chris Kyle’s love for his non-profit organization, which helped veterans, if that being a walker or physical therapy for their injuries they sustained during their line of duty. The article didn’t really go over the shooters motive, but I think they will release more news as it becomes public. 

The other article I thought was interesting was about the Waco baseball history exhibit. In the article it talked about the history of the Waco amateur baseball league. It gave an overview of the history of the different leagues in Waco and the surrounding area. It also talks of an old Waco baseball stadium, Katy Park. It has many mementos from that stadium, such as the home plate. 

The audience for the Waco Tribune-Herald is probably ages 25 and up, consisting of well-educated clientele. I think it appeals to that audience because a lot of the articles have to do with politics and also city zoning, thus leaving me to the conclusion that it’s for that type of reader.

In my opinion, the Waco Tribune-Herald didn’t appeal to me. I felt that the paper was to thin and that it had a narrow basis to what it covers. Living in a town of 10,000 people and having my local newspaper being thicker than the Tribune-Herald, is baffling to me. But the articles were well written, I just wish they would have had more of a variety. 

-Will Nystrom

2-03-2013

                                                        Writing Leads

            The lead of a story should always help captivate the audience, and increase the interest of the audience. By using an inverted lead it gives you a blue print, to be able to have a good intro. Using the inverted triangle, in my opinion, I feel that it helps eliminate overkill in an intro to a story. That being because instead of trying to have such a long intro and using very big words, you are very concise and short, thus giving the reader a very easy time understanding what you had just read.

            Another positive about the inverted pyramid is that it helps to organize the story at first. By putting down all of the main points of the story, it gives you an easier time to not miss a single point, and at the same time being able to fluently put your thoughts in your writing.

            In writing leads for an article you’re usually able to write a really good lead, for the set of facts given to you. But the first lead you write it goes down hill. I thought the activity was very interesting and it was cool to write many different leads for the same set of facts. Because it showed that in a lead to a story, facts can be interchangeable, no order is the write order, it depends. Now reading newspaper articles’, I can tell that they use the inverted pyramid style.

            I actually thought it was funny after class on Tuesday; I would start noticing how most articles try to captivate the audience with the same type of leads. Looking at this exercise opened my eyes toward something I had no idea about.

-Will Nystrom

2-02-2013

When reading the “State of the Media”, it gave me a lot of interest in regards to advertising for, magazines, newspapers and cable.

Everyone knows that newspaper advertising is a dying breed. With all of the newspaper owners today who are smart they’re switching towards electronic newspapers. Which I feel is the only thing that will be able to save the industry. With the bright minds that filled the newspapers of the 20th century are moving towards different industries, I feel that will affect newspapers and also destroy them, in the years to come.

The magazine industry to me has always been a more glamorous newspaper. In the magazine industry it actually saw a rise in new magazine startups, so I feel that the industry will be here for many years to come. That is due to the fact that there are so many good magazines and with some it is a collectible. But what I found curious is that food advertising on magazines have dipped, this was surprising to me because of all the boutique magazines that specialize in cooking.

For advertising for cable, it is a very advantageous gig. Because most of everyone’s daily lives are based off cable. The rate of expansion in cable is at a steady increase. With all of the big cable companies pumping in upwards of one billion dollars, just on the news aspect of their networks shows to me that they’re willing to spend their money because they feel it is in a business to stay.
The “State of the Media” report was extremely interesting to me because it gave me numbers’ and percentages’. Showing me what each news outlet industry is looking like, in regards to how they spend their money and also how their advertising is going. It gave me worry about the newspaper industry. I have no idea how much longer that you will be able to buy a paper newspaper. That is very sad to me, because I really enjoy the paper copy of the newspaper.

-Will Nystrom

2-02-2013

When reading the “State of the Media”, it gave me a lot of interest in regards to advertising for, magizines, newspapers and cable.

Everyone knows that newspaper advertising is a dying breed. With all of the newspaper owners today who are smart they’re switching towards electronic newsappers. Which I feel is the only thing that will be able to save the industry. With the bright minds that filled the newspapers of the 20th century are moving towards different industries, I feel that will effect newspapers and also destroy them, in the years to come.

The magizine industry to me has always been a more glammerous newspaper. In the magizine industry it actually saw a rise in new magizine startups, so I feel that the industry will be here for many years to come. That is due to the fact that there are so many good magizines and with some it is a collectible. But what I found curious is that food advertising on magizines have dipped, this was surprising to me because of all the boutique magizines that specialize in cooking.

For advertising for cable, it is a very advantagious gig. Because most of everyones daily lives are based off cable. The rate of expanision in cable is at a steady increase. With all of the big cable companies pumping in upwards of a one billion dollars, just on the news aspect of their networks, shows to me that they’re willing to spend their money because they feel it is in a business to stay.
The “State of the Media” report, was extremely interesting to me because it gave me numbers’ and percentages’. Showing me what each news outlet industry is looking like, in regards to how they spend their money and also how their advertising is going. It gave me worry about the newspaper industry. I have no idea how much longer that you will be able to buy a paper newspaper. That is very sad to me, because I really enjoy the paper copy of the newspaper.

-Will Nystrom

2/01/13

Our group project this semester is going to cover the United States Supreme Court. The reason my group chose the Supreme Court as a topic. We felt that it would be very interesting and also with almost every big issue in the U.S. government usually goes through the Supreme Court where they dissect the issue in more depth.

The big issues currently coming up for this session in the Supreme Court are, issues about race in regards to admission to school, gay marriage and if a human embryo should be defined as human life. I feel that this is going to be very interesting and very heated topics. It will be fun to give our view and to write an overview of the decisions they make. I find it very interesting looking at how laws apply to my daily life. With the Supreme Court they give you how a law should be interpreted and are experts in their field.

I have currently been following Nina Totenberg for two weeks, on Mrs. Cullars request. Nina still has not tweeted and I am anxiously waiting to read about the Supreme Court through her eyes. It is my hope by the end of this semester to have Nina retweet me. I know those are lofty hopes Mrs. Cullar, but I believe I will achieve that hope.

This topic is always a popular in media. Anytime during the course of the year, give or take once a week it is covered in great depth in the newspaper. I am excited to get to be able to cover the Supreme Court.

-Will Nystrom

Reading a newspaper article. My first inclination in regards to the article, was not if the sentences are structured grammatically. Thinking of grammar makes me queezy inside. Even while learning about it I get nautious, because I think of sentences and how they should be structured and when I think about it to much, I cause my self a headache.

The thing I like about grammar is not a single thing. Me and grammar are on complete different ends of the spectrum. While she is very organized, structured and mechanical, I’m none of those things and Mrs. Cullar, you knew that from day one.

Grammer is very hard for me to understand. I think it is a very tedious task, you might spend hours on looking for grammer and end up screwing up on one sentence, so then it throws a chain reaction to the essay that you spent so much time on and messed up on one sentence. It’s hard for me to disect a sentence and find the intricies of it, then figuring out the proper grammar for that sentence, thus making the sentence flow better.

The thing I think that would help me understand grammer better, is to find the types of grammar that people usually screw up on. Because I am deffinately a “rookie” when it comes to grammar, and if we take baby steps with grammar, I might just start to comprehend it better.

My biggest pet peave when it comes to grammar is when I am reading a twitter post and someone completely uses the wrong word, although similar spelling and it sounds the same, the meaning is completely different. Also just reading Facebook statuses in general, they almost none of the time have the right grammatics and the facebookers’  write this very long status and with one error in a similiar word, but they don’t use it correctly completely turns off my interest to even read the status.

If only Mr. Lindley Murray was here today. To to see what grammar has come to today in the USA. By the way Lindley Murray is the father of grammar. I am still on my quest to make Lindley proud.

– Will Nystrom

The article from the Washington Post that I chose was, Powerful storm flips cars, decimates homes along destructive path through Southeast; 2 dead

The lead in this article went two words over 30. So it wasn’t a good opening because they should have been more concise. But when looking closer at the opening to find the news elements present I found that:

Who? Same as what

What? A massive storm

When? January 30th

Where? Georgia

Why? Dangerous winds and tornadoes

How? Same as the why

The news values in this story that I found were timeliness, impact, magnitude.

The timeliness in this story was that it just happened today. So they were very effective, when giving the most up to date news.

It’s impact is easy to see. many houses were destroyed, along with two deaths and many injured. It also tossed around cars and ripped up part of a manufacturing plant.

The magnitude was big in this story due to it happened so close to a metro area, it was about 60miles northwest of Atlanta. Many people were affected by this story, because this storm covered a lot of area, ripping up trees and lifting trucks off the ground.

The other elements I feel did not pertain to this story. There was no big name people who died in it. It wasn’t a conflict because it had to do with a natural disaster. There was no oddity in this story, due to the fact that tornadoes happen a lot.

The N.Y. Times has the third highest readership in the United States, trailing only the USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. The N.Y. Times covers all types of news. They have been a mainstay in public news since the 1800’s.

The top United States news was information of the new generation on guns. It describes the relationship between guns and the younger population and how the gun industry is poring millions of dollars into it to try and increase relations with the younger population. It talks about the NRA trying to target the young populations by giving major incentives to buy guns, big coupons $300 off a gun. And they are making mobile applications and are trying to tell the media that it is out of benevolence.

I stumbled upon a story of a 15 year old boy from Albuquerque. The outlet I found it from was The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/us/new-mexico-teenager-is-charged-with-killing-his-family.html?_r=0 .It is story about a boy who shot down his family, by using multiple weapons to kill his family. I thought the story didn’t go as much in depth as I would have hoped. Due to the fact it went surface deep and didn’t go in great detail. I am assuming that they couldn’t go in much detail, because there hasn’t been enough information about the case.

Another story that peaked my interest was an article talking about cheap phone plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/business/republic-wirelesss-plan-melds-wi-fi-and-network-calling.html?ref=technology . This phone can give you unlimited data, calls and texting; all for under $18 a month. The reason for it being so low is that the phone company maximizes the time you use your phone on Wi-Fi. This is an untapped market and Republic thinks it has just the right mix to get in on the action.

The audience that The New York Times tries to go for is the upper 20’s, highly educated people. The reason I think that is because it puts big emphasis on art and theatre, when most other newspapers do not.