Fellowship of Christian Athletes

On Wednesday, the Athletic Department held the annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in Golden Gymnasium. Each athlete from every team came to the gym to hear a testimony from a special speaker, Josh Canales. Canales was a one-time major league baseball player with the Los Angles Dodgers. However, he spoke much more of his college years where he attended University of Florida and later transferred to UCLA.

Canales spoke of the questions he had about his faith during his college years. He grew up a pastor’s kid from California, however he constantly asked the question, “Do I believe?” He shared his struggle about being a Christian athlete at one of the biggest party schools in the nation. He also shared the importance for student-athletes to set apart time from their busy schedules to spend time with Christ, saying, “Between the term papers, and the tests, and the practice, we get tired. However, it is necessary to set apart times of with the Lord in order to really grow.” At the end of Canales’ message, he gave a call for people to come to Christ for the first time, or renew their relationship with Him.

After Canales spoke the athletes broke up into groups with their respective teams and talked about the message that they had just heard. Coaches of each team asked questions from a sheet of paper to stimulate conversation. The athletes were impressed. Junior girl’s basketball player, Danielle Ariolla said “FCA is one of very few events where all the athletes get together and fellowship together. It’s a cool event and a chance to hear from great speakers who have been where we are right now.” Sophomore girl’s tennis player, Isabella Tumini agrees saying, “It’s a time for student-athletes to just come together and hear a good message.”

For more information please visit the Fellowship of Christian Athletes website:

http://www.fca.org/

Essays 1-7

Essays 1-7

At first read I kind of brushed off essay number one as something that would not be relevant to my life. Yet as I read it again I began to understand how important it is. It is important because it talks all about getting a job and how someone might go about doing that. And the main thing that it talks about is the importance of an online portfolio. Not once in my life had I even imagined the idea of an online portfolio being importance in be receiving a job position. Yet as I read this article I understood how useful this information is and how I need to use it in the future to get the job I want

The second essay I read was much more interesting than the first. It talked a lot about the oppression that journalists have faced throughout time. However, that oppression often led to great change. The oppression of America from the British was particularly interesting to me as it has to do with my own history.

The third essay was also very interesting. It talked about NPR the whole time, which seemed odd to me. The essay was promoting NPR, however I feel that because NPR is just a small station, many of the fews can become biased. With big newspapers, the people that run them are held accountable and it is much more difficult to become extremely biased. However with small stations like NPR, biases can be prevalent. However, NPR is still good because it is completely interested in the listener, while other new organizations do not pay that much attention to their audience.

The fourth essay I really enjoyed. I liked the idea that journalism can make such a difference in the lives of people. Especially in a small town, journalism can chance the lives of the people that live there. It is an interesting and foreign concept. However, it made me appreciate the astounding role that journalists can have on entire communities. Their jobs are extremely important and should be taken very seriously.

The fifth essay was extremely sad and heartbreaking. The fact that the government made so many mistakes and put numerous people's lives at risk disgusted me. The journalists worked hard to uncover the truth about why the death occurred. This story just serves to illustrate the huge impact that journalists can have on people. Because of the unrelenting attitude many of the journalists had about wanting to find the truth, the truth was uncovered and justice was eventually done.

The sixth essay taught me a huge amount about the extreme importance of knowing your facts, and being accurate. If a reporter is not accurate, not only do they lose the public's trust, but the mistake they made could be disastrous. The key lesson in this essay is that accuracy must be the number one priority in every piece of journalism a reporter produces.

The seventh essay taught me about the errors that can come along with dealing with humans and how important it is to have a computer in the journalism world. Often when dealing with humans mistakes can be made, while with computers the chances of mistakes are slim to none. It is important to utilize every resource you can as a journalist, however it is much more intelligent to use a source that has an astronomical lower chance of doing something wrong.

Obama

On November 17, President Barack Obama met withe president of China, Hu Jintao. The meeting was not widely advertised in the country of China, yet of course it was very well documented in the United States. Numerous news outlets covered these events and talked about what was discussed during these meetings. It ranged from nuclear weapons to internet censorship with much other topics in between.

The articles that I chose to discuss come from MSNBC.com, the LAtimes.com, and foxnews.com. Each took different views and presented the the meeting between President Obama and President Hu Jintao. The MSNBC article simply stated what happened in China and what the two presidents talks about. There was not much opinion in this article. It highlighted both the negative and positives of the meeting between these two high powered men. It also talked about Obama's time in China and what it means to the people of the United States.

The LA Times article and the Fox News article seemed to be much more biased. Both did not display President Obama's time in China in a positive light. They wrote that his meeting with Hu Jintao simply served to illustrate the tensions between the two powerful nations. Obviously both journalists wanted to highlight the pointlessness of the trip. Both felt that it accomplished nothing but to show the differences between the nations.

The MSNBC article was my favorite because it was so much less biased than the other two.

Frost/Nixon

I had seen the movie Frost/Nixon once before, however watching it again, especially after being in a journalism class made me appreciate it that much more. Frost had a huge task ahead, as he sat across from Richard Nixon. He was simply a talk show host who had never done anything like this before. As the audience watches the film, it is easy to see the character of Frost transform right before our eyes. He starts off as a playboy who does not take his job very serious, yet as the movie progresses he realizes just how important his job is. Nixon betrayed the citizens of the United States, he betrayed the trust of the people who believed in him, and he let down the entire world. Frost soon begins to understand the weight of the task at hand and he begins to comprehend how everyone watching needs a confession. The people of America are longing for Nixon to finally admit to Watergate and finally admit that what he did was wrong. Frost finally understands what needs to be done and the audience finally begins to see the absolute determination in Frost's eyes.

The movie sheds light on the sleepless nights, the long hours, and the frustrations that come a long with being a professional journalist. Through Frost's absolute determination and perseverance the American people finally get the confession they deserve. They finally receive what they should have received all along.

Chapter 21

Chapter 21 talks about ways in which to write for public relations. If a reporter wants to write in the field of public relations they can write in such areas as, media relations, government affairs, public affairs, industry relations, and investor/financial relations. One thing that I did not realize about public relation reporters is that they are like editorial writers. They are usually trying to get the reader to adopt a certain viewpoint. They work for a certain company or organization so of course they are trying to make that particular institution look good.

Also public relation writers must always be aware of the message the particular organization is trying to send about their product or company. Thus this also makes it very important that they are aware of who their audience is and how the information affects them.

The task of being a public relations writer is all about the power of persuasion. Therefore to be a good writer the person must be extremely persuasive and be able to change people's mind about certain issues.

Chapter 17, 18, 19, & 20

One interesting thing that I really found in chapter 17 was the ability for a reporter to use participant observation in their articles. I had always imagined that only facts could be put into articles written in newspapers. Yet by allowing reporters to observe and report their findings, it allows for some level of bias to creep in. This was not something I knew that journalists were allowed to do so that is something new that I learned from chapter 17

Chapter 18 is about the what it takes to be an investigative reporter and the obstacles investigative reporters often face. One thing that the chapter points out is that the best stories are about people. From my little time of writing this semester, the stories that I have enjoyed writing the most have been about people and they are also the stories that get me the highest grade. It is interesting that people love the emotional aspect that comes along with writing about people ad that was confirmed in this chapter.

Chapter 19 addresses the issue of writing news for radio and television. Some important aspects that don't come up in print media is timeliness, meaning that if the story is important it will be reported numerous times a day, and audio and visual impact, meaning that oftentimes a story is picked to be put on television because it is visually appealing or exciting. . These two things are the most important thing that a reporter must consider when putting a story on television or radio.

Chapter 20 focuses on writing stories for online. There are three main criteria to do this. The writers can hold nothing back from the reader. Since the readers determine what they read, reporters must give the reader all the information up front. Second the writing cannot be linear online. The story should be short because most readers do not want a lot of information and do not want multiple pages. Last the structure is very important. The reporter must present information in layers. The first two layers are easy for the reader to access but the last layer may require that the reader click on a link to get more information. All three of these things are important to be a successful online writer.

Chapter 13, 14, 15, & 16

Chapter 13 is a lot about preparing for disaster stories such as crime stories of fire stories. Unlike other types of stories these types of stories are often covered as they are happening or right after they happened. Therefore the reporter has very little time to prepare and their information will usually come from people near the accident or people working the accident, such as police officers and fire men. It's very important to interview as many people as possible to get as full and detailed account of what happened as possible.

Chapter 14 talks all about what to expect when covering a specific beat and how to cover a beat. The basic principles apply when one i covering a beat, They must be prepared, talk to sources, be alert, and be persistent. Also it is very important for beat reporters to throw themselves into what they are reporting. Email and telephone calls will not get the job done. They must be very active in the community they are reporting on because that is the only way they will get the inside story.

Chapter 15 is about how to cover business and commerce news. In the chapter they cover how important it is to prepare to cover business news. The wide range of businesses make it a must for a reporter to do extensive research on the particular business he or she is covering. Also one thing that is extremely important when reporting is to use language that the readers understand. Oftentimes I have read stories on business and it has gone way over my head, thus the particular section about making the article understandable to the reader really resonated with me.

Chapter 16 is all about writing about sports. Once again covering sports is very similar to covering any other story. One must be persistent, prepared and one must develop contacts in order to get the inside scoop. However in order to make sports interesting, reporters must not just tell who won the game, but rather they need to look for an interesting way to tell the story. That is the most important element of sports reporting.

Chapters 9, 10, 11, & 12

Chapter nine focuses on other ideas of ways to write a story besides the inverted pyramid. A journalist has an array of options when writing a story, rather than just using an inverted pyramid. Some examples that are used in the book are chronology, which just means that the reporter writes the story in chronological order if necessary, or focus structure, which tells a story of one individual which is supposed to represent an entire group. Both are alternatives to the inverted pyramid, and both are necessary to use at certain times.

Chapter ten introduced me to a way to write obituaries. Although, I have no desire to write obituaries, the fact of the matter is that oftentimes a journalist is called upon to write things they do not want to write. Therefore chapter nine taught me a lot about how to write life stories and obituaries in a respectful and clear manner. One of the main things I learned about writing obituaries is that often the cause of death is left out and it is actually not an essential part of the story. I was not aware of this before.

Chapter 11 was all about how to write a story when one receives a news release about the story, and also the different kid of news releases there are. Often reporters are emailed, mailed, or telephoned a story and that is where news releases come in. Reporters must be able to decipher what important facts they should put in the story from the new release, and they also need to figure out how to make it an interesting story. There are a variety of ways a news release can come in, but the most important thing is what a writer does with that news release when he or she receives it.

Chapter 12 also informed me about a lot of things. As a reporter there will be many times when I have to cover speeches, news conferences and the like. Thus chapter 11 was all about preparing me for that. It is extremely important to get the context correct when covering something like that and that is why it is often recommended that reporters have recorders so they can stay away from misquoting the person. It is also extremely important to make a note of the audience and little things like that, which I did not know was so important until this chapter.

Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8

All of these chapters focus on different aspects of writing news articles. There is so much information and rules that need to be followed when one wants to become a professional journalist and write articles regularly. Chapters 5-8 go into detail about certain aspects of writing an article that writers need to be aware of. As I have written numerous articles throughout the semester I have begun to understand how important the things that are discussed in this chapter are.

Chapter five goes into great detail about how important it is to have multiple sources. I have definitely learned that this semester. If there is only one source in an article, it is most likely highly biased and unfair. Multiple sources illustrate that the journalist is showing both sides of the story and giving the reader all the facts.

Chapter six is much more detailed and it talks more about numbers and how to address percentages and numbers while writing an article. It is always important to give context when writing with numbers. The book gives an example of how if the budget for a small town went up $500,000 it would be a huge amount. However if it was for New York City it would be a very minute number, therefore it is extremely important to give the reader context when writing about money or percentages.

Chapters seven and eight had a huge impact on me as an aspiring journalist. Chapter seven talks about the inverted pyramid, which says that all the important information should go at the beginning of the story, while the much less essential facts should go at the end. In a society where people want the facts right away, writers much cater to there audience and make sure to give them what they want immediately. Oftentimes readers do not read the whole story, or the ending of a story is cut by the editor, thus the inverted pyramid is essential. Chapter eight also made me a better journalist. It talks about about ways in which to write to the reader. This means that the journalist much write in a way that leaves the reader wanting more, and make them want to finish the story.

All four chapters mad a big difference in my writing and my articles.