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.