Month: February 2016

This week in The New York Times instead of reading articles we watched and looked at Op-Docs. An Op-Doc that stuck out to me was the one over sexual orientation in other countries. This really opened my eyes to what’s happening not only in the united states but also in other countries, often to a worse extent. This Op-doc followed a homosexual activist around his hometown while interviewing him about all the things he has gone through and how he handles his sexuality within a society that doesn’t approve. It was interesting to see how much worse he has it in his country because in recent years this has become a large topic of discussion within the United States as well. However, in the United States LBGT community was fighting for marriage rights but in this country, they’re fighting for the right to live. It makes you think about how all over the world we can be dealing with the same topic of  the issue but on different areas and places within the movement.

Outside of The New York Times, I read a card from my mom that I had gotten from valentines day. She put a bible verse inside the card and her message of saying that she was proud of me. Getting a message like this reminding me of what I’m doing in light of my mom really made me feel good about myself. Before I read the note, I was stressed and didn’t know how to get through the week but what my mom had to say really helped me take on this week.

For the op-doc that I am using”messages and meaning” will be the questions that I focus on the most. This is because my video I have chosen is solely video and no sound it will be important for me to look at the content and techniques that the director uses. Object; diving below the ice has a great visual aspect that I can really pull from to write my analyze. My plan is to pick apart each technique and visual tool she used and how it impacts the way that the audience interrupts and views the film.  Do to the video not having words I plan on using the footage for the content. Also, do to the video being so recent of in being published and made no real context or effects have been made so I plan on trying to find a new twist on that section.

For writing our literacy guides we were given a set of requirements that the guide had to contain. One of the  requirements that I enjoyed working with was the writing process and style. As a journalism major I enjoy writing when I am able to add my voice and personality into the writing. In my opinion, this makes the writer and audience feel more connected to the writing assignment and each other. Another one of my favorite parts of writing is the creative aspect.  I had fun creating a unique theme and different section titles that held my personality and voice. However, not all parts of this guide were easy. A challenging part of this guide for me was which sections of The New York Times should I use, how should I order them, and how much do I write on each section. This was a struggle for me given that the paper has an abundance of opinion articles of all different forms. For example, I had to think about whether or not the comments section needed its own paragraph or if they should just be lumped in with another topic or if the Op-eds are more resourceful than the editorial boards. I had to reorder my paper, at least, five times trying to create a layout that reflected the order of usefulness and importance to forming your own opinion. The length was another struggle I had when writing on each of the sections. I had to figure out how much it took to get my voice across with using all the required research and examples. I also needed to consider which sections needed to be further explained than others. Something that helped me when writing this guide was the assignments we did in class in the weeks that we were exploring The New York Times. The assignments taught me how to navigate and seek articles of all types throughout the paper. When we looked at the most popular page also helped me a great deal when I was writing my literacy guide. One of the requirements was including the influence and interaction of social media with the articles. The most popular page gave me opinion articles that were ranked most shared, viewed, and searched. With this resource, I could show supportive evidence that the opinion sources that I used were also used by copious amounts of other people as well. Lastly, during this project I learned a lot of useful things about writing. To me, one of the most important things this project has taught me was how to identify a writing type, style, and what details supported that finding. Before the literacy guide, I didn’t know how to clearly identify a writing style and describe it. However, now I am able to explain to another person with examples of why I can tell what writing style articles are. I also learned how a authors personality seeps through their writing and how much of an impact hat can make. I find writing when the author incorporates their opinions and voice more enjoyable than strictly fact based writing. Frank Bruni an op-ed columnist was a great example of this that I found during my research for opinion sections. His writing style is full of passion and reason while at the same time he tells the audience about himself as well.

This week I read a lot of good articles in The New York Times although the one that was most significant to my life was the an article about the correlation between hours a sleep and chances of catching a cold. It was interesting to hear that body’s activities while you sleep help protect from developing a cold and the people getting the recommended amount of 7 to 8 hours were least likely to become ill. However, as you read further into the article it begins to say that if someone has too much sleep they too will be susceptible to catch a cold. The presence of the inconstant information showed that it hard to pinpoint that sleep deprivation is the cause of illness but that it may help along the process.

Another article that I read outside of The New York Times was an article and instructions on how to create a cover letter and résumé . This helped me a lot when I was applying for a job and taught me how to write and word job descriptions in a way that it will sound more appealing to your potential employer. After reading the article and instructions I feel more confident when I am applying for jobs and that I am doing what employers look for in potential applicants.

Today in class we had a goal of learning more in depth on how to navigate in The New York Times newspaper. Once breaking off into small groups we discussed each topic, article form, and how we knew it was that form. One of my partners told us about how she was able to find three completely different versions of online news all on the same topic. I found it interesting that she used a frequently asked questions page and that I should look into that about the topic I am considering on researching. Another quality I liked about the way she went about the assignment was that she got her articles from three different categories. The three categories were science, health, and opinion which is a great range of different views on one subject. I want to keep this in mind when I am looking into The New York Times when doing the readers guide on How to stay healthy under the pressure of life. I think today in class with the discussions from what other students found is going to help me greatly when trying to find different sources and articles because I know that I struggled some when working on my own homework.

This week in The NewYork Times I read an article about lying and what lies aren’t  justified and which lies are if any at all. This article inspired me to look at my own moral compass and consider what I have stretched the truth on over the past week. The author defines his definition of a lie and then asks readers to weigh in their opinions about which lies are in good nature or not and why. After thinking about my own response to the lies being told I’ve come to realize that honesty  truly is the best policy. Even though, sometimes we lie in order to make things easier, so to speak.  This article impacted my week with making myself more aware of what honesty I was putting into my everyday conversations.

The other impacting article I read this week was an article that my journalism professor had given the class. The article was from a magazine and written by my professor. The title was “The Mr. Magazine 2016 Manifesto: There Is Hope…”. He wrote his top ten reasons for why he believes there is still hope to ink on paper. This article has made a lasting impact  by speaking to me on the level of my major. I am majoring in Journalism IMC and understanding the importance of printed articles and news is essential. If I am not aware of the key points that my professor pointed out how will I be able to strive in my field of work.