Hard News

Christian Gilbert

Journalism

24 Feb 2014

Trying Times in Florida

In a top news story from Reuters, the article focuses on the parents of Jordan Davis, the teenage shooting victim, working to fight Florida’s stand your ground law. A hard news story should give enough information for the reader to do minimal reading and get the story. In this article, the whole story is spelled out in the heading, “Parents of dead teen vow to fight Florida’s self-defense law”. If only reading nothing more than that on the front page of a newspaper, you would know what you needed to about the article. Moving on to the first paragraph, it answers all five H’s and the W. It flushes out everything in the heading and gives all the information you understand the topic and be able to walk away knowing enough to be satisfied.

If you continue, the article uses a quote from the mother about why they are pursuing this cause, acting as a good backup to the initial story and a solid transition into some backstory, if you were unaware of the story beforehand. It gives a brief account of the shooting, just enough for the reader to get a good grip on the incident without delving into that topic. This is a great way of keeping the reader informed if this is the first they are hearing the topic. It then uses another quote comparing the case to the George Zimmerman trail, using it as a springboard to move into the reason the parents and others are backing the move to change the stand-your-ground law. It gives some background on the Zimmerman case, but not as much, as it is not pertinent information to this article.

The article then continues about the moves the parents are making towards justice, including joining organizations and working to make strides towards disbanding the law that they say is being abused by people out of fear or hate. They say the law is too gray, and gives too much leeway in what it allows. The article ends with a quote from the mother about how she feels she is doing the right thing. The article is just short enough to keep the reader’s attention and to provide all the information the reader needs to know to be up to date on the issue.

Obituary

Christian Gilbert

Journalism

6 Feb 2014

A Meaningful Sendoff to One of the Best

                The obituary I reviewed was for the late great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series. It is dated, being from July 8, 1930, but the lead and the format of the story seem to be closely aligned to modern obituary. The leads goes “Conan Doyle Dead From Heart Attack”, the style may be changed today, but it does do its primary goal of catching the reader’s attention. Reading just that line, you get pulled in. The next few paragraphs fill in the reader with a general overview of Doyle life. One difference between this article and today’s are headings that break up the obituary before each segment.

                As far as what it includes about Doyle, it covers his name, his age of 71, his job as an author and noted spiritist. Another critical component to a good obituary is naming the remaining family, which the article goes over. In the first section, it names his wife, and his two son and daughter. For a person such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it is important to list some of his achievements, such as his Sherlock Holmes novels and his convection to spiritism.

                For famous people, obituaries are always longer. Compared to modern obituaries, this one was slightly longer but does go over most of the important points. Being broken up into sections may attribute to the length of the article. It spends a little too much time on certain subjects, like the many sections around his spiritism that add up. The article could have been shortened if they compressed his works in literature and spiritism into two sections. There is also an article on the family and the son that could be cut out, or at least reduced to a mention in more substantial sections.

                All in all, this is a good obituary that covers what it is supposed to. Of it were to be formatted to more modern standards, it would need to lose some extra weight. The heading and the first few paragraphs are fine and have no need to change. It could cut out the section style and simplify each into a neat paragraph or two. Then each paragraph can smoothly transition between each new part. By doing this, it shortens the obituary and would match the layout of modern times.