A Growing Relationship

I'd like to say my relationship with the news has sky rocketed from the beginning of the semester. Now whenever I walk by and see the stacks of a new issue of The New Hampshire I decide to grab one. I usually read just the first couple of pages, most articles not all the way through. I feel more interested in the stories, realizing that it is good practice to read other journalists articles. Reading other peoples good writing can be used as a tool for myself to write better. A good article gives a way of writing an article differently than you organically do. You might catch something in other peoples writing that you want to use in yours. Write now in one of my writing classes, the class was told to pick a nonfiction book and read it all, then imitate there style of writing. I did this freshmen year with a class. The final result is amazing. I took in so much good writing that it made my writing that much better. I feel like this goes for news writing in a way, but more with the structure of an article. How does the reporter get my attention? How do they go off of their lead? Who do the quote and where do they put these quotes in there articles? How do they get to the heart of the story? These are all good questions to ask when reading a good journalists work. I'm trying to read more to learn more, and its making my relationship with the news grow stronger and stronger.

(This has nothing to do with what I was talking about.)
I started to become interested in photography over the summer when my parents bought an SLR camera. I toyed around with it during the summer on trips I would take, beautiful days outside the house, and at gatherings I would have with friends. I taught myself how to mess a round with lighting, exposure, aperture, and all the silly effects. I'm still learning how to use this camera, I've realized how long it can take to fully understand every aspect of an SLR. I'm still trying to get those amazing pictures. Just now I thought that I should post some of the pictures I've taken that I like. This is the post where I will begin this quest of taking the best photo for my blog.

Photo: Doug Robichaud  Location: Hampton Public Works, Hampton, NH 

Tropical Storm Sandy

Tropical Storm Sandy

Being a surfer, I tend to check the weather a lot especially during hurricane season. This season has been pretty flat compared to other seasons that I can remember. I surfed Hurricane Rafael this week/weekend which wasn't the best. I can remember a couple years back when Hurricane Bill hit the east coast with the most amazing waves I have ever ridden. Yes I have been to famous breaks in Hawaii and California. Hurricane Bill was better. Now I search for more swells like this one. I found an article on tropicaltidbits.com where it told me about Tropical Storm Sandy that will be approaching the East Coast around next week. Weather sites predict that Sandy will be one of the strongest Autumn storms the east coast has ever seen. After reading this blurb about Sandy I went to check the surf forecast site I knew that gave the swell prediction a week ahead. The swell height radically bumps up on Sunday October, 28. These waves aren't that big, until I see the last day the forecast predicts which is Wednesday, October 31 where the swell height and conditions look unbelievable. Thank you Sandy! This Halloween could be epic! I hope Sandy follows the path they predict. Right now Sandy is in the Caribbean where originally formed. Sandy will continue to move northeastward out to sea, moving up the East Coast.

Alpine Live

Photo: Ryan Denning Location: Fox Hill, NH

Since last year I've been going on this website called alpine-live.com. This website is run by a bunch of cool dudes that enjoy cinematography and photography. "We are young, cutting edge, and ambitious," they say in their "About" tab of the website. I found out about this website because these guys love action sports. They film and photograph pictures of local surfers I've surfed with, the beaches I know and love, and make high definition, full HD, quality videos of local surfers that are very well done. I'm ecstatic when I see they've updated their website with pictures or video.

I met the one of the partners of Alpine Live when I was surfing last August during the hurricane Irene swell. I was at a beautiful point break off of Ocean Boulevard in Rye. Its off a point where the road becomes bendy and mountainous. It gives off a feeling as if you driving along the steep ragged cliffs of California. One side of the road is where the ocean is seen below, and the other side is lined with beautiful mansions. One mansion I have given the name "The Great Gatsby", because of its major similarity to the house Fitzgerald describes flawlessly in his novel. The point is called Fox Hill, a name only local know about, a break where its dangerous to be out on especially when it gets big there. I met Ryan Denning after climbing up the many rocks to get back up to my parked car. He had his video camera up on a tripod filming a number of people surfing. "Hey I got some great footage of you at there," he said to me with a smile on his grizzly unshaven face. I noticed he was the photographer for Alpine Live and told him how much I support what he's doing. From the little conversation I had with him, I felt that he was a great guy doing something artistic and creative with his life. This is something I would love to do. Take pictures, video, and have a great time doing it. Check out their website, you will be impressed!

http://alpine-live.com/

Is this article that newsworthy?

I don't understand how this news is worthy enough to be on channel 9's website. Its news about a cat returning home from its injury caused by a barn fire that occurred a month ago. Why is this cat returning home to its owners good news? The headline did catch my attention, but after watching the video I said: "So what." For a person that loves cats as much as I do, I still wasn't sure why this was news. The cat was injured with bad burns a month ago from the fire. I'm not sure if they reported on it then, but this is old news to me. I think the best moment in this story is that the barns pig led the owner to the inured cat out in the woods.. This is where I found the heart of the story, but it still wasn't that fascinating. I've heard so many stories about hero pets. I don't keep up with the news most of the time, but this article made me realize what is happening to peoples interest as times change. People are probably more interested in this cat article than they would be about the Presidential Debate. Anyways, this article really made me want to write an article about a cat.


http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/Cat-badly-burned-in-barn-fire-returns-home/-/9857858/17086436/-/7yiudvz/-/index.html

Struggles

My main struggle with journalism is finding article ideas. I wish we were given press releases to stories so I wouldn't panic over finding an idea. I walk to my classes always looking around for an idea to spark. There never is a spark, or sometimes there is that spark but the idea seems to complex to write a story about in the matter of a week. It seems that if I don't find an idea after Wednesday's class before Friday, I struggle and panic to get an idea that still hasn't sparked for me. I don't have a lot of time during the weekend to report.
 This happens a lot, which is bad because I have to rush to report and write the article. I am forced to find the first idea I have and go off of that. Maybe I have these news worthy ideas inside me? I wonder if I'm being too picky about what I want to report? I think I need to be more open to every type of idea. Last week I heard about the Durham Marketplace caught on fire, but thought I wouldn't have enough time to accomplish the story in the way I would want to. The fire seemed like a big story, I should have just given it a try.

Meeting Story Exercise

Portsmouth High School students might have to miss their early morning cartoons on Saturdays from now on.  

A School Board meeting was in session last night discussing the motion to approve a new rule that requires students who have disciplinary problems during the school week. This proposal would require an allocation of about $3,000 per year for staffing. 

A parent, Peggy Bacon, spoke up on how she did not think the proposal was a good idea.

"I work six days a week--including Saturday morning-- and its bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday," said Bacon. "Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well? I'm not going to force him to go. Its not going to make any difference, and we are going to pay higher taxes as well for it."

Steele responded that the new disciplinary measure is being proposed in an effort to reduce the number of in-house suspensions. In-house suspensions are given to students caught smoking inside or outside of Portsmouth High School. 

Lisa Gallagher, a senior at Portsmouth High School who has never served a detention in her 12 years in school, also spoke against the new rule.

"I think its being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don't have to deal with detentions during the week," said Gallagher. "What if someone wants to skip a session? What are they going to do, make them stay all weekend."

Steele responded that if a student skips a Saturday session, he or she will not be allowed to return to school until the detention has been served.

Resident Bob Farley of Portsmouth said he liked the idea of the new rule.

"Parents can whine all they want about this," said Farley. "Maybe its time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids."

The board voted 5-3 at the end of the meeting with one member abstaining to table the issue until their next meeting March 7. Steele was instructed to return at that time with figures on in-school detentions so far this year.  

New Zealand's Hobbit Trail

Its strange to think about the setting a movie is filmed in. Movies are filmed all across the world in diverse locations, some places we may or may have not been to. It seems that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in a far off fantasy world, but really it was filmed in various parts of New Zealand. I didn't realize that people across the world were visiting New Zealand just to see the places the famous trilogy was filmed in. According to the article 266,000 people have visited the half ruined Hobbiton. (aka Lord of the Rings villages etc.) A majority of these people were not even from New Zealand. I can't imagine all these die hard fans traveling across the world to see the lands these movies were filmed on, but at the same time I think its awesome! This article is up and coming news because "The Hobbit" is in the making and will be released in 2014. This movie will also be filmed in New Zealand. This article is very fun when it is very descriptive with the New Zealand geography and the die hard Lord of the Ring fans. It's the type of story that is interesting for anyone. My friend is in New Zealand right now, and its funny because he is about to go venture off with some friends to find some of the lands they filmed on!


http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/travel/new-zealands-hobbit-trail.html?ref=travel

2 Men Accused Of Riding a Stolen Lawn Mower

I saw this story as the first headline on Channel 9's website, and right away thought it was funny and interesting news. I think its really funny that these two guys stole a John Deere tractor from a mans's shed. What makes it even better is that they were driving it down a neighborhood road at 1am, and when officers spotted them, they sprinted away. I liked how the owner of the tractor thought it was an amusing occurrence, but I don't think it would've been so funny if he never got it back right away. Once the man realized his tractor was gone the next morning, the police had already obtained the stolen John Deere tractor. These types of funny occurrences is what makes me love the news. Even though this wasn't huge breaking news, it was on the news channels headlines because it is a fun interesting story. This was the first story I saw when I got onto their website. It got my attention right away with the headline: 2 men accused of riding stolen lawnmower in Manchester. Underneath in a subtitle it said, "Police man on mower wont pull over." It seems they found this story comical also, which I believe they should. News should be fun sometimes because a lot of depressing occurrences happen all the time!

http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/2-men-accused-of-riding-stolen-lawnmower-in-Manchester/-/9857858/16801312/-/wlcwxtz/-/index.html

U.S Soldier Survives Taliban Gun Fire

Today on CNN they showed a video of a U.S Soldier surviving Taliban gun fire during a firefight. The footage is unbelievable. I have never seen such footage like this from Afghanistan. It was a really intense the whole time, a soldier who is by himself on a rocky slope battling for his survival. Below is the description of the video which quotes the soldier in combat. "I got hit a total of 4 times," he said, but they never mention what the soldiers name was. It was crazy to see bullets just miss the soldier through out the whole clip while he was in combat. It was so real to see a soldier in the midst of gun fire. The way he was heavily breathing, talking to himself loud, and you can hear the panic in his stride across the rocky mountain. It really hit me hard watching this man fight for our country, it shows what courage and strength are army has. When he gets shot I suddenly really felt for this man. The way he was calling for help that last minute of the movie because he got hit was emotional. It was hard to see that no one came to save him.

My Relationship With the News

               There is no relationship with the news and I, not even a break up, nor a divorce. I will see the news from time to time, but never on a daily basis. Ironically this morning I watched some news on CNN just because it was on the TV when I got home. I do not like to watch tv, so the chances of me flipping through channels and watching the news is very slim.

                I don’t care enough about what’s happening around me, or in a larger perspective, the world. Should I care? I ask that sometimes, being an English Journalism major, and taking this class on newswriting.  The news doesn't capture my attention because in my free time I like to do the activities that interest me.  It wouldn’t make sense if I spent my free time doing things that didn’t interest me. I kind of do wish that it did interest me, so I could have a better overall understanding of what’s going on and more importantly the Presidential race going on right now. The news doesn’t seem to catch my attention, and politics bore me to death. The strange part of being not interested in the news is that when I watch it randomly, I do tend to get sucked into the stories. I believe humans are drawn to breaking news. In news there is satisfying curiosity and the pain of suspense. We love seeing crazy happenings to other people, maybe even people we may  know.

                I watched the news more over the summer than I do now at school. My parents watch the news at 5pm every day. Over the summer, when I wasn’t working, sometimes I would sit down and watch it with them, but this didn’t occur a lot. The time of my life I can say I watched the most news was when I was in high school.  This reason again being my parents watching it every day. I was home a lot more often, and it seemed natural for me to simply watch the new before dinner.

                I think Journalism can already satisfy my needs I’m just not letting it. If the TV in my apartment would turn on automatically at 6pm every night on a news channel, the volume so loud I would realize the news is on, I would totally watch the news a lot more. I forget. When I do watch the news, it’s satisfying to me. The big stories are interesting, brand new, and fun.  But like I said before, I have no need and desire to know what’s happening around me.

               The future of journalism is confusing to think about for me. I know journalism has been evolving a lot for a while now, the times are definitely  changing. I feel like Journalism will have a huge turning point, where the internet is the new fresh opportunity for journalism to expand in.