"I'll lead, you follow"

Feature leads, also known as "soft news," are an important part of news writing. They allow you to take a dull piece of news and gain the attention, interest and empathy of readers by spicing it up. There are many different types of feature leads. They include: anecdotal, narrative, descriptive and question.


Summary leads are also known as "hard news." They provide a preview of what's to come and focus only on straight facts. They answer the infamous 5W's and one H.

Examples of two feature leads:

1. "They know him as "Black," a convicted felon and longtime member of the Bloods street gang. He is leaning far back in a chair, under the only working light in a nondescript rowhouse in East Baltimore. He is talking about street life and hustling. And this group of more than 25 gang members and young men recently sprung from prison are hanging on his every word."


2. In their summary of evidence against Mohammed Sulaymon Barre, a Somali detained at Guantanamo Bay, military investigators allege that he spent several years at Osama bin Laden's compound in Sudan. But other military documents place him in Pakistan during the same period.

Juicy!!!

Social life in college does not only consist of parties and students hanging out with one another. Whether students want to admit it or not, they spend a lot of their time not only gossiping to each other but also gossiping on the net. Social-networking web sites are becoming more and more popular; such as the well-known Facebook.com and Myspace.com. In addition to these popular sites, the campus gossip site JuicyCampus.com has become known as well.

JuicyCampus, home to nasty school gossip, dries up discusses the termination of JuicyCampus.com. Due to its founder, Matt Ivester, experiencing a downturn in the economy, the site has finally come to an end; pleasing most and upsetting a few.

"We're very happy," said Erika Lowe, vice president of the student government at Western Illinois University..."

The site was bo guarded with cruelty and hatred. Most colleges were asked and urged to block the site from their campus networks.

With the removal of JuicyCampus.com, colleges campuses can now undergo a feeling of peace.

I definitely agree with this news story, this site was ridiculous. I can't lie, it was interesting to read the different posts, but the topics were outrageous. People went overboard and I feel that it became too much, even for the net.
The reporter should have interviewed students that are for JuicyCampus and placed their testimony in the article.

Social Scene 101

Intro to the Social Scene...

Student social life in college, on and off campus: what is it all about?

• Dating
• Friendships
• Greek Life
• Partying

How do students adapt to change?
High school to college is a major adjustment. The social pressure is on and students are free to do what they want, when they want. Students handle change different from one another.

What advantages and disadvantages follow social life?
Fun vs. Failure

The battle...
Life, relationships and schoolwork.
Managing it all and excelling.

Tam

Hello, my name is Tamara. This is my third year here at Towson University. I am from Prince George's County. I currently have an apartment in Baltimore, Md. I am the youngest of four; I have two sisters and one brother.

I love writing and photography. I hope to learn as much as I can that will help me grow as a Journalist. I hope to improve my writing and grammar skills. I am a shy person, so I hope this class will somewhat break me out of that. My dream is to one day publish my own magazine. In my magazine, I want to not only write but have areas of my photography. I hope this class will be a guide for me now and in the future. I have faith that my dream will come true.

What's broken in the newsroom?

Throughout the whole Season 5 of The Wire, their were a lot of issues happening in the newsroom. One of the major issues at hand was fabrication. Stories were being made up and exaggerated, which is not newsworthy. That goes against journalism rules and the code of ethics.

According to webster.com, the definition of fabrication is "to make up for the purpose of deception."

Their becomes great speculation that Scott Templeton, a young reporter for The Baltimore Sun, makes up his own stories. It seems that he does so to impress others and to have a higher position at The Sun. He is one to make up his stories for the Baltimore Sun. He began fabricating stories basically from the start. It all started in Episode 2, Unconfirmed Reports, with his beginning story consisting of a teenage boy in a wheelchair presenting no real name, only a so called nickname, no photo or anything. With no evidence he gets away with it and the faulty story is accepted by Executive Editor James Whiting. From then on Templeton made up stories and quotes throughout the season.

Templeton just makes stories up like it is the correct thing to do and like it is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.

He also presented a story about a so called mother that died of a toxic reaction to blue crabs. The mother left four children in care of her sister. According to Templeton, as the sister raises the four children she collects money to pay for their education.

It is no secret to the staff that Templeton fabricates stories. David Simon clearly dislikes Templeton because of all of the fabricated stories and quotes he provides.

The whole happening of Templeton and his fabricated stories is similar to the Jayson Blair story. Blair, a young reporter as well, who resigned from the New York Times after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing stories. Templeton and Blair both took part in the same act, fabrication.

Fabrication is a very serious issue in the newsroom. I feel that it goes against any rule for journalism and is far from ethical. Fabrication clearly does not make for a good story even if the made-up story is portrayed as real or even sounds nice. I feel like if you are going to make up stories then why become a journalist. It is not fair to the paper, staff or others that would love to be in the newsroom writing newsworthy stories. The obvious and correct thing to do is to fire anyone who is participating in fabrication. If it is done once then it is bound to happen again. Reporters are under a lot of pressure, having to deal with deadlines and all of the happening stories and events. Regardless of all of the present pressure, it is never acceptable to make up stories and quotes. Whether if the fabrication is based off of pressure of just to be noticed, appreciated, impressing others or raising standings it is not necessary and should never be done.

picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/The_Wire_-_Season_5.jpg

Journalist Rules!!

The three most important rules: Accuracy, Privacy and Plagarism & Fabrication

Accuracy- all of the information a journalist gives has to be correct. If it is just one minor error present, the work is worthless. Everything has to be done, written and said correctly. I feel that if something is not accurate, its value goes down along with the value of the journalist for reporting incorrect work.

Privacy-their are many laws present that can get to a journalist if privacy rights are violated. A journalist has to know their limits and follow them. Many break the law and are sued because of privacy rights. Privacy is very important.

Plagarism and Fabrication-you have to do your own work. Why go into the field of journalism if you are just going to copy off of someone else, it is not right. You can not add on extra information or anything to a story that is not true, nor can you make up a story just to receive the glory or meet a deadline.

Their are consequences for all three of these rules if they are broken. I find these to be very important for journalist to follow.

*flick.flick*

Mikal is smiling while trying to dismiss the cold weather. It was very windy, which made it even colder outside, but yet a smile a remained on her face.

This is a statue of a tiger, showing it roar. The tiger is a demonstration of the Towson Tiger that was given to the campus by the alumni in 2007.

"xxxxx" is riding a seesaw with hopes of raising money for cancer foundation that his fraternity is hosting. "xxxxx," a xxxx at Towson University, dedicated his time for 48 hours to ride a see saw with other fellow fraternity brothers for a Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer.






To take a better photo you have to keep some things in mind while shooting the picture. Depending on the type of camera you have, you have to hold the camera a certain way. If the camera is more thick, you should hold the bottom to keep it still, so it will not move while taking a picture. If you have a smaller camera, then you should hold it with both hands, but without your fingers in the way of the lens.

When taking a picture you should get in steady yet different positions. Shooting not only from eye level, but lower and higher levels makes for a better picture. Taking many photos of the same image is always best, you have a variety to choose from of which you like best. The image that is in the frame is important, you have to study that and fill the frame for a great photo. While filling the frame, you should look for different angles to shoot the photo. The rule of thirds is important when taking pictures. Always keep your eyes out for unique shots, take a photo that may be surprising to your eye.