Clever Assignment for Advanced Journalism

The assignment was simple: write a piece about how you walk and breathe at the same time - a "how to" guide, if you will.

So, I decided not to get worked up about this writing assignment and have fun with it. I tried to write it as a gag column that could maybe go in something like The Onion. I used my experience of writing gag articles for the joke issue of the school newspaper. This type of writing is very easy because it is not stressful and the writer can have fun with the piece and the audience. It wasn't hard once I got started because I just let the ideas come to me and soon I had a clever piece of writing about one of most common, yet, utter complex things imaginable. It would have been hard to write about how to do it because this is something you do everyday without thinking. You don't think about how you do it, you just do!

That is like me and writing. I don't know if I would be able to explain how to write to someone because it is something that I have done since I was about 7-years-old. I was never taught. I just do it. It is something that is a part of who I am, and you can't necessarily explain to anyone else how to do something like that. So, that is why I think sometimes it is easier to have people explain how they do something as a opposed to just how something should be done.

I've never been able to answer the question: "How do you do it?"

I tell people: "I just do it. I've always just been able to do it."

Here is my piece:

How to Walk and Breathe:
A Step by Step Guide to Staying Alive and Getting Where You Need to Go

By Nikkie Prosperini

The act of walking and breathing are two separate activities that can be done together with careful planning. First, as you have normally been breathing (just like you have been when reading this guide), continue to do so. (Please do not walk, read this guide and breathe all together. That may pose a health risk). As you continue breathing (inhaling and exhaling through the nose and mouth), put one foot in front of the other. This will set you into motion (the relative speed is up to you, but walking generally occurs at a slow to mild pace). With each step, continue your breaths.

This author recommends inhaling with the step of the right foot and exhaling with the step of the left to keep a nice rhythm. After a specific amount of steps, you will then find that you have reached your destination and are in fact still alive. Congratulations. Also, please note that while breathing can be done without walking, it may be difficult to walk if not breathing. Individual results may vary.

Please look for the next installment of “How to Walk and . . .” when this author covers the thrilling combination of walking and chewing gum.

"Amusing Ourselves" Chapter 6 (Media and Govern.)

One thing that struck me when reading this was the quote: "...almost all television programs are embedded with music, which helps to tell the audience what emotions are to be called forth" (Postman, 88).

Does this mean that our society is reaching the point where those in charge of creating our entertainment understand that we need to be told what we are supposed to be feeling? Along the same lines, how does it make you feel that you quite possibly, with television, could be told how to feel about certain things? Sounds a little creepy to me . . . I'd much rather invoke my own emotions about a situation and not have someone else tell me how I should feel about a certain thing.

If they can use music to "help" the audience know what emotion they should be feeling with entertainment, what's next?

It may not be as creepy as what I've maybe made it to be, but is something to think about 9if we really are told what to feel by what music is played on TV).

Writing to Deadline - Chapt. 1 (Advanced Journalism)

If there was one thing I had to specifically pick out from the text that helps me as a writer today, it would be:

"I learned to get out of the way of the story and allow the story to tell itself" (8). I think this also goes along with Murray saying he learned to get out of the way of information. Almost like he let the information and story come to him.

That is one problem I always have as a writer, creative or otherwise. I fret and worry so much over getting and writing the story perfectly from the begining that I don't allow the information to come to me or the story to tell itself. I think that this is a problem that most writers have in every writing field. And Murray basically helped because he was saying that the story is there if the writer would just let it come to them. I shouldn't be so worried about perfection in the first draft. I will most likely always have the opprotunity to fix or rewrite parts of the story. If I am too caught up with that in the beginning, before the story is ever written, I won't be able to tell it to the best of my abilities. This basically said to me: write first, fret later.

In the interview with David Mehegan, I like how he said that he did not outline or organize before writing because those types of things are only "rituals that delay actual writing" (12). I agree, and think that those are perhaps things that writers do because they are scared to start their actual writing. I, too, am guilt of this, especially with creative writing.

I also enjoyed reading about Murray's take on the many voices of writing and how most writers have many differnt writing voices. I do think that a writer has a prefered voice, but that many writers find it hard not to at least dabble in other voices and forms of writing.

Obama Biden Rally (Adv. Journ. & Med. Gov. )

On Saturday, August 23, 2008, nearly 35,000 people were a part of history in the making as Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama, shared the staged with his newly announced running mate, Joe Biden in Springfield, Illinois. And to be one of the thousands of people in the sweltering crowd that stood for hours to see these two together was a wonderful experience. It is certainly something that I will remember for a lifetime.
It wasn’t only Obama’s and Biden’s speeches that made me feel good about where America could be headed (and what our country could become under them); it was also the little things I saw in my four hour wait that bolstered my once-shaky faith in our society. In a word, I saw pure, unadulterated decency. People around me shared food, water and ice with one another. Everyone was making sure that women and children were okay. I felt that most people were genuinely concerned with the well-being of those around them. A really tall man standing next to me even lifted me up into the air so that I could see Senator Obama when he appeared in front of the crowd. These are the people that, along with Obama and Biden, can be a changing and positive force for our nation.
The set-up of the event was actually very organized, reminding me of my departing flight from Heathrow International Airport last winter. Volunteers gave directions to the crowd before they entered the security checks, which led to less hold-ups going through the metal detectors. Inside the event, the biggest problem, however, was the lack of water for a crowd that waited in 80 degree heat for hours on end. With secret service not allowing bottled water in the area, event coordinators didn’t plan well for the combination of not enough water, too many people, including infants and toddlers, and a high of 88 degrees.
In regards to coverage of the event, the State Journal Register offered readers many different angles of the event in its August 24th issue. They not only covered the event itself and the speeches, the SJ-R wrote pieces covering the problems that arose, such as their not being enough water and people needing medical attention. Also, they featured different members of the crowd and their thoughts on the events as well as a brief bit about the competing Blues and BBQ festival. And the SJ-R even featured an article against the Obama-Biden campaign with quotes from U.S. Rep Shimkus. Overall, I think the State Journal Register did a very good job of covering all of the bases when it came to covering such a historical, yet local, event.
Other articles I found, however, spent less space covering the event itself and more space covering what Biden brings to the Obama campaign. An article in The New York Times talked about the process that Obama went through in choosing his running mate. I found that article to be interesting because I had never known about how that worked. I thought it was a little different and slightly more interesting than some other articles I found. Other articles I found came from The Guardian, The London Times and CNN.com. Mainly these articles either analyzed what Biden brings to the table or began to play off of Biden previous remarks of Obama’s inexperience. They also threw back and forth the pros and cons of the Obama-Biden team and whether or not the team will succeed in winning the White House.
In conclusion, I am very pleased about what I saw on Saturday, both on stage and in the crowd. What happened that afternoon gives me hope – hope in people, hope for our country, and hope for change.

Chapters 1 & 2 (Advanced Journalism)

So, the first two chapters of this book were helpful and semi-interesting. Although, I felt some of the information was pretty much common sense. Then again, I am sure there are those wrtier's out there who have threatened editors or not done their research or not read submission guidlines before submitting work.

(In fact, from working on an international literary magazine, I KNOW that people don't read submission guidelines. And, I think that show a lack of respect for the publication on behalf of the writer. I don't care how good you think your work is, if it doesn't fit our specifications don't send it. We have those guidelines for a reason. Shakespeare is about the only writer on Earth who doesn't have to follow submission guidleines- Okay, venting over! :) )

Anyway . . . .I also like that the book includes examples of cover letters and query letters. Looking at those examples and reading the material about them was helpful. I also liked the section on e-querying as the Internet and e-mail hvae become an intergral part of today's society. I like that the authors realized how pertinent that information is in our technology driven society.

In conclusion, the first two chapters were an easy read with a lot of clear and concise information as well as pertinent example. The set up of the book (i.e. bulleted lists, examples, etc.) is also a nice touch.

Intro to "Amusing" (Media and Government)

One thing that I found interesting in reading the intoruduction to "Amusing Ourselves to Death" was that Andrew Postman said that some college kids felt that they had to "defend their culture" and were almost offended by Neil Postman's "assault on television" (pg. xi). I thought this was a very interesting concept. Maybe these students did realize that television and other forms of media and entertainment are dumbing down our society. Maybe they realized that they are not as informed as they should be. Are they defending their culture because they know that Postman was correct in his assertion? I, personally, don't feel the need to defend my culture. I am not proud of the culture and society in which I live. I see and, for the most part agree with, Postman's point: That our society is being overwhelmed by media and technology as well as info-tainment to the point. I think this has caused some of my and most of the next generation to be consumed by entertainment.

I also liked the section where Andrew Postman talked about how, with society changing, communities are at the same time building and collapsing. But, at what cost and at what reward are things things happening? Do certain communities need to collapse, so that others can replace them? Maybe. But, who says that the new community is better than the old one? What are the trade offs?

After reading this introduction, I really want to read the book "Brave New World" and "1984." I found Andrew Postman's contrast between Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World" to be fascinating. I believe, at this point, I agree with Huxley's interpretation.

So, um, here's a quote I love:
“It is not always good enough to continue to hear your voice. You must endeavor to hear the voices of other people, what other people think about you.” -J.O.J. Nwachukwa-Agbada, Nigerian poet and scholar