Headline magic

While I was interning at Shedoesthecity.com  I came head to head(no pun intended) with my biggest weakness, THE HEADLINE. Sure in Editing for Print and Online we were taught about how to write proper headlines but in the blog world I find not all of the Canadian Press’ rules apply.





What I found out about headlines for a blog post:
-should be in your face
-should be hilarious
-should be interesting to your reader
-don't worry about length if it's clever enough
-say what you want to say

I left the headline writing up to the ever talented Haley Cullingham and would always be so pleased when I would see my stories go up. It’s really an art to create a clever headline for a blog post. Some serious thought must go into it but even when I focused my brain I wasn’t coming up with much.

Here are some of my favourite headlines done by Haley:

Another online presence whose headlines makes my eyes tear up are those over at Dose.ca. Here are some of favourites written by them:

Coming back after an internship...

I've just finished my 6 week work placement with Shedoesthecity.com. This was a huge feat and an amazing learning experience. But finishing our work placement means a lot more than just that. We are at the beginning of the end of our CreComm experience. In roughly ten weeks we embark on our second internship and then we ARE GRADUATED people. Boiling this down means.... in 13 weeks I may be living a completely different life than I am now. The plan is to sell the car, pack up all my goods into boxes, grab my cat and hop a ride to the big smoke. I've always been a dream big type of a girl, and with my goals in mind Toronto seems like the perfect city to get things accomplished in. It's just a weird feeling to have relied on the term student for the past 17 years of my life. What comes after the word student? Professional?

We are all about to step out games up. Lets enjoy these last months of youthful bliss.

Hiroshima

When I read true stories, such as Hiroshima I can never really say what doesn’t work for me in the book. I want the story to be told however the journalist experienced the situation whether that is uncomfortable for me to hear about or not. It doesn't matter if some situations are hard to take in, too gruesome, or graphic because these true stories are not about the reader but about the people who were there. I don’t want to be sheltered as a reader or spared from anything. I’m reading for the truth.

“Of a hundred and fifty doctors in the city, sixty-five were already dead and most of the rest were wounded. Of 1780 nurses, 1654 were dead or too badly hurt to work.”

I would have appreciated more dialogue throughout the book to be able to get more in touch with how the people were acting amongst one another. Although this may have been impossible given the circumstances, but theoretically it’d be interested to know more about the inner conversations. Were people talking? Were people praying? Were people saying good byes?


"They said they would, but the little, broken man got away from them, and the last priests could see of him, he was running back towards the fire."

There is a real art of story telling in this book due to the fact that it feels like very little story telling is happening, if that makes sense? The book flows naturally. One moment, followed by another. Not exaggerating any moment, or expressing opinion but just letting the story be the story. And I appreciate the lack of emotion that was used in the story telling. It’s emotional for the reader to read, but on their own terms.


The whole way, Father Kleinsorge was oppressed by the thought that all the damage he saw had been done in one instant by one bomb.

Like Alyssa mentioned in class, this book was hard to read. I’m not a naive person but when you sit down and just read this book it feels like a story. And then when you shake your head and think this isn’t a story this is humanity, you totally get taken a back. It's important to understand history and if we don’t learn from it as a whole, as a country then at least take your own message from it and keep those morals and live your life accordingly.

The importance of broadcast journalism writing

Weekly we try to conquer our way through broadcast journalism class here at Red River College. As first semester comes to an end certain things that Joanne Kelly has taught me stick in my head:

-talk to your audience directly
-don’t tell but show
-and don’t be cliche or use jargon




How embarrassing is this reel of newscasters reporting on the fact that Conan O’Brien will be broadcasting a same sex marriage? Is there just one writer that works for every news organization in America? Or are these people just too lazy to try and come up with something that hasn’t already been said? I can’t even give kudos to the first person who reported on the topic with the phrase ‘pushing the envelope’ because that’s just too easy.

As I continue my work in attempting to become a broadcast journalist I’ll try to  PUSH THE ENVELOPE. HA!

Remembrance Day Reflections

Remembrance Day means something different to everyone. 

 Neither of my grandfathers fought in the war. My papa Stewart (the only grandpa I’ve ever known) was a farmer and therefore he was exempt from war. I remember when I was younger watching kids in my class cry at Remembrance Day ceremonies because their grandfathers had fought in the war. I was always curious about their emotions and their families because I did not have that connection.

For me, Remembrance Day is a time for me to give thanks for those who fought for me to be a Canadian. I am very appreciative of living in this country. We are so lucky. I attend a service every year to give thanks to those who fought and to give myself time to reflect on how I feel to be Canadian. But sometimes it’s hard to explain what being a Canadian means. Peter Mansbridge shed light on this matter when I attended an Encounter with Peter Mansbridge at the Convention Centre on Friday night.

Mansbridge told 3 stories about what being a Canadian meant to him and they all revolved around our nature to care. One story stayed with me and had special significance  as we approach November 11^th.

Mansbridge was in the Netherlands in 2005 on the anniversary of D Day. There was a celebration of the soldiers and these men that are now in their 80s walked amongst the crowds. And there was one mom who held her 4-year-old child on her hip, and he gave high fives as the soldiers walked by him.

Mansbridge went up to the child and his mom and asked why she would bring her 4-year-old child to this event. She said so he’d know what a Canadian was.

It’s import to be thankful and as our soldiers grow older we cannot let our gratitude fade out. We must continue to teach others what they’ve done for us.

Lest we forget.

Trusting your newscaster.

I am one out of six students who have been picked to attend a dinner where Peter Mansbridge will speak. I am beyond excited about this opportunity and want to share the question I  ‘figuratively’ asked Peter Mansbridge:

As a novice journalist I am just beginning to have my first experience with telling sensitive stories,  such as the St.Amant radiothon story I am writing for The Lance this week. As I’m confronting these different stories I begin to question what part does emotion play in journalism, especially broadcast journalism.

My question for Peter Mansbridge would be how do you deliver the news or tell someone’s story without losing control of your own emotions and remain poised? Is it possible to separate yourself emotionally from the story you’re telling, especially if it’s some sort of world tragedy like war or natural disaster?

As a kid I would sit down and watch the news with my dad every chance we got. We even watched the news while we were in different provinces or states enjoying summer vacations together. I always looked up to broadcast journalists as someone who can be trusted and someone who can be counted on.

And even today at this age when I think about it, it’s still true to a certain extent. People have favourite broadcast journalists, people that they have grown to trust and want to hear the news from. With this comes a lot responsibility especially if you’re reporting on a national level.

I think Peter Mansbridge is an exceptionally smart guy and he is the newscaster who I trust the most. I just find these relationships between the person delivering the message and me the person receiving the message extremely interesting.

WATCH THESE VIDEOS

As a journalist I want to tell stories. And today I want to share this story with you.






This story has already been told but I wanted to share it with all of you guys. Sometimes being in this program you can take a hit, fall down and not want to get back up and all together just become discouraged. After a rough Thursday ***cough BROADCAST J cough*** sometimes it's hard to want to carry on.

Then I came across this story. Now I'm not talking about the story itself (which of course was inspiring) but more so I am talking about the way its being presented. After watching this I thought, "Oh yeah THIS explains why I am in this program."

I want to tell stories like these and present them in a manner that is appealing to others. When Ross Capicchioni retells the story of getting shot and the sound of the guns goes off every time he mentions it, it gives me a chill and makes me want to present my stories in the same manner.


Thanks to The Berrics for reminding me I love journalism.