Media Literacy Bureau

Since I have started working as a news editor I have realized that there is a vast ocean of difference between what the general public thinks news writing/reporting is and what it actually is. What could convince me of such a perception gap?

Two words – freelance reporter.

A freelancer at the college level is usually somewhere in the experience level of the average American, that is, totally unversed in the professional techniques of newswriting, but well steeped in the pervasive media that surrounds us.

So what does America think news writing looks like? Apparently something like this:
Read on…

Something happened on January, 24 2006 at 2:15 PM. People were really upset. Nicholas Copper who was there on the scene with the Police exclaimed that there was very little they could do and also that Italian vehicles are often dangerous. He also said he was just, “happy no one was hurt.” This wasn’t a real story they said.

This is all very, very wrong, but illuminating. If I were to write the same story it would follow a totally different convention, and it would look something like this:

A University student seriously injured himself and stopped traffic on E. 13th Avenue while attempting to jump over the busy street on a Vespa motor scooter using a homemade plywood ramp Tuesday afternoon.

Eugene Police spokesman Nicholas Copper said that most pedestrians had no idea what the man was planning to do, so the police were not called until the man rammed his red Vespa scooter through a Lane Transit District Bus window and halted traffic for almost an hour.

Copper said the man was not wearing a helmet and cautioned against performing dangerous stunts without the proper training.

“Although I can’t condone trying to jump a busy intersection, you’d of thought this guy would have at least used a motorcycle,” he said. “This is not a real story, by the way, but I am glad no one else was hurt.”

I believe the problem here is that the general public has no idea how much work goes into attribution. That means taking the many specifics of a news story like dates, names, locations, titles and times, and weaving them together. The perception that we are mostly speculating about incidents while recounting a tale over a glass of lemonade, one that is heavily reinforced by casual and shifty television news reports, is unfortunate.

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