New book looks at Native Americans in the media

A bit of shameless self-promotion. My chapter on the Native American mascot issue has been published in the new book American Indians in the Mass Media, by Meta G. Carstarphen and John P. Sanchez. My chapter looks at the issues that arise when an intramural basketball team called the Fighting Whites takes the media by storm. Read an article about the book in The Oklahoma Daily.

Reporters need to be editors now

The Denver Post is laying off up to two-thirds of its copy editors, according to Westword. In a memo to staff, editor Greg Moore says that much of the paper's copy editing will be done "at the content-generating level." That means reporters will need to  be proficient at copy editing.  As news and PR move more and more to the online-first model of delivery, all journalists must adapt. That means developing an eye for details like AP style, grammar, punctuation and spelling, as well as an eye for the bigger picture in terms of content, libel, ethics and structure. Another key is fact-checking. It seems like a lot of times, in the rush to get the copy online quickly, fact-checking is forgotten.  These are some of the reasons all news-editorial and PR/advertising students in our program take the News Editing and Layout class.

Ad makes ass out of headline

This is what happens when ads take over the front page of a newspaper. Read more.

Using active verbs

I recently read an interesting column on verbs by Constance Hale. It's a good read for anyone interested in a career in writing.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that good journalists use active verbs. I tell students to avoid what I refer to as "weak" verbs like "was" and "are." For instance, instead of saying "There are about 13,000 students who attend UNC," I would say "About 13,000 students attend UNC." The verb "there are" is boring. The verb "attend" is active.

Active verbs bring stories to life. Boring verbs bog stories down.

Students getting down to business

Students in my Advanced News and Feature Writing class are once again blogging on their beats. I have assigned the blog for a few years now. Besides teaching students how to blog, it gets them working on two important tasks. First, it gets them writing about their beat on a regular basis. Second, it allows them to reflect on their reporting and writing. Check out what they have to say by clicking the links at right.

Worst error ever?

If this copy editor didn't lose his or her job, I'll eat a newspaper.

Students blogging again

My Reporting Contemporary Issues students are creating blogs. They will cover Greeley City Council twice a month and write about what happens on their blogs. Tonight we went over the agenda for the last meeting, and nothing stood out as especially interesting. I hope they don't all drop the class after that.