Journalism

Journalism is considered “the collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts” (journalism, Answer.com). Today journalism is the most effective way to get the news to the rest of the world. In the past people had to relay upon newspapers and magazines only for there news but to day, the internet has expanded the way we get our information. Now people can log onto the internet and go to news sites such as CNN, go to online newspapers, and go visit numerous blogs that have been dedicated to give you whatever news you want.

This week’s assignment was to choose and articles on a topic from both a newspaper and online source. I have chosen to write about the lawsuit that is being put upon the Delta Zeta sorority from DePauw University in Greenscale, Indiana, from 23 girls who have been removed from active membership, claiming they were removed because of their looks and race. My newspaper article, Kicked off Ind. Campus, sorority suing for reinstatement, was from Thursday’s issue of the USA today and my internet article, Sorority accused of kicking out unattractive members sues university, is from CNN.com on March 28th.

Both the newspaper and the internet article convey the same story but in different ways. I’ve noticed that in the newspaper article the writer used an inverted pyramid (journalism, Wikipedia) method were the most important message or portion of the story is expressed and from there all the rest of the story or news unfolds. The internet article was more of a summery of events that had taken place, and was more focuses on giving a none bias report of what has happened. The internet article was more of an informational article then the newspaper article was. Also the newspaper had a lot more quotes, whereas the internet article didn’t. The newspaper articles also had direct quotes that people involved had to say about the story which was something that the internet articles didn’t have. The internet articles paraphrased what people had to say, instead of giving the direct quotes. If a person wanted to find out more about what details were going on in the new story then I would suggest them in reading the newspaper article on this subject then the internet article on CNN.com, which basically summarizes what’s been going on.

Not only does that content of the newspaper article and the internet article differ, but so does the presentation of both. The article that I choose from the newspaper had a big picture and a big title which caught the attention of the reader. The newspaper article also was in column form which people today, recognize as a newspaper story format. Also the newspaper its self had many other articles on the same page, causing a person to be drawn to other articles and not just that one article. The online article had a much smaller title on the page, had no picture, and was written in a normal format and not in columns, which are all very different from the newspaper article. The online article, instead of having other articles on the same page, had just one article per page, but also linked to other articles that were popular or that related to that subject. With online articles it is much easier to search for similar articles under the same topic then it is with newspapers. In this way online articles are better for searching for topics then it is for detailed breaking news.

Newspapers and Online articles have changed the way that we receive our news today. Though newspapers are still being read and being printed I believe that online articles and blogs are the preferred way of getting news from the internet.

References:

Journalism. (2007, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:40, March 30, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Journalism&oldid=118575756

Journalism. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/journalism

Marklein, Mary Beth Kicked off Ind. campus, sorority suing for reinstatement. (2007, March, 29). USA Today, p. A2.

(2007, March, 28). Sorority accused of kicking out unattractive members sues university. CNN.com, Retrieved March, 29, 2004, from http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/28/troubled.sorority.ap/index.html