Kevin Blackistone Visits to Chat About Sports Reporting

"Sports journalism doesn't need sports fans; sports journalism needs journalists," Professor Kevin Blackistone told students. (Selfie by Adam Cines)

Internet Scavenger Hunt: Finding Examples of Strong Feature Story Openings

Please take a look online at some of your favorite news sites to find an example of a strong feature opening and nut graph. Look for examples of one of these:

• anecdotal leads
• scene setters
• compare / contrast leads

Then link to the story in a comment below this post, describing what type of lead it is, why you think it works well, and at what point in the story the nut graph drops in.

This will be due at the start of class on Friday.

Diversity in the Newsroom and in Coverage

How far have newsrooms come in diversifying their staffs? Not far enough, journalist and Merrill teacher Anne Farris Rosen said Monday. 

For instance: Although the minority population in the U.S. reached about 38 percent in 2013, the minority workforce in television news hovered at around 21 percent, and in radio, at about 11 percent, she said. A year earlier, minority journalists accounted for about 12 percent of the workforce in print newsrooms.

How worried as news consumers should we be by these numbers? How does minority representation in the newsroom affect the types of stories covered by the media-- and how they're covered?

Please comment, below, on stories on race or gender disparities that you have seen in recent years that were reported well, or not so well. Please be diplomatic, but specific, in your comments, which should be fact-based. Please give links to stories or studies you cite.

OR:

Talk about some specific stories that you think should be covered following the spring riots in Baltimore, but haven't been covered by the Baltimore Sun or Washington Post. What should these papers be writing about that they haven't written about?

OR:

What most intrigued you or worried you about Ms. Rosen's talk? Be specific; give examples.

I'm looking for several well-reasoned and well-written paragraphs.