Week 4: Welcome February

Too much to read, so four posts to start off the month:

1. Remembrance of Candy Bars Past: A solid read on the regional candy bars of the US. But, like many small businesses, these local favorites are slowly disappearing. What might be an MA or local San Rafael hook to this story? And I found it quite interesting that when these companies first began they sourced local products in an effort to battle transportation costs. We've now come full circle as more and more companies are again trying to use local products to attract local buyers. Be sure to check out the graphic of the box of chocolate.

2. Masculinity in a Spray Can: An interesting look at the burgeoning life of a tween and teenage boys. Females are no longer the lone buyers of product, now there's just as much targeted at boys and males. How is this, though, affecting the lives of boys? Is this a good thing? Are we headed down a slippery slope of body image problems already plaguing young girls and women? And, surely there's an MA angle in this piece. What is it and how do we go about reporting it?

For the sports lovers:

3. Portrait of Reality as Told by Vick: There's no shortage of reality TV, so why shouldn't Michael Vick get involved? Is this a good thing for television or might Vick and his show fall victim to all the hype and hoopla?

4. Excess Reigns at Super Bowl, and That's No Ballyhoo: It's a week away and it's the commercial blitz of the year. But how many people are watching the Super Bowl for the game? This piece takes a look at the history of the event and what it has become now. The Voice has done stories about different pieces of MA history, but is there an MA Super Bowl so to speak? Or something in the larger community that has taken on a life of its own?

Edition 6 Article Ideas

Please post your ideas for the second edition of the year. Be sure to read the other ideas BEFORE you post your own. You can elaborate on another person's post (with a citation, of course). You MUST format your post in the following format:

Article Idea:
Must interviews:
Why will people want to read this:

This edition will come out in late March.

Edition 5 — Layout Day

Welcome to the first edition of second semester! So exciting! So thrilling!

Since we have done some work with design and layout, I thought it was time we work with actual text and graphics and .... our newspaper. That's right. I have broken you up into teams, and as a team you will be working to redesign a specific section of the most recent edition of The Voice.

News Team: Charlotte & Katie
A&E Team: Henry & Ruby
Sports Team: Elizabeth & Eric & Jacob
Features Team: Ilana & Lauren
Op/Ed Team: Lena & Hossain
Center Spread Team: Riley & Jackson

Here are the guidelines
1. You must include all of the elements from the original page
2. The page must look COMPLETELY different
3. Be sure to notice the little things: pica spacing, date, page number, photo credit and captions, coy editing, and more.
4. This is not a race. It's about learning and executing good practices.

How to get started

• VOICE --> Layout Templates --> Voice_Layout.indt --> double click the file and Indesign begins.
• Trusty handout to start:

How to get the files

• VOICE --> Old Stuff --> Voice Archive --> 2009-2010 --> Edition 4
• While in Indesign, you can use Command+D to place documents.

Questions — just ask. Have fun. Be creative. Good luck.

Editor Goals -- Edition 5

Please post 3 goals you have for your section. Reflect on the last edition, areas where you have the most to improve and areas where you're doing great work. These goals can be design related, deadline related, or anything else. BUT, make sure these are measurable, outcome goals.

Week 3 -- Final January Post

1. The Kids Will be Alright: From the Wall Street Journal, this is an interesting story on birth rates in the US and other countries. Marin is dealing with a birthrate first: the dominant white population is slated to plateau, while the non-white population is booming. For MA, this poses a few issues, namely, how does a while culture school embrace and attract the non-white culture. How might that be a hurdle for MA? As for a localized angle for this story, we might look at the changing or unchanged face of the MA student population. What are you thoughts on bringing this story to campus?

2. Nancy Pelosi Doesn't Care if You Like Her: A solid profile piece from Esquire. Jamie brought this to my attention last week, and when I found out one of my favorite writers wrote the piece, I loved it even more. What are you thoughts on the style? the content? the piece as a whole? Again, how can we take our profile writing up a notch and how can we incorporate such in-depth coverage in The Voice? Might this inspire a bit more pizazz in our Wildcats of the Issue?

Week 2

1. The Coast of Dystopia: A fabulous opinion about the state of California. Only question to ask is: what are your thoughts?

2. 11 Minutes of Action: That's the total amount of actual play time in an NFL football game. I know I had no idea, and I've been watching a lot of football lately. What do you think of the stats? How about the graphic? Will this deter folks from watching the entire game? Maybe encourage more DVRs? Is there some aspect of MA life that we can analyze like this? Maybe assemblies? How many minutes a day students spend standing around in the BLC? Walking across Mission?

Happy New Year: Week 1

Welcome to 2010. A change in blogging protocol: you cannot comment on past weeks' posts. That means you have ONE week to comment on my post and then the comments are closed.

1. What About George? This is a fantastic profile piece that includes multiple sources. Often times we struggle to write well-rounded profile pieces that include multiple sources. What do the different sources add to the story?

2. Ballot Issues in California Is there such a thing as a California State of Mind? Clearly that state of mind is starting to rear its ugly head again as we approach another voting day. How could we localize this piece? How does this issue manifest itself in our community?

Share, enlighten, dazzle.