1. This is a great profile piece on a former college basketball star. It's well written and reported, and illuminates the life of most college players post college. What do you think of this piece? Is there a place for some Alumni news in The Voice? Is it worth following up on grads after their life at MA is over?
2. Here is another great idea from the NYTimes. It's a sound slide package -- something we can't do on paper -- that focuses on one person each week. It could be an interesting way to bring more people in to The Voice. We profile athletes and some artists, but what about the regular Joes and Janes? What do you think of this package? What about something like it in The Voice?
3. This is a great piece on the fate of the newsweekly. With US News and World Report gone and Newsweek on its heels, the role of newsmagazine is not good. So, instead of reporting the news, many magazine are turning to commenting on the news rather than reporting the news. What do you think of this? Could this be the fate of newspapers as well? Will this trickle down to student press?
12 comments:
I definitely can see a place for alumni news in future editions of the Voice. It wouldn't have to be the kind of thing that was in every paper but I think it would be a great way to increase readership of graduates, while still being interesting to current students and parents.
On a different note, I really enjoyed the style of writing of the piece - simple sentence structure and to-the-point writing style. Much of the article is dedicated to description of Kevin Pitsnoggle, rather than specific facts, which makes for an interesting, easy read.
Wow I absolutely loved the New York Times citizen profiles! What an original idea! The site was so well done as well as the photo journalism used to introduce you to the character. I felt like I was actually getting to know someone while watching. Hearing their voice really added to the experience.
My First idea, LETS TRY TO DO THIS! I would love to help with the endeavor. There could be a student of the issue. Someone could follow them at MA for a day, take pictures, ask questions, short periodic interviews. Then we could publish it as a photo feature with quotes to go along. Maybe even a brief introduction.
If it gets big, we can have students write to the paper explaining why the should be featured in that issue.
This reminds me of something that the University paper does. I think its called bachelor and bachelorette of the issue. The choose a single student and ask them funny questions about romance. It was entertaining.
-Amanda
About newsmagazines...
After reading so many articles about twitter and online news sources, the fate of newspapers is absolutely in question. Why bother purchasing and reading a tangible newspaper when the day's events can be found for free with the click of a button? However, I do believe that newsmagazines have more of a chance of surviving if they stop reporting news. Personally, my favorite part of reading the newspaper is reading the opinion pieces and the New York Times top hit articles list shows that I'm not alone. Professional news analysis and opinion pieces provide an edge that perhaps even bloggers cannot take away.
The lack of timeliness that even daily newspapers are dealing with has certainly been an issue for The Voice as well. Isn't that why we became a newsmagazine in the first place? People will always be interested in features and opinion pieces while professional news articles will continue to fade away.
I loved the article on Kevin Pitsnoggle, but I was also a bit shocked by it. I followed West Virginia's run in the NCAA Tournament in 2005 for my middle school paper (I think we had an alum on the team) and I remember how every single analyst said that Pitsnoggle would easily become a pro. I guess it just goes to show how rough the road to the NBA actually is.
As for the writing style, I agree with Julia's comments. The sentence structure, while simple, was still very memorable. I also liked the repetition of the description of the school, as well as the "you are who you want to be" quote. I liked that the reporter was able to get all of the necessary information in a relatively compact frame, which made it an easy read.
Also, I agree with Julia in that I believe that there is certainly a place for alumni articles in the Voice. I feel like all of the alumni articles that we do write have to do with alumni of musical talent for the most part, so it would be really interesting to see what other kinds of distinguished alumni we could find.
I think it would be very interesting to have a section for alumni news. Even if it is not in every issue, but having it in a couple issues i feel that it would still be interesting. I know that there have been many alumnies who have gone on to do great things. By having something like a "where are they now?" section could have a lot of potential to increase readership. However, i do not think it would be very interesting to talk about alumnies who have graduated 5- 10 years ago because not very many students at MA would have known them. So, by having articles about recent alumni, like those who have graduated like 2- 3 years ago will be very affective in my opinion.
I also agree with Julia. I thought that the article was enjoyable. It stayed to the point, but at the same time it had a central idea. It was simple, but affective and interesting
The NY Times profiles of New Yorkers are just incredible. Each piece is so beautifully put together - a in interesting and artistic combination of visuals and audio. The images seem to truly capture pieces of daily life with extraordinary specificity.
I would love to work on figuring out a way to bring something like this to the voice. While we may not be able to do it precisely, the concept is original and the product is beautiful.
I found the piece about newsweekly magazines to be a bit sad - and surprisingly made me somewhat nostalgic for times before instant communication. I believe that the fact that a weekly publication already seems outdated or not up-to-date is a tragic reflection on our current society's need for instant gratification. While the internet has brought with it numerous advances and made information available at a moment's notice, there is still something to be said for hard copy news in my opinion.
I also view magazines as different from newspapers (another media that is suffering greatly) - perhaps only because I have always preferred reading them. There is something distinct about the style of writing as well as the visual layout. I have always loved the combination of features, opinion pieces, news, advertisements, photo spreads, etc, as well as the fact that it DOES only come out at distinct intervals. To me, that is what makes a magazine interesting to me: its "release."
Though I do see the benefits for news magazines in analyzing news as opposed to simply covering it, I am still not a firm believer in the practice. I often read TIME, and have always found the page they include every issue about news topics being predictable or not annoying. I get that particular section is meant to be humorous, but it just usually ends up seeming stupid and immature to me. I must say I am disappointed to hear that news magazines are dying out and that the ones that remain are shifting towards views on the news instead of the news itself. However, it seems that this new focus is improving their readership which is understandably on the minds of printed news sources as the economy flounders.
I can only hope that major newspapers can avoid heading in the ‘what you should think about the news’ direction – after all, a newspaper is called a NEWS paper. As for The Voice, we already have a hard enough time generating interesting and relevant articles about a 400 student school. I simply don’t think we have enough news to even consider covering what we or other members of the community should be thinking about that news.
Also, I just had to say it, I absolutely love Jon Meacham’s quote.
NYT Profiles
If this does make its way into the Voice, we cannot profile star athletes or renowned artists—that may come across as a little cliché. We would need someone, with a special, hopefully esoteric, interest, that we can successfully laud and promote to our audience. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be someone with a special interest, even someone with an odd personality or a rare skill could work too—we just need to be able to differentiate that person with the rest of the MA community.
However, I would be hesitant to promote this as something that we can place in the Voice. I agree with Amanda in that, if we do it, the “profile” would be a sort of photo feature, with captions and quotes. However, from experience, I know that this kind of documentary photography is hard. It isn’t technically hard—like vector graphics and perspective drawings—but to be able to capture that kind of emotion and reality in a single photograph (let alone a series of photographs) requires the photographer/s to get to know the subject very well and also requires a huge time commitment. Also, because the Voice is printed on newsprint (aka the contrast/histogram destroyer), the spread may need to focus more on the writing/interviews than on the photos.
I don’t want to be a Negative Nancy, because I know it can definitely be done and be an excellent Feature. Picking a person to do this on would not be hard; I’d be hard pressed to name an average Joe/Jane within the MA community with the lone exception of the cafeteria’s Sloppy Sandwiches. And when the Voice/Voice blog finally comes online, we might even be able to emulate the NYT and superimpose a recorded interview over a slide show of photos.
Tiras Lin
I would love to know whats going on with the alumni of MA and see how successful they are after graduating from MA. I enjoy knowing about my old friends or even people I don't know but that went to the same highschool as me.
Lets do this!
I read the story about Kevin Pittsnogle. I also appreciated its simplicity. It is the type of story that can easily be comprehended by a large audience. The article beautifully described the transition Pittsnogle made from an All-American college athlete to a middle school teacher back in his hometown.
What I liked most about the article was the conclusion and the recurring theme about "being who you want to be" as Nish talked about. I hope that Pittsnogle makes a run at a basketball career and get a chance to be "who he was" in the near future.
In terms of writing about alumni, I think it is very feasible and would make for a great addition to our paper. Students love to hear about alums and see what they have done and accomplished since their high school careers were completed. This sort of feature would allow current students to make connections and learn about their student predecessors. it is always important to get a different perspective about the school, especially from alums. We could also communicate with the Alumni Coordinator, Elissa Van Deursen, to get ideas on who we should profile. This alumni presence in our paper would also help us make important contacts outside of our immediate community.
adam
I really enjoyed the pieces on all the average New Yorkers. The idea of the person telling their own story was great too and allowed the listener get an almost tangible feel for the person and his/her surroundings. While we may not be able to incorporate the audio, having the person talk is a great addition. We could pull something to this extent off, just not with audio. The NY Times magazine also does a Q & A with someone every issue, which could work for us.
I like the concept of the profiles being on the average people, not just the prosperous and famous. We could run articles alongside "A Day In the Life" type pics. Each issue could be a student or an alumni, but not just from one grade level. These profiles could illuminate the comical, but very real moments we experience every day.
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