1. A great read from ESPN.com (Thanks, Andrew, for the suggestion). While this piece deals with broadcast journalism, there are lots of ideas and insights we can apply to our work as print journalists. What are your thoughts? What concrete items can we bring to the next edition of The Voice?
2. A great cartoon from The Economist. There's lots of news about Afghanistan these days, and lots of speculation about Obama's plan of action. While we don't have cartoons in our newspaper, what do you think of this one? Of cartoons in general? What do they offer than words cannot?
Share your insights and comments.
11 comments:
1. ESPN article:
I related to this article because I often wonder when I'm watching football with my family, "What are the announcers even talking about?" It seems as if telecasting of games has become more about the network's personnel and their views than the actual game. This is hard to apply to the Voice since we don't do that many straight news pieces where we could look to focus on exact story instead of commentating; but this also relates to not showing bias and eliminating all connotations out of our pieces. The part about the scheduling could definitely apply to the Voice. We should really try to think about how much space each article is going to take up when they are assigned to help prevent articles from being pushed to future editions.
2. Economist Cartoon
This political cartoon makes it seem as if Obama is putting lots of effort into finding a better government for Afghanistan while taking the U.S. army with him. It makes me think about what our country's role is in the situation and if we should be focusing more on our own government. Political cartoons wouldn't really work in the Voice because we want to keep the subjects focused on the community, but we could potentially relate the two. As for comics in general, they provide visual representations of issues that force us to think about them in different ways than if they were just written out. It might be interesting to take comic submissions from the entire school to add to the Voice.
ESPN:
One reason I recommended this article was because I recognized some of the things Mary has been both suggesting to us and praising us for in the list of mistakes broadcasters make. I thought it was interesting that even at a very high level they still have problems with editiorializing, while we are really good at making concepts clear to our readers while they struggle to do that. Reading this made me realize how easy it is to put ourselves into the piece without realizing it, and how important it is to read and edit carefully to catch ourselves.
the economist cartoon:
I think that good political cartoons do a strong job of presenting the irony of a situation from a certain perspective. While not everyone will take the time to read through an entire opinion piece about a political situation, most will immediately look at a cartoon because of it's simplicity and inherent eye-catching quality. Because of this, I think it would be smart to incorporate some cartoons in the Voice in order to increase readership and interest.
Espn article:
I totally agree that the broadcasters completely take away from the experience of a fan watching his/her favorite team. How is it hard to be a broadcaster when you are paid to continuously talk about random things (in this case)? Also, the broadcasters voice their opinions, or the opinions of Espn that can easily offend the viewer, and result in people not wanting to watch Espn anymore. This relates to the Voice since other than Opinion pieces, there should not be any bias information that offends someone to the point where they never want to read the Voice again. This may be a stretch, but when writing an article, be a good broadcaster, don't let your article get off topic, keep it synchronized to the important details.
2. Economist cartoon:
The cartoon represents the big problem for our country. This problem is whether or not we should spend 150million dollars a day (the amount we are spending today) on the military in Afghanistan, or should we focus our attention and money on our own country and the problems we have such as health care. A political cartoon would not work in the MA voice, but I think we could incorporate cartoons that relate to any problems or controversies going on around MA. Cartoons would be a beneficiary to the Voice, since it would bring about humor while still addressing the topic
ESPN:
This article is approached with way too much of a biased point of view. The announcers can be annoying, but they are also rediculously helpful. Announcers can not only make the game entertaining during a dull moment but they keep you informed. I don't see why it is a problem for announcers to guess or assume. I completely understand that it is inappropriate for them to throw facts around incorrectly but other than that I feel announcers are a crucial part of the game. More often then not announcers are experts on the game, and can hep add new depth to the viewing experience. This can relate to MA in the fact we should NEVER use incorrect facts, and we should stay on topic and make sure our stories focus on the crucial and important facts and not ones relating to what flavor toothpaste we used.
The economist;
I like this cartoon because it gets the message across using a design as opposed to droning on in a long and dull article. It shows how the government is pretty much getting nowhere in a lot of aspects and tasks tend to be much more difficult than originally planned. Its a good approach and I think MA should use more animations and comics to express points and ideas rather than words. It is a good use of political humor but also conveys a very serious message. Maybe it would be a good idea for MA to focus on some political aspects as well, and whether or not the student body feels the war in Iraq is a waste of time, money, and resources.... or not?
Jamie Muresanu
ESPN Article
I really liked this article because it made me think of the challenges we face at MA concerning editorializing and making generalizations. I now view ESPN as more than just a sports broadcaster. Everyday the ESPN schedulers deal will the complex duties of balancing TV schedules to promote viewer loyalty, while offering a variety of niche sports as to not alienate the viewer that isn't mainstream. This article really made me notice how easy it is to inadvertently express your opinions, which often times can clash with your readership, thus driving away potential fans.
Economist Cartoon:
I think that this cartoon is kind of funny, but almost in a sad way. It's caricatured characters aim to give it a lighthearted tone, but when comprehending the cartoon, it's got a depressing note to it. To me, it pretty much says that the Afghan government is throwing the U.S. off by making Obama think the war is over and the state is stable when in reality, they are just trying to direct us down a long, convoluted path. The way the mountains stretch out to the end of the image suggest that the road is incredibly long while the sign suggests that the path to end U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is "Just around the corner." There lies the irony of the cartoon. It is funny, ironic, but sad. It shows the stupidity and the willingness of Americans to believe the best, and shows the Afghan's as scheming warlords (the tank). This cartoon, so seemingly simple, has a lot of messages under the surface.
Economist Cartoon:
This article displays Obama's search for Afghanistan's "honest government" and for them to settle their run on election between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah. Obama is searching for this Afghani honest government in hopes to determine whether or not to send more troops to afghanistan (portrayed in this cartoon by the tank fallowing Obama). These political cartoons allow for the artist to display their opinions visually, rather than writing up a whole article on it. They are usually easy for the reader to quickly catch onto. Also, they are usually pretty amusing. While we do not have that many cartoons in the voice, I think that we could definelty benefit from some on our op-ed pieces. In our last edition, Ana drew a tombstone for ISE with a question mark at the end. This shows that we do have the artistic talent and ideas to add more cartoons into our newspaper.
Economist cartoon:
Like Jen, I think that the irony portrayed in this cartoon of Obama's efforts to help restore the government in Afghanistan, puts a comical spin on a very serious issue. Not only does the cartoon get it's point across, but it also allows the reader to think about the purpose of this cartoon and contemplate the underlying message. Putting cartoons in the The Voice could have a very beneficial effect, because I know that at least for me seeing a graphic is much more appealing than seeing a laborious article of plain text. I think that cartoons also have the ability to give a light hearted feel to an article whose message can sometimes be very staid.
Cartoon:
This cartoon shows the view that Obama seems to be lost in his effort to create a stable democracy in Afghanistan. (Hence, the hiker looking for "hopeful signs" among a deserted landscape). While I thoroughly enjoy the cartoons in professional magazines and papers, I do not think they would be a success in the Voice. I just do not think we have the capacity to come up with relevant cartoons cycle after cycle.
In my opinion, cartoons in general give the reader a break in the work blocks to think about the issues at hand from a new angle. While almost always biased, I think that cartoons can be enjoyed by and stimulate both sides of an argument.
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