Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Vice President Makes News in Knoxville... Linked below -- for students to compare and discuss in class -- are a few news stories about Vice President Dick Cheney's appearance Tuesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Howard Baker Center. To learn-by-deconstructing, read through a few of the stories, watching for differences in the focus, the lead, or the story structure. Are there examples of "print" and "broadcast" writing styles? Do the stories make good use of quotes, descriptions of the audience... and crowd estimates, both inside and outside the arena? Do the numbers and other facts agree with each other? Are the stories complete? How well do they present both sides? You should notice when some facts are missing, and I hope you can spot an error or two. The reporters were on deadline, and mistakes happen. Watch for numbers to compare, such as estimates of the audience, the number of protesters, or the cost of the new building. I heard one reporter say the protest was "outside the Baker Center." That's the place that hasn't been built yet; I think they meant the arena. (If you went "huh?" at the word "arena," you're apparently unfamiliar with indoor "groundbreakings." I know I was. The university does, in fact, pull up the basketball floor and bring some dirt inside so that dignitaries can be photographed turning over entirely symbolic shovelsfull of earth. The actual Baker Center building will be across campus in what is now a parking lot at a busy intersection -- not a great place for a public event, but at least one television news reporter was interested enough to film a "stand-up" from the sidewalk.) Here are the story samples. Many more are (or were) available by searching with http://news.google.com (note the "news" part of the address). Look the names of Cheney, Baker and Knoxville. The Knoxville News Sentinel didn't wait for its print edition to put an early version of the story on KnoxNews.com. Eventually, it had a main story on the Baker Center event (mentioning the protest) and a sidebar quoting the protesters and people who disagreed with them. KnoxNews also linked up speech texts and a slideshow of News Sentinel photos. The protester story even revealed the origin of a (recycled, it turns out) big mask of Cheney, the one described as "a 30-inch-tall, papier-mache, oversized head." (However, I don't think "30-inch" needs to be followed by "oversized.") Didn't the Tennessean send someone to Knoxville for the event? If I missed a story, add its address in a comment below. All I could find was the AP story -- a short version of it at that. The same text is (or was -- these links won't last forever) at ABC, CNN and probably more than 100 other sites from Boston to Australia. The Southern Standard is the only place I've seen the AP's longer version -- more than 750 words, possibly from the "state" instead of "national" wire, or just a later filing. Some good quotes show up toward the end, putting the day in more perspective with reactions from Baker and UT's president, John Petersen, and one of the few unexpurgated versions of the protesters' chant. The Daily Beacon: The event story was the page one lead, with the protest story as a sidebar run "below the fold." A lot of students in my classes felt the emphasis was right, even if they weren't satisfied with the story's explanation of the Baker Center itself. Tennessee Independent Media: It's new to me, but news.google.com found it. (It's part of an alternative media network I've seen before... The story looks like a combination of basic facts from the AP story, anti-war and anti-Bush messages, state politics and opinion poll data. It's hard to tell whether the writer was in Knoxville. WATE-TV (image)... and original story, along with three video clips that stayed linked to the WATE homepage through the following day. I lost track of the text version Wednesday evening (as previously mentioned here), but Jim at WATE put me back on track. WBIR-TV (image) or original and video. WVLT-TV (image) or original and video. Read the WVLT story while watching (or listening to) the video. The website text sticks close to what you'll hear in the broadcast, but listen and read carefully. What has to be changed to turn a "to be heard" broadcast script into a "to be read" story? As originally posted, the text had a couple of editing problems... which were still there 24 hours later. (If your Macintosh doesn't play the WVLT Windows Media Player video very well, you can still listen to the sound.) We probably will (or did) discuss enough of this event in class to move on. However, if you see any especially interesting variations on this story, add them as "comments" using the button below. Speaking of which, right after the event a colleague pointed me to a weblog that archived a link to this short CNN video clip. I checked back today and noticed that the blog item had attracted more than 100 comments, many from people who sound even less friendly to the vice president than the UT demonstrators did. The blog's attitude is reflected in its name: http://crooksandliars.com For the full speeches, in video and text, check the Baker Center's own site. And, if you have a direct link to another interesting version of the story, please add it to the comments area below. updated 11/17 2:40:00 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2008 Bob Stepno. Last update: 7/19/08; 1:10:17 PM.