Kirwan News Blog

On CNN Minnesota, there was a sort of abnormally long video about Black Friday sales.

When I had watched these types of broadcasts before I had never really thought the amount of time they devoted to them, but looking at it from the perspective of how much time they give to harder news and feature stories it seems a little off. In my mind they should spend the most amount of time on the harder news, but I can see how they might not have as much to go on as they would and do have with the feature news type stories.

The anchor in this video tripped over her words twice during the video, which I probably would never have noticed without looking at the video from this perspective.

The anchor in this piece on CNN seems to add a sort of over emphasis on words that seems to either be insulting the woman in this video or to the intelligence of the viewer.

The anchors sign out was rather week too, her words seem to just trail off with out any real conviction in her voice.

The overall story of this broadcast seemed to be done kind of half way. The interviewee who had had the fake doctor work on her face, came from left-field with her opening comment in her clip, which I think either they chose the wrong clip or the interviewer didn't do a good enough job of interviewing the woman and didn't get a good quote from her.

On CBS Minnesota there was a feature news video about a Christmas light park in Duluth.

They began the broadcast with some playful banter between the two anchors, unlike what they would have done, had this been a hard or breaking news story. One of the anchors was actually the reporter who drove up to Duluth to do this story.

The story was very light-hearted, and easy going with the anchor/reporter making wise cracks in the voice over track. It was almost three minutes long compared to the other harder news broadcasts which are around a minute and thirty seconds long.

The opening in this video on WKRN is set up differently from others. They start with a scene shot, showing the mall parking lot where the car jacking took place.

The writing for this broadcast is misleading and confusing. In the achores lede, it soounds like the woman who was kidnapped and released during this car jacking is actually still in the hands of the criminal.

The way the reporters video were shot and then pieced into the broadcast, makes the station come off as a bit below par. The shot focusing on a TV in the station, which is then playing the reporters segment is off putting and sort of annoying to watch.

In a broadcast by Fox News, the anchor follows the typical formula for a broadcast news story.

Unlike in a print story, the anchor opened the story with a long run on sentence that would have been hard to follow if it were written, but it being said a loud was easy to follow.

She opens each video clip she shows, with a summation of what were are going to see, paraphrasing basically what is said by the person in the video.

I liked this clip because it was easy to follow, and gave a concise view of both sides of the issue, in a short amount of time. If it had been written, it most likely would have taken a lot longer to get the point of it, and then to understand the views given.

An article by Jim Gomez with the Associated Press, reported on the arrest of the former president of the Philippines, preventing her from leaving the country which according to accounts from her was to obtain medical treatment.

The article offered minimal scene or descriptions much like the article that appeared in Inquirer News, which in actuality offered no descriptive or illuminating scene imagery.

The later article was written in a strict breaking news fashion getting right down to the details, while the article by Gomez offered some color, "Arroyo, who won a seat in the House of Representatives after her stormy nine-year presidency ended last year, once had strong ties to a group of loyal army generals who shielded her from four failed coup attempts sparked by a series of corruption scandals. All have since retired."

An article in the Star Tribune reported on the rough year Wisconsin has had in politics, focusing on the protests and petition signings that are going on right now to try to recall some of their elected officials, including their Gov. Scott Walker.

At the beginning of the article the reporter, Jim Ragsdale, sets the scene rather well, "In the Capitol rotunda one day last week, Chris Reeder stamped out a beat with his sandaled feet and led a rousing chorus of "Roll Out the Recall," while joyful demonstrators danced polka turns under the majestic dome."

Other articles surrounding this topic haven't had the time to give much scene to it as they were reporting on these events in a more breaking and hard news environment, like the one in the LaCrosse Tribune.

Further into the article in the Star Tribune, the reporter falls back into a more conventional news story telling jargon, keeping to the facts.

An article that appeared in the Minnesota Daily explains how the University's Facilities Management Landcare services are preparing for the snow.

The description during this article which is talking about a rather mundane topic, helps make it more interesting to read. "Last year's winter storms were not kind to Alex Ludwig. He spent it shoveling snow and scraping ice off of the University of Minnesota's campus sidewalks," said Yasin Muhamud, a reporter for the Minnesota Daily.

The article would have been better if the author had used more descriptions to go along with the rather dull topic.

An article in the Minnesota Daily reported on the opening of the first brewery in downtown Minneapolis.

The reported set up the scene by describing how the four co-founders of the brewery started brewing beer in a garage five years ago. "On a frigid Saturday in February 2006, four friends huddled around a small burner for warmth as they brewed their first batch of beer in a one-car garage in the Fulton neighborhood of Minneapolis," said Nick Sudheimer, a reporter for the Minnesota Daily.

The use of descriptive words through out this piece kept me interested and willing to read further on, he goes on in the article to describe anecdotes of the founders adding the human element to this story.

An ESPN article talked about the upcoming Sprint Cup race which as the reporter stated was really between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

"Edwards will take a three-point lead over Stewart into the 36th and final race of the season, marking the closest championship battle since the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format made its debut in 2004," the reporter said.

The explanation of how Jimmie Johnson who has had streak of 5 championship wins was easy to understand. "Sunday officially marked the end of Johnson's reign: He finished 14th and was mathematically eliminated from title contention," the reporter said.