Media Coverage of Crandon Homicides Press Conference
The following refers to an article taken from the Appleton Post-Crescent based on information given at a press conference following the shootings in Crandon, Wis.
The reporter decided to create a story that showed the chronology of the murder from facts given in the statement prepared by Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen. The story went through when the event occurred, where it happened, how it happened, as well as who was involved. It left out certain information from the press release that was not important to the article. For example, the press release went into detail about Officer Greg Carter, and how he reacted perfectly to the situation. The article, however, left that information out as it was not nearly as important as other details. Information about who got shot and where in the house was information that was much more newsworthy. The reporter also summerized a lot of the information given in the press statement. This allowed them to condense the information into a tightly written article. The chronologic approach allows readers to place themselves on the scene during that day, and get a feel for the events that followed. Overall the article was similar to the press release, but was also very different because it only contained newsworthy items that aided the hard news article.