A Rube's POV

There was an earthquake in Tokyo that left 150 injured with at least one dead. The quake was a 6.9 on the Richter Scale. It occurred early Sunday morning.

I first read this story covered by the AP in the Star Tribune. The article has a very concise lead that is very to the point. They do a good job of not putting in unnecessary details that are not relevant to the lead. They save those for the later paragraphs. This story is written in pyramid style format. The story also does an excellent job quoting the proper officials to give the story enhanced credibility.
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1078172.html

The story was also covered on additional sites. One place I read the story had different details surrounding the event. They had the injured total at 170, rather than 150 that was reported in the first AP story. Furthermore, in this story the lead is too jumbled with information that could very well be saved for later in the story.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4005419a12.html

Overall both stories did a good job of getting the proper information of this tragedy in a proper manner. They both used quotes from the essential people the story.

Posted by Dana Wessel at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A US Blackhawk Helicopter made a 'hard landing' in Iraq today injuring the two person crew that was aboard. The helicopter is used mainly for surveillance purposes. The extent of the injuries is unknown at this time.

This story was covered by the AP on the Star Tribune website. This story much like all the others on the internet had the term "hard landing" in the lead and in quotation marks. The lead also explains that there was injuries sustained to the two person crew. In the second paragraph they explain the cause of the crash. The story uses two direct quotations, one from a statement and another from someone associated with the incident.

The AP article that appeared in the Washington Post contains a different type of lead than the previous article. While they do contain the "hard landing" aspect they do not mention that there were injuries involved. They wait until the second paragraph to do so. Furthermore, this article is a great deal shorter than the article that appeared in the Tribune and does not contain nearly as many details.

Overall I felt the article from the Star Tribune was much stronger. I felt that the injuries to our citizens overseas is important enough to be carried in the lead. Also the length of the article being much longer allowed there to be much more detailed version of the events that took place.

Posted by Dana Wessel at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A small explosion on a U.S. Army base South of Tokyo took place today with no injuries or damage.

There is an AP story in the Star Tribune, this breaking story and was added to the site just minutes ago. The lead properly explains the situation and has proper atribution however the final sentence of the lead "A Japanese news report said police suspected an attempted attack on the base." could have been shorter or put somewhere else in the story. Overall, the lead was rather long. The story does do a good job of explaining what took place as well as getting quotes from the proper people in the story.
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/996999.html

An AP article also appeared on this topic in the International Herald Tribune. Their lead contains information that the other AP story did not even have, that someone was arrested on suspect. Otherwise the articles length and information is fairly comparable to the other AP story. This one gets more in depth into the possibility of the attack being carried out by extremists and also gets into past occurences.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/12/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-US-Explosion.php

For being a story that just broke both articles did a good job of handling the information. However I would obviously favor the one in the International Herald Tribune do to the fact that they have more information on the story that the other article does not contain.

Posted by Dana Wessel at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A helicopter crash in Ecuador killed the countries first female defense minister as well as her daughter and five others. The president has ordered a large investigation into the crash. The crash came just ten days into the presidents inauguration.

The reporter in the article from the Baltimore Sun did a good job writing about a tragic situation. The lead in the article is short and concise and to the point. He does not introduce names in the lead but does so in the upcoming paragraphs. One thing that I did think was odd about the article that he does not introduce the name of the defense minister until the fourth paragraph. This seems like something that is pertinent enough to be said earlier in the article then that. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-ecuador0125,0,3206782.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

I compared this article with one written from the Union Tribune in San Diego. The two articles share very similar leads that are brief and do not contain very many details. However in the article out of San Diego, the writer starts out with a quote directly after the lead. I would have liked to have known more about the situation before a quote was introduced. This article as well does not introduce the name of any of the victims until the fourth paragraph.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070125-1449-ecuador-ministerdies.html

Overall I felt that both of the two sources did a good job of getting the information across to the reader. Both contained leads that were concise and did not contain too much information to overwhelm the reader but did do enough to entice the reader to continue with the article.

Posted by Dana Wessel at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)