Broadcast Guest Speakers: Cindy Michaels & Tony Consiglio

Anchors Tony Consiglio and Cindy Michaels (photo courtesy of wikipedia.org)

On Monday our CMJ 236 class was visited by WVII Channel 7 news anchors Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio. They shared with us information on getting involved in the world of broadcast news and how they made it to where they are.

Consiglio, a graduate of Emerson College began in the field of journalism as a sports reporter and a news photographer. From there he worked his way up and is now an anchor and producer for WVII Channel 7.

Michaels had a very different story. Having no broadcast experience whatsoever but had the drive and determination to get into that field, Michaels went to the studio and asked to work in what ended up being a 6 month long internship. “If there’s an opportunity, go after it yourself.” said Michaels of her drive. This proved to be very true and came up again numerous times throughout the lecture.

Having determination goes hand in hand with the ability to stand out. Michaels and Consiglio made it clear that you have to promote yourself, or you are merely one out of 20 and never be afraid of being funny and standing out.

Michaels and Consiglio also went over what an average day of working at a news station was like. Neither of them had a single negative thing to say. “Everything is brand new, start from scratch, if you screw up one day, there’s always tomorrow.” Said Consiglio of his work.

When discussing opportunities the mention of the internship program was brought up. Both agreed that doing an internship will always sound better than saying you took a few journalism classes when it comes time for you to look for a job. For more information regarding internships and how you can get involved you can email tconsiglio@wvii.com.

Nathan Stormer – Print Journalism

On Monday’s class, we were greeted with Nathan Stormer, a journalism professor here at the University of Maine. Stormer specializes in print journalism and came in to share with us tricks of the trade and answered any questions we had towards the subject.

One of the main focuses of the lecture was the idea of objectivity. You have to anticipate what the readers will want to see, it is all about human desire. Humans are naturally curious people and like to find things out, but you must always consider points of view, to remain viewless. This is referred to as passionless objectivity. Creative license also came into play when discussing objectivity. Stormer explained that it was okay to have slightly more creative license on a feature story and to always keep in mind what interests the people and to not make it idiosyncratic. Stormer told us to imagine what a general person would think from your writing.

Word choice was another big topic discussed. It is found that sometimes there are specialized terms that are so precise that it can be difficult to find a replacement word without losing meaning to what is being said. Using metaphors are typically used to explain words that can otherwise not be changed. Then there is the case where people can interpret words as something completely different than what is intended. Words such as deficit spending versus debt and slumping versus sluggish were tossed around as examples. When having trouble finding the right word to say or if you’re just having trouble with repetitiveness, purchasing a thesaurus is probably the smartest thing one could do to improve their vocabulary.

Lastly, Stormer shared with us the “straw man fallacy.” This is when you build up this big caricature or a person and then bash on the caricature you’ve created and not the actual person. This can happen a lot in politics and seemed to be timely for discussion with the upcoming election.

Nathan Stormer was a great help to our class and has shown us how to write effectively and in a way that will be easy and entertaining for the reader.

Journalism Professor Nathan Stormer

Free Writing: Hot TV leads to teen pregnancies?

I was recently reading an article that said over-sexed teen TV shows are an indicator to risque behavior in teenagers. Honestly, what TV shows aren’t over-sexed these days? Also, what about all of these music video’s featuring half-naked women dancing around and getting busy, those aren’t as sexual as these TV shows? Shows like Gossip Girl, 90210, Degrassi and all of these other teen dramas have been showing sex to be so hot which in turn is supposedly making all of these teens so horny as well. Interestingly enough, Reuters states that the number of teen pregnancies has actually gone down. So which is it? Sexy clips like this promo for Gossip Girl, or just straight up teenage hormones that are making teens pregnant? You be the judge.

News Print Story

Déjà vu for UMaine Women’s Rugby

Black Bears defeated in first playoff game 17-36

BY KELLY HEALD

 

Defending Maine Cup champions, the UMaine Women’s Rugby Team, had hoped to solidify their first place status by taking home a regular season trophy. Playoffs began on October 25^th; UMaine was scheduled to play Wellesley College, the same team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year. While having the home field advantage, on UMaine’s Lengyl Field, enthusiasm was high. Alice Berry, a sophomore player spoke highly of the teams achievement, “As a rookie, I am really excited that we have even made it this far.”

UMaine and Wellesley fight for the ball during a lineout (photo credit: Megan Nichols)

Soon after the game started things took a turn for the worst, with Wellesley scoring within the first five minutes. However, junior Emily Bennett was quick to tie the game right back up. It didn’t stay this way for very long as Wellesley continued to score with a 3pt. kick and another 7pt. goal. Feelings began to turn sour when I spoke with team captain Kelly White, who was out of the game due to an ankle injury, “We are not in it today, we need to tackle lower and get into more rucks.”

 

 

At half-time the score was UMaine: 7, Wellesley: 22.

After a motivating half-time talk, the Black Bears went into the second half with a more positive attitude. Junior and other team captain, Victoria Passmore, brought up team morale by scoring early in the half.

 

Captain Victoria Passmore runs the ball in to score (photo credit: Megan Nichols)

Just when the Black Bears thought that they could bring it back, junior Myrtle Nesin, suffered a serious neck injury. She was taken off the field via stretcher and was brought to the emergency room. It was later determined that she suffered from a torn ligament in the neck, but will recover quickly.

With roughly 20 minutes left in the half, Wellesley scored two more times, bringing the score to 12-36. It wasn’t until the last three minutes when rookie player, Martha Thomas scored, giving the game a final score of 17-36.

Despite the loss, the team remained positive, “We fought hard and really gave it our all in those last three minutes, I am proud to be a part of such a strong team.” Says Krystal Dolloff, a freshman player. With only three players graduating, the Black Bears hope to come back next year stronger than ever.

Beat: Arts/Culture/Humanity/Medicine

I selected the aforementioned beat because I feel like there are a lot of events going on that relate to it and I found it to be the most interesting to write about.

Best Election PSA, Ever.

I am getting so sick of all of these celebrities who stand in front of a white backdrop with some easy-listening music playing telling me which way I should vote. So imagine my excitment when I stumbled upon this gem:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d

Ron Howard is amazing and definetly makes more sense than Leonardo DiCaprio and Blake Lively repeating to me over and over to “get out there and vote!”

Free Writing: Powell Endorses Obama

It is not all that surprising that former Secretary of State and Republican Colin Powell supports Barack Obama. While he is a republican, Powell has made it very clear that he is not too keen on the GOP Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. Powell felt that if anything were to happen to John McCain (who is a dear old friend) that Palin would not be at all prepared to run the country. McCain doesn’t have a good enough economic plan to handle our current economic situation, at least thats what Powell thinks. Overall Powell found both McCain and Obama qualified for the position, but Obama is better suited. I agree with just about everything Powell had to say as well. If McCain does win, we will continue down the same path, but with a different face. We need a change and not only because Obama is african american, but also because he has a plan and a different course of action.

Dissapointment.

What happened last night?! Just when I thought the Boston Red Sox had it in the bag, they go and let not only me down but all of New England. Dustin Pedroia started the game off great with a solo home run in the first. Tampa had to begin to feel a little defeated at that point, I mean, the red sox had one of the biggest come from behind games ever against them, they should be shaking in their boots. Unfortunately this was not the case and the entire game began to fall apart around the fourth inning. The game followed with consistent strike outs, not even pinch hitter Jed Lowrie could save them. In the end, the Tampa Bay Rays won 3-1. This is the fifth time in the past six years that the Sox have made it to the playoffs and just like the Patriots in the Superbowl this past January, I am left with only dissapointment.

Dustin Pedroia and Coco Crisp watch as Tampa Bay celebrates. (Boston Globe Staff Photo)

Free Writing: New Music

Music has been interesting lately. I’m not saying that it is good or bad, but interesting. Britney Spears’ new song “Womanizer” has been stuck in my head lately. I must say, I thought I would hate it first, but after the first 12 times or so of hearing it, it has grown on me. The robotic voice, the chorus that merely consists of repeating the word womanizer, and the other various Britney trademarks, it all shows that Britney has finally made her comeback and she really is here to stay. The Killers on the other hand, I am somewhat less then impressed. Their new song, “Human”, off their latest album starts off with a catchy beat and smooth lyrics, but then it hits the chorus. “Are we human, or are we dancer?” seriously? Dancer? First off I was under the impression that dancers were indeed human and secondly, why is it only “dancer”, not “dancers”? It’s not gramatically correct. Lastly, there is Kanye West’s new song, “Love Lockdown”. It is a complete 180 from what Kanye used to do. There is zero rapping in the song, and all of the lyrics are drowned out by an overpowering bass. The music video is pretty goofy too. It is Kanye sitting in a white room wearing all white, just sitting. Then cuts to random tribal people running and dancing. Weird. Long story short, the latest music releases have been interesting. That is all.

Free Writing: News

Before this class I had some knowledge in regards to writing for newspapers, if you count writing for your school newspaper, a paper that came out four times a year, as experience. I had known most of the basics, to find background information, interviewing methods, writing in the reverse pyramid style and that news stood for North, East, South and West.

 

However, when we were given the assignment to interview someone and then produce an article, I learned much more about newspaper journalism than i expected. I interviewed Emily Canal, a writer for The Boston Globe, and she not only gave me feedback and comments toward my article, but she even shared interviewing tips. The most important and helpful tip she gave me was that when going into an interview only have three main questions prepared, that way it is okay to go astray and not have to worry about following a dialogue, it makes the interview more personal as well.

 

A few other things I have learned about newspaper writing I learned from reading the book. While they may seem obvious, they are quite helpful, mostly things regarding AP style. Overall, I have learned exponentially more than I ever did writing for the school newspaper and I’m sure I will only continue to increase my knowledge by taking this course.