“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.”- John F. Kennedy. I feel as though this will be my prayer during the semester as I face Journalism 4460. Like its predecessor, 3420, I am looking at a mountain of work the first day. Between, PR campaigns, Twitter updates, brochures, you name it, I will have my hands full the entire semester. I hope this prepares me for the deadline filled world of PR. On another note, I have never religiously used Twitter, like I assume I will this semester. I don't know what hash tags or chats are. I guess I better learn soon.
Studying PR wire, it's incredible how much of the news we get is on behalf on a PR cause for an organization or person. Take a news release about the shootings in Arizona. The author of the article is Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization of mayors that focuses on gun control, has used the Tucson shootings to push legislation. The article does a good job of going through each point but it is not exactly a news release as it is more of a fact sheet. “Under former Arizona law, Loughner may have been denied a concealed carry permit.” Then the article dives further into the the reasons. But the format is set up like a fact sheet.
Another article I found with some problems is a press release about Big Fogg Sideline Heaters. The news release is about the heaters that will be used on the benches of Packers and Bears today in the NFC Championship game. However, the entire news release is written like an advertisement. It would be better to report on the weather conditions and then add in the fact about Big Fogg Heaters. This release would start off better with a lead such as, “When the Packers and Bears meet today at Soldier Field in Chicago, midday temperatures could spike to 20 degrees.” After that you explain what the heaters are doing. But in order for this release has any credibility, it needs to be written in the sports journalism format. The article breaks one of the big rules of news releases, avoid hype.
But back to the challenge of 4460, this class will be not so much a test of how well you can write but how well you can manage your time while writing. I'll admit that prior to the start of the semester I was dreading this class because of all the horror stories I have heard but after looking at the syllabus and understanding how all the assignments work, I'm excited about the challenge.
Just a little side note, I found this article on ESPN.com. It's a pretty accurate description of the people you will meet in the gym.
Well it's game time now! Go Bears!!
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