Feeding the Beast

From the video, my understanding of "the beast" was directed toward the public. The video talked about "feeding the beast" and creating new and exciting stories to "feed the beast." For the public appetite to be fed means to come up with the most important, most exciting, and most creative journalism so the public is satisfied. News stations each day have to come up with the best material so the public will choose to read/watch their news papers/stations. I think different material or stories in the news may compromise in trying to "feed the beast." I think this is the case because in the end, no matter what stories may be on the front page of a newspaper or a breaking story, the public (the beast) are making individual choices as to what news they're adhering to. The public choice may effect the news papers/stations because of their lack of interest in their news, or on the other end of the spectrum, the public interest in one's paper/station may have a positive effect. Another aspect that may effect the 24-hour news cycle would be behind the scenes at news papers/stations and the roadblocks they might come to in reporting their news. For example, if a news station can not get a hold of a potential news source, then that effects their story and perhaps they won't be able to publish that story, and therefore wont be able to "feed the beast."

Special News Leads

1st special news lead: I found this special news lead on fox news. It is a story on an amusement park that has new rides and roller coasters. The news lead that was used for this story was a staccato. I think that this news lead is perfect for this piece because it builds up the suspense of the new rides for the readers.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520697,00.html

2ND special news lead: I found the second special news lead on fox news as well. This story talks about North Koreans possibly selling nuclear weapons to other countries, and the possibility of North Korea refusing to sell nuclear weapons, therefore other countries forming their own nuclear plan. I found it interesting that this story had two special leads, both a staccato and a question lead. I don't think that either of these leads were the best for the topic of the story. I think a traditional summary news lead would have been more effective because of the serious subject of the story.
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/26/mcfarland_north_korea/

First News Story

Pullman welcomes back an Eco-friendly event

Freshly cut, bright flowers popped among the hustle and bustle of the crowd congregated to witness the ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the reopening of the Pullman farmer’s market Wednesday.

Sponsored by the Pullman Chamber of Commerce, the first farmer’s market became a step toward a more sustainable future for the Palouse.

Pullman hosted a fresh food market in the past, but over the years, its popularity fell and the local market became a thing of the past. As a result, the Pullman Chamber of Commerce and WSU Organic Garden worked together to bring the farmer’s market back to Pullman. Local vendors and farmers from the surrounding areas will sell fresh produce and goods at the market every Wednesday until the fall.

“Local markets are actually going on throughout the nation. Everyone is trying to focus on sustainability,” said Tammy Lewis, executive director of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce. “Our goal is to promote healthy eating and living,” she said.

Lewis said the decision to bring the market back to Pullman is based on an initiative to demonstrate to people that sustainability is possible, and that having a local market is one way to move toward that goal.

“The purpose of the market is not only to support local farmers but to also promote the idea of better living,” Lewis said.

She said eating food that is grown locally rather than packaged promotes healthy eating and living. Lewis said the local market will play home to similar vendors weekly with produce varying throughout the season. She said one of the popular harvests is rhubarb; however as the weather gets warmer seasonal berries such as blackberries and raspberries will become available at the market. Lewis said in addition to fresh, locally grown produce, the market will offer a wide array of vegetable plants, flowers, and fresh artisan breads for people to purchase.

“It is great that someone brought a farmers market to this town,” said Kate Jaeckel, market vendor. “I think that the people of Pullman have been itching for an event like this for a while.”

Jaeckel said she and her husband own a half-acre farm and two greenhouses in Moscow and she is excited for the opportunity to provide great fresh products for Pullman residents at the new market.

“There are a lot of loyal buyers already. I hope to see great turnouts every week here in Pullman.” she said.

Jaeckel said the farmer’s market is just adding to the previous efforts made in the area towards sustainability, such as the recent Compton Union Building renovation and the existing Moscow farmer’s market.

Summary News Lead

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/

Three story ideas..

Dear Editor,

With summer here in front of us, Pullman seems to have gotten a little deserted without the normal buzz of the college students around. However, there are still activities for local and remaining summer session students to do. Every Sunday, in Moscow, Idaho, just 8 miles away there is a local farmers market that takes place right off of Main Street. However, they are now bringing it to Pullman starting on May 20Th and running through October 28Th. The market will be open every Wednesday from 4:30pm-6:30pm in the Old Post Office Wine Gallery parking lot.

I would like to find out why the market was brought to Pullman and what kind of crowd they are interested in attracting.
The market seems like it will help out local farmers and encourage both student and locals to support their local economy.

Possible sources for this piece would be WSU's organic farm, who is the tenant for the market and the Executive Director of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce, who has helped to put together the event.


Dear Editor,

With the end of the normal school session, many students have ventured back to their home towns. The students who are now left are those taking summer courses. Summer session admissions is much lower than the normal school sessions, so how does this effect the local bars and their event nights?

Now that a large majority of the student body is gone, along with most of Greek row, how are The Coug, Stubble fields, Valhalla, and some of the other local bars surviving? During the course of the summer, are they still going to hold weekly wing nights? Bladder Busters? And other themed nights that they normally do during the regular school year.

Possible sources for this story would be managers/owners of the named bars. And students who attend some of the themed nights.

Dear Editor,

The Greymalkin Gallery opened in early April, however, they are planning to have a grand opening on Memorial Day weekend, May 23-25.
The purpose of this piece would be to find out the kind of art that they are looking to showcase, and the artists that they would like to attract. This event is one of many that Pullman is offering during the summer, that people may not know about, and if they had the research done for them, maybe they would be interested in checking it out if they knew details.
This event would be a great opportunity for locals to check out artwork from the Pacific Northwest, if they choose to stay in town for the holiday weekend.
Possible sources for this piece would be the gallery owner and artists that may be showcasing their work in the grand opening weekend.

Comparing and contrasting different news sites

The first site that I looked at was foxnews.com. This news site I felt was more based on celebrity news and entertainment rather than politics, government related, or violence and crime. Although the site does contain some of those topics, the site definitely seems more geared towards a younger audience and puts the entertainment and celebrity news above the more "important" news stories. On the site, quite close to the top there is a section on the "seen and heard" of celebrities, Maxims hot 100, Man made bikini bodies, and more on beauty of celebrity lives. If you look further on the website, there is news on President Barack Obama, further into politics, other world news, health, and sports.
The second news site that I looked at was www.msnbc.msn.com. This news site was less biased towards celebrity gossip and entertainment. On the site there is a wide variety of news topics, anything from politics to health and beauty to travel news. MSNBC news site I would say is more geared towards an avid news reader, rather than just focusing on what young people might want to read, they offer diverse news topics, both breaking news stories, and also important topics that have been surfacing in the news for weeks now, such as the swine flu.
If I were to commit to an online news site, I would read MSNBC because of the validity of the different types of stories. I think that news sites are supposed to cover everything going on in our society, rather than just the "poplar" news topics.

Oil Contamination in Ecuador

The two videos shown in class regarding the oil contamination in the Amazon Forest in Ecuador, had completely different takes on the story. The CBS 60 minutes video portrayed Ecuador as the victim in the case. The interviews were biased, they each showed different negative facts on how Texaco/Chevron was at fault for all of the contamination within the rain forest. In the interviews with CBS, they showed the parts of the interview that Texaco/Chevron seemed like they could have done more to fix the problem earlier than they did. Of the 900+ oil pits that they created when filling oil barrels, Texaco/Chevron only cleaned up about a sixth of the amount that they were "responsible" for, which was about 150 pits. From a viewers point it was hard not to take the side of the people of Ecuador because of the spin that CBS put on their style of interviewing and the way they broadcast it. Even the footage that they filmed for the clips was at a biased point of view.
The second video was from YouTube, which I felt also had a biased point of view. This video was more geared towards defending Texaco/Chevrons side of the case. This video's interviews, although maybe with the same people as CBS, showed parts of the interview that made the oil company look better in the eyes of the viewer. Both of these videos are different takes on one story and it makes the viewer wonder, which is more credible? In my opinion, the CBS video is more credible because 60 minutes has done interviews on many high profile cases and the fact that this story was covered and aired on 60 minutes means that it is obviously important, and CBS has to cover all the facts of the case. Even though there were facts in each of the videos, there was clearly different objectivity on each of the creators sides.