07/13/2009
With all the buzz about blogging and twittering becoming the new journalism, it's nice to find a resource that explores basic Journalism 101 skills. If you're interested in learning journalism as a craft, Cubreporters.org is a website built for you. You'll find articles and videos that explain a wide variety of topics like how to select quotes for your stories, how to use details and description to add color to your stories and how to write an effective lead paragraph. Check out the interactive exercises to hone your skills before you go looking for an internship.
■Class discussion: The narrator, journalism professor Mark Grabowski, insists that writing a journalism article is vastly different than writing a paper for your English class. Examine the lead paragraph in a number of news stories in your newspaper. Which are the most effective? Which is the least effective. Why? Can you find any that violate the warnings this video provides?