Caterinicchia Critique/Mutimedia

For my critique, I chose this article.

The lead of the article gets right to the point in a concise manner that lets the reader know what is going on in a short sentence, but only vaguely. Though Mr. Caterinicchia addresses companies' responses to the recalls, I feel that he should have clarified why the items were being recalled, if only through one or two brief examples, so that the reader would understand the gravity of the situation. Also, the phrase "deal with a crush of questions from the public" seems awkward.

He does an excellent job explaining the scope of the problem, illustrating the number of imports the U.S. gets from China with the ratio. He also addresses several different aspects of the U.S. reaction to the recalls, dealing with company, government and population reactions.

In the fourth graph, he uses "last month" as a time reference.

A sentence in the sixth graph, "The FDA assigned nearly a third of its 21-member communications team for more than a month to address questions about the pet food recall," is worded awkwardly and should be rephrased to suit a better flow.

The Web site, which is focused on business news, includes a feature that offered the users a "Top 10"collection of videos that are related to the business realm as part of its multimedia package.

Feature Story [Update]

Since our last newsroom meeting, I have been able to interview my first Brutus. Though I have not transcribed what he said from my voice recorder to paper, I have about 25 minutes of interview time to work with. I have also set up interviews with two other Bruti for this week, and sent an interview proposal to the head cheerleading coach and a fourth Brutus. They have yet to reply, but I will be sending a follow-up e-mail today.

Broadcast

The death toll in [CHILL-ee] has climbed to 723 after a massive eight point eight magnitude earthquake struck the country’s coastal regions Saturday. The quake caused heavy damage to roads and bridges, hampering rescue efforts in remote corners of the country.
President Michelle [BOTCH-ay-let] called the disaster, “an emergency unparalleled in the history of [CHILL-ee]” and the country has requested emergency aid from the United Nations to cope with the destruction.

In entertainment news, television talk show host Jay [LYNN-o] returned to host The Tonight Show last night, after N-B-C canceled his prime-time venture just three weeks after its premiere.

Although [LYNN-o] dominated late-night ratings in the 17 years he hosted The Tonight Show before [CONE-en] O’Brien took the reins, it is unsure whether he will be able to recreate that momentum after the controversy surrounding O’Brien’s departure.

The atmosphere on Capitol Hill is just as tense, as Democrats consider using reconciliation to pass the embattled health care bill. Reconciliation is a process invoked by the Senate that requires only a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the filibuster-proof 61 votes. Republicans have warned that the repercussions of this move would be felt in midterm elections this November.

Multimedia News Stories

My first news story is a video above which was part of the headline of an article on the CNN.com home page about a book being released full of letters from Americans to Jackie Kennedy after the assassination of JFK.

-I chose this story because the video is used as a headline. It was embedded on the CNN.com beneath a text headline that linked to the full article , but is not a part of the article itself.

- I would definitely embed videos as headlines for online articles. It is a chance for your readers to watch a short video to learn everything they need to and move on, or become interested in the topic and choose to read the article for more information.

The second article was a top story on Fox News, about the aftermath of the Chile earthquake. It includes a photo slide show of the damage done by the earthquake at the top of the article.

-I chose this story because it includes not just one, but several pictures of the damage done in Chile.

- I would use this technique because when a reporter is attempting to convey the true aftermath of something as devastating as an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, words are of little use. Adding several different pictures of various levels of damage done brings the reader right to Chile to see the devastation.

The third article on The New York Times web site is about the differences in how employed Americans spent their time versus how unemployed Americans spent in. Beside the text article, there is a link to an interactive graph that allows readers to breakdown the time spent into specific pieces and get more information that a quick article allows.

-I chose this article because it includes an interactive feature, which is something that is not as common as a slide show or video, but still useful.

-I would use this technique sparingly, probably only for soft news unless a hard news story begged for it. Not many users would be interested in investigating the information included in the article that closely, but it is a draw for those who are.