lalaleftie

[lalaleftie]

Hi! I’m Janet. I’m a 36-year-old returning college student. I never finished my schooling due to my disability, but now that most courses are available remotely I'm excited to jump back in and finally finish up my journalism degree. I’m determined to have my bachelor’s by the time I’m 40! If all goes as planned, I’ll get it done right in time. 

Once I’ve completed my degree, my aim is to start working for a progressive broadcast news program like “Democracy Now!” “Breakthrough News” or “Al Jazeera.” I’d like to start by writing for these programs and eventually work as a producer. 

After a few years of experience, my goal is to start a media company that uses print, broadcast, podcasts, and a physical magazine to tell the stories of activists and artists who are creating positive changes. I want to inspire people with stories of people in their community who are taking action so they know that they can take action too. 

I have experience as the Arts & Entertainment Editor of the Folio Weekly, Jacksonville Florida's version of LA Weekly. I also have experience as the Editor-in-Chief of my college newspaper at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

My skills include writing and editing. I’m currently enrolled in a photography course and just bought my first professional camera, so I’m excited to learn how to tell stories visually. I enjoy writing hard news stories, as well as arts and dining pieces, but I especially enjoy editing and working with writers to help improve their stories. I’m excited to get started with the Collegian in whatever capacity y’all can use me!

[lalaleftie]

The flag is the traditional Old English typeface that remains standard amongst a lot of long-running newspapers. The banner, the headline at the top of the page reads “Lawyer: Zahn victim of ‘politics’” Aaron Zahn is the ousted CEO of JEA, Jacksonville Electric Authority. There’s been a huge controversy about his attempt to privatize Jacksonville’s electric company to enrich himself and his friends. As a former Jacksonville resident, I found it absurd that he would try to play this defense. I imagine a lot of other residents read this headline and felt the same way. 

The subhead is somewhat standard, “Opening statements made in JEA trial.” I think adding a bit of color, like commenting on his demeanor or the absurdness of his claims, would make the subhead more interesting. 

The byline, Nate Monroe, tells me that the paper is taking this story very seriously. He’s one of the best-known journalists in Jacksonville and has even won some awards. However, the lead is a little clumsy and wordy in my opinion. 

The image for this story, or the cut, is much smaller than the image for the secondary story. I think this was the right choice given the visual appeal of a large fire burning downtown versus a rather standard courtroom photo.

There’s no hierarchy shown in font size to the top story, which may have been a design choice to favor the more attention-grabbing fire image. It’s a great photo, but the headline doesn’t do much for the story. It would be more interesting to highlight the content of the video versus the fact that one exists. 

[lalaleftie]

A fatal car crash killed 1 person and injured 15 others in a 10-car pileup on I-5 early yesterday morning. 

James Morrow of Inglewood died on the scene around 8 a.m. The injured were then taken to the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital in East Hollywood. 

The accident occurred during morning rush hour near the Los Feliz exit. According to witnesses, rain made visibility poor and the freeway was jammed in both directions. 

"It has been a very rainy morning,” Public Information Officer Jeff Young said. “It appears that the driver of the lead car in the accident swerved to avoid hitting a skunk and lost control. After that, cars behind him just kept running into each other."

[lalaleftie]

On Thursday, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, launched her opening remarks against TikTok and its CEO, Shou Chew, criticizing the company for its supposed ties to the Chinese Communist Party, threats to American security and child safety. Throughout the hearing, which lasted over five and a half hours, lawmakers blasted TikTok’s data-sharing practices that Chew argued are common across other top social media companies. 

Despite assurances that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance were moving user data to the U.S. and would be protected under U.S. law by the end of the year, lawmakers were not moved. “I have zero confidence in your assertion that ByteDance and TikTok are not beholden to the CCP,” said Rodgers. Congress is expected to bring a bill to ban the social media giant from the U.S. market in the coming months. 

“We do not trust Tiktok will ever embrace American values. Values for freedom, human rights, and innovation.Tiktok has repeatedly chosen a path for more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.” - Cathy McMorris Rodgers 

“Today, the CCP’s laws require Chinese companies like ByteDance to spy on their behalf. That means that any Chinese company must grant the CCP access, and manipulation

capabilities, as a design feature.” - Cathy McMorris Rodgers 

“ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It's a private company. 60% of the company is owned by global institutional investors. 20% is owned by the founder and 20% is owned by employees around the world. ByteDance has five board members, and three of them are American. You know, tiktok itself is not available in mainland China. We are headquartered in Los Angeles and in Singapore, and we have 7000 employees in the U.S. today.” - Shou Chew

“We have legacy U.S. data sitting in our service in Virginia and in Singapore. We are deleting  those and we expect that to be complete this year. When that is done, all protected U.S. data will be under the protection of U.S. law, and under the control of the U.S.-led security team. This eliminates the concern that some of you have shared with me, that TikTok user data can be subject to Chinese law. This goes further, by the way, that what any other company in our industry has done.” - Shou Chew

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A two-hour standoff with police ended in the arrest of Lincoln Nelson, 40, outside of his Los Angeles home for suspicion of brandishing a handgun, domestic violence battery, and being a felon in possession of a handgun late Sunday night. 

A 911 call just before midnight summoned police to the Alexander Street home where Nelson was threatening his wife and other family members with a gun, according to LAPD. 

Officers surrounded the house while family members fled the scene. Police called in a hostage negotiator to persuade Nelson into giving up. 

"Nothing could have prepared us for the helplessness and fear we felt while we were being held," Nelson’s wife Lori said. 

A .38 caliber revolver was found on Nelson at the time of his arrest. 

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English pop singer and actor Harry Styles died early Tuesday morning when a Boeing 737 passenger plane caught fire and crashed after takeoff in Puerto Rico. He was 30. 

Styles’ third studio album, “Harry’s House,” won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album in 2023. The first single “As It Was” ranked #500 in Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and the singer also won Best Pop Solo Performance for the second single off the same album, "Watermelon Sugar."

The left wing of Styles’ plane caught fire midair while flying over the Atlantic just south of Puerto Rico where he was vacationing, and crashed into a small island off the coast killing all 131 aboard. The incident is the fifth incident in as many days, and the first fatal crash for the airline since the deaths of 346 people in 2018 and 2019. There’s an ongoing investigation into the safety of the fleet by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Styles became a household name in 2010 as a member of one of the best-selling boy bands of all time, “One Direction,” or 1D, which started on the British version of “The X Factor.” He made his acting debut in 2017 in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” and starred in “Don’t Worry Darling” and “My Policeman” in 2022.

“He was such a bright light and joyful soul,” said Olivia Wild, Styles’ ex-girlfriend and director on “Don’t Worry Darling.” “He made everyone laugh and kept spirits high even on difficult production days. He was such a dedicated craftsman to his music and his acting. He was just endlessly talented. It’s heartbreaking.” 

Styles was born in Redditch, Worcestershire England Feb. 1, 1994. He attended Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School where his band won the school competition Battle Of the Bands. He auditioned for “The X Factor” when he was 16 where he went on to form “One Direction” with other contestants of the show. 

Funeral services will be held at the Newington Green Unitarian Church this Saturday near his home in North London. In place of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made to GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, a youth organization focused on LGBTQ issues in K-12 education Styles championed throughout his life 

Styles is survived by his mother Anne Twist, father Desmond Styles, brother Mike Twist, and sisters Gemma Styles and Amy Twist. 

[lalaleftie]

End the Contract:

Kick Sheriffs Off LACCD Campuses 

The Los Angeles Community College District gives over $25 million a year to the LA Sheriff’s Department. That’s money that would be better spent using known crime-prevention strategies rather than a heavily armed, militarized police force of known gang members. 

Violent gangs have been the norm in the ranks of the LA Sheriff's Department since at least the 1970s, and their stronghold on the department has continued throughout its violent history. LASD gangs have been implicated in the beating of journalist Ruben Salazar and more recently the killing of Andres Guardado, a Salvadorian-American teenager who was shot while running away from LASD officers in the summer of 2020. According to expert testimony, they killed Guardado during an initiation into the Compton Executioners gang. 

There are at least six known gangs within the LA Sheriff’s Department, each one defined by the station they work in and the tattoos they brandish signifying their membership. Wannabe gang members violently attack community members they are “sworn to protect” while “chasing ink,” and officers who are not initiated are often harassed and bullied. 

It’s no secret that city and state police forces target black and brown community members, and college police are no different. Although LACC records were not immediately available, UCLA police logs show that campus police disproportionately stop and arrest black and brown students at a far higher rate than the school population. And this epidemic of over-policing extends into all levels of education. According to the ACLU, black K-12 students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times higher than white students, and students who are expelled are three times more likely to end up in juvenile detention centers, leading to what many call the school-to-prison pipeline.  

With all of this over-policing, US law enforcement still overwhelmingly fails to prevent or solve most crimes. Studies confirm US police solve only 2% of major crimes reported. Most cities spend between 25 and 40% of their municipal budgets on police; Los Angeles spends even more at 53% of the city budget . With all of their $25 million, they couldn’t solve the murder of a former LACC student who was stabbed on campus in a parking garage. We have to wonder, where is all that money being spent?

So if policing isn’t working, what can we do instead? 

The 2020 uprisings against police brutality have led many educational institutions to rethink public safety. The University of San Diego now offers a master's degree in Restorative Justice, an alternative to carceral forms of punishment. RJ draws in the community for healing and accountability, and focuses on rehabilitation over incarceration. And the Police Free LAUSD Coalition, including ACLU SoCal, the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, Black Lives Matter LA, United Teachers Los Angeles and others, calls for a five point plan that looks to support the needs of students, families, and communities and counters the need for police presence in schools by “incorporating trusted mentors, role models,

and counselors in the lives of youth.”

In our current model for policing, violence begets more violence. Even non-violence begets violence. We shouldn’t trust a violent gang to protect LACC students and we should instead invest in proven community-focused alternatives that would actually keep students safe. 

[lalaleftie]

News Writing Final

200 people have been confirmed dead and 60 injured after a Boeing 747 crashed on the runway while landing at LAX from JFK at noon yesterday. 45 people are still unaccounted for. 

305 people were aboard the Delta Airlines Flight 206 from New York City that departed without incident at 9 a.m Tuesday. Delta officials would not comment on a probable cause for the accident. 

“The 747 was making a routine approach,” said Joe Stein, public information officer for Delta. “As it landed, the aircraft suddenly veered to the right and flames were shooting from the number two engine. Once the plane came to a stop, evacuation chutes were deployed by the flight attendants at the front and rear exit doors of the plane.”  

The L.A. Fire Department (LAFD) was on the scene within minutes of the crash attempting to extinguish the fire with five engines and 10 ladder trucks. An additional call for backup was made by Fire Chief Brick Winsom, according to Stein. 

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are on their way to the site. 

Among the missing or dead crew members include Capt. Howard Davis, 54, of Gardena, Calif., 1st Officer Jane Simmons, 45, and John Seymour, 30. Elizabeth Chilton, 25, and Glenn Adams, 53, are among the injured. 

The most seriously injured passengers were taken to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Marina Del Rey.

[lalaleftie]

Western Legacy Media Outlets Have Lost The Trust Of The Public Since Israel’s War Against Palestine Began In October, And They Deserve It

We’re taught that good journalism, at its best, is an unbiased source of information for the news of the day. We’re taught to trust legacy media like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN to give us the unvarnished facts, with only minor missteps. But Western audiences are increasingly wary of legacy media since Israel’s latest war against Palestine began in October, and we should be. 

Nearly half of young people now rely on social media like Instagram and TikTok as their main sources for news. This is due in large part to the availability of the unfiltered first-hand accounts we see daily and hourly as the brutal horror of the annihilation of an entire people comes across our phone screens. These graphic videos and images straight from Palestinians themselves show a stark contrast to what the elite media is reporting, and we’re not buying their lies anymore.

Many newspapers of record, including The New York Times, use language that strategically obscures Israel’s culpability in its crimes against Palestinians, and have even gone so far as to manufacture stories in an attempt to drum up support for genocide. The Pulitzer Prize Board lost its credibility when it awarded The New York Times its prize for International Reporting, despite its now infamous October 7 mass rape story, “Screams Without Words,” which was fully fabricated to justify Israel’s insanely disproportionate military response. This violates the Society Of Professional Journalists’ Code Of Ethics which states that journalists should “Verify information before releasing it.” 

Most journalists at legacy outlets have also quietly complied with Israeli censorship directives outlining what reporters are allowed to cover, acting as guard dogs for the military industrial complex rather than watchdogs for the public at large. Journalists aren’t able to work in Israel without a visa, and aren’t able to obtain a visa without agreeing to the censorship guidelines. At least 6,500 news stories have been censored by the Israeli Military Censor since October 7. Not disclosing this to the public violates the code that journalists should “Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences.” Journalists at legacy media outlets have clearly ignored their duties. 

This total disregard of a very important cornerstone of ethical standards weakens any claims of journalistic credibility legacy media had while showing a clear bias towards the Israeli government and its allies. New media, independent journalists, and non-Western outlets deserve the respect once held by legacy outlets as they’ve proven they are not up to the task of abiding by the standards that keep us honest. 

[lalaleftie]

Inside Reporting Ch 3 & 4 Summary

Editors use news judgment to decide which stories are most important to cover for their audience. Some of the elements of news judgment for a newspaper's front page include "talkers," or subjects the public are talking about, "watchdog" stories about government officials and policy, and stories the public interested in learning more about discovered through polling.

Different media outlets determine the newsworthiness of stories based on their different audiences. What's considered newsworthy at one outlet may not be of interest to the audience of another. All outlets though consider these truths about their audience: Readers are in a hurry, they have short attention spans, they're interested in stories that connect with them personally and told in a compelling way, and there are more than one type of news reader.

There's a process to assembling a newspaper, and each person in the newsroom has an important role to play, with a clear hierarchy to avoid chaos.

A newspaper front page has several elements that are more or less standard across the industry, including the flag, teasers, headline, cutline, deck, and index.

In news writing, it's important to know the line between opinion and facts. Objectivity is considered key in journalism, although objectivity is the ideology of the status quo, and limits the ability of journalists to cover stories in ways that are acceptable to mainly wealthy white male editors.

The most important elements of a news story are the 5 W's: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. These elements are told in the inverted pyramid style in a straight news story, with the most important elements at the top.

The way to write an effective lead for a news story is to collect your facts, summarize prioritizing the 5 Ws, and then rethink, revise, and rewrite.

But not all news stories are written in the hard news, or breaking news, style. There are other types of stories, including investigative and feature stories, and their leads will need to draw the reader in in other ways. Popular types of leads include anecdotal, scene-setter, blind, roundup, direct address, startling statement, and wordplay leads.

Other ways of structuring a news story other than the inverted pyramid include the martini glass and the kabob.

The journalist's main roles are to teach and tell a story. To tell a powerful story, you not only want to use an effective lead, but a climactic kicker, or end to the story. You'll also need to write, rewrite, and rewrite again. Rewriting is just as important as writing a first draft. The best version of the story rises to the surface in this process.

Editing is just as important as the writing process. Editors assign stories, help reporters determine angles, and fix spelling and factual errors. They also work with writers to ensure adherence to the outlet's style standards and dedication to deadlines.