Today: “A special day”  feature examples Presentation: Editorial Journalism

1. Today: “A special day”  feature examples Presentation: Editorial Journalism Assignment  write an editorial article Workshop: Planning a magazine

2. Assignment ”A special day” – write a feature

3. Sebastian’s Birthday Experience Leading paragraph (scene – third model): “After a fun night in town, Sebastian 20 years old from Florida, woke up on his 18th birthday, feeling the consequence of last night’s drinking.Sebastian woke up a couple of hours after planned, due to his alarm not going on at the time it was supposed to. Then he realized it was already too late to take his flight back to Denmark from Barcelona. He felt very stressed and disappointed in himself; however his hangover was too strong for him to concentrate on anything. The smell of vodka made it even worse.”

4. Sebastian’s Birthday Experience Second paragraph (Background information): “The night before Sebastian had decided to go to bed early and wake up at 7 am, but his plans were crushed after he made the wrong choice and went out with his friends to drink, even though he thought that he was strong enough to stay up all night and sober.”

5. The day her grandmotherdied Leading paragraph: “She was, like every other morning on weekdays, preparing for class. The cell phone rang, and she noticed that it was her mother who called. It is unusual that her mother calls her in the morning, so she got all excited and happy. If it was unusual that her mother called in the morning, the message that her mother was to give was even more unusual. In fact, you only get it once during your life time: “your grandmother has passed away, ” she said.

6. The day her grandmotherdied “It was lunch time and they gathered around the table to eat lunch. They told her everything about the grandmother’s last evening at the hospital, about all the good experiences they had shared with her. There was a sad, but peaceful and calm spirit around the table and they could feel how they cared about and loved each other as they were sitting around the table sharing memories about the grandmother. “

7. A special day The lead: “”What is your special day in your life?” I asked Alex. He smiled and showed me the screen of his laptop. It’s a photograph of the city in Greece. He stayed 6 months in Greece last year. He was 18 years old. It was the first time he went to Greece. And it was amazing.”

8. A specialday Background information: “Before he went to Greece, he met a girl in Sweden. She joined a volunteer program for sea turtles. When he heard the story from her, he felt; “sound interesting. To go to another country and do volunteer work. It’s good.”

9. The perfect 18th birthday evening, ruined “It was cold and dark outside, and the sounds of smashing bottles were making a lot of noise” “Pernilles dad, who is a rather large man, pushed the kid away, and told them to go away, and at that point, he went in with Pernille, closed and locked the door behind him.”

10. The perfect 18th birthday evening, ruined “But not 2 minutes later, the glass door of the banquet hall was smashed, and one of the boy’s shoes flew inside the hall, with glass hovering around in the air, and the boy’s shoe were laying on the floor, with glass around it. One of the pieces of glass hit Pernille right in the leg, and it started to bleed. Incredible pain.”

11. In general • Good features. You took the assignment seriously. • You write very good leads. Very good scenes and description that capture the reader.

12. In general • Remember the difference between a scene, description and background information! • Use the third model! • Remember the details. Use your senses. • Remember to take the story to the next level  why is this an important story in general. What does it say about society, people, politics (…) in general?

13. EditorialJournalism An editorial is an article that states the newspaper’s/journalist’s ideas on an issue. These ideas are presented as opinion! Forget all about objectivity!

14. Opinion pages Here you find: • Editorials (the newspaper’s official opinion on a specific issue) • Columns • Opinion articles • Reviews

15. The editorialboard The editorial board is a group of people, usually the top editors, who decide on a plan for each editorial that will apear in the newspaper.

16. The voice of the newspaper The editorials are the voice of the newspaper This voice can inform readers, stimulate thinking, mold opinion and move people to action. A column does the same! But it is one person’s voice and opinion.

17. Writing an editorial An editorial must be researched carefully and just as thoroughly as a news story.

18. Writing an editorial Organize the editorial in four steps: • State the subject and your position on the subject in the introduction. • Discussopposing points of view. • Proveyour position withsupportingdetails facts and research, good arguments • Draw a clear conclusion

19. Editorials that Explain They attempt to interpret or inform rather than to argue a point of view. The only expression of opinion comes in the interpretation of the facts.

20. Examples of editorials

21. Fixing the deathpenalty “Advances in DNA technology in recent years have exposed astonishing failings in the Illinois criminal justice system. Wrongful convictions, mistaken eyewitness identifications, arbitrarily applied punishment--profound errors at every level of the process--have deeply shaken many people, including some of the most ardent supporters of capital punishment. There are 13 people alive today who bear personal witness to that. Those are the people who have been freed from Death Row in recent years because evidence proved they had been wrongfully convicted…” Chicago Tribune, 2003

22. The Crime of Hatred and the Sin of Silence “Every day when those of us who are parents say good-bye to our children, a little tooth of anxiety gnaws at us until we see them again. No matter how old or how mature they are, no matter how confident we are that we have prepared them for the traps the world sets, deep down we fear that something terrible will happen to those we love. For one family of Riverdalians, the call every parent dreads came last week, when their 17-year-old son was waylaid, threatened, terrified, and humiliated in North Riverdale in broad daylight. The young man wasn't mugged. What happened to him was far worse. He was attacked because of the color of his skin…” The Riverdale Press, 1997

23. A Law to Reclaim Lives “Many street corners and other public spaces in California have come to resemble open-air insane asylums. Sometimes muttering obscenities and lashing out at invisible demons, the state's estimated 50,000 mentally ill homeless people often have just each other and the streets. Government pays attention only after they harm someone or otherwise break the law. Even then, the typical response--tossing them in jail, then releasing them without any required follow-up care--does nothing to redirect them into productive lives…” Los Angeles Times, 2001

24. Assignment – write an editorialarticleabout: • The economic crisis in Europe  who is to blame? Who feel the consequences? How do we fix it? • The election in the USA. Analyze the situation. Who will challenge Obama? Who will be the next president of the USA? • 15 minutes of fame  Talent and reality shows on TV. Why do we watch them? Are they harmless entertaining? Or are they creating generation “reality” to whom fame and looks are everything?

25. Planning a magazine • Concept – newspaper, gossip magazine… ? • Content – news, sports, features...? • Roles – editors, journalists, fotografers, layout… • Brainstorm – ideas, topics, themes?

26. Assignment - Berlin • Each of you must write an article about your trip to Berlin. You can write a news story, a feature, a column or another journalistic genre. • Pick an event from the trip that you would like to write about. A specific day, an attraction that you visited, a night out… whatever! • Remember to take notes. You must include quotes or dialog in your article.