News Story #1

After a year and a half, Washington state traffic programs make headway.
Washington state signed Target Zero into action early 2007, since then programs like X52 and Drive Hammered, Get Nailed were created with the same goal in mind. Washington state made fewer than 39,500 DUI arrests in 2008, roughly a 7% decline from 2003-2007 annual average of 42,611, according to the Washington State Traffic Commission.
“My experience with the programs has been completely positive. For the little amount of paper work, it’s a great thing for the community to make it that much safer,” said Washington State University police officer Matt T. Kuhrt, 30, in an interview Friday.
Programs like these gave the Washington State University Police Department $4,300 over the past year. Eighty two extra hours were devoted to DUI and speeding emphasis patrols at the WSUPD, according to the WSUPD.
“The wages are spent on officers working overtime. They are not to be spent on equipment. There are other grants and programs available,” Kuhrt said. Emphasis patrols are placed monthly and affect either DUIs, speeding or seatbelts. All are overtime patrols.
The traffic program X52 focuses on putting out extra patrols fifty two weeks out of the year focused on catching DUIs and speeding. Drive Hammered, Get Nailed focuses on drunk driving. Both programs rely on publicity and advertising of the program to scare people out of drunk driving or speeding, the Washington State Traffic Commission said.
“People will remember something about it and they might think twice, they are witty advertisements,” Kuhrt said.
“They’re not just interested in maximizing revenue by catching people. We know from public policy cases that the more tools you use the more effective a program is,” said Washington State University political science professor Steven D. Stehr.
The umbrella program, Target Zero, hopes to achieve zero traffic related fatalities or serious injuries by 2030, according to the WTSC.
“Just these campaigns will not reduce traffic fatalities; we need to take other steps. Stricter punishments are one goal we need to work more towards,” Kuhrt said.
Pullman is a college town, its population and demographic changes drastically from season to season. There is potential for drunk driving and speeding to affect Pullman differently.
“I could see both sides of the equation. A lot of residents live in walking distance of the bars, but it’s a normal thing to find more of a drinking culture in the confines of a college town,” said Stehr.
“It doesn’t really affect Pullman any differently, impaired driving affects places the same, it doesn’t affect any town differently,” Kuhrt said.
No one can see whether or not there will be unforeseen consequences from the campaigns.
There has been a decline in parents putting their children in booster seats. It turns out there was a misinterpretation of the Ticket or Click It campaign. Parents thought it was the law that their children needed to be belted down, when in fact they needed to be in a booster seat. We will have to see if there are any unintended consequences with these programs, said Stehr.
“I think these programs are effective, I wouldn’t be putting my time into doing this if I didn’t think it made a difference,” Kuhrt said.
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Second-Day Lead Writing Exercise

4-year-old still missing after one day, anyone with information regarding the child is asked to contact either the parents or the police.

During the 2AM hour (our time) on Monday I watched Al Jazeera talk about the shahab-3 missile threatening other countries with range, russia is asking for cooperation from iran, Theodore Karasik talks about potential war in the middle east, Tropical Storm Katsana on Saturday in the Philippines, and much more. Later into the 2AM hour I watched some of Russia Today talk about the Russian Naval Orchestra, Russia and belarus test new joint defense system in militay games, Col. Gen. Leonid Maltsev talks about the military games, Iran tests long range missiles as tension over nuclear aims mounts: Iran has long range missiles and threatens other countries, Merkel wins in Germany and says to revive econonmy and protect jobs, French foreign minster appeals to US in hope Polanski can be released on bail: pleading guilty to underage sex charges. Later during that hour I caught the following on the France 24 channel: Merkel is trying to protect jobs in Germany, Iran tests long range missiles, Philippines government overwhemed by deadly floods in the philippines, Socialists win election in Portugal and US atlanta's georgian bank becomes US's latest bank failure.

AL JAZEERA
I think the Al Jazeera new network will be very successful in reaching the U.S. through the internet with programs like LiveStation. Due to our relationshp with the middle east right now, people care about what's happening over there.

I think the Al Jazeera should be allowed to broadcast in the U.S. Our country has always been for civil rights like freedom of speech and such ideas.

From what I saw, Al Jazeera was a very to the point news station. It functioned very much like other large news stations, very formal and serious.

During the hour that I watched, I didn't see anything that broke their code of ethics, they had a pretty general "Murrow-based" code for the most part.

Summary News Lead Example

Here is an example of a summary news lead from the New York Times.

LINK:
www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?ref=world

LEAD:
BAGHDAD - American and Iraqi forces raided a house in Baghdad and, after a gunfight, arrested three Iraqis suspected of launching a rocket attack coinciding with a visit here are Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the American military said Wednesday.

This is a summary news lead because it goes straight to the meat of the story, although it could possibly be a multi-element news lead, it still follows the summary news lead formula. It tells what happened, why it is significant and when it happened. The multi-element lead comes into play with the two actions happening with Iraqi forces raiding a house and arresting three Iraqis.

Journalism Topic #1

For our first story, I would like to look into the following:

The WSU Swine Flu epidemic: Is it all that it's cracked up to be?
Washington upped their police watch for DUIs: Is it effective?
The rennovation of campus: Olympia, Duncan-Dunn, Ganon-Golds, Kmac

Oil in Ecuador

The first video gave a very straightforward display of events with equal representation from each side. It followed "The Murrow Standard" well, but was very broad. The 60 Minutes presentation didn't look into all the subject matter as deep as it could have, but is perfectly acceptable due to what kind of news presentation they were making. If they were doing a very detailed and specific show it would have been much too long for viewers.

The second video gave a very detailed and specific news presentation aimed at explaining what happened in Ecuador and discrediting some of the tension aimed at them. It was a very focused presentation and probably wouldn't be held up to "The Murrow Standard" all that well.

Overall the first video was broad but acceptable, and the second video was very focused not holding up to "The Murrow Standard."