Election design reform presented by Marcia Lausen

On Thursday, September 25th, Marcia Lausen will speak on election design reform at Towson University.

With the upcoming election it is important for voters to be well informed. Lausen is the advisor for Design for Democracy, a program initiated by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). She has taken it upon herself to inform Towson students about the redesigning of the election process.

My sources would be a representative from AIGA. They are co-sponsoring the event and Design for Democracy is a program initiated by them. AIGA would have most of the facts that I would need to be able to completely understand the purpose of Lausen's speech. I would also locate the person or group hosting the event and speak to them.

I would ask them what information is necessary to vote and the purpose behind initiating Design for Democracy. I would try to get as much information on the design reform as possible.

"Love to hear the robin goin' tweet tweet tweet"

Mike McGregor, Jennie Byrne, and Brittany Santarpio each had exemplary leads and short reports on twitter. The format that these tweets were posted in is a bulletin, fitting in the characteristic guidelines of a short report. Reviewing each, the first aspect of a lead that I checked for is that it was in active voice. Each lead had a subject, a verb, and then the object, which is proper format for a lead. For the short reports I checked the tense first. I was aware that short reports are meant to be written in either present tense or past perfect tense. Each lead and short report was as specific as they were able to be with the character count. Each lead was kept under 50 characters long and each short report remained under 130. Since the leads are so short, I decided to look in the short reports for the 5 W’s and an H and most were covered in the short reports.Since the characteristics that define leads and short reports were all covered by these tweets I believe that they are all very nice examples.

Short Report vs. Summary Lead

I found recently the importance of a short report and a summary lead. I had not known that either were essential until I read about them and what their purposes are. It was challenging for me to distinguish the minor differences between them, but since I have extended my knowledge I am becoming more adept at it. Here is one example of each.

Short Report

"One Baltimore public school is closed to students today.

Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary/Middle School, at 1000 N. Montford Ave., has electrical problems. Staff at the school are asked to report to the Professional Development Center."

Definition: Short reports, like this one that I found in the Baltimore Sun can be written as a bulletin, which usually contain 1 to 2 sentences. Bulletins are released to reach the public quickly. Another form is an e-mail alert, which effectively reaches people who lack other forms of communication such as radio and television. These e-mail alerts, for example, are helpful to people who work because most of the time they do not have access to a radio or a television. Crawlers are another form of a short report, which abreviate stories that are not newsworthy enough to make it into the news. The final form is a newspaper briefs. A newspaper brief is the print version of a crawler.

Summary Lead

Rescue crews fanned out across the flooded Gulf Coast yesterday, searching for tens of thousands of Texans who ignored mandatory evacuation orders just before Hurricane Ike crashed ashore in the night with howling winds and a powerful tidal surge.


Definition: Summary leads, such as this one, found in the Baltimore Sun, are the introductory statement of online or print news stories. Usually, summary leads are in past tense and include a time element. This includes the 5W's and 1 H. It helps the reader get a feel of the story from the introduction while also keeping the story brief and to the point but also allowing it to have detail.

Newsworthiness

Newsworthiness is defined as the timeliness, significance, proximity, prominence and human interest. I found three articles in The Baltimore Sun that I can distinguish these qualities in.

Bush foresees cut in Iraq troops by Feb.

This article is timely because the war surrounds us and some people may hope that the war is coming to a close, others may want a victory and a democracy to be established before the end is declared.

There are few people, no matter where you are in terms of proximity, human interest and prominence, who are not effected by the war. Every American knows at least one person involved in the war whether they are a friend, acquaintance, family member or someone that you hear about through someone else.

Study: Colon cancer screenings lacking

This article is newsworthy because of the impact that it has on most Americans. It is a health issue that needs to be dealt with and the title of the article alone will draw people in and make them aware.

It is timely because it lets people know that they need to be re-screened immediately to make sure that there is no cancer. It is a human interest story because of the effect that it has on many of the readers.

Palin's husband known as a tough hockey dad

This story, though not something I would define as interesting, is somehow newsworthy because of Sarah Palin's position. If she were not John McCain's running mate, this story would never have made it into any newspaper, including any local papers.

While Palin is running and if she becomes the Vice President this story will remain timely and significant. This is a human interest story because it makes Palin seem like a regular citizen. It shows that her family is simply that, a family and they are involved in the same activities as many American families.

An Introduction

Hello, my name is Nicole, I have green eyes, brown hair and I like long walks on the beach.

...Oh this isn't that kind of site?!

Ok, seriously now, I am a Pre-Mass Communications major and I am on the PR track. I have some experience working in the field because I worked in promotions at a radio station. I hope eventually succeed at reaching my goal of being an agent/manager for a singer or actor. I am extremely outgoing which will hopefully help me since it is basically a requirement for public relations.

My background:
I am from Montgomery County, Maryland. More specifically I am from Potomac, ever heard of it? I got the privledge of growing up with extremely influencial people surrounding me. My hometown is 20 minutes outside of DC so many politicians and "famous" people lived around me. Unfortunately because of that many of my peers were influenced by social status.

I am an only child but I am the oldest of 42 cousins (including second and third cousins) that all live within 10 miles of my house...yes tons of babysitting money!


Ok so I think that thats enough about me for now, hope to share more later!