The second story from our guest speaker for tonight includes a video. It was interesting, as many times video is used to give additional commentary on a story. This was a 24-second clip of a protestor march without any news commentary, and it was placed at the beginning of the story, rather than within. This helped set the scene for the story quite well.
In another example, this New York Times story has a short video compiling different officials commenting on the Fort Hood shooting. It, however, is placed within the story, helping the reader along. Both approaches work well.
In a webinar I attended this week, the presenter cited a stat that the average attention span is only eight seconds (National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, The AP). That, as he pointed it out, is a smaller attention span than a goldfish. We need ways to capture and maintain attention, and video is one way to do that.
At Our Sunday Visitor, we have been exploring new ways to offer our content so the experience is more interactive: video, audio, better/larger photos, graphs, etc. It is difficult, however, to do any of this extensively on every story. The Crimea story is a simple way to add more engaging content. However it is done, it definitely changes the way you investigate and write a story.
Hi All,
I am sure everyone has heard about the Fort Hood shooting by now. It is a very unsettling situation for all of us. The New York Times published an article this morning that states that the gunman had been examined recently by a psychiatrist and was being treated for anxiety and depression. This really makes you think about how our entire system works, from gun control to mental health.
I thought I would share this piece with you as I was impressed that the reporter maintained an objective tone -- which I suspect may be quite challenging when reporting on a story like this.
Fort Hood Gunman Was Being Treated for Depression
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Bob Gordon worked on a memorial for the victims of the shooting at Fort Hood on Thursday at Central Christian Church in Killeen, Texas.CreditEric Gay/Associated Press
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KILLEEN, Tex. — Military officials testifying at a hearing on Thursday in Washington provided some details about the soldier who killed three people and wounded 16 others at Fort Hood on Wednesday before taking his own life.
The secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the suspect, an Iraq war veteran identified as Specialist Ivan Lopez, was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder before the shooting. Army officials said that Specialist Lopez had been prescribed Ambien, a sleep aid, and other medications to treat anxiety and depression.
“It’s not clear how common that is or whether this was something larger,” a senior law enforcement official said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Specialist Lopez had been examined by a psychiatrist within the last month, Mr. McHugh said, but showed no signs that he might commit a violent act. “The plan forward was just to continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate,” he said.
The secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, and the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, provided some detail about the soldier accused of killing three people at Fort Hood on Wednesday.
Searches of federal law enforcement databases found nothing about Specialist. Lopez, the senior law enforcement official said. “He just stayed under the radar — no criminal record, nothing.”
Mr. McHugh also said that the suspect had had “no involvement with extremist organizations of any kind” and that “he had a clean record.” He said the military was continuing to examine Specialist Lopez’s associations to try to determine a possible motive for the attack.
Specialist Lopez was raised in a small fishing village called Guayanilla on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, about an hour and a half from San Juan, Army officials said Thursday. While there, he had attended the School of Asunción Rodríguez de Sala, where he was active in the band. He joined the Puerto Rico National Guard in 1999.
In 2006, he was deployed to the Sinai Peninsula, at the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, said Brig. Gen. Juan Jose Medina of the Puerto Rico National Guard. In 2008, he transferred from the National Guard to the United States Army and by 2010 was stationed with the First Armored Division at Fort Bliss in El Paso. He served as a truck driver in Iraq in 2011 from August to December.
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Flags flew at half-staff on Thursday morning at Fort Hood.CreditIlana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times
Two of Specialist Lopez’s supervisors in the Puerto Rico guard said they were stunned to learn he was the suspect in the Fort Hood shooting. They said he had been an exemplary soldier.
“I cannot believe you are speaking about the same guy,” one supervisor, Sgt. Maj. Nelfon Bigas, said. “He was the most responsible, obedient, humble person, and one of the most skillful guys on the line.”
Residents of Guayanilla, many of whom knew Mr. Lopez and his family well, were also stunned.
Edgardo Arlequín, the mayor, was the band director at Mr. Lopez’s school and knew him well from those years. “I can talk about him as a boy,” Mr. Arlequín told a local newspaper, El Nuevo Día. “He was quiet. He liked the music.”
Authorities at Fort Hood and Scott and White Memorial Hospital discussed the shooting at the Army base that killed 4 and wounded 16 on Wednesday.
Mr. Arlequín told the newspaper that he and others in the community who know the family were wondering today whether the death of Specialist Lopez’s mother in November and the death of a grandparent within just a few months had magnified the soldier’s mental health issues. His mother, Carmen Lopez, had worked as a nurse and died of a heart attack.
“This is very difficult, especially for a family that I have always seen together,” Mr. Arlequín told the newspaper. “By now losing the mother, who was the trunk of the family, and now this.”
The Amy’s chief of staff, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, said at the Senate hearing on Thursday that Specialist Lopez “was a very experienced soldier.”
Law enforcement officers in Texas who interviewed Specialist Lopez’s wife said she told them “that she was surprised and saw no clues coming in to this,” the senior law enforcement official said.
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Lucy Hamlin and her husband waited for permission to re-enter Fort Hood on Wednesday.CreditTamir Kalifa/Associated Press
In Washington on Thursday, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the shooting was a reason to bring some gun control legislation to the Senate floor, but he conceded that he was no closer to passing such a bill than he was a year ago when it fell to a filibuster, even after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
“As I was told today, this young man bought this gun a day or two before he killed these people,” Mr. Reid said. “Couldn’t we at least have background checks, so that people who are ill mentally, or who are felons shouldn’t be able to buy guns?”
“So I hope we can bring it back up, but we need some more votes,” he added.
The shooting led the authorities to shut down the sprawling Army base here in Killeen, the same post where an Army officer killed 13 people in 2009. On Thursday morning, the base announced that it was making counselors available and that a number of activities, including physical training, had been canceled for the day.
President Obama discussed the shooting at Fort Hood on Wednesday.
Nine of the 16 people wounded on Wednesday were taken to Scott & White Healthcare, a hospital in nearby Temple, Tex. for treatment, the authorities said. Three were in critical condition on Thursday. Hospital officials said doctors had operated on two patients — a man and a woman — who had been shot in the abdomen and neck. The third person in critical condition had an abdominal injury.
The victims with less serious injuries spent the night at the hospital with family members, Dr. Matthew Davis, the hospital’s director of trauma, said Thursday morning. “There was a lot of emotion seeing their loved ones last night,” he said. Some of the victims might be released as early as Thursday, Dr. Davis said.
The commander at Fort Hood, Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, told reporters that a motive in the shooting remained unclear, but that it did not appear to be related to terrorism.
General Milley said that although Specialist Lopez was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder, no diagnosis had been made. There were indications that he had self-reported a traumatic brain injury when he returned from Iraq, the general said.
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Military police directed traffic outside the base after the shooting.CreditAshley Landis/European Pressphoto Agency
The shooting appeared to have unfolded around 4:30 p.m. at a medical support building. Witnesses described chaos as gunshots rang out.
The base was put on lockdown, as Army officials took to Twitter and Facebook to alert soldiers there to take shelter and stay away from windows.
The authorities said Specialist Lopez appeared to have walked into one building, then gone inside a vehicle and fired shots from the vehicle with a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol that had recently been bought in the Killeen area. He got out of the vehicle, walked into another building and opened fire again, and then engaged with a military police officer before shooting himself.
He put his hands up, General Milley said, then reached under his jacket. The officer pulled out her weapon, and then Specialist Lopez put his weapon to his head and fired. General Milley described the officer’s actions as “clearly heroic.”
On Nov. 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, shooting unarmed soldiers and commissioned officers as they tried to hide under desks and tables. Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist and a Muslim, shot and killed 12 unarmed soldiers and one civilian and wounded or shot at 30 other soldiers and two police officers. Prosecutors said one of his motives was to kill as many soldiers as he could to wage jihad on American military personnel. A Senate report called it the worst act of terrorism on American soil since the Sept. 11 attacks.
After a military trial that was held at the base last year under tight security, a jury of 13 senior Army officers found Major Hasan guilty and sentenced him to death. He was transferred after the trial to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, home of the military’s death row and death chamber.
In addition to the 2009 attack and the one on Wednesday, Fort Hood was the site of a planned attack that was foiled by the authorities.
A 22-year-old Army private, Naser Jason Abdo, was arrested in July 2011 and charged with trying to detonate an explosive device at a restaurant frequented by Fort Hood soldiers. Private Abdo was found at a hotel room near the base with a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, bomb-making materials and an article describing how to make a bomb in a kitchen. He had been involved in disputes with the military over his Muslim beliefs and his coming deployment to Afghanistan. He was convicted by a federal jury of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, among other charges.
Below is a great article from The New Yorker about writing structure. The author, John McPhee, discusses his experiences (his difficulties, really) with writing structure throughout his career as a journalist. It's definitely worth a read!
I post this story for the blog because it is a really odd one.
The story quotes a soliciting page. Quoting quotes if you will. This seems like a last minute throw together piece on something that is very story worthy. A vegetarian fast food restaurant in "these parts" is very interesting.
I also know Mike, the guy they are quoting, by quoting his kick start page. I wouldn't say we are friends. I don't have his phone number, but I eat at his current vegetarian restaurants often and he is there. Why couldn't they get ahold of him for some quotes, he is pretty easy to find? This story has all the elements for a real feature. An experienced guy, with the pockets and market know how to get an interesting idea off the ground.
SAN ANTONIO — A local chef's idea for a completely plant-based, organic fast-food restaurant is becoming a reality in the Alamo City. Mike Behrend, co-owner of Green Vegetarian Cuisine at the Pearl, has started an online crowd-funding page for the restaurant. He hopes the soon-to-open Earth Burger will offer a healthier take on quick and reasonably priced cuisine. The diner will be the first of its kind in Texas, Behrend said.
“We believe the best thing for our families is to go to the local farmer's market and take home fresh produce to prepare. However that is often unrealistic in today's fast-paced world,” reads the page on Kickstarter.com. “That's where Earth Burger comes in. We are entering the fast food market with tastier, fresher and healthier alternatives that also happen to be vegan and vegetarian. Our goal is to provide people with great healthy choices at a great value.”
The restaurant's online menu has burgers and wraps priced at $5 with a combo meal that includes a burger or a wrap, side and a drink for $8, which is about the same as a similar item at Whataburger or McDonalds. Kids meals are $5.
The first Earth Burger, which will be dine-in or drive-thru, will be located in Park North Shopping Center at the corner of Blanco and NW Loop 410, according to the website. It is unclear when the restaurant will open, but the online fundraising goal of $40,000 must be met by April 29 for the restaurant to receive the funds. The fundraiser has gained nearly $6,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
The money raised through Kickstarter will help with the cost of construction and equipment.
Other items on the menu include: Nacho Burger, “Chik-n” and fish sandwiches, corn dog, grilled cheese, fries, ice cream and beverages.
Behrend acknowledges that Texas, and in particular, San Antonio, may be a challenge.
“San Antonio has a reputation for loving its meat and Tex-Mex food, and it also has the reputation of being one of the fattest cities in the U.S.,” the page reads. “The good news is that Texas has fully embraced Green, we've grown to three locations in San Antonio and Houston.”
Green Vegetarian Cuisine, which opened here in 2007, now has three locations in San Antonio and Houston.
I found this site after looking around for information on feature articles. This section (4.3) gives guidance regarding writing feature stories, provides a good example and a breakdown of the article's structure. I especially like the example's detailed lede, good use of quotes and a solid nutgraf.
In addition to the section of writing feature stories, this site provides good information of several topics of interest. This includes interviewing, ethics, writing ledes and several other useful topics.
What do you think about this medium? Is it biased? What do Americans, in general, think of it? Do you think it helps bring different voices to public debate?
