1. NEVER DISTORT IMAGES.
2. NEVER DISTORT TEXT.
Yes, it is the exact same thing as the last tip. DISTORTION IS MURDER. Everyone can tell, and they think it looks amateur. If you need an extra 2 pixels of space, get it somewhere else.
3. Inconsistencies
If one article is Times New 12pt, and the other is Comic Sans 20pt bold italic, you might want to fix that. Even subtle differences can throw the reader off. You’ll notice that everything in this article, besides that sentence follows a strict template to help the reader locate information. Be the reader’s friend, and help point them to what they want to read (answer: everything).
4. Irrelevant Pictures
The story is about fishing, don’t put a picture of Nemo. Har har har, it’s barely related to it’s funny. No. The article deserves better than that. You’ll hate it if someone put a picture of a sad face next to your article about your mother’s experience with breast cancer. Not sure why you’d put that in the school newspaper, but you get me.
5. Empty Fill Box.
“Hey! Let’s put every article in it’s own box!”
Quit right now. The cool thing about lines is that they’re ok with being alone. You don’t need to invite his three other line friends to clutter up your page. A black rectangle behind white text can really make an article jump out.
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Alright, maybe that’s a little bombastic. Glenn Beck’s rally made less of a splash than I anticipated. The “Restoring Honor” rally really wasn’t much of a rally… it was more like three hours of church, only the pastor has no religious credentials, and a loose tear duct. I was expecting something bigger, more American. Like displacing some indigenous people, or saying something nasty about the Scot-Irish. But, apparently, Glenn Beck just wanted to take a few hours of CSPAN’s, and therefore the entire American public’s, time to show that he’s not such a crazy nut-job. Maybe Glenn Beck can do some good things. I mean, this rally’s purpose was to raise 600,000 dollars for veterans, and maybe we should all just take it at that, a fundraiser. Or, we can look at the man behind this rally. And we can look at the kind of people that follow him. We can look at the agenda of chaos that he wants to push.
The way I look at Beck is the same way I look at Joseph McCarthy, a dangerous man, promoting dangerous policies, with a dangerous soapbox to speak upon. Of course, Glenn Beck has no vote in congress, for the time being, but his television show reaches an audience McCarthy could only dreamed of. Beck alone, is not dangerous. Hitler alone, is not dangerous, to invoke Godwin’s law. But whenever a man speaks of “rivers of blood” and ”unrecognizable countries” as the punishment for not following him, I think we as Americans should use our freedom of speech to warn people of the danger that man could create.
And a note on these Beck followers. In a decidedly non-political rally, focusing mainly on religion, at least every single man, woman, and child, was wearing red, white, and blue. Now, why would that be? If a rally is religious, you might expect a few more baby Jesus t-shirts, or up-sold novelty halos. But Beck’s followers don’t see a difference, because they believe Christianity should be at the forefront of American culture. These are the kind of people that homeschool their children so they can A) Teach them the values of the bible and B) beat them (their parents did it, and they turned out fine). Beckers feel like Religious freedom of others is and assault on their rights to “Christianize” every heathen who stays home on Sunday. Yet, they love their freedom of speech (when they get to use it). This whole issue is reflective of the whole Ground Zero Mosque debate. I’m sure Beck is going to go on his program, and spew about how un-American this Mosque is, and how they should just build it somewhere else. Well, how about you don’t hold your religious rally on MLK’s day, on MLK’s spot? I’m not saying that Glenn Beck isn’t allowed to rally there, at that time, at that place. I’m saying that if he is allowed to rally, then their should be no argument from Beck that a Mosque can be built near ground zero.
Please, if you’re a Becker, watch his show, or support his message, I want you to comment below. Despite what this post may imply, I would be glad to listen to what you have to say. Opinions can often come from misunderstanding the other side of the issue, and I would like to ensure that my opinion is valid. Plus: It’s always fun making someone’s tirad look like a giant waste of breath.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. His speech has inspired hope for an entire generation, and will provide future inspiration for generations to come. It’s impact was immediate, shaking the pillars of the Civil Rights movement. On August 28th, 2010, Glenn Beck delivered a speech, too.
It was ok, I guess.
Don’t get me wrong, Glenn Beck knows how to speak. Or at least, speak while also crying (which can be attributed to the fact that his tear gland is located inside voice box). And I’m a sucker for crying rich guys, so I watched the rally on CSPAN, which, in lieu of saturday morning cartoons, promotes political ideologues. Glenn Beck didn’t have the same conviction without his chalkboard, and was his hard to follow his complex ideas that “Amerca wuz good, now its nawt, plz fix” without his handy diagrams. Luckily, @timheidecker helped explain the events of the “restoring honor rally”.
“Lord Beck asking ALL Americans to ‘stare at the sun this afternoon and wait for further instructions.’ #restoringhonor”
“Limbless Beck rolling around in pool of his own blodd. His mic has cut out but I think he’s screaming ‘you’ll die tonight!’ #restoringhonor”
“Beck strongmen have created a perimeter. No one is allowed to leave the area. #restoringhonor”
Spoilers: JoCo takes it.
1. “Being a teen myself…”
Everyone knows that you’re a teenager. Stop reminding us. Your article will sound more important if you don’t tell us that you still live with your parents.
2. Interviewing just your friends.
Great, your friends are really funny and they’ll say something more interesting that that kid who sits in the corner, but Weirdo Wendy probably has something unique to say, and it deserves to be published. The reason most students don’t read the school’s newspaper is because they no one asked them to be involved. In other words: If you want your article to be read, ask a wide varity of people to participate.
3. Pointless Sentences
“This year is 2010.”
Wow, thanks for writing it down for me. I would have forgotten, otherwise. Your article is really informing me. In fact, it’s too informative, I’m going to stop reading now. Seriously, readers don’t want to trudge through sentences that just slow the article down. The joy of reading is learning something new, so write something new.
4. Complex Sentences
“The integrated circuit on this penultimate model of graphics processor is lossless encoded and deep-fried powerbase. Motherboard, Motherboard, Motherboard.”
I don’t even understand this, and I just wrote it. You have to remember, you’re playing to a big audience here, including people who might not understand algebraic equations.
5. Be Boring.
Spice up your writing by using phrases like “spice up” instead of “make more interesting”. Let your writing have character. “Hard news doesn’t have to be hardly entertaining.”® Give the reader a reason to read. Believe it or not, readers don’t care all that much about lunch prices on the rise, unless the story has character.
by Shamantis
That’s right. This song is “U Smile”, by Justin Beiber. Only slowed down by 800%.
Email. Facebook. Two mediums we use everyday, with varying amounts of productivity. They both have at least a few things similar besides both being blocked on the school’s wifi. We use it to find the news.
A study from Pew Internet shows that 75% of online news gathering is done by email and social networking alone, meaning that a minority of people actually seek out news independent of other activities. To make it clearer: We don’t find news, it finds us. News has ingrained itself into web culture, especially with the popularization of twitter. Most of my professional journalism contacts will say that the first thing new journalists need isn’t always a pen and paper, it’s a twitter account. Sharing things you’ve written, building trust by tweeting compelling links, speaking intelligently and concisely (thanks to our new friend, the character limit) all help build a better journalist, and make branding yourself to prospective companies much easier. Understandably, not all of us are journalists, but 52% of internet news readers share links they find, leaving a solid half to sit back and consume.
The study also reports that around half of Americans consume content from “four to six media platforms” a day. My guess is, Local news, Twitter feed, Facebook, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. I wish I could honestly say NPR, but Fresh Air isn’t getting to most people, I assume. I find it astounding that 46% of Americans have time to view all of these channels a day for more than a few minutes. Maybe my sedentary computer-based lifestyle is limiting my media diversity, but I think most of the survey responders just wanted to avoid being viewed as a mono-channelman, the guy who actually watches Glenn Beck for news, or actually watches The Ed Show in general (you have got more wrong with you than bias if you can still through that).
The whole report can be viewed here. Information found via Mashable.
Or, Hans Zimmer anyways.