Extreme shopping

As I was checking my blog, I happened to look at the Google News gadget on my screen.  One of the stories for U.S. news was "Wal-mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down." I couldn't believe it. I have always heard about the intense shoppers that come out for the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping, but I never imagined it to go that far. 

I didn't have a particular reason for including this story on my blog. I just thought it was a well-written article that grabbed my attention. The story itself was interesting, and it didn't have any major holes in it. It's refreshing to see a news story that is simple yet intriguing. The reporter didn't have to go digging for a scandal, and the copy editor didn't have to write an amazing headline to grab my attention.  Don't get me wrong, the story itself is very sad. I was shocked to read that no one stopped to help the worker up. 

Why do I care?

I was getting my every-couple-of-days dosage of CNN news, and its iReport section caught my eye. We've been talking on and off throughout the semester about citizen journalism in my ethics class. The subject caught my attention since the beginning. As editors, we have to decide when to use citizen journalism or when we could get something better on our own. For the most part, I think a station or newspaper should be able to get something better than what a citizen turns in. However, there are always occasions where someone has a really good picture or a really good story angle. If the citizen is willing to turn that in to a news station, I think the station should use it.

But CNN has bypassed that entirely and created its own section for citizen journalism. This obviously has its advantages and disadvantages, but what caught my eye was the article "iReporters wary of auto bailout." The minute I read that headline, I thought, "Why do I care what they think?" The sources used in the story are filmmakers, math teachers, clothing store owners, etc.

These people are important, and the government's decisions affect them. But to me, a news story, especially one about finances, should have the opinions of experts. I don't understand a lot of the terms and jargon involved in financing and bailouts, so I trust the opinion of an expert more than the opinion of your average citizen, especially because these citizens aren't involved in the auto industry. While citizen journalism and citizen's opinions are a good thing and should be used, I don't think it applies to this story very well.

'Highlight' of CNN's Web site

CNN has a lot of convenient and interesting features on its Web site, but one feature that I always forget about is "story highlights." For every story on its site, CNN writes a few bullet points giving the most important information in the story. I always forget about this feature until I'm finished reading an article, but I think it's a great feature.

Readers can learn a quick synopsis of a story without having to read the entire thing. I think this is a good option for people that don't have time to read an entire article. I know a lot of times I see a headline and want to read a story, but at that moment, I don't have the time to read the article. By the time I get a chance to read more in depth, I've forgotten which articles I want to read.

I think this feature is also good for people that like to jump around on Web sites. "Story highlights" gives them the important information they need to know without forcing them to read a 500 word article. Obviously, CNN probably prefers them to read the 500 word story, but maybe people would be more willing to come to their site if they know they can quickly and easily get information.

Because I tend to forget about this feature, I think CNN could make the title "story highlights" bolder or larger to make the readers eyes go to that feature. But overall, I think it's a great thing to have and one that not a lot of Web sites do, at least, not that I've noticed.

Job requirement: organization

I've always been told that as an editor, you need to be extremely organized. You need to know what things are coming up, what reporters are assigned to what stories, etc. While I've always prided myself on being able to juggle multiple things at once, I never realized the extent to which an editor has to be organized until Election Day.

During the weeks prior to Election Day, I watched as all the reporters and news editors at The Daily Illini would meet to discuss how they're going to cover the election. I saw the designers beginning to layout the pages, and I started coming up with potential headlines depending on the outcome of the races. But doesn't most of it come down to who won the election?

Absolutely not. Without all the organization and advanced planning, we wouldn't have printed a paper. Because design had the page laid out in advance, when the final story came in close to drop time, all we had to do was place the story and photo. Because I had an idea for headlines, we had more time to copy edit stories and had to spend less time coming up with good headlines. Because the reporters new what stories they were covering, we knew what time to expect the articles to come in.

We had a big chart in the newsroom that had the schedule for each story: the slug, the reporter assigned to it, the time it was coming in, the time it had to be designed on the page, the time it had to be copy edited, etc.

At the same time, editors have to be able to adapt and change their plan. Just because we are organized doesn't mean everything is going to run accordingly. For instance, students started flooding Green Street when news stations announced that Obama won the election. We had to adapt by sending out reporters and photographers right away and making room for the story online and in print.

Being an editor is a tough job. I think it's more like a balancing act. Be organized, yet willing to adapt to whatever happens.