Would you print these photos?

Photos are a powerful tool in telling a story. They can show emotions and portray events in ways written word could never accomplish. Great care should be taken when selecting photos for publication. In addition to accurately portraying events, photos should not be exploitative of their subjects. Photos published in newspapers depict real events and real people. It is my opinion that when decided whether to publish a controversial photo, the need to inform the public must outweigh the grief it will cause people. I will use these criteria for decided whether I would publish the pictures on the Web site.

First:

I would publish all the photos. Even though these photos might be offensive to Dwyer's friends and family, and some readers, these photos would inform people about the event. Since Dwyer is a public figure and had called the press conference, I don't think the photos are exploitative. He wanted people to see what he did and before becoming a public figure, he should have recognized it would cause a lack of privacy.

Second:

For this section, I will go through the photos one-by-one and write whether I would publish them.

1. Publish. Even though this photo is somewhat exploitative of the boy and not very newsworthy, I would still publish it because I don't think it will cause anyone too much agony. I feel sorry for the boy, but I'm sure he won't be too traumatized.

2. Don't publish. I feel like this photo is far too exploitative. The photo clearly shows the dead child and grieving family. It would be immoral to make money off this event by publishing such an emotional picture in a newspaper.

3. Publish. Even though this photo also shows a dead boy, I don't believe it is as exploitative. The photo only shows the aftermath of an event. It is not trying to target people’s emotions to sell newspapers.

4. Publish. Similarly to photo 1, I believe the person in this photo will not be too traumatized by the event. Also, this photo is distressing, but not overly graphic. There is no blood or guts – or anything else that would disgust readers.

5. Publish. For me this was the hardest photo to decide on. When I first saw the picture, I thought it would be a “don’t publish” because it is so graphic. Also, I’m sure it was traumatizing for the woman and would probably be painful for readers that have experienced sexual assault. However, after thinking more about it, I changed my mind. I believe by shocking readers it would bring attention to serious problem. All over the world, women are treated as objects. The number of sexual assaults in the United States is disgusting. People need to know these problems exist. If as a society we are ever going to overcome these issues, we need to look at them honesty. Sometimes, pictures such as this one are needed to spark dialog.

Confusing writing

The other day in class we discussed suspending a sentence. Adding too much information between a pair of commas or dashes, can be confusing to the reader. Instead the sentence should be broken up or the extra information should be at the end of the sentence.

Offsetting information between commas and dashes can be confusing in other ways. A good example was posted on the message board, Testy Copy Editors. In the following article, the organization of the sentence and use of commas makes for a very confusing story.

MATTHEW KEMENY, Of The Patriot-News
Wednesday February 04, 2009, 4:30 PM

A woman who was killed Monday night as she was trying to cross Interstate 83 south near the Harrisburg Mall was on the highway because she had gotten into an argument with the driver of a car in which she was a passenger earlier that night, state police said today.

Dorothy M. Spikes was in a car traveling south on I-83 shortly before 10 p.m. when she abruptly got out of the car following an argument with the driver, Karl Schmidhamer, a state police spokesman, said.

Spikes, 47, of Harrisburg, was struck by the right front bumper of a Pontiac Grand Am driven by Randall R. Kurtz, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A reader cannot tell if Karl Schmidhamer is the drive or the state police spokesman. The writer or editor should have made this clearer by writing:

Dorothy M. Spikes was in a car traveling south on I-83 shortly before 10 p.m. when she abruptly got out of the car following an argument with the driver, according to state police spokesman Karl Schmidhamer.

When writing a sentence it should be as clear as possible. Writers should be careful when using pairs of commas and dashes to add details. The point of the sentence is to inform, not cram as many facts as possible.

Typos

All major publications, businesses, and websites employ editors to catch all their little typos and mistakes. However, many people and businesses don't have the luxury of their own editors and have to go it alone. Usually these amateur publications, signs and advertisements turn out fine. But when they don't - they'll probably turn up on funnytypos.com.

Funnytypos is a blog where people can post funny typos, misspellings and bad grammar. A lot of the typos come from improper translations of other languages, such as this McDonald's ad. Signs for events are another commonly posted item on the website. Check out this sign for a Sexist Contest. There are also some really bizarre posts, like this tombstone.

So next time you see a sign for the "libary" or an advertisment for a "vacume," take a picture and send it to Funnytypos for all to enjoy!

Testy Copy Editors

For this week's entry, I will be reviewing Testy Copy Editors. The site is the brainchild of Phil Blanchard, an editor at the Washington Post and former editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. It is a message board designed for copy editors to post rants about their jobs and the industry. It is best described in the site's sidebar, which quotes what other people have said about it. Some of my favorite quotes being:

"It reveals the backstage carping and vindictive emotions that roil the souls of those trapped at the copy desks."

"I'm totally obsessed with this site. It's like porn--if you get off on Scrabble."

"Nothing gets us hotter than reading bitchy discussion threads from over-exhausted copy editors endlessly debating the merits of 'theater' versus 'theatre.'"

The posts cover a bunch of topics. Some are about finding jobs and others point out mistakes in newspapers. One post bashed cheesy pun headlines and posted a link to this gem. There is also a "Nightmare Jobs of the Week" section, where people post links to "help-wanted ads from hell."

Test Copy Editors is the perfect sight for anyone looking to waste a good 20 to 30 minutes of their life.

Blog editing.

Since catsthatlooklikehitler.com has little to do with editing, I decided to make another post for this week.

After typing "newspaper editing" into Google, I came across this relevant article. It's about blog editing at newspaper websites. According to the article, the same processes used to edit newspapers can be detrimental to blogs. Unlike newspapers, blog entries are posted instantaneous. A lengthy editing process can delay a post for hours and as the article puts its, "On the Internet, speed is measured in minutes, not hours."

Instead of the usual editing process, the article suggests writers post the article first, and then inform editors to review the post. I question whether this publish first, edit later policy is effective. It seems like this would cause a lot of errors and cross ethical lines. Should people expect newspaper blogs to be less reliable than their printed counterparts? It seems kind of sketchy.

First post ever!!

For my first blog entry I though it would be fun to post links to some of my favorite blogs/websites. Hopefully, by seeing where I waste hours and hours of my life, you'll all get a better understand of my hopes, dreams and aspirations.

First site, http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.

This website knows me all too well. As the name describes, it lists stuff white people just can't live without - such as #41 indie music, #15 yoga , and #118 ugly sweater parties. It's funny because it's so accurate. My favorite is #62 Knowing what's best for poor people, which states, "It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them. In fact, the only reason that poor people make the choices they do is because they have not been given the means to make the right choices and care about the right things."

Second site, http://www.adbusters.org/.

Adbusters is a non-profit, anti-consumerist organization that publishes a magazine and is best known for its parody advertisements or "subvertisements,"such as this spoof of Absolute vodka. The website also contains articles about a variety of political and culture topics. I first came across this site when a friend sent me the article Hipsters: The Dead End of Wester Civilization and I've been hooked ever since. Not suprsingly, Adbusters is mentioned on Stuff White People Like under #82 Hating Corporations.


Third site, www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com.

The name says it all. There are a lot of cats that look like Hitler, or as the website calls them "kitlers," so why not post picture of them on the internet for all to enjoy.