what is newsworthy?

“The case for more oil pipelines in Canada”

Timing - 4/4
This news story is was posted on November 21 2016. The timing of this news article is great as many people in Canada are not working or are looking for other work and a new pipeline would offer all kinds of jobs. Another reason its timing is good is because talk of global warming and our carbon footprint as a species has been a hot topic of late and this brings up some very good points as to why a new pipeline may or may not be a good idea.

Significance - 3/4
Many people have strong opinions about the pipelines so this article is pretty significant to a lot of people. Although this article doesn’t state whether or not they will go through with the pipeline for certain it still states a lot of pros and mentions some of the cons of having the pipeline

Proximity - 4/4
The geographical proximity is extremely close as it is in Canada and could easily affect people in our area as plenty of people are looking for work and might go out west to work on this pipeline

Prominence - 3/4
This story is quite prominent as many people have an opinion on pipelines and whether or not the risk on the environment is worth the jobs it creates and oil it brings. A pipeline of this size could affect a lot of Canadians.

Human Interest - 4/4
This story has a lot of human interest because the opposers of pipelines worry what the environmental consequences could be if a pipeline of this size was to blow. Oil spills have destroyed the water of communities before.

Final Newsworthy Mark - 18/20

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tmx-pipelines-kinder-morgan-worth-1.3852162


“Weekend warriors’ exercise called good enough to prevent early deaths”

Timing- 4/4
The timing of this article is great as many people nowadays are not getting the recommended amount of exercise and this study has shown that even if you are too busy through the week to exercise, working extra hard on the weekends still has many health benefits.

Significance- 2/4
This article gives you some good news that there is a study that proves being a “weekend warrior” still has almost as good of health benefits as working out throughout the week but it’s not like we didn’t already know that some exercise is better than no exercise.

Proximity- 3/4
The study that this article is talking about was conducted in the U.K but we are all apart of the human race so the study would still yield similar results over here. The only major difference may be diets.

Prominence- 2/4
The article isn’t exactly extremely prominent as I stated before, “exercise is good for your health” isn’t exactly big news. The study proving that completing the recommended amount of exercise at once is just as good for your health as spreading it out is good news but other than that we were just told news we already knew.

Human Interest- 4/4
I personally find this news very interesting as between school, work and my social life it can be hard to find the time to exercise. It is great to know that it is ok to be a weekend warrior and do my recommended amount of exercise all at once.

Final Newsworthy mark - 15/20

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/exercise-mortality-risk-1.3927363


“Mexican refugee claims jump after visa requirement dropped”

Timing- 4/4
Refugees are a very hot topic nowadays as more and more refugees from the middle east are coming in. Canada is already taking in what some may consider as too many refugees from the middle east so if there is a large increase from refugees from Mexico that may upset some who were already on the fence about the refugees.

Significance- 3/4
This article is pretty significant because a huge influx of Mexicans could affect the lives of many Canadians. The number of available jobs could greatly decrease if another group of refugees were to be brought into Canada.

Proximity- 4/4
The proximity of this article is as close as it gets as these refugees could be moving in right down the street from you. Areas like blackville are not as likely to see a large influx of refugees quite like places like Toronto or Alberta.

Prominence- 3/4
As I stated in my timing refugees are a hot topic as many people have very different and very strong opinions on refugees. I personally do not see a problem with refugees as long as they are leaving their country for a good reason. Some mexicans could possibly claim refugeeism just to move here for jobs, I am by no means stating that all of them would for this reason but it’s not like they’re fleeing a war torn country like Syria.

Human Interest- 3/4
This story has quite a bit of human interest as the lives of many Mexicans and Canadians could be affected by this. This has made it easier than ever for Mexican citizens to move to Canada so Canada’s culture could become much more diverse in the following years.

Final Newsworthy Mark- 17/20

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mexican-refugee-claims-canada-1.3927178 

hard news vs soft news

Attack in northern Mali kills 50, more than 100 injured, military says
I consider this article hard news because a lot of people were killed in a terrorist attack in Mali, which is definitely not a soft news article like what color of lipstick a Kardashian is wearing. This article states the who, what, when, where, and why quickly and effectively just like a hard news article is supposed. The characteristics of hard news articles are typically things like businesses, politics, war and other hard hitting subjects.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mali-attack-camp-dead-1.3940550



Bruce Springsteen cover band changes tune, won't play at Trump gala
I consider this article soft news because it has none of the characteristics of a hard news article except for very little political views, and is found within the “entertainment” section on CBC news. The characteristics of a soft news article are usually things related to media, serve a comedic purpose, lists, and news about celebrities.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/bruce-springsteen-cover-band-trump-1.3938376



People with allergies outraged by McDonald's nut decision
I consider this news story to be in the middle of hard news and soft news. This story blurs the line between the two because it was a minor decision made by a fast food company but it could greatly affect the lives of some people. Anyone who has a bad allergy towards peanuts will practically no longer be able to go to McDonald’s. This article has the characteristics of a hard news article as it is about a business but the characteristics of a soft news article as it more about the feelings some people have about the decision that McDonald’s has made.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mcdonalds-nut-allergies-people-outraged-1.3941903

Just how harmful could one little fib be? (Caught in Lies)

I wonder all of the time whether or not the news I am seeing and hearing is factually correct or in some cases completely made up. If I read a news article that I simply can not imagine to be true I like to dig a little deeper and see if it is true or not. Unfortunately most people nowadays are getting all of their news and information from Facebook, which is one of if not the worst place in the world to get your information. I have lost count of how many times someone has shared a Manatee or Onion article thinking it is true, even though these websites are 100% satirical news. I was completely blown away by how many people thought that “The Walking Dead” was seriously going to film in Moncton or that the Maritimes was going to be getting a NHL team. What’s worse than this is that so many people get all of their facts from Facebook which during the presidential race was annoying as hell as Facebook is arguably extremely heavy in left wing political opinions. I by no means believe that Trump is a good man or should have won but the amount of videos that stated Trump was the next Hitler was getting out of hand. On the other hand Trump is one of the worst offenders for false information, saying whatever he wants to about just about every topic imaginable. One of my least favorite “if it’s on the internet it must be true” moments was when everyone, and I mean everyone, shared that stupid status on Facebook about how by posting it they were withdrawing their consent from Facebook to use any of their photos or intellectual property. This was obviously fake as you have to agree to a terms and agreements before ever using Facebook, just because you say something it doesn’t instantly make it so.

The two articles honestly didn’t surprise me all that much, I assumed someone would have made up a story or two by now. The “Jimmy’s World” one wasn’t that bad as even though “Jimmy” himself didn’t exist the story still shed light on a very real problem that inner cities face. It is too bad that the reporter had to fabricate a story about it to get attention drawn to the heroin epidemic but it could have been an award winning, false story that swayed public opinion towards thinking Mexicans were the reason the US economy was declining. The reporter didn’t give any false information or facts, just fabricated a heart wrenching story about a young boy named Jimmy. The article about Harper not taking communion was stupid to begin with, my biggest problem with it is why does anyone care whether or not Harper did or did not put the piece of bread into his pocket?! I am a Christian and I know that you are supposed to eat it then and there when you receive communion but Harper’s religious beliefs are none of mine, or anyone else’s business.

I actually do agree with Shafer’s statement simply because I know from personal experience. I don’t know how many times I’ve been required to write about a moment in my life for an essay and to be honest there are no moments in my life that I can write an entire story about that are school appropriate. I’m sure if I was a better writer I may have been able to make an interesting story about the time my family went to Boston or we went on a road trip to someplace but I’m not so the next easiest thing is to add details that never happened. I wrote the same story about a trip my family went on during march break up to a friends camp every time I was required to write an essay about a moment in my life ever since middle school. I had an amazing time while we were there but it mostly consisted of riding around on snowmobiles and playing cards which is hard to write about, so I would fabricate some details about the trip. Every good author has probably stretched the truth a little to get a good story. I do not think there is much colleges and universities can do to graduate students who can handle the stress and responsibilities other than make their courses harder.

I think that an ombudsman should come into the mix once so many complaints or questions arise about the authenticity of the article or newspaper in question. One thing that we definitely want is truth in journalism or else the entire population will be worse than a herd of sheep, believing everything they’re told and following the flock to whatever lies that they are being told.

Writing The News Articles

8 YEAR OLD ATTEMPTS ROBBERY OF LOCAL BANK

        On Friday, October 21 at 10:35 in the morning the local Credit Union of Whiteville NB was robbed. The robber committed the crime with a NERF gun and escaped with “enough to buy a new transformer” and was later apprehended while waiting for the bus down the street. The suspect is 8 year old Jonny Smith. Yes you heard right, the robbery was committed by an 8 year old boy! Jonny was stopped by a local news crew who first notified the child’s parent then the authorities. When asked by the police why he did it, the boy replied with, “Mommy has to pay bills so I thought I’d buy my own birthday gift this year.”

        As it turns out the young boy lives at home with only his mother to provide for their family, Ms. Smith works at a local gas station but barely makes enough to cover the hydro bill.

        The police realizing that Jonny had good intentions and obviously did not harm anyone let him off with nothing but a lesson that robbery is bad. “It is obvious that the boy did not want to harm anyone,” said police chief Jim Anderson, “the boy had simply watched one too many old west movies.”

       Locals from around the area have all pitched in to help the Smith’s with some of their expenses, and even bought little Jonny the entire Transformers collection he wanted for his birthday. It seems that even a robbery can turn into a good thing with the help of good will from others.

Starting With The Basics

“Suspect in Jays beer-can tossing case no longer works for Postmedia”

This article on CBC is about a man suspected for throwing a beer can onto the field during a Jays game no longer working for Postmedia. The article doesn’t state whether the man was fired or just simply quit, just that he does not work for Postmedia any longer. The 41 year old man’s name is Ken Pagan and was an employee at Postmedia Network Inc. as a sports editor.

During a Toronto Blue Jays home game in the Rogers Center on Oct. 4 against the Baltimore Orioles a beer can was thrown at Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim. Pagan has been charged with mischief for the incident, but has yet to be proven guilty, he is set for court on November 24.

The lead of this article is quite effective as almost anyone that has access to the internet had heard about the beer can thrown during the game, so seeing that they have finally “caught” the culprit is extremely eye catching.

One significant quote from the article is “Pagan also told the Toronto Sun he was "drinking out of a cup" during the game.” This came directly from the man accused of the crime himself, and he is practically saying that it was not him who threw the can as he was “drinking out of a cup”.

The most important information is definitely told first, the article tells us who has been charged and of what crime in the first couple sentences, which is what we came to the article to find out anyways.

The story doesn’t have a particularly good ending as the only thing that came from this whole racket is the rogers center has stopped serving beer in cans.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/suspect-jays-beer-tossing-case-postmedia-1.3808307



“Mother warns 'party drug' users after daughter dies from drinking too much water”

This article on CBC is about a 23 year old woman, Linda Kyrzyk, from Winnipeg died from drinking too much water. Last February at a small house party Linda had taken ecstasy, which causes dehydration, and drank so much water that it caused her brain to swell to the point of causing brain damage, putting her in a coma. Just 2 days later she was pronounced brain dead.

In my opinion the lead on this article is extremely effective as reading that someone died due to drinking too much water grabs your attention. It is hard to believe that drinking too much water could possibly kill someone so most people would definitely click on the article to see how it happened.

"What happens is it has very little room to swell before it starts increasing the pressure inside the brain, and when this happens, it decreases blood flow," this was said by Dr. Claudio Rigatto on what happens when someone drinks too much water and causes the brain to swell.

The most important info is told first, it tells us who died, when they died and how they died within the first couple paragraphs. We came to the article to read how someone died from drinking too much water and that’s exactly what they tell us.

Unfortunately it does not have a happy ending, Linda ended up dying from the brain damage caused by drinking too much water. Her mother and twin sister were obviously upset at the death of Linda but have since moved on. Her mother shares Linda’s story to as many people as possible, warning them about the dangers of drugs.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-mom-mdma-daughter-death-1.3811874

First Newspapers

Compared to today's newspapers the only thing historical newspapers have in common is their format and that they both contain news. Very early newspapers didn’t report deaths, marriages or births like today’s newspapers do. Early newspapers also contained mostly ads for local businesses and not a whole lot of news.


The government should not have the power to shut down or restrict what a newspaper talks about, if they did have that kind of power any bad things they did would go unnoticed by the general public. They could do just about anything without having to worry about being criticized or called out by the news media. Any talk about subjects the government had decided to censor would all be word of mouth and could be a totally different story then what had actually happened after it went through a couple of people.


Newspapers can be critical of the government today because people fought for the right of freedom of speech in America so since their ideals were built upon freedom of speech it wouldn’t be very fitting of them to restrict newspapers. In Canada we don’t exactly have freedom of speech so if you are saying something too demeaning or unfavourable about the government it can probably be censored.



I wasn’t surprised at all that the first newspaper in Canada was in Halifax since Halifax was one of the most happening spots in Canada back then as there was trading and stuff with Britain all the time so Halifax was populated with all kinds of British people. British people were used to having newspapers so it only makes sense that they would want one for when they were in Canada.

How To Procrastinate