500 words
I was hoping to start a trend where I would compose at least 500 words a day in the attempt to stay sharp as well as maybe stumble upon something that I could use to expand into something more in depth. Tonight, I am probably not going to hit that number, as I am tired, and I start my internship at Entertainment Tonight tomorrow.
However, I will attempt to start to broach a subject that has been on my mind for the past day or so. The following story ran in the Los Angeles Daily News. Apparently, two Indian reporters (reporters from India) have been hired to cover the Pasadena city council for the website www.pasadenanow.com. In order to clarify so that I don't sound
It sounds like the goal is for the website to have a summary of the Monday city council meeting posted online so that when Tuesday morning rolls around Pasadena residents can go online and read all about the exciting events that have transpired.
The logic is there. India is in a different time zone so that when city council meetings go long, a reporter does not have to burn the midnight oil in order to get the story filed before the AM deadline.
The problem is that journalism is suffering. We have a generation of journalists who can file a story without leaving home. The internet has made this possible. I just think that something is lacking. Having a story filed as soon as an event happens is amazing. I can log onto my homepage and get up to the second news at all hours of the day or night. My beef is that it is hard to capture the emotion of an event with out ever going.
It will be interesting to see if the reporters from half a world away can adequately capture and summarize a city council meeting in Pasadena. If the experiment is successful who knows the extent to which foreign reporters will cover my local news. I just think it seems sketchy.
Post script: The above was 389 words. Didn't quite make my 500 word goal, but it's a step in the right direction.
