While in reporting and writing 1 class, we were busy not only absorbing information, but also taking notes. Allow me to share some of what we learned with Professor Rob Washburn.

Imposed Significance – Imposed significance is related to a term known as “spin” in journalism – to put imposed significance on something is to try to “sell” the story. An example of this would be to introduce it as being written by a multi-award winning author, or claim that a certain article has won an author prizes or awards. While imposed significance does not make a story bad, it can denote that a story is not good enough to stand up on its own, although this is not necessarily always the case. This is important to know as a consumer of news because writers will sometimes do this to draw a reader in to a story that does not warrant the attention that it is getting.

Natural Significance – Natural significance can be viewed as the antithesis to imposed significance. Specifically, what gives a story natural significance is when it needs no introduction and claims that it is important – this is simply known to anyone reading it. An example we looked at in class is the Olympics; nobody needs to hype up the Olympics and talk about how great it is, people just know. This is important to know especially as a journalist, as these stories would always be preferred over a story where you would have to try to draw the reader in yourself, because the reader would be naturally drawn to it.

Crafting Answers – I was not entirely sure what to title this one, so I picked a title that accurately gets across what the point is – when interviewing somebody, we were warned to avoid e-mail interviews, and stick to in person or phone calls. The reason behind this is evident in the title; people can and will use e-mail interviews as a chance to craft their answers carefully. This makes the interview less real, and gives the interviewee the chance to simply get across what they want, whether it be entirely accurate or not. It also gives them a chance to check with other people on things. While this can be viewed as beneficial for the people being interviewed, it makes the interview more or less fake. It becomes less an interview and more a chance for the interviewee to write a publicity story in the way that they want to with the journalist simply being there as the means to get it to the public.

Natural News – Yes, this is similar to natural significance, but we looked at it in a different way, leading me to believe it deserves its own category. We looked at it like so; when interviewing people, your best bet to make sure it flows and they will want to talk to you is to interview them about an item of natural news Natural news can be defined as news that is relevant to everyone. Like natural significance, people can tell instinctively when something is natural news, and will want to talk about it. Natural news is less in the context of an article, or drawing in readers. It has more a raw, on-the-streets kind of feel. If people see a plane crash into the ground and burst into flames, they’re going to be a lot more willing and eager to talk about it to a journalist than if you try to interview them about their neighbour’s vegetable garden (not to hate on gardens, simply pointing out that more people would be much more willing to talk about a plane crash).

It’s All About Perception – This one is especially for budding journalists like myself. I have never personally been much of a go-up-and-talk-to-strangers kind of guy. That’s one side of journalism that I’ve been dreading just a little but, though I welcome the challenges to expand my comfort zone. It all comes down to perception though. There’s not a lot to say about this one, but I’ll give a concrete example that we looked at in class; how is going up and professionally interviewing someone who’s a complete stranger any different than talking to a store clerk who’s a complete stranger in their professional role as clerk? Them explaining to strangers where to find the video games section or whatever it may be doesn’t have to feel any different than a journalist doing their job and talking to strangers about events.

Well, that’s it for this post, I feel like I’m learning already, and I hope anyone reading this feels the same way!