slh017's blog

audacity journalism project- shooting

Newly Married Richard Brunson shot his wife on their wedding day yesterday. Richard and Laurette Brunson were married on their front porch yesterday at 2 p.m. The shooting happened around 5 p.m. According to officials, Richard Brunson fled the scene and is still missing. The incident was started by Mrs. Brunson throwing a plate of macaroni salad at her husband. Sargent Mann has this to say about it.SgtMann voice 3

Thirty relatives and friends attended the wedding. The bride also had three children present during the incident. One witness recalls what he heard from the shooting.  Witness Voice

The couple had been living with each other in the house for around five months before the wedding. Mrs. Brunson recently quit her job and was hoping to open a daycare center. There is no other evidence showing why Richard Brunson shot his wife.

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/parents-punish-teen-posting-goofy-photos-her-facebook-182700019.html

This article is about a girls parents punishing her for talking back to them. They uploaded embarrassing pictures of them selves onto the daughters Facebook account for everybody to see.

I think this has good news value because it is funny but it can be controversial as well. It is appealing to a number of audiences. I think they used good quotes to help the story as well. It also asks a question at the end for other parents to decide what they think. I think that helps the story because other parents will be talking about it with others. This could spread the story out to more people.

Shane Hennen

Paper #2

Ross Fugslang

October 11^th 2012

The Value in Sports

Trent Miller has accomplished many things on the basketball court, but the most important accomplishment seems to be the man he has turned into off the court.

Depending on where you first meet Morningside’s Mr. Basketball, you will see both sides of his personality. Off the court you will be introduced to a well-spoken, generous man who seems to put peoples needs before his own. On the court, Miller quickly turns into a focused, intimidating leader.

With Miller being an excellent student, that has some non-basketball related plans after his final year, and an advanced basketball player on the court, he is a good person to give an opinion on how sports could help in the real world.

“When I see people just hanging out after classes, it makes me feel like I want to be a regular kid but then I think about it more and I wouldn’t change what I have for anything. The time and effort one has to put into playing sports can become overwhelming at times, but the benefits may out weigh the struggles.” Miller said.

Miller is now a senior at Morningside and has been a captain on the basketball team since he was a sophomore. He has put himself in the record books at Morningside in steals and assists. Trent doesn’t plan on playing professionally after his final year at Morningside, but he does plan getting a Master’s Degree in education. Why not just focus on school if basketball seems to be done after college? Trent has found his reason why.

Miller knows exactly why he decided to play for four years here. It seems the love of the game and the traits he picked up on the way can help in the real world. “In sports you face adversity and you are tested mentally and physically, and how you handle adversity in sports is how you handle things in the real world.”

Learning to have discipline, to work hard, and to be mentally tough are common values of successful people in this world. Another member of the Morningside Basketball team, Kyle Nikkel, said, “I know if I can become a hard worker in basketball, I can be a hard worker at anything else I do, because hard work rubs off onto other aspects of life.” Being apart of a team gives you an opportunity to learn how to work with others and be responsible for you own actions and learning how to be a good teammate is usually never a bad thing off the court.

According to interships.about.com, the top qualities employers are looking for is a strong work ethic, responsibility, positive attitude, adaptability, integrity, self-motivation, ability to grow and learn, confidence, professionalism, and loyalty. This whole list of qualities easy to attain after some years playing on organized sports team.

Morningside’s Mr. Basketball is glad with his choice to play a sport his whole life because of what the game has done for him. Tanner Miller, a member of the basketball team and Trent’s brother, said, “Trent has always been a very responsible leader and this has influenced me to do the same.” Players can give a lot to become a good athlete but the game seems to be giving players a lot more back in return.

This article is about the New York Jets and their two quarterbacks. It is basically talking about how the Jets are struggling and how their number one quarterback Mark Sanchez is struggling. It brings up some weird numbers about Sanchez. It talks about his statistics so far and pretty much every passing statistic has the number “6” in it. It says, “No. 6, has six touchdown passes and six interceptions so far. He’s averaging 6.6 yards per attempt, and his longest completion is 66 yards. His passer rating: 66.6.” They make this a big deal because Tebow is really religious.

I think this is a good story because it has some really good writing and is very detailed. I think its kind of long and talks about stuff that a lot of other people have talked about or already wrote about. “I’m fairly sure that Ryan, in an effort to support his starting quarterback, is stretching the truth like Nick Mangold in Spandex. No question?”, this sentence is my favorite in the story and the author has others like this which make the it good writing.

Shane Hennen

Paper #2

Ross Fugslang

October 7^th 2012

A True Leader

Trent Miller has accomplished many things on the basketball court, but the most important accomplishment seems to be the man that he has turned into off the court. Depending on where you first meet Trent, you will see both sides of his personality. Off the court you will be introduced to a well-spoken, generous man that seems to put peoples needs before his own. On the court, Miller quickly turns into a focused, intimidating leader. Trent seems to have a high motor that never seems to stop running. Either way you will be glad you met him.

Trent choose Morningside because he was treated very well here and the team was successful in the past years. As any normal kid, he faced new challenges in his life when he moved off to college, but Trent wasn’t just a normal kid going to school. Trent came to Morningside College not only to get a good education but to play basketball as well. The percentage of kids that get to play collegiate sports is low, but the percentage of kids that get play collegiate sports and get playing time their freshman year is even lower. Trent Miller was one of those kids talented enough to do so. One goal he focused on was “making varsity and trying to contribute.” This seems like a hard task to accomplish but he achieved it by outworking others around him. The biggest challenge he faced his first year was his time management off the court and the physicality of play on the court. By hanging out with people that had similar goals as him and listening to upper classman these challenges got easier. Millers freshman year, the team went 12-18. He played in 16 of those games and got around eight minutes a game.  “My freshman year was a blast, I met most of my closest friends and was able to play varsity.” With a successful year behind him, he was now looking forward to become a better player and take on new roles.

The next two years for Trent brought new goals and more accomplishments. Trent was voted captain of his team his sophomore and junior year and became the everyday starting point guard. This was one of his goals after his first year. Taking on this responsibility as a sophomore can bring a lot of duties and obligations but he handled it like any coach would want a player to. His sophomore year the team improved to 15-17. This wasn’t easy said Miller, “ My sophomore year was a tough year, we were a young team so we took some bumps.” Off the court his academic workload was increasing and continued to increase his junior year. The determined, hard working student athlete overcame these challenges and during his sophomore and junior year became one of the leaders in steals and assists in Morningside history and also managed to achieve a high grade point average. He also was voted defensive player of the year by his teammates, as well as making the All Conference Second Team. Trent got his team ranked all the way up to 15^th in the nation during his junior year. This was the highest the Mustangs have been ranked since Miller came to Morningside.

Trent did not accomplish everything he wanted to his junior year. The team did improve their record to 18 win with 13 losses but came up short in the playoffs with a first round loss. Getting kicked out of the playoffs left Miller hungry to get better and to improve his team’s chances at winning as this coming season will be his last. He continued to work hard during the off-season like every year and is once again very focused on his new goals. Miller wants to help his team reach the national tournament, win the GPAC conference, be the best point guard in the conference and graduate in May with a degree in biology with a minor in Spanish. Trent is excited about the personnel on the team as he said “I believe we have as much talent as any team in the GPAC, I firmly believe that our team chemistry will give us an edge.”

No matter how the team turns out this year Trent Miller will have a bright future ahead of him. He has been a role model for many of the players at Morningside and will continue to be that type of person throughout his life.  Trent’s back up Stephen O’Neill said this about Trent, “Trent knows the game better than anyone I’ve seen. He’s a great role model by doing the right thing on and off the court. He just doesn’t let people down, he always gives 100% in whatever he does.” His drive and will to work hard at everything he does has gotten him far and will continue to do so.

The group I was in for Into The Streets was the basketball team. We were divided into sections and each section was assigned a place in Sioux City and we each had to walk the streets and pick up the trash.

Our assigned place was at Perry Creek trail behind the Hyvee near north Sioux City. This trail was adjacent to a small creek with houses on the other side. Most of the guys I worked with were not excited for this project because it was “way to early to pick up trash.” What they did not know was that there was a little amount of trash along this trail.

As we walked down our trail we saw two other groups cleaning the trail. We met up with them and they told us that they were assigned to the trail too. After hearing this news, Tanner Miller, a member of the basketball team said, “Thank god they are hear too.” We probably cleaned the trail for a total of ten minutes.

The overall experience was good mainly because of the little amount of work that had to be put into it. Kyle Nikkel said “I will do this every day if it means we get out of class.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/braves-fan-sign-skipped-chemo-see-chipper-jones-210227224–mlb.html

This article is about a dedicated Chipper Jones fan that made a sign that said “I SKIPPED CHEMO TO SEE CHIPPER.” There isn’t much about the fan in the story but it talks about how the fan wanted to see him before he retires. It also said they should meet and that Chipper usually interacts with his dedicated fans.

I think this is good news because it is a feel good story. Even though it doesn’t tell us much and isn’t very long it still sends a feel good message to people. It is something people would want to read. I think the last sentence in the story is good too.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba–rajon-rondo-commits-to-leading-celtics.html

This article is about the Celtics teams and some of the activities they are doing this summer and how they are getting to know some of their new players. It also talks about Rajon Rondos and Ray Allens relationship together when they played and how it is now after Allen left.

I think they did a good job of telling us what the Celtics were doing in the off-season and giving readers who are interested in one of the most popular teams in the NBA, information about the team. I think its news because this team is always in the playoffs and has always been a good team, but every year people think that they are going to have a bad year. This article tells us a lot about the team and how well they are getting along with their new players. One thing I didn’t like was when you see the article before you click on it the main headline is “NBA star opens up about rumored feud.” I clicked on this article because of that headline and there was little to do about the feud between Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. Most of the story was about the other things the team is doing and there was a short paragraph about the two players feud.

My goal was to find a Morningside memory. I went to the Olsen Student Center hoping to find many student willing to spill out there memories here. Turns out most of the students were busy in their classrooms so I couldn’t find many kids walking around. My first instinct was to go to the security office because students work for security here on campus.

The student I met was Maggie Vondrak. She was sitting on the office chair doing some homework when I walked in and I asked her if she was busy. She replied with a “no, whats up?”, I then began to tell her I was in a journalism class and was set out to find a Morningside Memory from somebody on campus. She seemed pretty interested. First I wanted to know a little more about her. She told me she was a Junior here on campus and played volleyball. She also said she started working security last April and was working because of the money. I agreed with her reasoning and got to the important question.

What is a Morningside memory that you have? She told me “That is a tough question but lets say last years homecoming game because it was a great atmosphere and i enjoyed the game and went out with my friends.” I thought this was a typical memory a student would have here.

Maggie had one class today and it was Stats. She said “I only have one class but I don’t like it.” She then would have to go to Volleyball practice and fulfill her student athlete life here at Morningside.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/robocop-suit-revealed-first-photo-remake-163723915.html

This article is about the remake of the popular 80’s movie Robocop. Its basically talking about the new suit Robocop is wearing and compares the new one to the old one.

I think this is newsworthy because movie fans will enjoy hearing about it and people that have seen the first movie will want to hear this. They will also want to know how its going to be different than the first movie. I think they did a good job in the start of the article with the exciting part and then got into more detail of the movie. I think they talked about how the suit was different a little to much and didn’t really spend any time on much of anything else in the movie, but that could be because they didn’t know anything else about it.