News Comment #11
Comments(1) For this week’s news comment I came across an article from Siouxland Proud “Why you may be seeing purple street lights in Sioux City” written by Nikolas Wilson. There was also a broadcast segment along with the article. It discussed how many Siouxlander’s may be noticing purple street lamps around town and that the cause is due to a manufacturing error where a chemical compound is not mixing correctly. They also quoted the media relations manager from Mid-American saying that there is no danger with the purple lights and if you see one you are encouraged to report it.
I came across this and was immediately drawn to it because I have seen so many of them around town. I will also admit that I don’t care for them so it was good to know that they are not supposed to be like that. I had heard from people that they change colors when they are about to burn out and I’m glad to know that is untrue.
When it comes to the writing of the article it was fine. Nothing more or less. You were given the information you needed and it wasn’t confusing. There was also no bias of any kind. It was relatively short so there wasn’t a lot of room for it either. My only complaint was that some of the writing just felt a little odd. For example, ”Siouxlanders have noticed purple street lights near their houses, but that’s not part of some decoration for the holidays.” The second half of this sentence just feels odd. However, overall I didn’t have any major problems with it and it delivered the information it needed to. I didn’t have any further questions after reading it.
Possible Feature Stories:
Day in the life of a Mid-American worker fixing the lights
How the lights are made – chemical compound?
How the lights are replaced
Downsides to purple vs white lights
One of the TV stations covered this yesterday. Your feature on the Mid-American worker is the best of the four. A good profile of an “average” person. How much the lights will cost the city is a bit newsy, but could be done in a feature style.