Most trainers at the gym like to use free weights. Alex Herrera said I’m afraid that I am going to get hurt because the weights are too heavy
Student journalists can’t find internships due to the coronavirus.
Currently my boss won’t give me the extra money he promised and I really need the money and the job due to the wide spread layoffs.
However, I told my supervisor that prior to coming to work at this job I felt happier.
Bars, restaurants and gyms must close at 10 p.m. due to the coronavirus. Governor Cuomo issued the order and also put a cap on private gatherings due to rising cases of coronavirus.
We’re seeing a global COVID surge and New York is a ship on the COVID tide the governor said.
Rudy Giuliani tweeted to his million followers and thanked them. Put his tweet in the active voice. “Thank you to 1M that are following me here.”
Gregory Scarpa a former Columbo crime family boss currently serving time at a half-way house in Kansas City will get early leave due to the fact that he is seriously ill.
Both are facing charges of wide-spread fraud.
President Trump is of the opinion that the election was rigged.
All kinds of stories make a good report. But some will pan out and others won’t. We all bring personal history, individual interests and perspective to the job of reporting. You can bet that if you’re curious about something, others will find it interesting too. Once you have a story in your sights, just remember that as journalists we temper what we bring to the table with a strong measure of objectivity, and an even stronger dose of fairness.
Define A Good Story So how do you define a good story? Think about your day and the challenges that you have. Think about your friends and family and how the commute to school or work affects them, what’s happening in their neighborhoods. How do they juggle kids and work, or kids and school? What does the drama in Washington, and President Trump’s tweets have to with them? You can turn anything into a story. But the best stories have: • A little drama • A little conflict • Pure joy • Surprising new facts • Need-to-know information • Entertainment value The stories don’t have to extend beyond your college or community to have meaning and impact. But remember you approach the world as a video storyteller now and that means that the stories require interesting video. 1. DRAMA: A father races into his family’s burning home to save his children. He dashes through the flames again and again and brings five children out to safety. But neither he nor the firefighters can save the sixth child who is asleep in a room at the back of the house. Although it is grim, it is a true story and breaking news reporters find themselves covering a version of this tragedy again and again. 2. CONFLICT: A community garden is set for demolition to make way for an athletic field. The gardeners and their plants provide a beautiful visual for video, and the conflict is clear. People want to continue to garden and people want to stop them in order to use the land for another, equally valid, purpose. 3. JOY: A young ballerina from your community wins a competition and lands a job with a prestigious ballet company. The debut of rare Siberian tiger cubs at a local zoo also falls into this category. Some stories bring smiles to the faces of your viewers and offer opportunities for creative shooting, writing and editing. 4. NEW INFORMATION: A doctor tries a new medical procedure in which he uses stem cells harvested from fat. He says that injecting one’s own stem cells into arthritic joints can ease pain and improve movement. 5. NEED TO KNOW INFORMATION: The city council considers a sales tax hike. There’s a meeting where politicians, merchants and consumers will testify. A timetable and the items covered by the tax will be revealed. 6. ENTERTAINING INFORMATION: Beyoncé comes to your community to film music video. You have the opportunity to visit the set and report the story. In this category you’d also include fashion, new restaurant openings, or lifestyle segments that highlight new trends.
Enterprise
Some reporters like to come up with their stories and that’s called enterprise reporting. You might have a lead on an unreported element in breaking news, discover the cutest puppy in the neighborhood, get an exclusive interview with an interesting character, learn from a source about a Ponzi schemer or discover a contractor ripping off homeowners.
Unique Reporting News directors value enterprise reporting because it produces unique reporting that they can promote. Original reporting gives an organization bragging rights and allows them to draw in viewers with the promise that they’ll see something special that the competition doesn’t have. Any reporter can produce enterprise work, but covering a specific beat or area means you can develop the sources and knowledge that tend to trigger new story ideas. Investigative, consumer, political, medical, business, entertainment, environmental, life-style, and technology reporters typically generate enterprise stories. The list expands or contracts depending upon the size of the newsroom. But people with wide-ranging interests and curiosity have tremendous opportunities. You can report about virtually anything, if you come up with the story.
Competition Competition plays a big role in newsrooms. While producing a news broadcast requires that you work hand in hand with colleagues, and you have to play nice in order to retain your job and succeed, people vie for the best stories and the stories that lead the newscast. General assignment reporters, those who do the important breaking and daily news stories, often view “specialist” reporters suspiciously by daily news reporters. “What makes them so special? Why do THEY get extra time,” the rank-and file reporters often grumble. Enterprise Reporters But while enterprise reporters have the opportunity to take control of their daily destiny, they frequently work longer hours to dig deeper than the reporters who pick up an assignment and bolt to“run and gun” to cover a breaking news story. Enterprise reporters depend upon sources to tip them to news stories. The hardest working reporters have the best sources. They also have the curiosity to follow leads, ask questions and uncover stories, and the tenacity to work at those stories a long time.
Quick Turns You’ll turn some stories around quickly. Others stories will take weeks or even months of research and shooting and editing and writing before they’re ready. But if you realize th importance of face-time on the air, you’ll juggle. You’ll produce other stories that can get you on the air or on the web quickly while you’re working on your blockbuster.
A pitch describes the story you want to tell. You need to write a short paragraph that gets attention and explains what you plan to do. So avoid writing, “I want to do a story about outdoor dining in New York City,” because that’s not a story. It’s a general idea. You want to look for an angle.
Your outdoor dining pitch might read like this:
Outdoor dining changed the look of many New York streets and saved over 10,000 restaurants, but what happens when it gets colder and winter sets in? I’ll visit a neighborhood with a number of outdoor restaurants and talk to two owners about their plans. I’ll also talk to customers to find out whether they will feel comfortable eating outside in frigid weather.
Or
Outdoor dining changed the look of many New York streets and saved a lot of restaurants, but what happens when the pandemic ends? Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group agreed to talk us. He is a spokesman for the industry and can give us insight into what may happen. He said we can talk to his customers, if they want to talk to us.
I’ll also talk to the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs to find out what the city plans to do and I’ll talk to Nevah Assang, New York and Company’s senior V.P. for community relations, about how the tourism industry sees the future.
I’ll shoot restaurants in a variety of neighborhoods and talk to customers.
Think about the atmosphere, what you heard and how other people reacted.
What was the most important point made. Lead with that.
Make sure to give us the basics. You want to avoid giving us a list of items, but you want to cover all the bases and answer the questions:
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How
Make sure you spell names correctly and that you use titles. Titles are only capitalized when they precede the name of a person.
Here’s what the AP Stylebook says about titles:
titles In general, confine capitalization to formal titles used directly before an individual’s name. The basic guidelines: LOWERCASE: Lowercase and spell out titles when they are not used with an [more…] Chapter T ; Updated on Aug 27, 2018
capitalization In general, avoid unnecessary capitals. Use a capital letter only if you can justify it by one of the principles listed here. Many words and phrases, including special cases, are listed [more…] Chapter C ; Updated on May 21, 2002
titles Capitalize or use lowercase according to guidelines in titles in Stylebook’s main section. Job descriptions, field positions and informal titles are lowercase: coach John Calipari; forward Alex [more…] Chapter Sports Guidelines ; Created on Feb 03, 2015
legislative titles FIRST-REFERENCE FORM: Use Rep., Reps., Sen. and Sens. as formal titles before one or more names. Spell out and lowercase representative and senator in other uses. Spell out other [more…] Chapter L ; Updated on May 01, 2020
nobility References to members of the nobility in nations that have a system of rank present special problems because nobles frequently are known by their titles rather than their given or family [more…] Chapter N
religious titles The first reference to a clergyman or clergywoman normally should include a capitalized title before the individual’s name. In many cases, the Rev. is the designation that applies [more…] Chapter R
religious titles The first reference to a clergyman or clergywoman normally should include a capitalized title before the individual’s name. In many cases, the Rev. is the designation that applies [more…] Chapter Religion Guidelines
academic titles Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as chancellor, chair, etc., when they precede a name. Lowercase elsewhere. Lowercase modifiers such as department in department Chair Jerome [more…] Chapter A ; Updated on May 01, 2020
preacher A job description, not a formal religious title. Do not capitalize. See titles and religious titles. Chapter Religion Guidelines
military titles Capitalize a military rank when used as a formal title before an individual’s name. See the lists that follow to determine whether the title should be spelled out or abbreviated in [more…] Chapter M
minister It is not a formal title in most religions, with exceptions such as the Nation of Islam, and is not capitalized. Where it is a formal title, it should be capitalized before the name: Minister [more…] Chapter M ; Updated on May 29, 2002
minister It is not a formal title in most religions, with exceptions such as the Nation of Islam, and is not capitalized. Where it is a formal title, it should be capitalized before the name: [more…] Chapter Religion Guidelines ; Updated on May 29, 2002
recipe titles Recipe titles that appear in stories or regular text are not capitalized (unless the recipe title includes proper nouns). Recipe titles at the top of actual recipes are written in all [more…] Chapter Food Guidelines ; Created on Jan 15, 2016
editor Capitalize editor before a name only when it is an official corporate or organizational title. Do not capitalize as a job description. See titles. Chapter E
composition titles Apply these guidelines to the titles of books, movies, plays, poems, albums, songs, operas, radio and television programs, lectures, speeches, and works of art: — Capitalize all [more…] Chapter C ; Updated on Feb 02, 2018
Roman Catholic Church The church teaches that its bishops have been established as the successors of the apostles through generations of ceremonies in which authority was passed down by a laying-on of [more…] Chapter Religion Guidelines ; Updated on May 01, 2002
shah Capitalize when used as a title before a name: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran. The Shah of Iran commonly is known only by this title, which is, in effect, an alternate name. Capitalize Shah of [more…] Chapter S Load More
Most news organizations have style and ethics handbooks. They expect reporters, editors and producers to follow the guidelines they lay out.
When it comes to writing, this means that reporters use the same abbreviations, punctuation and approach to writing.
Here’s an example from the Reuters Handbook:
adjectives
Use sparingly. Inject color into copy with strong verbs and facts first. If you have more than two adjectives before a noun, rewrite the sentence. A reader struggles with “the one-eyed poverty-stricken Greek house painter.” Avoid adjectives that imply judgment: “a hard-line speech,” “a glowing tribute,” “a staunch conservative.” Depending on where they stand, some people might consider the speech moderate, the tribute fulsome or the conservative a die-hard reactionary.
When using an adjective and a noun together as an adjective, hyphenate them if it helps to avoid a realistic ambiguity: “a sliced egg sandwich” could mean two things; “a happy birthday card” cannot; “a blue-chip share,” “high-caste Hindus.” By extension, adverbs that end in “-ly” paired with adjectives modifying nouns do not need hyphens, since adverbs cannot modify nouns: “a poorly planned operation” cannot be misconstrued to mean an operation that is poorly and that is planned.
The Reuters’ handbook is a great free resource for you to use. If you wonder about capitalizations, abbreviations, or many other writing questions, please look here:
Write in the active voice. That means the subject does the action. You can find more on this website here.
Start your paragraphs at the margin.
Write out numbers one through nine. Use numerals beyond 10.
Write out the full name of a person, organization company, country or state before you use an abbreviation or the initials.
You can use initials for well-known names like the FBI or DEA. When the name is unfamiliar write out the full name: The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, before you write ATF.
When you abbreviate the United States always put a period between the letters. U.S. to avoid confusion with us.
Because most of your work will appear on a website, write out the full name of a company or organization followed by the initials in parenthesis. For example The Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Link to the company or organization when you mention them. If you site research, link to the page where you found the research. Also mark open a new page or tab when you create the link.
Write percent rather than %
When you quote someone, punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. For example,
“Being around guns didn’t affect on me, but knowing how to use guns definitely had an impact on me,” Max said.
Use . . . three dots, at the beginning and end when you use only part of a quote.
Capitalize job titles only when they come before a name. For example: City College President Vincent Boudreau.
Use the lower case when you write, “The City College president held a town hall meeting.”
If we talk about the president of the United States, “The president told his supporters that he doesn’t care what other people think.”
“President Trump said he doesn’t care what people think.”
Some words sound alike but have different meanings. People confuse affect and effect frequently.
Use affect as an adjective, noun or verb when you want to say that something influences or when something is put on. “Nicky’s yelling affected everyone in the room.” Or, “Nicky affected an angry air.”
Use effect when you mean the result. “They felt the effects of the drug.”
Use italics for the names of books, magazines, newspapers, plays, movies, works of art, TV programs, radio shows, songs, albums.
Avoid fussy words that connect ideas:
however
furthermore
nevermore
nevertheless
You can find more examples of fussy words and phrases in the How We Write section of this website.
Our first instinct is to pull images and music from the internet. Everything is right there for the taking and many who create content think about using what’s accessible and seems available. Borrowing can quickly solve a variety of editorial problems.
But not all material on the internet is free to use and it may be illegal to just grab and go.
Copyright is a law that protects creators of works that include text, books, photos, graphics, artwork, music, and anything that has a copyright symbol next to it.
Copyright extends for the life of the author plus 70 years. There are some efforts underway in Washington to change the copyright law and reduce the number of years a creator can hold on to copyright.
But the bottom line is that the law, and basic fairness, require us to honor copyright.
That means that we can’t borrow material freely from the internet unless the creator clearly states that you can use the work.
Fee for Use
If you want to use an image or music and the creator does not indicate that you may borrow it, there’s likely a fee to use it.
Copyright and Creative Commons
On the other hand, the good news is that some content creators are eager to have their work used and distributed even if they don’t get paid.
Most, however, want credit.
The Creative Commons License was established in 2002 to make a wide variety of content available from willing content creators who want to get their work seen and heard, but may also want credit. The Creative Commons 4.0 license requires you to attribute the photo, or piece of music or artwork. You must link to the site where the image came from and you must give credit on your site to the creator.
Flikr,Unsplash, SnapFish, 500px , postimage, and other sites that will probably start up by the time you read this, offer photo sharing of one kind or another.
Many of the photos posted on these sharing sites ask for Creative Commons attribution. They make their work available under a Creative Commons License.
In most cases, even with Creative Commons, the creator wants credit. You can freely use these images, but you must credit the creator either on the image, or somewhere in the printed material or the text on the website or the brochure. There is often a request for you to link to the creators site, or Wikimedia where the image may have been posted.
You can find images with Creative Commons licenses indicate via Google and Bing search engines.
When you use images on Google there is a tab for settings.
On Bing there is a tab for License.
On Google
Click on Advanced Search and it will take you to this page:
Choose: “free to use or share, even commercially”
If you plan to modify the image or graphic make sure that you choose: “free to use, share or modify, even commercially.”
You’ll then get a range of photos that you can use for free. But you must if it is an attribution license, you must give credit to the creator.
If you use Bing once you choose the subject that you are searching, images will come up and the list of headings in the bar at the top of the images will include the word: License.
You can also find images through Wikimedia or Wikipedia
Some people will allow you to use the images without attributions. But be very careful. To find the license you may have to click through several layers to check to see the requirement.
Pixabay features a wide range of photos posted by photographers. They are free, but you can leave a donation for the artist. They ask for coffee money.
Photo by Gellinger, Courtesy Pixabay, Creative Commons License
Public Domain
On Wikipedia, and elsewhere, you may find works labeled Public Domain. The federal Office of Copyright defines public domain this way:
“The public domain is not a place. A work of authorship is in the “public domain” if it is no longer under copyright protection or if it failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former copyright owner.”
U.S. Government agencies maintain photo and video archives and most of the work is in the public domain.
This Department of Defense photo for example is free for you to use. It’s always a good idea to give credit to the photographer and the agency.
Popular music generally requires the payment of royalties to the artists, composers, arrangers, producers and anyone else who had something to do with the production of those works.
Licensed Music and Music for a Fee
ASCAP and BMI provide licensing for music and it is possible to purchase the rights, or a license, to use something that fits the creative bill.
But in most cases, the cost is prohibitive unless you have a blanket license to use a certain amount of music.
If you use music in a video that you post on YouTube and the creator has not authorized the use, it is likely that YouTube will challenge your right to use it and it may block your video.
However, there are new sites cropping up all of the time and there is a wide range of choices for music selections.
Stock music is available for a fee and there a many sites that offer this service including:
There are many sites that also offer free music. There is generally a stipulation that requires that you honor the Creative Commons License and credit the creators.
Again, by the time you read this there may be many new sites.
Fair Use in News and Reviews
From the American Bar Association
Vol. 28No. 6
By Pierre Vudrag
Pierre Vudrag practices media and sports law in Southern California.
Fair use is a doctrine that is used to encourage criticism and commentary of copyrighted works. It is based on the concept that one should be free to use portions of copyrighted materials without asking permission from the copyright owner. It is an equitable principle that is frequently used as a defense by those sued for copyright infringement.
Determining fair use. To get a general sense of how fair use is applied, one must understand a set of fair use factors outlined in the lineage of case law dealing with copyright infringement. These factors are weighed in each case to determine whether a use qualifies as a fair use, often through varying court decisions with an expansive or restrictive meaning that could be open to interpretation. If a use is deemed not to be a fair use, then one would essentially be infringing on the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages. Unfortunately, even if you strictly follow these factors and the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, your dispute may have to be resolved through litigation or the payment of licensing fees.
Fair use in the general sense, with no hard-and-fast rules, is the use of copyrighted material without permission from the appropriate copyright owner for a limited and, as the courts deem, “transformative” purpose so as to comment on, criticize, or parody such copyrighted work. Specifically, the Supreme Court emphasized that the transformative nature of the use determines whether the material has been used to assist in the creation of something new, rather than merely copied verbatim into another work. In other words, one must ask: (1) has the material taken from the original work been transformed by adding new expression or meaning? and (2) was value added to the original, thereby creating new information, or new aesthetics, or new insights and understandings?
Generally, two categories are used when making a fair use—commentary or parody. Typically, when focusing on news and editorial reviews, one would look to the first category, commentary. When commenting on or critiquing a copyrighted work, fair use principles would allow one to reproduce some of the work to accomplish one’s intent.
Courts have generally used four factors in resolving fair use disputes, which are laid out in Section 107 of the Copyright Act: (1) the purpose and character of the use; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion taken; and (4) the effect of the use on the potential market.
The purpose and character of the use. The “purpose and character” factor is the determining factor in many fair use decisions, as it allows the court to take a subjective look into the potentially infringing party’s intentions behind the use. Particularly in cases involving news reports, footage, reviews, and sports highlights, this factor typically favors the party claiming fair use for various reasons.
The first thing that we need to know is that copyright protection does not protect factual information conveyed in the copyrighted work, meaning that publicizing the scores of a sporting event or other factual information such as injuries, retirement, and so forth is considered fair use and does not constitute copyright infringement. What helps to strengthen a fair use argument in a case not involving the use of mere factual information is the use of the copyrighted material for the purpose of legitimate news commentary. For example, when using a clip or photograph to report the results of a sporting event or other factual information, courts have regarded the use of copyrighted material as fair use when the use is (1) brief quotations only; (2) presented in a news report; and (3) presented in a newsreel or broadcast of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.
Nature of the copyrighted work—published or unpublished. The scope of fair use is narrower for unpublished works because an author has the right to control the first public appearance of his or her expression. Therefore, you have a stronger argument in favor of fair use if the material copied is from a published work rather than an unpublished work.
Amount and substantiality of the portion taken. A general misunderstanding of fair use application has led to the “seven-second rule,” which many clearance representatives follow. A brief use of footage may not be deemed fair use unless all fair use factors can be applied. But the amount of footage used is a key factor in determining if a use is not fair, as highlighted in a key 1977 court case. The Second Circuit found that a CBS affiliate’s use of a one-minute-and-15-second clip of a 72-minute Charlie Chaplin film was not a fair use when used in a news report about Chaplin’s death. The court deemed that the portions taken were “substantial” and part of the “heart” of the film. The court’s analysis may have been different if CBS had used only a limited portion of the footage to simply enhance its news commentary on Chaplin’s death. The Second Circuit’s ruling is a clear indication that this type of use will never be considered fair use.
Effect of the use on the potential market. One of the most important fair use factors is whether the use deprives the copyright owner of income or undermines a new or potential market for the copyrighted work. If a copyright owner feels that he or she has been deprived of income, this is likely to trigger a lawsuit. This is true even if you are not competing directly with the original work.
Does fair use apply? Although the four-factor test of Copyright Act Section 107 provides a firm foundation for understanding which uses are fair uses, courts have infamously favored different factors in different cases, resulting in very unpredictable outcomes. There is a sizable gray area in which fair use may or may not apply.
So how does a news organization invoke fair use while falling within the permitted guidelines established by case law and without invoking potential litigation? The simplest way is to get permission from the copyright holder, but this is not always possible given the fluidity and immediacy of news reporting. To invoke fair use when using noncleared third-party clips, the news organization should follow these guidelines: (1) make sure the use is for a legitimate news report; (2) only use the clip when reporting on a fairly recent news event (usually 24 to 48 hours); (3) make sure that the use is a brief use of the clip to underscore the reporting of the news; (4) make sure there is actual commentary or criticism by a news reporter or anchor of the action appearing in the clip (there has to be a “transformative use” of the copyrighted material); (5) if reporting on a sporting event, make sure the event has been concluded, meaning it may not be fair use if the game has not been completed; and (6) make sure the materials are used in a bona fide news program.
More Information about the Entertainment and Sports Industries Forum
This article is an abridged and edited version of one that originally appeared on page 1 of Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, Fall 2010 (28:3).
For more information or to obtain a copy of the periodical in which the full article appears, please call the ABA Service Center at 800/285-2221.
Periodicals:Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, a quarterly newsletter; Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, a biannual journal.
CLE and Other Educational Programs: Forum Annual Meeting, October 13–15, 2011, New York, New York.
Follow the prompts at the top and enter your search.
You can skip down to the bottom where it says: usage rights. Click on the arrow and the following choices come up.
Choose: “free to use or share, even commercially”
If you plan to modify the image or graphic make sure that you choose: “free to use, share or modify, even commercially.”
You’ll then get a range of photos that you can use for free. But you must give credit to the creator.
If you use Bing once you choose the subject that you are searching, images will come up and the list of headings in the bar at the top of the images will include the word: License.
A drop-down menu provides the same choices that appear on Google Images.
Always choose a commercial license and if you plan to modify make sure that you choose the license that allows you to modify the image.
Music
Popular music generally requires the payment of royalties to the artists, composers, arrangers, producers and anyone else who had something to do with the production of those works.
Licensed Music and Music for a Fee
ASCAP and BMI provide licensing for music and it is possible to purchase the rights, or a license, to use something that fits the creative bill.
But in most cases, the cost is prohibitive unless you have a blanket license to use a certain amount of music.
If you use music in a video that you post on YouTube and the creator has not authorized the use, it is likely that YouTube will challenge your right to use it and it may block your video.
However, there are new sites cropping up all of the time and there is a wide range of choices for music selections.
Stock music is available for a fee and there a many sites that offer this service including:
There are many sites that also offer free music. There is generally a stipulation that requires that you honor the Creative Commons License and credit the creators.
Time:
Time: Use lowercase a.m. and p.m., with periods. Always use figures, with a space between the time and the a.m. or p.m.: “By 6:30 a.m. she was long gone.”
Dates:
Always use numerals: April 23, 2020. Do not use th, nd, rd, st.