Task 9: Using Quotes in News Stories

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 452.

You have been given the following information to write complete news stories. Choose any story you like, use direct quotations in each story to emphasize the highlights, but do not use quotations to tell the entire story. Use the most interesting, important and revealing quotations and paraphrase the rest of the quoted information. Correct any errors in grammar and punctuation. Don't forget to represent some discourse categories in the article.

1. Jonathan Ashton is a congressman representing your state. He is very unhappy about a decision the House of Representatives made on a bill that was recently brought up for a vote: “The President lost a battle in Congress today. Congress decided against spending $12 million for a cause the president favored. The project involved huge dish-shaped antennas which listened for radio signals from outer space. It was cut from NASA's budget. The House today approved a $14.29 billion budget for NASA in a 355–48 vote. If the Senate agrees with the House, the space agency budget for next fiscal year will be $2 billion above current spending levels but $800 million below what the president requested. The president wanted included in the budget $12 million for the alien-search project. NASA's search for extraterrestrial intelligence, a project known as SETI, was to cost $100 million over 10 years. Its sophisticated radio antennas have picked up only static since the program began, but that does not mean that the program should be abandoned. We never may discover life beyond our own planet if we abandon the search for that life.” Rep. Ronald Machtley, a Republican congressman from Rhode Island, opposes the SETI project and the money being spent on it. He had this to say: “I suggest that the money be spent on education. I'd rather see a search for terrestrial intelligence in our schools than a search for intelligent life in space that may not exist.”

2. The Department of Veterans Affairs today admitted that it's made a little mistake. This is what Geraldine Anderson, public affairs officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs had to say: “The mistake cost an estimated $5.7 million a year for the past eleven years. Each year, the Veterans Affairs Department pays more than $14.7 billion in disability compensation and pension benefits to more than 2.8 million veterans and to nearly 1 million surviving spouses and other dependents. An audit of those payments revealed that the Department of Veterans Affairs has been paying benefits to more than 1,200 veterans who are dead. The exact total was 1,212 veterans who were reported dead. About 100 of the veterans have been dead a decade or more. Auditors said the department could have reduced the erroneous payments by matching VA benefit payment files with death information maintained by the Social Security Administration. In the past, the department relied on voluntary reporting of deaths as a basis for ending benefits. This means the department will have to develop a new and more strenuous auditing plan to determine who is eligible for benefits and when those benefits should end. Also, the Department of Veterans Affairs will seek to bring to justice those who fraudulently took money from the department that they did not truly deserve. There are many honest and deserving veterans out there who have served their country admirably, and the department wants to continue to serve them and provide the benefits they have earned. But as we all know, it only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the whole barrel. The Department of Veterans Affairs will be implementing a new program in the next several months that will provide a more accurate accounting of the veterans who are receiving benefits and what they are receiving. We are hoping that this new effort will save the department money so there are more funds for those veterans who need our programs.”

3. Dr. Cathleen Graham, M.D., is head of your city's Department of Health. At a press conference today, she announced that a prominent doctor recently revealed that he has developed AIDS. Following is what she had to say: “Todd Lefforge is an orthodontist who has been working in our community for 11 years. He is 36 years old and lives at 537 Peterson Place. He has a practice of about 750 current patients. He has treated approximately 5,000 more in the past. Three days ago he announced that he has AIDS. He was diagnosed with AIDS six days ago. He immediately closed his practice. He also wrote a letter to all his patients, mostly children, and their parents. His letter, which parents began to receive today, says, ‘I am very sorry for any anxiety this may cause to anyone.' ‘I have always followed the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] guidelines regarding infection and sterilization procedures,' he wrote. ‘I feel no patients could have been infected by me.' The Department of Health has set up an emergency center at its downtown office where, starting today, his patients can be tested for the AIDS virus and counseled about their fears. In the department's conversations with Dr. Leforge, who decided to immediately close his practice, he said he tried to be reassuring in his letter. I and the department agree that the risk is minimal. But the long odds don't lessen the fears of a parent. Since we're dealing primarily with children, it's more emotional. It's going to be a traumatic time for them. The testing which will be done in Room 103 of the Patterson Health Center Building on State Street is free. The only thing any former patient of Dr. Lefforge will need is a form of identification. Dr. Leforge has already turned over the names of his patients to the Health Department.”

6.5 Ethics of Print Media

· What do you know about ethics of print media?

· Do different journalistic traditions have different ethics? What do you know about them? Give examples if possible.

Read the text “Ethics of Print Media” written by India Richardson, eHow Contributor [9] and define why ethics is so important for a journalist's work.

Print media is most likely what you come in contact with on a daily basis. It's how you get your information, and they include everything from newspapers and magazines to billboards and posters.

Journalism's top priority is to ensure that information provided is truthful and accurate, that professional ethics is understood and practiced. This is achieved by making ethical decisions that apply to the media.