Exercise May Increase Heart Risk

The New York Times article, "For Some, Exercise May Increase Heart Risk", was very shocking for me to read because I thought that exercise was always beneficial for everyone. The article said that a group of researchers analyzed data from an exercise study and found that about 10 percent of the people were negatively affected by exercise with measures relating to blood pressure, insulin levels, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. The reaserchers said they couldn't explain why this happened.

A professor at the Stanford Prevention Research Center said that some peope may say that they are apart of this 10 percent and use this information as an excuse to not exercise. The study could not conclude that those who had adverse effects from exercise had more heart attacks or bad health problems. The study also was unable to determine whether implementing exercise into the lives of those who are unfit will produce better outcomes.

Photographing Conflict for the first time

 After reading the article, I got the impression that the profession is very serious and can be life threatening. Some photojournalists were trying to capture images and ended up dying. They would travel to new places and some photojournalists were not aware of what was going on in the area, and they were risking their lives for their careers.

It's important for the new "green" photographers to be aware of where they are going so they can properly prepare themselves for the environment that they are going to be in. The unexperienced photographers were unprepared and didn't have the necessary equipment, like helmets to protect themselves from shells falling in the streets of Libya.

The war drew unprepared and inexperienced photojournalists to the war area. The article said that these young photographers showed up without a task. The new photographers were not taking war seriously and the veteran photographers had spent months and years working hard and hiking mountains in places like Afghanistan to get photographs. These new photojournalists are disrespecting the profession by running around without the right training and knowledge of the situation. In the article, Mr. Brown was inexperienced and wanted to go to Libya to see if he could survive such a situation and to experience it, which is not the right reason to go. The career of these journalists has effected their relationships and the time they get to spend with their families due to their hectic schedules and the emotions they come back with from the situations they deal with.

 In order to be an experienced photographer, it's important to be up to date with current events, watch the news, and learn from those who have experience. The new photographers are focused on perusing their own visions and aren't focused on the work for the newspaper or magazine. There are a lot of physical dangers that are around them that they need to be aware of in order to protect their safety. In the end the photographers are brave and hope to make it out alright. Over time, the photojournalists can gain experience, and by surviving each war as they come, they gain more experience to help them in future war zones.

Benefits of Exercise

"Do's and Don'ts of Storify"

After looking through some "Storify" stories, my understanding is that it's a place where writers can get news out to people using social media. The website allows you to post news from facebook, twitter and youtube. The website lets you post comments and pictures in between to better tell your story. I agree with the writer's analysis of the two stories. I think that the Storify story, "Hundreds march to support student journalist" was effective because it gave a wide range of information and it explained in between the posts what was going on. I thought that the pictures were used effectively, although their could have been a few more that showed the rallies. The "Bridgewater State rallies for free speech" Storify lacked explanation and seemed like a compiling of tweets off of twitter. The story didn't read well and there wasn't any background information given. This form of journalism may be effective in creating a story because it allows you to show different sides of the story and present the reader with information from different social media sources. This form of journalism could lead to shoddy reporting because if it isn't done well, it just appears as though the writer grabbed social media to tell their story for them, instead of using it to help them tell their story.

The incident at Bridgewater showed journalists that their freedom of speech may be challenged. Journalists should not be afraid to publish anything because of freedom of speech. It seemed like an unfortunate case that took place at the university. I think that the rally organizers should have focused their stories more around "the freedom of speech" aspect. They could have referenced this more in the Storify piece to help spread the word about it.

Feature Writing

The audience is young teenage girls who are interested in music and creating their own band. The intended purpose of this piece is to tell young girls that they are capable of being musicians and that they don’t need a lot of equipment to get started. They can just get started on their own and move forward from there. Young girls are inspired by what they see on TV shows and Hopper wants young girls to know that they are capable of doing the same thing on their own. The article begins with Hopper’s experience with music and how she became obsessed with it at a very young age. She uses a quote to introduce the story to the reader. The writer’s voice is very motivating and inspirational. It comes across by reading the piece that there is hope for young girls to become great musicians. The sources in the story were the Girls Rock Philly Camp and Hopper’s book, The Girl’s Guide to Rocking. The author needed to interview Hopper to get information about how she found her love of music. The author also needed to talk to Warshaw-Duncan, the owner of the girl’s camp.

Feature Story Ideas:

-upcoming waste audit at Doherty Middle and Wood Hill Middle

-weather

-gardening
-memory/concentration/focus
-exercise
-obsessions/habits

I would like to write a feature story on exercise and how it relates to improving one's health and well being. I think that it would be a topic of interest because I am learning about leading a healthy lifestyle in health class and exercising plays a major part in doing so.