Last weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting my brother at Georgia Tech for his birthday. Saturday night I had my first encounter with Tech’s school newspaper, the Technique.
The Technique is printed weekly and calls itself “the South’s Liveliest College Newspaper.” As an editor and in my efforts to “improve everything” around me, I couldn’t help but examine in depth this strange publication. Recognizing that I already had an opinion of this publication (see: To Hell With Georgia), I shall refrain from making comments on things like the provocative Sliver Box and the full-page review of Britney Spear’s new album.
Instead, it is only fair that I compare something that the Jackets and Bulldogs have in common. Most recently that happens to be the $100 fee that has been placed on all research universities across the state of Georgia.
Technique’s article, “New student fee to cover budget shortfall” is overwhelming. To start, the first few graphs suffer from statistical overload. The article is weighed down with numbers and long quotes. Published on Jan. 16, the writer was given more than enough time to gather different angles and/or student opinions. This story was lacking and made me feel like I was rereading the same information. Also, the organization of the story completely dismantled any hierarchy of information in the story.
The Red and Black’s article, “Budget cuts require added fee for spring” relays the story in a more logical manner. It was published the morning following the decision and supplied enough information for students at the time. Of course, the Red and Black published many follow-ups in the following weeks from different angles, explaining the fee and its usage. However, in this article, everything I needed to know was presented and the main points were clear. I felt like I was guided through the story.
To improve the story in the Technique, I would try to organize and simplify the information in a way that made sense. The Technique article is a little over twice the size of the Red and Black article. However, both provide the same information.
I understand that there are some differences between The Technique and The Red and Black. Publishing something weekly versus daily calls for a different type of reporting and writing style. However, I felt lost in the article published in the Technique. As a student newspaper, it appeared detached from a student perspective.
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So, you have finally found the one thing that we can beat those Jackets in this year--writing. Of course the Red & Black article is superior; we breed good writers at Georgia. I do appreciate your suggestions to improve the Technique. Good work.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of the Technique and the Red and Black. I think choosing two articles with the same topic was a professional and unbiased move. While reading the Technique budget cut story, I noticed stylistic and AP errors. The few words of the story: "Calling an early morning meeting" sounds awkward and does not express the focus as concise as The Red and Black lede. Also, "eight percent" needs to be "8 percent" on four different occasions throughout Technique's version (I'm assuming that the paper follows AP style). In the second graph, "the Regents" would sound better as "the Board." I don't think I've ever heard it called "the Regents" because it's official name is "the Board of Regents." If one wanted to shorten the title, the word "the" would be followed by "Board," not the last word "Regents." Tedious, I know, but it makes me think of the 1960s rock band "The Regents." I am also confused as to why the author wrote "the University of Georgia (UGA)." It seems redundant to have "UGA" written in parentheses. Despite the article's informational value, I think Technique's version severely lacks impact (which is unfortunate because this topic is very newsworthy to Georgia students).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the Red and Black version overloaded the reader with information at times as well. It was well written and possessed the impact the Technique article overlooked. One of the few things I would alter to make the article better would be to include an "average Joe" interview of a student to capture a realistic reaction of the new $100 fee. A few days later the paper published more articles on the topic and did exactly that.
If anyone is interested, here is a link to the "To Hell with Georgia" paper in 2008. With fun and jokes aside, is the bottom of page 28 libelous? I was surprised that they got away with their insinuation of Matthew Stafford having sexual relations with the University's bulldog mascot, UGA VI. Does anyone think this is "actual malice?" I'm undecided, but I think it would make great editorial discussion.
http://www.thwuga.net/THWUGA-2008.pdf
-For some reason, I couldn't figure out how to insert a hyperlink in a comment...