Photo editing and lying

Images are essential parts of news stories. Well, part of any story, I should say.

However, images, in this case photographs, in news stories are the most important because they are telling what happened during an event or at a location where many other were not present at a given time.

A huge debate in the media industry with photography is whether or not edited photos, or "photoshopped" images, should be used.

In my opinion, I believe they should NEVER be used. If something is photoshopped, even if it is as simple as moving a golf ball around in a shot of someone golfing, it is should be considered false reporting and lying.

For a picture to be able to "tell a thousand words" if needs to be pure. Not be a picture that has something added or subtracted to get that thousand word limit.

In terms of using photoshop for editing photos for this project, I find it very difficult. I'm not a graphically inclined person and don't have the understanding or know-how to edit or touch-up a photo.

The above is a photo from the 3/30/10 PG after a person fell or jumped to their death from the Mellon building downtown. I really like the photo, despite the consequences of the fall.

Headlines, headlines, headlines

If there is one thing writing headlines has taught me, if you don't have the craft for it, it is a very difficult thing to do.

I am the type of writer that wants to always include too much information and have a hard time boiling things down to just the necessities. Although I'm finally get better at that in my articles, there is no way I'm any near that level with headlines.

A headline must be a mini-article. Without a headline, the article is nothing and no one is going to want to read it.

I tend to always want to create headlines that will make people want to read by using gruesome, often the most vivid words to grab attention. I may also think to do that because I'm a broadcast news writer and must always be writing to video.

At any rate, one of my favorite headlines was also the example of good editing I selected for class. In the March 21 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the headline was Reality Check - however the "check" was a checkmark. I thought that was clever and since it was for a sports article, it was creative because I'd be used to seeing something like that in more of a political writing atmosphere than sports.

Journalism Blogs that really help

Two Web sites that I follow to help me with my writing and journalism actually came my way by way of using Twitter. I follow the Journalistics blog (http://blog.journalistics.com/) and the Associated Press Web site (www.ap.org) for tips and useful information about reporting and trends in reporting.

I started following Journalistics when I say it re-tweeted on Twitter by a fellow public relations student. I liked the tweet and subsequent post the blog made it made about successful tips for getting reporters to attend public relations events. Upon browsing the Journalistics blog more thoroughly, I found that it is much more than just offering public relations tips. In actuality, it offers trends and responses to current communication trends spanning public relations, print and broadcast media. This blog and it's posting have really helped me in my capacity of news editor for the university newspaper because they offer tips about certain ways to write or hook readers that I wouldn't think of to share with the other news staff or writers.

The second Web site I follow regularly is the Associated Press. I didn't originally use their Web site, but it wasn't until I started following them on Twitter that I've been using them more as a resource. Periodically, maybe three or four times a week, the AP will tweet about tips for style in print - mostly when it comes to current events that may not be regularly covered in the AP Stylebook or on their Web site. When I see a tip about a certain topic and how it should be printed it usually leads to me browsing the AP site for more information. I've visited the AP site frequently to find out more information about style tips and also take the occasional style quiz.