I Dunno.

Of all the writing assignments we did this semester, the advertising and broadcast assignments were equally grueling.  I can’t sell a product to save my life.  If I could have chosen, I would have done print stories and press releases all semester.  Those are so much easier for me.  I have no problem writing for days on end.  It comes naturally to me.  But actually putting effort into creatively trying to appeal to people to interest them in something is something that I have to spend a lot of time on.  It’s just not my thing.  So of the choices, the regular writing assignments were my favorite.  Just because of how easy they were for me to complete. 

The biggest challenges I had to overcome at the beginning of the semester was trying to write in AP style, or at least be conscious of that style.  MLA was everything I had ever known, and it’s how I write best.  Then, when I enrolled in this class, it was turned over on it’s head.  Then after that, the formatting was difficult.  I have prided myself on organizing my works of writing, for I have been told that is one of my strong points.  At the same time, that was writing research papers and essays.  Not print stories or press releases, or advertising. 

I am ecstatic to go deeper into my major.  I can’t wait to nerd-out with all the recording equipment.  Music is my passion, and I want to stay in the industry as long as I can, whether traveling the world with my band or recording other musicians and helping them with their career.  It’s off to a slow start, but I can’t wait to get towards the end of my career path.  It’s so exciting already, and there is no telling what is in store for me.  I have a pretty bright future. 

Also, thanks for everything you have done Mrs. R.  You were too kind.  I’m glad I got to take your course before you left.  I really appreciate it.  Good luck in Utah. 

-Alex Gist

Public relations and advertising are pretty different, yet pretty similar.  The premise is basically the same, which is to make sure the organization you represent is viewed in a better light.  At first glance, you probably wouldn’t be able to notice the difference in a PR team and an advertising team.  In truth, they really are trying to sell a product, whether it is a literal product or a group of people, or just one person.  So they have the same job.  It’s the execution of said job that sets them apart.

Advertisers are selling a product or a service.  They are more informative (or should be) than anything.  An advertisers goal is to make the product they represent stand out among the thousands of ads we are subjected to throughout our daily lives.  They do this is many different ways.  Whether making it funny and enjoyable or making it so annoying that it is physically impossible to remove from your skull. 

A PR team, however, is usually trying to “sell” a group or a person.  They make sure that whoever they represent is publicly appealing, and I don’t mean their physical appearance.  All of that narrows their job description down to covering up for someones faults.  The way I see it, PR teams wouldn’t be needed if public figures and the idiot masses weren’t so stupid.  A great PR team, in media terms, is one that can make a serial killer look like Mother Teresa. 

This advertisement is probably my favorite TV ad of all time.  It’s one of the Old Spice ones with Isaiah Mustafa.  I love it because not only is it hilarious, it’s well written and executed.  Humor is the best way to appeal to me.  It makes you look competent.  Moreover, it makes you look like you genuinely care about the welfare of your customers by not skewing facts or highlighting certain parts of your product and keeping others in the dark.  Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTIowBF0kE&feature=relmfu

I feel like broadcast writing and print writing are two different animals.  You have to follow a different format and write so that the story has a different feel to it.  When writing for broadcast, specifically television, the writing, or dialogue, has to supplement the video.  The video is the focus.  For radio, the dialogue must paint a mental picture in the head of the listener by using songs and sound effects rather than words, spoken or read.  The only similar part is the storytelling, albeit in different manners.

A good criticism I can think of for broadcast is trying to swing an emotional appeal.  In my opinion, the emotional appeal of TV or radio is much greater than print, which can be either positive or negative, depending on who’s running the show, excuse the pun.  It seems as though the broadcast media uses the emotional appeal to their advantage not to tell a compelling story, but to make people decide one thing or the other.  Or perhaps trying to put a negative or positive spin on things to sway viewers.  Negative is usually the answer though. 

As far as responding to criticism, TV broadcast does it poorly.  I LOATHE television news.  It’s really unimaginable.  If they get accused of skewing something, they skew that, and respond negatively.  It’s a recurring theme in today’s broadcast news.  It’s not about news.  It’s politics.  No matter what way you look at it, it’s always politics.  I’m going to stop now before I write too much and get all worked up.  So no, they don’t handle criticism well.  It’s probably best to say they don’t handle criticism at all.  They just blow it off.

-Alex Gist

The organization, media, and intended publics have everything to do with a press release.  The content, release date, everything.  The organization has a hand in it for a couple reasons.  Obviously, the publication is about them.  But it always seems like the article is a little more than a press release.  It’s also an informative article about the organization.

Come to think of it, the media doesn’t really have all that much to do with the press release as a press release.  They are not really concerned about the organization itself.  The only reason the media gives a crap about the article is that it is their job, and they want it to be pleasing to their editor.  They are not nearly as concerned about getting the organizations name out there or making sure people come to their event then they are making the article attractive to new or current readers. 

The article that we did in class was more focused around representing the corporation, rather than pleasing an editor.  I know we had to make it look like it was going in a paper, but it still seemed as though we were writing more for the American Cancer Society instead of, say, the Student Printz. 

A press release is really similar to a news article, because the writer is writing for the newspaper.  They have to make it interesting, not for the organization, but for the story.  They have all the same elements.  So they are practically the same, but I would say writing a press release is more trying to sell a product or an event, rather than make a compelling read.

-Alex Gist

I think this is an excellent article.  All of these points are crucial to maximizing your effect as a writer.  Especially the reading part.  I completely agree that the only way to really actively improve your writing ability and penmanship for that matter is to read.  It’s a hobby for me, although I can’t attest to the penmanship part.  These are incredible guidelines.  And of course the obvious answer is to say that I would consider using all of these, but I honestly would.  I don’t think someone would try to not use these.  Especially someone who is concerned about their writing and a career in writing.  Maybe these aren’t “guidelines”, but the rules.  They should be.

I don’t have anything to add to or take away from this article.  I think it is spot on.  The author obviously knows what she is talking about.  The only reason I have to back this up is that this is exactly what I do/would do if I had to write something that my livelihood depended on.  This article is brilliant.

-Alex Gist

I think the biggest challenge I encountered when writing this was the organization of the details.  I didn’t have a problem figuring out what information should be included- in fact, I think that’s my strong suit.  But once I had what I thought was a good draft, and Dan came over to look at it and ended up practically rewriting it, I was proven otherwise.  I thank him a lot for that, because my grade would have most likely suffered had he not come over.  If he can still receive grades, give him mine.

I approached this assignment a little non-chalant-ish.  I wasn’t too terribly concerned.  I didn’t look over my notes too much, and didn’t crack the book.  If you count one draft that I continued to revise over and over again different drafts, then I may have written quite a few.  My proofreading skills however, I know are garbage.  I can edit practically any other type of media with extreme ease, except for print.  Music and video are so easy for me.  I have never been able to edit or proofread my writing well at all.  I am such a perfectionist, that I won’t allow myself to turn something in if I didn’t think it was my A+ material.  Then my ego kicks in, and I think its the best literary work since War and Peace.  I need to practice.  And finish War and Peace.

-Alex Gist

The leads assignment wasn’t terrible.  I won’t say I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a drag either.  Writing comes naturally to me.  The easiest part of the assignment was definitely compiling the info down to what I wanted to say.  I just thought about if I was reading the story, or had just read the headline, what would I want to know right off the bat?  What would be important to me?  The hardest part was easily trying to take all of the important data and compressing it to only a short sentence.  Again, not horrible, but it certainly was challenging.  Honestly, no, I didn’t want to write the rest of the story.

“JERUSALEM, Nov. 4—A right-wing Jewish extremist shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin tonight as he departed a peace rally attended by more than 100,000 in Tel Aviv, throwing Israel’s government and the Middle East peace process into turmoil.

“Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is Killed” by Barton Gellman
The Washington Post, Sunday, November 5, 1995”

I enjoyed this lead.  It was direct and to the point, almost discouraging people from reading the story.  It fits my criteria at least. 

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/2175132722.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Nov+5%2C+1995&author=Barton+Gellman+Washington+Post+Foreign+Service&pub=The+Washington+Post+%281974-Current+file%29&edition=&startpage=A1&desc=Israeli+Prime+Minister+Rabin+Is+Killed%3B+Jewish+Gunman+Says+He+Acted+Alone

Thats the link… I guess.

I have nothing to make this lead better.  It’s the best I could find when scouring the net.  Although it is a little long, I think for a story of that caliber could be given a little leeway. 

-Alex Gist

In my opinion, grabbing hold of and taking advantage of social media outlets such as Twitter or Facebook is the next step in media evolution.  As far as media integrity goes, I don’t even see the issue.  The media is designed to connect whatever body it runs in to other parts, whether it be a city, country, or the world.  That is the job of the media.  Honestly, I think that if the media were to deny social media a place in the business, it would be a great disservice not only to the integrity of the social networking institution, but the media as a whole. 

Obviously, no one can fit a compelling news story in 140 characters.  It’s just not done.  So tweet a link.  Its simple.  Again, I think ignoring social media is a crime in the media business.  It’s how the industry is going to stay afloat.  Part of that adaptivity concept. 

At first, I thought blogging was stupid.  I thought it was for whiny kids who were to scared to voice their opinions in the real world and try to make people think they are something they aren’t.  I was dead wrong.  Now that I see what some people have done with their blogs, it has opened my eyes big time.  I would consider blogs a credible source of information, whether written by a paid blogger or just a freelancer.  Good bloggers will cite their information, so at least you know they aren’t completely full of crap.

I think the inverted pyramid will still have it’s place in journalism.  No matter what medium it uses, they will still be news stories, not novels, so people are going to want the most pertinent information first, rather than have to read.  So yes, I don’t think the inverted pyramid will lose validity anytime soon.

-Alex Gist

Like I said, I don’t really blog.  Ever.  I am doing this for a college class.  But so far it has been kind of refreshing.  I hope to be able to use this blog as a way to show people things that I have found that I feel better me.  If that makes any sense.  I want to share my music, pictures, and things that make me feel better, and hopefully influence someone in that manner.  I’m very passionate about my music.  I like all kinds of things.  Metal, acoustic, Christian, folk, blues, anything really.  Except the new wave of rap, which is not the same thing as hip-hop.  Run DMC, NWA, and Eric B. and Rakim, for example, are still cool.  And country.  I like anything that sounds good.  I like to talk about this stuff, so feel free.  I like anything that makes people laugh.  I’ve been told I’m not so bad at this haha. 

Gotta jet.  Entertainment production classes wont take notes for themselves.  Thanks for reading.