Before I dive into my article from the N.Y.T., I want to discuss class the past week. One of my complaints was a lack of hands on experience with the class, and I now feel that we are starting to get more into an interactive section of the class. I am extremely happy to move forward with this class after laying some groundwork.
I enjoyed each class the past week because, in terms of practicality, it was the most productive week in Media Fellow this semester. The first class with Chris Newton for me was nice because I learned how to use Audacity effectively and import audio clips to edit with the program. As an aspiring broadcaster, this skill is important for me. It is made even more prevalent to learn Audacity considering I will be making my demo reel for the STAA's soon.
The next two classes were just as valuable. Doug is a cool dude. He definitely relates to the students well and gave me a refresher course on how to properly conduct lighting for video. That was important from my perspective as someone who also wants to get back into the television seen with D3TV. The photojournalism class was pretty great as well. It was interesting to hear what makes a photo great and the rule of thirds for taking a photograph that I had completely forgotten to consider after having learned it in high school. Definitely a productive round of classes.
As for my article, it was in the Monday, March 5th edition. It was entitled, "Putin Wins But Opposition Keeps Pressure." In relating this article to Jones, one must consider that a hard news story is not complete without a variety of sources. This article did one of the best jobs I have seen in a front page article describing the situation in full using a variety of sources, all of which related to the story.
Part of also making an effective news story is taking out the spin, because such a tactic is more on the lines of Yellow journalism. Well, in addressing Putin's victory in a beyond superficial way, it is interesting to see the issues of contention with this election. Although Putin won in a landslide, winning a six year term, the legitimacy of his victory is not set in stone. The communist party was furious because they viewed this election as another move by a fascist regime. Putin has received a lot of criticism and this article framed those opinions with an extremely objective framework.
I found it fascinating that even in a country like Russia, election fraud is still extremely prevalent. Even in this election, Putin's clan was convicted of "carousel voting"; the act of having one individual vote at multiple polling locations. Putin was also accused of "centralized voting,"forcing individuals at a given workplace to vote a certain way under economic threats.
The article goes on to describe how some individuals find Putin's stability as a leader to far outweigh the communist, left wing radical option. But, with the multiple perspectives available in the article, we see that some feel that this election was not fair and the percentage of the vote for Putin is flawed. Protests have ensued, marking another tenuous election in this country.
The information does a fantastic job of synthesizing the important information, while giving a comprehensive framework of the political system in Russia. I feel that just from this news story, I feel a broader sense of awareness about the perils that those voting in Russia still face. Hopefully, they can one day achieve a fair democracy.
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