Monday/ Tuesday, December 14/ 15

News of the day. 

Fauci praises African American scientist at ‘forefront’ of creating Covid vaccine

Dr Kizzmekia Corbett one of two leaders of team that created vaccine as only 14% of Black Americans trust vaccine will be safe

Anthony Fauci has praised the work of Kizzmekia Corbett, an African American scientist who the leading US public health expert said was “at the forefront” of the development of a leading coronavirus vaccine.

In a conversation about mistrust of Covid-19 vaccines among Black people in an online forum with the National Urban League, Fauci said Corbett was one of two leaders of the team which created a vaccine found to be 94% effective.

Corbett’s team at the National Institutes of Health worked with pharmaceutical company Moderna to develop the vaccine – one of two found to be more than 90% effective – which is expected to be authorised for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration this month.

Asked to talk about the involvement of African American scientists in the vaccination effort, Fauci said: “That [Moderna] vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research centre by a team of scientists led by Dr Barney Graham and his close colleague Dr Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett. Kizzy is an African American scientist who is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine.

“So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman. And that is just a fact.”

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You will find below the model of what you were to submit for your news story. If you either posted or sent me this you have a 100 points in the particiption category. If you did not submit your story idea, you will see a zero. The stories are due next Monday. This is a writing grade, not a class participation grade. You will have time Thursday and Friday in class, but most of the work will need to be completed out side of class. 

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In class Thursday and Friday we are working on supplementary material to support your news articles. Please don't fall behind!  

Dramatic newspaper headlines such as those above symbolize yellow journalism during the Spanish American War. For newspapers like the New York World and New York Journal, the headline was the most important aspect of the story---the bigger and more sensational, the better. Newspaper owner William Randolf Hearst understood the importance of headlines and used large, dramatic, and sometimes misleading phrases to sell millions of newspapers.


Note the difference between sensational and responsible, descriptive headlines.
Current headlines

1. Second day of protests in Iran over downed plane

2. Queen and Prince Harry to hold talks over Sussexes' future

. 

3. Elimination of daylight saving time in Brazil 

means it’s light out before 5 a.m., and many 

aren’t happy

4. Slum landlord is fined £1,500 for cramming 30 desperate tenants into a crumbling former care home where drains overflowed with sewage and they all shared one kitchen

5. Perv ex-pastor in Florida propositioned undercover cop posing as 13-year-old girl for sex: police

6. Queen spotted with hearing aid for first time ahead of Harry and Meghan showdown talks

So your headline matters a lot. A great headline convinces more people to read your copy while a poor one sends potential customers searching for somewhere else to spend their money. This leads us to another famous Ogilvy quote:

“It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90% of your money.

In a world full of noise, how do you get people to actually read what you write? It takes more than good content or great design. The most important part of writing an article is the headline.

The same principle applies to blog posts, book chapters, and so on: The title is where your focus should be. You should begin and end every article with the question: “Would this want me to read on?"

How To Write a Headline The primary tool to grab and hold the reader

Some of the most important words a

                journalist writes are  in a headline.

                 1 Headlines contain essential words                  that convey the  subject of a story

           2 and what the story is about.  

Please note those are two different

things. The subject is general and the what's it

                    about is specific. 

What is a headline?

• A headline is an abstract sentence
   
• Usually it is only five to ten words
   
• It is a complete thought
   
• It has a subject and a verb, and often an object

The goal is to grab the reader

• Ask yourself this question as you compose a headline:

• If people see my five to ten words, will they know what the article is about                

• It's not hard to find examples of headlines that answer that answer that question in the negative. Sure they may have a couple of words that point to a subject, but they don't answer the questions about what it is about.

                  

Most important rule

• The words in a headline must represent accurately

                           what is in the story.

                Accuracy counts above all else

What to do?

• Understand the story completely before writing its headline. 

• Base the headline on the story's main idea, which should be in the lead or introduction.     

• Don't use in the headline facts that are not in the story. 

                                                .. * Don't repeat the exact wording                      of the story in the headline.

               Avoid ambiguity, insinuations and double meanings.

  Word choices

• Be specific, accurate, clear and concise.
   
• Don't repeat key words in the same headline.
   
• Avoid unclear or little known names, phrases and abbreviations.
   
• Don't use pronouns alone and unidentified.
   
• Alliteration should be intentional and not change the general tone of the story. (Careful with this; don't be cute!)
   
• Avoid headline speak such as hit, flay, rap, hike, nix, nab, slate. Be more precise.

Verbs

• No headline may start with a verb.
   
• Headlines are complete sentences or imply complete sentences.
   
• A linking verb can be implied rather than spelled out.
   
• If a story is about past or present events, write present tense verbs.
   
• If a story is about future events, use the infinitive verb (to leave, to work).
   
• To be verbs, such as is, are, was and were should be omitted.

Punctuation

• Use punctuation sparingly.
   
• Don't eat up space with the conjunction and. Instead, use a comma.
• Principal and parents meet on school rules for next year 
• Principal, parents agree on new school rules

Grammar

• Don't use the articles a, an and the. They waste space unnecessarily.

  A new fire engine helps make the houses safer
  New fire engine helps make houses safer

Web headlines

• As with any news story, a strong headline is vital for a web story.
   
• Headlines often are found in lists of links, where they are a reader's first introduction to a story. If they do not sell a reader on the story immediately, the reader is unlikely to click the link to navigate to the story.
   
• SEO is search engine optimization. Search engines favor coherent headlines. Your headlines can be essential to search engine optimization, which draws traffic to your website.

EXAMPLES OF BAD HEADLINES...take a look!

1.Governor Swears in Legislature

2.March Planned For Next August

3. Blind Bishop Appointed To See

4.Lingerie Shipment Hijacked--Thief Gives Police The 

   Slip

5. L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal By Landslide

6. Patient At Death's Door--Doctors Pull Him Through

Latin Course To Be Canceled--No Interest Among 

Students, Et Al.

7.Diaper Market Bottoms Out

8. Croupiers On Strike--Management: "No Big Deal"

9.Stadium Air Conditioning Fails--Fans Protest

10.Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped

11.Henshaw Offers Rare Opportunity to Goose Hunters

12. Women's Movement Called More Broad-Based

13. Antique Stripper to Display Wares at Store

14. Prostitutes Appeal to Pope

15. Never Withhold Herpes Infection From Loved One

16.Cancer Society Honors Marlboro Man

17. Nicaragua Sets Goal to Wipe Out Literacy

18. Autos Killing 110 a Day--Let's Resolve to Do Better

19. If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last A While

ASSIGNMENT:

Your turn:  Write a headline for each of the following four 

stories. Send along, please.

story 1:

    A 33-year-old Farmington man has been charged with grand larceny and falsifying business records, both felonies.

State Police tell News10NBC James Rickey III fraudulently collected more than $10,000 in unemployment benefits while he was gainfully employed.

Rickey was arraigned and remanded to the Ontario County Jail in lieu of bail. He is due back in court on October 18.

Story 2:

You feel worse by the hour. Your joints ache; your head feels heavy; you can't stop coughing. You're freezing, even as your temperature keeps climbing, and your stomach is upset. Even your eyes hurt.

Face it: You have the flu. Now what do you do?

Most flu patients should not go to an emergency room, said Dr. David Zich, internal medicine and emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. They will likely be sent home, as there is very little that can be done for them. A fever as high as 103 degrees Fahrenheit is common for the flu, he said.

Patients with normal flu symptoms should get a lot of rest and take painkillers to help with muscle aches, Zich said.

And while you might not believe it today (or tomorrow, or the next day), "In five to seven days, you're going to be feeling yourself again," he promised.

Story 3:

                                              Four years ago, Beth Cirami 

walked into Malissa Booth'stattoo shop, mournful and

anxious. Her brother had just died of leukemia. and 

she wanted something to remember him by. She'd 

gone to other tattoo shops in the St. Louis area and

when she tried to explain her story--why she was 

getting her first tattoo at age 37, what it meant to

her--it felt like no one listened. They told her to flip

through a book and pick out a drawing she liked. It 

just didn't feel right.

"This was a very personal piece for me. I needed

 that work of art," Cirami said.

She had heard about Booth's shop, Madame Voodoo's

House of Ink in Warrenton, Missouri and decided to 

stop by. She tolkd Booth that her brother died at age 

45, and she wanted to honor him in some way.

Cirami left Booth's shop with a pinstripe tattoo

adorned with the initials of her children and a 

picture of a heart glass her brother gave her before

he passed away. It was exactly what she wanted.

"She had that sensitivity to that reason why most 

people get tattoos. It is a very secret and spiritual 

experience," said Cirami.

It's the kind of experience on which Booth built her 

business--a family-friendly tattoo shop whe opened 

five years ago, hoping it would feel welcoming to 

everyone.

Story 4:

British police arrested a man accused of trying to get into London's Buckingham Palace illegally on Monday, authorities said.

The 44-year-old man was stopped at the main gate facing the Victoria Memorial, and a search revealed he was carrying a knife, according to Metropolitan Police.

He did not gain access to the palace grounds, police said.

The man was arrested on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon, and remained in custody Monday afternoon, police said. His name was not released; no injuries were reported.

Buckingham Palace, the best known of Queen Elizabeth II's palaces, is the administrative center for the royal household as well as the queen's London residence.