I have a school assignment. I have until Tuesday to finish this, so I'm still going to work on it a bit.
Sincerely,
Me
Type a one page, double-space critical thinking assessment of the Clarion newspaper of Wednesday, February 23, 2011. On a grading scale of 0-10 (ten being the highest) what score would you give it and why? Please give specific examples to justify your rating. Give page numbers. Cite headlines and by-lines to identify the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly in this first edition. Please keep in mind that the paper is produced by students like you who are learning about journalism. What stories would you like to read in your student newspaper this semester?
The February 23, 2011 edition of the Clarion Newspaper comes across as mostly average. If I had to give it only one criticism, it would be the fact that, for every really good article, there seems to be another written very poorly.
For example, “Up the Per Unit Fee, Save the State,” an editorial by Jennifer Young on Page 23, is written exceptionally well. The article argued that we should favorably accept “Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for a $10 hike in the per unit fee for California public community college.”
Young does a good job explaining that community college students in California pay a lot less for units than those in surrounding states and that the money would help the state budget in the long run. The point is driven home by the illustration of the state unit fees accompanying the article.
On the other hand, Israel Mejia gave a lackluster job when it came to the Page 9 entertainment article, “Grammys Bring New Era with Old Friends.” Grammatically incorrect phrases such as, “A tribute to Aretha Franklin was very nice done by Christina Aguilera” and sentence fragments like, “The outfits’ message being that of equality” give the impression that no proof checking was done.
There were also many instances where a little more creativity could have gone a long way. For example, on page 13, the three-part “Best of Instant Movie Rentals” compared Redbox, Netflix and Video On Demand. Rather than merely showing the companies’ logos, a chart could have been made to summarize the information in the article.
I particularly enjoyed the articles on the revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. Perhaps more world news could be covered by the Clarion in the future.
That being said, I give the newspaper a seven out of ten. It was alright, although there was plenty of room for improvement.
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