Who broke the news room!?

Scott Templeton, one of the writers for The Baltimore Sun in The Wire

HBO's series, The Wire, exposed a lot of information about Baltimore's police department, newspaper and the crime going on in the local city neighborhoods. Whether it was true or not, I'm not exactly sure, but I enjoyed watching it and it opened my eye to a lot of things about my hometown.

When I watched the first episode, I noticed that none of the new, young reporters had no moral. The newsroom was very unhealthy and one reporter, Alma, didn't even know how to write a lead. Scott Templeton lied about a kid named E.J. being at the Orioles Stadium in a wheel chair, in episode two. No one could find clips about the kid being shot and Templeton didn't get a photo of the kid.

In episode three, Alma's story about 3 found dead in a house in Baltimore City, didn't make the front page. The Sun obviously had their priorities mixed up. Also in this episode, Whiting tells the staff that news as a whole is shrinking because advertising is down and also competition with technology. He tells them that the overseas papers have been shut down and there will be a "fresh round of buyouts."

Scott Templeton was the fabricator. He fabricated stories about E.J., the woman who died from an allergic reaction from a crab cake, Nathan Levi Boston and Terry Hanning (the homeless men) and a quote from an anonymous homeless woman at the candlelight visual (episode 8). Then, McNulty caught Templeton lying about the last homeless murder. He made up everything about the phone calls, quotes and the gray van that was supposedly leaving the scene of the murder. What really shocked me was Episode 10. Alma got transferred to the Carroll County office even though she actually did honest work, but Scott received a Pulitzer Prize for dishonest work. If The Wire was true then I would never want to work at The Baltimore Sun or read their publication ever again,

Overall I felt The Sun was corrupt, unprofessional, uninformed and it's just not a good newspaper. Hardly any of the rules of journalism or ethics were followed. I think Gus Haynes was the only honest person there. He did his job and he knew that Templeton was a liar from day one. When you are a honest person and do honest work, your reward never comes or if it does it takes a while to come to you, but those who lie and do dishonest work receive instant satisfaction.

Got Green?

For the second mulitmedia assignment, I plan on interviewing Towson Campus Greens. One of the "green groups" at Towson. First, I plan to do more research on this topic, because I really haven't heard much about it. Then, I'm going to interview someone from the group. I already have some questions I want to ask them, I want to know how their group got started, what activities have they already done and what are their plans for the future and how have they helped towson and communities outside of towson to go green. If I can, I would like to ask everyone in the group about their opinion of Towson going green: is it good or bad? Will it work and get everybody on campus involved? Hopefully, I can get a picture of all the members that are in the group or maybe they will have an upcoming event where I can take a picture.

Field Trip

One of many paths located in The Glen Woods at Towson University

Two Towson sophomores, Charnay Anderson and Brian Wright, walk down the steps leading to The Glen Woods behind Smith Hall

The Towson Tiger stands in front of Stephens hall, which is considered to be the old part of Towson U's. campus

This class assignment was really fun and I learned a lot about taking pictures. It's not very easy to get good shots, there is a lot of work involved. First, you must find the light whenever you're taking a photograph of a person or a particular thing, like the Towson Tiger. You can do this by using your hand to find where the best light is. Also, you should remember the rule of thirds where you frame your subjects to the side instead of in the center of your viewfinder. You should also do visual cropping before you take the picture. You should eliminate off unimportant things by moving closer, zooming in or taking the picture from a different angle.

Dance Photography and Film Presentations

For my multimedia assignment, I'm choosing to write a story about a documentary film called Water Flowing Together, by Gwendolyn Cates. This event takes place Thursday, Nov. 7 at 7:oop.m.

Ms. Cates documentary features Jock Soto’s “journey from a hardscrabble childhood to stardom” as Principal Dancer for the New York City Ballet. This is being presented by the College of Fine Arts and Communication, the Department of Art & Design, Art History and Art Education, The Women’s Center and Office of Student Diversity.