By: Joe Gullo, Student Journalist at SUNY Plattsburgh
MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Marijuana farmers in the small residential town of Monroe Township have been arrested. Police seized more than 10 million dollars worth of marijuana.
According to the New Jersey State Police News Release, “In total, ten search warrants were executed over five days by numerous agencies in three counties. Along with a vast array of indoor cultivation equipment, 3,370 growing plants, 115 pounds of harvested marijuana and $65,000 cash was seized.”
The raids stretched across five towns including Monroe Township, Millstone, Old Bridge, Manahawkin and Manalapan. The bust was the largest in New Jersey history.
Attorney General Paula Dow said, “While law enforcement in New Jersey has encountered high-tech indoor marijuana growing operations in the past, we have not seen anything to match the volume of production of this criminal enterprise. These defendants might be called tenant farmers in one sense, because of their use of rental properties, but they certainly were not struggling to pay the rent with their harvest.”
At least three other suspects are still on the loose.
I am super pumped that this my 100th post on the blog. It’s actually very exciting. So what am I going to talk about in my 100th post. Well journalism of course!
In my On-Camera Performance class we have been going on the air and working on our broadcasting technique. The most challening aspect I think is the writing. Many say it’s all about the way you look on camera, which is true, but it’s also your writing ability.
What makes the writing so challenging is that you have write simple sentences. I have taken numerous English courses which have pushed me to become a better and more descriptive writer. In broadcast writing, you kind of throw all of that away. You simplify the sentence. People don’t have time nor do they have the concentration to listen to heavy weighted sentences (like this one).
People are in a hurry. They are also preoccupied with other activities. Simple doesn’t always mean shorter sentences. You also have to chose words that simple and easy to understand. If you have to think about what the broadcaster said are you really going to understand what the story is about? More than likely not.
Think about it this way. Do you talk the way that you write? When your talking with your friends would you say:
“Mary, I just got back from a long walk along the winding river behind the school yard.”
Or would you say:
“Mary, I just got back from a walk.”
That probably isn’t the best example, but the point is we speak in fragments. We speak in simple and short sentences. Because it would take too much energy and too much time to understand. The trick is to write well, but in a way that’s simple and conversational with the audience. That’s the hard part.
If you’re currently a student attending SUNY Plattsburgh, I need your help! I’m writing an article for a introduction to news writing class newspaper. The newspaper will not be published and will not be given out to anyone outside the class. The newspaper is for instructional use. My article that I will be writing is on the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act which is going through New York legislation.
If you could answer the poll question below that would be great! All submissions to the poll are anonymous.
Also, if you are interested in being interviewed for the newspaper let me know by leaving a comment and or use the contact form! Thanks for all your help.
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Where do you get your news? This is an important question in the journalism industry. This question will help us determine where we need to go to reach our viewers and readers. Since the early days of journalism, we go where the readers go. When journalists go out to find answers to their stories they as who, what, where, when, why and how. These same questions are being asked by scholars and researchers in the communication field to figure where people are getting their news.
Source: Pew Research Center
Over the course of media’s history there has been many changes. Changes to how media was accessed, who could access and where they could access it. Before television we had the radio to deliver our news and information. Technology continues to advance and grow. Advancements in technology change the way we communicate and access information. We saw this with television, radio, newspapers and now the internet. Technological advancements also bring about change. Change the way we do things, the way we communicate and the way we gather information. Perception of these technological advancements are important for the journalism field. We need to understand how the public, our viewers, feel about the new technology and what that means for the old technology. A survey by the PEW Research Center did just that. Questions were geared to find whether this new technology has been a positive change for the better. One thing stuck out to me as I was looking at the data from the chart on the right. The fact that internet blogs are not a change for the better is interesting. In an unrelated PEW Research study, “12% of internet users (representing 9% of all adults) say they ever create or work on their own online journal or blog.”1 Each day we are seeing more and more people who are blogging online. However, the public is questioning the motives and validity of these blogs. This is good because we should be skeptical of what we read — how do we know the blogger knows what they are talking about?
Source: Pew Research Center
With new technology offering so many sources to get information, where is the majority getting there news from? A study by the Pew Research Center, most people are still getting their news from telvision. The data does suggest that there is a shift from generation to generation. While the younger generation (18-29) are watching television, they are also going online. The opposite can be said about the older generation (65+), more are turning to TV than going online.
An interesting thing to note is the newspaper column. The newspaper industry is feeling a huge blow with the increase in internet readership. Many people still turn to local newspapers for local news. In general 41% turn to newspapers for local news with majority of the readership from the 65+ age group. Despite the fact that many people go to local newspapers for local news, many wouldn’t mind if the local newspapers vanished.2 Hmm…
So where do you like to get your news from? Do you agree with the statistics from the PEW Research Center? Let me know your thoughts.
