"Bad News"

One of the criticisms of the news media is that they emphasize “bad news” more than “good news.” People who believe this usually say that when they turn on the television to watch the news, or open a newspaper, there is most likely going to be sad news, or news that does not evoke smile or laughter. The news often consists of different news stories that are problems to be solved. The financial crisis, for example, is obviously a big problem in the country, and the stories based on this crisis consist of people who have lost their jobs, homes, and normal lives.

I would have to agree that most news is “bad news.” Although there is an occasional story that makes us laugh, smile, or feel happy, most of it consists of weather alerts, world issues, and things that need to be fixed and improved. The one medium that contains more “good news,” in my opinion, is the Internet. There is a time limit for television news shows, and there are only so many pages in a newspaper, so it is hard to fit “the good.” Online, however, has endless amounts of space, so there is room to fit everything.

My brother is a TV news reporter, and he often does “bad news” stories. He covers local stories, usually about places that have issues to be solved. For example, he covered a restaurant that recently had a fire, an intersection that had many accidents occur and needed a stoplight, and weather alerts for ice storms that would have a large affect on the area. Although these stories are considered “bad,” it is information that people need to know. Every once in a while he is able to do a feature story, which brings light to the news cast and allows viewers to relax and enjoy the story.

Interesting Stylebook Entries

After going through the AP Stylebook, I found many interesting tendencies in the entries and the way in which the book was formatted. Firstly, I thought the entry of "almost never" was intriguing. On page 13 it says that you should not use this phrase. Instead, one should say seldom or hardly ever. After reading this, I noticed myself trying to correct myself when I was going to use the phrase. Once one becomes aware of what they should or shouldn't say, they can correct themselves when it comes up in context.

I am terrible at spelling, so a few of the entries enlightened me on spelling mistakes that i commonly make. One of these words is "judgment." I always put an E after the G, so it definitely helped to read over that and remind myself again how to spell it. I also saw that on page 246 it says to not use the word "towards," only "toward." I find myself correcting my words after I say that sometimes as well.

The final entry that I found to be helpful was "odd" on page 174. It says to follow with a hyphen when you use it. For example, "odd-looking" and "odd-numbered." The is helpful because I never understood when to use hyphens, and now I am aware that this is one place where they are needed.

The Stylebook is definitely going to help me out when I'm writing my next paper, or my next blog. By having this reference, I can understand different parts of grammar that I haven't studied or remembered recently. It is a helpful resource that I plan to keep near me when working on papers.

Common Spelling Mistakes!

More commonly misspelled words

AP Style Entries