The right Stuff

At the very beginning of my reading about this article, I was thinking about is there some gossip going around this neighbourhood. As I read further more about it, it makes me really sad.
War always harms people’s life, no matter why it happens.
The Iraq war is not far from our life, to see people lost their father, husband and son, also, to see them follow the news everyday try to find at least something about their loved ones are heartbreaking.
Every time I saw the video about American troops go back home and meet their family and friends make me smile with tears.
Sometimes, for the people, the best thing to do for them is just let their loved one comes back home alive and safe.

Week 11-Openers and Closers

Openers and Closers
Story 1:
As we all know that Tasmania is a very beautiful place to travel in Australia. Also, you can fly there very in a very cheap price. It makes Tasmania more attractive than other places. However, if you travel to there recently, you may see hundreds local on the banks of the Tamar River. They are not holding a fishing competition for sure, so why people gather around?
It was nice that people training to protest peacefully, but they still make their voice loud and clear that they do not appreciate this Pulp Mill plan. Next time when the government decide to do such a “good” thing to the community, they may need to consider sit down and ask the locals idea and save all of them from such a mess.
Story 2:
Chasing by armed pirate on the blue ocean is not only a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean. As the whole world knows that there are some real pirate live in Somali and they only care about you ship and how much money you worth. So if you are the passenger on the Italian cruise ship Melody, you may find out sometimes the reality is way crazier than the movie.

There are still many ship has been held until now, and clearly that because those pirates didn’t get what they want. As the attacked ship number increased, I may wondered, is the economy really that bad in Somali that people have to be a pirate to make living or they just get their inspiration from the movie that pirates are cool and get easy money all the time?

Jerry the oldest dog

They always will be your best friend, they can make your pain go away, they always so happy to see you come back home and they will love you no matter how.
For people who love dogs, like Woody Smith, it’s good to have such a loyal friend around. He bought his dog Jerry when he was just a puppy, and he is 26 years old now. Except thinking how fast time flies, Woody and people in town are all very excited about Jerry’s birthday on Sunday.
Jerry’s hometown, Wilcannia, is a very small town near Sydney. When I said it is a very small town, it is, by having a population as 750. This is town is struggling not to become a ghost town. However, Jerry’s birthday can light up this whole town for a while.
Why his birthday is so special? After the world oldest dog passed away this July, Jerry is going to take the crown as he will be 27 on Sunday.
For the indigenous community in Wilcannia, animals are very important to them, this makes Jerry’s birthday a very big deal there.
“He will be 27 in human years on Sunday.” Said Dr. Nelson, a RSPCA vet,” He could push to 28-going by his body condition he could. ”
According to Jerry’s owner Woody Smith, the secret of his long live dog is he has had a high protein diet and a “good bush lifestyle”.
He also describes Jerry as “a good dog and a good friend.”
One human year is equal to seven dog years, so Jerry will turn 189 (in dog years) on Sunday.
Long live Jerry and happy birthday.

Week 10

I really like this week’s reading.
The first story that I read was the NYPD story. This is a very sad story and young Romona didn’t deserve any of that.
The way Gardiner writes this story is just like a new Criminal Mind episode. First is the background information about what happened that day and then there were all different of reactions that people did about this case, include Romona’s mother and the police station. That white woman went missing case draw more attention that Romona’s case made me think why that happened? It that only because the racism or there are other reasons such as it’s way normal that a girl missing in a black neighbourhood than a doctor’s wife who had a perfect family and rich to left home. Also, there do have some bias in this case that policeman used to think this kind of missing person case just another young kid couldn’t take their life in this neighbourhood anymore so they left. I really want to know how it feels for those police officers to see Romona’s cold body and the wounds on her.
The second story I read is Pearls before Breakfast.
This is a very interesting story and Weingarten writes this story like a short film. Start with a young man playing violin at a Metro station in Washington and then slowly tell the reader who he really is and why he decided to do this. I enjoyed reading the feedback from different people passed Joshua that day and how they feel about it. This story really makes me think about what we living for nowadays. We spend most of our time to earn more money and start to ignore beautiful things around us, such as a very nice morning, birds singing and trees changing colours. Sometimes stop your footsteps for a while just look around; you will find that life still beautiful as you thought it would be.

The third article: We have still not lived long enough used a lot of hard words and Griffiths write this article a little bit too academic. I wasn’t having much fun to read it. However, I do agree with the writer that people should’ve known better. History is one of my favourite subjects and I always think if we study history well enough we can predict the future,because things always rapidly happened once a while.

For my feature story, it’s about a Chinese competition named “Chinese Bridge”.
And it opens for all none Chinese background college students in over 60 countries. Some of my friends participate in this year’s competition and two of them will go to China for semi-final and final this summer.

I planed to write my story as “Pearl before breakfast”. The main focus will be the event and there also different stories about each competitor that I interviewed.

Week 8

Honestly, Kossman’s story worries me a lot. However, it’s not because he “harvested” patients for money, every industry has some grey zones and people want more money that is understandable. One thing that really bothers me while I’m reading the articles is he gave the patient surgery that he has not qualified to do.
Hospitals should be a place to rescue people and sometimes they are their only hope. Trust is the basic factor to make this happened. I remember there are many cases back to China is about doctors give unnecessary but expansive medicine to their patients, and this lead to people couldn’t even afford to catch a cold because it going to cost them over a thousand RMB. Moreover, this situation is not just in one hospital, the whole industry accept it.
Get back to Kossman’s case, it also shows the whole industry faced a crisis that losing public trusty. Another issue I found out from the articles is Kossman’s power in that hospital that people keep failing to report their concern about him. Actually this means the hospital should take the responsibility that Kossman’s behaviours like this, because they let him.
If I were Baker and Mckenzie I would go to meet not only Kossman’s peers but also some his patients. Also, speak to his supervisor and try to find more angles to write this story. Moreover, I would try to interview Kossman himself because you need to get the both side of story.
If they write this article only based on telling the truth instead of showing their opinions, it wouldn’t cross the line.
I think this kind of story needs at least several months to write because it is really hard to get the evidence and need to interview people in different area.
Questions for Baker:
1. How to approach to your interviewees to let them talk to you?
2. Have you ever put yourself in danger to get a story out?
3. What is the most important part to write a feature story?

Three short news stories

Story 1: Oscar’s Law

Interviewee:
Debra Tranter
Oscar’s Law President and Spokesperson
debratranter@gmail.com
0417 536 539

Issue:

Oscar was one of a number of dogs who were rescued from a puppy factory in central Victoria where they had been neglected to the point they required urgent veterinary care.

Oscar’s law is a very simple campaign: it enables everyone to make a stand and tell the Government that “We do not want companion animals factory farmed anymore” and “We no longer want the pet industry to mislead us about what is acceptable for our animals”.

Story 2: Chinese as second language teaching and learning in Melbourne

Interviewees:

Louise Kenney: Student at Monash University. She is in the level 9 advanced Chinese classes, and she start to learn Chinese since she was eight years old.

Hui Xu: the Chinese as second language teacher at Monash University. She teaches advanced Chinese class and has a lot to say about this industry.

Issue: There has been saying in China that there a huge demand of Chinese as second language teaching overseas. Many people realize that Chinese is a very useful language to learn. So I want to know what people think about the increasing number of Chinese learner.

Story 3: International Student and underpaid

Interviewees:
International student who works in an Chinese restaurants or a Sushi Bar.

Issue: International student get underpaid is not a secret anymore. Some of them get paid around 8 ASD per hour while the legal paid should be at least 15 dollars per hour. So why they had been treating like that and why they still accept the job?

Week 7: Group Work at Class

Hard News Lead and Follow Through

Police rescued a couple from a burning vehicle after they lost control attempting a burn out in Frankston last night.

The car skidded into an embankment and burst into flames after speeding out of a McDonald’s driveway in Richardson road at over 100 kilometres an hour.

Two detectives who were on patrol on Richardson road witnessed the incident and rescued the couple immediately. Jim Allan, 23, suffered burns to his legs and torso and is now in a stable condition at The Alfred Hospital. His girl friend Rachel Williams, 23, escaped without injury.

“I’m just glad Jim is ok. It was just a silly stunt that went too far and it could have ended really badly,” said Rachel Williams.

This incident is the fifth car accident involving stunt or drag racing in Frankston in the past year.

“Police are sick of having to deal with drivers who think it is fun to put other motorists’ lives in danger. Innocent people get hurt and police and ambulance have to pick up the pieces,” Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Carter said.

Police Commissioner Simon Overland appreciated the two detectives for their bravery.

Soft News Lead and Follow Through

‘Stunt’ driving and drag racing has been proved fatal to many near McDonalds on Richardson road.

A 23 years old couple, were speeding out their car out of McDonalds driveway at over 100 kilometres per hour and burst into flames at Frankston last night.

Two detectives on patrol rescued the couple immediately after they witnessed it. While the man suffered burns to his legs and torso, his girl friend escaped without injury.