Another Great Feature Story

I just came across this story, "Hecho en America" from GQ magazine, via Longreads. It's much different than the piece we read in class today ("Dr. Don," from last week's issue of the New Yorker. Read it online if you missed class.) Writer Jeanne Marie Laskas spends time with blueberry pickers in Maine and offers a close-up of their lives, which she argues are lost in the immigration debate:

"It's easy to forget that there are people who harvest our food. Sometimes, maybe, we are reminded of the seasons and the sun and the way of the apple tree, and if we multiply that by millions of apple trees, times millions of tomato plants, times all the other fruits and vegetables, we realize, holy potato chips, that's a lot of picking. Without 1 million people on the ground, on ladders, in bushes—armies of pickers swooping in like bees—all the tilling, planting, and fertilizing of America's $144 billion horticultural production is for naught. The fruit falls to the ground and rots."

This piece has a much stronger point of view, and the writing style is more bold, energetic. This is much more of an issue piece than a profile. You might notice other differences--if you do, please comment below! Laskas has done other great work for GQ, including a piece about the reality of head injuries in football.

Your Next Assignment

TOP BLOGS LIST

Directions: The “list” has been a mainstay of magazine journalism and has carried over to the web, e.g. “10 Steep Hikes in Arizona” “Vancouver's Best Noodle Houses” “25 Best Community College Journalism Programs." You are going to survey the Blogosphere and generate your own “Top Blogs” list. Pick 5. You are going to introduce your picks similarly to the way you rounded up the news: describe each blog in a sentence or two, devote another sentence or two to why you like it, and give your readers a taste of what the blog is doing with a quote/link/photo/video. Technorati catalogs ALL the blogs out there by category, and provides a good starting point. You may also look at “Top Blog” lists that others have created, such as this one from The UK's Sunday Times. Also, pay attention to a blog's "blog roll," which tells you the blogs that blogger enjoys.

Some questions you might ask in evaluating the blog: Is it well written? Is it designed well? Is it funny/entertaining/moving/interesting/informative/useful/inspiring? How so? Is it interactive, are the comments interesting?

Post by Tuesday.

Mind your commas

Where to Find Features

You may of course look to print magazines to find a feature, or you may look to their web sites to see if they post them online. Some suggestions: Mother Jones (investigative) The New Yorker (human interest, excellent writing) Outside (extreme sport, environment themed) Time (general interest) GOOD (humanitarian, international) Tucson Weekly (local, political).

You may also look to online magazines like Salon. You may also want to check out a feature-aggregator (like news-aggregators, but for features!) like Longreads or Ladyjournos (UPDATE: or this one, just in, Give Me Something To Read.) I just stumbled across a new online magazine called Guernica that has a lot of features.

Oh, and look what I just found: "The 51 Best Magazines Ever" according to GOOD magazine. Check it out!

Hope this helps!

Good Housekeeping Post With New Lede

"Each year, about 48 million people — one in six Americans — get sick from something they ate,” according Good Housekeeping magazine. I have 34 students this semester, and I hate to think that statistically, 5 or 6 of them will end up with food poisoning. And not just because it means they will miss class! “Contaminated food sends 128,000 victims to the hospital, and it kills 3,000 children and adults," writes Madeline Drexler. Now, I don't typically think to pick up Good Housekeeping when I want some hard-hitting, investigative reporting, but this month the grocery store check-out aisle glossy teamed up with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism to take a close look at food safety in the United States. Most shocking of all is that the "big six" E Coli strains that poison people the most are in frighteningly high percentages of packaged foods. And yet, the USDA had no prohibition against them--until this article. An editor's note reports that since its publication, the USDA has banned all six strains, which means food companies will soon have to test for them and destroy the batch if the bacteria are found. This is how powerful investigative journalism can be. Ms. Drexler may indeed be saving lives!

Good Housekeeping Keeps Watchdog Journalism Alive with Food Safety Expose

I don't typically think to pick up Good Housekeeping when I want some hard-hitting, investigative reporting, but this month the grocery store check-out aisle glossy teamed up with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism to take a close look at food safety in the United States. The findings? "Each year, about 48 million people — one in six Americans — get sick from something they ate. Contaminated food sends 128,000 victims to the hospital, and it kills 3,000 children and adults," writes Madeline Drexler. Most shocking of all is that the "big six" E Coli strains that poison people the most are in frighteningly high percentages of packaged foods. And yet, the USDA had no prohibition against them--until this article. An editor's note reports that since its publication, the USDA has banned all six strains, which means food companies will soon have to test for them and destroy the batch if the bacteria are found. This is how powerful investigative journalism can be. This one reporter may indeed be saving lives!

Embedding Video Into Your Blog

My 102 class was talking about the Tucson Gem show, so I found this video about it on YouTube: