Story # 2

Story #2
The assignment
Write a 500-600 word story on one of the following news stories from this past week. Write this as if you are going to post it online for your paper’s website.
You can pick one of several topics:

Interview some students, professors, staff coaches or people around campus and ask them about their reaction to Nancy Kerrigan’s brother alleged involvement in their father's death. You can use The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, and CNN or NYTIMES as sources for background information about the death as long as your attribute your information. You should include some details on Nancy Kerrigan’s local ties, why is this such a big story, and when was the first time your subject heard about Nancy Kerrigan, etc.

To pay or not to pay for stories online. Ask fellow students, professors or Bostonians on whether they would pay to get their news online. The peg here is the NYTIMES decision last week that it would start charging visitors to their website beginning in 2011. (Again, you can use other news resources such as Boston.com or NYTIMES.com for background information as long as you attribute.) Ask your subjects how they get their news, how much would they pay to read articles online, why or why not. Why was the announcement by the NYTIMES last week such big news for the media industry?

Toyota hits the brakes on some new and old models. The car manufacturer announced this week that it is halting the sales of eight popular models because of a sticky accelerator pedal problem. Throughout your daily travels, ask people if they own a Toyota, how does this affect their image of the car brand, would this affect their decision in buying a Toyota, how might a local dealer/salesman feel about the news. (Ask your classmates or professors if they own a Toyota or know of someone who owns a car and how they feel about the recall.)

The iPad. Apple unveiled yesterday its new electronic tablet computer, which will mostly likely influence how users consume media. Will the tablet help save newspapers? Will it help revive book sales? Ask people whether they would use such a device to read newspapers online or books. Do they already use Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s e-Reader or Barnes and Noble Nook reader? How are these devices different, how much do they cost? I’m really looking for you to get some insights and reactions from fellow students or professors on whether such devices are helping save the publishing world (whether it's newspapers or books) and do they or would they use them (why or why not?)

Remember: list your sources/people interviewed and their contact information at the end of the story.