Tonight's Assignment - Extended News Feature

300-1000 words
dominant visual element
3-5 links
due by midnight

Tonight I want you to take a contemporary news issue (include link) and explore an aspect of that issue via answering a specific question of your choosing.

So for example, in class we discussed the Tuscon shooting that happened this weekend. Several questions that came out of the discussion included: was the shooter mentally unstable? what role did violent video games play in his actions? did he use drugs? who were his victims and what kind of people were they?

As we did with the "news summaries" posted during class, I want you to create an engaging introduction to your story that summarizes the heart of the issue and then comments on it. Your comment on it should raise a question that you will explore for the rest of the article.

For example, my extended news feature on the Tuscon shooter could begin: "The Kotaku blog says that Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner played a lot of video games. It's not clear whether Loughner learned how to gun down 20 people by playing first-person shooters like Call of Duty and Halo, but the military has used similar games to train soldiers for years. Should we expect a new generation of video gamers to turn into deadly assassins or are such games are actually more harmless than we think? Psychological research points in both directions."

You see? I referenced the original article where I got my idea, explained how I came to my question, and then gave an idea of how I would go about exploring that question. Your lead should do the same.

The rest of the article should go about answering your questions by using different sources as support. In this way, this article is a bit like an academic paper, except shorter and more conversational. It's OK to end the article without a clear answer. The discussion is most important, not the conclusion.

Here are links to two of my articles that do the same thing:
Could HIV+ Muppet Kami Ever Move Into America's Sesame Street?
Why Are D.C.'s Gays Just Fine With The 'Vote on Marriage' Bus Ads?