Probably my last blog post, here it goes.
Earlier this week I was looking back and realized I was pretty lucky in my choice of story. At the beginning of the semester I planned on writing my story about the effect of climate change on salmon. After seeing Keith struggle to get in contact with reluctant government sources I was glad I had settled on doing my story on wildfire. I know other people too struggled with some of their sources but I guess that can be expected in any reporting class.
Although I did have some problems getting in touch with some of my sources I found I had more information, more aspects to this story, than I could fit in 1500 words. In fact I think this entire class could have written about different aspects of wildfire if we were so inclined.
As far as actual classroom activities I think things were put together well with a lot of important information but I had some question about use of class time. There were some days when I felt I could be using my time more wisely working on my story or catching up on sleep when I was in class learning about percents. I realize this information is important to some class members who may not have known how to calculate certain equations but if I would have known ahead of time I might not have come to class that day and came to class instead on another day that I missed. I do realize that attendance needs to be required because we went over a lot of important information in class but I think we, as students, should be aware what we are doing each day in class so that we can plan accordingly.
In class today we talked a little bit about the grading process and transparency. Throughout the semester I didn't feel the small assignments were being graded as much as the final product. The entire time I was working toward the finished product and not so much sweating the smaller steps along the way, which I now realize play a crucial role in my grade. I understand grading in such a course cannot be entirely objective but I guess I agree with Lindsey that there could have been a little more transparency and discussion in terms of the grading process. Not until Tuesday on the last day of class did I have any idea of where I stood as far as grades, I would have been fine with whatever grade I got, well maybe not any grade, but I would have liked to know that grade, or at least some measure of my standing in the class, a little sooner and more frequently.
The book. I purchased the book fully expecting not to read it this semester and I didn't, probably a self fulfilling prophecy. This was fine with me though. First, it wasn't a required text, I chose to buy it so I can't be mad about being forced to buy it and not using it. Second, I think it will be useful in the future and fully intend to read it, or parts of it in the future.
Overall I think the class was a good experience. I have never worked on a long term project like this before. The closest I have come was about two weeks of work I put into covering the unionization of academic student employees last semester. I liked our overall theme and I liked my section. I think the project came together pretty well after some kinks and I look forward to
getting it online at The Spokesman-Review.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Wildfire making the news
I was browsing a recent issue of National Geographic recently and came across an article about wildfire in California. I can't remember a lot about the article but since then it seems I have notices quite a few stories about wildfire. Many of these do not focus on climate change or the things I directly address in my article but instead look at other interesting aspects of wildfire that bring attention to, and get people talking about, the broader issue.
One story I saw from the Associated press looked at a specific wildfire that burned 12 houses in Spokane, Wash. last summer. This was interesting to me because I originally planned to use that same fire as an introduction to my story but was unable to get in contact with any of the residents who lost their houses in the fire.
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press Writer
SPOKANE, Wash. —
A wildfire that destroyed 12 homes in the Spokane area last summer was caused by an illegal recreational fire that was not fully extinguished, and then was fanned by raging winds, state Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said Tuesday
The state's findings will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and to the Spokane County prosecutor's office. Those agencies will decide if any charges or claims are brought against the people involved in starting the fire, Sutherland said.
Sutherland said the fire cost at least $3 million to fight and caused as much as $50 million in property damage.
"This thing could have been a hell of a lot worse than it was," Sutherland said, pointing to recent destructive fires in California. "This was a very, very scary fire,"...
Another article, this one out of California looked at recent telephone scams that take advantage of people after fires. The callers claim to be collecting money for firefighters yet the government says they do not use such a system to collect money for firefighters.
"The state's findings will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and to the Spokane County prosecutor's office. Those agencies will decide if any charges or claims are brought against the people involved in starting the fire, Sutherland said.
Sutherland said the fire cost at least $3 million to fight and caused as much as $50 million in property damage.
"This thing could have been a hell of a lot worse than it was," Sutherland said, pointing to recent destructive fires in California. "This was a very, very scary fire,'"...
This was intersting to me because I had never heard of these scams.
In addition to these stories there have been a great deal of articles about current or recent California wildfires that have burned late in the season. In my article I wrote about one of the major effects of climate change, this being longer fire seasons. It would be interesting to take a look at all of these California wildfire stories and see if there is anything about how late in the season these fires are buring and if there has been an increase in late fire season fires in Californian in recent years?
One story I saw from the Associated press looked at a specific wildfire that burned 12 houses in Spokane, Wash. last summer. This was interesting to me because I originally planned to use that same fire as an introduction to my story but was unable to get in contact with any of the residents who lost their houses in the fire.
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press Writer
SPOKANE, Wash. —
A wildfire that destroyed 12 homes in the Spokane area last summer was caused by an illegal recreational fire that was not fully extinguished, and then was fanned by raging winds, state Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said Tuesday
The state's findings will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and to the Spokane County prosecutor's office. Those agencies will decide if any charges or claims are brought against the people involved in starting the fire, Sutherland said.
Sutherland said the fire cost at least $3 million to fight and caused as much as $50 million in property damage.
"This thing could have been a hell of a lot worse than it was," Sutherland said, pointing to recent destructive fires in California. "This was a very, very scary fire,"...
Another article, this one out of California looked at recent telephone scams that take advantage of people after fires. The callers claim to be collecting money for firefighters yet the government says they do not use such a system to collect money for firefighters.
"The state's findings will be turned over to the state attorney general's office and to the Spokane County prosecutor's office. Those agencies will decide if any charges or claims are brought against the people involved in starting the fire, Sutherland said.
Sutherland said the fire cost at least $3 million to fight and caused as much as $50 million in property damage.
"This thing could have been a hell of a lot worse than it was," Sutherland said, pointing to recent destructive fires in California. "This was a very, very scary fire,'"...
This was intersting to me because I had never heard of these scams.
In addition to these stories there have been a great deal of articles about current or recent California wildfires that have burned late in the season. In my article I wrote about one of the major effects of climate change, this being longer fire seasons. It would be interesting to take a look at all of these California wildfire stories and see if there is anything about how late in the season these fires are buring and if there has been an increase in late fire season fires in Californian in recent years?
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