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How did you play the Boston Marathon explosions?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mark2010, Apr 16, 2013.

  1. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    It has come to my attention that not every single paper in the United States played the explosions at the Boston Marathon on April 15 as centerpiece or the lead news item in Tuesday's editions.

    So......where and how did you play your coverage? Copy, photos, graphics, columns? Sidebar in sports? Or nothing at all in sports? Did you go straight AP or use other sources?

    Did you attempt to localize the story with anything from local people, either in Boston or back home?
     
  2. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Of newspapers printing seven days a week, which ones didn't?
     
  3. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I'd be really curious which papers didn't have this on 1A.

    I can't imagine any decent paper not having it on 1A.
     
  4. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    By far the worst page of the day goes to the Hickory (N.C.) Daily Record: "Our runners are safe in Boston," complete with a smiling photo of the locals who ran.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  5. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I went through Newseum and have found one newspaper to mention the bombings but not make them either the lead story or the centerpiece: the Opelousas, La. Daily World, the Fulton (Mo.) Sun and the Weatherford (Okla.) Daily News.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  6. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The curse of hyperlocal.

    I don't have a problem with Hickory localizing it. We had both the national story and our 3 local runners on A1.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Chicago Tribune sports front:

    [​IMG]

    A bit overwrought for my tastes, but from the looks of the Interwebs it did seem to resonate.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  8. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I liked the Hickory front page.

    This whole stuff illustrates what I dislike about hyperlocal. News doesn't cease to be news just because it took place outside your county. For a DAILY not to make it the main item sort of boggles my mind.

    I mean, c'mon Weatherford, Canola Season can wait a day or two.
     
  9. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Many places localized it. No one else chose a smiling photo to play directly above the devastation. And the headline completely reduced the impact of the blasts. That was truly horrible news judgment.
     
  10. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Three very small newspapers downplayed it. Each likely had its front planned or even designed before hearing about the explosions. One of those three ran a story on the front in the No. 3 spot.

    The Hickory front is a worse example of hyperlocal coverage than the Weatherford front.
     
  11. albert77

    albert77 Well-Known Member

    We ran a great AP photo on 1A that really captured the chaos in the aftermath, along with a smaller photo of a runner being hugged by a race worker. We also had a small sidebar on the status and reactions of the local runners in the race, along with a thumbnail-sized photo of a group of them posing from Sunday, which I thought was appropriate.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    One of the local papers here had a feature on a local woman who ran the Marathon... in 2007 and her take on the explosion... It should have been a sidebar, but the way they played it, you would have thought it was bigger than the bombing. The headline was something like... The Boston Marathon: In her words... and at first glance made it seem like she was there, until you get a graph or two in and realize she ran it six years ago and has nothing to offer from a news standpoint other than to say, "Yeah, I know exactly where that is..."

    Just dumb.
     
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