obit assignment

The obituary I read was for Stephen Roberts, the polo coach for Cornell University. In this article, the reporter touched on the many positive things that Roberts did throughout his life such as leading the team to eight national championships. The reporter provided a brief background of Roberts' career as a veterinarian and a writer. His family is also mentioned. I believe this article is a good example of an obituary. Although readers may not have known Stephen Roberts personally, the article does a good job of allowing the audience to understand his story. The only thing missing from the obituary was the funeral information which may not have been available.


I am doing my obit assignment on my father, Stephen Deminsky.

The first thing a reporter should do after being assigned a story (other than a breaking news event) is to check the newspaper library. Otherwise known as the morgue, the newspaper library allows reporters to look up background information before interviewing someone or covering an event. Most of these libraries are now computerized and save reporters a lot of time.


Although commercial databases are a wonderful resource for reporters, there are some potential problems when using information from these places. First, copyright laws must be obeyed. A reporter must obtain permission when using a lot of material from databases. Second, not all newspaper articles can be found. Several stories are often excluded from databases, making it difficult for reporters to locate the information that they need. Third, published stories are not always accurate. Many newspaper reporters in the past have made mistakes when writing articles. Fourth, reporters may not know anything about the subject. If you use information provided by someone else, you may risk publishing an inaccuracy. Fifth, humans are bias and create databases that mirror their personal thoughts. For these reasons, reporters should be cautious when using commercial databases.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/29/sports/othersports/29roberts.html?adxnnl=1&oref=regi&adxnnlx=1107278142-TC9bkSS1NvHUhXmwc8fdAA