1. What local issues are getting the most coverage?

It looks like some of the local coverage is still on the Tara Grant case. There was another incident I heard of on the radio today that is mentioned but doesn't seem to be as important as other issues. There was a girl shot outside of her Midland school and then the killer killed himself. It seems that there is always some sort of violence in the news. It seems like it is always possible to find an article about death or murder. There are always issues with the community discussed in the local issues, such as the school board or problems with roads or technology or a building that is under construction// needs to be removed. There seems to be some talk about proposal 2, which removed the chance of using race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in work, and schools. This proposal passed in the election in November, but it being brought up right now.


2. What stands out to you about the coverage on freep.com? What concerns do they emphasize/de-emphasize? The "human factor"? The "drama factor"? Just the facts? What?

The coverage on freep.com is always very in depth about the event or the issue at hand. They seem to give every detail and fact that is known away to the readers. Sometimes it is not good for everyone to know the issues at hand before actually needed to know. There are sometimes leaks that occur which allow members of the community to know about things that could cause the people involved pain. At the same time... it makes for interesting reading to know every detail of something occuring in the area. It helps to understand how people felt, what exactly has taken place and why it has occured. Concerning the "human factor", yes people may be hurt by something that is said in a news report. I think that writers should try attempt some sort of quiet-ness when writing their articles so they do not ruin the event that has taken place. It seems that when something really big happens in our area or even our country, it gets news attention for a very long time. There always seems to be a new twist or a new issues brought up by the event. Even if an "issue" is important and people need to know about it, if something else big happens, the original issue seems to kind of disappear. People focus on the newest big issue instead of something that may have been important to them or affect them.


3. What's going on in your own backyard? What do you think?

I recently moved from Plymouth but when I select Northville, it is combined with Plymouth and Canton, which are close enough to count as my area. There isn't much going on in that area. Pretty much all of the articles listed are from the Plymouth-Canton area. It would be interesting to find out more about the Northville area, especially since I don't know very much about it in the first place. There are a lot of articles about the sports and marching band (which are very good). I guess if there isn't anything bad going on in the area, then it's a good thing and it should be kept that way. There is also talk about the Penn Theater, a landmark in downtown Plymouth. I thought it was funny when I looked for the local news I saw an article title "pet of the week". That is an interesting thing for newspapers to research about.


4. What might you want to research/ write about? Why?

I actually have no idea what I would want to research. It might actually be interesting to research a case such as the Tara Grant case. I find big cases to be interesting and since it is important in the news then it might be an easy research. It might also be interesting to research a certain place or event that has taken place. I need to put more thought into the subject and assignment to know for sure what I would like to do.