THE CAVS lost a football game against South Carolina last weekend, 31-7. That's a 24-point margin. That's a beating.
A top-of-the-front-page teaser in Monday's paper pointed readers to the coverage of that game: "Virginia falls short of victory against Gamecocks in South Carolina, 31-7, page B1."
"Falls short"? As much as we'd probably not like to admit it, that's putting it a little too mildly. The Cavs got trounced. Even on simple tags leading to a story, a writer should be as accurate as possible. "Falls short" is not exactly precise.
Packaging an article is a very important part of newspapering. In addition to the reporting or analyzing that goes into an article or column, journalists supplement text with headlines, subheadlines, captions, graphics, photographs and teasers as mentioned. Headlines and pictures generally are the first parts of an article a reader sees.
Because not all stories carry photos, a headline is usually the first chance to pull in a reader. News headlines should contain active verbs and provide the quickest and most accurate summary of the article as possible in limited space. Their point size should be proportionate to the importance of the story. Here's a good headline from The Cavalier Daily last week: Thursday's "Rue ponders leaving U.Va. for chancellor job at UNC." And a bad one: Friday's "University to begin faculty hiring." The first is good for obvious reasons; it says exactly what is going on and leaves a reader curious to know why. The second is bad because of verb choice. The University is going to begin faculty hiring? Certainly U.Va. had hired faculty in the past; the verb just needs to be changed to "resume" and the headline reads more accurately. Same goes for "University remembers September 11 attacks" on Tuesday's Nation & World page. The news isn't that the nation "remembers"; the news is that the nation is set to commemorate.
Good photographs and graphics are integral to capturing a reader's interest. In Monday's paper, photographer Jim Prosser took usually dull subject matter -- a speaker speaking -- and framed Gov. Mark Warner well with his backdrop marketing gear explaining his appearance.
Other images last week didn't work so well. A Monday graphic depicting two possible additional Charlottesville buses was too small and too confusing to read. A chart in Thursday's paper demonstrating the rise in graduate school applications seemed to have little to do with the article ("Lackluster job market concerns students") it accompanied, and any substantial title relating its data to the story remained absent. The story didn't mention graduate school until later paragraphs located on the inner jump page.
Captions are important for those that do a simple headline-photo scan to see if an article is worth reading. A not-so-exciting photo can became more interesting when accompanied by a good caption, like on Wednesday's front page, where a boring photo of a shuttle bus became more vivid when its caption explained that said shuttle had caused frustrations to residents of Sterling University Place. Captions can also, however, do the opposite. Make a mistake in a caption -- like in Thursday's 9-11 Life story, which referred to a vigil that took place on Sept. 11, 2000 (a prophetic one, perhaps?) -- and readers might decide that a story probably contains similar errors.
In recent years, the CD staff has made great strides in developing the look of the paper. The staff transitioned from black and white to occasional color to daily color printing. They replaced a very conservative, stringent layout with an active, cleaner appearance. The production of the paper changed from paste-up to digital, which provides for a much more cohesive look. Take a look in the bound volumes in Alderman Library for as little as three years ago and you'll see a drastically different looking newspaper. The production staff deserves much kudos for continuing to strike the balance between developing design and forming a basic look and feel for The Cavalier Daily, especially in regards to the front page.
The Sports Gameday page is another example of sharp design. It is crisp and clean and easy to look at and read.
Some other page layouts for last week, however, could use some work. Supplementing a lengthy Focus section story on teaching assistants was a droll photo of an unidentified TA and far too much text broken up only by difficult-to-read dropped quotes. A Life section piece on Monday featured an article on "First Year Firsts" with a gigantic graphic whose space would have been better utilized by a photo illustration of the various hastily sketched items pertaining to the first year.
What do you think about the way the CD presents articles? Let me know at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
(Emily Kane can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.)
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