[CIMC-working] Re: PROPOSED FEATURE: Northern Illinois Confederation of Peace Groups is Formed

[Ian Bicking]

On Mon, 2002-11-25 at 06:56, Doug Morris wrote:
> Hi Ian and all,
> 
> The formation of a new coalition of local peace groups is newsworthy for 
> center column.
> Other information can be in links to newswire posts.

I'd be fine with a very short feature, but really the *only* news I see
is "Northern Illinois Confederation of Peace Groups is Formed" -- at one
sentence it's still a little short.  You could add contact
information... I suppose you could include  what areas are covered
(Chicagoland suburbs, Rockford... it's not quite clear), perhaps noting
something about the scope.

Specifically language like "The group consensed to..." and "It was
recognized..." isn't appropriate for a feature item.  That's the part
that sounds like meeting minutes.

My issue is that I don't see what a *reader* will get from the feature. 
That some group was formed *is not* news.  If you can include good
contact information so interested people can get involved, then yes, or
if the group is doing some action, then yes.

I think we should wait until there's a mailing list or preferably a
website for the group.  There should also be a date for the next
meeting, or a plan for an action.  If an action isn't in the scope of
the organization, then I feel even more strongly that any feature is
premature until a website exists for the organization.

> I suggested just previous to this proposed feature a new approach to 
> features:  Short paragraphs which point to newsworthy newswire posts are 
> easier to create and read.  This approach is actually used in a number of 
> imcs (sometimes as the only content to features).  [The short paragraphs 
> can be the first paragraph of the article or new or draw on various points 
> of the article.]
> 
> We are never going to have a steady flow of features if we feel features 
> have to be crafted with multiple links.  Look at the gaps in October and 
> November.
> 
> Compilation features take a long time to write - 5 or 10 hours.   We don't 
> have the volunteer effort for that.   And we really won't have the time for 
> that when certain folks leave.
> 
> Ian, I don't understand your objection to straight forward language.  You 
> were arguing for that in the design of titles a few weeks ago.  Many 
> types/styles of writing should be welcome in our center column as long as 
> they are in our principles and inform about good stuff.   Too much dry 
> stuff can be deadly but is a good balance and relief from to too much of 
> anything:  political details, flowery stuff, or even... too much hyper 
> linking on every sentence (takes a lot of time too) .

It's not an issue of straight forward language, but of useful content. 
Here's the paragraph:

On Saturday, November 23 [it happened in the past, so the date is
irrelevant], peace and justice groups from the Northern Illinois area
met in St. Charles [again, the meeting is over, where it took place
isn't important] to explore networking possibilities around the urgency
of the present war situation ["expore networking" isn't meaningful; they
mingled, they talked, that's not news]. The group consensed [the
decision-making process is incidental] to keep the focus of their work
on their local peace groups rather than put all efforts into one large
organizational conglomerate [wait... is this non-news then, because the
individuals are going to stay local anyway?  I don't even know what this
really means]. It was recognized that we do share a level of community
and we should foster it in a healthy and beneficial way. ["recognized"
again signals non-news: they're just acknowledging something that
already exists]

That's why I would trim the feature down to just its title, and I don't
see how just a title can be a feature.

Maybe we need a new format so that we can highlight certain articles
without further comment and without taking up much space.  If (when) we
split the newswire that may be in effect the same thing, since local
articles would persist longer and be presented more prominently.

> If someone wants to add zing to the paragraph, please do.
> 
> Best, Doug
> 
> At 12:26 AM 11/25/02 -0600, Ian Bicking wrote:
> >Reads like a press release, or meeting minutes.  It seems like it needs
> >a lot more content to make it into a feature piece.  The only news seems
> >to be "Northern Illinois Confederation of Peace Groups is Formed".  I'd
> >at least wait until the listserve (or even better a website) is set up
> >before turning it into a feature... or something -- an action, or a plan
> >of action (emergency demonstration plan, for instance), something that
> >makes it more informative.
> >
> >On Sun, 2002-11-24 at 15:39, Doug Morris wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > can we approve this for posting as a feature story summary?
> > >
> > > bar: PEACE & JUSTICE
> > >
> > > title: Northern Illinois Confederation of Peace Groups is Formed
> > >
> > > <p>On Saturday, November 23, peace and justice groups from the Northern
> > > Illinois area met in St. Charles to explore networking possibilities 
> > around
> > > the urgency of the present war situation. The group consensed to keep the
> > > focus of their work on their local peace groups rather than put all 
> > efforts
> > > into one large organizational conglomerate. It was recognized that we do
> > > share a level of community and we should foster it in a healthy and
> > > beneficial way.
> > >
> > > <p>Read: full article (link:
> > > http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=16566 ) with outline of
> > > steps taken.
> > >
> > > link: NEED WEBSITE link!!!!
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Imc-chicago-working mailing list
> > > Imc-chicago-working@lists.indymedia.org
> > > http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-chicago-working
> >--
> >Ian Bicking <ianb@colorstudy.com>
-- 
Ian Bicking <ianb@colorstudy.com>