3 Teens, 4 Year-Old Among Victims in Virginia Shootings

(Word Count - 500+ Words)

For this article I will be focusing on the accuracy, completeness, objectivity, balance and fairness, proper attribution, whether it is brief and focused, and whether it is a well written news story. This article came out on CNN yesterday afternoon (January 20, 2010) and is about a shooting that took place in Virginia.
Accuracy is very important to have in a news story. While talking about accuracy, you should first look at your source. CNN is a pretty reliable source, so that has one positive thing working for this article already. Next, I see that CNN’s information was released to them from the State Police. Another thing that proves its accuracy is that it has a video that also delivers the information. So, I would consider this article pretty accurate.
This story seems fairly complete to me. It gets the points across that the writer is attempting to accomplish. It summarizes the event, explains who the shooter was and also why they believe he was the shooter. It also gives minor information on who the victims were.
The writer in this case did not inject his or her feelings into the news story. Therefore, we can consider the writer objective. As you read the article, you can tell that the writer was just simply writing down information and facts about the incident.
Balance and fairness is a tough obstacle to run around in this article since it is such a one sided article. I believe the writer was fair by just naming the facts but he/she had no real optimism for the shooter in this case. As of right now, it would be tough to have optimism for the shooter. Therefore, I think the writer did their best job keeping the article balanced.
This article was definitely properly attributed as the writer named the source, the State Police, many times throughout the article. The writer also named County Sheriff O. Wilson Staples as a source at the beginning of the article. All-in-all, I believe the writer properly attributed the information that was written.
As you can see, this news story is a very short news story and gets to the point fast. It tells you all the necessary information in a very brief amount of writing. However, although it is brief, that does not mean that it was not efficient. This shows that this story is brief and focused.
And finally, was this story well written? I believe it must be well-written if all of the other components were done well. The story is compact, delivers proper information, and is interesting from beginning to end.
In conclusion, this news story was on a very serious topic and I believe the writer fulfilled all the components of necessary writing. The writer was accurate, accomplished completeness and objectivity, balance and fairness, proper attribution, was brief and focused, and made it a well written news story for CNN.

Work Cited:

CNN . (2010, January 20). 3 teens, 4-year-old among victims in Virginia shootings.
Retrieved January 21, 2010, "CNN Justice."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/20/virginia.shootings/index

Jordan Swerid