Cutlines

I'm going to be honest.  When I first heard that we would be spending a week discussing cutlines, a little part of me shuddered.  "How boooring," I thought.  "Especially at 8:00 in the mooorning."  After being dismissed to do the assignment, my spirits hadn't lifted very much.  I sat down at the computer, headed to the AP website and became enthralled by all of the photographs that accompanied each story.  This particularly shocked me because, while I had heard about the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, I had yet to see actual photographs.  Hearing about the damage was nothing compared to seeing the sheer volume of destruction.  I heard about this story through Facebook.  I have friends (who remain unscathed) studying abroad in Italy this semester that were kind enough to let us know they were safe.  Also, despite the Irish front my red hair likes to put up, I am Italian, so this story hit particularly close to home because of my heritage and study-abroad friends.  

As it turns out, I truly enjoyed this assignment.  By using the AP website, I felt as though I was let in on a secret that others were not.  At the end of the day, I felt as though I was solving a puzzle rather than writing cutlines.  I had to chose a picture that best fit the story and my audience.  I needed to write a lead-in of 2-3 words to grab a reader's attention (which proved to be difficult...I'm a wordy person).  Finally, I had to write the cut-line and make it fit the word requirement.

This was fun to me.  I mean, I wouldn't want to do this on a Saturday night, but I would be much happier writing cutlines than obituaries or police reports for the rest of my life.  

After Monday's class, I wondered if we would spend another day working on cut-lines.  The board made it clear to me that we would.  This time, my attitude was different, and I was able to enjoy the assignment from start to finish.  Feel free to chalk up a journalism nerd point for me.  I'm ok with it.