| Ashwinder
Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: #ff5470 | #3b2f2f
Posts: 13,745
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Laini Gracae-Ryans
Slytherin Seventh Year  x10  x1
|  doesn't proofread tweets | #wrongaboutcereal | #siriusly? | emo to the extremo
SPOILER!!: friends Quote:
Originally Posted by astrocat  "Not all wizard news is reliable either," she mumbled quietly, barely audibly. It was something that needed to be said. Ashley always felt the need to defend muggles, especially... NOPE. Not going to think about her friends who she left behind. NOPE. But anyway, the teacher was asking about news anchors. "They have to be charismatic. Otherwise people wouldn't listen to them." They should also be smart and reliable, but it wasn't a perfect world. But she was pretty sure that anchors were specifically selected to get people to believe them. Finneas hadn't heard the mumbling, but if he had he would have been disappointed that she believed him to be implying anything else. Of course there were reliability issues on all ends. Furthermore, Finneas Schmoe is a staunch muggle supporter. Ms. Fox ought to have picked up on this at this point in the year. "Very good, point!" Quote:
Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl Oh the NEWS, yes, they were going to talk about the TV news! Well Bernie's dad liked to fall asleep to that every night around 6:30 or whenever he sat down in his recliner. She wiggled in her seat as she thought up an answer for what a GOOD NEWS ANCHOR should be like.
"They should have a VIBE of authority," she settled on as an answer, popping her hand in the air. "If they have a silly voice and face, no one will listen to them. That's why a lot of news anchors have a DEEP voice and a THICK mustache." She'd seen the American documentary Anchorman. She knew things. Finneas then turned his attention to Ms. Grantham, pleased to see that she was following rules this time around. Coincidentally, a vibe of authority was also something Finneas Schmoe was trying to have some more of #thanksWilliamson. "This is an interesting observation," he nodded. "Such quality would certainly render them more convincing." Quote:
Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom They were talking about the NEWS? How incredibly boring.
Adam had been keeping his mouth shut for the most part, because the news didn't interest him one bit. His dad usually just told him if there was anything going on in the world that he needed to be concerned with. Although...his dad WASN'T here at school with him. So maybe he should start paying attention on his own? But what good would that do? He was only twelve, after all. What impact did the news really have on him? Really?
He raised his hand though, in response to the question, because an answer just popped into his head and he figured he might as well show he was at least sort of paying attention. "They need to be able to read! Because of that thing that shows them all the words when they're on TV," he explained. You know, that thing! With the words! Pity that Mr. Luck thought so. Finneas actually found the news to be quite riveting! Though, er, he found a lot of conventionally tiresome things to be riveting. Perhaps he was not the best judge. "The teleprompter," he added helpfully. "Right you are, Mr. Luck! Their delivery of the news depends on it." Quote:
Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson Charlie had listened as people described all of the ways in which muggles might communicate and all she could think of was how her family often told each other what was happening through letters because her parents were always traveling and didn't have access to reliable internet or news paper. She didn't raise that point simply because it was a bit weird to those who weren't always having to do that sort of thing.
Ah news anchors, she knew a bit about these. Raising her hand "they should have a soothing yet commanding voice. That way people will listen to them." At least those were the kind of voices that she didn't mind listening to when she had to watch the news. Soothing yet commanding. Finneas grinned. "Though I'm, er, not sure that soothing is required, it certainly helps their case!" Perhaps this is why he often fell asleep whilst watching. It was Alina's least favorite thing. Quote:
Originally Posted by CruppieMom89 Not able to resist that she had seemed to get the question RIGHT for once in this crazy school, Ivy straightened up in her seat and her anger seemed to fade away. Ivy had gone to a news studio on a field trip at her Muggle school, so she knew some stuff about how the news worked. As some of her classmates mentioned, they had to be able to read and have a nice tone to their voice, but they were forgetting something. ”They have to look nice,” she said with her hand in the air. ”They all do their hair and their makeup, even the men! And they have to be careful about which clothes they pick so they look good together on the camera.” Finneas was relieved to see Ivy feeling much better. This meant he wouldn't have to intervene in that professor sort of way. That much he was very thankful for. "Excellent point, Ms. Taylor!" He grinned at her. Makeup? Say less. Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 Claudine nodded as Schmoe elaborated on her answer. The professor was right, of course: elaborating was something she rarely did and it was only because being in the spotlight made her uncomfortable. Maybe that would change someday. Maybe. As it was, the Slytherin paid attention to the other answers, noting that a lot of them had to do with the internet. The internet was yet another topic she was somewhat foggy on.
Ah, yes. The television. This was a topic that she had a good amount of knowledge on thanks to the homework reading. As for an anchor’s qualities? “A sense of humour possibly. The news can be depressing and for certain not-so-serious topics, the anchors should be able to lighten the mood. Perhaps if the segment is about pets, for example, they can make a few puns.’’ Claudine eyed Schmoe. Puns were his life, were they not? "Punderful ideas, Ms. Blaze." Geddit? Everyone loved a good pun. Schmoe? REALLY loved a good pun. Did they see his puns of the week? Did people read those? Oh, he sure hoped they did. Claudine got a huge awkward grin for her answer. And.... Finneas forgot to respond to it properly because now he was thinking about puns. Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice "And they should look and sound honest and objective, like someone people can trust," added Violet. Even though she felt that most of them were biased toward the one view or another. The next student to answer brought him back to reality. "Objectivity is vital, but this depends on the network and show they are on. Sometimes objectivity is rather scarce on particular programs." He wouldn't be naming any names, but er... It was always good to double check. Don't want to be getting the wrong spin on a story, amiright? Quote:
Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo Well, yeah. Of course she knew wizards did it too but there was lots muggles and wizards had in common and lots they both did. It was hard to not have overlap.
Rumours were anyone's friends, muggle or magical.
Emm rocked back and forth in her seat, listening to the others talk about anchors. It took her a bit but she did figure out what they were on about and had the p e r f e c t~ answer so of course, her hand shot up again.
"They gotta be drop dead gorgeous, Professor! They gotta look so good that even people who hate the news wanna be like 'oh Patrice, turn on the 7 o'clock news. That fit anchor is covering the story on kittens that nearly drowned'--because they don't really care about the news, see? They just wanna see what suit he's wearing or what shade of lipstick the sassy blonde anchor lady has on."
Then they'd flip to some other channel and carry on with their evening. Drop dead gorgeous? Finneas blinked a few several times. He could always count on Ms. Cambridge for her creativity, if nothing else. "I'm sure some people may tune into the news for that reason." Emphasis on the some because, er, some of them were in committed relationships and did not care about the shade of lipstick the fit blonde anchor lady had on. Some of them cared about the NEWS OF THE WORLD. Er. Right. AnYwAy. Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixRising Talking about the news? Carsyn wondered briefly about why Schmoe was reading the daily prophet and was slightly surprised by it cause like why wouldn't he be reading a muggle newspaper? Didn't he like muggles ??? Also as far as her answer went, the internet and phone thing was taken, and the seventh year added to her notes about friends and families, which sort of was what Emmerson had said. Cause there was some people she was certain received their news only from other people and not actual factual sources.
Moving on though, what were qualities that a news anchor needed to have ? Why was half her classmates superficial in caring about physical qualities? Oh, probably cause of first impressions and all, but Carsyn was 90% sure that while first impressions might get one the job, if what comes out of your mouth doesn't measure up, they wouldn't be able to keep the job. Raising her hand, "A positive attitude but more than that, they need to be open-minded to be able to objectively look at all sides of an argument, even if on a personal level they can be judgmental and know that one side is right. They can't offer their opinion on the matter either, but needs to not show bias or favoritism." Kind of like parents with their kids, which they all knew favoritism existed there even when parents would deny it. Schmoe wasn't reading the Daily Prophet, actually. Perhaps it appeared that way, but he was actually reading a paper copy of a local, muggle newspaper. He enjoyed dabbling in it all. "Those are all excellent qualities to touch up on," he replied with the bobbing of his head. Perhaps not all anchors were as objective as they could be, but striving for such was always a good thing. Quote:
Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow ”l think they’ve gotta be likable, Professor.” Which meant being a lot of the other things her classmates had already mentioned. Trustworthy, well groomed, charismatic. ”And I also think they’ve gotta be able to tell the news in a way that makes it easy to understand, you know? Like the way your mom or dad might tell you what’s happening in the world rather than some scientific genius. They gotta be able to make it clear for every viewer watching them..” If...that made sense. Finneas smiled at Cecelia as she began to answer the question. "Excellent points," he agreed. "Anchors are our vessels to the news. It's their job to deliver so that any ol' Joe Schmoe can understand, after all!" Heh. Joe Schmoe? That was his great grandfather's name. Quote:
Originally Posted by mellamaet Serena snorted in barely concealed giggles at the first year's (Emmerson) answer. Looks were definitely a major factor in choosing an anchor, she heard that exact same phrase coming from her mother whenever she asked Serena to turn on the telly at for the evening news.
"They have to have a clear, speaking voice. and they have to be able to pronounce words very clearly." She volunteered as she raised her hand to answer. It wouldn't do anyone good if the announcer couldn't enunciate his words properly - no one would understand the news! Finneas was quite pleased with the range of answers so far. Something which did not change as the next student answered. "Enunciating properly is vital, you are absolutely correct!" Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassirin That Emm was a real hoot, and Phoebe smothered her grin as the younger girl answered ol' Schmoe's question. The thing about her answer, though, was that it was absolutely certain that she really believed her answer, no matter how absolutely wrong it might be.
And since the professor hadn't minded her edit to the class rules, Phoebe decided that ol' Schmoe probably already knew that the Headmaster was a murderous fiend. So no reason to worry about that anymore.
"Do anchors report their own news or just the news that someone else gives to them? 'Cause people who gather the news should be super duper honest and trustworthy, but if you're reading someone else's news, then I suppose you can be a big liar." Finneas grinned awkwardly at Phoebe James. "Perhaps there are instances in which anchors can gather their own news, in general, however that job is allocated to others... Though, er, truth is an important bedrock for news delivery." Despite truth being called into question on occasion... And the, er, inherent biases. But uhhhhhhh. That conversation would open a whole can of worms. So. AnYwAy. Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy Truth be told, Heath knew about mobile news apps long before he read the muggle studies textbook. He knew about them because he’d actually used them before! Anyway, apparently they were talking about television news programs today. He looked up, paying attention as Professor Schmoe spoke, and he had to stifle a giggle at the mention of celebrity news. HIs dad would know all about that… well, not so much television, but he was the editor of an entertainment news magazine.
The next question piqued his interest. If they were talking about news anchors, did that mean they were going to put on their own news show later? Because he was so here for that! The more he thought about the qualities of a good anchor, the more he thought they weren’t much different from the qualities of a good actor. When approaching the question from that angle, it wasn’t hard to come up with an answer. The problem was that his brain was buzzing with so many ideas, he had a hard time narrowing it down to one answer!
His hand shot into the air like a rocket, and he said, “They should have compassion and empathy for their audience and the people involved in the stories they cover. It’s easier to convey a story respectfully and accurately when you can put yourself in the other person’s shoes.” Did that make any sense? That was the case in acting; it seemed the same principle would apply to news anchors.
Finneas gave Heath a thoughtful look as he answered. He quite liked creative answers like this. Out of the box thinking, it was. "Knowing one's audience is surely essential," he nodded.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daydreamer11 Naya listened attentively as her classmates gave their answers. She jotted down a few notes with her pen while the conversation progressed. Then it was time to move on to a more specific topic and the next question. Ahhh, the news. Naya had seen her share of news broadcasts on muggle television. When the professor mentioned news anchors, the Gryffindor thought about those she had seen over the years. They were very different and yet similar at the same time. They definitely did have a “type”.
Naya tried to think of an answer that hadn’t already been given. Finally she raised her hand to give her thoughts. “News anchors have to be in control of their emotions. Some stories they report on may be sad or upsetting or even funny. They have to be able to tell the story without letting their feelings about it show.” Although Naya had seen more than one news anchor burst into uncontrollable laughter at something that they were reporting, that was definitely not the norm. And last, but certainly not least! "Excellent point! It is key to reign in your personal emotions so that they do not affect the delivery of news in any way. Excellent, Ms. Lindsay." Alright, alright, alright.
"Excellent answers, everyone," he beamed. "Er, hopefully you were paying attention, as you will all get your turn to be a news anchor today. For now though, er, we'll be doing a little bit of arts and crafts to help set the scene. Unfortunately, err, as you know, technology doesn't work well at Hogwarts, so we'll be making our own televisions!"
Sort of.
"Grab yourself a box from over yonder," he motioned to the side of the room where there were a stack of empty cardboard boxes. "I have some scissors and other supplies up front. You can partner up or make your TV on your own. Feel free to, er, use the example I made as a guide." He paused to set it on top of his desk.
"Take the next ten minutes to do that! And errrr... Once you've made your television, come up to the front of the room and get yourself TV ready! Your classmates have touched upon the importance of looking put together, so er, make use of the supplies we have at the front of the room!" Remember those boxes in front of his desk? They held lots of makeup, hair brushes, pretend microphones, blazers, ties, bowties, ETCETERA. Anything they needed to be the best news anchor, all there! OOC: Time for the mini-activity! You'll have at least 48 hours for this.
In summary, have your charrie grab a box and cut out a cardboard TV for themselves. When they're done they can play with makeup / all the extra newsworthy accessories they might want to use for the next part of class! It's okay if they don't finish up before we move to the next part of the activity, there will still be time to get caught up as we move forward!
As always, let me (or Finneas) know if you've got any questions. We'll be around!
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