Week 1
The focus of this article is highlighting the Boston College Men’s basketball team’s victory over the University of North Carolina Tar Heels (for the first time since 2010). It begins at the last 17 seconds of the game, and describing Jared Hamilton’s last second, three point shot as they were down by one. He was fouled and missed his first free throw, but made the next two, clinching up the win. It then went on to describe how the game got to that point through highlights and solid description of particular plays at certain time increments in the game. It focused a lot on how the score was very back and forth the entire game before looking forward to their upcoming game against the Duke Blue Devils. It touched upon BC’s devastating blowout loss in the teams last meeting before ending on a hopeful note going into the next.
Week 2
The focus of this article is a bakery combining Japanese and French cuisine. It is known as Japonaise Bakery, and is located fairly close to Boston College in the Brookline, Boston. It discusses the fact that in addition to many chain restaurants and bakeries, the city of Boston is home to many one of a kind culinary experiences as well. It provides some history of Japanese –French fusion in addition to an interview with the owner. The interview with the owner goes on, describing his influences and why he opened the place. The piece concludes by offering important information/ a call to action for Japonaise. This included hours of operation, as well as some of the basic menu items. It was informative, but fairly short and to the point, there to highlight Japonaise, and not too much else.
Week 3
The article focuses on the Boston College Women’s basketball team. The writer begins by painting the portrait of a BC team member shooting a half court shot as they build tension, just to reveal they missed it in the next paragraph. They use this to help establish that this article’s focus was how for the majority of the game, it looked like every time something could go wrong for BC it did, including multiple missed buzzer beaters. More importantly though, the writer chose to focus on how hard the team fought, the positive things they tried to do to come back, and the incredible buzzer beater that finally won them the game in the end. The writer also chose to use strong quotes and paraphrase from the coach, especially in the end of the article. All in all, they did a good job of presenting a hard fought win for the team in a way that is both entertaining, attention keeping, and positively reinforcing to the team.
The article states clearly between the title and lead that it is about the BC Dining Services hosting a forum as a Student-Administrator Forum. It gives information about how these forums started, with linkage to sources pertaining to this. They also establish that BC Dining Services are a service that is not from an outside dining provider, but is self-operated, with all employees being employed by Boston College itself. It also states that there were 7 people in attendance on Wednesday (besides Heights Staff and Michael Osaghae, UGBC president and MCAS ’20). The rest of the article goes on to be mostly an interview with Megan O’Neill, associate director of restaurant operations, about the pretty generic information she had to provide about employment as Dining Services members, as well as its impact on the students. It also addressed student concerns, particularly meal costs, as well as ease of access to food and student comfort in the dining areas.
Week 4
This article focuses on voter turnout for the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) 2020-2021 election. It uses a lot of statistics and well done research to illustrate the recent rise, as well as theorizes a bit about the fall in voters since a historic high in 2014. It has a simple line graph that shows the UGBC voter turnout from 2012 to 2020. They also discuss the fact that the Election Commission (EC) did not provide a response to the questions “why turnout has been low in recent years and whether it is working to raise turnout” as well as that the EC didn’t provide voter demographic information related to year and school from the 2020 election when asked for it. They end by discussing differences between the recent elections and the elections from back in 2001 and 2002. They describe how the process back then was in person and there were organizational issues with UGBC.
This article focuses on the recently elected UGBC President and Vice President, Christian Guma and Kevork Atinizian. It focuses on the policies they want to implement as well as some things they’re doing before they’re even officially sworn in this coming April. They are trying to work on getting students discounts from ride services such as Uber in Lyft. Guma has reportedly been in contact with Lyft recently concerning the subject. It also begins to focus on the President and Vice Presidents four main policy points from campaigning which include “Uber and Lyft discounts, transparency in UGBC, a University LGBTQ+ resource center, and improved mental health resources on campus.” The article also features solid interviews with Guma and Atinizian throughout it based on the policy in discussion. They also discuss the UGBC’s new website, as well as finishing the article by questioning the organization. It ended with a strong quote from Guma questioning one of the schools organizations budget transparency in a very respectful manner.
Week 5
This article discusses a CAB (Campus Activity Board) event based around the social media app TikTok. The event gave four groups of participants twenty minutes to make four TikToks. The participants were allowed to use the songs “Mrs. Officer” by Lil Wayne, “Did Too Much” by LLusion, the “I am actually president of the company” Undercover Boss sound by TikTok user itspatman, as well as a song or sound of their choice for their final TikTok. The competition was judged by two members of CAB, with the winners receieving “E-boy” prizes which included: a black hoodie with “Ok Boomer” printed in the style of the TikTok logo,clout goggles, chains, and the book How to Become Famous on TikTok by Nina Ullman. The article also featured many interviews with the students, who discussed their enjoyment of TikTok. It also described some of the TikTok’s submitted and their subject matter (a major one being the president getting upset about people walking on the grass on campus).
The article is focused completely on Boston College Football player AJ Dillon and his recent NFL combine. It is very in depth on his statistics such as his 4.53 second 40-yard dash, forty one inch vertical, and 247 pound weight, putting him at the heaviest of the backs in the combine, as well as his breaking a record of first running back over 235 pounds since 2000 to get at least a forty inch vertical. They compared Dillon to other serious draft contenders in his position group, as well as previous draft results as well (such as Saquon Barkley in 2018). Dillon apparently also predicted his vertical on Twitter. The article featured many Twitter quotes, as well as a couple of Twitter video clips from BC Football and the NFL. It proceeds to focus on his achievements during the season before closing on a positive note about his impressive performance and potential high draft value.
Week 6
The article describes how the BC Women’s Basketball Team upset Duke 84-77 in the ACC tournament. This is the first time the team has made it to the semifinals of the tournament since 2009. It describes the game, and more specifically the 14 to 0 run the team went on in last few minutes of the game. The author goes into detail about the players and the ways they scored, as well as took the lead back. It highlighted Duke’s great performance as well, but took it as a chance to highlight the performance of the BC Women’s Team’s bench. It goes on to continue describing the way particular players scored and the final events of the game. It went on to compare the game to the only other game the Duke and BC team played that year, in which BC lost. It incorporated good photos and a twitter video.
The article focuses on the fact that in response to a previously reported upon protest, Boston College agreed to meet and have ongoing discussions with Climate Justice at BC (CJBC). CJBC was urging the school to divest from fossil fuels. The article gets a quote from the CJBC Vice President about their frustration with the schools lack of plans to divest from fossil fuels. It continued to quote the CJBC Vice president about their qualms, as well as the organization as a whole. It then shifted focus to BC, who cemented their stance of not switching away from fossil fuels. They pretty unabashedly said they rely on fossil fuels and the money invested from it too much to divest. The schools statement went on to offer their position on climate change and sustainability and what they think students and staff can do to help.
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