Zephyrus

I should start off by saying that I really enjoy reading Zephyrus every month. Although, after analyzing some of the articles I realized some errors, I don't mean any harm to anyone who happens to work on Zephyrus. First I chose to look at the article title 'Newport Harbor: the new Laguna?' by Lauren Herreid. After reading this article the main thing that stuck out to me was, the "Who Cares?" method. Honestly this article was just outlining how a new show on MTV compares to an older show, Laguna Beach. I actually love watching both those shows and I found even I didn't care about this article. What also made me mad was the fact that they based their whole article on a POLL. The poll asked students at EHS if they preferred 'Newport Harbor' to 'Laguna Beach' and the author just went from there. From what I've learned in class this year I know that polls aren't a credible source of news and should not be used for journalistic purposes.
I also read the article 'Movie Watching for Less' by Stephanie Chen. I was impressed that this article passed the "Who Cares?" method and had the element of proximity. This article talked about the Hopkins movie theatre. Now, most things in Hopkins wouldn't have much to do with kids in Edina, but the movie theatre does because many Edina students have been there. Hopkins movie theatre features $2.50 tickets and you also don't have to drive very far. I really liked that she also added the downfalls too, like that you have to wait in a long line on weekends and also that the food was expensive. Students need all the facts before they make a decision. The only thing I didn't like about Chen's article was that after all her facts, she put her opinion which was "The price of the tickets definitely canceled out the crowdedness and the film quality." This was not an opinion piece and putting her own opinion there was unacceptable for a news story.
The last story I read was 'Camel ads promote unhealthy values'by Kristin Groth. I found a couple things wrong with this article. In the 8th paragraph she quotes an anonymous sophomore. We just finished learning about how quoting anonymous sources can ruin your credibility as a writer. Also, I don't think this article passes the "Who Cares?" method. It also seems pretty self-explanatory, like cigarette companies put demeaning pictures of women on their ads which is so '50s. Also it seems obvious that cigarettes are harmful no matter what the packaging is. I don't think the students of Edina High School are being informed by this article in any way.
Overall though, I really liked this issue of Zephyrus. I thought they did a great job of informing their fellow students while still adding their own flair to it. One thing is for sure, Zephyrus is definitely not boring :)