Sunday, March 17, 2013

Ohio High School Football Players Found Guilty

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/17/teens-with-immunity-testify-on-girl-intoxication-level-in-ohio-rape-trial/

In Steubenville, Ohio, two teen football players were found guilty for raping a a drunken 16 year old girl at a party last August. The football players, ages 16 and 17 were said to have attacked the girl at the party late that summer night. The boys allegedly first raped the girl in the backseat of their moving car and then once again in the basement of a house. The case shocked the Steubenville community and definitely raised questions about the influence of the football team in the community. The girl testified that she was heavily under the influence that night and even suspected being drugged. Photos later surfaced that showed the girl with the football players in a picture taken from the night of the party. Some people from the party testified in the players' favor saying and some testified against them.

I feel like this is a well-written article and is very relevant in journalism right now. This story has been all over the news recently and FOX News broke the verdict this morning. It was an easy read and contained a lot of background facts relevant to the case. How did you all like the article? And based on the facts from the case, do you think there was sufficient evidence to incriminate the two teens in the trial?

10 comments:

  1. I appreciated this article very much. I fell as though it was very newsworthy because it touched on various topics, such as the influence of community support, alcohol/drug abuse by teens, and family. The story was broken down efficiently and easy to read. I personally felt that there was sufficient evidence to incriminate the two teens on trial. Hopefully everyone involved in the situation takes the case seriously and learns from the situation.

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  2. KYLE WIGGERS: The author did a nice job of summing up the relevant details of (and the controversy surrounding) the case in a humanistic way. I felt, by the end of it, I knew exactly what had happened from crime to trial to conviction, but I also felt affected emotionally. Some of the quotes are incredibly weighty, and impactful, and powerful (like that of the mother of the girl). That's good writing.

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  4. Not only did I appreciate how newsworthy this story is but I liked how the story was written. It is in an inverted style, which we have been learning in class. This style helped support the story because all the important details and the verdict was read at the beginning. When you continued on you were given more details of the actual night and the case which was helpful if the reader wanted to know. After finishing the whole article I felt very informed and had a great deal of knowledge about the case.

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  5. I have been following this case ever since I heard of it in early December, so I guess I would say I know plenty about it. From everything that I have read previously, this specific story checks out with everything that I have seen. All the facts are presented in a way that had I not been following this story, I would know about everything that had to be known. What happened was tragic and I do believe that there was enough evidence for a incriminate those involved. It is nice that know that finally this case some things are getting resolved legally. I'm sure there will be more legal proceedings to be had, but at least this is a start.

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  6. I think this article was a very good example of use of the inverted pyramid. It was easy to read and follow along with, and gave all the information the reader could possibly want or need. Also, the author did a good job of stating all of the facts and not inviting any bias by showing all sides. Overall, I think this was a nice, basic article reporting a very saddening event.

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  7. I definitely agree that this story is newsworthy and I liked how it was presented. It really summed up the whole story and keyed in on the important parts. A few of the sentences seemed a little jumbled and somewhat confusing but I still liked the story over all. The author did a good job of showing all view points and incorporating different aspect including the rape itself, the alcohol, and the social media as well as conduct in general.

    I definitely think there was enough evidence but more, such as a rape kit, would have definately taken away suspicions.

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  8. This story is extremely newsworthy and also very relevant to us. Even though we are in college now, were were in high school a couple years ago. This is shocking not only for people in Steubenville, but all over Ohio. This article did a great job at giving information about exactly what happened. Each aspect of the case was talked about, which gave readers an over-all perspective of the situation.

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  9. The story is very newsworthy at this time and very relevant to everyone at Ohio University and in our age group. We hear administrators talking about rape all the time in school and we see signs in Baker and other places telling us that a drunk person cannot give consent. While there is enough evidence for the football players to be convicted, I don't believe they were the only ones at fault here. A heavily intoxicated 16-year-old is not going to be punished at all for drinking underage. I'm sure all the people who testified were also drinking, if not doing drugs as well. While these two are going to be punished, it seems as though everyone else will go home free.

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  10. The story describes each testament of the night and the events that occurred well, and it did a good job staying unbiased with the information, even though this storyline has had controversy about how new centers have gone about reporting it. the story was very vague in the final verdict of the boys however, and seemed to stem too much away from it's headline and into how other teens on that night should have been charged as well. Overall, a thought-provoking article about who should be found guilty and what to think about the whole situation.

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