Recently, I’ve been covering high school sports for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Check out some of my latest pieces by clicking the photos below!
ARTICLES: My Latest Freelance Work!
ARTICLE: Lake Placid Varsity Cross Country Meet
Click the image below to see the online version of my latest work freelancing for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, including more photos of the cross country meet!
PHOTOS: Fall Leaves in Upstate New York
This past Saturday, I biked all around South Glens Falls, New York to capture the changing fall leaves. I went to the Betar Byway, the Cooper’s Cave Park, and the Moreau Recreational Park. Check out some of my best shots in the Instagram post below!
ARTICLE: The Mariners House: A Seafarers’ Haven in the Heart of Boston
Click on the image below to check out my recent work reporting on the Mariners House, an inn in Boston’s North End specifically designed for seafarers.
Photo Gallery: Wreath-Making for Advent at Marsh Chapel
Click on the image below to check out photos of a recent holiday event at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel!
Newstrack #4: Final Observations of the “Cambridge Chronicle”
For my fourth and final Newstrack, I’ll be focusing in-depth on the actual content of the Cambridge Chronicle site. When looking through the various stories on the Cambridge Chronicle’s website, I found that they tended to fall into four different categories: press-releases-turned-article, community calendars, syndicated state and national news, and in-depth local coverage.
Although thankfully not too common, some of the stories on the website were crafted entirely based on “courtesy” content, coming off more as an in-depth advertisement than a news article. For example, one of the top articles was a photo story about a new market opening this week. While it initially looked like an interesting story, all of the photos were courtesies provided by the Brothers Marketplace (just of generic shots around the building) and the brief captions repeated the same dry facts likely from a press release. This story, while on a topic of community interest and not unhelpful, lacked the pleasant touch of community viewpoints.
Upcoming events and community calendars were also relatively common. Some of the articles just focused on a single event, and others listed events centered around specific celebrations or topics. One example of the latter was an article highlighting various Veteran’s Day observances in the Greater Boston area.
Also, news items that are larger than just Cambridge, including national and even state news, tend to come from writers outside the Chronicle, such as other “Wicked Local” sites and even other news services. For example, most of the state-news coverage comes from writers at the “State House News Service” (left below), and the majority of the entertainment news comes from writers at the Patriot Ledger, a branch of the “Wicked Local” brand (right below).
Despite the presence of all the above kind-of stories, the local stories are the most prominent and noteworthy on the site. Most of these stories go into depth on topics of great interest to the Cambridge community, such as bike safety, small businesses, and recently election coverage. These stories also notably show each issue from multiple angles, such as various business owners, elected officials, and average individuals, giving it an authentic Cambridge feel without compromising any journalistic integrity.
VIDEO: Thoughts About Impeachment Around Boston
This is a “person-on-the-street” story examining different people’s perspectives on the current impeachment inquiry of President Trump. Abby Kelley is a Boston resident, Vitoria Cunha is a Brazilian exchange student at Boston College, Emily Wu is a sophomore at Boston University, and Jessica and Timothy Rock are residents of Florida visiting Boston.
Newstrack #3–More Observations of the Cambridge Chronicle
For my third Newstrack I took a look at the mobile site for the Cambridge Chronicle. Just like on a desktop, the website is easy to locate. While the visuals translate to mobile site pretty well, the headlines don’t work quite so well. Since the articles tend to have rather long headlines in general, the headlines are often cut off because they simply don’t fit on a screen. This isn’t effective because readers can’t get a full idea of what the article is about before clicking on it. Readers are probably less compelled to click on articles in the first place.
Also, as I mentioned when analyzing the desktop version of the site, the native advertising is a bit obnoxious as it blends in with the stories themselves. However, because of somewhat-clunky layout, the “Sponsored Content” label stands out a bit more, which helps in distinguishing between ads and editorial content.
The menu and content tend to translate pretty well, although some of the photo galleries didn’t have clear labels. Also, a number of the sections from the site are put into swipe-through type formats, which although not the most aesthetically pleasing, helps reduce the need to scroll way down through the page in order to find stories of certain categories, which is convenient as a reader.
Multimedia Article: The Hidden Highlights of the North End
By Rachel Sharples November 4, 2019
With its iconic architecture, the literal line tracing Boston’s history in the Freedom Trail, and the ever-crowded Mike’s Pastry, the North End draws in hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. However, amidst the staples to every tourist trip, lesser-known sites and curiosities rich with North-End history and culture hide, both in plain sight and in unexpected nooks of the neighborhood.
The North End is steeped in Bostonian history, particularly with its deep roots in America’s colonial beginnings. Although countless buildings and relics characterize the North End, twelve sites in the neighborhood notably stand out as part of the National Register of Historic Places, a National Park Service list of “historic places worthy of preservation,” according to the website.
While some of these locations are hotspots for tourist traffic, like the Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, some are so obscure that even longtime Boston residents are mostly unaware of their existence, like the Vermont Building.
The map below displays the locations and brief descriptions of each of these sites.
Directly adjacent to the Paul Revere House, the Pierce-Hichborn House is an often-overlooked “hidden gem,” according to Kristin Peszka, the interpretation and visitor services director for the Paul Revere House and its affiliate buildings.
“It’s one of the oldest buildings in the city, but it’s not as well-known,” Peszka said in a recent interview. She also mentioned that the house opens only for “set tours at set times of smaller tour groups,” which contributes to its low profile relative to the Paul Revere House.
Even among the more popular stops of the North End, such as the Old North Church, certain historical quirks can go unnoticed amidst larger chronologies.
While recounting the complex history of the church, Meg Szydlik, a site educator, highlighted a little-known relic of note, the Avery-Bennett Clock.
“The Avery-Bennett Clock was built in 1729 by two parishoners who had never built a clock before and never built a clock after, and technically it still works, which is really cool,” Szydlik said. “I think it’s one of the oldest still-working clocks displayed in a public building.”
Some sites, although significant to the narrative of the North End, maintain a low profile by nature, such as the Mariners House, which is set up specifically to serve current or former seafarers.
Captain James Sorrentino, the executive director, expressed that although its tailored focus and the unappreciated role of seafarers limit the recognition of the Mariners House, the underlying importance of sea trade in Boston’s economy, both in the past and still today, has marked the Mariners House as essential in supporting people in this sector.
“The seafarers are an invisible sort of profession that affects the economy as we know it,” Sorrentino said in a phone interview. “So are we [the Mariners House] an integral part of the city as most people would know it? No, but [the Mariners House] performed this function years ago, and it’s still performing the same functions…We’re strictly invested in the seafaring industry, but it’s all based on the historical nature of the area, the city, and what the economy in the city was based on.”
The food of the North End is another aspect where straying from traditional tourist stops can lead to interesting discoveries.
One such example is Bova’s, one of the North End’s many bakeries. While not necessarily one of the best-known eateries, Bova’s stands out particularly for it’s hours of operation, allowing customers to purchase Italian treats from the family-run business any time of the day.
Some places are also hidden simply because of their location. Bricco Panetteria, another eatery specializing in homemade Italian goods, is located in an alley off of the iconic Hanover Street.
When considering what makes certain parts of the North End unique, Meg Szydlik said, “Unique is a hard thing though. It’s very rare you’re going to find a museum or a building that is actually unique. It’s how the different aspects come together that makes it so special.”
Newstrack #2–Continued Observations of the “Cambridge Chronicle”
As I explored the Cambridge Chronicle website for my second Newstrack assignment, one aspect that stuck out to me was the extensive inclusion of reader content. Letters to the editor seem particularly common. Even within the “Top Stories” section of the main page, five out of the seven stories displayed were letters.
A vast majority of these letters center around the city council and the education system, which seem timely and relevant for local readers in Cambridge.
Another significant aspect of reader inclusion is the “Wicked Local Reader Photos of the Day,” in which reader photos centering on a specific theme are displayed in a small gallery. Although I don’t really see the “newsworthiness” of these photos, it is a neat touch and seems popular with readers.
On the note of photos, the Cambridge Chronicle is very visual-heavy. Just about every story has a picture with it, and the video and photo sections are relatively high up on the home page. However, while there are many visuals, these visuals are often a bit underwhelming. Many photos are just of buildings, “Wicked Local file photos” that are a few years old, or bland logos (see an example logo below). To make the visual impact of the site more powerful, there needs to be fresher, more engaging photos to go with each story.
On a totally different note, I encountered a paywall for the first time, since last spring I was able to access the Cambridge Chronicle through my professor’s subscription. However, I was able to avoid the paywall by simply refreshing the page or by re-searching the link in a different tab. From a reader’s perspective, I was glad it was so easy to avoid creating a paid account, but from a publisher’s perspective, this lack of enforceability seems like a loss of profit.
Rachel Sharples 