Rebecca Nuger Portfolio

Contents
Resume 4

Letters of Recommendations 6-8

Creative Communications Samples 6

Writing Sample 7

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Resume

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 R E B E C C A N U G E R

6905 EDWIN WAY Email: RNUGER2@UIUC.EDU

ROCKIVILLE, MD 26150 Web: WWW.REBECCANUGER.COM

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Advertising 2009
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL
• 3.52 GPA/4.0

EXPERIENCE
Sales Associate June 2006-Present
Mobile Cellutions Verizon Wireless Aurora, IL
• Worked as both a sales associate as well as in the administrative department
• Gained experience in selling and administration.

Leo Burnett Advertising Bootcamp Fall 2008

Hosted by Leo Burnett and th Champaign, IL
• Worked in teams of four to develop and execute an advertising campaign.
• Used different mediums of advertising while working with executives from Leo Burnett.

Program Volunteer Summer 2005

University of Illinois Extension Kankakee, IL
• Helped run programs for 4-H.
• Helped with administrative duties around the office.
• Worked with underprivileged children participating in Extension programs and activities.

SKILLS
InDesign, Photoshop
My website: www.rebeccanuger.com
Research: Lexis Nexis, SPSS.

AWARDS
Illinois State Scholar
AP Scholar with Honor

LEADERSHIP & ACTIVITIES

Hinsdale South High School Badminton March 2002—May 2006
• Voted senior captain of the state champion team by teammates
• Chosen MVP by coaches for leadership throughout the 2006 season

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Paste the 1st JPEG (picture) of your recommendation letter here.

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Creative Communication Samples

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Print advertisement for Heinz Kickr’s Hot & Spicy.

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Billboard created to increase tourism in Greece.

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Advertisement for Time Magazine. Continuation of a previous campaign.

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PetSmart advertising created for Leo Burnett Advertising Boot Camp.

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Direct mail postcard created for PetSmart campaign, Leo Burnett Boot Camp.

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Billboard advertisement created for fictional company Luxury Hotels for PR campaign project
in Advertising 410.

Swimming in Lake Michigan

in 30° weather?

Try our pool.

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 One of the most covered and important stories in the media of late is Senator Barack

Obama’s announcement that he will run for president. This story has been covered by every

media outlet available, each giving a different interpretation of the announcement itself as well

as what it means for the future of the country. It is clear when looking at three different types

of newspapers, mainstream, alternative, and independent that not everyone sees this event in the

same light. While mainstream and alternative newspapers both attempt to give an accurate re-

porting of the event, the alternative have the tendency to show a little more bias and cover the

story in a different way by picking a specific point or angle to focus the article on. Independent

news sources on the other hand are completely different than either of the other two because

anyone can take the event and give a personal interpretation of what it means to society. In the

case of Barack Obama’s candidacy for president a blog found on prezpolitics.com, stated that

the important thing is not that Obama is running for president but that he has made a proposal

for fundraising reform and the problem with the campaign system is fundraising. Mainstream

and alternative media outlets are usually more predictable in what a given story will be about

than independent media because they have certain criteria to stick to due to that the fact that

they are run as businesses.

The Chicago Tribune, a mainstream newspaper, covered Obama’s announcement from

all sides giving facts about the announcement as well as how it was received by the public. The

author, Christi Parsons uses direct quotes from Obama’s speech as well as good imagery and

description of the scene at the Illinois capitol in Springfield. There does not appear to a bias or

opinion in the article, in fact, it is clear that both sides the

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pro-Obama opinion as well as the anti-Obama opinion, are represented. Parsons describes in

detail the scene at Obama’s announcement and the thousands who turned out excited to hear a

speech that is a part of history. She also describes the protestors that are present to express their

disagreement with the Senator’s position on abortion. Overall the article seems to give just the

facts and any parts that may have opinion in them are quotes from outside people commenting

on Obama’s candidacy for president.

Alternative newspapers are known to be a little more subjective than mainstream news-

papers. The article found in The Nation lives up to this idea and discusses the fact that Obama

does have real challenges ahead of him needing to overcome Senator Hilary Clinton and 2004

Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards for the party nomination. The article makes state-

ments that Barack Obama failed to meet inflated expectations during his first two years as a

senator and other similarly opinionated comments. While the article is not blatantly biased and

does present two sides to whether Barack Obama will be able to win the party nomination there

are some statements that are clearly subjective. An example of one of the subjective statements

that is made in this article is, “Did Obama hit the trail for Democratic Congressional and guber-

natorial candidates in the fall of 2006 with a plan to propel himself into the 2008 competition?

Perhaps.” The question in and of itself calls for speculation. While the writer may not be voic-

ing his opinion strongly one way or the other it does imply a sense of subjectivity that usually

cannot be seen in a mainstream newspaper.

Objectivity in journalism requires presenting all sides to an issue and not including

opinion in the news story. The Chicago Tribune makes a clear attempt at objectivity covering

all sides of the event and giving only personal opinions of outside

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spectators, not the writer. The alternative news source, The Nation, does not stay as objective

as the Chicago Tribune, but it does not have a clear and overwhelming bias either. The two ar-

ticles all in all seem to be pretty similar and are not distinguishingly leaning toward one opinion

or the other. Though the mainstream and alternative newspapers seem to be pretty similar with

only a few minor differences the independent news source on the other hand has obvious opin-

ion and a different style of writing.

The difference in the writing style can be accounted for in the fact that both of these

newspapers are run as businesses and behind every business is a desire for money therefore they

need to attract as many readers as possible. The only way to attract a large readership is to

make an attempt at objectivity and not have an obvious slant to either side, in this case it is re-

porting Senator Barack Obama’s announcement that he will run for President in 2008 as just an

announcement and not saying whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. Objectivity is not al-

ways entirely possible, but according to Brett Cunningham it does seem possible to get close,

“Some 75 percent of journalists and news executives in a 1999 Pew Research Center survey

said it was possible to obtain a true, accurate, and widely agreed-upon account of an event” (p.

4 of 10). This “widely agreed-upon account of an event,” is exactly what mainstream and most

alternative news sources strive for because objectivity or at least the attempt at objectivity is

what journalism was founded on.

“The Real Obama News of the Week,” is an article that can be found on prezpoli-

tics.com in a blog. This article obviously has an agenda and is written in a different way than a

mainstream or alternative article. The diction of the article is extremely informal and is not

something that could ever be found in a mainstream

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newspaper. Also, rather than focusing on Senator Obama’s announcement the article morphs

into a different message. The author discusses the fundraising and millions of dollars that are

necessary to run a presidential campaign and commends Obama for his proposal that they insti-

tute a voluntary cap on spending for the election. It is clear that author is in favor of this be-

cause he says at the end of the article “Obama’s proposal for the general election is the first

small step in the right direction.” Throughout the article he discusses that due to the fact that so

much money must be raised many times the candidates with the best ideas do not get the most

money because they are not the popular one. He states blatantly that he does not support this.

Even though the article starts out stating facts, before long it becomes an obviously opinionated

article that is driven by the personal view points of the author.

An obvious bias in an article is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that

would never be found in either of the other two news mediums. Although, mainstream and al-

ternative articles can sometimes have hidden agendas (the key word being hidden); this inde-

pendent article does not try to hide the agenda or opinion. Articles written for independent

newspapers do not have anyone to answer to and no financial incentive behind it, therefore the

author can be completely free and open with whatever content is desired. Independent newspa-

pers are a good source for writers to voice their opinions according to “Re-thinking Objectivity”

and article by Brett Cunningham, “young writers asked to create their dream newspaper wanted

more point-of-view writing in news columns” (p. 4 of 10). Independent media is a great source

for writers to express their feelings as well as the public to read a more biased and personalized

article.

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 All people have different ideas about what objectivity really is or the way in which a

news article should be written. Some people may argue that an “objective” article is extremely

biased because it does not present a certain issue in the light in which that particular person sees

the situation. In other words, due to the innate biases that people have it is hard for each person

to distinguish something as objective or not because the reader may not have the ability to be

objective. Lance Bennett explains this concept well in his article “News Content: Messages for

the Masses” by saying “People in the middle see the medias as generally neutral, while those on

the left complain that the news is too conservative, and those on the right think the news has a

left-leaning bias,” (p. 38). Sometimes it is hard for a person to distinguish between his or her

own personal opinions and what the article is really saying. No matter what a person’s stance is

on the way the media should present certain things it is hard to argue that mainstream, alterna-

tive, and independent news sources have different ways of presenting stories. There are some

that prefer to learn all sides of the story and make their own opinion about what is right, and

others that want to see a specific point and opinion about a situation. Different types of media

have to present things in certain ways depending on what the history behind the organization is

and that is evident each of these three articles and the way the story is covered and presented.

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