For our Current Trends and News Media class, we are having a Newsroom Simulation and writing articles as if we are journalists. This idea really didn’t’ excite me at first because I still haven’t completely mastered journalistic writing. Anyway, each person gets assigned to a group with a broad topic and then goes on to pick a beat that caters to his/her interest. For example, I chose Copenhagen for Free; some others chose human trafficking/prostitution in Denmark (wow even though a really interesting topic, I can’t imagine how difficult it will be interviewing people…) and I know my friend is going to write about street musicians. Now the trick is to gather all information, interviews and turn in the article in a day, take a photograph AND write it with a partner- a simulation of what happens in real life. I’m so glad that Julie and I worked on it together : )
Our beat is on the free city bikes offered in Copenhagen. Yes, The City of Copenhagen places 2,000 city bikes and 110 city-bike racks around the city from mid-April through November. All you have to do is deposit 20 DKK (around $4US) coin and receive it in return of the bike when you are done with the ride. But there is a city-bike zone limit. The problem that Julie and I wanted to address was their theft rates and maintenance issues. We asked a local resident and he said that the bikes are not treated decently and often get stolen. But some DIS students said that it’s nearly impossible to steal these bikes. They are heavy, obnoxious, visible (bright colors), slow… BUT gets the work done. We contacted the city-bike provider who claims that he wasn’t in the office and would call me back, but never received a response. Well, at least he told me that people make 10-15 daily reports during the summertime if they see people riding on those bikes outside the city-zone limit!
Unfortunately I don’t even know how to ride a bike- but for those who do know… I’m sure it will be worth a try! Plus I hear they are quite popular : )
ps- I didn’t take the picture shown above… time crunch =.=












