By: Megan Gosch
In the Telegraph's report, "Exam boards: how examiners tip off teachers to help students pass", reporters Holly Watt, Claire Newell, Robert Winnett, and Graeme Paton used computer-assisted reporting to examine the practices of the WJEC course in London, found to be teaching based off of exam questions rather than teaching a well-rounded course.
The reporters have used the WJEC website among other web sources to verify the recommendations of the course instructors for the central evidence of the story, that teachers are being advised to not focus the full course syllabus and to focus on the sections being tested that year.
It appears from this story that the reporters simply went to the WJEC general website and did not necessarily use in-depth computer assisted reporting. The computer assisted reporting used in this story seemed very basic and could have been done by anyone with a computer wanting to learn more about the WJEC program.
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By: Megan Gosch
In the Washington Post's article "California Supreme Court says backers can Defend Gay Marriage Measure in Legal Challenge," a co-worker of mine, Steph, found there to be equal coverage.
Steph is openly gay and closely follows the actions being taken towards legalizing gay marriage. She found that in this article there was an equal amount of coverage for both sides of the gay marriage issue but that is not necessarily always the case. She said that the an article will often only quote a representative or a lawyer from one side of the issue which makes it difficult for her to understand the context and everything that is being said about gay marriage.
Steph did not find that this article reinforced or went beyond any stereotypes about gay people or gay rights but did prevent stereotypes by even and accurate coverage of the issue.
Steph is a student that I work with at the University of Minnesota.
By: Megan Gosch
In a New York Times article, titled " Putting the Brakes on Web-Surfing Speeds," the writer used numbers to convey a certain number of people in a sample size, the number of tests run in a specific amount of time, and the percent chance of an indicator referred to as a "false positive," among other numbers used.
The numbers used in this story are a bit overwhelming because it uses a great deal of statistics related to the story, but I do not feel that these numbers are hard to grasp as they relate to separate concepts and are not overwhelming within their respective paragraphs. I don't think there would have been an easier way for the author to fully describe the story without having used as many numbers as were used.
It does not appear that the writer had to actually do any math, but used numbers straight from studies that had recently being conducted, results were used directly from the tests that he mentions.
The sources of the numbers are not clearly stated, making it a bit difficult to the reader to determine what tests exactly produced what results or percentages. The sources were not listed completely.
By: Megan Gosch
When reading the obituary of Norman Ramsey, reported in the New York Times article "Norman Ramsey Dies at 96; Work led to the Atomic Clock," it is clear that the traditional obituary structure is used.
The sources used for this article include his wife Ellie, Leon M. Lederman (the director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), Isidor Isaac Rabi (physicist), Daniel Kleppner (professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Gerald Gabrielse (a colleague of Ramsey's and a physics professor at Harvard.
The lead for this article does fit with that of a standard obituary, stating Ramsey's name, why he is notable, when and where he died, and how old he was at the time of death. This lead works because it is very straight-forward and is to the point, letting the reader know why they should care about the person lost.
This article differs from a resume in that it focuses on who Ramsey was as a person as well as his accomplishments and skills.
by: Megan Gosch
In the press release "Concerns Over Potential Mesothelioma Threat Lead to Environmental Meeting, Says Surviving Mesothelioma," for the San Francisco Chronicle, the public meeting is a meeting of some of the nation's top health and environmental officials in Washington to discuss the mineral called mesothelioma.
The role of this meeting in Washington is one of the main subjects of the press release. The story is announcing the meeting and drawing attention to the issues associated with mesothelioma. The story's focus is why officials are meeting to discuss the mineral, which is that mesothelioma is a known carcinogen and the American public must be protected from it.
The information from this story was attributed to a number of sources including the Surviving Mesothelioma website, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Fairwarning.com, and the U.S. Geological Survey to analyze what mesothelioma is exactly and what kinds of dangers it may threaten.
When comparing the New York Times article "French Charges Against Strauss-Kahn Dropped" and the Time Magazine article "French Prosecutors Drop Attempted Rape Charge Against DSK" it is clear to see that Time offers blogs as a form of multimedia, seeing as their article is in a blog connected with their website. Both organizations offer multimedia in the forms of photos, videos, text, etc. to report a story.
These varying forms of multimedia complement news stories by providing more information and a different perspective or dynamic to a story with the same information. For example, a picture of a car crash will provide different type of the same information to an audience as a description of the car crash.
The kind of writing that I've seen in alternate forms of media such as an article and a blog seem to be that the article is longer and has more detailed and different information while a blog has more information for a specific angle or seems to be briefer.
by: Megan Gosch
In my story of the death of Steve Jobs, "Steve Jobs Died 'Peacefully,' Family Says," a few updates were added to provide the most current and up-to-date information.
The leads of the two versions remained virtually the same, only changing by adding the exact cause of death to the most recent lead.
The main news was summarized almost exactly the same, only changing slightly to add additional details, such as who was with Jobs when he died. These additional details are how the second story advances the news, providing the most current information as it is received.
From what I can tell, the changes in the second story are not in response to other organizations covering the same story, but in response to receiving additional information regarding the story.
by: Megan Gosch
The progression of the information in the article "Til 2013 do us part? Mexico City mulls 2-year marriage," reported by MSNBC new, uses the traditional inverted pyramid for information. The most important and fact based information is placed at the beginning of the story, with more opinion base information towards the end.
The reporter has summarized the important elements into short, concise paragraphs, each containing one main idea. The information has been ordered giving the "who, what, where, when, why" first, then giving more details in order of importance.
This order of information is effective for this story because it draws the audience in and keeps them reading with the progression of the details. Although the information could be arranged differently, I find the order effective as is.
by: Megan Gosch
When analyzing the article "As hog prices soar, thieves act," reported by the Star Tribune, three sources are used to explain the story. The sources named are Ryan Bode, a pig farmer, Kent Bauman, a local detective, and Rick Grommersch, a pork board member.
The sources used are scattered throughout the story and made very clear who they are. The sources are also introduced very clearly so that the reader knows who is speaking and how they relate to the story. The information in this story is mostly from the people involved in the story.
The reporter has set up the attribution to the story clearly by stating their first and last name, then explaining their title or who they are (occupation or otherwise). The attributions are effective because they clearly state who the person being introduced is without interrupting the story or blurring them with the facts.
The attributions in this story were very clear and effective, and helped to create a cohesive and interesting article.
by: Megan Gosch
As can be seen in "Minnesota forest fire spreads plume far and wide" by the Associated Press, a news lead works in a story to use the five W's to hook in a reader to read the rest of the story.
The five W's, the key elements of a news lead, provide the reader with "the who," "the what," "the where," "the when," and "the why." This AP article's lead details the what (a plume of smoke), the where (Minnesota's north woods and Milwaukee/Chicago), the when (Tuesday), and the why ( a Minnesota fire).
The general (v. detailed) information provided by this story's lead included the location of the fire. The lead stated that the wildfire took place in "Minnesota's north woods" rather than stating a more specific location. This lead is also very general in addressing who is affected by the fire, leaving the reader to imply that Milwaukeeans and Chicagoans have been impacted by the smoke.
This story did use a hard news lead to get the message to the reader directly, preventing any delays, rather than using a news lead with a type of angle.
