http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090412_Texan_apologizes_for_remark_on_Asian_names.html
The issue of cross cultural understanding is explored somewhat. This and the idea of transliteration go beyond stereotypical white misunderstanding.
This story does use diversity to explore the trouble people have with being Asian in America. Voting issues and other trouble are explored through the lens of diversity.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/05/boxoffice.ew/index.html?eref=rss_us
This article uses numbers surrounding the opening of "Fast & Furious" in several ways. It displays dollar amounts, ratios and comparisons.
These numbers help make the news value apparent. Saying twice as much is more apparent than listing the numbers. Other time listing numbers is alright if one is just using them as facts instead of ration and comparisons.
Irving R. Levine, NBC News Correspondent, Dies at 86
Several sources are used throughout the article. His son is quoted at the beginning. His career at NBC is a matter of some public record and probably easily accessible.
The article opens with a standard obituary lead. I understand his major accomplishment and why I should now about him.
The obit is different from a resume because at the end I feel like I know more about the person than just their accomplishments. A bit of his personality and effect on those around him comes through in the obit.
Home and Garden Show auction to Benefit Habitat for Humanity
The story uses the information from the websites for the show, Habitat for Humanity, and the Restore.
The angle of the story is there is a charity event occurring at the event which is mainly a trade and sales exposition. It lets people know how to donate and take part in the event and where to get more information.
The story is rather brief and close to a listing, but it does provide some background on the store beyond its activities at the show.
This story focuses upon Mayor R.T. Rybak's budget proposal to the city. The story mentions that the White House blog mentioned his proposal Monday. The reason the story focus upon the budget proposal is one, because it was mention by the White House blog, and two, because it is currently relevant to job losses and the economic downturn.
According to agenda's for the day the comments and mayor's proposal was only part of the meeting and subsequent documents put out following the meeting. Specifics about the budget and its implementation are left out. Police are focused upon, but they are not the only people losing jobs in the cities. Also happening that day was a meeting where a proposal to limit binge drinking in the city was made.
The two sources following the Hamas letter to President Obama are stop and follows. One of the stories only cover the delivery of the letter to John Kerry. The Second story covers the denial of the letter from Hamas.
The denial story is a later story from a different news source. It brings later information about the story than the first one. Because it is later it focuses upon the latest information as the main news value. It goes into limited detail about the information from the first story, telling only what is essential to know the background of the story.
Article : Microsoft bounty for worm creator
The structure starts as a general overview of the story. It then goes deeper into the story and gets more specific. Most of the information a person would need to comprehend the full story. Things like paraphrasing and quotes are used to summarize the important elements.
The structure allows for the reader to get all the needed information at the beginning of the story. This allows for fluid reading. A reader does not have to search through the story for buried information pertinent to the news value of the story.
Looking at the BBC story concerning the Wii console being used to help the elderly, the BBC used four sources; the University of Aberdeen, NHS Grampion, Dr. Alison Stewart and Dr. Marie Fraser. The sources are spread out throughout the article, usually preceding information that BBC received from the source.
The article is set up so the source is named before information is given from that source. It is effective in that the reader knows who the information came from. It is somewhat confusing. Information listed several graphs after naming the source hangs in the open as if lacking a source.
This article from the BBC had the following lead paragraph:
US swimming star Michael Phelps has admitted to "regrettable behaviour", after a UK newspaper published a photo of him apparently smoking cannabis.
The news elements this lead includes are the who, the what, and the when. The who is Olympic athlete Michael Phelps. The what is admitting to the regrettable behavior. The when is a general time after the newspaper ran a photo Phelps committing said behavior.
This lead tells the reader the most important part of the story in a concise manner. Things are left out of the lead, like the where because it is unimportant to the overall story. The when is left general because the news value is in the event happening, not the day it happened.
The two most important parts of the story are in this lead to draw readers in. The famous athlete and his misdeed are mentioned in the paragraph.
Focusing on some aspects and omitting others conveys the story and keeps people reading.