Recently in Analysis Category

By Christina Munnell

I found an investigative story about fraudulent-researched drugs on ProPublica.org through the Nicar link. In the article "FDA Let Drugs Approved on Fraudulent Research Stay on the Market." writer Rob Garver uncovers the truth about prescription drugs consumers frequently use. According to his research, there are about 100 drugs-including painkillers and chemotherapy compounds-that FDA officials deemed safe for consumer use but did not actually pass research tests. Garver used basic computer skills to gather this information and put the story together. The interactive elements of the story's webpage give his writing more appeal and really draws in readers.

Most of the interactive elements on this page are links to other pages. However, all of the links seem to "jump out" at readers and keep them engaged because they highlight a few key, interesting words. For example, one of the bold links says "FDA records," while another emphasizes "accompanying story." What I especially enjoyed about some of the links is that they were provided for certain facts or people I did not know. The writer gave links to background information for both Cetero and Lazanda, two FDA officials. Overall, links to all of Garver's research and data are what makes this story credible, interesting, and engaging.

Along with links and graphics in this story, there is one other interactive piece I have never seen before. There is an interactive "key points" chart. Because this is a longer piece, the writer found the most important elements of the story and compiled them in a chart towards the beginning. Each key point has a link to it and when the reader clicks on it, they are able to jump to that spot in the story where that topic is covered. I think this is a really smart idea, especially when readers do not have time to read the entire story. This is beneficial in that readers are at least getting some of the story's content, rather than skipping right over it because it is too long. Though the interactive aspects of this story are quite simple, they add that quality that makes the audience want to keep reading. It really has that "get lost in it" feeling.

By Christina Munnell

In the Huffington Post's article "Rise Of Hispanic Evangelical Church" writers move beyond stereotypes and really develop a story that promotes the Hispanic culture and lifestyle. The article discusses how the number of Hispanics are growing greatly in the United States and how the evangelical church is growing with them simultaneously. This story does a nice job of capturing the perspectives of a cultural group that does not appear regularly in the media.

Huffington Post writers tell this story regarding Hispanic religion and customs through the actual eyes of Hispanics. They do not report facts using assumptions or commonly accepted stereotypes, but rather quote everyday people from this group to add credibility and emotion. This article also discusses the Hispanic fight for social justice in religion in the United States. They are trying to secure a place to call their own and develop cultural Evangelical churches in their neighborhoods.

Writers of this articles use many different sources, professional and common. For professional sources that discuss the rise of Evangelical Hispanics, reporters quote Pew Forum-who conducted the study, Time Magazine's Elizabeth Dias, and the President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council. More common sources were reverends and pastors from smaller churches and regular people of Hispanic decent on the street. Diversity in the news is important, as it tells stories from different perspectives and makes it more interesting. Media that adds different viewpoints in its stories makes for better writing and more credible news because it captures more detail.

By Christina Munnell

In the New York Times study "Investments in Education May Be Misdirected," the writer presents the statistics in a few different ways. Eduardo Porter uses numbers as a way to illustrate how children who start the education process even before kindergarten have an academic advantage later in life. The study backs up its information with numbers, but manages to do it in a way that the average reader can understand. One does not need to be a mathematician to comprehend the results. Overall, this piece does a nice job using and analyzing numbers.

Porter makes this study more interesting by using the numbers in different ways. He does not just stick with using percents or fractions. Averages, percents, ratios, and comparing words like "more than" are used in this study and add variety in a way the audience can understand. If Porter were to just use percents and percent changes to report results, readers might get bored or confused because they might not know what these numbers means. Instead, he uses phrases like "more than twice as much" to demonstrate findings.

Even though people like proof in numbers when reading about results of studies, they do not like to be overwhelmed with them. In this piece, Porter does a nice job of spacing out his number usage. He is strategic about his placement and lays out statistics every few paragraphs. This is effective because it gives the reader time to comprehend what each number means and absorb the true purpose of the study.

The numbers used presented in this article add much more credibility to this story. Porter's basic math skills took the burden off of readers to have to figure out ratios and percents for themselves. Numbers are really what makes this story effective because they illustrate how many children actually benefit by attending school in early years of life. Some of the sources the writer uses are from economic experts, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Program for International Student Achievment.

By Christina Munnell

In The New York Times obituary "Deke Richards, Creator of Motown Hits, Dies at 68," the reporter uses a traditional feature writing style that follows the lead-cause of death-chronology format. This obituary is successful because it provides clear information about the late Richards while portraying sympathy and respect towards him. It is a nice dedication that celebrates his life and accomplishments.

The story begins with a traditional obituary lead that states the person's name, provides a short blurb about what he was most notable for, then tells how old he was. Because this came from the New York Times, I noticed most of its obituaries followed a standard format for most of its feature stories. Not many deviated from the name-notable feature-age pattern.

The news value for this obituary is impact and prominence. Richards had many hit songs on song charts; people must have been impacted by his music and thought he was important to Motown and music history in general. The reporter actually uses Billboard charts as one of his sources when he lists Richards hits. Along with this, the writer also sites the family as a reference for the story.

The obituary differs from a resume in that it tells more of a story, rather than just listing accomplishments. A resume offers bullet points of a person's educations, job experience, and other awards. An obituary boasts a lot of this information as well, but does it in a way that sincerely celebrates a person's life. Overall, obituaries-especially this one-just list the most notable features of the person's life, rather than every aspect of it.

By Christina Munnell

Business Week journalist Joshua Green went beyond basic news writing when he covered Obama's 2013 State of the Union speech. He presented the facts as more of a story and addressed the content of Obama's words and ideas, rather than just reporting "there was a speech." As he crafted the story, he put Obama's words into paraphrased fact blocks and followed them with quotation paragraphs to back up his summaries. Green also weaved in background information like where the speech took place and who was in attendance.

The article "Obama's Ambitious, Unlikely State of the Union Speech" covers the content of Obama's speech in a way that would allow a reader to understand the speech without having actually attended or watched it. It begins with a lead that includes Obama's biggest point: the state of the economy and job loss. The following paragraphs continue to quote Obama and paraphrase his ideas. To keep the story interesting, though, Green inserts additional comments about the audience and some facts regarding the history of State of the Union speeches.

Green crafts this story in a way that is easy to follow and understand. It is effective in that if one had not seen or attended this speech, they would still get the most important facts from Green's story. The article goes beyond the fact that there was a speech and analyzes the content of the speech while providing interesting background information and audience reaction. Its descriptive details makes a person feel like they were actually there. Overall, Green does a nice job of combining fact points, quotes, and background information to keep readers interested.

By Christina Munnell

Both the Los Angeles Times and ABC News have intricate multimedia features on their web pages. They do a nice job of incorporating and balancing text, photo, audio, and video. All the features these news organizations use are displayed in a way that is not overwhelming to the reader and is, for the most part, easily accessible. Overall, they are both successful in providing visually interesting, entertaining, and interactive multimedia features.

At first glance, the Los Angeles Times is rather busy. They offer many pictures and videos to compliment feature and breaking news stories. Though there is a lot going on, it is still easy to navigate. Designers have made headlines and hyperlinks bold, making it easy for users to browse the content. The "Times" also uses multimedia to organize and categorize their stories and other content. For example, they have hyperlinks for "Obituaries" and "Entertainment."

Like the LA Times, ABC News uses a lot of multimedia to compliment its news stories. Though not as busy as the Los Angeles Times, ABC News has plenty of interesting visuals and videos to keep the reader engaged. They, too, use pictures and bold hyperlinks to categorize stories.

Using multimedia is advantageous in that it adds to the writing by making it more interesting and encourages user participation. Readers are more likely to want to read a story if it has a video or pictures, as opposed to a long text block. The writing and content of the stories is still engaging, but it is more engaging when multimedia is added. Because society's attention span seems to be slowing down, using multimedia to make stories more engaging is not just beneficial, it is practically essential.

By Christina Munnell

When CNN initially reported the story on the shooting and car crash that left three dead on the Las Vegas strip, they focused more on the facts of the incident. The article "Rapper among dead after shooting, fiery crash on Las Vegas Strip" focuses on the story chronologically and provides much information about those killed. The follow up story-released the next day-focused more on who or what was responsible rather than just providing facts. In "Police search for Range Rover after shooting, fiery crash on Las Vegas Strip," writers try to uncover the why.

The lead in the first story was very informative and straight forward; it stated the who, what, where, and when. I think because the first lead provided all the essential facts of the story, the second lead wanted to add new insight. Thus, the lead questioned who was behind the shooting in the second story. The only new information the second lead provided was that police were on the hunt for the person responsible.

As far as the entire story goes, the second story provides much more detail than the first. Naturally, more details are uncovered with time, giving the second story an informational edge. The first story, though quite specific, does not go as in-depth as its follower. Overall, both stories provide interesting, adequate information on the shooting and crash. If there were (and there probably will be) a third story, it can be assumed that story will be more insightful than the second story. More often than not, stories look to provide information that is new and timely.

By Christina Munnell

Writer Eric Lacitis of the Seattle Times article on the "Bitter Barista" is structured in a way that provides the information in sort of a feature story format. He follows the inverted pyramid style by beginning with the most important facts, but elongates the story by adding a lot of details and quotes. He also has a tendency to tell the story in chronological order.

In the article "Bitter Barista loses job over snarky blog about customers, boss," the progression of information starts with a strong lead that gives the most important information. Then, instead of getting right to the hard details, it provides quotes from Watson's blog and other facts about Watson's life. The story is written in a way that gives a lot of background information along with the facts.

The writer summarizes important facts, but sort of interjects them in-between other, less relevent paragraphs, like Watson's dream of becoming a rapper. The ordering is a bit confusing in that it begins by following a chronological order, then jumps back and forth from fact to fact near the end. I believe Lacitis did this because even though this is a breaking news story, it is sort of a human interest story as well. People are interested in knowing about the blog and Watson, rather than just knowing of his job loss.

Because this was a lighter story, the structure was effective in that it provided many interesting details and background information along with the hard facts. Perhaps Lacitis could have followed more of a coherent pattern. Overall, the story is well-written and interesting enough that the audience would read it to the end.

By Christina Munnell

CBS News writers were very thorough in the way they made claims and attributed information throughout their article regarding gay marriage in the UK. Not only do they use a variety of sources to explain the story, but also they use sources that express opposing views. This really adds to the story, makes it more objective, and improves the overall quality.

In this story, CBS focuses a lot on commentary from professionals and people involved with the legislative vote. For example, writers used many quotes from British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was a driving force behind the bill in the first place. They also use quotes from Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale to present the opposing view.

The attributions are evenly placed throughout the story; the organization of quotations and other sources appear spread out and clean. The writers also do a nice job of presenting statistics along with quotes from people. Doing this adds to the crediblilty of the story and makes it more interesting for the reader.

Overall, the way attribtion is presented in this story is effective in that it is organized and plentiful, but not excessive to the point of overwhelming the reader with information. The sources used are also credible, reliable, and different. Differing opinions from sources are what makes stories like this one more diverse and objective because they present all sides of the story.

By Christina Munnell

The writer of the article Egypt's Morsi declares 'state of emergency' on the Al Jazeera news website does a great job of presenting the reader with an attention-grabbing lead. The writer's style and approach in the lead makes the reader want to continue on, proving its effectiveness.

The lead itslef (which can be found here) includes several of the news values one would expect from a breaking news story. Not only does the lead express impact, timeliness, conflict, and emotion, but also it includes all the information one would need to know about the rest of the article in that one sentence.

The lead discusses the who, what, when, where, and manages to include the why in one clear and concise sentence. The most important details of the story could be found in the lead, but without it being to wordy or containing too much information. The writer was detailed enough so the reader got all the facts of the situation, but general enough so the reader was not overwhelmed with smaller, more irrelevent details. This, in turn, was effective, as I was a reader who wanted to know more after reading the lead.

I realized after I was finished reading the entire article that the lead had been a stepping-stone to the rest of the article. Everything one needed to know about the Egypt crisis could be found out just by reading the lead. The lead acts as a map and guides the reader to greater and greater detail with every passing paragraph.