Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 11

Headline: She Tried To Report On Climate Change. Sinclair Told Her To Be More “Balanced.”

This week, I chose a story from Buzzfeed News for a number of reasons. As I understand it, among journalists, Buzzfeed is seen as a laughable news source, and understandably so. Their listicles rely on social media trends and crass humor for clicks, and when they attempt investigative reporting,  it is sloppily done, as exemplified in their Trump dossier leaks in January 2017, for which they garnered a considerable amount of negative attention. However, I noticed that their news staff was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist for international news reporting, which impressed me. I thought, “They must be doing something right.”

I gave their news section a glance and settled on this article about a reporter whose news station changed once Sinclair took over management. Her work was criticized more often, and she was encouraged to include the ‘conservative’ perspective in her stories, which seems valid, honestly. I also found this story interesting given the recent scrutiny of the media conglomerate.

I really love the way Buzzfeed lays out these long-form stories, and I assume they look equally as clean on mobile devices. The large photograph on top, with the headline and deck laid over, looks polished and immediately draws me in. This first picture is poignant and well-done; however, the pictures get increasingly strange and unrelated as the story continues. Crowe is seen with her dog in dim light in the last photo in the story. What does that pup have to do with Sinclair and her experiences with her former employer?

I like the inclusion of the drop-quotes, splitting up the different part of the story well. I also really appreciated them finding the tweet mentioned in the story about Crowe winning the Associated Press award.

As I have repeatedly mentioned in these assignments, when I critique articles, I look for a single person’s story to carry the article and the issue being discussed, and this article does that well, following Suri Crowe in the months after Sinclair took over management of her local news station. Her work became increasingly scrutinized, as were her ‘liberal’ views.

The sources in the story were strong, and I was very surprised that they managed to get quotes from the producer that Crowe claimed was mistreating her. I felt like their reporting was biased, though, even after they recorded both Crowe and her manager’s recollections of the incidents mentioned. The way stories are framed can also play a part in their tone and bias, and the way the story ends clearly nudges readers to empathize with Crowe, which seems hypocritical.

All in all, I was surprised at the thoroughness of their reporting, and I wish this story wasn’t buried under hundreds of articles about the Kardashians.

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 10

Headline: Who gets state dollars to help pay for college in Mississippi?

Given that my final article’s topic will be about scholarships in Mississippi, I wanted to choose a relevant piece related to that subject. This article was fairly recently written and comes from Mississippi Today. .It discusses state-funded financial aid during fiscal year 2017.

The headline of this piece made me click on it in the first place. It’s a question, and a question that I hope to answer. I wanted to read more about how the article answered the question. The article’s opening was poignant and also drew me in – the author writes about how the most financial needy students in Mississippi are barred from receiving one of Mississippi’s primary grants and has a quote from the state director of Student Financial Aid, further drilling that point home.

The point of my final multimedia project concerns financial aid over intercessions, specifically, and hopes to investigate why there are such few minority students in these courses over break. This article, though it doesn’t specifically discuss that, does touch on which minorities are receiving the majority of these state-funded scholarships and grants, and the statistics surprised me. Caucasian students in Mississippi received 73% of financial aid in 2017.

I was glad to see a graphic in the form of a pie chart on the page – it made identifying the demographics much easier. However, I was surprised to see how poorly it was designed. It was also interesting to see what types of students were receiving MESG, as it is a scholarship I was also awarded. Most of these students are from private schools.

The article touched closer on what I am interested in towards the middle about Pell grants. Though students who are eligible for a full Pell grant almost always receive them, the grants do not come close to paying for the cost of college. There is another confusing graphic a few paragraphs below this information.

I liked that the article was split into sub-sections. However, I was disappointed in the quotes and sources in this piece. I have noticed that there is practically no contact information for any state financial aid administrators online, and that finding that information requires quite a lot of digging, so kudos to the author for getting in touch with the director of state aid. However, she relies on her quotes for the majority of the article and shoves in a couple sources towards the last few paragraphs of the piece.

Though I understand that articles and their purposes’ vary, resulting in a different approach, (and this article was more of an informative piece than a feature) I feel like if the author had gotten in touch with a family or student who was directly affected, it would have been a much more effective article. That is the source that this story lacks. It has data and a strong primary source in Rogers, but I wish it would have expanded on the thoughts of the Alcorn State University president and Hinds County senator mentioned at the end.

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 9

Headline: Poor Treatment of Local Media Comes to Head at Sanders, Lumumba Town Hall

This week, I took a look at the website of one of my former employers – Jackson Free Press. The tabloid-style newspaper is an extremely left-leaning publication led by Donna Ladd, one of the few female editors-in-chief in Mississippi. The publication often focuses on culture, art, and entertainment in Jackson, but it also manages to keep a close eye on city politics from its office only a few blocks over from the State Capitol.

Last week, when Bernie Sanders visited Jackson, Mississippi, to speak in commemoration of the 50-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, it drew national attention. However, it seemingly came at a cost to local media.

This article’s perspective was interesting and I enjoyed reading it, but it seems like it’s in the wrong section. I don’t agree that this is a news story – its tone is disillusioned and disappointed, and the author’s bias and personal involvement is clear. This is an editorial, not news. However, it does touch on an important issue that hasn’t been covered by national media, for obvious reasons – the attention politicians give to national media is the problem.

The lede of the story doesn’t touch on the actual point of the article and is tinged with bitterness already – “…Sanders traveled from one predominantly black city to the next on Wednesday for public appearances….”

Also, there are other instances of syntax that are inappropriate for a news story, like the usage of “incredulously.” I did like that the story was separated into several sections, each marked with a subhead.

There were many interesting tidbits of information that I wasn’t formerly aware of. I had no idea that both Sanders and Mayor Lumumba are known to ignore local media. Apparently Lumumba has a pattern of “prioritizing his time with national media and declining interviews with local media during the same time span,” and Sanders “has a reputation of tossing local media aside in favor of national reporters” in his home state.

I also appreciated how descriptive and detailed the author was, citing similar instances involving the mayor and the Jackson Free Press. Even the story’s ending, though, makes it seem like a staff editorial of sorts: “Treatment of local reporters as second-rate stepchildren keeps journalists from their jobs in reporting back to the people of Jackson on vital local issues that affect everyday lives. This outlet believes strongly that local people’s right to know should matter far more than a national media blurb, many of which this time around barely even included our mayor.”

I only clicked on the story because the topic seemed interesting because I am a journalist. However, I didn’t realize the story was actually about how local media was treated badly at the town hall – I just thought it came up in the town hall discussion, so I think the headline could have been worded more clearly. There are also no other pictures and media in the story besides AP photographer Rogelio Solis’ picture of Bernie Sanders, which is already used as a thumbnail in another story on the website.

I’m glad they are drawing attention to the issue. I just definitely think it should have been included in a different section – namely, the opinion section.

Final pitch – Scholarship packages fail to cover intercession expenses

Over winter break, I took Mass Media Ethics with Prof. Wickham, which was my Christmas present from my parents. I needed to take a class to lighten my load this semester but couldn’t afford to. I’m on full academic scholarship here to Ole Miss, which does not cover classes during breaks. Luckily, my parents vouched for me, though they can’t every intercession. 

I have friends who have experienced the same issue and know one girl who is using Go Fund Me to try to use donations to pay for a class over summer intercession. While I was in my class, too, I noticed the lack of minority students. I was one of two students of color in a class of at least 50. I wondered if this was because minority students are mostly here on scholarship. I may be totally off base, but I feel like this could be an interesting story that not only impacts students on our campus but students all over the state. 

I could use infographics of charts and graphs to compliment my story as well as photographs, possibly. This story will include hard data and statistics – I already found a Mississippi Today story that is on a similar topic that includes some of this data. Here is a list of people who I hope to pitch my story to as well as include in my story:

The Clarion Ledger

The Daily Mississippian

The Oxford Eagle

Jackson Free Press

Laura Diven-Brown – director of financial aid

Annie Vandegriff – student who is using Go Fund Me

Brandi Hephner LaBanc – Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

Larry D. Sparks – Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance

Jennifer Rogers – director of Student Financial Aid for Mississippi

At least 3 other students (two of them must be minorities – I have already reached out to a few people)

Debbie Burt Myers

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 8

Headline: Jackson State officials identify student found dead in dorm room

The story that caught my eye this week came from The Clarion Ledger website. The article isn’t necessarily eye-catching on the newspaper’s homepage, but it made its rounds on social media, which garnered my attention.

On the homepage of the website, it is not featured as a rotating story at the top. Instead, readers have to scroll down to the categories of articles. It is found under news, and it isn’t even the first story under the section. It is the second story and is accompanied by a stock image of police tape that is pretty much unrelated to the story. If I hadn’t seen the story shared on Facebook and Twitter, I wouldn’t have been interested enough to click it.

Once you click the story, you’re directed to a misleading page. The article is set up like a multimedia package – video at top and quotes and pictures at the bottom with the actual story. However, the video at the top is just an ad for The Clarion Ledger, promoting their articles, which seems redundant since I’m already on their page. I’ve also always found the set-up of their page strange and distracting – it’s quite packed.

Once you get to the meat of the story, it is clear that the story was hurriedly put together. I completely understand that breaking news is, well, breaking, but the story is less than 100 words and some of it is repeated. The lead is disappointing and is unrelated to the story’s headline. It is later repeated one paragraph down, reiterating that no foul play is suspected in the death on the JSU campus.

I appreciated that they included a quote from the president of the college, but it was just copied from a Facebook post which is linked at the bottom of the article. I can’t help but think that more effort could have been put into this story. At least, I wish that they had updated the story with more information as they contacted more officials to get more quotes.

Also, I later checked The Clarion Ledger Facebook page to see if they had individually shared this article on social media, and they hadn’t. I felt like this was a lost opportunity. Breaking news always gets good traction on social media, so they lost out on potentially hundreds of clicks and shares.

However, as a breaking news story, it did its job, and maybe they have a more in-depth piece in the works.

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 7

Headline: On Social Media, Lax Enforcement Lets Impostor Accounts Thrive

This New York Times article is about how fake bots are thriving on social media platforms, how their creation is much easier than their destruction, and how these social media platforms allow them to exist.

This article drew me in with its topic. On the home page, the title of this story was “Fake Social Media Accounts Thrive Under Lax Rules” down the left side of the screen The introduction on the home page under the headline was, “Millions of ‘bots’ posing as real users are promoting celebrities, spreading misinformation and sowing discord. And it’s far easier to build a bot than to kill one.”

This little teaser really piqued my attention, and it encompassed the major points of the article in one sentence perfectly. This topic is one that is of interest to me as an avid social media user. I often see this fake bot accounts and have been interested in their creation and maintenance.

The topic is also unique – so far, I haven’t seen any coverage of this issue, but it is quite widespread. Personally, I have had friends who have been affected by fake bots stealing their identity, and it is a topic that has growing relevance in our increasingly technologically-reliant world.

The writer was thorough, accumulating perspectives of those affected, professionals, and politicians. One source it did lack was executives of social media platforms. It did include a Facebook post by Mark Zuckerberg, however.

One of my favorite ways to make an issue interesting for readers is tying it to a person, which is what this article did. The writer found several people who had been personally affected by these bots, personifying this issue and causing an emotional or empathetic reaction from readers. The story also had a timely news angle, including information about a recent Times investigation.

I wish it had more multimedia components. There are several pictures of people who have been affected by these bots, but nothing beyond that. Also, this may or may not be relevant, but I thought it was ironic that the article had a plug for NYT on its page which required readers to check a box signifying that they were not a robot.

Overall, I thought the article was solid. It had good sources, extensive research, both data and personal stories to back it up, and clear writing. More multimedia would have made it a stronger package, but it addressed an important issue that hasn’t had much coverage.

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 6

Headline: A Small Town Kept Walmart Out. Now It Faces Amazon.

The first thing I thought about when I read this article was Water Valley. The town of Greenfield immediately struck me with similarities to the small town, not too far away from our Oxford. From what I remember, Water Valley, too, pushed out possibilities of getting a Wal-Mart. This article made me wonder how Water Valley is being affected by e-commerce as well.

I liked how descriptive this article was. It almost takes on a David and Goliath tone, and it makes readers empathize with small business owners who are, at this point, delusional. Many of them still believe that Greenfield is the place for small business, while their sales are declining.

Again, this story takes a large, widespread problem, and focuses it, allowing the story to become embodied in a set of people and the tiny town of Greenfield. This method is effective, making problems more understandable and real.

I really loved how the writer actually took trips to the town. She mentions visiting the department store in the town, one of the last ones that are independently-owned in the country. Not only did the writer talk to owners of the store and patrons, but her other sources range from developers to governmental agencies. You really feel like these sources are speaking to you, and she has a good range of sources, which I appreciated.

However, even though all of these components were helpful, I still got bored halfway through. Maybe it was the lack of other media components or the topic, but I quickly became uninterested. Usually, I like longer, more feature-y pieces on news topics, The New Yorker-style, but this one failed to really keep my attention.

The topic is one that I’ve heard discussed time and time again, but this takes a unique approach, actually going to the town, which I found particularly commendable. Here in Oxford, at least, I’ve noticed a big push for shopping local, so this article made me think about the consequences of online shopping, something I do pretty often.

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 5

Headline: How Survivors of Parkland Began the Never Again Movement

This was a really powerful article and one of my favorites coming out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, which is no surprise coming from The New Yorker. I love their in-depth, feature-style writing.

As I’ve previously stated, one of my favorite ways to bring attention to an issue is to personify the news topic with a person. This is such an interesting take on such a major news topic right now. This generation of students has headed the #NeverAgain movement with clarity and strategy, something the country hasn’t seen before, allowing the conversation about gun control to dominate the news cycle for much longer than usual after school shootings.

The headline for this story is simple and descriptive, perfectly capturing what the story is about. The reader is first struck by a photograph of a young man, framed by posters with sayings like, “How many more?” referring to the number of deaths by guns. The lede is simple, as is the first paragraph, describing what has emerged in the days after the shooting, especially the bunch of “luminary teens” who are leading the conversation.

I loved the information about how many of the kids were members of the drama club, a tidbit of information I had never previously considered. The writer humanizes these kids. It’s hard to not imagine Emma Gonzalez, the outspoken young woman who has become known for her filterless, impassioned speeches, as a high school senior with a loud mouth after you’ve seen her on CNN debating Dana Loesch, and it’s refreshing. The writer does this with each one of the rotating cast of characters, creating the image of one in his Ghostbuster pajamas, describing sleepovers and snack wrappers.

This article simplifies what the Parkland kids are trying to do and fully exposes their inexperience, creating a sense of empathy in the reader, and juxtaposes it against the predicted words of the President, calling Gonzalez a “domestic terrorist.” It’s hard to say that this article isn’t biased.

The ending was especially powerful. One of the article’s protagonists describes an encounter with the school shooter, Nikolas Cruz. During the encounter, Cruz tells him about a gun that he had recently bought, and the boy tells the reporter how much the moment has weighed on him, something everyone can relate to – that familiar feeling of regret.

The last sentence really stuck with me – “The first step of the Never Again movement was believing in an idea that the rest of America has grown too cynical to imagine: that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High really could be the last school shooting in America.” This sentence left me dumbfounded – what a bizarre, powerful concept. To me, it really encapsulated the audacity these kids have to believe and how achievable their goal really is.

I thought the writing was impeccable and didn’t lose my interest for a second. However, the lack of other photographs and multimedia components was disappointing. The author really had an opportunity here to take an already-incredibly compelling story to the next level, especially with all of the photographs that have come out of the shooting, prior to the shooting, and the social media posts these kids have made, as well as the videos of their speeches and protests. It was a missed opportunity.

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 4

Headline: Teachers say Florida suspect’s problems started in middle school, and the system tried to help him

In light of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., there has been a slew of articles about the incident, all taking a different approach to the situation. This article details the severity of the shooter’s behavior and the escalation of inappropriate events leading up to the shooting.

I was drawn to this article firstly because of its position on The Washington Post website and its hot topic.The lead is also a cliff-hanger. Without naming Nikolas Cruz, the article vividly describes some of his behaviors leading up to the shooting, making readers want to continue the story. However, I was also drawn to the article because I was annoyed immediately by its topic.

This article almost humanizes the shooter too much. Over the course of this past week, I’ve seen far too many articles being shared on social media with empathetic headlines, including phrases like “troubled kid.” These headlines are often seen in juxtaposition with headlines for black kids who have committed crimes, many less egregious than a school shooting. I feel as if this warrants some attention.

I appreciated the detail in the article, however. It is an interesting angle to learn about the shooter’s past. It risks humanizing him, and there is a fine line between that and informing the public, and this article treads carefully somewhere there. It ends with a teacher pleading that people should get the help they need, so I’m not sure if this article is calling for people with mental illnesses to get help or not.

There were links dispersed throughout the article, leading to more informative articles, which I always appreciate. There weren’t many multimedia components, so my attention waned a bit.

I also appreciated the combination of data and interviews that this article utilized, giving readers information about school arrests as well as letting readers have an inside look into the teachers’ minds who taught Cruz.

Overall, however, I think this article makes readers empathize with this obvious psychopath and begs the question, would it have been reported differently if he was black?

Weekly ‘What Works?’ Assignment 3

Headline: Lawrence Bacow to become Harvard’s 29th president

This relatively short article gives a short biography of Harvard University’s newest president, provides insight into why he was selected for the president, and explains the implications of this decision.

I like the beginning of the article and the simplicity of the headline – the whole theme of “returning home” is a common one, but a good one. I clicked on the article because I was interested that Harvard just hired a new president. This seems like fresh news because I haven’t read anything about it prior to this article.

I also appreciated how thorough the writer was. He did not simply give background information about Lawrence Bacow or explain that he was chosen. The writer instead chose to take the article a step further and explain the implications of this decision at this moment in Harvard’s history. I wouldn’t have begun to think about how important this decision is while Harvard is facing Asian-Americian discrimination claims during its admission process. I also appreciated the link at the end to a related story about affirmative action policies.

I was disappointed about a number of things with this article, however. In fact, I was disappointed with far more things than things I liked. This article only included two sources, which is the bare minimum for The Daily Mississippian – a college newspaper. The writer quotes Bacow himself as well as the chairman of the university’s Presidential Search Committee. The quotes from Bacow were from a news conference, at that. I expected the writer to have more sources. Bacow was the former president of Tufts University – they could have gotten quotes from someone there or someone from the Harvard student body.

I did like that they included hyperlinks and included a tweet in the article, but I wish they had used more multimedia aspects in the story. There was no video component and only one photo to accompany the story – a far cry from CNN’s usual standard.

The writer did a good job of explaining this decision, but it could have been a deeper story. Instead, this article only skims the surface of what this hire could mean for Harvard University and could have been written by a college journalist. It is certainly not what one would expect from CNN.