Three Minutes in Poland

A NPR story detailed the journey one man took after rummaging through a pile of old family videos. Writer Glenn Kurtz stumbled upon a home video that was shot on his grandparents’ trip to Poland in 1938. Kurtz realized that he was looking at a Polish Jewish community immediately before the Holocaust. The film allowed him to connect with a survivor of the Holocaust, who was just a thirteen- year-old boy in the video.

The townspeople of Nasielsk, Poland just before World War II

This feature story has a more natural and conversational style. Rachel Martin, the NPR host, introduced Kurtz, before casually interviewing him about his discoveries. Kurtz was very interesting and passionate in his journey to find the Polish townspeople in the video. He created his findings into a book called Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film. 

Long-lost siblings find each other on Facebook

A 31- year-old Wisconsin resident, Susie Wilson, tracked down her long-lost half brother using Facebook. The pair reunited in New Orleans, where Wilson’s father originally gave up her half-brother for adoption.

ABC news released this video, which discussed the details of how the siblings found each other. The video also shows the emotional footage of when they met for the first time, which made the video insightful and intriguing. The lede immediately grabs the attention of the listener. Unlike most print ledes, it doesn’t give all the information, instead uses a blind-lede approach to leave the viewer wanting more.

The video uses on-camera direct quotes, the two were immediately interviewed after they met for the very first time. The entire video uses a voiceover, where the anchor tells the story while it unfolds on camera. When the video isn’t showing direct footage of the sibling’s meeting, it displays pictures of the two when they were children, or when they later went to a football game. The absence of an anchor in this video allows all the focus to be on this emotional human interest story.

The hardships of the Velonzo sisters

Renowned journalist Ana P. Santos came to Elon tonight to share the hard truth of women migrant workers from the Philippines. In her presentation, “Who takes care of nanny’s children?” she describes the sacrifice Filipino women make for their loved ones.

In her presentation, Santos introduced the audience to the 7 Velonza sisters, all working and living in Dubai. Through interviews, the sisters described their childhood poverty in the Philippines, which motivated them to move to Dubai to create a better life for their remaining siblings and children. This did not come without a price. One of the most powerful moments in her presentation was when the sisters described their deteriorating relationships with their children back home.

“During my last vacation I felt like I was more of a relative than a mother,” said one of the sisters.

Another sister took care of a child for a Dubai family, while her own child lived without her at home in the Philippines. She described the heartbreak of loving and looking after a child who is not her son, Nico.

“I gave birth to Nico but I was not able to be a mother to him,” she said. “… I don’t know his favorite color, his favorite food, his favorite toys.”

iPad Air 2: The thinnest iPad ever

Apple recently revealed the iPad Air 2, the most powerful and skinniest iPad yet. The product is 6.1 mm thin and weighs less than a pound. The company sent out an online press release introducing their new device on Oct. 16, 2014.

The news release has a compelling lede that effectively and simply summarizes the new device. It then incorporates information in a decreasing order of importance, following a straight story structure. It includes quotes from Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. After describing the product’s utilities and new features, the release starts a new section with the bolded and larger sub-head, “Pricing and Availability.” The bolded sub-head draws the reader’s eyes to where they can find and purchase the iPad Air 2.

The news release provides a link to Apple’s online store, where readers can look at the new iPad. It also gives the information of Apple’s press contacts.

Elon University hosts panel on Greensboro refugees

Four panel speakers discussed the various challenges and benefits of the refugee and asylum-seeking families in Greensboro to an Elon University audience tonight. The speakers urged students to become involved in this community by volunteering or participating in study abroad.

Heather Scavone

Heather Scavone, the director of the humanitarian immigration law clinic at Elon Law School, discussed common misconceptions of the term “refugee”.

A refugee, according to Scavone, is protected by the U.S. Obligation Under Domestic Law if they are targeted due to their:

• Race
• Religion
• Nationality
• Political opinion
• Membership in a particular social group (sexual orientation, physical disability etc.)

Refugees achieve their refugee status outside of the U.S. while you must be physically inside the country to apply to be an asylee.

According to Scavone, one common misconception is that a person affected by a natural disaster is a refugee. When in actuality, natural disasters don’t target specific groups of people.

Milion Mekonnen

Milion Mekonnen, executive director of the North Carolina African Service Coalition, provides services to refugees and asylees who resettle in Greensboro. The NCASC helps families become economically self- sufficient.

Mekonnen described several challenges, such as unemployment and PTSD that refugees face while trying to readjust to the country. He said Greensboro is a welcoming places for immigrants with these issues due to their resources and diverse communities.

Sharon Morrison

Sharon Morrison, associate professor in public health at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, describes the barriers that the Montagnards in Greensboro face, including:

• Poverty
• Health care inequalities
• Language barriers

Morrison also discussed how people commonly perceive Montagnards. She used one example of Montagnard women working in nail salons, and how most perceive those women to be undereducated, when in actuality all are hardworking and some are even trained doctors unable to practice in the U.S.

Mussa Idris

Dr. Mussa Idris, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Elon University, described his own journey from Eritrea, Africa to eventual citizenship in the U.S.

Idris challenged the audience to realize the little things they might take for granted, such as technology, or even driving a car. He also discussed the differences in the value of education between his home and the U.S, such as the difficulty of educating Eritrea students about unsavory topics.

“I was teaching students about social issues,” said Idris. “…But you’re not able to speak your mind freely and not face consequences.”

Visual News: A new way to look at human interest stories

Visual News is a site that focuses on delivering timely human interest stories to its audience. Visual News is a collaborative project of Column Five, a company that helps brands use visual storytelling to sell products.

Visual News is broken up into subcategories: Art, design, technology and people. In each of these categories, Visual News writes timely news articles about advances in art and technology, bringing the news through visually enticing photos and videos.

I found the human interest stories of the website to be particularly strong. There were a lot of articles about different people nobody knew, but were making strides in art or using technology to be creative. For example, there was a really interesting article about a five year old painting prodigy with autism. The website allowed me to look at a lot of her work, and what I saw shocked me. I don’t think the article would have made such an impact had it not been for the series of pictures or videos.

News Engagement Day reveals that many Elon students aren’t engaged at all

Elon University’s celebration of National News Engagement Day revealed that when it comes to engaging in news media, many students simply don’t.

Elon celebrated the engagement of news yesterday, an event to encourage Elon students to actively participate in current events, at a breakfast event on campus. Ironically, half of the students interviewed at the event admitted to “never” reading the news.

According to Pew Research Center biennial news consumption survey, 29 percent of college-aged young adults are completely without news in their lives.

The outlets of news that students today are using are exclusively digital, all easily accessible from their smartphones.

Why?

“I never really read the news, I don’t have a lot of time,” said sophomore Jackie Fronheiser. “When I do I typically turn to online Google News.”

Many other students cited lack of time when questioned about why they don’t actively engage in news media. But when news is now at our fingertips through websites, apps, smartphones, and television, is lack of time really the issue? Or is it how the news is presented to an increasingly impatient audience?

What’s Working?

Most students at Elon are engaging in digital media on smartphones, laptops, or tablets. The accessibility of news today is allowing many students to look at international news quickly and efficiently.

Most students are using Twitter as a news outlet. News organizations now tweet their headlines or links to their stories.

“I get my news on Twitter through CNN,” said public health major Katie Silverman. “It’s an easy outlet and I can even just read the headlines.”

Many students said they follow news organizations on Twitter, the headlines let them know what’s going on, and if they’re interested they will continue on to read the entire article.

Twitter’s unique way of delivering brief and visual news has been copied by other websites such as TheSkimm and Buzzfeed. Both offer novel ways of delivering news to its audiences. TheSkimm is a daily email newsletter that delivers the most important headlines to its users via email daily.

Many students said they were more knowledgeable about events going on around Elon or in the surrounding area.

Sophomore Emily Seligman said Facebook and the app YikYak have kept her updated on local events happening around Elon and Burlington. YikYak is a recently new app that allows people on college campuses to post anonymous posts. Very similar to Twitter, it delivers very brief posts that can deliver campus news quickly and efficiently.

Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?

Nicholas Kristof published an article on Aug. 27 in response to the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. Kristof said the main issue in our society is that many people have unconscious attitudes that result in stereotyping and discriminating behavior.

Kristof started his column with an interesting lead, that pointed out the fact that we do not know the precise circumstances surrounding the shooting. He used a variety of sources, but at the beginning he didn’t say explicitly where he found the information. Instead, he embedded links into his article. I thought this was really interesting because then I personally could read the information he used. He also talked about a video game that measured unconscious attitudes, and he not only described his results, but invited readers to play the game for themselves. While it was an opinion article, he backed his specific information up with a variety of interesting sources.  He ended his article by reiterating his main point.

Child poverty rate continues to increase in Mass.

Katie Johnston from The Boston Globe, wrote an article describing the continuously increasing child poverty rate in Massachusetts. Johnston quoted and paraphrased a variety of different sources, which provided reliability, context, and depth to her story.

Johnston used five direct quotations throughout the article. All five were from different people affected by or invested into the growing child poverty rate. The people Johnston interviewed were very diverse, and saw the problem from different points of view, which provided context to the story. The first quote was from Marybeth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Johnston used her words directly, and also paraphrased from the expert source. Mattingly, along with other experts interviewed, provided reliability to the story. Another quote Johnston used was from a Boston mother, who grew up in poverty, and is now hoping to create a different life for her 2-year-old daughter. The quote from the mother who experienced child poverty firsthand adds insight into the story. Johnston’s varying sources and quotations made the article both interesting and informative.

Two Boston hospitals work together in domestic violence cases

Bella English from the Boston Globe wrote an article describing the teamwork between Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Eye and Ear in aiding victims of domestic violence. Until recently, the partnership was informal. But now, a joint team has been formally created to help those affected by domestic abuse.

This story has a narrative structure. English begins this piece by describing the attempted murder of 20-year-old Melissa Dohme by her former boyfriend. English tells the story of how Dohme was treated at MGH and Mass. Eye and Ear, and then talks about the unique partnership between the two hospitals. The story of Dohme builds toward the purpose of the article. English seems to begin each point she makes about the hospitals with a short narrative story of a different woman who was treated there.

English uses a variety of different sources. She uses a lot of quotes from Missy Allen, manager of the Facial Nerve Center and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Center at Mass. Eye and Ear, and James Heffernan, senior vice president of finance at MGH. The quotes from both Allen and Heffernan are expert quotes, and provide all three reliability, depth and context. English asks both these sources about their work and how the partnership was created. English also uses quotes from victims who were treated at the hospital, such as Dohme. These quotes provide depth and insight into their experiences at the hospitals.

Twitter’s first e-commerce initiative

Jessica Guynn from USA Today published an article this morning describing Twitter’s new plan to combine online shopping and tweeting. Some Twitter accounts will now have “buy” buttons, which allows users to buy merchandise directly from Twitter accounts. This e-commerce initiative is designed to make shopping online easier and more enjoyable. 

This lede was extremely short. It did not follow the inverted pyramid style, and readers had to read further to find valuable information. It only answered the “who” of the five W’s (who, what, where, when, why). It wasn’t informative, and it didn’t summarize the article. With that being said, I personally found the lede interesting because It was a blind lede, or a delayed identification. It purposefully withheld information with the knowledge and intention that readers will finish reading the article because they are curious or interested.  In the next paragraph, the most important piece of information was answered, which was how Twitter was going to combine shopping and tweeting. The lede almost teased the readers into reading the article. While I think the lede could have been stronger with more information, I thought it was very effective. The simplicity of it caught my curiosity which made me finish the rest of the article. 

Fast- food workers protest for higher wages

 

On September 1, The New York Times posted an article discussing the future protest tactics of fast-food workers demanding higher wages. The next round of strikes is planned for Thursday.

This article discusses the conflict between workers and their employers, the fast-food franchises. The fast food workers’ national organizing committee plans to go on strike in more than a hundred cities this Thursday. They will use non-violent civil disobedience tactics to call attention to themselves. This story attracts human- interest, because it discusses not only the tactics, but the emotions of these protesters. One women in the story argues that the $350 she brings home weekly is not enough to feed her daughter.  The protesters are prepared to take arrests to prove that that their jobs are worth 15 dollars an hour. This article is also timely, as the protesters plan to execute these tactics and protests across the country in a few days.