Preterm birth: The new leading cause of death

According to this NPR article there are thousands of different diseases around the world that could potentially kill babies. But no single disease out weighs the deadly risks of being born prematurely. Every year, 1.09 million children under age five die from health complications that can be traced back to being born three or more weeks early.

The UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Levels and trends in child mortality: report 2013.

The article is written in blocked form with different bolded subheads guiding the readers eye. Even though it comes from NPR it does not feature any audio and solely offers up the news. The article starts with important statistics and information about premature births and their health risks, then continues to answer questions in order of most to least important.

There are also incredible sources in the article. Information was gathered from credible sources such as the director of the Institute for International Programs at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, The Lancet, and Science Translational Medicine. Graphics came from the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.  Every detail of the article gave depth and reliability rather than fluff or jargon.

Class clown?

In this shocking video, Charlotte’s WCNC reports a 14-year-old Rowan County Middle School student taken into custody after dressing in a clown mask and raising a butcher knife in the school cafeteria.

The video is accompanied by an article that follows the story and acts as a script. It highlights the direct quotations and general format of the story and follows along with the video. But the written lede in the article is much different than that of the story. The first sentence of the article is extremely informative and cuts straight to the point. Right away it gives the age of the student, the name of the school, the type of knife used, the location of the event, the day and time frame, and information that the student had been taken into custody. Whenever listening to the story in the video, the anchor approaches the lede in a completely different way. It is much more dramatic using action words like fought and life in danger. The lede in the video also emphasizes the importance of the responding police officer who risked his life so that students could escape safely. This takes on an entirely different point of view than the article even though both are about the same crime.

Direct quotes are emphasized in videos very differently than in articles. This video uses direct quotes from the police officer who was at the scene of the crime by showing him on the screen actually answering questions about the crime. The producers of the video did not choose to overlay written blocked quotes to the video.

There are also voiceovers in the video with b-roll playing beneath them. When reporter, Ben Thompson, details the crime images pop up on the screen. The writing directly matches the images on the screen. Whenever Thompson mentions the knives and mask a picture appears from the scene of the two items. Thompson also mentions the student brought the knife in a backpack at which point the backpack and the knife fill the frame. A sound bite is added when the police officer speaks about the crime.

The general run down of this package follows the common form for television news stories. Here is a quick breakdown:

1. Anchor on camera
2. Tossed to Reporter live at the scene
3. Reporter voiceover (B-roll: knives, mask, sheriff, schoolyard, school building)
4. Interview of responding police officer
5. Reporter live at the scene
6. Anchor on camera

Ana Santos sheds light on untold stories of migrant working mothers

Ana Santos stole the audience’s breath at Elon University last Wednesday as she spoke of female OFW’s and the hardships they face while abroad.

Ana Santos presents her migrant worker findings to a room of Elon University students.

Santos is a Persephone Miel Fellow at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who has dedicated efforts toward producing multimedia stories on the issue of migrant workers in her home country of the Philippines.

OFW stands for “overseas Filipino worker.” These workers originating from the Philippines are comprised mainly of mothers working abroad to better provide for their families. Santos said there are about 2.56 million Filipino families with at least one family member working abroad today.

Why go abroad? The value of the dollar is low in the Philippines. Workers go abroad in order to earn a sustainable income for their large families. The Philippines has one of the highest birth rates in Asia, due to both a lack of open communication about sex and a shortage of money to pay for contraception.

Why is there a demand for OFW’s? Mothers in developing countries are now working. They are no longer available during the daytime to care for their young children. This is where a migrant worker faces their biggest hardship.

Who will take care of their own kids? Usually, the eldest daughter of the family will assume all responsibilities of a mother, no matter how old she is. This transition can take a big toll on the well-being of these daughters, and the relationship they hold with their mother.

Santos described the experience for OFW families as feelings of abandonment. Children often feel “orphaned.” This is what stirred the room at Elon University. The fact that these Filipino mothers are doing the best they can to provide a better life for their children, and their children do not feel any benefit other than bigger funds to buy a new shirt or an extra package of pencils for school. Mothers are treated more like a bank than a parent.

An interview with a teenage daughter of an OFW said it all. With tears in her eyes and sobbing words, she told Santos how difficult it was to grow up without a mom. She was just three years old when her mother’s contract began.

And how do most mothers say goodbye before they go abroad?

They don’t. Most tell their kids that they are out running errands. And instead of grabbing a shopping cart they grab the nearest airplane flight.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Students and faculty in McEwen 011 clung to the edge of their seats as Ana P. Santos, an award-winning public health journalist, defended Filipino mothers’ tough decision to leave their children and pursue jobs abroad.

According to Santos, to Filipino’s going abroad is not traveling to a destination. It is an aspiration, a dream. Going abroad is the key to a better life for your family and your kids.

Santos powerfully pointed out that when the mother leaves her home most times she does not say goodbye but instead claims to be traveling to the market or a nearby store and never returns.

“These mothers don’t do it to be cruel,” said Santos, “they just don’t know how to say goodbye.”

Once a mother makes the difficult decision to live abroad and work, the daughter of the family must step up to the plate and take on the mother’s responsibilities. She must cook, clean, do laundry and take care of the other siblings. It does not matter if she has three older brothers, the girl always takes on the role of the mother.

A common acronym coined by the Filipinos is OFW, or “Overseas Filipino Workers.” Santos argues that migration becomes an unescapable cycle for these OFW’s, and nearly nine million Filipino children must adjust to living with a family member abroad.

In the rare occasion that a mother does have technology, it becomes increasingly difficult on her because husbands and kids eventually stop asking how she is doing, instead questioning when money will be sent and how much will be received.

Ana P. Santos uncovers the social cost of overseas Filipino working mothers

Ana P. Santos visited Elon University today and shed light to the severe social cost of migrant working mothers from the Philippines working as domestic labor abroad. This system is set up so the mothers and children go years with out seeing one another which negatively affects both the children’s and the mother’s lives.

Mothers

Filipino mothers go abroad to find work in order to give their children a better life and to provide for their families. Santos said that 2.5 million overseas Filipino worker families find employment in 100 countries. The largest amounts are found in the Middle East and Paris.

“When I left them they were so small and now my youngest is about to graduate college,” said Santos quoting one of the Filipino mothers she interviewed.

This way of living is unstable for the mother because they miss out on their children’s lives and must raise other people’s children while someone else is raises their children.

Children

The children of these families are the most affected by their mother’s absence especially the daughters. The daughters that are left behind must fill the mothers shoes and take care of the house and their siblings.

“It is difficult sometimes because I don’t always get to go to school,” said Santos quoting one of the many daughters that must take responsibility for the house after their mother leaves.

UNICEF supplies reach children displaced by fighting in Ain Al Arab/Kobane

UNICEF is a unique organization that helps build a world where the rights of every child are recognized. The organization was created to work with others to overcome obstacles that poverty, violence, and diseases are placed in a child’s path. UNICEF advocates actions to give children the best in life.

The latest news release was posted on the UNICEF website in the “Press center” section. UNICEF announced that supplies such as hygiene kits, blankets, water and high energy biscuits have been delivered to northern Aleppo where many children from the Syrian border city of Ain Al Arab/Kobane have been taken refuge.

The news release begins with a bold headline and then a straight summary lede stating the main message of the article. It continues to show more information of the story by presenting volunteer teams that will team up with UNICEF to help with supplies.

The headline captures the reader’s attention with the use of bold type. It’s a straightforward and short news note that gives the main points of the story. The news release is well written, but the use of AP style wasn’t used correctly in some cases such as the date “21 October 2014.”

I hope one day I get to work for this amazing organization!

South Carolina father kills his five children

Timothy Jones, a 32-year-old allegedly went on a 700-mile-journey that began in South Carolina. At the back of his SUV were the bodies of his five young children, ages 1 to 8. The children were wrapped in garbage bags, and they were  were discovered off of a dirt road in Wilcox County. Ryan Sanchez, Ed Payne and Alan Duke of CNN published this news story on Thursday, Sept, 11.

Jones killed his children at the same time and the crime happened in Lexington County, said Sheriff Lewis McCarty.  McCarty said Jones, who allegedly was in possession of marijuana and a drug called “bath salts,” The father is currently being held in Mississippi jail. Tim Jones, father of the killer speaks out saying, “We do not have all the answers and we may never have all of them, but anyone who knows little Tim will agree that he is not the animal that he will be portrayed in the media. He is a loving son, brother and father.”

A twist in the story is that the Mother of the children, who shares custody with her ex-husband, reported the children missing on September 3 after not being able to contact Jones. He was supposed to bring the children to their mother the day before.

An emotional story that really grabs the readers attention by only saying “father kills his five children.” The title gives it away. The news story is Anecdotal, It’s very long, and has a mini-story included. The lede is found in the first paragraph that goes right to the point to who-what-when-where. The following paragraphs from the second to the fourth shows how the story started  – adding the “mini-story” to it. Also, bringing in newer evidence in the later paragraphs. The news story had specific characters that played the role in the news story that made it flow better, for example the Sheriff. The last paragraph gave an interesting ending, more like a twist. It also could be a martini glass – the lede gets you right to the point, then discusses background information but the news story shows no evidence as to why he actually killed his children, the trial is still ongoing.

Kidnapped couple found shot and handcuffed to each other

The USA Today official website released a story about the tragic kidnapping and murder of Jeronta Brown and his fiancé, Briana Brooks. According to the post, the couple from Georgia was kidnapped early Saturday morning and found shot a few hours later. The updated story was posted to the official website on September 1st around 9:30 pm.

This heartbreaking loss should be a concern for all Americans. Family members told news correspondents that the couple had just went out for a nice meal with their two children before they were jumped by several men when when they returned home. The children were able to escape but Brown and Brooks were put into the back of a van. The kidnappers called a family member and demanded $150,000 for their release, but still ended up leaving them on the side of a road handcuffed to one another. Brown was found dead while  Brooks, seven months pregnant, was still alive. This story is significant as it shows continued violence that sweeps across America today. With overseas conflict continuing to get out of hand, our nation cannot afford to have internal issues go unpunished. The kidnappers got away due to the police thinking that the 911 call was a joke, an absurd excuse for not willing to protect the innocent. The timing of this article brings relevance to violence across the US and shows that senseless crime will always pose as a threat to the safety of the American people. This story shows that the US must tighten up laws on gun control or other safety laws in order to prevent future shootings of innocent victims. Earlier in the year, the Washington Post released an article on gun control with eye-opening statistics.