Case Study: Wal-mart controversy?

I know there’s a concern regarding sensationalism, but the fact is Wal-mart has been controversial in many similar communities across the country. A couple years ago, I saw a great PBS program on Wal-mart’s affect on local economies titled “Is Wal-mart Good for America?”

I don’t think The Athens News made up a controversy that didn’t exist. Even if the majority of the community is in support of the new store, the writer must speak to the those who are not. Wal-mart already made the store’s great benefit to the community obvious. Perhaps this is all anyone knows.

In fact, the News should have delved deeper into the controversy at both a local and national level to give readers some perspective.

Story Idea: Revised Science Education Standards

My story idea for this week involves the revised science standards that the Florida State Board of Education will consider on Feb. 19. The new standards would for the first time mention evolution by name. I would like to see how the standards might change the way Alachua County science teachers instruct students by talking to teachers that are in support of the measure as well as those against it.

I can still remember my seventh-grade science teacher and her refusal to use the word “evolution” in any class discussion. I can also remember feeling as if I were cheated by my middle school’s lack of evolution-based curriculum when I entered high school completely unprepared for ninth-grade biology. This is an important story that brings up several issues and concerns for a wide array of people.

I would like to speak with Alachua County School Board members to get an idea of how many complaints they’ve received regarding conflicts with creationism, intelligent design, etc. I would also like to speak to Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum Sandy Hollinger to see whether she feels there is a need for the proposed standards. Also, getting the students’ perspective at various grade levels would not only be interesting, but would also serve to illustrate the current level of scientific knowledge that students have regarding evolution.

Vassiliki Smocovitis is a history of science professor at the University of Florida and chair of the history and philosophy of science section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I would talk to her to get her take on the validity of evolution as well as the need to ensure that Alachua public school students are properly exposed to it as fact. I would also talk to several local religious leaders.

Some other questions to be considered include:
-Does calling evolution a “theory” make a difference in the proposed standards? Is evolution still technically a theory, or is this just a question of semantics?
-Do any science teachers currently refuse to teach evolution as part of their curriculum? Will these teachers continue to do so if the panel votes in favor of the standards?
-Do low FCAT science scores have anything to do with the call for newer standards?

This story should run about 20-25 inches. Online, the story must have a reader comment or forum option following the story for parents, teachers and other community leaders to discuss the issue. Also, a timeline detailing the evolution of Florida’s science education standards would be nice.

Case Study: Gainesville Crime Story

Our case study this week was an article reporting crime trends that appeared in The Gainesville Sun. Not only did the mistakes in this article demonstrate the importance of getting the math right when reporting statistics and percentages, but also the need to use correct math in an honest way.

Yes, the number of Gainesville murders did double according to the study cited in the article. However, this “doubling” only produced one more murder than that which occurred in the previous year. Had the reader not taken a look at the table, he or she would never have known this important fact and would have fallen victim to the sensationalist tactics of a journalist trying to make the numbers fit the story rather than have the story fit the numbers.

This is a dangerous game to play, and should always be avoided. Spreading undue fear and paranoia can have serious consequences for a community, hurting the local economy at the very least.

Poll Stories

With Super Tuesday so close, I chose readings this week that dealt with the importance of accurate math in poll stories. Stories involving surveys, exit polls and presidential preferences can be ripe with misinformation resulting either from carelessness, lack of knowledge about the nature of polling data, or plain manipulation.

 

In order to have an accurate story, a journalist must first start with accurate and respectable data. Sheldon Gawiser and G. Evans Witt detail how to determine if a poll is “scientific” in “20 Questions a Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results.” The major distinguishing factor between a scientific poll and an unscientific survey has to do with how respondents are chosen. If respondents volunteer, the poll is generally unscientific and has little value in determining true public opinion.

 

Logically, this makes a lot of sense. People that volunteer to spend part of their day answering questions could easily be considered more impassioned about the issue at hand than the general public. The problem is compounded when the respondents are not approached or called, an online survey being a prime example. Obviously, the respondents’ answers in cases like these would not represent the opinions of a larger group of people. If unscientific polls are constantly covered, the views of a fringe minority may mistakenly be interpreted as mainstream by readers.

 

Meeting this scientific requirement doesn’t happen as often as one might think. Barry Sussman demonstrates how even a widely respected poll has faults that leave it with little news value. In “How not to conduct a presidential poll,” Sussman describes The Des Moines Register’s poll of likely caucus-goers as possibly inaccurate. The newspaper reported unlikely predictions, yet did not feel the need to explain the conclusions made. The filter used to determine who would be a likely voter was not reported, indicating it was poor at best. What’s worse, the poll did not focus on real issues, intentionally leaving out Iraq, which is a major concern for several Democrats.

 

The results of such a poll therefore say little about what the electorate truly intends to do. However, reporting the poll’s results is not without consequence. Some voters are influenced by the numbers they see. If these numbers are wrong, and even if only a few votes change as a result, the disservice that such a newspaper provides can change the entire outcome of a very close election.

 

The third reading has to do with confidence intervals and margin of error. Robert Niles explains why one week’s poll should never be relied on. The common 95 percent confidence interval means that one out of every 20 times a poll is repeated, a result outside the margin of error occurs. This means that one week something crazy might happen in the polls, and the next week it’s as if it never happened.

 

We learned this in science class. When experimenting, you have to repeat your trials and take the average, removing the outliers. Most scientific research can’t be conducted in one week.

 

Reporters and readers alike often come to false conclusions about a change in percentage that is within a poll’s margin of error. Since the reporter is the one relaying the information, it is up to that reporter to take into account a poll’s margin of error when providing conclusions about poll data. At the very least, the poll’s margin of error should be reported so that an informed reader can accurately analyze the poll’s data.

Story Idea: Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center

After reading an AP story about substandard care at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Illinois, I thought about other recent reports of poor care in VA hospitals, most notably Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I want to localize this story with a feature on Gainesville’s Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center. I heard that this is a good hospital, working in conjunction with Shands and the University of Florida College of Medicine. However, I would still like to talk to patients, doctors and nurses and get their take on the quality of care given at Malcom Randall VAMC.

Some questions to be answered:

What are the reasons behind the substandard care crisis affecting VA hospitals across the country?

How does this hospital ensure that doctors are qualified to perform the work that they do?

Does Malcom Randall VAMC’s association with UF affect the quality of care given?

How many patients does the hospital serve on an average day?

How many veterans live in the area served by the hospital?

This story may be a feature or turn into a hard news story. It is important that the reporter actually check out as much of the hospital as possible, though this may prove to be difficult as several areas of VA hospitals are often restricted. The story could include some mugs of doctors interviewed as well as a sidebar with statistics about successful versus unsuccessful surgeries, number of patients, number of health care professionals employed, etc.

Online, the story could be presented with thumbnails of patients that when clicked, open up to each patient’s personal story. A graph or chart comparing Malcom Randall VAMC’s statistics to other VA hospital statistics would also be helpful. The graphic could be interactive, linking to each hospital’s Web site or contact information.

Case Study: “Jimmy’s World”

In retrospect, Janet Cooke’s “Jimmy’s World” is a disaster that could have been easily avoided. However, as we saw in last week’s case study, it is easy for an editor to simply get caught up in a good story. Who can put down a story about an 8-year-old drug addict? I’ve read the story multiple times, well aware of the story’s falseness, yet each time I’m fascinated. Cooke’s editors may have been fascinated as well, and perhaps that is why they didn’t notice the implausibility of an 8-year-old heroin addict being in the fourth grade.

Cooke’s editors assumed the story was true and probably felt they had no reason to think otherwise. After all, Cooke had previously demonstrated that she was a good reporter. The lesson that “Jimmy’s World” teaches all journalists, especially editors, is to never assume. Ambition can get in the way of facts, and we’ve seen several other reporters follow in Cooke’s footsteps, further reducing the credibility of noted publications.

I believe there is a trickle-down effect when it comes to top newspapers. If readers can’t believe what they read in the Washington Post or The New York Times, then why would they ever trust more local, less prestigious newspapers? Journalism as a whole lost some of its credibility, and that is the real tragedy of “Jimmy’s World.”

Regarding the Underrepresented

The three readings I chose for this week have to do with those left out of either media coverage or media production. This is an important topic to discuss because people are less likely to see the media as relevant if they feel they are not represented. This representation can come in the form of sources, reporters, editors and even radio talk show hosts.

 

The first reading, “Women Are Still Missing as Sources for Journalists,” details a study finding that men are used as sources in news stories more than twice as often as women. This is rather puzzling, considering that when I take stock of my peers in any of my journalism classes, I see mostly female faces. Do even female journalists turn to men first as potential sources? Perhaps this is a sort of internalized sexism or inferiority complex.

 

It’s not as if female sources would be hard to find. Women entered the workforce long ago, and according to the study, women make up 47 percent of the employed. The disparity between women’s roles in news stories and women’s roles in society suggests that journalists perhaps are not as forward thinking as they’d like to be. They still rely on men as knowledgeable and trustworthy sources, as if women weren’t involved enough in the goings on of the world.

 

The second reading, “Reflecting the Audience,” details a Knight Foundation study comparing racial diversity in the newsroom to racial diversity in the community. According to the study, only 13 percent of the 1,413 newspapers responding to the survey have American Society of Newspaper Editors “goal of parity between newsroom and community non-white percentages.” Of particular interest are the all-white newsrooms. “The Independent,” in Gallup, N.M., has an all-white newsroom, yet it serves a circulation area that is 93 percent non-white.

With such emphasis placed on the benefits of diversity in the newsroom, I did not realize how many newsrooms remained all white. A newsroom that does not reflect racial or ethnic diversity in the community it serves can’t be in tune with many of the needs and concerns of its readership. Much of America is getting its news from only a white perspective.

The third reading, “Can Media Fairness be Mandated?” is concerned with media coverage since the dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine. The doctrine was a rule imposed by the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that opposing views were given equal airtime on broadcasts outlets since airwaves were public and in limited supply.

The conservative tone of talk radio and its effect on the public’s perception of immigration reform has led many in Congress to consider bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. It is obvious that Democrats and liberal views are left out of the radio medium. However, I don’t think that bringing back the Fairness Doctrine will fix this. There are so many media outlets available where other opinions can be found, like cable, the original reason for getting rid of the doctrine.

More importantly, mandating fairness crosses First Amendment lines that many journalists should be concerned with. What if an opposing view on a particular subject represents such a marginal section of society that broadcasting it would seem to magnify its importance? Who can determine what is really fair? Forced fairness isn’t fairness at all.

Story Idea: Prepackaged Meal Delivery

While I was working Saturday, I overheard a girl eating a large plate of nachos talk about how she was cheating on her NutriSystem weight loss program. She said she had to cheat at least once a week, or else she would go insane. This got me thinking about the time my mother tried NutriSystem. A month’s worth of prepackaged, often dehydrated food was delivered for about $300. She kept with the program for about four days before suffering severe diarrhea.

NutriSystem, Jenny Craig and other meal delivery programs seem to be getting more popular as a way to ensure proper portions and thus lose weight. However, prepackaged foods have more sodium and other preservatives than regularly prepared foods. I have a feeling that my mother isn’t the only person who reacted so badly to NutriSystem.

I propose an article that will discuss the health risks involved in prepackaged meal delivery programs. The article will focus on college students who choose the meal delivery option because it takes the guesswork out of dieting. Although there are several programs, NutriSystem would be a good place to start for this article because it is one of the cheapest, and thus could possibly be more accessible to young people.

Aside from students participating in a meal delivery weight loss program, the reporter should also talk to students who are trying to lose weight through other means. In addition, the reporter should interview Thomas Baumgartner, courtesy professor of nutrition at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Other potential sources include registered dietitians and meal delivery program representatives.

Important questions to be answered should include:

-Is a diet consisting of only prepackaged food healthy? Why or why not?

-Why would someone get sick from a participating in a meal delivery program?

-Are there any people that should avoid a meal delivery program because of certain health conditions?

-Do the health risks of obesity outweigh the health risks of prepackaged food?

-Which programs are recommended most by health professionals?

-Why do some people feel the need to “cheat?”

-With Dan Marino, Valerie Bertenelli and Kirstie Alley all over television commercials, this story would be pretty timely if published within the next couple of weeks.

Complaints about NutriSystem in particular can be found at consumeraffairs.com.

Case Study: “Eagle Snatches Dog While Owner Watches”

Sometimes we believe what we want to believe. Dr. Ronald Rodgers was the editor responsible for a story about a bald eagle snatching a woman’s beloved dog to her husband’s delight. The story didn’t provide anyone with any information they needed to know. It was, however, funny, amazing and abnormal. There’s no doubt that these factors give the story news value and thus clouded the editor’s judgment. As mentioned in the “Skeptical Editing” reading, a more critical editor, a naysayer, would have prevented this sort of thing from hitting the wire and perpetuating an urban myth.

This case study proves that editing isn’t always a matter of black and white. Some things will slip by. This story wasn’t about a child drug addict that doesn’t exist. Nobody working for the paper was purposefully dishonest.

At the same time, some big mistakes were made. The story had one source and was impossible to get verified by another. Assumptions were made about why the eagle snatched the dog that couldn’t possibly be known. Only in retrospect can you realize it doesn’t belong in a newspaper. It was simply too good to be true.

Story Idea: Biofeedback

Biofeedback has reemerged as a legitimate treatment option for those suffering with anxiety and chronic pain. In the 1960s, the term represented laboratory procedures used to train a person to control his or her bodily functions, with the ultimate goal of being able to control brain waves. This in turn would make a person more creative, pleasant, etc. Today, biofeedback is more realistically used to help people with several disorders including anxiety, incontinence and ADHD.

My story idea is a feature on biofeedback’s growing popularity among University of Florida students as a means to control stress and anxiety. The therapy involves measuring a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, skin temperature and other bodily processes and relaying this information to give a patient more consciousness about his or her own physiology. The reporter should talk to Dr. Dinah Welsch, who practices biofeedback therapy at the University of Florida Student Health Care Center. She should be asked to detail the biofeedback process and what it entails for the patient.

About how many students currently receive biofeedback therapy at the center? How effective is biofeedback in managing anxiety? Does it work better for some than others? Is a referral from another doctor necessary in order to receive this kind of treatment? Can biofeedback replace more traditional drug therapies? How much does it cost?

The reporter should also talk to students suffering from stress or anxiety, which shouldn’t be hard given the start of a new semester. Ask them if they have ever considered a nontraditional therapy like biofeedback. More importantly, the reporter should talk to someone who has experienced biofeedback. Will the student continue his or her treatment? Was it worthwhile?

While biofeedback is offered to cancer patients at the Shands Cancer Center for the treatment of pain, any information about this should appear in a later graph as the article’s focus will be on students and anxiety management. This is also true for other disorders including ADHD and incontinence.

The story should be about 15 inches and can include a mug of Welsch as well as a sidebar about the bodily processes commonly measured and what each means.