College Degree and professional experience in Job Hunt doesn't close racial gap

Monday, the New York Times posted a piece that uncovered the difficulty African Americans have in finding work; additionally strong credentials of academic and professional backgrounds have failed to close gaps between Blacks and Caucasians.

Interestingly, the story did not necessarily have to move past racial stereotypes because it was about them, and the ways in which some black professionals have altered their resumes to purge any hint of race that might be in them.

The piece began with a short profile: "Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé."

“If they’re going to X me,” Mr. Williams said, “I’d like to at least get in the door first.”

Williams has deleted his membership of the African-American student business association among other things.

The Times justified the claims of William and the stories of others that noted failed business relationships after executives met black individuals about jobs by noting the differences in unemployment rates of the races. "The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent."

The statistic provides concrete evidence with the contextual claims made by the individuals within the articles, therefore strengthening the argument and couching personal stories within concrete fact.

The TImes traveled across the country to gather interviews, and reported, "The discrimination is rarely overt, according to interviews with more than two dozen college-educated black job seekers around the country, many of them out of work for months. Instead, those interviewed told subtler stories, referring to surprised looks and offhand comments, interviews that fell apart almost as soon as they began, and the sudden loss of interest from companies after meetings."

Because the piece focuses on uncovering what still might be a prominent issue of race in our country, it doesn't have to dance around the issue of whether a person is white of black. Because it's focal to the issue, it's also focal within the article. It acknowledges the stereotypes within the people who were interviewed, but additionally fails to provide much insight from the other side of the argument--the white professionals to blame.

By no means am I condoning the factual evidence of these issues, but it does seem a bit of a one sided argument. Further, it juxtaposes the great lengths the country went in electing our current President, but calls out a failure of the rest of the nation to follow suit. At least it seems to question the situation in this way.

The individuals interviewed also have their own worries about race.

According to the Times, It is difficult to overstate the degree that they say race permeates nearly every aspect of their job searches, from how early they show up to interviews to the kinds of anecdotes they try to come up with.

“You want to be a nonthreatening, professional black guy,” said Winston Bell, 40, of Cleveland, who has been looking for a job in business development.

He drew an analogy to several prominent black sports broadcasters. “You don’t want to be Stephen A. Smith. You want to be Bryant Gumbel. You don’t even want to be Stuart Scott. You don’t want to be, ‘Booyah.’ ”

Nearly all said they agonized over job applications that asked them whether they would like to identify their race. Most said they usually did not.

Industrialized Nations Unveil Plans to Rein in Emissions

Thursday, the New York Times published a piece that discussed the ways, and more specifically, the percentage that specific nations aim to reduce emissions in response to climate change.

The discussions will take place among the world's leaders who will meet in Copenhagen, Germany Dec. 7-18.

The piece goes on to discuss how individual countries--the United States, Korea and so forth will go about making these reductions; it also lists the percentages that these nations will reduce their emissions by: 17, 30 percent etc.

The trouble, is that the author of the piece doesn't really place these numbers in context. Thirty percent is a fairly large number, but how does Korea's 30 percent compare to other countries?

To illustrate in further detail, here is a quote: "This week, South Korea said it would cut emissions by 30 percent from “business as usual” by 2020. Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said his country would try to reduce emissions by 25 percent by then, instead of 15 percent as announced earlier. Last week, Brazil promised reductions of about 40 percent below current projections by 2020."

So I have a laundry list that sounds good; helping the earth, reducing greenhouse emissions, but supplementary context should really be used if the reporter really wants these numbers to mean something to his readers.

Additionally, the paper fails to report how they came up with the numbers. While the piece does quote the number given by each country, the reader has no idea how these readers were computed, and whether they are really reliable.

Investigative Journalists in Puerto Rico uncover lapse in inspections and the government's blind eye

Friday, the IRE posted the collaborative story of a freelance journalist in Puerto Rico, and .

The journalists, Mc Nelly Torress, and Omaya Sosa Pascual, of El Centro Periodistico Investigativo de Puerto Rico, uncovered and reported "decades of environmental violations, financial distress and neglect behind the company that owns the refinery where the Oct. 23 deadly explosion took place in Puerto Rico" According to the IRE website, the stories, a collaboration between journalists in Miami and Puerto Rico were written in Spanish and English and published in El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald.

Both the Spanish and English translations exhibit heavy reporting done by the authors of the piece.

The story begins: "For years, federal regulators have cited Caribbean Petroleum Corporation (CAPECO) multiple times for serious environmental violations and levied $1.3 million in penalties and fines for discharging hazardous waste to water, air and soil, showing disregard for residents’ health and safety.

Yet local and federal government agencies have allowed the company to operate interrupted for more than 50 years and have not been diligent in oversight to guarantee a safe operation, an investigation has found. Government’s carelessness includes no federal occupational safety inspections in almost a decade and failing to establish an emergency plan for disasters with the communities as required by law.

The facility at the Luchetti Industrial Park in Bayamon, where an explosion 14 days ago produced a toxic fire that took firefighters over two days to extinguish, and caused fuel leakages into neighboring waterways, had not been inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 2000."

So if we examine these first few graphs, the reportage is quite evident. Specifically in the last few sentences, we see the reported would have gone through the public files of the country's Occupational Safety and Health Administration; finding evidence to support their case, the reporters then note a lapse in the inspection system since 2000. This lapse, is evidence of the suspected flaw mentioned in the first part of the paragraphs above.

In order to make such heavy claims on their local government, the two reporters must have ensured their facts were not only correct, but warranted such a grave uncovering in the aftermath of penalties. The reporters seem to point the cause of the toxic fire two weeks ago to the neglect of the inspection agency.

These reports would have required the skills to navigate heavy indexes that denote company files as well as official records of the Occupation Safety and Health Administration. In addition to indexes, they would have had to navigate large search engines and been able to utilize specific Boolean logic to point them toward the documents they were looking to find. Certainly they would not have read through every document put out by the agency between 2000 and 2009.

Lester Meyer, 92

Wednesday, the St. Cloud Times published the obituary of Lester Meyer.

Interestingly enough, the information is out of order from the traditional form of an obituary. While the individual is listed in the lead, his cause of death is mentioned and the funeral Mass and visitation schedule is listed immediately.

Following this information, the obit goes on to discuss Meyer's life: his marriage, his active membership in his home parish, and his involvement with local Knights of Columbus.

Though not quoted, family member have obviously been contacted to write this obituary. It is easy to deduce this from a paragraph toward the end:

"Over the years Lester farmed, worked in sales and was an entrepreneur.
Lester was a member of the Knights of Columbus. He loved to visit, tell stories and go for rides in the car. His family is grateful to him for allowing his story telling to live on through the various tapes of his life story that he made for his children."

Then, the piece goes on to list is precedents and survivors.

Though full of practical information and quite succinct, this obituary does the job of remembering this active member of the community.

"Women in their own words."

The New York Times published a slideshow detailing quotes from eight women interviewed about their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each slide portrayed a photograph of the woman on duty and her quote. The script on the side described that individual woman's position in the military, her time and duration on tour, and the largest cause for her PTSD.

While the quotes in themselves are powerful, I am not sure the layout of the show was entirely effective. To utilize these quotes only in a slideshow when they are so powerful on their own, seems almost a sensory overload. The Times would have been better standing alone with a attribution and photo. The background information on the speakers merely complicates the quote, which is the largest focus of the show.

In this case, less would be more. Placing a photo next to the quote and leaving out the back story might be more effective because we, as readers, are always trying to draw conclusions and connections between characters and text in a story. It's natural for us to do so, and would probably engage us to think more clearly about the powerful and pertinent focus that this particular slideshow really entails. With the background information, I get stuck swimming around in it and forget to focus on the theme and intent of the story itself.

Artist lifts opera costumes to new levels at Lincoln Center

This week, the New York Times posted a slideshow detailing the work of artist E.V. Day, who was commissioned to erect an installment in the atrium of Lincoln Center for the new opera season beginning in November.

The show chronicles Day's work in fishline and the tapestries of age-old opera costumes.

The New York City opera both commissioned and led her to the opera's costume building that houses the artwork of countless seamstresses. Choosing carefully, Day selected 13 costumes to bring to life. She created sculptures with thousands of pinpricks strung with fishline, strung the costumes to appear with a life of their own, and then strung them from the ceiling of the countless balconies of the auditorium.

The show is set to be fully installed November 6th and will remain at Lincoln Center through both the Opera season and the year.

Like most art, it is extremely difficult to discuss without even a visual representation of the piece. That said, the Times' slideshow is extremely effective in both commenting on the artist's process with both visual and verbal representation. The write of the show included essential quotes that get at the breadth and depth of the story as well as illustrate the humanity of the artist, her costumes, and those working with the opera.

Governor Pawlenty chimes in on health care reform for Minnesota

According to a press conference and a press release Tuesday from the office of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minnesotans "would be first in the nation to be able to purchase health insurance across state lines under an initiative proposed by the governor."

The press release clearly outlines the steps of the governors plans, and the website also provides a link to listen to the press conference directly.

Bullet points and bold font separate the proposals of the governor, which include:

• Allow Minnesotans to Purchase Health Insurance from Other States
• Require MinnesotaCare & Medical Assistance to Price Health Care Services Based on Quality and Cost
• Include Consumer-Driven Incentives in MinnesotaCare

After the introduction of the points, the release clearly maps more details in its body.

According to Pawlenty's release, "Minnesota continues to lead the nation in the performance of our health care system, as recognized most recently by the Commonwealth Fund’s state scorecard. In their 2009 scrutiny of access, quality, costs, healthy lives, and equity, Minnesota moved ahead of states such as Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut from 9th place to 4th place overall. We should continue to take action to keep Minnesota on the leading edge of health care policy innovation."

That said, CNN also published a piece on Pawlenty's latest initiative in its "political tracker" portion of its website. Tuesday, the outlet reported the facts of the initiative, but chose to spin the story toward the Minnesotan figure aiming for national limelight. Pawlenty is reportedly contemplating a Republican bid for the White House in 2012.

The shorter, more summarized version on CNN clearly mentions the governor's three pronged proposal, but keeps its information to smaller quotes and catchier phrases of the governor's.

Clearly, what is released by the governor's press team and website is aimed at a localized audience of Minnesotans, interested in the details of a proposal that could easily affect them. CNN, on the other hand, has another initiative: to keep covering individuals who could clearly and likely creep up for larger, more prominent purposes in the future.

Human Rights Campaign hosts Obama as speaker

Saturday, the Star Tribune published a Associated Press piece on Obama's address to the Human Rights Campaign at the organizations annual dinner in Washington D.C. The dinner took place before the campaign's annual march to the nation's capital.

The piece largely focused on Obama's re-pledge of a campaign promise: to repeal the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, but that he failed to address a timetable in the matter.

Sunday, the Star Tribune issued the AP's follow up from the matter, devoting the lead to the reactions of those involved in the campaign to the president's speech; thousands responded to Obama with chants stating, "Hey Obama, Let mama marry mama," and, "We out, we're proud, and we won't back down."

While the first piece focuses largely on Obama's rhetoric and promise to overturn a 1993 law that concerning openly gay members of the military, the second zeroes in a response from Obama's audience. The two pieces act as a sort of conversation with one another. A call and response, if you will.

What works well, is that not only in this series does the president have a voice, but so do the individuals to whom he is speaking; along with this, is the national attention garnered by the annual even in which this conversation is couched.

Speakers and attendants at the rally itself, called not for "waiting" but for "agitating" when it comes to change. Perhaps these speakers from the NAACP and informal sources from the crowd can be viewed as direct response to the president; all parties were encouraging the direct actions of the president toward the advancement of freedom "for all people."

Responses in the second article were taken from straight and gay, known and unkonwn individuals, offering a wide scope of opinion on the matter, whereas the first was largely background on the president's campaign promise and military protocol because the actual news event--the march--hadn't happened yet.

The progression of the matter...

Upon examination of Star Tribune's Myron Medcalf's count of Twin Cities marathon winner Jason Hartmann, I might have done a few things differently.

With a lead that reads, "For most of the day, Jason Hartmann, winner of Sunday's Twin Cities Marathon, never worried about losing." The reader is led to think that this runner had his strategy and training in the bag. We believe the seasoned runner didn't ever worry about the race and was confident he'd win.

In the second graph, Medcalf continues to illustrate the runner and the event, noting the details of the day and the race. The third, describes his $25,000 prize. And, because he place the name of the runner in his lead, we can assume the entire story is going to focus on this winner of the race.

His quotes accurately portray his subject, Hartmann, and are illustrative of the runner's charisma and character. What marathon winner simply says, "It was a good day to run," after finishing a "simple" 26.2 mile race? The quote is catchy and pulls the reader right in.

We are given the happy details of Hartmann's win.

But then Medcalf backtracks.

He discusses a critical decision Hartmann made--to pick up a water bottle he'd dropped in the last miles--in order to achieve that win. It is only until Medcalf goes on to discuss the dropped water bottle that we realize the story is really about his character and strategy as a runner, not merely that he won the race.

While, one could argue that the lead makes that indication when Medcalf wrote, "for most of the race," the lead reads as if it is merely a casual statement. As if the runner really hadn't worried at all.

Medcalf then goes on to recount the details of Hartmann's childhoold and collegiate careers, bringing the reader back full circle to Sunday's race.

My argument, is that Medcalf didn't make a clear choice about the kind of piece he was writing. Was it the details of the race, and the mindset of the athlete? Or was it a profile of the athlete and his charisma. Though he was working under deadline, I believe had he made the decision earlier, he might have reworked, or re-ordered the piece to create a clear intent. The reader shouldn't have to work to find meaning, the writer should guide him or her clearly through any argument, narrative or written prose.

Proper attribution

Looking further into the way the Star Tribune reported the story of Loa Nugyen, the Vietnamese student and spouse sentenced to deportation, I realized almost immediately that the paper could have sought more sources for Saturday's story.

Because Nugyen's husband, Dan Hanson, is nearly the only individual cited and quoted in the story, it lacks a balanced view of the couple's struggle and ultimately appears as if the paper has written a plea story for Nugyen's deportation. The facts are straight: Nugyen came on a student visa that expired when she took a break from her Ph.D. program to travel; the couple failed to properly file paperwork that declared them married; Nugyen failed to show at court, saying she had mixed up the dates and subsequently failing to notify her husband; the immigration court denied an appeal to reopen her case; and she remains detained, away from her husband and will be deported soon.

The facts were there, yes, but when a writer fails to properly balance his or her sources the story begins to look like a sad-tale about a separated husband and wife. Because the story is filled with quotes solely from Nugyen's husband, who is naturally distraught and sad for the situation of he and his wife, it appears one-sided.

The lead and following quote are remarkable effective:

"When Hoa Nguyen was shackled and jailed for failing to make an immigration hearing last month, she presented her reason to stay: Dan Hanson, her Illinois-born husband.

"I went down there [to jail] and thought, 'OK. Here I am. I'm her U.S.-citizen husband,'" Hanson said. "What can we do to make this right?"

Apparently, not much."

However, to insert the voice in which the last sentence is written, it seems to be the "Can't a guy catch a break?" motif. A motif, I might add, that seems inappropriate for a news story. Inappropriate because it inserts a strong voice of the writer, and inappropriate because the motif it implies would be empathetic or sympathetic--neither of which are ultimately appropriate for a hard news story.

There is a single mention that U.S. Immigration officials were not able to comment on the story; however, more background information could have been gathered on cases like that of Nugyen and Hanson, or the ways in which student visas expire or the number of citizens who marry immigrants and fail or improperly fill out paperwork.

Any indication that the reporter searched real records fails to be evident in his or her written work.

Other questions could be asked: How often do these deportation cases happen between couples? What does the actual law state about the matter? Did Nugyen attempt to contact the immigration office after she realized she had mixed up her court dates?

We only know the background of the couple, and that her family and roommates are "fighting for her," as she remains detained; her husband has the final word: "I don't think the fact that she's not going to die justifies this action."

There are holes throughout the piece about the complex nature of immigration protocol, or why the couple failed to begin correcting their paperwork in February when they realized something was awry. These holes are scattered like swiss cheese, but clearly present.

A look at leads.

The Star Tribune reported Saturday that Gov. Pawlenty was third in a straw poll of potential GOP contenders at a Washington Conferene.

The lead of the story looked like this:
"WASHINGTON – Gov. Tim Pawlenty finished third in a straw poll of potential GOP presidential contenders at a conservative conference in Washington Saturday, receiving only one vote less than second place finisher Mitt Romney." (Star Tribune)

The lead is tight, and jam-packed with information. However, it is the grammatical tactic of alliteration that jumps out to create a well woven lead. The sentence itself is intertwined with poll, potential and presidential, and followed by contenders, conservative and conference. Not only is the sentence concise and straightforward with the bulk of the story's intent, the alliteration causes the central ideas to literally pop forward with such a keen device. Whether an individual remembers their primary days in which they learned the official, grammatical term, one is certain to find the lead alluring when read aloud.

While the lead may begin to sound like a hip-hop rhyme with its rhythm, it can be argued that the importance of the information in the lead can be lost within such a complex sentence. Indeed the headline seems more straightforward than the lead of the story. It could be taken down by several words, and while Mitt Romney is a famous individual and recognizable by most of the readers of the paper, Eric Roper of the Star Tribune might have done well to omit his name until a few sentences later. The most important bit of information is that the Minnesota Governor was third in the GOP's poll; complimentary information is that he was only one vote behind Romney.