Category: What Works

HEADLINE: New York homes covered in ice, resemble ‘Frozen’ after storm brings strong winds, lake-effect snow

I came across this story, thinking how cool the pictures looked of these houses being frozen over. Thinking how about how people said, it’s the hottest winter on record in a while. But in New York, they have insane freezes still.

The author uses a delayed lead in the story, to talk about how the houses look like Elsa’s castle out of the movie “Frozen.” Then after the author goes into talking about a massive winter storm system came in. When the storm came in, there was so much rain and wind. When it froze, it turned the house, basically into ice castles.

The author had an excellent nutgraph, which was the third paragraph, that really goes into what happened. Where it talks about where it was and how these houses froze over and what made them be able to freeze like that.

I think the author of this story could have used better sources for it, they were kinda weak. He didn’t have super great quotes either from any of the sources, the best one “My garage floor is started to show cracks,” from one of the owners. It was good but he could have gotten better explanation, and got better quotes from experts on the issue

He had good statistical info on how FEMA was coming to help the people because it destroyed their houses and how many got destroyed. He actually used a bunch of other media from like twitter as pictures to give information totals. On the amount of damage and speeds that the wind was moving in different places.

But all in all, I think it was an alright story, that could have used some better quotes. Instead of just all the facts from pictures he should have written some more of them into the story. But I think he did a good job of letting everyone know what happened and the effects it had.

HEADLINE: The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough

This story is interesting to me, because now of days it seems like every other day you hear about a new mass shooting in the news. I think it’s fantastic that these teenagers are trying to find ways to end it by trying to get more gun reform. Being activists to make the NRA and government step up, so things like this don’t happen anymore.

The author in this story uses a narrative lead to go a few sentences in to tell what the story is about. Instead of using a hard news lead, just getting to the point of what the students have been doing.

The writer has a great title, that pulls you into the story readers into the story. It makes readers want to know why teenagers are having enough of mass shootings and giving insight into what they’re doing to try to stop it now and in the future.

The third paragraph of the story is the nut graph; it tells what happened and why these students want more gun reform. It also explains how they started it and what they’re doing now to make sure that it all happens.

The author of this story had great sources, he used all the teenagers that were starting this movement for gun reform. Getting a lot of quotes about these students think about the mass shooting and where they were when the shooting happened at their school. Also what they feel about the people in the government not doing anything for gun reform in the United States

The author also has a bunch of great facts throughout this story, like about all 800 demonstrations these kids got people to put together for gun reform. That more gun reformed spiked up 68% after the national walkout at school for gun reform.

HEADLINE: Bomb cyclone storm rips across UK, spawns most flood warnings, alerts in England ‘than any other day on record.’

Every year, you hear about more huge storms like hurricanes and cyclones hitting different countries. I read this article and thought about all the huge ones that had hit the U.S. in the past years. It caught my interest that England was getting terrible record storms also as of late.

They used a hard news lead in the story, telling people everything right away. Letting people know there was a massive winter storm making a record amount of rainfall all across England.

They used not just a story but a multimedia package in this story. By also having an excellent video that goes with it. That’s has an expert talking about what’s, happening with the storm and future of it.

The writer had great sources that he used in the story, like John Curtin, whos the director of coastal flood and risk management.  Telling that they 549 flood warnings during this storm so far. They also had the police in one of the cities talk about just how bad the flooding around there has been.

The nutgraph of the story being the second sentence of the lead that tells how much rain they think is going to fall. Which tells readers everything the story is trying to explain.

HEADLINE: Governor, mayor battle over Austin homelessness as progressive city’s crisis deepens

I’ve lived in Austin my whole life, and this has been one of the most significant issues for the last few years. It really interested me to hear about what both sides think and how much of a problem it’s been. It really caught my eye from right when I looked at the title because it had something to do with my city.

They use more of a hard news lead in this story, getting straight to the point. It was the right lead to use because it is a news story, and people want to know exactly what’s happening right away in the story.

The way the writer gets people into the story is with lead telling people that the Governor of Texas and mayor in Austin, are clashing over the Austin homeless population. Which makes readers from the state or that are curious want to know about what’s happening in Austin.

The first sentence after the lead is the nut graph of the story.  Tells you why the mayor and governor are in a battle over the homeless right now. This was because a homeless man stabbed a bunch of people in the city and killed one. Also that the mayor has a camping policy where homeless people can set up camps anywhere around Austin.

The author of the story did a great job of having multiple sources in the story. Also, getting sources with different points of view on the matter to make it not biased. They probably should have gotten at least someone from the governor’s office to interview. Not just say that he wouldn’t comment, because it still would of help the story out.

They have significant multimedia effects in the story, of putting a video with it to give a more brief rundown of the story. Aldo letting you get a feel of what these camps in the city look like fro the readers. Which I thought they packaged very well together.

I thought it was a pretty well-done story but could use a better title and a source from someone close to the governor.

HEADLINE: Groundhog Day 2020: Here’s what Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction is for the rest of winter

Every year I see on the news, that people in Pennsylvania sit and wait for a groundhog to either stay in his hole or come out to know if it’s still gonna be winter.

This article caught my attention because it’s interesting to me that people think a groundhog will tell them if winter will continue or not. Because this story and groundhog day have been happening since 1841.

They used a soft lead for the headline to pull people into the article because they don’t tell you in the headline if the groundhog came out of it’s whole or not. It made me want to keep reading to know what happened in the story.

The first sentence in the story was the nutgraph, “As light snow fell early Sunday in western Pennsylvania, the Keystone State’s most famous groundhog revealed that warmer days are apparently ahead.” They let you know automatically what happened and what effect it will have on people.

The author uses three different sources in the story, one of them being officials and another one being another news source. The last source used was meteorologist talking about the weather forecast for the United States in the months ahead.

One of the big key data points used is that the groundhog is only 39 percent of the time right on predicting the weather. That the groundhog has also predicted the winter more than 100 times.

I thought the writer could have had a few more credible sources in his story like a few more public officials. The story also needed way more about rather if they think the groundhog prediction will be right or not. If they think that winter will continue on longer or not this winter in the United States.

Headline: Second top Mississippi prisons official steps down 

I’ve read a bunch of story’s lately, about how bad Mississippi prisons need more funding. Which made me really want to read this article and how it talks about second biggest prison official stepping down. After gang violence in his prison left five inmates dead. He had enough of, not getting the money they deserved to keep the prisons running right.

The author used second leading Mississippi prison official to step down. To pull you into reading the story. Which makes people really want to know, what the reason he stepped down is. Talks about, he had be planning to retire months before the gang assault.

Which then leads into all a history, of what Williams did as a prison official in his career. It talks about two other officials stepping down, one being his predecessor. How state officials don’t help with funding, and put officials at risk not updating the prisons.

The author uses great quotes from the Williams. Telling as to reason why he decided to retire after all of these years of work. To all the things Williams had done over his career as one of the top prison officials.

The author of this story used many sources, some of them being other officials. The best of these quotes being from Hall “It has taken a team effort to manage our latest crisis, and DCI Williams has been at the front no matter the time of day or night.”

I think the other could have talked a little more, about what all the prisons are missing. What they needed to happen to get the Mississippi prisons in better shape.