www.moviemusereviews.com

And superhero and science fiction movie fans, you’re in luck.

The May to August season of summer movies, dubbed the “Summer of Superheroes” by Entertainment Weekly Magazine, is largely made up of sci-fi and action-packed plots, supernatural storylines and comic-based tales.

But there’s not a ton of originality as far as movie concepts are concerned.

There are several sequels of mega-successful movie series —”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Cars 2,” “The Hangover 2,” “Transformers 3″— and many of the other action films are based on long-running Marvel and DC comics.

Movie makers are creating countless sequels and bringing comic characters to life because they know these movies will sell.

Take “Thor,” the new movie based on the ripped superhero who thrives in thunderstorms and who made his mainstream debut in comic books in the early 1960s. Fans will have the opportunity to feast their eyes on the epic, blond and broody action hero in the coming weeks as the movie opened Friday, May 6. As of Monday, “Thor” had already raked in $242 million worldwide.

And the remaining summer months will also have their fair share of comic book film adaptations “X-Men: First Class,” “Green Lantern,” “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Conan the Barbarian” will all be released before Aug. 19. The 2012 year has even more hero movies lined up, including “The Avengers” and “The Dark Night Rises.”

There are undoubtedly tons of comic book characters filling up the silver screen this summer, as they have for many summers. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The sci-fi and superhero fanbase is a very visible one, with massive conventions like Comic-Con held each year to bring hardcore fans together. Box office sales for past superhero movies are impressive. In 2002, the first “Spider-Man” grossed $403,706,375 in the U.S., and in 2010, “Iron Man” racked up $312,433,331.

Our society has proven that it loves larger-than-life, heroic figures who, while often dressed in ridiculous costumes, are fighting for a worthy cause.

Many of the hardcore fans first loved the comic book versions of their favorite heroes’ adventures. These film fanatics will be at the heart of this summer of superheroes, but the rest of the movie-going population may not be as impressed.

Not everyone wants to see movies filled with 3-D, CGI and lightning-fast edits designed to make the heart race. And not everyone wants to see remake after remake of old films. But moderation is the key to making summer movie fans happy.

Entertainment Weekly suggests balancing the slew of action-packed superhero films with more “modestly budgeted dramas or comedies,” which have included movies like “Juno” and “The King’s Speech.” These movies may not have been instant hits, but they certainly developed devoted followings with gradual box office success.

If studios are continuing to produce prequels, sequels and remakes, they should carefully consider which movies they plan to remake. It will be interesting to see if this summer’s “The Smurfs” or “Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World” — yes, they’re still making those — experience much success.

www.imdb.com

That’s why so many superhero movies, fluffier animated films, romantic comedies and epic action flicks are packed into a three-month period. On a sweltering day in mid-July, a group of high school students looking for a good time is not going to opt for a heavy historical drama, especially if they have to pay $9 for it.

Big-name studios, here is a suggestion: mix in a few other kinds of films and more original scripts to cater to quality film lovers, because, while they’re a much smaller group, they’re your customers, too.

Courtesy of nytimes.com

The death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of the U.S. military caused an electrifying reaction throughout the world.

Mass crowds of Americans, including students at Elon University, celebrated revenge on the al-Qaida leader and suspected terrorist who had caused great harm on 9/11.

Others were more wary of the future, citing potentially greater threat to U.S. soldiers in the Middle East and an increase in anti-American sentiment.

Many Americans also wanted to see photos taken of bin Laden after his death. Some wanted further visual proof of his death, which may have quelled a growing conspiracy theory that suggested bin Laden was not actually killed.

But May 4, Obama announced his decision to not release the photos, saying they could endanger U.S. forces and make anti-U.S. violence even worse worldwide.

According to a recent NBC poll of 800 adults in the U.S., about two-thirds of Americans – 64 percent – supported Obama’s decision not to release the photos, some agreeing with his decision more strongly than others.

24 percent said they strongly believe the photos should have been released to the public.

Shereen Elgamal, assistant professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at Elon University, is from Egypt and moved to the U.S. in 1993.

She said the U.S. government was right to not release the photos.

Shereen Elgamal, assistant professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern studies at Elon University. Photo by Madelyn. Smith

Amy Smedberg, a junior at Clemson University and employee at All That Jas in Elon, recognized how delicate the topic can be but agreed with Obama’s decision.

“I think it’s a good idea to not release them,” she said. “First of all, kids could get a hold of them, and I don’t think there’s a need to see them – I personally wouldn’t want to see them.”

Megan Wright, a student at Greensboro Day School, also supported the decision to keep the images private.

“Americans might have been happier – more people might have believed it,” she said. “But it was respectful not to release the photos.”

“It’s an interesting thing,” said sophomore Brent Edwards. “I understand why [Obama] said they weren’t going to release them, but at the same time a lot of people aren’t sure if he is actually dead or not, so it’s a grey area more so than anything else.”

In regards to the conspiracy theory brewing among some Americans that bin Laden was not actually killed, freshman Avery McGaha said people want the photos released not for proof, but simply as a political “bandwagon” they can jump onto.

“If I were a political pundit trying to undermine an administration I’d probably create a similar sort of conspiracy,” he said. “This doubt of bin Laden’s death is something that some people feel they can latch onto.”

Another reason Obama said he would not release the photos was due to their graphic nature. Elgamal disagreed with this reasoning.

“We’re really used to a high level of violence,” she said. “It’s not about how graphic the pictures are – we watch movies, television series that have graphic scenes all the time. To me, it’s an issue of life and death, and how life is from God and then we go back to God [at death]. So I feel there’s a certain level of formality and respect that has to be associated with actual death. When it comes to graphic images, that’s not an issue for me.”

Overall, Elon community members who were interviewed agreed with Obama’s decision. They supported the national climate of support for the withholding of images of bin Laden after his death.

See a video below of Elgamal discussing her perception of the differences between photos of Osama bin Laden after his death on May 1, 2011 and Saddam Hussein after his death Dec. 30, 2006.

www.newsobserver.com

Many newspapers are experiencing cuts and are moving more content online, but that has not erased the need for solid enterprise reporting, Riley said.

Riley became an enterprise reporter after first working in sports journalism and then news. He enjoys this type of in-depth reporting because he learns about countless subjects depending on what story he is writing.

“As a member of the enterprise team, I’ve developed a sort of Master’s degree in many topics,” he said.

Riley oversees a three-member team of enterprise reporters at the paper whose in-depth, well-planned stories have impacted the greater North Carolina in various ways since being published.

He is involved in every step of the detailed process.

“Editors aren’t just there to correct comma splices,” he said. “We’re involved from the very inception and we’re involved with story development, asking questions of reporters, interviews and making sure we’re choosing high-impact stories.”

One story in the News & Observer, written by enterprise reporter Dan Kane in August 2010, revealed how the government was stalling on overpaid taxes. Residents statewide were not receiving their funds, and Kane outlined the entire problem for the public. The article resulted in $2.3 million in overpaid taxes being paid to the public.

Riley described several other stories that resulted in change and more awareness for certain problems. One article looked into the lack of discipline for people who had an excessive amount of speeding tickets – some with more than 20, some who had driven more than 100 mph. This led to an investigation of a Guilford County judge who had overseen all of these cases.

“We wanted to know, why in the world was no one being reprimanded for these high-level traffic violations?” said Riley. He added that the article started when he and his team were reviewing court reports of previous traffic cases. They noticed significant trends and developed the article from there.

Riley’s enterprise team also exposed a corrupt neurosurgeon who had been practicing medicine even though he was both half-blind and colorblind. Shortly after the article was published, the doctor was removed from his position.

“He left a trail of half-paralyzed people,” Riley said. “We felt pretty good about that article.”

While enterprise stories at the News & Observer have clearly made an impact and are still needed in journalism today, Riley said he realizes the need to change with news trends.

“You have to present info in a way that can grab and maintain the attention of a different readership, one that’s used to getting information in different ways,” he said. “The challenge for the succeeding generation is to a create an adaptable market for news.”

To maintain reader interest, especially in shorter, more broken-up online stories, Riley said writing with authority is important.

“Be confident, create a fair picture,” he said. “But it doesn’t necessarily have to be a balanced report.”

Riley said enterprise reporting has the potential expose and dig deeper into long-standing issues in society, so a completely balanced article would not stress the need for change as much as an article with a bit of conflict would.

Patience is another quality that’s key to enterprise reporting. During the process, which can take months or a year, depending on the article, Riley said to not lose focus or lose the most important idea: the heart and potential impact of the enterprise story.

Hundreds of Elon University students celebrated Osama bin Laden's reported death at the hands of the U.S. military by running across campus. Many ran down Haggard Avenue chanting and belting patriotic songs.

In the wee hours of the morning May 2, students emerged from dorms, cars and academic buildings as hundreds of their peers chanted and ran across campus in a reaction of intense energy.

Soon after the initial news broke out from outlets like MSNBC and The New York Times, the social media world was buzzing with minute-by-minute updates. Many students saw updates via Facebook statuses or Twitter.

Freshman Molly Spessert’s dad is currently stationed in Kuwait, and her family has lived there the past two years. She called them and woke them up to tell them the news. “I was so excited I got to call them,” she said. “At that moment I was really proud to be an Army brat.”

In the University’s Belk Library, hushed conversations revolved around President Obama’s expected speech following the news of bin Laden’s death. Many watched the speech live on computers while still in accordance with the library’s quiet policy by watching the broadcast wearing headphones.

Obama finished his speech with the words, “We can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are – one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, may God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.”

After his speech ended, students broke into a soft applause on the library’s first floor.

Later around midnight, chants, bullhorns, fireworks and music could be heard echoing throughout campus as several cars full of students rode down Haggard Avenue waving American flags and singing songs like “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.

Students in Elon's Danieley Center residence area sing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" in the wee hours of the morning May 2. photo by Madelyn Smith.

“It started out with a few of us on the car,” said sophomore Joe Ziemba. “Then it just grew. It was amazing how many people showed up so quickly.”

Soon, the noise caused Elon police to show up on the scene. The police officers put out a small grass fire that had started from one of the torches, but they did not arrest anyone. Instead, they urged students to stay safe and continued to patrol the area from the perimeter of the mass crowd.

After chanting and singing the National Anthem and “God Bless America” several times, a group of male students donning American flags led the pack in a frantic sprint toward Elon’s main campus.

photo by Madelyn Smith.

Many students jumped in the fountain, but they didn’t pause for too long – chants of “America, America” caused the student mob to swell once more as the group worked its way up and down the stairs of several residence halls and finally onto Haggard Avenue once more to make its way back to Danieley Center.

The energy only intensified, even as the group of students celebrated well into the morning.

Exploring the ins and outs of the complicated world of pharmaceutical advertising and prescription drugs in America

www.care2.com

These advertisements range from the informative to the vague, often giving consumers misconstrued ideas about symptoms and the effectiveness of certain drugs. Even before walking into their doctor’s office, patients are exposed to thousands of these advertisements.

Graphic by Madelyn Smith.

Medical Moneymakers
Big pharma is the name given to the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, which include such big names as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Novartis.

“When you compare profits in this country, the number one industry is going to be the pharmaceutical industry and big pharma,” said Dr. Larry Garber, associate professor of Marketing at Elon University and former marketing analyst at Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, now GlaxoSmithKline.

In the documentary “Big Bucks, Big Pharma,” experts said the combined global sales of five major pharmaceutical companies in 2004 was $550 billion. In 2010, global sales were estimated at more than $770 billion.

Drug advertising undoubtedly plays a large role in these successful profits, and in 2009, drug makers spent more than $4.3 billion on ads.

While it seems like drug advertisements are never-ending, pharmaceutical companies don’t actually have the freedom to purchase advertisements as often as they want. There are some factors and regulations that go into the marketing process, Garber said.

www.pharma-marketer.com

“There tends to be a pendulum swing in the degree to which ethical drug companies are allowed to advertise through the FDA,” Garber said. “This is contrary to the free market idea, where the government stays out of business affairs.”

Research is another financial giant in the pharmaceutical industry. Without it, new drugs, and subsequently, advertisements for new drugs, wouldn’t be possible.

And by the time the influx of new drug ads comes along each year, companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into intensive research.

“Research is definitely not the most visible part of any drug company,” said Anne Strohmeier, a fourth-year pharmacy intern at Kroger in Louisville, KY and graduate of the College of Pharmacy at the University of South Carolina. “But it’s the most important. Many years of research are invested prior to a drug coming to market, and multiple phases of clinical trials are completed to determine the safety of the drug. It’s a lengthy and expensive process for companies, especially in the U.S.”

Effective advertising

While the sheer number of drug commercials that run on TV may merely be a hum in some people’s ears, the majority of consumers take notice of the ads.

In a May 2010 Consumer Reports survey of 1,150 adults, about one of every five people who take prescription drugs said they suggested a certain drug to their doctor after seeing an advertisement. And of those people, 59 percent said doctors prescribed the drug they requested.

Graphic by Madelyn Smith.

“Students occasionally request certain drugs,” she said. “And if it is the appropriate drug for the problem, we will prescribe that. But at times, certain drugs are requested, but they are not the drug of choice or may not be effective for that diagnosis.”

“Every day I get patients coming in the office asking for brand name drugs,” said Dr. Alice Wyatt, a nurse practitioner at Kulbersh Women’s Center in Irmo, S.C. “And most of them heard about the drugs from TV. But no matter how effective they think the drug might be, it comes down to patient feedback. They can say, ‘that’s what I should have’ – but is that what they really need? If previous patients with similar conditions had no negative reactions to the drug, I’ll consider prescribing it. Then it comes down to a bit of trial and error. It’s either going to work or it’s not,” she said.

‘Ask your doctor if ____ is right for you’

So advertisements are effective at getting the word out about certain drugs, but are they educating consumers or presenting them with misguided information?

“Advertisements have become not so much about the efficacy of a drug, but about our emotional response to the kinds of social meanings they’ve attached to the product,” said Elizabeth Preston, a Communications professor at Westfield State College, in “Big Bucks, Big Pharma.”

Preston said common traits of drug advertisements are idyllic images of people who have been restored to health after taking the medication. They rarely show the actual medical condition or the symptoms that people supposedly suffer from, she said.

“I think when patients see these images of happy, healthy people in the ads, they can overlook the actual safety of the drug,” said Strohmeier. “People can become confused about the intended use or expected outcomes of a medication.”

Graphic by Madelyn Smith.

And the phrase “ask your doctor if [insert prescription drug here] is right for you” is included in most TV advertisements. This statement puts pressure on doctors.

“Telling patients to ask their doctor about a drug allows them to become involved in their health care regimen,” said Strohmeier. “But it also puts doctors in a tough situation – where doctors were once the primary medical expert, many patients now come to doctors with recommendations from TV, the internet, word of mouth – all based on a drug they know very little about.”

Physician and author Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, said in the documentary that consumers should be “smart researchers” and be wary of drug ads they see online or on television.

“It’s absurd to look to a company for impartial education about a drug product,” she said. She added that consumers should not get caught up in the “ceaseless mass marketing” from drug companies and do better research before going to their doctors with requests for certain drugs.

Drugs Sales Reps: The Bridge between Companies and Doctors

Common marketing strategies – TV commercials, magazine ads and internet pop-up ads – are meant to educate consumers and persuade them to buy certain drugs. But the rest of the industry’s promotional efforts come from pharmaceutical sales representatives and are geared toward doctors, pharmacists and healthcare providers.

The FDA aims to give pharmaceutical companies an equal footing in the category of television and print ads, but the face-to-face contact of sales reps can have a larger effect on which drugs doctors choose to give their patients.

“Competition has always been the issue for drug companies,” said Christa Riley, a former representative for Merck, a company known for brands like Singulair and Vytorin, and a current representative for a smaller drug company. “There really is no drug on the market without direct competition. If you’re not competing against another similar drug, you are competing against generic drugs,” she said.

Riley said a typical day as a drug sales representative would include making about 10 calls daily to physicians’ offices, sharing new information about certain drugs and reinforcing the advantages of the drugs. She said also gives doctors several boxes of drug samples to hand out to patients and often arranges informational meetings with doctors’ offices.

Before the FDA’s recent ban on sales representatives’ incentives for doctors, many felt that drug companies and physicians were “too cozy,” said former sales representative Gene Carbona in Big Bucks, Big Pharma. “Pharmaceutical reps had virtually unrestricted budgets for giving doctors incentives to prescribe their drug. It became an issue of education versus mere marketing. There was a thin educational veneer over outrageous promotional spending.”

Such incentives and promotional spending included pens, clipboards, stethoscopes – virtually every major tool physicians used – all labeled with a certain drug’s name.

images.google.com

Another Consumer Reports survey of 49,007 subscribers backed up this claim. It found that most patients were a bit skeptical of doctors who they thought relied too heavily on prescription drugs and their sales representatives, especially those doctors who didn’t look into other options like generic drugs or nondrug treatments.

And while many doctors may come across as unwilling to prescribe a generic drug, this may be due to the amount of samples they receive from drug representatives. These are usually the only samples doctors’ offices have on hand, so doctors are limited to those brand name drug samples instead of generic options.

But it’s important to not view drug representatives as seedy salespeople who persuade and pass out unlimited samples as “bribes.”

“I think it’s ridiculous when people scrutinize the pharmaceutical industry for manipulating doctors by giving them favors,” said Riley. “It can happen in any industry.”

“It’s hard for physicians to keep up, so the industry needs reps,” said Garber. “Good representatives are people who can educate. And advertisements only complement what reps are telling doctors.”

Americans’ Quest for a ‘Quick Fix:’ Are brand name drugs really the best option?

Pierce Jones, a sophomore Biomedical Engineering student at Vanderbilt University, has chosen, if possible, to rarely taken any kind of medication in his lifetime. He would prefer to not experience the undesirable side effects of many drugs.

“I see the necessity in most drugs,” he said. “And I’m not saying that all drugs are bad, just that they should not be the first cure people look at before anything else.”

A term that’s thrown around often in medical talk is “quick fix,” the idea that people want immediate solutions to any and all types of medical problems they experience.

“As a population, we’d rather have a few side effects related to an immediate response than proceed naturally and have to wait longer,” said Jones. “As the most clear example, I feel like too many children are diagnosed with ADHD at too young an age. I’m not discounting ADHD as a disorder, but I am saying that there are probably plenty of children whose rowdiness is mistaken for a chemical deficiency.”

“We can go to doctors to fix things that people wouldn’t have bothered with years ago,” said Garber.

Consumers are sometimes hesitant to accept doctors’ suggestions for generic drugs to fix their medical problems. This may be because the drugs have been around longer and aren’t advertised as heavily as newer drugs, or because consumers doubt the effectiveness of generic drugs.

“What ads won’t tell you is that those newer drugs are often no safer or more effective than older medications that cost a fraction of the price,” wrote Consumer Reports in a March 2011 article and web resource, “Best Buy Drugs.”

Wyatt, who has been in the field of women’s health for more than 20 years, said she has always opted to prescribe generic brands first. If a prescription drug happens to be the clearest, best-fit choice for a patient, she will recommend that instead.

“Unless someone has had a problem with an off-brand, I usually prescribe generics,” she said. “They’re just as good but most importantly for the patient, they’re cheaper.”

The main point many health professionals want to hit home? Don’t fear generic drugs. They may not be advertised as heavily, but they still undergo close scrutiny by the FDA to ensure that their main active ingredients are the same as their matching prescription drugs.

Consumer Reports completed intensive research comparing expensive brand name drugs to their generic counterparts and found that buying generics can save consumers up to 80 percent on monthly drug costs.

And not only should consumers consider generic drugs, they should also question whether their suspected medical problems are really worth medication at all. Research is key, and so is patience.

“People should definitely consider alternatives to medication,” said Jones. “A holistic approach is best to try. Chiropractic has worked for me, as well as massage therapy, vitamins and changes and supplements to my diet.”

With cheaper alternatives like generic drugs and nondrug treatments, consumers may not be as locked into taking prescription drugs as they think. Drug advertisements try to convince people that certain medications are the absolute most reliable drug on the market. But they are obligated to do that – they are, after all, businesses.

And given the emphasis on health in the U.S., it seems almost everyone is taking some kind of pill, even if it means straining their wallets to do so.

But the search for medical solutions – taking generic or prescription drugs, trying nondrug options – stems from Americans’ overall quest for a good well-being and long life expectancy.

“What would we do without the medical industry?” asked Riley. “It’s what keeps people living a peaceful existence.”

The following is a video excerpt from the documentary “Big Bucks, Big Pharma:”

In an informal Earth Day survey conducted by a Reporting for the Public Good class April 22, 158 Elon University students were asked questions about their environmental consciousness.

When asked if they thought they were environmentally aware, 92 percent of the students said yes.

Given Elon’s current commitment to sustainability with initiatives like LEED certified buildings, waste reduction programs within dining services, several biodiesel-powered Biobuses and prominent recycling program, students have environmentally-centered knowledge at their fingertips. Elon was also recently named one of the Princeton Review’s Top 311 “Green Colleges.”

But has an Elon education really made a difference in their environmental awareness?

Only 81 percent said yes.

And of the 158 students polled, just 68 percent said they were concerned about global warming and taking personal action.

Could it be that Elon needs to be more effective in raising students’ awareness of environmental issues in the classroom, or is the university already doing enough?

“Elon does a ton of stuff to be sustainable, but a lot of it is up to the student,” said freshman Sami Biardi.

Biardi said she takes steps in her own life to be more environmentally conscious, including buying compact fluorescent light bulbs and buying as much local food as possible.

Other environmentally-friendly actions students said they do often are:

“I try to recycle as many bottles, cans and stacks of paper as I can,” said freshman Rebecca Iannucci. “It isn’t much, but it’s simple and quick and it feels nice to do something.”

Check out Elon’s many events and web resources for Earth Week here.

Members of every profession have their weaknesses. For journalists, numbers are this recurring weakness. The evidence of less-than-perfect math skills is unfortunately seen often in newspapers, when business concepts, percentages, poll results and other math-related information is incorrect.

But have no fear – this condensed recap of Kathleen Woodruff Wickham’s “Math Tools for Journalists” will ideally simplify the math process for journalists.

‘Interview numbers like you do people’

Wickham says using precision with numbers “often frightens men and women more comfortable with the verbal options available in the English language.” But looking at numbers with precision is important for accuracy and the ability to recognize when numbers have been blown out of proportion.

For example, you read about a company with a 200 percent increase in sales last month. You stop and think – now that’s a number to check up on – it seems steep. Fact-checking is just as important with numbers as it is with words.

Here is a practice sentence to test your “numeral literacy” in journalism:
Re-write the following sentence in journalistic style:
Over a period of 2 years, the company, located at eight Main St., lost twenty-five million dollars in sales.
–Rewritten, the sentence should look like this:
Over a period of two years, the company, located at 8 Main St., lost $25 million in sales.

Percentage Increase
To find the percentage increase, use this formula:
New figure – old figure ÷ old figure

Example: The mayor’s salary went from $86,520 in 2008 to $92,000 in 2011. To find the percent increase of the mayor’s salary, plug in the dollar amounts into the formula.
New figure ($92,000) – old figure ($86,520) ÷ old figure ($86,520) = .063
To get the decimal to a percentage, move the decimal point two places to the right. Therefore, there was a 6.3 percent increase in the mayor’s salary from 2008 to 2011.

Mean, Median and Mode
Most people learn these three words in middle school, but here is a much-needed refresher on these common statistical terms:
Mean: the average number based on a set of numbers; get the mean by adding all the figures in a group and dividing by how many there are.
Example: To find the average number of students per class, add up all of the following class sizes:
15
11
22
30
24
23
18
And divide by how many there are, which is 7. Your answer, rounded, should be 20. Twenty is the average number of students per class.
Median: To find the median using that same data, rewrite the numbers from lowest to highest and find the number with the same amount of numbers above and below. In this case, the median would be 22.
Mode: The mode is the most frequent number that appears in the data. In this case, there is no mode for number of students per class.

Here are other “numeral basics” journalists should know.
· Spell out single digit numbers (One through nine)
· For numbers of 1 million or more, write the numeral and then spell out million, billion, etc.
· Round off numbers to one decimal point
· Aim for no more than three numbers per paragraph – keep reader clarity in mind

Numerals are always used for:
· Addresses
· Dates
· Percentages
· Highway destinations
· Speed
· Temperature
· Time
· Weight

Saturday April 17, the Elon University women’s rugby team held its annual Prom Dress game. The team was originally scheduled to play the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, but due to Saturday’s inclement weather, the team members played among themselves instead.

The annual event usually raises money for a cause like Crossroads: Sexual Assault Response & Resource Center in Burlington.

The team, which has been around for more than 10 years, has 25 members representing each of the four classes. Only a handful of the girls on the current team played rugby before coming to Elon.

“A lot of people on the team did some kind of sport in high school but wanted to do something different,” said junior Brittany Moore, one of the team captains.

With three practices per week – including a two-hour Friday practice – the girls are truly committed to the team’s success and the drive to maintain a tight-knit community.

“It’s unique to see a club team that’s as intense and dedicated as we are,” said senior Brittany Siciliano, a team captain. “But we also make a point to have fun.”

The team plays several games in the fall, but their series of Saturday spring games, or their “Matrix season,” is the indicator of any tournament opportunities. This spring, the team went 4-0 against UNC-Greensboro, Guilford College, Wake Forest University and Duke University.

As a result, the team got the opportunity to travel to Alabama for the 2011 USA Rugby South Collegiate Championships.

“We did not fare too well there,” said freshman Lauren Sheridan. “But we witnessed other teams getting really frustrated and yelling at each other, while we were dancing in the tri-zone having a ball because we were determined to have fun. It was a successful weekend all in all, even though we didn’t win.”

Sheridan added that she is thankful to have found a tight group of friends and teammates in her first year at college.

“When I first got to Elon, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” she said. “I’d played soccer for most of my life. My RA recommended rugby, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

Moore said the team has also given her “surface level” benefits like leadership experience.

“It’s also kind of empowering as women to play a sport that we don’t normally play,” she said. “People are surprised when you tell them you play rugby.”

Siciliano credits the team’s “Matrix season” success to the sense of community they create on and off the field.

“The nicest thing I got out of this team – we say it all the time, but we’re a family,” she said. “You have friends that you’ll have throughout college and beyond. I think with these girls, we’ll be in each others’ lives for a long time.”

Analytics: Not as complicated as you think

Google Analytics and Adobe Omniture are two examples of analytics programs that news sites use to track things like page views, number of clicks and the average amount of time spent on a site.

“You can never be exactly sure how many page views there are, because no two analytics sites are the same,” Hubert-Allen said. “But stats like that give you a gauge of what people are reading and what sites they’re coming from – Twitter, Facebook, etc.”

Google Analytics provides helpful information for website owners, such as page views, keywords people use to access their site, and average time spent on the site.

When she was applying for jobs and internships, Hubert-Allen even used analytics on her personal website.

“It was my sneaky way of seeing whether anyone was looking at my resumé,” she said.

Social Media and Multimedia: Involve the Reader

Hubert-Allen said some of The Pilot’s most successful projects have been through “participatory news,” where users are involved in the story through social media or interactive software like Flash.

“You can make an article more robust by involving the user somehow,” she said. “When we post things on Facebook that people can comment on, we’re laying down the framework for people to have more serious discussions later.”

Hubert-Allen has been involved in creating several interactive and innovative projects for the Pilot that resulted in a lot of reader interest. One was a picture contest via The Pilot’s Facebook page, where she posted one interesting photo each Friday that users could write a caption for.

“That generated more comments than any of our major news stories on our site,” she said.

Another multimedia project, “The View Through the Lens,” showcased 10 Virginian-Pilot photographers discussing the stories behind their favorite images they had taken in 2010. Hubert-Allen said it took typical “year in review” slide shows to a new level by incorporating audio of the photographers themselves.

Databases can be fun?

When a news organization gets a hold of a data set – this can be local sports stats, economic figures, population growth rates – there are lists of endless numbers and text that readers would have a hard time digesting. But it is up to news organizations to simplify the numbers and make them visually interesting.

The New York times website did just that in a 2009 interactive database map based on Netflix rental patterns in 12 cities across the U.S. There were various shades of yellow, orange and red depending on the volume of movie rentals in a certain city.

“With multimedia like that, people can tell their own story and personalize data for themselves,” said Hubert-Allen. “You could spend 20 minutes looking at these things but be entertained the whole time. That’s why the New York Times has one of the highest amounts of time spent per visit to the site.”

Hubert-Allen stressed the importance of learning computer science – coding and software – to get an edge when applying for jobs in journalism. The trend of journalism today undoubtedly points to multimedia as a needed skill, and she encouraged students to go the extra mile with each project they encounter in college. She said students should use software teaching tools like Lynda and W3Schools.com to teach themselves the “basics” like HTML and CSS code.

“Definitely use these things while they’re still free in college,” she said. “And when you learn them, don’t just tell people in an interview, ‘I know this software,’ demonstrate a drive and show them improvement. If you can show improvement, that says almost as much as showing people that you’re already amazing at something.”

Chapter 9 in “America’s Best Newspaper Writing” showcased some of these “classic” pieces of journalism by excellent journalists who developed their craft and talent by studying other people’s writing. Here are a few examples of their work:

Harold A. Littledale of the New York Evening Post recognized the importance of muckraking – exposing misconduct and corruption of government leaders – and social reform in journalism. In a 1917 article, he exposed the less-than-adequate conditions of state prisons in New Jersey using powerful repetition to hit home his point:

It is a fact that two, three, and even four men are confined together in the same cell in violation of the law.
It is a fact that dungeons exist and that men are incarcerated therein and given only bread and water twice a day.
It is a fact that men have been chained to the walls of underground dungeons.
-from Littledale’s ‘Prisoners With Midnight in Their Hearts’

William Allen White of the Emporia Gazette in Kanas was said to have been the most influential small-town newspaper editor in the country. He is best known for his emotional and vivid obituary of his own daughter, who died in a 1921 horseback-riding accident.

A rift in the clouds in a gray day threw a shaft of sunlight upon her coffin as her nervous, energetic little body sank to its last sleep. But the soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fervent soul of her, surely was flaming in eager joy upon some other dawn.
-”Mary White” by William Allen White

Lorena A. Hickok was a small-town writer based in Iowa who felt stuck in a rut as a female writer in the 1920s – she primarily wrote society and human interest stories before moving up the ranks and becoming a successful editor and reporter at the Associated Press. She wrote a story about a small town paying their respects to the body of President Hoover as it raced by on a train.

There it is! Yes, but dimly lighted. Now, look – quick – wreaths, flowers, a huge American flag. Swift realization that the casket must lie beneath that flag. A frenzied search for the guards. Red tail lights half a mile down the track-
“Well, it was worth it, wasn’t it?”
“It was.”
-”Iowa Village Waits All Night for Glimpse at Fleeting Train” by Lorena Hickok

Richard Wright‘s writing is described as having “a voice intolerable for the mainstream press of his time (1935), but one that resonates in the 21st century.” He found that the only way to express his true thoughts about the state of America, especially race, was to write for New Masses, a Communist publication. In his historic column about a boxing match where Joe Louis, a black boxer, beat a white boxer, Wright infuses energy with scene-setting details while also looking into the meaning behind those details. His writing “reminds us how many untold stories and how many stifled voices existed in America -and still exist.”

Gene Patterson, arguably the “superstar” of this chapter, was originally editor of the The Atlanta Constitution in the 1960s before working at The Washington Post and the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. He had the enormous calling of persuading white Southerners “to reject their racist and segregationist past.” In an era where Patterson undoubtedly faced harsh criticism for his work, he fearlessly wrote with reform in mind.
His story “Flower for the Graves,” uses emotional descriptions to describe the aftermath of a bombing that killed four black children. Patterson’s writing is certainly a classic because of his willingness to write about a story no matter the consequences to his reputation at the time – he truly reported for the public good.