Editor’s note: Story was originally posted from Public Eye Northwest on June 28, 2011.
SUMMARY:The Washington State Court of Appeals yesterday rescinded an April 2010 King County Superior Court ruling that dismissed a gay discrimination case against the University of Washington and a former supervisor. Debra Loeffelholz alleges UW and her former supervisor, James Lukehart, created a hostile work environment by discriminating against her based on sexual orientation. The appeals court concluded the trial court erred in its ruling that the alleged discriminatory acts against Loeffelholz did not meet the three-year statute of limitations. At the center of the case – which has now been kicked back to the lower court – is whether or not Lukehart’s last alleged hostile act does in fact fall within the statute of limitations. Read the rest of this entry »
UW gay discrimination case reinstated by appeals court
12 08 2011Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: appeals court, debra loeffelholz, gay discrimination, king county, kyle kim, lgbt, public eye northwest, university of washington, UW, washington state court
Categories : Journalism, Story Samples
The importance of multi-modal reporting in the news industry’s digital shift
9 06 2011—
Thinking like a multimedia reporter (strengths and weaknesses in each platform). It goes beyond being able to write a story for print, and produce video and interactive maps online. A journalist fluent in multimedia should be able to create multiple platforms that play up to each medium’s strengths.
Regardless of platform, all reporting require the basics: the facts (who, what, when, where, why and how), sources and newsworthiness (a reason to listen/read/watch). But how these essentials are packaged will look differently to each platform. A short rundown:
For broadcasting, you want to use a strong visual or audio grab to get the viewer’s attention. And unlike print/text platforms, you want to convey one idea per sentence in a style that feels conversational. Using a video clip for television and audio piece for radio in your story will boost its credibility and make it more interesting. The biggest weakness for broadcasting is that complex issues can be extremely difficult to summarize or simplify in a 60 to 90 second spot.
For print, it’s all about the lede and inverted pyramid. When people pick up a newspaper, the photo (if you have one), headline, lede and nut graf will be the main factors considered when deciding whether or not to read the entire story. Using words that utilize vivid detail and the senses (sight, sound, touch, smell and taste) can sometimes create a much stronger visual than a picture or video can. The strength for this platform can also be its weakness. Often times, words sometimes fall short to completely explain something that a video or audio platform can do better at.
For online, two approaches are used: the short summary for scanners and the online exclusives for information diggers. The first option means, using the inverted pyramid approach for short bursts of info. Or if it’s a longer story, breaking it up into bolded subheads or bullets are the way to go. Scanners tend to just read headlines and the first graf of a story and move on. For online exclusives, news packages including interactive maps, links, Flash and audio-visual elements are commonly used. Technical aspects like content management systems and having an online package outlive changes in technology pose a challenge for this platform.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: AAJA, broadcast, inverted pyramid, Journalism, kyle kim, multimedia reporting, multimodal, multiplatform, News University, online, Poynter, print, reporting, Voices
Categories : Internet, Journalism, Media Convergence, Multimedia, Photography
Poverty and race play into state child welfare system
31 05 2011By Kyle Kim
Editors note: the story was originally published for the May 10 print issue of The Whitworthian. You can access both the issue and online edition here.Native American children represent 7 percent of Washington State’s child population and are roughly five times more likely to be victims of abuse or neglect compared to white children, according to data from Child Protective Services. Statewide, Native American children are three times more likely to be referred to child welfare than their white counterparts.
Census figures show the city of Spokane alone holds the eighth-largest Native American population in the nation.
Alaska native Tara Dowd, who grew up in Washington’s child welfare system for most of her early life, said there’s a saying among foster kids: those who make it out call each other alumni.
“An alumni means you’ve earned something,” Dowd said. “I’ve lost more than I’ve gained in the child welfare system.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: accountability, child protective services, Child Welfare, Children's Defense Fund, government, Hillyard, indian child welfare act, kyle kim, Native American Children, South Hill, spokane, Washington State
Categories : Journalism, Story Samples
New report on the news biz says journos still don’t get it
10 05 2011The Columbia Journalism Review released a policy report today titled “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism.” Some tidbits from today’s coverage of the report:
From NY Times on advertising:
If you ever watch somebody reading a copy of Vanity Fair, they spend as much time looking at the ads as they spend looking at the content,” Mr. Grueskin said, “because the ads are actually useful for readers.” (Ads having value on their own, he added, is “something that we as journalists have a hard time getting our heads around.”)
From CJR’s report on paywalls:
“So, which approach is best, free or paid? Pay proponents often put it this way: High-quality journalism costs a great deal to produce, so users ought to pay to get it. Pay opponents have a counterargument: Paywalls cut sites off from “the conversation” online and will deprive them of the attention they need from blogs, aggregators and social media.
We prefer to frame it as a business issue—and in that respect, it’s possible that neither side has it exactly right. In fact, pay plans may have little immediate impact on sites that are just getting into the business. The reason is that most companies are likely to have only small streams of online circulation revenue, which could roughly match advertising declines from lower traffic. Digital subscriptions may pay off in the years to come, but only if media companies can persuade consumers using new platforms—like smartphones and tablets—to adopt a pay plan.
From Reuter’s Felix Salmon on rethinking the biz model:
If you’re going to reinvent the business of journalism for the digital era, this is a really fruitful place to start — the idea that although the business and the journalism are always going to be linked, they don’t necessarily need to be linked through the slightly kludgy old-media mechanism of simple adjacency.
Read the full report here.
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: advertising model, columbia journalism school, kyle kim, media industry, New York Times, news economics, news subscriptions, NY Times, paywall
Categories : Economy, Internet, Journalism
Response plan: Assess and address
16 03 2011
Illustration by Annette Farrell
An in-depth look at Whitworth University’s emergency response plan
By Kyle Kim
Editor’s note: this story was originally published for The Whitworthian’s March 14. 2011 issue.
Whitworth’s emergency response plan, which outlines response strategies in times of campus emergencies, provides flexibility while still providing a uniform and efficient guide to managing disasters, said the university risk management official who compiled the plan.
The university emergency plan that complies to standards set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a departure from previous Whitworth response plans in which emergency procedures have been categorized by incident, said Marisha Hamm, manager of environmental health, safety and risk management, who developed the plan.
“Emergencies aren’t predictable so you can’t have a predictable emergency response plan,” Hamm said. “The whole point of ICS is that you can’t plan emergencies.”
The Whitworth University Emergency Response Plan follows the structure of an Incident Command System (ICS) which is an approach developed by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Homeland Security.
Homeland Security developed NIMS and ICS to create “a core set of doctrine, principles, terminology, and organizational processes to enable effective, efficient and collaborative incident management at all levels,” according to the FEMA website.
Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: disaster response, dorm fire, Emergency Response Plan, federal emergency management system, FEMA, Homeland Security, ICS, Incident Command System, kyle kim, major emergency, school shooting, Whitworth University
Categories : Story Samples
A juggling act for women
8 03 2011A recent report released by the White House shows women are making strides in higher education and the workplace, but still remain at a disadvantage.
Editor’s note: the story was originally published on the March 8 issue of The Whitworthian. The story is also available online.
By Kyle Kim
Although a recent federal study shows women outpacing men in college enrollment and graduation rates at all academic levels, the report also reinforces prevailing data on the existence of gender inequality for working women.
Federal data shows females will soon make up the majority of the workforce but the percentage of women working in high-wage fields traditionally dominated by men like management, business, finance, science, technology and engineering remains low.
The findings are part of a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the White House called “Women in America.” The report is a compilation of pre-existing data documented by various federal agencies outlining the state of income, education, employment, health and violence for American women.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: american workforce, Economy, feminism, gender issues, gender roles, julie kmec, kyle kim, wage discrepancy, white house report, women in america, work inequality
Categories : Economy, Politics, Story Samples
From periodic elements to the Packers
7 03 2011A professor’s love for both chemistry and the Green Bay team
By Kyle Kim
Editor’s note: the feature was originally published on thewhitworthian.com on March 5, 2011.
Among the chemistry books and science articles spread throughout professor Karen Stevens’ office, another passion of hers becomes clearly evident. The native Wisconsinite is a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan.
Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: chemistry professor, gender issues, green bay packers, Karen Stevens, kyle kim, personality feature, sciences, super bowl 2011, Whitworth University, Whitworthian, women in sciences
Categories : Story Samples
Recent Comments