Analysis // Rachel Hirsch

In the Trump article, I think they did a good job showing that the race has really been narrowed down to three candidates. They also do a really good job of using quotes from each of them. I was also surprised to see at the end of the article how they got information from another source. I thought this was a good example of how people wrote things ahead of time, like we are going to do!

In the Clinton article, they really focused on the voters rather than the candidates themselves. Essentially, the article has to do with demographic voter patterns which is kinda hard to figure out from the title. I thought this article was also a good example of how they had prepared writing before too!

In general, I thought both articles were a little biased towards both Trump and Clinton, but I also think they had very strong quotes.

SC Primary Analysis

The first Post and Courier article, by Schuyler Kropf, “Trump wins SC primary in a run away”, focuses on Trump’s decisive victory in the South Carolinian Republican Primary, with Rubio and Truz finishing in second and third respectively. It also discusses the other candidates who had disappointing primaries, such as Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio. It provides thorough context of the elections, especially in regards to the voters. Voter turnout (725,000, a SC record), voter demographic (majority being Evangelical), and the voters’ view of mistrust toward politicians in the GOP were three main points of the article that helped to delineate why the results were what they were. The article also contains the most relevant and powerful quotes from Trump, Rubio and Cruz that all served to emphasize their respective views on the state of their campaigns. However, there is some bias in the article, especially when Kropf says “Trump’s win provides further evidence that the grassroots and working-class anger fueling his rise still simmers.”

The second article, “Black Turnout boosts Clinton in a big way”, by Robert Behre, discusses the Democratic primaries in South Carolina. However, it focuses less on the candidates than the first article and even more on the voters. It provides a myriad of facts and figures in order to give a detailed description of the voter demographic, especially the African American voters, and how they predominantly voted for. The article also describes the stark decrease in the percentage of Democrats who voted, 12%, compared to the 25% of Republicans who voted. Instead of quoting the candidates, the article quoted a Winthrop University professor, Scott Huffmon, who compared the 2016 primaries to that of 2008 when Barack Obama was running for his first term. Huffmon was able to produce a more localized perspective of the primary, giving us a better idea of the way SC voters think.

Both articles shared in common the discussion of voter demographic and turnout, although the second article provided even more insight into the voters. This is highlighted by the photograph shown at the top of each article, which are both powerful in their own right. However, the first article’s photo focuses more on Trump while the second photo emphasizes the voters, which happen to be African-American.

SC Primary Analysis – Conte

The first article, “Trump wins SC Primary in a run away”, uses quotes, numerical figures as well as background information to structure this article on the South Carolina primary. The article is focused on the ‘three-man’ competition between Trump, Cruz and Rubio by using voter turn out and figures to help readers visualize the intensity of the race. The quotes that are used reveal the spectrum of the this election, including commentary from the winning politicians, losing politicians and their supporters as well. Some charged adjectives are included in the article, such as “easily” or “dominant” which could potential reveal bias in the story.

The second article, “Black turnout boosts Clinton in a big way” discusses more of the voters behind the nominees. As explained in the title, the article focuses on demographic voter patterns. Although the headline suggests otherwise, further in the article it is stated that Hillary does not receive much more support from black voters than Bernie does – I found that a little concerning in that I thought the headline was misleading. Finally the decreased democratic voter turnout was surprising, maybe a reasons as to the Republican nominees reaching greater publicity.

The Trump article reveals a powerful, dominate photo. Which compares to his leading position in the polls. The Hillary article, shows a photo of African American voters, and a child, gathering stickers following voter. This demonstrates political participation and encompasses them as they announce their participation to others (by wearing stickers)!

Analysis – Suyash Keshari

The Trump article drew from another source – The Associated Press Exit Poll Survey – and was good at citing it.

“Clinton’s vote total Saturday didn’t quite reach the 294,898 votes that Barack Obama received in 2008 — the state’s most recent Democratic presidential primary — but she almost doubled the 140,990 votes she received in 2008. From Trump Article” there was some clear prior research that went into this to gather the data.

Made uses of quotes, adding at least one quote from every candidate’s speech or interview.

The article however seemed a little bias to ward Trump “Donald Trump easily captured the South Carolina Republican primary.”

“Post and Courier reporters Cynthia Roldan, Gavin Jackson and Maya Prabhu and The Associated Press contributed to this report.” Gave credit and acknowledgement in the end.

The article about Hillary Clinton too seemed bias as it focused on her entirely. The article did not give much weightage to other candidates. The article did not give quotes from different sources, the quotes were from just a few handful.

Analysis of SC Primaries – Meg

Summary:

This past weekend wrapped up the South Carolina Primaries with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump taking the wins.

The first article by the Post & Courier showcased Clinton’s win. The story included a video of her victory speech and a photo of her greeting supporters. The lede introduced how she won the primary and secured black voters, and the rest of the story continued to provide background on the current race as well as how her tactics and luck has changed since running against Obama. The final chunk of the article featured a quote from a voter that drove with her family to come see Clinton speak.

The second article focused in general on the voters in SC, comparing Trump and Clinton’s wins and featuring reactions to the poll turn out from various people like a Winthrop University professor and a Democratic National Committee Chairwoman. The main take-away from the article was the influence of black voters in pushing Clinton to the Democratic forefront.

Finally, the article detailing Trump’s win included a dramatic image of him pointing at the camera and described his race thus far against fellow Republican candidates and his runaway win.

Strengths of the Articles:

-using interesting, gripping videos and images

-including statistics on voters and voter reactions

-outlining the background of the entire race and info on the candidates

Weaknesses of the Articles:

-bias was clear in the ways Clinton and Trump’s victories were handled

–Clinton: positive, praising, focus entirely on her

–Trump: negative, less about victory and more about the overall race and disappointments of other candidates

South Carolina Coverage Review // Katie Dickens

The first article posted on Sakai about the South Carolina primaries from the Post and Courier included background research and brand new information. The lede, the nut graph and accompanying paragraphs were new information about the turnout, then were followed by background. It included specific demographic information about the votes cast (i.e. evangelicals), the number of votes cast, as well as who came in what place after Trump. It also included strong, summary quotes from his winning speech. The rest of the article was comprised of background information about the recent primaries and their results, as well as what was in store for the future.

The second article, which discussed Hillary’s win in South Carolina, also was comprised of a majority of background information, but focused primarily on the demographic makeup of the voters by emphasizing that she won the black vote. It also broke down the votes by county. It also included quotes from the Democratic National Committee Chairwoman and from a Winthrop University professor who had been interviewed beforehand. The second article about Hillary reiterated the same information, but focused on the event from a historical perspective, including information on Hillary’s past in South Carolina and her husband’s past as well. It also included powerful quotes from a civilian who supported Hillary.

All articles included strong, emotional images at the beginning in order to engage the reader. I think the most effective background information was the historical perspective, as well as expectations from experts. The most interesting new information was the demographic data as well as the reactionary quotes- both of which I think would be very interesting to include in our election day coverage.

Reflection — Chris Caswell

My second story was an interesting experience, because it was my first time covering a speech or discussion. Before, I had only covered press releases or features on different student organizations. One challenge I discovered in covering an event like the College Republican one was that since I could not record it, it was just difficult to write down quotes fast enough without butchering them.

It was very interesting, despite this challenge, covering and learning more about a public figure such as Guillory. It was fascinating learning about his experiences with civil rights and hearing how those experiences shaped his beliefs today.

Reflection // Rachel Hirsch

Reflection:

Getting sources for my story turned out to be much easier then I thought it would be. I’m in a theatre class and my professor was the director of the show and two of the students I sit next to were in the play as well. Because of this it wasn’t difficult to arrange an interview with them. Last story I had trouble with the length of my paragraphs and attribution so I really tried to be better about those two components.

Meg edited my paper and really helped with a lot grammatical mistakes that occurred throughout the entire piece. I had also taken a quote from the website that described the play that I needed to say where it came from. Meg also suggested that I have a sentence earlier in my paper to say how varied the reactions really were.

Reflection Paragraph // Katie Dickens

This story was a direct result of researching and interviewing for my first story. I felt a little more comfortable with reporting on sports journalism, and had established contacts that I could interview. I was blown away by the kindness of the golfers that I spoke to. Their excitement was contagious! The head men’s golf coach, Jerry Haas, was incredibly kind and I was able to have an informative, lengthy interview with him over the phone, despite him being on his way to practice. I have been very impressed with how engaging and open to conversation the Wake Forest athletic department has been. It was much easier to piece together the story and include lots of exciting details. After Chris edited my story, the main lesson I learned was to double-check my sports terminology (i.e. golf player vs. golfer) and to double and triple check AP style!

Three Year Policy – Todd

Many students have admitted to forging petitions to be approved to live off campus since 2011 when the Wake Forest University administration passed a policy that forced students to live on campus for three years instead of two.

According to the Wake Forest’s Residential, Life, and Housing website only Seniors, and approved Sophomores and Juniors are allowed to live off campus. To get approval for off campus housing a student has to write an essay explaining why they need to live off campus.

The application for getting off campus has turned out to be a major loop hole in the policy. Many students admitted to lying on the application so that they can live off campus. According to Alana McCarthy, a Senior at Wake Forest, “Everyone does it.”

Students use a variety of creative lies on the application to get off campus. According to

Senior, Harry Perkins, a lot of students say they are allergic to the mold in campus dorm rooms.

Perkins said that a friend of his told the school that she was anemic, and that she needed to live off campus so that she can cook more meat.

Perkins also said that the more “absurd and unusual” the excuse is the more likely that person will get approved.

One student, who wished not to be name, took it as far as telling the school that he was a homosexual and that he did not feel comfortable living in a dorm room with other men. The entire story was a lie, but the student got off campus.

As strange as the process seems, the school actually needs these students to live off campus because since the three year on campus policy came into effect there has been a shortage in living space available on campus.

According to Resident, Life, and Housing, there are 3,710 beds on campus for 4,846 students.

Adam Bernot, the Assistant director of Housing Assignments, admitted that “We have become much more flexible about who we let off campus because we are so close to capacity.”

Drew Duff, a Sophomore Residential Advisor, feels that “The housing policy is just another way for the school to micro manage it’s students.” He went on to say that he thinks the policy is “Just another money scheme.”

The cost of housing on campus is $ 4,248 per semester. A student can find a typical apartment off campus with many more amenities for $ 2,800 per semester.

However, according to Kristy Eanes, the Director of Housing assignments, the school sees that there is a correlation between living on campus and student engagement in the community.

The school says there is no plan to change the policy in any way.