Primary Coverage-Annabel Love

The first article, “Trump wins South Carolina Primary in Runaway” is about the victory of Donald Trump and background information regarding the South Carolina Primary. Schuyler Krpof makes it prominent that this is a “three man race”. Kropf focuses on the three candidates that have a chance at presidency: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. Memorable quotes from these three front-runners were included in the article. This article addresses the record voter turnout with “more than 725,000 voters.” Kropf also makes it obvious that Bush is not doing well even after visits from his “popular brother and mother.” The only two candidates that we did not hear much from were John Kasich and Ben Carson. Overall, I thought that it was a strong article with powerful quotes from significant people. However, I would have liked to seen less bias and emphasis on Trump and more of an inclusion of all the candidates and more opinions from voters.

The second article, “Black turnout boosts Clinton in a big way” by Robert Behre emphasizes Hilary Clinton’s victory and the role that African Americans have in helping her win. Personally, I thought that the article was bias towards Republicans in the sense that it talked to the republican turnout as “being driven by a theatrical screaming match, featuring childish and insulting behavior” and comparing it to a “circus.” I also think that it focused too much on Hillary Clinton and not enough on the other candidates. I would have liked to seen quotes from Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. However, I do think that the article did a good job in providing plenty of background information and comparing it to previous presidential primaries. Overall, I thought that Behre did a good job with laying out basic information and interesting facts but I would have liked to seen less bias and more emphasis on other candidates.

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading these two articles and learned a lot about the South Carolina Primary. I thought that they both provided strong background information and engaging quotes from candidates and voters. I also enjoyed the media that was included because I think that the powerful images helped convey what the articles had to say.

SC primary coverage analysis – Brandon Liu

Clinton Trounces Sanders to win South Carolina Democratic Primary – by Maya T. Prabhu and Schuyler Kropf

This article is very informative, and provides videos and images that capture Hillary’s success well. It also provides good background info and comparison to how she performed vs Obama in 2008 which is significant because her success was greatly attributed to the minorities. Many of the verbs may seem bias, but I think they are justifiable due to Hilary’s 73% vote. Although the article is focused on Hillary, it does not forget to cover data and information regarding Sander’s votes. Great use of quotes that capture the main thesis of Hillary’s campaign. The quotes used at the end also capture the voters and public’s enthusiasm regarding the primary.

The article’s could maybe add some visuals for the data to make them more clear.

Trump Wins South Carolina Primary in Runaway – Schuyler Kropf

This article excels on immediately addressing all of the other relevant candidates right after the lede. Includes numerous quotes from all of the leading candidates. Does a good job of covering the next steps, such as Cruz and Trump expected to compete over previous Bush supporters.

The article could use some more quotes from the voters. It uses data from an exit poll, but only interviews two people, a wife and husband, which are not diverse enough. The Democratic primary coverage included more interesting statistics regarding the composition of the voters for each candidate. I think the article jumped around from candidate to candidate a little bit too frequently making it less fluent.

SC Primary articles — Eisert

The Post and Courier article, “Clinton trounces Sanders to win South Carolina Democratic primary,” by Maya T. Prabhu and Schuyler Kropf, discusses Clinton’s win in South Carolina as compared to her and her husband’s history with voters in the south. The article mentions the exit poll released by The Associated Press as a source for information on Clinton’s appeal to black voters, most of which were women and voters over the age of 30. The article uses information from The Associated Press, like percentages on voters’ races, backgrounds and more and on their inclinations towards or against Clinton’s policies and ideals. The article also uses the AP information to compare voters’ feelings about Clinton and Sanders. The remainder of the article focuses on this comparison and provides quotes from voters in support of either side.

The other Post and Courier article, “Black turnout boosts Clinton in a big way,” by Robert Behre, discusses Clinton’s backing from the black community and its effect on the election as whole. Along with Sanders, Trump is also discussed in this article. This article, as opposed to the other Post and Courier article, focuses more on the specific demographic details of the voting. Percentages regarding the demographics are given and broken down, as well as margins comparing results in different counties. This article is more analytical of this primary than the first.

SC Primary Analysis–Karlee Spirit

This past weekend completed the South Carolina primary that left both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton with another win under their belts.

In discussing the primary, the first article, “Trump wins SC Primary in a runaway”, was centered on Trump’s victory and his current lead with Rubio and Cruz coming in a close second and third place. The article brings up the fact that is has become a three-person race. While the candidates of that three-person race are described through current status, thoughts, and quotes within this article. The aftermath of the primary exposed some faulty thoughts from trailing candidates and exalting excitement from Trump upon winning. The article provides in depth information including facts about the history of South Carolina primaries, and the status of other trailing candidates including John Kashich, Ben Carson, and Jeb Bush. It provides further evidence of supporters and their momentum going into the next primary. Trump, Cruz, and Rubio all compiled for more than 750,000 voters.

The second article, “Black turnout boosts Clinton in a big way” focused on the other end of the spectrum and the Democratic primary in South Carolina. Emphasized around Hilary Clinton, the Democratic winner had a large number of votes from the party’s African-American base. The article also provides the reader with many numerical statistics including Bernie Sanders projected 14 of the 53 delegates and that over 12 percent of eligible South Carolina voters cast ballots (less than the GOP primary). This article had a great deal of background information on voter demographics and voter insights as opposed to quotes and opinions from the candidates following the primary. Clinton was not quoted but in fact spoken for and spoken about. This article was arranged to put emphasis on perspectives and viewpoints of the voters.

Both articles, however, covered standpoints on the respective Republican and Democratic South Carolina primaries that were “user friendly” and “voter friendly” for gaining information, facts, numerical statistics, and insights. The biggest difference between the two articles I believe, was the cover of each individual primary. The Republican primary article, concentrated on candidates reactions and feelings, and the Democratic primary article motivated by the voter demographics and voters visions.

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.