the Vagabond Journalist
Math Tools for Journalists II
Leave a Comment
Polls and Surveys
Polls are everywhere, but can skew information. To find out if a poll is accurate it is up to the journalist to find out…
Name and background on pollster or polling organization
Who funded the poll
How/When was it conducted
The exact wording of questions – this can affect results
The size of the sample, response rate, larger the group the more valid the results
The method used to select the sample.
The margin of error
The relationship of the poll to any news event that could alter the results of the poll.
At least 400 responses keep the margin of error down and is what many polls try to reach as a sample.
There are many different types of polls. Such as…
Census/universe/population sampling – samples everyone in the population.
Example – United States Census
Cluster Sampling – Sampling in one area or region
Multistage Sampling – Frequently used in national samples. This involves picking a specific geographic area, then selecting smaller and smaller subgroups
Systematic Random Sampling – Samples every Nth number of people in a phonebook, directory, or other reference book.
Quota sampling – choosing a sample based on known demographics, to find a proportionate number of certain sub-groups
Probability sampling – involves putting potential subjects in a lottery and drawing out a percentage. This way, everyone in the population has an equal chance of being chosen.
Margin of Error is a degree of accuracy based on standard norms. It is shown in a percentage based on the side of the randomly selected sample. This number should be included in all polls.
Example problem -
A poll from CBS indicates that North Carolina voters support Sen. Elizabeth Dole over challenger Kay Hagan in the polls, with 48% of voters in support of Dole. 45% of voters support Kay Hagan. The margin of error on the poll is 3.1%. Can you say that Elizabeth Dole is leading in the poll?
With the margin of error at 3.1%, this means there is a 3.1% range for the results. That mean Dole can lead by as much as 51.1% (48% + 3.1%) or as little as 44.9% (48% – 3.1%)
This indicates that there is little statistical difference between the candidates’ level of support.
Confidence Level is the percentage at which researchers have confidence in their results. Mathematically, it indicates the probability of getting the same results by chance. A confidence level of 90 percent means there is a 10 percent that they would occur by chance
Adjusted figures are statistically manipulated figures that compensate for missing data
Z score or standard score of a figure, is how much a figure differs from the mean or average of the data.
Formula
Z score = (raw score – mean) / standard deviation
Business
Business news can come in many forms, including….
Quarterly earning reports – large corporations usually release these annually. It is information that can be used by investors, banks, brokers, and others to assess the financial condition of a company.
Annual reports – where more detailed information can be found. These can be available on-line, through stockbrokers, and in some libraries. Annual reports are also read by the Internal Revenue Service to review documents relative relating to a companies tax obligations.
Press releases
Financial Statements can be found in the company’s annual report. They usually include profit and loss report as well as a balance sheet
Profit and Loss (commonly referred to as P&L) shows if company is making money or not. There are many different methods are used to determine P&L, but usually this formula is what is represented.
Formula
Profit = Income-Expenses
Important Terms
Cost of Goods Sold – this refers to the direct expense of making and buying products.
Overhead- this refers to expenses not directly related to the product made and can includes salaries of employees, rent, utilities, and insurance.
Gross Margin – this is the difference between costs of goods sold and selling price
Net profit/Net earning/Net income. – this is the result of when all expenses are subtracted from income. Expenses can include overhead, cost of goods, taxes, and other expenses
EBITDA – this stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It can be useful information when comparing companies
Formula
Gross margin = selling price – cost of goods sold
Important things to remember when reading financial statement….
-numbers are often written in thousands or millions, this will be disclosed at the top of a financial statement
-figures in parenthesis are negative
-compare net income over time, it’s more newsworthy to see difference over time.
FASB- this acronym stands for Financial Accounting Standards Board. It is an independent, non-governmental organization
Formulas
Gross profit = gross margin x number of items sold
Net profit =gross margin – overhead
Example
Joe is selling carrots at a market that he bought for 30 cents a unit. If Joe is selling the carrots at 50 cents per unit, what is his gross margin?
50 cents – 30 cents = 20 cents (Gross Margin)
Joe’s gross margin for the carrots are 20 cents.
Balance Sheet are written financial statement of a company’s assets, liabilities and equity. Balance sheets are used to show the financial stability of a company. With balance sheets, different companies can use different terms. Usually, the assets side of a balance sheet always equals the liabilities and equity side
Formula
Assets = Liabilities + Equity
To show what this formula can include…
Company assets (real estate, equipment, cash) minus liabilities (the money the company owes) equals equity (what the company is worth)
Important Terms
Assets – resources owned by the company that have economic value
Current assets – cash, investments, and other liquid items of value
Long-term assets – this can include buildings and office furniture
Accounts receivable – money owned to the company by customers
Accumulated depreciation – decline in the value of an asset
Inventory – record of goods on hand, raw materials, and work in progress
Intangible assets – copyrights, patents, and other research with legal and economic value
Investments in other corporations – form of stock owned or influence acquired in other companies for economic gain.
Fixed assets – property, plants, equipment, and deferred changes.
Short-term investments – stock and bonds
Pre-paid expenses – rent and insurance
Uncollected accounts receivable – write-offs for bad debts and an allowance for potential bad debts
Equity- the overall value of the company
Dividends – payments to shareholders that represent the distribution of the company’s assets
Retained earnings – earnings set aside for future business purposes
Liabilities – obligations, such as loans, that need to be paid off at later date
Accounts payable – bills that need to be paid
Accrued liabilities – liabilities that have occurred but not yet paid
Current or short-term liabilities – money owed
Long-term liabilities – debt, deferred taxes, and leases
Ratio Analysis are calculations that analysts and business owners use to evaluate a company’s cash situation, profitability, operating efficiency, and market value. Over time, they can examine trends in the company’s life. They can also be used to compare companies in the same field. While ratio analysis can act as an indicator of companies strengths and weaknesses, should be used cautiously.
Current Ratio is the liquidity ratio that measures the ability of a company to meet its liabilities. These are seen often.
Formula
Current ratio = Current assets / Current liabilities
Quick Ratio is a liquidity ratio that measure the ability of a company to meet its current liabilities with cash on hand.
Formula
Quick ratio = cash / current liabilities
Debt-to-asset ratio is similar to the current ratio. This includes all assets and all liabilities.
Formula
Debt-to-asset ratio = total debt / total assets
Debt-to-equity ratio tells how deeply a company is leveraged by comparing what is owned to what is owed
Formula
Debt-to-equity = total debt / equity
Returns on assets is a profitability ratio that measures the return on the investment of all assets
Formula
Return on assets = net income / total assets
Return on equity is a profitability ratio that measure the return on the investment made in equity
Formula
Return on equity = net income / equity
Price-earnings ratio is a value ratio that measures return of the investment based on stock price.
Formula
Price-earnings = market price/share / earnings/share
Stocks and Bonds
Stocks and bonds are two important ways businesses raise money.
Stocks are sold by corporations to make money. People buy stocks as an investment. Buying stock means the person becomes part owner of the company. The value of a stock can vary over time, based on demand. The more people who want to buy stock, the higher the price of the stock rises.
Mutual funds are an alternative way to invest in stocks. With mutual funds, companies sell shares of funds, then use that money to buy stock in other companies.
Important Terms
52-week high/low – highest and lowest stock prices over the year.
Stock – shortened version of the company’s name and used as the symbol of the stock.
Div – the most recent annual dividend the company paid to shareholders, per share.
PE or Price/Earnings ratio – the stock divided by the per-share earnings reported in the last 12 months.
Last – the price of one share at the previous day.
Change – how much the stock went up or down that day.
Bonds are used by corporations and governments raise money. A bond is a loan from an investor to the government or other organization selling the bond. Bonds can earn interest at a set rate and are generally low-risk investments. “Face value” refers to the amount the owner of the bond will receive at maturity. It is usually the amount the owner paid for the bond. Bonds have set interest rates, set dates for interest payment, and a set maturity date.
Investment reports
Important Terms
Form 8-k – companies are required to file an 8-k when a special event occurs, such as bankruptcy, major assets are bought or sold.
Form 10-k – official audited annual report public companies are required to file. This can show assets, liabilities, and revenue.
Form 10-Q – quarterly reports of important financial information.
Proxy Statement – a document sent to a shareholder about matters on which shareholders will vote.
Current yield – return on the investment.
Formula
Current yield = (interest rate x face value) / price
Example
Lillian paid $950 dollars for a $1,000 war bond with a 5 percent interest rate. What is her current yield on the bond?
(5% x $1,000) / $950 = about 5.26% is Lillian’s current yield
Bond cost refers to how much the bonds will ultimately cost.
Formula
Bond cost(interest) = amount x rate x years
Market Indexes are used to measure action on exchanges. They can track the prices of certain groups of stocks. Most commonly used market indexes include Dow Jones, NASDAQ, Russell 2000, and the S&P 500.
Dow Jones Industrial Average is the total value of one share each of 30 select stocks divided by a figure called the divisor. The divisor takes into account stock dividends, splits, spinoffs, and other applicable corporate actions. It can help to provide a snap shot of the entire market. The 30 stocks represent a fifth of the value of all US Stocks
NASDAQ, or National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, is another market index monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Property Taxes
Property taxes are important for journalists to understand because they are usually the largest single source of income for local government, school districts, and other municipal organizations. Property tax rate determined by taking the total amount of money the governing body needs, divided among the property owners of the district.
Most districts take into account real property, cars, boats and other valuable property.
Property taxes us units called mills, which are 1/10 of a cent.
Reappraisal means to update real property values to reflect current market value of all taxable properties within a taxing district.
Some property can be taxed by more then one governing body.
To simplify things, state officials often regulate the process.
Mill levy = taxes to be collected by the government body / assessed valuation of all property in the taxing district
Appraisel value can be based on all of the following…
Property’s use
Location
Square footage
Number of stories
Exterior wall type
Age
Quality of construction
Amenities
Current market conditions as determined by sales in the immediate area over a specific number of years
A visual inspection of the property by trained appraisers
Formula
Assessed value = appraisal value x rate
Formula for calculating property tax -
Taxed owed = tax rate x (assessed value of the property / $100)
Example
Andre Green has an assessed value on his home of $60,000. What does Green owe for the year with the property tax at $1 per $100, or 10 mills?
(60,000/100) x 1 = $600 dollars.
Silly name to semi-addiction: My day of Twitter
Leave a Comment
by Dan Rickershauser
My Twitter page. Twitter asks all users one question, "What are you doing?"
At 9:50 this morning I opened an account on Twitter. By 2 that afternoon, I had 8 followers, was following 21 others and had learned a great deal of interesting news from acquaintances along the way.
While I was once apprehensive about using Twitter, in part due its silly name, in a little over 4 hours of using it, I’ve found it to be quite a useful web tool.
Opening an account and the inaugural tweet
When opening an account for Twitter, you first need a user name, the equivalent of a screen name on instant messaging services. I chose @D4nRicks, the creative way to spell my name.
One of the complaints I have heard from other people starting a Twitter account, that the process to find people to follow is a little confusing. Unlike applications like Facebook, you don’t add “friends”. With Twitter, you find people to follow, with their updates and conversations between people broadcast for all to see. After starting up an account, Twitter encourages you to find others you may know through email address books. This can be confusing, or not of use for people who don’t have an email account with one of the selected email services.
After overcoming this confusion, I sent out my first “tweet” to the world, what a post is called in Twitterland.
“Just joined Twitter and getting the hang of it. Send me any comments on the role of twitter in your life, I’m writing an article on it,” it read.
The challenge with Twitter is keeping your messages under 140 characters, which can be challenging! My first “tweet” was 134, a struggle to keep it just under this requirement.
While it can be a vice, this can also be one of Twitter’s strengths. My first response to this question, from Pendulum editor Olivia Hubert-Allen(@hubertallen), talked about the simplicity of Twitter being one of its strengths.
“Twitter takes the burden out of blogging and let’s you communicate instantly with people with a single click,” she replied.
“Tweets” can be broadcast to all followers, or targeted towards a person using the “@” symbol, following the person’s username.
News from former coworkers
Also responding quickly to my first tweet was Aaron Strout (@astrout), a colleague where I interned this summer, Mzinga. Mzinga being a company that specializes in social media, Aaron and many other employees are frequent users of Twitter. Mzinga even broadcasts live Twitter-feeds during Webinars. It’s easy to see that Aaron has been a big advocate of Twitter, with an astounding 3,080 followers!
While using Twitter, I learned that Aaron had left Mzinga Oct. 31 to take up a job in Austin, Texas as Chief Marketing Officer of Powered. It was all big news that I had discovered through Twitter. While we are friends on Facebook and have each others email addresses, I was able to find this out using Twitter minutes after starting up my account.
Other happenings in the day of Twitter
I learned that Olivia Hubert-Allen had a eye doctor’s appointment and was getting her eyes dilated, which reminded us both of an episode of 90’s Nickelodeon cartoon “Rocko’s Modern Life”.
I discovered, through the Student Government Association at Elon University’s Twitter account (@ElonSGA), that on Oct. 12 they had passed legislation to request more temporary parking spots in Moseley Center parking lot, good news for any Elon student.
I found other classmates completing an assignment on Twitter open their own accounts.
After adding Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn), a CNN news anchor, I found out that he would be on vacation next week for the holiday. Rick Sanchez regularly broadcasts responses from the audience live through Twitter, a clever use of application.
Once a staunch critic of Twitter, I’ve found it to be useful. The only major downside is that most people my age have never heard or are not familiar with it! It is also possible that another web application can come to fill the purpose of Twitter. Facebook’s status updates offer a similar concept. Only time will tell, but in my brief time using Twitter, I may have found yet another web tool worthy of my daily attention.
Related Articles
ABC News Story on how Comcast, a cable company, uses Twitter to scan for customer service complaints
Social Media Breakfast asks experts in social media how Twitter has changed their lives
Mashable’s post on the mainstream media and their use of Twitter
Miami Herald story on how Rick Sanchez of CNN uses Twitter and other new media on his television show
New York times story on why Twitter rejected Facebook’s $500 million offer
CNN story on Twitter’s role in reaction to the Mumbai Terror Attacks
Tags: cnn, facebook, Mzinga, powered, rick sanchez, Social Media, tweet, twitter
From an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia to a bike shop in Burlington
Leave a Comment
Jones-LeGros at her bicycle store, J&L Bicycle Company.
On Nov. 9, Tara Jones-LeGros got on a plane to Saudi Arabia to meet with her husband. These occasional visits and daily video chats they have online before she goes to work has been the only contact she has with her husband.
Two years ago, Tara Jones-LeGros was living with him in Saudi Arabia while he worked as a safety engineer for Saudi Aramco, a Saudi-owned oil company. It was there that she rediscovered her passion for cycling. Today, Jones-LeGros runs their bicycle shop, the J&L Bicycle Company, in downtown Burlington. Her husband still lives and works in Saudi Arabia.
While she didn’t intend for her life to end up like this, the business opportunity didn’t give her the time to wait.
“I landed here in Burlington, didn’t know a soul and started my business,” Jones-LeGros said, “It’s crazy but this is how it worked out.”
For Jones-LeGros, owning a bicycle shop fulfills a passion for cycling she has had since an early age. But living away from her husband while she starts up their business has had its challenges.
Lined up bikes for sale at J&L Bicycle Company
Enthusiasm for cycling, lost and found:
Jones-LeGros has had a passion for cycling ever since she was a teenager.
“I got my first job when I was 15 to be able to buy my first real road bike. From that point on I was always really into it,” Jones-LeGros said.
Tara’s passion for cycling was interrupted, however, shortly after she bought her first road bicycle.
“Two weeks after I bought that bike—that I worked so hard for— I was riding it home and this guy had just robbed a house and was running away and he saw me, tackled me and took off with my bike,” Jones-LeGros said.
The bicycle was later found at a Wal-Mart by an employee who had read the police report about her stolen bile. Even though she got her bike back, it still took away from the cycling experience.
“Riding a bike is such a sense of freedom. When something like that happens, it takes that away,” Jones-LeGros said. “I was really pretty traumatized by the event and, until I was in college, I never rode by myself.”
College, careers and a hobby shop:
Jones-LeGros, having grown up in Tennessee, started college at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. She later transferred to Louisiana State University and got a degree in environmental science.
“I worked in consulting first, doing groundwater issues and then I went on to work at Borden Chemical and did more groundwater but started managing hazardous waste from the plant,” Jones-LeGros said.
It was at Borden Chemical that Jones-LeGros met her husband, Marc, working at Borden as a safety manager. They both moved to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, where they worked at the Hovensa Refinery. While working there, Jones-LeGros managed the hazardous waste at the refinery. They eventually both left their jobs to move back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jones-LeGros and her husband discovered they shared a passion for flying remote-controlled planes.
“It was really cool when we found that out about each other,” Jones-LeGros said.
While living in Baton Rouge, they considered opening a hobby shop and even went as far as to line up suppliers and buy a storage unit for the shop. But when a headhunter contacted Jones-LeGros’ husband about a job position in Saudi Arabia, they put their plans to own a business on hold.
Jones-LeGros participating in a race in Saudi Arabia. Photo Courtesy of Tara Jones-LeGros.
Saudi Arabia and rediscovering a passion for cycling:
In August of 2004, Jones-LeGros and her husband relocated to Ras Tanura, a small beach community on the Persian Gulf.
“When we moved to Saudi Arabia, I wasn’t allowed to work there in my real profession,” Jones-LeGros said. “They didn’t let woman in the refinery and to do my job I needed to be in the refinery.”
Having the free time, Jones-LeGros bought a bicycle in Bahrain and got back into cycling.
“I started training and lost a bunch of weight and just totally fell back in love with riding again,” Jones-LeGros said.
She did her training on the 12-mile loop surrounding the compound where they lived.
“I’ve ridden over a thousand miles on that 12-mile loop,” Jones-LeGros said.
Living in Saudi Arabia as an American, Jones-LeGros found a different reality in Saudi Arabia then the news-media portrays.
“People here, based on Fox news or CNN or whoever, have the impression that Middle Eastern Muslims hate Americans,” Jones-LeGros said. “This is not true. And I can sit around with some Saudi friends and they will tell you they hate the terrorism that has mangled their religion.”
Jones-LeGros after finishing the race. Photo Courtesy of Tara Jones-LeGros
A plan trip to Elon:
Still having the dream to own their own business, Jones-LeGros and her husband started looking at business listings online.
“We went to Saudi with the idea of saving money so that we could start our own business,” Jones-LeGros said. “We didn’t know what kind of business, so kind of as a hobby we would peruse the internet and look at businesses for sale all over the world.”
It was in this search online that Jones-LeGros discovered that the Elon Bike Shop was for sale.
“So we decided, ‘yeah, that looks pretty good.’ North Carolina is just prime bicycling country, so we flew over [to Burlington] from Saudi Arabia for three days to meet with the owner of the Elon Bike Shop,” Jones-LeGros said.
Although the deal fell through, Jones-LeGros decided to stay in the area, eventually finding where they are located today, in downtown Burlington.
“So here was Burlington and Alamance County, with no bike shop. The opportunity kind of slapped me in the face, and even though my husband was not finished working in Saudi, we couldn’t pass up the business opportunity,” Jones-LeGros said.
Before she knew it, she was starting up business and a new life in Burlington, North Carolina.
Shifting gears:
In May of 2007, Jones-LeGros moved to Burlington to start up her bicycle company. Moving to Burlington, where she had no connections or a place to live.
“I rented a car for about two months, rented a room at the corporate suites for a couple of months and then finally bought a place here and t a car,” Jones-LeGros said.
While starting up the business, she quickly fell in love with the downtown Burlington area.
“We wanted that classic downtown feel, so that’s how we designed our store front, with the hopes that Burlington will continue to move towards refurbishing and getting some more business downtown,” Jones-LeGros said.
J&L Bicycles Company opened for business in 2007. According to Jones-LeGros, one of the things she loves most about the location is the walk-in traffic.
“Where we are, we get walk in traffic all the time. Being near the public library is fantastic,” Jones-LeGros said.
Elon senior Whitney Waters has been working at J&L Bicycle Company since the beginning of the school year. While working there, Waters has come to consider Jones-LeGros a friend as well a boss.
“I’ve gone out to dinner with her and stuff and just talked to her,” Waters said. “She’s really easy to talk to, really friendly, really funny.”
“I really respect her for being able to run that business when her husband is far away,” said Waters, “she’s kind of having to go back and forth and live in two places.”
Until her husband is able to retire in the next few years, Jones-LeGros will continue living her live in two places and running a start-up bicycle company by herself until then.
Tags: burlington, downtown burlington, j&l bicycle company, oil refinery, saudi arabia, saudi aramco
Election 2008: North Carolina Voters Endure Bad Weather to Make History
1 Comment
Electioneers stand in the rain to greet voters at Holly Hill Baptist Church. Photo by Miriam Williamson
All over Alamance County, voters braced themselves against bad weather to cast their ballots in an historic election. At Holly Hill Baptist Church precinct in Burlington, N.C. and Elon Fire Station precinct in Elon, N.C., officials noted a busy morning but a normal flow of voters for the rest of the day.
Neither location reported any problems with voting equipment or the process as a whole.
“This morning, opening up we were absolutely mobbed,” said Chief Election Judge Dee Atkinson about the Elon Fire Station. “We had long lines and we overcrowded the building here. It was raining and it made it very uncomfortable for our voters. However, we worked through it.”
Election official Anne Fortney said the Holly Hill Baptist Church voting location experienced a similar situation.
“It was very busy at 6:30 a.m. The line was all the way down the hall,” she said. “But from 9 a.m. on, it’s been steady.”
High levels of early voting contributed to making the process more manageable. Atkinson said early voting kept the Elon Fire Station precinct numbers low.
“I think people were scared with the big election that it was going to be so crowded here, so they went ahead and did the early voting,” Fortney said.
“We have had so many [people] absentee voting and one stop voting on the county level, that we did not have quite as many voters in this particular building,” Atkinson said.
Elon junior Liz Czerwinski decided to vote on Election Day rather than vote early.
“It’s dorky, but I was really excited,” Czerwinski said. “I was like ‘Yeah, I’m going to vote on Election Day.’”
Atkinson said the turnout was strong among Elon Students.
“We had a lot of Elon students, the most we’ve ever had,” he said. “The students made a good effort to be registered and qualified to vote.”
Both the Holly Hill Baptist Church and Elon Firehouse added more voting machines to accommodate a large expected turnout.
“We usually have about six voting machines and we set up 10 voting machines this time,” Atkinson said. “That has speeded [sic] up our voting process to some extent.”
Accommodations were also made for handicap voters.
The option of curbside voting was made available for handicapped voters to have their ballot brought to their cars to fill out.
Alamance County resident Tony Ferrita, a blind man, voted early at May Memorial Library in Burlington. He used the audio ballot option for the blind- and visually-impaired voters.
“It’s very important for the blind people to have the option of the audio ballot, and this year it worked perfectly,“ Ferrita said. “As a blind person for many, many years, I like the independence of doing things myself if I can. I can have the same confidentiality as everybody else has.”
Tags: alamance county, election 2008, elon, north carolina, polling, polls, students, young vote
Math Tools for Journalists I
Leave a Comment
Numbers
Numbers are important. When dealing with numbers…
Do not assume other people have done the write math or not messed with the numbers.
General rules with numbers…
• Spell out single digits
• Use numerals for multiple digits
• If number is more than a million, use numeral followed by the spelled out word.
• Round off larger numbers unless the specific number is important relative to what it’s conveying
• Round numbers to the nearest decimal place when possible.
• Spell out fractions less than one.
• Spell out numbers designating rank in order when less than 10, more than 10 use the number followed by superscript.
• If number begins a sentence, spell it out.
• Corporations or organizations that use numbers in their name should be spelled out or used how they use them in their name.
• ALWAYS use numerals for….
Addresses, dates, highway destinations, percentages, speeds, temperatures, times and weights.
Percentages
Percentages can put things into perspective for readers.
Percentage formula
increase/decreases – (new figure – old figure) % old figure
Move the decimal two places to the right.
Question 1:
The average salary of an Elon graduate from the School of Communications has increased from $125,245 to $214,536. What is the percentage increase of the average salary for an Elon graduate of the School of Communications?
Answer: 72.93 or 73%
Percentages of wholes formula
subgroup % whole group
Move decimal place two to the right.
Percentage points –
Percent is always out of a hundred. Percentage points can be a percent of a percent. Be careful and don’t assume.
Simple/annual interest – Interest = principal x rate (as a decimal) x time (in years)
Statistics
Statistics can be used for many things, it is important for journalists to understand how they are often manipulated.
Mean – Mean means the average, and is calculated by adding up the numbers and dividing them by the number of things you added up.
Median – When ranking numbers in order from least to greatest, the middle number is the median.
Mode – Mode is the most repeated number in a series of numbers. Sometimes, there is no mode for data.
Depending on the data, the mean, median, or mode can best accurately represents a story.
Question 2: The following data set are students scores on an algebra test. Find the mean, median, and mode of the data. What number best represents the data?
45 89
75 92
54 71
67 65
100 82
85 82
Answer: Mean – 75.58
Median – 78.5
Mode – 82
Percentile
Percentiles are used to distinguish where something is placed relative to others. For example, if a student placed in the 75th percentile that means 75 percent of students did better than that student. It also means that 25 % of students did worse.
Percentile rank = (# of people at or below the individual score) % (number of test takers)
Standard deviation – Where a group of numbers deviates from the norm. Often used in statistical research and data.
Probability – Deaths per 100,000 people = (Total deaths % total population) x 100,000
Question 3:
There were 14 deaths from food poisoning in the town of Wahoma, Wyoming. The population of Wahoma is 5,300. What is the probability of getting food poisoning in you are from Wahoma?
Answer: 264.15 per 100,000
Ch. 4
Federal Stats
Reporters should understand what statistics mean that they get from the federal government.
Formula
Unemployment rate = (unemployment % labor force) x 100
Inflation –
CPI- used to measure inflation for the average consumer.
Monthly inflation rate = (current CPI – Prior Month CPI) % Prior Month CPI x 100
or
Annual Inflation Rate – (Current CPI – Month of last year’s CPI) x 100
Adjusted for inflation means figures are adjusted to current value of money.
Gross Domestic Product = (consumer spending on goods and services) + (investment spending) +(government spending) +(exports minus imports)
Trade balance = exports – imports
Elon Student Arrested for Protesting at Palin Rally
Leave a Comment
While most came to show support for Palin, some came sporting Obama shirts or expressed opposing views.
Elon sophomore Andy Milne, came with signs showing support for Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. After McCain supporters attempted to take his signs, the scene quickly escalated. His disruption was met with McCain supporters yelling obscenities at him.
Milne was eventually escorted from the event and taken to Graham County Jail for disturbing the peace.
Click here for the full story from Elon University’s the Pendulum.
Click here for the follow-up story on Milne.
Tags: andy milne, elon university, latham park, palin protest, pendulum, sarah palin
Good Examples of Beat Reporting
1 Comment
CIA Holds Terror Suspects In Secret Prisons from The Washington Post
This story was one of the first in presenting to the public the controversial and suggestive details of the CIA’s secret prisons where terrorist suspects were being captive. An article, making such a bold claim has got to build up the trust of the readers. Priest does this by providing rich details, history and scope to this issue. Proving that this story was well-researched with its claims, the readers are more likely to trust the controversial content that it has found.
For the details that still remain vague or unclear, the article makes sure to mention them early and why they were not able to obtain the information. By describing the barriers that Priest hit while finding out details and what could be published, Priest further gains the readers trust and gives a better picture of the seriousness of the situation.
Radio Conglomerates Skirt Payola Laws, Critics Say by from the Los Angeles Times
What’s the best way to have audiences understand a complex way around the law for radio stations to exhibit power over artists? A specific example. That’s exactly how this story starts and ends, providing a clear and specific example of Bryan Adams song, and how it remained on the radio stations of one company well after the other stations had stopped playing his story.
This example is the first thing readers see, giving them a simple understanding of a smaller situation to grasp the larger one. The use history and background, that of the “payola” scandal, to tell how this scandal compares.
Making a claim against businesses is hard to do and must be substantiated with hard facts and figures. This story, through many different examples and instances, brings clarity to a complicated way around the law.
100 years, 100 million acres of land saved from the San Francisco Chronicle
The detail given out in the headline displays this story’s most interesting element that intrigues readers.
“1 million acres of land for each year of his life.”
This story advances from the lead by using a quote of praise. You see at the end of this quote that it was said by Bill Clinton at a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony. You only realize, as a reader, after the quote how important those words are. 100 years gives Kay plenty of material and achievements to highlight in this story. Through Wayburn’s life, Kay is able to put his biography alongside the history he has lived through.
The Judge and the G-Man from the Village Voice
“The case of People of New York vs. R. Lindley DeVecchio has now entered week two in the new Supreme Court building in downtown Brooklyn, and the parade of gangsters, molls, and G-men to the witness stand is expected to last several weeks more.”
This is the lead used in this story, which ultimately ends up being a story about the judge overseeing this case. It is certainly an off-beat approach to what becomes an off-beat story. This is a story about a judge who lived through the turbulent 60’s to find himself on an FBI list. It brings readers from the interesting material of a gangster filled court room to an interesting look back into the background of a judge.
The approach of bringing readers along to believe one thing, then eventually leaving them at a completely unexpected different place keeps a story fresh and interesting. Robbins is able to find parallels between the life of a life-long mobster and a judge. This is the heart of the story, and what it becomes about.
Help is a long wait away at 18,286th on the list by Debbie Cenziper of The Miami Herald
How do you best portray the desperation of a desperate situation? For Cenziper, writing a story about the housing troubles and evictions Miami residents face as the result of government failure to provide affordable housing is best told through an anecdote. Ingrid Gordon is 18,286 on a list for a government voucher to help pay her rent. It gives the readers a scope of how big the problem, how desperate her situation is, and how pathetic the actions of the government have been in attempting to alleviate this problem.
A crumbling housing complex, mold, rat nests and feces, are just a few of the details Cenziper gives to help readers understand the condition Gordan’s family is living in. It doesn’t ask for the readers’ sympathy, it demands it through the use of specific details.
Pro-Israel, Pro-Palestine, Together as OneVoice
2 Comments
This story was published in Elon University’s The Pendulum. You can find the published story here.
OneVoice Speakers from left to right; Rami Rabayah, Yaniv Sasson and China Sajadian.
Thousands of miles away from Elon University, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages on, struggling to find a fair compromise for both sides to call progress. But here at Elon, Israeli Yaniv Sasson and Palestinian Rami Rabayah sat side by side in Yeager Recital Hall last Friday to deliver a hopeful message for the future.
“I am here to empower my country, he is here to empower his people,” said Sasson.
Sasson and Rabayah are members of OneVoice, a movement made up of both Palestinians and Israelis calling to end the violence and bring about a two-state resolution.
“We are asking our decision makers who we elected to do their job,” said Rabayah.
Rabayah, a 30-year old from West Bank city of Jenin, grew up to see many peace agreements that failed to bring security to his people.
“Since I can remember, I never really felt in a secure place,” said Rabayah.
This led Rabayah to join the OneVoice Movement. Having seen many Palestinians flee or join militias, Rabayah decided to take a much different road towards bringing about change.
“I think reality has brought us to these crossroads we are at today,” said Sasson.
Sasson, an Israeli Army Veteran and scholar, was brought to OneVoice with the same hopes Rabayah has, that violence in the area can be brought to an end through cooperation.
“I want security for my people,” said Sasson. “Every time you walk into a mall they check your bags. If there is no security at the entrance, something is very wrong. I don’t think this should be the norm.”
OneVoice focuses on finding the common ground between Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine movements to find a solution that satisfies the hopes of both sides. Their projects include holding town hall meetings with Israelis and Palestinians, traveling to college campuses around the world, and a project that compiles the answers of young Palestinians and Israelis of how they see their future in 2018.
For an area that has endured some 60 years of the violence of extremists and terrorists, Rabayah and Sasson maintain the hope that this movement could be part of bringing about a historic change.
“We could be a model for a lot of conflicts around the world,” said Rabayah.
The OneVoice event was sponsored at Elon by Hillel, the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, and Students for Peace and Justice. The event filled Yeager Recital Hall with a diverse audience of students and professors interested in OneVoice’s movement.
“I think it’s good that we’ve opened up the forum and gotten the Israeli-Palestinian conflict out there,” said Susan Esrock, President of Elon University’s chapter of Hillel, “I hope that this leads to other things.”
Good Examples of Profiles in Journalism
Leave a Comment
Eugene Rivers’s Moment from the Boston Phoenix
This is a feature-personality on the controversial black community leader Eugene Rivers. The story starts by describing a casual interaction Eugene Rivers has within his church, followed by a new paragraph explaining who he is and his importance. I have seen very few personality pieces’s jump into answering the question of who the person is immediately, as it tends to make for a uninteresting lead.
Rivers’s controversy as of late is that he has been trying to replace Jesse Jackson as the African-American’s most prominent leader. It is a rumor that Eugene Rivers’s confronts in the profile directly as perplexing. This builds the readers interest to find out if the claims hold any legitimacy. This small controversy is the main point of the article that keeps it moving an interesting. Yet the story is, along the way, scattered along with specific details of who Rivers’s is and why he has brought this controversy to himself.
Privilege, tragedy, and a young leader from the Boston Globe
I chose to read through this article because I wanted to see how the profile of a well-known person in American politics might differ in style and approach to lesser-known individuals.
This article starts off with an incredibly catching lead, “By the time he saw the black Mercedes barreling into his lane, there was nothing Mitt Romney could do.” I would consider this a very unexpected way to start a profile on a well-known politician. This unique approach really grabs in the readers to expect something different then a dry straight news story on a politician. The story describes this thrilling instance in Mitt Romney’s life before jumping back to the details of his birth and upbringing. Were the story to have gone in strictly chronological order, it would be too predictable for readers to feel the need to read on.
Perhaps the most successful aspects of this story is how it provides, piece by piece, a background of Mormonism as well as how it played a role in Romney’s life. The piece is challenged by having to fully explain both of these complicated matters for the reader to understand. The article is part of a seven part series, Interestingly enough, the article ends back at the car accident that threatened Romney’s life. The same detail used to readers into this story is used to conclude the article and encourage readers to want to read onto the second part of the series.
Michael Kelley’s Obstacle Course from the Charlotte Observer
This article takes a fairly common approach to writing profiles, by leading readers by mentioning the most thrilling aspect of the subject’s life. In this case, it was Michael Kelley’s encounter with an air-collision at Pope Air Force Base. However, this detail is not revealed into a few lines in the story, only hinting at it other times in the lead by mentioning how he had gone through a huge “healing stage.”
Amazingly enough, the article doesn’t explain the crash Kelley experienced but rather the training he had to endure to become a police officer.This vignette within his life is a story runs parallel to the story of his heroic recovery. It is written in an energetic style, with time’s starting each section like the beginnings of an episode of 24.
This is not at all a story about the Pope Air Force Base of a survivor, but a survivor who defied expectations and came through an amazing recovery. And Tomlinson is able to emphasize this by the describing Tomlinson’s training in a compelling way.
A Father’s Pain, a Judge’s Duty, and a Justice Beyond Their Reach from the Los Angeles Times
The headline and lead of this story could not be any more compelling. Only a few paragraphs into the story, readers are already drawn in from two different perspectives of the judge and the father. For the father, Wayment, the story could not be anymore heartbreaking.
The story tells the story in a way that is sympathetic to Wayment, describing his negligence in a situation that got his son killed, the guilt he felt for what happened, as well as the rumors and allegations that spread as to what could have happened. This story is a crime story as much as it is a profile.
Having all the details today, it is able to refer back to the time when the details weren’t all there to give a complete picture of what happened. While the story is somewhat chronoligocical, revealing the details along the way is an interesting approach that makes the story all the more compelling. The story also spends a great deal of time profiling the man who sentenced Wayment, Judge Hilder, and the background on his life that made it so difficult to deliver a sentence in this case.
A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds from the New York Times
This profile does more than profile the life of an imam living in Brooklyn. It also tells the story of how a Muslim lives in the United States, an intriguing story to readers that widens the scope beyond the life of Mr. Shata.
Mr. Shata arrived to the United States a day after September 11, and found many challenges as a church leader for himself and the people he led in his mosque. As you read through the story you see how Mr. Shata’s story is really one of adjustment. It notes all the changes he has had to make with his life personally, as well as evolving the way his mosque functions in a country far from his home in Egypt.
It also tells of the discrimination he faced following September 11, including his mosque being “defiled with graffiti and smeared with feces.” Profiles often become stories about more than just one person. This profile rarely strays from the stories or experiences of Mr. Shata, yet is still able to touch on many other important things. Through his experience, his story becomes one interest for everyone, of what it means to be a Muslim in Brooklyn, to face discrimination after September 11, and to fulfill the lives of mosque attendees and provide for them the religious service we see in all forms of religion. It makes a story detailing a life that few know about become a story about something we can all relate to.
5,620 Students and Counting: Enrollment Numbers See Another Record Breaking Year
Leave a Comment
This story was published in Elon University’s The Pendulum. You can find the article here.
This incoming year, Elon University will break a record for its highest enrollment numbers ever, with 5,620 students. But before you go running to save your spot at the gym or to get in-line for lunch at your favorite dining hall, it is important to note that this number includes the students from Elon’s graduate schools in business and law.
While the total student enrollment, including graduate, has seen an increase, the number of undergraduate students on campus has grown only slightly. Elon University’s total enrollment for undergraduate students is 4,987.
This number is only slightly higher than the total number of undergraduate students a year ago, which was 4,939.
“Our goal with each freshman class is at 1,275 students,” said Greg Zaiser, dean of admissions.
While holding exactly to that number is out of the university’s control, Dean Zaiser assured that in the past few years, this number has remained unchanged.
This year’s undergraduate freshman class is only slightly off this mark, with 1,290 students. According to Dean Zaiser, factors taken into establishing this ideal number for a freshman class include class sizes, physical space and the annual budget.
The top reason for the large increase in total students this year was due to the addition of new class of law students to Elon University’s graduate law school in Greensboro. The recent addition of Elon’s graduate program Interactive Media is expected to further increase the size of Elon’s total enrollment by next year. The university has a target class size of 37 additional students for this program.
Although Elon University has seen growth in numbers over the past few years, the things that give Elon University’s sense of community have, in many cases, improved. The student to faculty ratio, one Elon’s assets as a smaller school, has dropped to 14 students per every faculty member, what Dean Zaiser says is the lowest it’s been in his 18 years at Elon University.
Elon’s sense of a smaller-school community is often cited as one of the school’s best assets, one of the many reasons students choose to attend Elon.
“I think Elon should stay about this size because it means it will keep its sense of community,” said Meg Hewitt, an Elon sophomore, “it’s always nice to walk around campus and see familiar faces.”
With traditions such as College Coffee and the faculty’s Take-a-Student-to-Lunch-Program, Dean Zaiser does not expect that Elon’s sense of community will disappear with an increasing numbers of students.
“The interesting thing about Elon is that even though it has grown so much, it still feels like a small community, which is remarkable,” said Zaiser.
