Meredith Pollack
Journalism Reading Journal
4/1/11

In terms of going above and beyond the headline of the story, The New York Times piece by Lizette Alvarez certainly meets the requirements. In her story headlined “The Jobless See a Lifeline at Risk” she discusses the approval of a House of Representatives bill in Florida this March. However, she starts her story with a more intimate portrayal of a man, Mr. Dudenhoeffer, who is being directly affected by the passing of the bill. After describing his brutal dilemma for four short paragraphs, she then discusses the process of the bill being passed. From there, she moves on to the opinions of representatives of the house, and then finally circles back around to the man that she began her piece with. While this is not the inverted pyramid method, it is still an effective one. By starting the story on a personal level, it draws the reader in, because even if they cannot directly identify with the personal story of Mr. Dudenhoeffer, it brings out conflict which also draws the reader in. By doing this, when she arrives at the meat of the piece, (discussing the actions of the House) readers are intrigued to know the nuts and bolts of why Mr. Dudenhoeffer and many others are suffering - and more importantly how this could affect them. When Alvarez circles the piece back around at the end, it neatly ties off the story with a strong personal quote from Dudenhoeffer,
“When the benefits run out,” he said, “I’ll just give up.” leaving the reader with a nice set of chills as they finish the story.

Another government related story with a similar in depth coverage technique is a story from the Washington Post headlined “For federal worker, anxiety over a possible shutdown” by Lisa Rein and Ed O’Keefe. While this story uses the same technique with starting the story about a single person affected by the shutdown, it does not dwell on it as long as the New York Times story - which is a plus. The lede, “Just before 7 a.m. most weekdays, Michael Kane sits at a table in the cafeteria of the Energy Departmentheadquarters on Independence Avenue SW and tries valiantly to quell the anxiety of the people who work there.” pulls the reader in, but does not give them a chance to get bored during the personal story. It goes right in to what is happening with the government shut down, and then back into how it is affecting people. The story also goes into a little bit of history about how this same situation has nearly happened before, which adds a lot to the story.

A third story that goes incredibly in depth in terms of investigation and analysis is a cover story from the Guardian about Kenya’s flower industry. This story takes an extremely controversial market happening halfway across the world, and it is related back to the people. There are also quotes from two different experts. One on working conditions and a head of M&S sustainable resourcing.

PS - Phish is the greatest jam band to ever walk this green earth James.