For this assignment, I am thinking of doing a localization of recycling in Winston-Salem. There is almost no global market for recycling, and since we primarily have privatized recycling this hits individual companies. I don’t think people generally hear about recycling as a market, just in the context of throwing away trash.

In Winston-Salem, our recycling goes to Waste Management and they have no place to sell it to. WM is barely breaking even right now and I want to write about the issue of recycling as a privatized industry and people’s knowledge.

For sources, I could reach out to WM, speak with people in the Office of Sustainability, and talk to students about their knowledge of the issue.

By: Slater Hale

If you’re a Wake Forest student, chances are you’ve heard the phrase “Work Forest,” but is this fair?

Many students felt like they often had more work than their friends at other schools.

“Compared to other schools of the same stature, we have a really heavy workload.” said Junior Zoe Lamason.

This sentiment seemed to be shared by many students around campus,, that the workload in particular was worse at Wake Forest.

“Overall it’s a lot of work” and that friends at other schools say they  “have a lot less work,” said Junior Feng Mian Lee.

However, not all students felt the pressure of “Work Forest.”

“This is a really easy school, let me tell you I do no work and I have a 3.7” said Sophomore Olivia Woods. 

“It seems like a work hard play hard school… the academics are pretty rigorous, there are a lot of students here who feel like they have to do a lot of things on their own,” said Kristian Robinson, a faculty member in the counseling center. “A lot of students do really well in high school and that translates differently in college… some of the people here aren’t used to being average or below average.”

Ultimately, Wake Forest students seem to be working hard, but faculty and students recognize that students are also having a good time while being here.

For the Q&A I am thinking of doing Mellie, the incoming SGA president. She is very involved and an important person on campus now and I would love to hear her ideas about the next year in an interesting time on campus. I might also interview some of the people that ran but lost and see their ideas about the next year to see what students feel needs to be changed on campus.

For the third story I am hoping to focus on Earth Week. Since Earth Week this year is focused on food and food scarcity issues, I think this could be an interesting localization or focus on food in the community and on a larger scale.

My idea for the second story is a localization of climate change in Winston-Salem. Since the Green New Deal has brought up a conversation about the ability to switch from fossil fuels to renewables, this is an interesting time to see what students and people in Winston-Salem think about the issue of climate change. The hook would be the effects of climate change on people in the US and this area. North Carolina has gotten warmer on average in the past few years, and as a state that uses almost two thirds of our energy from coal and natural gas, policy like the Green New Deal would have serious impacts. Sources could include students, professors (ENV, BIO, etc.), and CEES/Office of Sustainability faculty or staff.

I chose a different reporter a couple of weeks ago, but she just didn’t write often enough for me to follow her through the semester. I am now going to focus on Lisa Friedman, who also writes for the NYT surrounding climate change. I think this will be a better fit for my interests as well because she tends to focus of climate change politics more than just the issue itself.

Friedman most frequently uses basic news leads or blind leads. She writes about the ongoing political discussions about environmental politics, and will either choose to recap complex debates or will withhold the “kicker” of the piece for the next paragraph. Most of her basic news leads are about the well-known issues, and more nuanced political happenings will introduce some sort of conflict in the lead and then explain later.

Friedman is a very quote-heavy writer, usually following up the leads with quotes directly after. Her use of quotes varies depending on the piece, but she uses quotes from several sources within the first few paragraphs. Sometimes her quotes are informational and sometimes they are more story-like with dialogue to be interesting or explain the way individual actors are influencing the process. Ultimately, quotes are the way she progresses the piece forward almost every paragraph. The language Friedman uses is very conversational and, for a journalist in a controversial topic area, not often too passionate.

Friedman often includes the nut graf within the first four or five paragraphs, tracing the change in policy on a broader scale overtime to one specific change. Her paragraphs are very short – rarely over two to three sentences each.

She also seems to be a very chronological storyteller. She will introduce the news in the lead, then begin at the start of the event and how it evolved overtime. Friedman exemplifies the “Martini Glass” story structure in many of her pieces.

Recent story on Senator Feinstein and the Green New Deal:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/climate/feinstein-sunrise-green-new-deal.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Flisa-friedman&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

For the first story, I am hoping to go to “A Night of a Thousand Petals” which is a drag show. This will be from 6 to 10 pm on Tuesday in Benson. I have watched RuPaul’s drag race and am a huge fan of Stacy Lane Matthews, one of the queens coming.

I chose to follow Kendra Pierre-Louis because she is a science writer focusing on climate change. Pierre-Louis got her bachelors in Economics from Cornell before going to MIT where she received her masters in science writing.

She began writing with the Times in December of 2017 but since has written about the impacts of climate change. Before coming to the New York Times, she wrote for Popular Science where she discussed environmental issues. She has written for FiveThirtyEight, The Washington Post, and appeared on several radio shows. Since this is what I hope to do, I thought this would be a good way into the world of climate change writing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/climate/starfish-global-warming.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fkendra-pierre-louis&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

This article explains the connection between starfish deaths by the millions and climate change – specifically in ocean climate.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/climate/plants-co2-climate-change.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fkendra-pierre-louis&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection

This article discusses the positive feedback loop of rising temperatures and the subsequent lowered capacity of plants to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.