For story 5, I want to draw a connection between some of the work I did in my Politics Senior Seminar and this final story, creating a localization out of the continual trend of growing political polarization in the U.S.. A Pew Study released after the 2016 election highlighted some troubling findings: Not only is the nation far more polarized than ever before, but also moderation is not bridging the gap and people find it more polarizing to even sit down and talk with someone of the opposing view. I think there are two potential paths I could take this story down…

1) Whether or not the university’s “Call to Conversations” have been effective. While effective is hard to define, I think it’s worth seeing if they’ve at least managed to open dialogue in a civil way. I would focus on student and faculty that partook in one of these conversations for their perspectives. I would then link this to the national trends.

2) Take a broader approach to the localization, and report on whether or not classroom conversations in the Politics Department have been civil and lead to open divulge, or if the perception of teachers and students is that classroom divulge has often led to a greater divide. I will also compare this reporting to the national trends.

For story four I am planning on interviewing Peter Rives, Wake’s Assistant Director of Wellbeing—alcohol and substance abuse prevention. Peter is a Wake alumni and mental health professional who was brought to Wake four years ago to help the university address its shocking alcohol abuse numbers. I think interviewing him would make for a great story for a couple of reasons: First, Peter will have first-hand knowledge as to how the university’s statistics with these issues will have changed over the last four years; second, he can point to areas where campus culture still needs improvement; lastly, he can demonstrate what the most effective programs are for reducing substance abuse on campus on how we’re doing as a whole.

A couple of people who would be great resources to talk with before the interview would be Malika Roman Isler, the Director of Wellbeing, and Penny Rue, the VP of Campus Life. Both individuals were instrumental in bringing Peter to Wake and would also have knowledge of these issues. Additionally, interviewing someone in the campus EMS program to get a perspective on alcohol transports could be helpful to contextualize the problem as well.

After following my New York Times reporter, Emily Cochrane, for a few weeks now I have come to recognize some trends in her writing and reporting. First, she almost always sticks to the basic news lead. Her main beat is covering Congress, so she tends to get her stories out quickly and is likely operating with fairly short deadlines. So, sticking to basic leads gives her the ability to be concise and deliver the political news as efficiently as possible.

This idea of having to be concise lends itself to another insight I gained from reading her stories. Her stories rarely exceed 1,000 words as they are mostly serving the purpose of consistently updating the public on the biggest stories regarding Congress and how it interacts with the Trump administration. Given that Cochrane usually operates on a time crunch, the depth of her reporting does not go too far beyond piecing together public statements by officials and the decisions and actions they have publicly supported. Additionally, Cochrane consistently looks to multiple statements of a party’s members if she is reporting that the Democrat or Republican party as a whole plans to make a move. This is not to say that her reporting is not good enough, it is just to say that because of the beat she covers, she likely does not have the time to go too in depth.

Another trend of Cochrane’s is that she likes to flesh out her stories in a more chronological fashion after the lead, and I think this works really well given the topic material she covers. Often times, these political stories require a chronological understanding of events in order to discern which representatives or Congressional committees are poised to make certain decisions, as well as the time line of how those decisions get made.

Recent Story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/us/politics/adam-schiff-trump-mueller-report.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Femily-cochrane&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

I have two potential localization ideas I’m considering for story 2. The first idea is to take the recent scandals of Virginia politicians, especially Virginia’s governor, who have been discovered to have worn blackface in yearbook photos, and relate that story to what was found in Wake’s Howler yearbook. I attended the diversity and inclusion forum that was held this past Thursday, and there was a lot worth reporting. The forum really put into perspective the administration’s struggles to get this issue right, and how many African American students still feel the school does not do enough to improve equity and inclusion. The controversy of Wake’s Dean of Admissions Martha Allman being in an old photo with a confederate flag was one of the main talking points of the forum. Other potential sources for this story would be VP of Campus Life Penny Rue and the head of the Diversity and Inclusion Office at Wake who were also at the forum.

My other story idea is to localize Trump’s rhetoric which criticized SNL for doing a parody of his National Emergency press conference, and said they should face retribution. Trump has consistently viewed media outlets, especially network’s late-night shows, as slanderous and the “enemy of the people”. Many have pointed out that this may infringe on free speech rights. For the Wake Forest community, conversations about free speech have been especially salient since the 2016 election. There was the issue during the election regarding people hanging flags in their dorm windows, then there was the discussion about the code of conduct limiting free speech last year, and now I think it would be interesting to localize Trump’s criticisms of SNL to students’ and the faculty’s views on how free speech is treated on Wake’s campus. Considering we just had a diversity forum last week, I think it would be an ideal time to get people to discuss free speech. Sources for this story would be Wake students and administrators, along with professors who specialize in communications, such as Professor Mary Dalton who I had a chance to speak with last week.

For my first story, I plan to cover the philosophy forum this week, where Heather Bradley,  from the University of Connecticut, will speak on closed-mindedness. Her talk is meant to shift the narrative on closed-mindedness as being a virtue in some cases rather than a vice. I think this talk could serve as a great tie-in to the polarized political climate of late. Perhaps it is not always a vice to stand firm on a position, especially if it is something one views as a core principle?

I chose Cochrane as my journalist to follow because she works for the New York Time’s Washington bureau and regularly reports on Congress, and because I have a strong interest in politics. Not only has Cochrane covered the major stories as of late, like  the shutdown, but she has also spent time covering other interesting stories that haven’t gotten as much attention, such as the new election reform bill H.R. 1 that was recently proposed by House Democrats.