Daniel's Directory

The lead in this article is very good. It does exactly what the lead is supposed to do and that is inform the reader of everything necessary to know from the article. It did a great job of that, summarizing the situation in only 2 sentences.

There are plenty of news values that this story can fall under due to the situation at hand. One of the first ones is the value of prominence. Durkin is a very prominent head coach especially in Maryland and with the situation he has been more well known. That is why this story falls under the news value of prominence.

Another news value this falls under is relevance. This story has been an evergreen story lately with the ongoing investigation and reports of what was going to happen with the Maryland athletic program after the death of their player. This story has had relevance for a while and is very important to the college football landscape with the outcome of this investigation being the firing of Coach Durkin.

Leonardo DiCaprio spoke to the United Nations about climate change yesterday as a UN Messenger of Peace. He congratulated the UN on their agreement in the Paris agreement on climate change.

DiCaprio praised the UN’s Paris agreement by saying that more countries have come together for this reason than any other cause in history. DiCaprio said that was a step in the right direction, yet said that there is much more work to be done. He pointed to the planet’s use of fossil fuels as one way that the planet still needs to improve on the issue of climate change.

DiCaprio, in the beginning of his speech, compared the issue of climate change to the issue of slavery 150 years ago calling each the “defining issue/crisis of their time.” DiCaprio pointed to his work as a Messenger of Peace to the UN to give himself credibility when it comes to talking about the issues of climate change. DiCaprio has been all over the world including Indonesia, Greenland, and Beijing pointing to each instance of the effects of climate change in those areas.

The speech drew rousing applause from the UN council and seemed to be very well received from the officials present.

This has been something we have talked about before in classes when it comes to de-legitimizing the media. This is even worse when it comes from the President of the US. It also shows how much President Trump needs to stroke his ego every now and then especially in the face of potential tragedy.

One of the news values in this story is relevance. Relevance comes up because of how recent this story is happening yesterday. It combines relevance and prevalence with the fact of how prevalent the targets were with the former President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In my opinion President Trump needs to know where and when he needs to butt into when it comes to giving his two cents.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181022150938.htm

Ever wanted to know how spiders spin their strong silky webs? One study thinks they may have found the answer to one of nature’s most pressing questions.

Northwestern University has discovered the mystery behind spider’s web-spinning ability. The researchers at Northwestern came up with their “modified micelles theory” which they believe is the science behind spider web spinning. Researchers studied black widow spiders because of their incredible ability to spin webs out of strong materials.

Researchers had known some of the basic proteins and amino acids that built the spider’s strong webs, but had not been able to reconstruct them in the same way in a lab. Researcher Nathan C Gianneschi said, “What we didn’t understand completely is what goes on at the nanoscale in the silk glands or the spinning duct — the storage, transformation and transportation process involved in proteins becoming fibers.”

The study found out that what scientists were missing was at the “nano” level of the spider’s web spinning ability. The study concluded that spider silk proteins do not start out as simple spherical micelles, as previously thought, but instead as complex, compound micelles.

Gianneschi says this could go a long way in the realm of engineering and construction, “One cannot overstate the potential impact on materials and engineering if we can synthetically replicate this natural process to produce artificial fibers at scale.”

Detailed findings of the research will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Morningside Gets Ready for Busy Political Season

It’s October of an even year and that means many Americans are getting ready to head to the polls and many politicians are heading down the homestretch of a long campaign season. The students and faculty at Morningside College are likewise gearing up for one of the biggest non-athletic time periods of the school year.

One of those busy faculty members is Dr. Valerie Hennings, a political science professor and the director of the Colonel Bud Day Center for Civic Engagement. 

For Hennings, this political season started at the beginning of this summer when the Day Center and 11 other students created a statewide opinion poll. But, it wasn’t a typical “horse race” poll, rather a poll that focused on policy issues.

“We asked questions that we thought Iowans would be curious about and those questions were based off of what the students found interesting, as the faculty advisor I helped with question design and survey methods but when it comes to the substance of what they would ask about, that came from the students,” Hennings said.

Another student-led project on campus is the Campus Election Engagement Project. Its purpose is to educate college students who are eligible to vote, and get them registered for the “Get out the Vote” Initiative which aims to educate and register college students eligible to vote. For Dr. Hennings this is very important. “For so many students on college campus this is often their first election so making sure people know where they’re going and what they need to do,” Hennings explained.

Along with all the student-led initiatives on campus there are many other political events happening on campus, from a J.D. Scholten rally a few weeks ago to an Iowa Gubernatorial Debate tomorrow. Gov. Reynolds and Mr. Hubbell will be debating ahead of their election in November. This event takes part on campus and is a great opportunity for students and citizens to know who they are voting for and what they believe.

This is a great opportunity, Dr. Hennings says, for students to be engaged on campus in the upcoming elections. Student engagement in elections, especially in the midterms, is known to be not evident on most campuses. Dr. Hennings says, on the Morningside campus, this is far from the truth, “I think that our students our very engaged… I would argue that the myth that students are not engaged is just not true.”

She goes on to say, “these students [at Morningside] are very engaged and they see what’s going on, they care.” She does however have one suggestion for the campus of Morningside to improve their political education, “what I would like to see more is providing more tools and educational opportunities beyond the classroom, which is something we are working to do.”

When it comes to politics on Morningside’s campus there has always been a history of involvement from last election’s presidential candidate appearances to alumni who have gone into the realm of politics. This fall may feel different politically, but those of us who know Morningside’s rich history, know that this just another October month in an even year.

KTIV: https://ktiv.com/2018/10/09/president-trump-in-council-bluffs-tuesday-night-for-rally/

Sioux City Journal: https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/trump-in-iowa-skews-ethanol-debate/article_9f670077-67a7-5373-9cf7-95bde1b62ea6.html

The lead in the broadcast story I observed seemed to use more facts than the written story in their lead ins. The Journal used a quote in their lead while KTIV used more situational facts in theirs. The information in the broadcast seemed to be more factual at the top then story at the bottom, and in the Journal it was flipped with quotes at the top then facts at the bottom.

The Journal article was longer by a little bit, the video of the broadcast was a minute and a half long whereas the Journal article took me a little over 2 minutes to consume.

Both used about the same amount of quotations, the broadcast cut to two direct clips of Trump speaking, whereas the Journal used more people in quoting referencing Hubbell as well as Trump but using relatively the same amount of content.

There was no real contribution other than who the quotes were by, the Journal did that well, and KTIV used a video of Trump saying his quotes every time without other clips being played over top of the quotes.

The broadcast used lots of crowd shots and crowd noise as well as shots of Trump and direct quotes from him. They also had a stand up shot of Matt Breen to intro the piece and to outro it as well.

Nothing else I noticed.

This article was very well written in the fact that the lead was very good using a story to bring me into the article. Using a story like that to draw you in to a more statistical story like this is a great idea. It made me want to keep reading even though I knew it would not be the most intriguing read from the beginning.

One of the main news values that came to mind from this story was the news value of relevance. With the approaching mid-term elections it is very timely to talk about voter turnout. Especially with how important these elections are for potentially the next decade or so of politics. This story really emphasizes the news value of relevance.

Another news value this story uses is the news value of conflict. There is conflict in this story because of the conflict between voters and coming out to elections. The conflict mentioned at the beginning with Lula is that she doesn’t find it right to vote for politicians that seem to do nothing for their constituents. This is where the conflict I think for many people lie is the conflict of voting for people who, regardless of party, don’t seem to do anything for their constituents. This shows a big conflict in this story.

Campus pastor at Morningside College, Andy Nelson, finds many great rewards and satisfaction through his work and home life. Andy has spent the last 2 years in a campus ministry role at Morningside College and this year will be his first full-time year on campus.

Pastor Nelson first got in to campus ministry at the University of South Dakota before heading home to take care of his then 3 year old child. After that a part-time position opened up at Morningside College and that is where he has been the last 2 years.

Andy says that he finds great reward from doing the work he does mainly speaking with students and hearing about their struggles while also helping them find their way in life. Andy says that his favorite thing about being the campus pastor at Morningside is the students he gets to chat with on a regular basis about everything from faith to school and everything in between. In fact this is the most exciting part of his day, “Most students will come into my office being apologetic like their interrupting,” says Pastor Nelson, “I always make sure they know they are more important and that they are the reason I’m here.”

While his job is very rewarding and he loves what he does, Pastor Nelson also added that one of the most rewarding things in his life is his family’s commitment to foster care. “We have 3 biological children and 1 foster child who is 16 months old.” Nelson and his wife Dr. Jessica Pleuss have had foster children for the past 2 years. “It’s rewarding and also very stressful because you never know what the situation is.” Regardless of the situation Pastor Nelson and his wife plan on being foster parents for as long as they can still do it.

For Pastor Nelson, working as a campus minister and a foster parent, are two of the greatest things he can participate in as someone dedicated to serving others. “I always looked for ways I can serve others, being a pastor was one of the greatest ways to do that.” Adding on the foster parent, Pastor Nelson has more than proved his ability to be a great man of service.