With the passing of “Cyber Monday,” I thought this investigative piece from the NY Times is truly appropriate. Its a great reminder to be careful when making purchses online this holiday season. See ya in class!
–Paul
Link Here:
If that does not work, you may have to get a free account at NYTIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Hi Everyone,
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I just wanted to touch base with you before we meet for our final class.
1) If you would like me to take another look at a draft of your project, today would be a good day to send it to me. I can probably get you notes back later today
2) Your final draft is due Tuesday night with your binder of notes and sources. Failure to turn it in on time will dramatically jeopardize your current grade.
3) If you feel you need a little help on your class participation grade, tuesday is your last shot to make a contribution. Make sure you read assignments for week 9 and 10 in the syllabus. We’ll discuss.
4) Be prepared to talk about your final project in front of the class. (This is casual. You don’t have to prepare a speech. Just tell us about your project, what you learned and uncovered in your research.) I would be thrilled if you would like to post it on the blog so we can pull it up and take a look especially if you’ve included charts or visuals. We will discuss obstacles you faced, what you learned from your experience, what you might do differently if you did it again.
5) It is possible that we will spend the ENTIRE class time together….we may go over 2 1/2 hours to get everything in. (Just because I want to spend every last minute with you ! 🙂 )
Any problems or questions…please don’t wait until Tuesday.
Lu Ann
Okay…here’s the sign up so far.
Chris and Chris at 6p
Julie & Alex 6:20
Shumi and Kari 6:40
Paul 7:00
If you are unsure of what you’re doing or have questions I seriously recommend taking advantage of this time to meet. Please bring copies of your draft and copies of my notes if I have sent them to you. If you don’t send me drafts and you don’t sign up for a meeting you are taking risks with your final project grade. I’m here to help. Don’t wait until the last minute.
Also please post. Interesting topics this week on the blog.
If I don’t see you Tuesday, have a great Thanksgiving and I’ll see you the following Tuesday.
Lu Ann
This really doesn’t have anything to do with our reading this week, but I just came across this opinion piece from the New York Times about secret donations during election time. We had discussed this topic a few classes back and I thought the writer does a good job of bringing to light another possible suspicious donation during these past mid-term elections:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/opinion/22mon1.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a211
Excerpt:
And that’s the problem with secret political donations, which played such a large role in the elections earlier this month. They cast a shadow of doubt and distrust over a huge field, raising questions about who is covertly pushing which bill and supporting which candidate, and for which self-serving purposes. Lobbying and political contributions can be perfectly legitimate practices, but only when the public can see who is pulling the strings. ….
…Of course the public does not know for certain that hedge funds were among the secret donors, which is precisely why donors must take responsibility for their political actions. If it were clear who was giving to which lawmakers, we’d have a rough form of accountability. Those who set up and financed this secret system don’t want voters to know that information. And many of them are still blocking the legislation that could end it — the Disclose Act, which would prohibit secret political contributions. It will also be interesting to see which of the new lawmakers vote against that bill.
I’m a bit surprised that this may be one of the first times (haven’t really researched) that questionable donations were brought up from these recent elections. How many other large donations have influenced and fought against bills that have been kept secret from the public? It’s a shame that this Disclose Act is being blocked – it may be the only way the public get the truth, other than investigations into the subject.
– Julie
Hello class…I was doing research for another class and I came across a article about a health insurance company dropping clients who were newly diagnosed with breast cancer and I immediately thought about chapter 10 “Investigation Health Care” in Gaines and our discussion in class.
This article is about WellPoint Health Insurance the nations largest health insurer and how they were using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted patients with breast cancer. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stepped in saying that it was wrong for WellPoint to drop patients after being newly diagnosed with breast cancer. The CEO of WellPoint said the article was inaccurate and misrepresented. Rueters where I found the article said they stand by their story.
What are your thoughts and opinions on this story? As a investigative journalist how would you go about finding out who is telling the truth? And for everyone who is in PR, If you worked for WellPoint how would address this situation to the public?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63M2YM20100423
Christina Payne
When you hand in your final draft with no misspelled words or grammatical errors in the three ring notebook please also include your notes, surveys, sources , copies of documents…quotes….everything you used to write your story. I will be checking your sources. If you do phone or in person interviews I want names and phone numbers, titles, quotes, dates. Any questions??? get in touch with me
Your syllabus says:
As you work on this project keep a list of sources and source contact information. You’ll want to take notes on leads you’ve followed, the books and documents you’ve read, the sources you’ve contacted and any dead-ends you hit while researching.
Keep all documents, laws/regulations, court filings, and source material in a three-ring binder. You will hand in with the story
If you sent me a draft, you should have received notes from me by now. If you haven’t, please get in touch with me immediately.
Please sign up for Tuesday class meeting. The early bird gets in and out the quickest…no one has signed up yet….If you are having issues and questions this is going to be your best bet to make sure you are on the right track and going to get a good grade on your important final project. I’m here to help you with this. Take advantage of it.
Special Topics and Tricks of the Trade
This chapter focuses on providing extra tips and resources to get around the obstacles that reporters face.
The one example that stuck out to me was the story about the school cafeteria food. An ethical dilemma was presented when the school refused to let the reporter take pictures of the kids in the cafeteria. In order to have a complete story, however, the reporter needed to get pictures of the kids showing disgust at the food and throwing it away. Her idea to get around this was to set up a staged cafeteria where she would invite students, serve them the same food, and get their reaction. Of course, ethics and fear of losing credibility stopped her from going through with this idea…but it made me think…
When people [regardless of whether it is children or not] know that they are being filmed, observed, interviewed, they tend to change their appearance, responses, and attitude. It is called the Hawthorne Affect, which means you act differently when you know you are being watched. The biggest reason I felt that this reporter should not have staged this cafeteria, a reason not mentioned in the book, is because simply inviting the students to a staged cafeteria for observation would skew their reactions.
This made me think of our class projects. A lot of people mentioned that authoritative figures requested to be sent the interview questions beforehand. Do you think their responses may have been different if they were approached without prior notification? What about investigative reporting in general, are the best and most honest responses the ones where the person has no preparation time?
-Bhavna Bhatia
For those of you who have sent me drafts…I’ve read them and will be sending you notes. Check your drexel emails this weekend.
A couple of you have had to regroup. This happens in the real world of investigative reporting all the time. Think fast. Go to plan B or C. work fast. You have a deadline to meet.
I will be in class starting at 6:00 on Tues.
I will try to take someone every 20 minutes. Start signing up. Let me know what time you want…comment on this post to get a time.
6:00
6:20
6:40
7:00
7:20
7:40
8:00
8:20
8:40
I just saw this investigative report about the BBB and how companies, who are not paying members, receive very low grades. Once a company signs up to be a member, their rating shoots up to an A or A+. The video shows the President of the BBB walking out on the interview after the reporter has shown him numerous examples of made-up companies receiving high ratings.
What do you guys think? Do you trust the BBB ratings after this?
-Kari Bestrycki
COM 660 Investigative Journalism 