Fault Lines Part III - Chapters XII and XIII

Chapter 12: Putting it all together: The 'Five Groups Exercise'

Now that you have been studying the philosophy and application of Fault Lines, it's time to brainstorm story ideas, as we do at Maynard training workshops. 

These sessions are structured to build up to what we call the 'Five Groups Exercise,' in which the training class is divided into teams to examine a story from the perspective of each of the five Fault Lines: race, class, gender, generation and geography.

This exercise works best with groups of 20 to 30 people. For smaller groups, consider dividing participants into two teams, with both teams examining a story through each of the five Fault Lines.

The next two chapters include examples from training groups at the Maynard Media Academy. We encourage you to apply the Five Groups Exercise to your own story ideas - and to share them with us for inclusion on www.maynardije.com. Note that there is overlap among the Fault Lines, which is part of layering the coverage.

Chapter 13a: The War in Iraq:

What is the impact of the war in Iraq, now in its fifth year, on life in the United States (citizens, visitors, foreign workers and students, and people trying to gain citizenship)? How is it affecting communities, governments, ports of entry, borders, the workplace, families, and individuals? How is it affecting the way we live, our expenditures, the way we relate to other people, and the way we travel? Think, too, about the impact on the troops.

Using the Fault Lines Diversity tool, what kinds of coverage can you craft through the prism of race/ethnicity; economic class; gender/sexual orientation; generation, and geography?

Each group has 20-to-30 minutes to come up with three strong story ideas (if you have more ideas, include them as well) related to its assigned Fault Line. Also, think about including ideas for photos, online coverage, blogs, charts, videos - any elements you can think of that constitute good storytelling.

At the announced time, a spokesperson from each team 'report outs' that team's ideas to the entire training group. To prepare, each team uses markers and tear sheets to illustrate their ideas for their presentations.

The Results:

Economic Class:

 Example uses the City of Austin, Texas, and 'its share' of President Bush's $5.6 million supplemental budget request for 21,500 additional troops in Iraq-what that money, figured as $28 million for Austin,  being spent on the military could go to locally.

1.

• Get city leaders and community activists to blog on how they would spend that money locally-if they had it.
• Create a chart showing what the dollars could build: Homeless shelters, soup kitchens, schools, free clinics. Another chart on the impact of that lost income.

2.

• What does the military incentive package look like for recruits versus those taking low-level jobs in the private sector (use 19-year-old high school graduate model. Jobs as cooks, laundry workers here in the U.S. versus in Iraq). Military as means of economic advancement-benefits for GIs such as educational benefits for college; job opportunities after military service. Use bar charts to illustrate.

3.

• Troop count versus dollars spent.
• Timeline of troop deaths-Iraqi and American that also shows the amount of money being spent during specified years on the timeline.

4.

• Compensation opportunities that makes the military an attractive choice for soldiers/Marines, versus what they might earn in the private sector. Model uses 19-year-old college graduate and examples from trades such as auto mechanic.
• Compensation after military service. How those who go into the military return with benefits such as GI bill education benefits for college and other higher education. Chart/graphics would go with both elements of the story.
• Online component: Videos of various classes of soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq.

Geography:

1.

• Schools: visit different three different schools across the nation representing different regions where one or both parents is/are serving in Iraq. Schools should have high concentration of children of military families. Elements: Photos; maps locating schools; monthly check-in with the schools/families with blogs; video/audio (the stories in their own words).

2.

• Small/rural towns - communities that have a high number of men and women who have lost their lives in the war. Example: a small town in Alabama that has the highest number of enlisted servicemen in the state. Four soldiers from that town died during a four-week period in November 2006. Story: How do people in these towns feel about sending more troops to Iraq?
• Elements: Slide show of funerals and slide shows capturing daily lives of families who have lost a loved one in the war and how they are coping in the aftermath; letters/diaries the soldiers send to their families. Monthly check-ins with the families. Sidebars: Economic and social impact of the deaths and of the deployment on the communities.

3.

• Place where most troops have been sent and where most troops have died. Elements: Map featuring state-by-state numbers; training exercises on base to prepare for war; blog/diary from servicemen describing conditions where they are serving; graphic on the cause of most deaths: roadside bombs; attacks by insurgents; friendly fire, etc.

Generation:

1.

• The families of war. Detailed look at the different types of families from which the troops come; some have generations of military involvement; others are first-timers in the military. Look at ages 18-to-55.  Compare two different types of families that fit the above criteria.

2.

• Technology and its impact over 60 years. Differences in how the story of the war is told by participants from WWII to Vietnam to Iraq. Influences of the Internet and e-mail on the immediacy of telling those stories and sharing those stories for a widespread audience via Web sites, blogs. What is the motivation for those in the military? What kinds of activities do they engage in during their downtime?

3.

• Opinions about the war and its impact gauged by different generations.

Gender/Sexual Orientation:

1.

• Follow a couple where one is serving in the military abroad and one is at home in the U.S. Publish their correspondence, 'Dispatches,' with art/map. Either a mom who stays home or the dad who stays home or two couples including both examples. Graphics of demographics. Share yours on the news organization's Web site.

2.

• Support groups for moms. With art.

3.

• Special tab section. Update on the stories/people from the past four years during which the war has been fought. War babies. War moms.

4.

• Photos and bios of locals who have died. Ask readers to send their stories and to share (monitored) comments online.

5.

• Gay/lesbian troops. Do local gay/lesbian groups know of/have a stance on the issues of service?

6.

• Local poll: who supports/opposes the ramp-up in the war, including gender in the poll-illustrate with graphics.

7.

• High school kids facing recruitment. Thoughts? Opinions? Worries about reinstitution of the draft? Do you feel like you're facing tougher pressure from recruiters? Has the marketing strategy of forces changed to include girls?

8.

• Families/groups actively making plans to help 18-to-24-year-olds avoid going to Iraq?

9.

• Where have our people been? Map; interactive online.

10.

• What's the status of 'don't ask, don't tell'? Has/is the military reconsidering the policy? Is it enforced? Is it enforced among rank-and-file troops?

Package would include art, graphics, polls on policy; send us your comments.

Race/ethnicity:

1.

• Personal level - blogs; stories from different races/ethnic backgrounds serving in war. With photos.

2.

• Community level. Has the common situation of knowing soldiers or having family serving brought different races together in a war and help break down racial walls? With online poll.

3.

• National level. As the military recruits new members, how is it trying to reach different races? This will be an investigative piece showing how honest the practices are. Graphics/charts of numbers of recruits by race and budgets for recruiting broken down by race.

Chapter 13b:  Family Focus  

This exercise is based on an Associated Press story:

How do American families cope with life in a fast-paced world where everyone, including kids, is multi-tasking? How do family members relate to each other while juggling school, work, and myriad activities?

Scientists at UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families:

• Spent four years studying 32 families of diverse backgrounds in the Los Angeles area.
• Families had two parents working fulltime; two-to-three children.
• Researchers spent a week with each family, from breakfast to bedtime.
• They studied how the families relate, or don't relate, when together.
• The Associated Press got an exclusive look at the results so far.

An AP reporter wrote a story featuring family in which the 9-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter go to bed at 11 p.m. on school nights after days filled with school and at least three before- and after-school activities running to 10 p.m.

    So far, the study's findings indicate:

• Parents and kids mostly live apart, reuniting only a few hours at night.
• Child responsibility is 'contracted out' to teachers, coaches, activities instructors.
• Time together is structured, focused on kids' lessons, activities, or shopping.
• There's little spontaneity or imagination. Only one parent took nightly walks with his kids, making up stories and chasing fireflies.
• There's a lack of unstructured playtime, conversation, courtesy and intimacy.
• There's a lack of greeting when families come together at end of the day.
• Decisions and purchases are geared to kids' activities
• American families own more stuff than most Egyptian pharaohs.
• Family life is not so much child-centered as child-dominated.
• Computers mapped location of family members throughout the home every 10 minutes: only 16 percent of the time did the family gather in the same room. In five of the 32 families, all the members were never in the same room together.
• People say they want community, but they don't seek it within their own families.

How would you cover this story using your assigned Fault Line as the peg for story ideas? Feel free to go beyond the criteria and findings in the UCLA study.

Each group will come up with at least three story ideas, plus ideas for charts, graphics, sidebars and blogs - any element that enhances the story-telling.

The Results:

Race/ethnicity

1. Using the major ethnic breakdown for a city such as Los Angeles - African American, Asian, Latino and white: Profile families fitting the (UCLA) study profile (Two parents working outside the home; two or three children).

a. What is their definition of the ideal family?

b. What does each family need to reach its ideal?

c. Limit the selection to families that have lived in L.A. more than five years to try to exclude new immigrants and all the additional issues they are dealing with.

d. Include a family of mixed race, considering that fewer families are exclusively a single race.

2. Profile a 'successful family' with grown kids, which meets the above criteria.

1. Can they teach younger families anything?
2. Are the grown kids raising their children the same way or differently?
3.  (This is the 'been there done that' angle.)

3. What are the fundamental family definitions and goals that transcend race and ethnicity?

a. What do the goals, issues and difficulties these families face tell you about your own?

4: The children's perspective is crucial in telling the story. What do the kids have to say about family time and growing up under these conditions?

Visuals: Photos, online video interviews and first-person accounts; family blogs to encourage reader interaction.

Follow-ups: 'Invest' in these stories with occasional updates about how these families are progressing or finding new issues to take on.

Economic Class

1. Turning the idea of 'class' and wealth on its head: QUALITY TIME: AT WHAT COST?
   1. Are middle-class and upper-class parents programming their children with too many activities and purchasing too many techie gadgets for the kids?
   2. Are they spending less quality time with their children?
   3. Are parents with less money spending more quality time with their children?
   4. Does higher income translate into better parenting? Not necessarily.
   5.  Comparing the 'Smiths' (wealthy, spend less time together) and the 'Taylors' (not as much money, spend more time together).
      1. Smiths have more money but may have less time.
      2. Smith kids might spend too much time in front of computer or TV.
      3. Smith children might be shuttled to one too many classes, activities and clubs, rehearsals, practices.
      4. Taylors could be family that still has dinner together, watch TV together, etc.

   3. Demographics: Hours spent with a child based on economic factors;   Stressed parents, guilt, Catch-22 of working to earn money to afford more but spending less quality time together. Demographics from UCLA study.
  
  4. Visuals: The family van; photos of parents and kids at work or activities/individual perspectives on how each feels about the time they spend together so the differing opinions can be compared. Chart with photos and bullet items comparing Smiths and Taylors.

  5. Web site: List of inexpensive activities families can do together; family resources.

Gender/Sexual orientation

Stories:

1. Follow life of a single mom/dad coping with the pressures of overscheduling.
2. Gay family: similarities/differences they face in coping with overscheduled lives.
3. How does life shape young girl growing up? Is it liberating? Stressful?
4. Expert: How gender roles have changed.
5. What happened to stay-at-home moms?

Visuals:

1. 'Day in the Life' photo gallery following family.
2. Blog-Different family voices discuss their lives-daily diary.
3. Poll question.
4. Graphic-Demographics showing single head of households-male to female, nuclear family, same sex partner-male and female.
5. Tips for coping.
6.  Explain how kids are using their time: boys versus girls.
7. How single parents handle coming-of-age issues with opposite gender child.
8. How gay parents have those same discussions.
9. Panel of kids and adults talk online discussing their busy lives.
10. Printable - Reader's schedule (diary).
11. Quiz: How Busy are you?
12. Link to study/resources.

Generation

An American Family in a Modern World

1. Main story: How has the amount of time families spend together changed? Why?

a. Breakdown from kids, parents, grandparents.

  2. Sidebars:

a. The reality of how much time is spent together, asking each generation, 
    then presenting information from the UCLA study.
b. Stay-at-home moms on the decline? Stay-at-home dads on the rise?
c. Grandparenting ‚ a second chance?
d. What would kids do differently as parents?

 3. Charts:

a. Dinner together.
b. Time together playing games/ interacting.
c. Time together watching TV.

 4. Online:

a. Interactive photos/ questions asked of all three generations.
b. 'Moving maps' of where everyone is in the house every 10 minutes.

Geography:

1. Mapping the American Family:
   1. Compare two families in Los Angeles and in Marshfield, Wis.
   2. Photo timeline showing both families at the same time during the day.
   3. Graphic: Map of daily schedule of each family in their town.
   4. Web: Message board for ideas on how families can spend more time together.