Demographics

Reporting for all News21 topics included intense study of numbers-based trends and data, giving rise to the specific coverage. Maryland particularly delved into demographic data tied to elections.

• Farming in the Time of Economic Cholera

  California’s farm lands and its workers grapple with a shift from a labor shortage to a labor glut in a time of decreased consumer demand.

• California's Tribal Cleansing
  A growing number of California tribes are setting a grim precedent by purging their own members. At stake is who controls both the nation’s richest Indian gaming industry and a powerful new state lobby. Those who have been kicked out are fighting back, but is anyone listening?
• Pentecostals Ascendant in L.A.'s Little Central America
  Los Angeles houses the largest community of Central Americans outside of Central America itself. More and more, members of that community have traded their traditional Catholic roots for new, Pentecostal lives. Of the 5,000 Hispanic churches within the city, 94 percent are now Pentecostal, and the greater the number of converts, the more that Guatemalan, El Salvaradoran and Honduran contingent will change the identity of Christianity in this southwestern metropolis.
• Children of Immigrants Face Struggle
  The children of immigrants in California carry the legacy of their parents’ sacrifices and the promise of a better future for themselves and the state. But breaking free from cycles of poverty is a debilitating struggle. Latino youth in both Los Angeles and the iconic farm worker city of Delano face rigid barriers to social ascension.
• The Asian Face of Las Vegas
  A look at the fastest-growing Asian community in America.
• California Energy: Power to the People
  California is often the first to face challenges over how to best provide the cleanest, most reliable energy to its people. Community fights, environmental battles and the rush to cash in on innovative technologies are shaping the future of California’s role as an energy leader.
• State of the Union: California Labor Wars
  After decades of break-neck growth, California’s two million-member Service Employees International Union is facing a crisis brought on by a debilitating recession. This package explores the present crises strangling the labor movement and its deleterious effects on working people in California. It includes audio, text stories, a timeline, photos and videos.
• Newark Up Close: Tale of Two Charters
  In Newark, N.J., two very different charter schools iare competing for similar resources, space and students. One is rooted in the community of Newark; the other belongs to a national network. One is led by Newark educators, the other by out-of-town Teach for America alumni. One has plans to stay small, the other has aggressive plans to expand. One wants to change how children learn, the other aims to prepare them for life. One needs money, the other — not so much.

  Together, Discovery Charter and the KIPP middle schools frame a debate percolating beneath the charter school explosion.

• Behind the Newark Charter School Fund
  When the Newark Charter School Fund was announced in April 2008, it certainly created a splash. True, Newark schools had been getting increased attention with the election of its young, Ivy-educated mayor, Cory Booker. Several Newark schools had been commended on their own merits. But the creation of the $20 million fund placed Newark squarely on the education reform stage, primed to attract big private money. Since then, Fund officials have immersed themselves in the Newark education scene, getting to know the players and the schools and ascertaining needs.

• Newark: Welcome to the Renaissance City
  Since riots racked the city in the 1960s, Newark has endured several aborted attempts at revival. Recent developments, though, are leading residents and visitors alike to believe that they may now be witnessing a rebirth with traction, stemming from an unlikely place. While investment opportunities in real estate and business have certainly caught the attention of glitterati, it’s the city’s charter schools that have captured the imagination of philanthropists and policy wonks alike.
• Upper Peninsula History: American Indian Education
  Since the European arrival in the United States, formal education has been a sorrowful experience for many American Indians. The results? High high-school dropout rates. Click on the time line to track the beginnings of the problem and then learn how education has evolved and improved over time for this population. Hear Upper Peninsula tribal historians describe their local educational histories.
• Newark Schools Fight Back Against Charters
  Challenged by a growing number of high-performing charter schools within its bounds, the Newark, N.J., public school district announced an ambitious plan to turn around its schools to create a system that is bolder, more accountable, more transparent and more innovative.
• The New Town Square
  Explore with resident from three Northern California towns as they struggle to define community in an increasingly suburbanized landscape. This short introductory video blends old techniques (stop motion animation) with the digital platform. Other elements in the package include an interactive map illustrating how these three towns have grown and changed over the last century, and a series of maps where residents describe the places where they find their community.

• The Charter Explosion: Mapping the Trend
  A multimedia map, infographic and timeline capture the explosion of charter schools from zero to 4,600 over the past two decades while providing a history of the charter school movement and overview of major trends.
• CityLab: Exploring Communities Up Close
  CityLab.us is a database created by and for reporters that displays demographic and anecdotal data about 65 cities in the Bay Area. It is intended as a working prototype for a national database that allows reporters to compare hard-to-find information about cities all over the country. Each of the thousands of data points is individually sourced, allowing reporters to fact check by visiting the Web site from which the data was pulled or by directly contacting the reporter who contributed the data.
• BARThood: 4 Bay-Area Neighborhoods Up Close
  This project focuses on four neighborhoods, visualizing demographic data of ridership and aggregating content and news about each area. Includes interactive charts and graphs, slide shows and custom feeds that combine up-to-the-minute Google blogs, Google News, Twitter and Yelp posts specific to each station.
• Multiracial America: An Emerging Voice
  People who identify as multiracial make up the fastest-growing demographic in the country. This package includes stories about individuals and the implications of changing racial identity as well as profiles of two communities – Columbia, Md., and the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia – that are microcosms of a multiracial America. Text stories, photos, graphics, timeline, data, slideshow, video tag player.
• New Latino Voters
  An analysis of voter survey data underscores how this fast-growing demographic will impact politics. Other stories, based in Fresno and Allensworth, Calif., and in Springfield, Ark., illustrate how immigration and voting patterns are changing. Text stories, photos, graphics, timeline, data, slideshow, video.
• Young Voters: An Ascendant Group
  This ascendant voting group has the GOP re-evaluating its message and has educators worried about civic education. Stories also touch on youth activism and blend voices of the young in a unique tag video player. Text stories, photos, graphics, quiz, tables, data, slideshow, video.
• Voting Attitudes: Compare the Generations
  A tool allows users to compare voter attitudes by age, based on how people answered questions from the American National Election Studies 2008 Time Series Study. With embedded audio from News21 interviews
• Amnesty’s Next Front: Small Town USA
  Culpeper, Va., epitomizes the change in Hispanic immigration to the United States over the past two decades. Between 1990 and 2007, U.S. Census data shows that Culpeper County experienced a general population growth of 62 percent, nearly three times the national rate. But over that same time, the Hispanic population of Culpeper County increased 18 fold. Text, video. live Twitter updates.