BY LUCA SEMPRINI

Non-profit news sites with a limited marketing budget often turn to Public Relations to "push" content forward without spending money. This most often translates into networking with various media outlets to place content on their platforms in exchange of a link back to the organization's website.

But the Internet also offers a wide array of customizable tools to "pull" users to your website with a limited budget. Google AdWords is one of the most ubiquitous. In general, this service allows organizations to promote their products and services alongside Google's search results.

This is how it works. Each ad created within your account has text or an image (this is how the ad will look like online.

An example of Powering a Nation's ad.

It also has a list of keywords that trigger the ad to show up. When someone searches Google using one or more of your keywords, your ad will appear in the search results page. You can also choose to display your ads on sites belonging to the Google network.

So what about costs? AdWords is a bid system that allows advertisers to chose a maximum cost-per-click. The ad's ranking on the page depends on other advertisers' bids (Price Per Click) and the quality score of all ads shown for a given search. Quality scores are calculated by click-through rates, relevance of the ad copy and keywords.

This system requires users to think creatively and fine-tune their ads. When I started a campaign for Powering a Nation, I had no experience with this tool. It took quite a bit of research and fiddling with keywords to improve the click-through rate (the amount of times users actually click the ad compared to the amount of times it is displayed).

Since no one can click on an ad that does not appear, keyword selection is crucial. Unfortunately, there is no golden formula to make the most of this tool. You have to be specific (i.e. use keywords that strictly match your product) and make sure the keywords match the ad copy as much as possible. But the real key is just to go back to your account every day, check the results, and tweak your campaign until you obtain the desired results.

If you're searching for energy issues online, Powering a Nation's ad should pop up on your screen. Take a minute to browse the content and give us your feedback! 

By CHRIS SAUNDERS

Stagg Field served as the home for the University of Chicago's football team and its touchdowns until 1939. That year the university's president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, eliminated the sport from varsity athletics.

Three years later, the empty field sat retired and abandoned. But its belly below would see a scientific discovery that would change the world.

Enrico Fermi led a team of scientists in December 1942 on an old squash court under Stagg Field's west stands. There for 28 minutes, they directed and watched the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, an event that would lead to both controlling nuclear fission and the end of World War II three years later.

Stagg Field no longer stands where it did, and the squash courts no longer remain.

In their places now stands Henry Moore's "Nuclear Energy," a 12-foot high bronze statue resembling a skull-shaped crab with three lumbering legs. It commemorates that December morning and Chicago Pile-1, history's first nuclear reactor.

Moore's sculpture signals nuclear's staying power and the eventual evolution of nuclear fission into a viable power source for the U.S. The country now sees 104 nuclear reactors operating at 65 plants in 31 states. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that nuclear accounts for 20 percent of the country's power production.

The nuclear boon halted in 1979, when there was a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island Unit 2 near Middleton, Pa. And the proverbial nail in the coffin  came down in 1986, when the accident at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union validated people's worst fears of nuclear.

The last reactor licensed was Tennessee's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in 1996. In the last 30 years, no more nuclear plants have been built or expanded. But in February, President Obama announced 8.3 billion in loan guarantees for Plant Vogtle, a nuclear plant in Georga, to build the nation's first two nuclear reactors in three decades.

The industry waits with anticipation to see if more reactors will be built or not. They wait to see if Moore's artwork honors renaissance or extinction.

By LAUREN FROHNE

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has rocked the small towns that thrive in southern Plaquemines Parish, La. Located in the southernmost tip of the state, and now surrounded by oil-filled bays, Venice and its neighboring towns, Boothville and Buras, have been described by many as "ground zero" of the disaster. Life-long fishermen are now fighting on the front lines of the battle against the oil that threatens both their livelihoods and their community, small businesses are struggling to survive and families are uncertain about what their futures hold.

Cherie Pete is the owner of Maw's Sandwich & Snack Shop, located right off Highway 23, the main road through the peninsula that leads to Venice, in Boothville. Five generations of Cherie's family were born and have been raised in south Plaquemines. Her husband, nicknamed "Hawk," is a commercial fisherman who is now contracting as a clean-up worker for BP.

Known by her family and the community as "Maw," Cherie is struggling to keep her business afloat and her life positive through the disaster.

Cherie said that starting the shop has been a dream of hers since she was six years old, and that it's a place where the community comes together. "It's kind of been a welcome center to new people coming to town, and it's almost been a comfort zone to my community," she said.

Maw's is a training ground for teenagers working their first jobs. She feels the connection to the community and the opportunity is important for the young adults in the community, but she worries about the effects the oil spill might have on their futures. "They're just out of school, they're having fun, but I wish they were paying a little more attention so they could take life a little bit more serious, especially right now. We don't know what tomorrow's going to bring, and I think they need to be preparing themselves," Cherie said. "I have the one girl, she's bound and determined she's going to work at Maw's forever, but, you know, Maw's might not be there forever."

"Cameras just come up to the window and instead of giving an order they're doing an interview," she said. Recently, Cherie has become a voice of her community. She has been interviewed dozens of times by media such as ABC News and The Weather Channel. She believes it's important to continue talking to media. "That's just who I am. I love my community.  I love my family.  And if we don't stand up and start talking about it as a community, or even as individuals, and getting our story out there, no one's going to know we exist."

Because of her media appearances, Cherie has received calls from people located around the U.S. who want to offer her kind words of support. Tears fill Cherie's eyes early one morning as she listens to a woman from Las Vegas, Nev., tell her that everyone in the country is thinking of her and her community and wishing them the best.

A flag, colored with black marker, hangs in front of Cherie's store and states: "Thanks for nothing BP. Obama stand up for us." She said her husband refused to take the flag out on the water to dip in actual oil. "Our national government is just failing us. They are failing us.  They're not standing up to this oil company and making them responsible," she says. "How would they like for us to go by the Washington Monument and just start dumping gallons and gallons of oil all over the Washington Monument?"

"One day, this shop might really end up being a 'mom-and-pop' shop," said Cherie, imagining what life in south Plaquemines might be like without the commercial fishing industry. "I lay at night in bed and pray that everything will be back, but I don't see that happening. I don't want to go to the thoughts of what it's going to be like with everything gone." She is still hopeful. "My hope is that they get this all stopped, get us cleaned up, to be back, next spring, flowers in the marsh blooming, trees in the marsh turning green again. I want to go out there for that April fish, you know, just hop on that boat, say, 'Oh my god, that's a beautiful day, let's go on the boat.' That's what I want back."

Photos by Lauren Frohne

By MIKE EHRLICH

One of the things I've learned this summer is that you never know quite where a story will take you. My reporting for News 21 has taken me as far south as the lowest tip of Louisiana and as far north as Toronto.

This weekend, it took me to the skies.

While shooting video for a story about the interconnectedness of energy and water, I happened to meet Ty Williams, a fellow resident of my neighborhood in Chapel Hill and a pilot from the Wings of Carolina Flying Club. He offered me the chance to get some aerial views of Jordan Lake in Chatham County, N.C.

Shooting video from the backseat of a low-wing plane was pretty difficult, but I managed to come out with some good footage, and I had a blast in the process.

The approximately 30-minute flight took us over Jordan Lake. Photo by Mike Ehrlich

Boats circled below as families enjoyed their Independence Day weekend on Jordan Lake. Photo by Mike Ehrlich

Ty Williams, a Chapel Hill resident and member of Wings of Carolina Flying Club, navigated the plane from the Raleigh Executive Jetport to Jordan Lake and back. Photo by Mike Ehrlich

The plane was a small, low-winged jet, but it had space for four people inside. Photo by Mike Ehrlich

By ELENA RUE

In the course of reporting on a story about energy and employment in Detroit, my colleague Mike and I talked with several people about the resurgence of the city. It's impossible to discuss the future of Detroit without acknowledging the current state of the shrinking city, but those who are committed to seeing Detroit regrow are not leaving its history behind. Rather, the people who live there are re-purposing historic buildings, planting urban gardens in vacant lots and retraining people left behind by the auto industry.

Having never visited Detroit, Mike and I were leery of falling into the same trap that many journalists do: focusing on the graffiti, wandering souls and dilapidated buildings scattered around the city. Detroit City Councilman Ken Cockrel touched upon this issue in an interview.

"Detroit often gets a very bad rap," Cockrel said. "And all too often what happens is that when we see journalists come to the city of Detroit, they tell the same old story. It's like, OK, show me some abandoned buildings, show me a crackhead, show me somebody with no teeth in their mouth, because that's easy. It's a lot harder to find some of these other stories in the city of Detroit. It's a lot harder to find some of these stories about the really cool bar and restaurant in a dilapidated town that is booming every single day of the week. You know, it's a lot harder to find a story about the school where all of the kids are doing really really well. That takes a little bit more work."

With the passion and enthusiasm that many Detroiters have, it is clear that leaders are trying to move the city toward a brighter future. But given the state of the economy and slow job growth, this recovery could take a long time. As journalism students from a different part of the country, we are largely unable to witness this change first hand. However, we were encouraged by one small change we were able to see during our two trips to the city. During our first trip we came across a very large building with boarded up windows. We took one photograph of the building and moved on.

The boarded up exterior of the former American Electrical Heater Company on Borroughs St. in Detroit. Photo by Elena Rue

One week later, we returned to the same spot and were delighted to see that each and every board had been beautifully painted. We later found out that the building, which used to be the American Electrical Heater Company, was now owned by TechTown, a non-profit that supports alternative energy and high technology industries. Eventually, TechTown is planning to remodel and reuse the building, but in the meantime they commissioned artists from the Detroit Mural Factory to depict Detroit's past, present and future on the building's exterior. The eight artists engaged youth ages 6 to 19 in the mural project and are encouraging others to do the same throughout the city.

The same view of the former American Electrical Heater Company after it was painted by local artists and youth. Photo by Elena Rue