14 January 2013

Media watch, week 2. John Ejnar and Ragnhild S.


Media watch, week 2
This week has been consisting of some murders and injuries, but also some clearing up etc. It has been a pretty usual week where random and not so random people have been killed or hurt, some on purpose and some not. We are now going to pick out the news we find to be most important, and we will also compare how one of the news is presented at three different web pages.
On Tuesday 08th, World News shared happy news about the high temperature and danger of wildfire in Australia. On Monday, the heat record from 1972 was beaten, with an average temperature of 40.33 degrees Celsius. World News wrote that the temperature is now sinking, and the wildfire fears ease. There is unfortunately still a huge risk of wildfire, because of the lack of rain over the past six months. The link: http://article.wn.com/view/2013/01/08/Wildfires_rage_across_Australia_amid_searing_heat_9/
On Wednesday 10th, the news of a ferry crash in New York is presented by www.news.sky.com. During the morning rush hour, a commuter ferry, which provides daily services from Atlantic Highlands, crashed into the dockside in Lower Manhattan, New York. 57 people got injured, while two were critically hurt. 11 people suffered serious injuries. The news page shows a video from the crash, and includes pictures as well. The link: http://news.sky.com/story/1035638/new-york-ferry-crash-leaves-dozens-injured. You should visit the link, and watch the video to see more of the extent within this case.
BBC presented a French news story on Wednesday 10th, where they told three Kurdish women activists had been killed in Paris. The bodies were discovered near the Kurdish Institute of Paris. They were found with gunshot wounds to the head. All of them were activists and representatives of different organizations. The motive isn’t clear yet. The link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20968375
Another news story on Wednesday 10th is the curbing of gun violence. Vice-President Joe Biden tells Obama is determined to curb gun violence. After the shooting and killing on the primary school in Newtown, Connecticut last month, where Adam Lanza killed 20 schoolchildren, six adults, his own mother and himself, the gun control policy were debated. The White House will now take action to reduce gun violence. The news article also includes an overview on deadly US mass shootings, a video of Biden speaking and a video about guns. The link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20965618
On Saturday 10th, BBC presented a sad story from China. There was a landslide in the Gaopo village early on Friday 9th. The article was updated Sunday 13th, and all the missing persons are now found. At least 46 people, including children, were killed by the landslide. There is a video in the article. The link: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20997520.
Finally, we are going to compare how BBC, CNN and Reuters have chosen to impart the news of the results of the gang-rape in Delhi. A 23-year-old Indian woman was raped by five men on a bus in New Delhi. There is also a sixth man, but he claims he’s less than 18 years old, and can’t be charged like the adults. The woman died from the injuries last week, while the man, who was together with her, only broke his leg. He wasn’t able to defend her. All the articles tell that the five men have been formally charged with rape, murder and kidnapping.
CNN tells that the lawyer of three of the men advices them to plead not guilty. This article consists of a video, and is very easy to read. You get to read the main information, without much embroidering. This article was written on Wednesday 9th. There hasn’t been written other articles with information about the case later, but CNN has been following up with other articles with more ethnical questions etc. The link: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/08/world/asia/india-rape-case/index.html?iref=allsearch.  CNN was the first one with information about the men, and wrote a two paragraph article on Thursday 3rd. The link: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/03/indian-court-charges-gang-rape-suspects/.
BBC adds a bit further information, including many details of the charged ones, who the lawyers are, lot information about the trial itself, and more mentions. This article was written Tuesday 10th. Sunday 13th, the article was updated. There wasn’t a video in the first version, but in the second version. The updated version has even more information. The link: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20968210. Later on Sunday 13th, there was also written about a new gang-rape in India, where six people were arrested. The link: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21003279.
Reuter shows a great and supplementary overview, and they include a lot of information. They include much about the trial, the lawyers and the woman herself, they explain everything pretty simple and everything is relevant. This is a great summary about the case, and you get to read all the basic information. It was written Wednesday 9th. The article is pretty similar to BBC’s article, but the web site has a lot of other articles about the case as well, and it gets pretty messy and unarranged. The link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/09/us-india-rape-plea-idUSBRE90807L20130109.
BBC is owned by the government, and is focusing even more on elaborating and on the details, while for example CNN, which is a private company, rather focus on sharing only the most important information, and is writing the shorter version, more like a summery. BBC also updates the articles, and cares even more for the people to be completely updated.
BBC is financed by licenses, and doesn’t earn money on advertising etc. That’s a large reason why they have the ability to dig more into the cases, and people do also expect more from something they pay for. Private companies, like CNN, need large and interesting headlines to earn money, and focuses more on that. CNN focuses a lot on showing videos compared to the other companies, and gives us just the most basic information. BBC also shows some videos, but those are mostly the same as those on the news broadcasts.
Reuters is, just like CNN, a private company, but is very widespread, and writes longer and more elaborated articles than CNN does. This is an international news bureau, while CNN is American and BBC is British. Because of this, the company has more extent and resources, and has therefore more ability and to dig more, like BBC does.

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