The article that caught my attention was the story about the death of Arkansas news anchorwoman, Anne Pressly, who was found beaten to death in her home on October 25th. The two news sources that I chose to review were The Buffalo News and a personal blog on blogspot.com.
I found a Libertarian Republican blog on blogspot.com that posted a comment to this terrible tragedy. The head editor of this blog, Eric Dondero, wrote that he believes Pressly’s small role in Oliver Stone’s movie W. may have played a role in her vicious attack. In the movie, she plays a news reporter who is said to be reminiscent of Anne Coulter. There has been speculation that her pro-Bush comments in the movie may have served as a motive to her death. Dondero then goes on to quote a fellow blogger named Kos in his somewhat hateful message to all “right-wingers” and Sarah Palin stating, “Palin says "Country" first - when it's unforgivably clear that she only means the half of the country that is willing to blow her kisses and forgive all her failures and foibles” (Dondero, 2008). As a small tribute, Dondero embedded a YouTube video that features pictures and text about the life of Pressly.
In comparison, the article in the Buffalo News was far more factual. It mentioned dates, times and personal testimonies along with the story. It mentions the fact that she was “beaten around the head, face and neck” and that she had “been unable to communicate with her family or police while being kept sedated in the intensive care unit” (Gambrell, 2008). It continued to describe how her family was dealing with her death and how the station she worked at, KATV, prepared an on-air tribute. There were also a lot of direct quotes from family and friends who recalled all of the positive aspects of Pressly and her personality.
It is easy to see that personal accounts of news stories are much more emotionally motivated. New reporters/writers are trained to just give the facts and most of the time the information that we receive from traditional media are coming from “gatekeepers” who control what parts of the story we are able to hear or read. People that have worked for news media corporations have all agreed that “news is controlled from within the organization” (Gillmor, 2004). The Internet has become a new means of mass communication and we no longer have to rely “gatekeepers” for our information. We can now rely on people like ourselves to provide us with unbiased news and opinions about topics that matter to us. The Internet is also more visually appealing since “online media allows readers to enjoy browsing their content and offer not only texts but also digital images” (Nozato, 2002). However, this can also be distracting to the eye when you are looking at websites that are bombarded with advertisements. In the end, I think it has more to do with accessibility. People are now able to access that information they want more easily and are becoming more reliant on themselves to seek out justification for their own opinions.
References:
Dondero, E. (2008). Arkansas TV reporter anne pressly dies from her injuries: daily kos blames "right-wingers" and even sarah palin. Blogspot: Libertarian Republican. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com/2008/10/arkansas-tv-reporter-anne-pressly-dies.html
Gambrell, J. (2008). Ark. anchorwoman dies in hospital after beating. Buffalo News.p.C1.
Gillmor, B. (2004). The gates come down. We the Media: chapter 3. p.45. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/ch03.pdf
Nozato, Y. (2002). Credibility of online newspapers. Retrieved on October 26, 2008 from http://www.inma.org/subscribers/papers/2002-nozato.pdf
6 comments:
How sad. Politics this year are beginning to scare me. It makes me glad my vote will be private! There is always a wacko; no matter what side you are on!
I know that's terrible that had to happen to her! I think that you're right that online, it's less biased because you don't need to rely on the "gatekeepers" of information. Regular people like you and me are able to comment and provide insight to news stories, which has made our access to news and information much more diverse.
Very Interesting story, I hadn't heard anything about this until just now and it sounds like a serious tradgedy. I find it almost unfathomable that a person could beat someone to death over a political statement they didn't like. It's terrible. I also like how you distinguished the differences between the blog and the newspaper article, you definitely reminded me to take the amateur blogs with a grain of salt because you never know what kind of hidden agenda the blogger might have.
This is a pretty unbelievable event. It is pretty easy to see the differences between the mediums due to the lack of gatekeeping and the potential freedom that comes from sitting behind a computer. Very sad story.
I agree with how online news differs from print media. When you have a newspaper they use words to paint a picture but online they rely more heavily on pictures, and links to other sources. In the end I think the more traditional newspapers are more appealing to me because they do more often capture the emotion of the story they are covering whereas online its a retelling of the events, especially when it comes to the coverage of celebrity happenings (which are my favorite).
Of course blogs are gonna have a stronger personal attachment. It's your forum to vent about a topic and how you feel about it, not just present the facts.
That's the difference between journalism and blogging.
I hope you caught the in class presentation on journalism. It was pretty fantastic.
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