The coverage of the Iraq War is quickly replaced today by the coverage of stories such as Health Care, Israel, and Afghanistan. Iraq seems to be the topic of yesterday, but many people argue that it should not be that way. Families still have loved ones fighting for a cause that is no longer clear as day and the president continues to circulate troops through the region.
The CNN website has a page dedicated to the Iraq War titled The War in Iraq where they post all of the latest news stories. The top of the page has a “day to day war tracker” that updates major combats on a daily basis. They also have a casualty tracker which I find to be helpful for those families who continue to have loved ones fighting overseas. Other major sections include headline news stories, video, summary of weapons used, the world impact, and even interactive maps where users can take a graphical look at Iraq's military sites, population and geography. The global impact section I find to be interesting because it includes global reaction “for and against”, on the “home front”, and on the “war front”. This gives the reader varying opinions and doesn’t censor the opinions that oppose the war. This website is extremely user friendly and includes a vast amount of the resources necessary to answer many of the public’s underlying questions concerning the war.
Referring back to some of the exercises that we have done in class on the worksheets that ask “What questions do you need answered during War”? Well, many of the questions asked include casualty counts, who are the bad guys, what advances are we making, what technology we are using, as well as other general updates. In my opinion, this website answers all of these questions.
The major limitation of CNN’s website is the lack of update. For example when I clicked on the first ‘headline’ titled “Decapitation Attack Launched”, the article is dated March 20, 2003 (That’s 7 years ago!). The other articles varied from March of the same year to May 2003. Also, the War Tracker archive seems to stop at May 1 because “President Bush declared on May 1 that major combat operations in Iraq have ended". Although the information may be accurate, it is misleading because American troops continue to be circulated throughout the Iraqi region. According to The Washington Post in the article titled “Faces of the Fallen”, they report casualties due to Operation Iraqi Freedom as late as late February 2010 and early March 2010.
Many also argue that CNN does not report many Iraqi atrocities, but instead covers up reports of murder, torture, and planned assassinations via their Baghdad bureau. CNN’s chief news executive, Eason Jordan has even written an opinion piece in the NY Times titled “The News we kept to ourselves”. He claims that he heard and saw “awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff”. For this reason, they made the decision to keep the public in the dark regarding such mayhem.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
CNN coverage of the Financial Crisis
As the United States' number two cable news network and its rank as third among online global news websites, CNN has been a significant presence in the news for the past thirty years. One of the major news events they have covered in the recent years has been the financial crisis. We examined CNN's coverage of this crisis through both their online content and broadcasts.
Overall, we found CNN's coverage of the financial crisis to be generally effective. In regards to their cable broadcasts, they have been consistent in their use of expert analysis. This consistency proves to be both effective and ineffective for the news source. While it serves to point out both sides of the issue, in some cases the actual information tends to become hidden in ensuing arguments. Both their online content and broadcasts have been clear and concise, and it is evident that they are making an effort to make important information accessible to the average viewer.
Eric Smith, Jordan Swift, Danny Rohde, Jessica Wasniewski, Nathalie Kanicki
Financial Crisis
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Overall, we found CNN's coverage of the financial crisis to be generally effective. In regards to their cable broadcasts, they have been consistent in their use of expert analysis. This consistency proves to be both effective and ineffective for the news source. While it serves to point out both sides of the issue, in some cases the actual information tends to become hidden in ensuing arguments. Both their online content and broadcasts have been clear and concise, and it is evident that they are making an effort to make important information accessible to the average viewer.
Eric Smith, Jordan Swift, Danny Rohde, Jessica Wasniewski, Nathalie Kanicki
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Response to Adam Davidson's Reporting on The Financial Crisis
The one quote I heard during this broadcast which struck me the most were the words of President Obama, “there are times when you can focus on redecorating your house and there are times when you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation and today is a day when we need to focus on rebuilding foundation”. This was very striking to me because many individuals were disconnected from the crisis in the beginning and are only now feeling the repercussions. It was evident that in the first few months of the development of the idea that without a bailout we may not have an economy, people were going about their daily lives in a way that downplayed the crisis ahead. All of a sudden, people started losing their homes and were defaulting on their credit loans. It was these repercussions that made individuals realize that there was a massive power present that they did not have control over.
What I liked about Adam Davidson's reporting was the way he explained terminology such as ‘leverage’ and ‘knitting’ when it came to hedge funds. He realized that listeners do not always understand the scenario in the same way as finance analysts do. He also, in very simple way, explained how banks work, what was wrong with them, and ways to fix them. He really targeted the cognitive understanding of the listener.
The big question seemed to be “What is better for the country”? Many believed that the billion dollar bailout would not help the future generation, but instead would relay the problem of debt onto future taxpayers. Many people believe there are other issues to deal with and that the government bailout in not a positive thing. This mentality quickly changed when individuals started becoming more nervous as the crisis began manifesting itself into a more serious reality. Doing something was better than doing nothing. One question I would pose Davidson in this instance is: Why are individuals opinions so easily and quickly swayed in these situations? Is it due to their personal interests at stake?
What could the government have done to prevent this recession? People pointed fingers to better regulation of credit default swaps. But what really went wrong? The main point to take away from broadcasts like this is that the crisis is, indeed, severe and something needs to be done…sooner rather than later.
What I liked about Adam Davidson's reporting was the way he explained terminology such as ‘leverage’ and ‘knitting’ when it came to hedge funds. He realized that listeners do not always understand the scenario in the same way as finance analysts do. He also, in very simple way, explained how banks work, what was wrong with them, and ways to fix them. He really targeted the cognitive understanding of the listener.
The big question seemed to be “What is better for the country”? Many believed that the billion dollar bailout would not help the future generation, but instead would relay the problem of debt onto future taxpayers. Many people believe there are other issues to deal with and that the government bailout in not a positive thing. This mentality quickly changed when individuals started becoming more nervous as the crisis began manifesting itself into a more serious reality. Doing something was better than doing nothing. One question I would pose Davidson in this instance is: Why are individuals opinions so easily and quickly swayed in these situations? Is it due to their personal interests at stake?
What could the government have done to prevent this recession? People pointed fingers to better regulation of credit default swaps. But what really went wrong? The main point to take away from broadcasts like this is that the crisis is, indeed, severe and something needs to be done…sooner rather than later.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Hurricane Katrina Presentation Summary
The goal of this presentation is to show and explain effective and ineffective examples of the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Before looking at the coverage by various news sources of Hurricane Katrina, we first examined how previous Hurricanes were covered. To do this, we looked at a clip of NBC News in July of 2005 of the media coverage of Hurricane Dennis.
While there was some effective reporting done, much of the media coverage was framed in such a way which made the effectiveness of the media coverage of the event mixed. This also sets up the views that many Americans have of Katrina, because the media played a very important role in shaping the minds of their viewers and many news outlets framed the event incorrectly.
Hurricane Katrina Coverage Updated
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While there was some effective reporting done, much of the media coverage was framed in such a way which made the effectiveness of the media coverage of the event mixed. This also sets up the views that many Americans have of Katrina, because the media played a very important role in shaping the minds of their viewers and many news outlets framed the event incorrectly.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Outlets I turn to during times of crisis
During times of crisis, people want information. They turn to news sources to find out what is happening on the minute. During these stressful hectic times, people often place a lot of trust in the media to get information across quickly and accurately. The problem that arises under this kind of pressure is that media outlets become so desperate for quick information that they often do not check their sources which results in false reporting to the public. False reporting can have a very drastic affect on the public by causing mass panic and even chaos in some instances. For this reason it is important to get your news during times of crisis from trustworthy and credible sources.
During times of crisis, especially in this day and age, it is easy to turn directly to the internet since that is the medium that gives us the best sense of control of information; we can search for what we want, when we want. Personally, I find that there is so much contradicting subjective information floating around on the internet, that I prefer to turn to a local news station first to understand what details and facts I should be searching for on the internet. Although I am aware that a local station may frame the news story a certain way as to mirror the values of the community, I will at least be able to answer the how, who, when, and where questions. Next, I may search for similar stories from different news sources on the internet. After I have familiarized myself with the situation and the nature of the situation I will turn on a more global, national newscast such as CNN. Because CNN is national and not local, I feel that I will get a less opinionated and more fact based depiction of the crisis at hand.
The following is an interesting video about bias in the media...in this case during the crisis of the Iraq War.
During times of crisis, especially in this day and age, it is easy to turn directly to the internet since that is the medium that gives us the best sense of control of information; we can search for what we want, when we want. Personally, I find that there is so much contradicting subjective information floating around on the internet, that I prefer to turn to a local news station first to understand what details and facts I should be searching for on the internet. Although I am aware that a local station may frame the news story a certain way as to mirror the values of the community, I will at least be able to answer the how, who, when, and where questions. Next, I may search for similar stories from different news sources on the internet. After I have familiarized myself with the situation and the nature of the situation I will turn on a more global, national newscast such as CNN. Because CNN is national and not local, I feel that I will get a less opinionated and more fact based depiction of the crisis at hand.
The following is an interesting video about bias in the media...in this case during the crisis of the Iraq War.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Looming Tower
I find it very interesting that Wright provided many intimate details in his writing that could have been useful for US intelligence in uncovering the truth behind the plot of 9/11. It was a combination of the lack of information as well as the lack of cooperation between the agencies that resulted in the delay of information to our nation's officials and to the public.
This lack/withholding of information is a common practice for agencies such as the CIA and the FBI for reasons of national security, but I find that it is important to keep the people of the nation well informed with what is happening while, at the same time, avoid giving too much information that may cause mass panic and chaos.
Journalism plays an important role in uncovering the truth in crisis situations like these and I believe that it is the journalists job to tell the public the truth if information is uncovered by these agencies.
If these agencies work together and openly disclose what information they have to each other, it will be possible to coordinate better anti terrorist cooperatives and prevent future attacks from happening on American soil.
The NY Times gives a very insightful opinion on The Looming Tower which you can check out here.
You can also feel free to watch Lawrence Wright speak on the topic of Al Qaeda at Princeton on YouTube.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
About Me
I am a senior and will graduate in May. I decided to take this class because after graduation I hope to work in the media industry...hopefully in the realm of news, advertising/marketing, or public relations. I got interested in the news industry through a recent internship with FOX 2 News where I worked in the marketing and research department working with various graphics and data. I got to watch news casts live from the studio and found it so interesting!
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