Two sites, same article

The Washington Post and the Washington Times are typically the left leaning and right leaning newspapers of the DC area. I thought it'd be interesting to see how each reported the heated political debate over the repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.

For starters the online versions of the newspapers have nearly identical headlines and both chose Lady Gaga as the article's picture. The Washington Post used "Judge halts 'Don't ask don't tell' policy" and uses this interesting picture of Lady Gaga.

While the Washington Times went with "Judge orders stop to 'don't ask, don't tell policy'" which is essentially a paraphrasing of what the Post said. The Times used a picture of Gaga that portrayed her little more normally, with this

In the pictures, the Times has Gaga looking an honest, calm politician swearing to the tell the whole truth and the Post has her looking like a heated, angry protestor who will stop at nothing until this gets repealed. Each chose her as the symbolic mascot of the "Don't ask, don't tell" debate because she is the most recognizable person that has spoke out against it. The newspapers just go about showing her in different ways.

The lead ins for both stories include the main details. One addresses the Obama administration's injuction rejection and the other lists how long the ban on openly gay troops has been. From this point on it is mostly the same information and quotes just in a slightly different order based off of what the journalist thought was most important.

Despite the Post being considered a "Liberal leaning" newspaper and the Times being the "Conservative sided" paper I could not find any bias in either of the stories which surprised me.

However if you looked close enough you could find some bias. The Post's story includes multiple pictures of the Lady Gaga speech and has an interactive gallery to look through, the Times has one picture.

The Post's article is considerabley longer compared to the Times' story with the Post an entire two pages compared to the Times page and a quarter story.

The bias may be that the Times would not like to cover this story as much as the Post because on a Website there is unlimited space to provide pictures and articles but the Times chooses not to include them.

Two other biases outside the article were on the Times site. They included a link to notorious right leaning Fox News who they are labled as "partners." There is also a poll question after the article asking about the "Tea Party" and Republicans.

Other than those noticable differences in length, variety of pictures, and outside influences, the presentations of the stories are very similiar and as a reader I would have not gotten anything different out of one article that I didn't get from reading the other. Both stories serve their purpose and inform me on a current political event.

The links to the Post is here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/12/AR2010101206145_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010101407183

The Times here http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/12/judge-orders-stop-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy/?page=1

War of the Worlds- Personal Reaction

The year is 1938, Europe is tense with war looming in the future. Man is still 30 years away from walking on the moon and the telephone is not yet a common household appliance. Radio serves as the one medium that can provide people with up to the minute information on everything going on in the world. So if you were ask to me, “How would have you reacted from the ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast?” I would answer “Full of manic panic.”

First off, I live in New Jersey about 50 miles away from New York City and a drivable distance – even in those days – from Grovers Mill. To say this story hit close to home, is a pun intended.

Many of those listeners, who did misinterpret the story as an alien invasion, missed the disclaimer in the beginning stating it was just a show. If I had done the same, I would have had little doubt what I was hearing was true for a variety of reasons: In those days radio listeners were not accustomed to hearing “We interrupt this program…” and then receiving a fake news report. People believed what they were listening to was true, so I believe I would have done the same.

The acting, sound effects, and overall production are all great quality. Even by today’s standards, the on-air reporting was totally believable, which is another reason why I would have believed the story to be valid. To hear masses of people yelling, police officials issuing Marshall Law, and news that people are dying by the hundreds is news that you cannot ignore.

By the point of the police’s Marshall Law in Mercer County I would have left my home and went to my neighbor’s house to discuss what was unfolding – which probably would have caused me to miss one of the announcements that this was all just an acted out story.

From a person living in the future’s perspective, the lack of communication would have been frustrating. Going to my neighbor’s house or calling the police station is about all I could do to verify if what was happening was real.

The reason’s I would have been full of manic panic is because it was not out of the question for another country, like Germany, to invade, especially in the New Jersey region. The world had just experienced World War I and was about to go into a second world war. This was a generation of people used to invasions and violence from other lands. It was not out of the realms of possibilities that this wasn’t an alien attack, but rather a declaration of war by a foreign country.

Once the eyewitnesses came forward and declared it was “invaders from Mars” I would have been even more terrified. This was in a time when we were still decades away from going into space and exploring the final frontier. We didn’t know that much about space and we didn’t know if any kind of life was in our solar system. Our capabilities as a global society to fight off these creatures would have been futile.

That point would only be backed up further when the reports of the machines tearing through the cities came in. A feeling of helplessness would have come over me.
It would not have taken long for me to act after listening to this report. I am an overly cautious person so my first instinct would have been to evacuate my family to the safest spot I could think of. I probably would have rounded up my family, packed up all the necessary belongings and started heading north -- away from the major cities like New York and Philadelphia. I would not have known where I was going, hysteria probably would have taken over my body. However, I would have left the car radio on so I could keep track of where these machines were moving. Because of that by some point, in the all the mania, I probably would’ve realized via the end of the show, another radio station, or my neighbors that it was all a planned hoax. This news probably would’ve made me feel an overwhelming amount of relief, anger, and embarrassment.

The Orson Welles radio broadcast would have not only tricked me but it would have sent me into a frightened panic of mania just like it did for many other listeners, tuning in on that infamous night.

Left Side Vs. Right Side of Brain

After reading what a left sided and right sided mind was, there was little doubt what I am. Logical, reality-based thinking makes me a left sided based mind. The way I solve problems is by anaylzing, taking some time to deliberate, and using the most reasonable answer. I find it easier to be organized by making lists of things I need to do so I can check them off as I complete them. My personality is predominately left sided. I crave schedules and organization so I can finish all of my tasks on time. While many of my traits lean to the left I also have right sided qualities. Like right sides, I need to see and feel certain problems, just hearing about it does not help. I am also very creative. I will think outside the box and come up with solutions that others did not think of. I think it is better to be balanced than too much left or right. The advantages to being balanced mean you have both perspectives and are more prepared to handle any problem that life throws at you.

5 Picture Story

Strategies for a Critical Analysis

I am little confused about what you would like when you mean themes for the final project but I have narrowed it down to three choices:

Sports- I am passionate about sports so this topic would be one that interests me. Ways of presenting could be:
1. Dressing up and simulating the sport I am talking about, like baseball or boxing. I would bring in a ball and uniform or boxing gloves etc. and demonstrate how the sport is played.
2. Bringing equipment for the class in to participate: If I chose basketball I could bring in jerseys, basketballs and bring them into the gym to actually play a pick-up game.
3. Bring in a professional or current school athlete and have them give a little background on the sport they play and then show an interesting video of the sport.

RCTV- I recently joined the Ramapo College TV club and may have my own show. If I do end up with a show it would make for an interesting final project:
1. I could film behind the scenes footage of what really goes on and present it to the class.
2. I could show them my show and let them critique/brainstorm their own ideas for shows.
3. I could let them view the show and have every classmate fill out private critiques and then I could read them aloud to the class, in a funny self-depricating way.

My Career- I want to be a sports journalist or a sports broadcaster as a career. Ideas to present that could be:
1. Have a random video of a sports game played behind me with the sound turned off and I could call the game play-by-play like real announcers do.
2. I could tell the class a few anecdotes of why I want to be a broadcaster and then explain who my role models were growing up and who I look up to in this profession.
3. I could simulate what a broadcaster does, then bring a classmate up to the front to teach them and then have them broadcaster a mock game and see how well they do.

I apologize, professor, if I did the assignment wrong, I was a little confused on what you were looking for.

Test

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