Perspective in the Media

Some people believe that the news we see on television or read in the paper or on the internet is fact, and reported without any slant. Of course, this is not true. News organizations are businesses, and the more people who watch their Newscasts or read their newspapers or visit their websites, the more money they make. As a result, their reporting often is designed to appeal to their target audience.

Let's look at an example. Recently, there has been much made in the news about a private security firm called Blackwater, a company working in Iraq to protect Americans and other foreigners working there. Most of the employees are former members of the military, and the special forces in particular, such as the Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, and so on. They have been accused of murdering civilians in Iraq, of killing people without cause.

Naturally, this has caused different reactions from different parts of the world. You can see this in the media, and can often learn a lot about a media organization by the way it reports.

Read this story from Al Jazeera, a news organization based in Qatar in the Middle East. When you finish reading that story, click on this link for the same story from Fox News, an American Media organization. Now, take a look at this link, from the British Broadcasting Corporation, which is perhaps a more "neutral" news source than the above two.

Notice how Fox gives a lot more of the opinion of the Blackwater organization than does Al Jazeera. What other differences do you notice between the two versions of the same story? What types of people do you think read Al Jazeera, and what types of people do you think read Fox News? How do you think this affects the opinions of the people reading it?



Write one to two pages, double-spaced, and tell me what you think about these two news stories, and answer these questions.