Newspapers pride themselves on being objective and fair. They try to tell stories with differing view points, not just slant it one way or the next. However, to write a truly factual unbiased story would be like writing a text book... incredibly boring. Therefore each story has small biases to catch the interests of an audience.
During the 2010 Olympics Canada won its first gold on home soil in the men's moguls. Second place went to Australia, and third to the USA. Three different nations reported this event with three views. In Canadian papers such as the Vancouver Sun, the focus went to Alex Bilodeau, the national hero who claimed the first gold for Canada. Bilodeau is praised in all the articles for 'making history'. A few articles made note of the stoic response to winning silver by the Canadian born athlete Dale Begg-Smith who competed for Australia. Usually he was painted in a more negative light. Smaller mention is given to the American bronze medalist.
In an Australian paper called The Age, the focus went Dale Begg-Smith. However, it was not proclamations of heroism accompanying his name. Instead he was usually the object of criticism for his lack of emotion. To Australians the Canadian born athlete seemed to show little pride in the nation he was competing for. The bias in these papers was given to the coverage of their own athlete, even if it wasn't to his praises.
Lastly American papers such as The New York Times gave note to Canada winning its first gold on home soil. They were the most objective as well when it came to discussing Dale Begg-Smith. With no reason to over analyze his emotionless finish, the Times were more sympathetic than critical to the the silver medalist. However, their articles all made sure to give sufficient length to detailing the hard work of the American bronze medalist, Bryon Wilson.
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This article is well written, and has good content. The only thing I noticed was that the first paragraph has a ... in place of a comma. I realize that that is more of a style choise, but it is not proper grammer.
ReplyDeleteI was a very good read though. Good Job Shannon.
Paragraph one: "text book" should be written as one word: "textbook."
ReplyDeleteInstead of having three periods lead up to the statement "incredibly boring," you could use a colon. The way you have it also effective, I just thought I would add another suggestion!
Paragraph 3: The sentence, "In an Australian paper called The Age, the focus went Dale Begg-Smith" is missing the word "to." It should read as, "In an Australian paper called The Age, the focus went to Dale Begg-Simth."
The sentence, "To Australians the Canadian born athlete seemed to show little pride in the nation he was competing for" is missing a comma after "Australians" and before "the." "To Australians" sounds like a transitional phrase, so it should be followed by a comma.
Other than the few minor mistakes listed above, this was a very insightful blog post. Nicely done!
"However, to write a truly factual unbiased story would be like writing a text book... incredibly boring. Therefore each story has small biases to catch the interests of an audience."
ReplyDeleteYou make a very compelling argument. Actually, I think you're right on the money. No one (with a somewhat exciting life) would spend their mornings drinking coffee and reading a Social Studies 12 textbook!