Short Writing Assignment #3

The first article I chose was from FOX news and it was called “Bush Assures Iraq President U.S. Not Mulling Pullout” the website address is http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,221298,00.html. The first blog I selected was the Huffington Post. I looked at the article “Iraq is the beginning. Iran is the end.” The web address for it is http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-thill/iraq-is-the-beginning-ir_b_32020.html. Then the second blog I used was Eschaton and the article “War.” The address for it is http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_10_15_atrios_archive.html.
When looking at the two types of media you notice that there is a slight difference between what types of political stories that are covered. The mainstream media source tries to cover a broad range of stories. They try to include lots of different things so that more people are satisfied with the coverage. The include sports, health, business, politics, world, and U.S. news. There is an article that covers just about anything you might be interested in. The political blogs don’t necessarily cover lots of different areas. It is basically just what they feel like talking about. So whatever is their favorite area of news is what is mostly covered on their blog. A lot of times the blogs also talk about some of the most debated issues. The mainstream media and the blogs may have some of the same stories, but that is because the mainstream source covers just about everything.
When looking at the mainstream media source you can tell that it is more objective than the blogs. The Fox news article includes facts and quotes from interviews that have been researched and carefully reported. The mainstream media tries not to print anything that would be false or that would misrepresent what was really going on. They try to inform the public the best they can of the truth and facts of the events they cover. The blogs contain more biases because it is basically someone’s opinion about what is going on. The blogger may have researched the topic and know some of the facts, but they are still just sharing their opinion. The blogger will be one sided most of the time, while mainstream media tries to show the story from all points of view.
The three articles that I looked at play certain roles in our society. The FOXnews article first of all plays the role of the “common carrier.” The article is linking us to the government by telling us what is going on with President Bush and the war in Iraq. It is keeping us updated on what is going on in the government. It also is kind of playing the role of “watchdog” because it is keeping us aware of what our President is doing. If we never knew anything about our President and the actions he is taking then we would never be able to see if he is doing his job. We have a right to know what is going on with our President and how he is running the country. The first blog from the Huffington post also serves as a “common carrier” informing us about Iraq and why they think we are really there. It also serves as a “watchdog” by telling us that we may not be getting the truth about why we went to Iraq. The second blog is a “common carrier” as well that lets us know people’s opinions about the war and that the support is starting to dwindle.