Meredith Pollack
Libya Op Ed
In a country such as the United States where everyone has a different point of view on all things political, it is often easy for us to find unity in a common enemy. Currently, that enemy happens to be President Barrack Obama’s call for military action against Libya.
Newsmax.com focused their home page story on Obama’s inexperience with this kind of foreign policy move. This story focuses strongly on Obama’s weaknesses and the flaws of the plan for Libya. It offers little hope that this will be a success, and the whole story appears to pit the readers against Obama’s plan for Libya. Also, an Op Ed piece from the same news source goes into great detail about Obama receiving “he lowest approval rating of any American military operation in almost three decades.” The poll that was taken did investigate a lot of other pressing issues that delve back into our countries history of doing these types of invasions. As well as getting an approval rating for this military action, they took polls for their approval of the “invention of American troops in Haiti in September 1994, “ and “ the invasion of Grenada in October 1983.
”A New York Times blog by Mark Landler held the clear headline, “Obama Plans Libya Speech on Monday” The piece was under 200 words, quick and to the point. It seemingly was to appeal to the internet generation, who want their information quickly or they will stray from the story. He summed up that Obama would be holding a speech on Monday night that all are eagerly awaiting, due to public curiosity over what exactly is happening here. Landler alludes to Obama being flustered under this pressure, with a striking graph,
“he campaign has been dogged by friction over who should command the operation, with the United States handing off its lead role to NATO, and by uncertainty over its ultimate goal. Mr. Obama tried to answer some of these questions in a conference call Friday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers.”
An angle that most opinion pieces in the news have taken is to focus on the tension of any situation. Here it happens to be the peoples unrest about a decision they feel they cannot control. The unrest in the middle east is clearly running most news sources and creating a big interest for the citizens that read the news.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
libya reading journal
Meredith Pollack
Libya Reading Journal
There have been many different news sources covering the events in Libya, all of which acknowledge the gravity of the situation and the necessity for extreme coverage. When searching the word “Libya” on the Huffington Post website, you will be directed to a page title Libya. There is a subtitle that reads “Some news is so big it needs its own page.” The entire page is filed with small pictures that quickly depict the story. You are able to click on the quick read option which includes a hard news lede and one other short paragraph. There is an option to read the entire post as well. But this method is clearly set up inspired by the ADD generation. Readers don’t have time sometimes to read an entire article or watch an entire news story, but they can appreciate a simple page that gives them their information quickly and precisely.
The images on the Huffington Post page for Libya are quite riveting and really draw in the reader to want to hear more from such a striking photograph. The most popular story on the Libya page is headlined “Libya Rebels Rout Gaddafi Forces In Fierce Battle For Oil Port.” This article focuses tightly on the port oil battle between Gadahfi and rebel forces on Wednesday. The article was short on quotes except for a few snippets of previous Gadahfi quotes. It was however brief, informative and to the point.
It appears that with the rush of political news in the Middle East and after Egypt, readers are not as drawn to the dramas of the protesters themselves. And although death tolls are rising in Libya due to violent protest, the news seems to be focusing more on the causes and the possible aftermaths because that is what really matters to their demographic.
On CNN.com they are honing in on the politics of the conflict as well. In a popular article about Libya still maintaining some allies, journalist Thair Shaikh was able to get some great quotes from a research fellow in the Middle East. "There is a natural alignment between all regimes which are into power maximization, that is, regimes trying to accumulate as much power as they can for themselves," says Barak Seener, a Middle East research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.Considering the subject of the story which goes in depth on why Libya’s allies are refusing to talk about what is happening, the writer was unlikely to get any quotes from world leaders such as Hugo Chavez on the matter. He was however able to get some really useful information from an expert, and without it he wouldn’t have had a story at all.
News in Libya made front page on the New York Times today and they took an angle different from many other stories. Their headline was “Battle in Libya for Strategic Town Kills at Least 13”. Unlike other news sources, the New York Times is still pulling in readers to the sympathetic side of the protesters. Instead of discussing the hard politics of the battle such as strategy like Huffington Post did, they had quotes from eye witnesses and discussed the intimate moments of the attack on peaceful protesters.
Libya Reading Journal
There have been many different news sources covering the events in Libya, all of which acknowledge the gravity of the situation and the necessity for extreme coverage. When searching the word “Libya” on the Huffington Post website, you will be directed to a page title Libya. There is a subtitle that reads “Some news is so big it needs its own page.” The entire page is filed with small pictures that quickly depict the story. You are able to click on the quick read option which includes a hard news lede and one other short paragraph. There is an option to read the entire post as well. But this method is clearly set up inspired by the ADD generation. Readers don’t have time sometimes to read an entire article or watch an entire news story, but they can appreciate a simple page that gives them their information quickly and precisely.
The images on the Huffington Post page for Libya are quite riveting and really draw in the reader to want to hear more from such a striking photograph. The most popular story on the Libya page is headlined “Libya Rebels Rout Gaddafi Forces In Fierce Battle For Oil Port.” This article focuses tightly on the port oil battle between Gadahfi and rebel forces on Wednesday. The article was short on quotes except for a few snippets of previous Gadahfi quotes. It was however brief, informative and to the point.
It appears that with the rush of political news in the Middle East and after Egypt, readers are not as drawn to the dramas of the protesters themselves. And although death tolls are rising in Libya due to violent protest, the news seems to be focusing more on the causes and the possible aftermaths because that is what really matters to their demographic.
On CNN.com they are honing in on the politics of the conflict as well. In a popular article about Libya still maintaining some allies, journalist Thair Shaikh was able to get some great quotes from a research fellow in the Middle East. "There is a natural alignment between all regimes which are into power maximization, that is, regimes trying to accumulate as much power as they can for themselves," says Barak Seener, a Middle East research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.Considering the subject of the story which goes in depth on why Libya’s allies are refusing to talk about what is happening, the writer was unlikely to get any quotes from world leaders such as Hugo Chavez on the matter. He was however able to get some really useful information from an expert, and without it he wouldn’t have had a story at all.
News in Libya made front page on the New York Times today and they took an angle different from many other stories. Their headline was “Battle in Libya for Strategic Town Kills at Least 13”. Unlike other news sources, the New York Times is still pulling in readers to the sympathetic side of the protesters. Instead of discussing the hard politics of the battle such as strategy like Huffington Post did, they had quotes from eye witnesses and discussed the intimate moments of the attack on peaceful protesters.
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