Examing The Newspaper

Assignment 2

Dear Reader, here is the latest assignment from Media class. The paper I used was the Toronto Star from Tuesday, September 9th, 2008:

1.‘Oasis takes Toronto Knock’ by Precious Yutangco, Staff Reporter. Noel Gallagher, lead singer of the rock band Oasis was bowled over by a crazed fan at Virgin Festival, Sunday, in Toronto. The band was playing “(Whats New) Morning Glory” when fan Daniel Sullivan, from Pickering, came onto the stage and assaulted Gallagher. He then tried to lunge for Liam Gallagher, brother of Noel, before being taken down by security. It is unknown how Sullivan accessed the stage.

2.‘Roger that: Federer signals he’s back’ by Howard Fendrich, Associated Press. Roger Federer won the U.S. Open yesterday, beating his opponent Andy Murray in three straight sets. This victory was something of a stress reliever, as he hadn’t performed well the entire tennis season. The once number one rated tennis player, replaced with rival Rafael Nadal, had earlier struggled with mono in the earlier parts of the year, which may have affected his game.

3.I find that there are not many differences between the articles. Articles always must contain the five W’s: who, what, when, where and why. These articles are no exception. All the articles also contain quotations, and statistics. There is one main difference that I find and that is the location. Most of the staff writers focus on local news, or news within the country. Articles written by the associated press seem to be from foreign countries.

4.Hard News- Hard news is considered the dry articles of the paper. The tone is very serious. A good example of this is the article ‘Greens Slam Debate Exclusion’ by Tonda Maccharles of the Ottawa Bureau. This article is about how the broadcaster stations are going to exclude Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, from the electoral debates. This was decided by four party leaders, and five television executives. May has called this a sexist, anti-democratic act and is filing legal action. This story could easily be biased, but since it is hard news, there is no opinion. It shows only the facts, therefore this is hard news.
Human Interest News- This is the type of news that has emotions. It can be considered inspiring. A good example of this is the article ‘Special Children Very Special Needs’ by Trish Crawford, a Living Reporter. This article is a compilation of stories of mothers who wrote in to answer three questions, about their children with Down syndrome. The questions were; what challenges do you live with, what are your joys and the dreams they have for their children. This story is not robotic in tone, and is more joyous.
Sensationalism- Is news that is all emotion, opinion, sometimes fabricated, and is about celebrities. A good example of this is the article ‘Catch Jennifer Aniston if you can but don’t mention the ‘B’ word’ by Rita Zekas, special to the Star reporter. This article is about celebrities, and where they have been lately. It includes many pictures of events and premieres. This article is completely based on gossip, and is there for pure entertainment.

5.'Burke a Better Bet than Sundin’ by Damian Cox. This article is definitely biased. There are many reasons as to why I think this. For one, this is a Toronto paper, and therefore whenever they talk about the Maple Leafs, it will automatically be swung in a positive way to Toronto. This is a major reason. Another reason is that it is based on pure speculation. It believes that there is a higher chance that an owner for another team will just leave his job, while under contract to come to Toronto. Also, the owner’s team is trying hard to prevent him from leaving. This speculation leads us to believe that the writer is a Toronto fan and therefore biased.

6.Local News Stories – ‘Greens Slam Debate Exclusion’, Ottawa, ‘Licensed to Kill: Suspensions fail to stop Lethal Driver’, Waterloo, ‘Vote Ontario, McGuinty Urges’, Ottawa.
Provincial Stories- ‘ Trudeau Speaks’, Montreal, ‘Dion Vows Tough Gun Law’, Montreal, ‘Flags? Check. Baby? Check. Cheerios? On Tap’, Western Canada
Foreign Stories- ‘Request for Retrial Considered’, Europe, ‘Thailand’s PM cooks up trouble’, Thailand, ‘Stress, Trauma Take Toll on Embattled Israelis’, Israel.

7.The tones of the stories are all very different. The foreign articles all focus on the negative things of the country. This is a form of propaganda in a sense that Canada is the best place in the world. Local news is either hard news, or is of a positive sort. This is so that you feel comfortable in the place you live in. Provincial stories are still somewhat positive, similar to local news. However, when dealing with the west, there seems to be a more negative tone. This may be because the western provinces such as Alberta are growing to compete with Ontario, so Ontario tries to make it seem like the better place. Those are the major differences in stories due to location.

8.‘Burke a Better Bet Than Sundin’, Hockey Fans, ‘Special Children, Very Special Needs’, Mothers, ‘The Scent of a Smaller Waistline’, Health Watchers, ‘Is RIM Raiding Rival’s Staff’, Businessmen, ‘Reinforcements are on the Way’, College Boys.

9.On the front page the topic mostly covered is politics. This is due to the upcoming Canadian elections. Another subject that is covered is crime. These two are probably the best selling topics at the moment. This is because people want to know what’s happening with politicians, so they can make their decisions and crime so that they can find out about the latest atrocities.

10.Injunction- A decision where the court gives an order to do or refrain from doing certain acts.
Ambivalence- The state of having feelings of both positive and negative side or of having thoughts or actions in contradiction with each other.
Girding- to prepare oneself for action.
Herniated-To protrude through an abnormal bodily opening.
Acquiesce-To consent or comply passively or without protest.
Equivocations- To avoid making an explicit statement.
Ideological- Of or concerned with ideas.
Muskeg- A swamp or bog, with ground resembling peat.
Stark-Bare or blunt, grim
Liaise- To communicate and maintain contact with

11.Article: ‘Blake Looks For Redemption After ‘Disaster’ Season’ by Kevin Mcgran, Sports Reporter.
Who:Jason Blake
What: He says that he had a disastrous season last year and is looking to redeem himself this season.
When: Yesterday, while at an informal workout.
Where: Air Canada Centre
Why: Blake had a disastrous season last year due to an unexpected rare form of cancer that he developed early in the season. Although never explicity stated, it may be the cause for his sudden drop in goal production, from 40 to 15.
How: Blake worked out hard this past summer, and he feels the best he has in ten years.
This article appealed to me for many reasons. For one I think Jason Blake is a talented hockey player, although he plays for the Maple Leafs. I think it is a miracle that he even survived his cancer, even taking minimal time off of hockey. I believe that it is true dedication to your team. I believe that he will rebound this year, and that he shouldn’t be criticized for his sub-par performance last year.

12.I like the picture under the heading ‘Hazardous Drive’. It is a picture of a car that is in a 15 meter wide hole. While driving on the road, the car sunk into the ground after the road around it collapsed. This picture serves its purpose well; it captured my attention and made me want to read the article. When I saw this picture I thought to myself, what possibly happened to make that car fall into the ground?

13.I think people write letters to the editors for many reasons. The biggest reason I think that people write opinion pieces in newspapers are so that they can express themselves. People write so that they can have there own opinions told, instead of just reading everybody else’s.
The article I read was putting a spin on the hard news about the TV debate that the Green party leader will not be allowed to participate in. They say the debate issue is full of hypocrisy. They believe that the Greens are legally a party and should be respected. The article was for a reader to view their opinions.

14.Steven Spielberg, being sued over the film Disturbia, due to infringing on the storyline of a similar book. Britney Spears, her big comeback at the MTV Video Music Awards. Jennifer Aniston, at the premiere of her new movie, Management.
Mark Ruffalo, how he learned his role in his new movie The Brothers Bloom, from a 75 year old diamond thief. Doc Walker, all the awards the band won at the country music awards. Mainly all of the articles are of a sensationalism nature. Normally celebrity news is of a negative nature, this is done to make the celebrities more human and sell papers. However, in today’s news, the articles are about award shows, and premieres, with Spielberg’s lawsuit being only the negative feature.

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What a long post. I apologize. Until next time.

Cheers,
SJones