Media Study Assignment - Essay Example

Primary journalistic beats and comparison with other newspapers The stories covered in the newspaper are mostly issue-centric related to public cause and the role of the politicians in improving the current scenario like “Occupy Ann-Arbor”, “Ann-Arbor City Council Candidates Discuss Public Safety”. It also covered news on some exclusive events and developments in the university campus like “Hundreds of E-mails Spam Students on U List serve”. The theme of the newspaper seems to have ample material to grab the interest of the readers.

In comparison, another student newspaper THE DAILY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON mainly focused on stories related to the university campus like “Campus Watch: Guns on College Campuses…”, “A Catwalk to Education”. The difference between the two is in their unique style of presentation and layout. THE MICHIGAN DAILY seems to have two segments of stories. The ones related to Ann-Arbor community are thematic as they are issue based and the others about the campus are episodic as they are event based.

But the other daily covers stories that primarily revolve around information about the university activities. Therefore the stories are mainly episodic as each one records a specific action. In way of presentation THE MICHIGAN DAILY seems to hold a neutral stand and opts for a non-committal role whereas THE DAILY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON seems to be more direct in its approach and tone. The news story and the four information biases The story that I have chosen for my analysis is “Occupy Ann-Arbor” from THE MICHIGAN DAILY.

The article is the follow-up of the article “Occupy Wall Street” by the same writer and discusses about the protest movement undertaken by the common people of Ann-Arbor against the politicians for protecting the rights of the common people. The reason for selecting this particular beat is that it reflects the four information biases mentioned by Lance Bennett. The article starts with the lines “In the middle of Occupy Ann Arbor’s assembly on the Diag last night, University alum Matt Bussey asked the crowd of about 200 students and Ann Arbor residents to take out their cell phones and call U.S. Rep.

John Dingell (D–Mich.).” The effect is clearly one of dramatization. The story is captured right in the middle of an extremely provoking action. Throughout the article the focus has been on maintaining the high drama quotient by the use of action words, direct quotations and criticizing remark. But drama does not seem complete without the involvement of some personality and a collision with authority. This explains the attempt to personalize the story by referring to characters and at same time making an implication towards authority-disorder.

In this article people like Whitney Miller and Luciana Sabgash who were involved with the movement are directly quoted. Sabgash’s disappointment with the system is conveyed in her words “I voted for none of this. I voted for change and saw all the same.” Most of the readers would share the same feeling and immediately connect with the story. The disgruntled attitude of the common people towards the political rulers is the bottom line of the article. The authority-disorder bias underpins the entire argument.

Though the