The way different news media treats the same event can be radically different. First we are going to take a look at a local news broadcast's handling of a recent Sea World employee's death.
This event made a national media splash, after a killer whale grabbed an employee (a whale trainer) and dragged her under the water until she drowned.
Note the TV news caster's emotional tone in his voice, his dramatic body language, and the way he repeatedly tells us that "children witnessed this!" The video is here.
That's one huge difference between TV and the Net: Time. The TV news clip has just seconds to grab our attention and deliver to us the news. But the Internet media consumer has more time to slow down, read, click, listen, etc.
So if you want the news basics in a hurry, TV news works. If you want more in-depth coverage, the Net may be the way to go - as we are about to see.
Next we are contrasting the TV news treatment with a story found on NPR's website. NPR's analysis is much more thorough, and also includes a video clip - which is comparatively more calm and rational in its tone and approach. (NPR's clip found here).
In addition to the video clip the NPR story offers significant background material, including a statement from the Humane Society, and a report from the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.
As more information became known about this event, we can see the NPR report was updated: Starting at the bottom of the page and scrolling to the top, the story was updated four times as more information came in.
Finally, an interesting aspect of online news media is the additional perspective that comment sections can offer to stories. Oftentimes, the comment section sheds new light on a story, or brings out diverse ethical, legal and political issues that enrich a story's event coverage.
Of course comments can sometimes be just plain ridiculous, but most commenters appear serious in these social forums. The NPR story is found here.
So ... Take out your Venn Diagram worksheets (pg 34) and fill in the news event box.
Then fill in the styles, techniques, methods, layout, structure, etc. that the TV and the Internet news stories use to tell this killer whale tale. The middle circle is where they overlap - similarities the two stories share.
One similarity is the topic itself. One difference is TV uses emotion. Another difference - Internet stories have comment sections.
Cheat Sheet: (Don't read this)
What's the big deal about a thesis statement anyway: It's just your main point.
Same for summary/last paragraph: Just restate your main point, but try to do it in a slightly different way, or add a new fact or point.
Our main point seems to be shaping up along the lines of:
"Different types of media can cover the same event in different ways. TV does X. The Internet offers readers Y." Yeah, it's that simple.
Our story outline follows block format we already know:
- Intro
- TV
- Internet
- Summary
