Comparing Media

In comparing media, I read a story about Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum’s Michigan state primary election. I used a newspaper article from the Contra Costa Times, an excerpt from National Public Radio, and the same story posted on the L.A. Times website.

The story was not a feature, so in general, it was short in all three pieces of news media.

The newspaper article was difficult to find as it was blocked by the front-page cover stories about the 2012 Academy Awards. No imagery was used to grab reader’s attention. The article from the Contra Costa Times, touched the least on the actual subject at hand. It talked more about the scandal of rivalry between the two candidates. Instead of talking about the close points in the polls, it talked about Santorum making verbal accusations against Romney to his home state of Michigan.

The NPR excerpt was the best with source quotes. There weren’t so many sources that it was hard to follow along with the story. Instead, the sources given accentuated the story. The reporter was quoted as well as multiple polls about the Affordable Care Act and President Obama’s chances of reelection.

The L.A. Times story was the longest and most informative. It wasn’t as easy to grasp as the story by NPR or the Contra Costa Times, but it was the best version of the news story. It gave the most detail about the race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and gave the best background information as well.

I haven’t been following the details behind the presidential primaries so, until I read the L.A. Times, I didn’t feel like the stories were as complete as the online article. It read like the perfect medium between print and broadcast coverage. It was like a print story in the fact that there was a lot more detail, statistics, poll coverage, and background information than you would see in a broadcast story. However, it was written in a way that, when read, sounds more like a broadcast piece. It’s easy to follow, grasping, and informative.

Although many news companies write about the same thing, this exercise teaches us that it’s important to get information from different sources. Each news organization and reporter portrays stories differently. If you gather news information from more than one outlet, you’ll have a better understanding of the actual stories at hand.