Five Articles

I analyzed five different articles from various publications. The articles focused on different special interest groups I decided whether the following articles portrayed the groups fairly.

The first article I analyzed was "Coal Grove woman gets three years in prison." The story was published in The Herald-Dispatch Jan. 13, 2011. I did not think the article portrayed the woman fairly or dealt with the information appropriately. The article was actually about three different individuals, two men and one woman, being incarcerated for different crimes. The woman had the most negligible of the crimes. She was sentenced for receiving stole property. The men were sentenced for trafficking and failure to comply with sex offender registration.

The second article I examined was "Ex-chair of civil rights group indicted in Ohio." It was published in The Herald-Dispatch  Jan. 12, 2011. The story was about a man from Atlanta being charged with 51 charges of grand theft, forgery, etc. The ex-chair was a black man and the article made no mention of it. The journalist did not use the man's race to stereotype his crimes or involvement with a civil rights group. I think the journalist portrayed the man fairly.

The third article I examined was "Cuban Exile Lied to U.S., Prosecutor Tells Texas Jury." It was published in The New York Times Jan. 12, 2011. The journalist was successful in getting both sides of the story. Luisa Posada Carilles, the Cuban exile, was defended by his lawyer Arturo V. Hernandez in the article. The journalist did mention that most of the jury was Hispanic which I think gave the reader doubt that Carilles was innocent. However, the journalist is responsible for reporting observations.

The fourth article I examined was "Authorities: Woman carried 91 heroin pellets in body." The article was on CNN's website. The Nigerian woman, Sharifat Lamida, swallowed 2 1/2 pounds of heroin ans was caught during a random inspection. Why was she in particular picked out of a security line? The journalist mentioned that her final destination was Detroit. The journalist portrayed the woman fairly; she was smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S. and was caught. Her final destination was Detroit, a city that has been characterized by the amount of illegal drug activity and violence.

The final article I read was also a CNN story, "Rescued Chilean miner goes to Graceland." This is a great, relevant human interest story. It is about a Chilean minor who was trapped for 69 days with his fellow miners. While trapped, he sang many Elvis Costello songs with his fellow miners. The subject of the story was somewhat insulted by the journalists translation of his comments. The journalist included every awkward and unnecessary pause that occurs during a translation. The story was somewhat "Gee Whiz." I would've cleaned up the man's quotes. I would not have changed anythin he said, but I would have eliminated the "ums" and "uhs."