Journalism

The article that I chose was on the U.S. role in Iraq, which has been claimed to be unlawful by the King of Saudi Arabia. I looked over the article from two different sources, one of which was The New York Times (paper edition) and CNN’s report posted on CNN’s website. After reading the two of them thoroughly I noticed a significant difference in the way that they were written. In the paper edition of The New York Times I found that the author had gone into much more detail then the other version. In the CNN online version the information that was given seemed very brief. They gave you bits of the story and a quote to either open or close their statement. “Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online, but the amount they use of the new medium varies. Some news organizations use the Web exclusively or as a secondary outlet for their content.” (Wikipedia) I would have to completely agree with this statement made by Wikipedia. Online news, not matter how in-depth, seems to be secondary to print news, the stories constructed for the Internet seem to be geared towards a preview more then the story. Though I feel this may change in the near future, I believe that there will always be some form of paper news and I am sure that newspaper companies would prefer that. Most online news from newspaper companies only provide an abstract online unless you subscribe and I think it is just more popular at this point to read a physical paper rather then electronically. Also there are different laws governing over what can be published over the Internet, where as in paper prints the author is protected under the 1st Amendment. As stated in Wikipedia, “unlike a newspaper, they are much more liable for such things as libel.” Although laws are changing and certain states and countries are making accommodations to protect what can be published, however under a certain pretext. The Internet has much taming that needs to be down however I feel that it is just a matter of time.

Fattah, Hassan M. "U.S. Iraq Role is Called Illegal by Saudi King." The New York Times 29 Mar. 2007, National ed., sec. A: 1+.

"Online Journalism." Wikipedia. 30 Mar. 2007 .

"Saudi's on U.S. in Iraq: 'Illegitimate Foreign Occupation'" CNN. 29 Mar. 2007. 29 Mar. 2007 .