Journal #2 - Media Audiences

Justin Riray
Mass Com 100w - MW 1:30pm-2:45pm
Journal #2 - Media Audiences
Pakman7JR@hotmail.com
Word Count: 615

The most ubiquitous news is about President Obama’s budget plans for the United States. It is all over the news on the radio, television, newspaper, and, especially, the internet.
This story was discussed for about four to four and a half minutes on the radio. President Obama, himself was quoted, along with North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and the House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
The radio coverage of the story has a very similar reporter voice over and source sound bite pattern to that of the news coverage. It sounds like the radio station was trying to set up live interview in the listeners minds between the radio news host and the quoted sources. She would warm up a subject and let the sound bite speak for itself, just like news TV broadcasting does.
The package lasted approximately four and a half minutes on Fox News on TV. Congressman Mike Pence was not quoted, but was interviewed, live, by the anchor in a type of split-screen conversation. I wasn’t sure whether to Pence this as a quoted source or a reporter, because he does not work for the news company, yet he explains his answers somewhat like he is a co-anchor for the story.
The main detail I remember is that it seemed more personal than reading about it through the newspaper. Also, they played video clips of President Obama in the background which added to the prominence of the story. The details are always more exciting and memorable if seen on TV, but if you’re reading the paper, you are allowed to read and absorb the information at your own pace and even read it over.
The news paper article in the Mercury was approximately 18 column inches long minus the headlines. Two sources, tax officials and The White House, were quoted in the story. There is only one article that directly relates to Obama’s handling of the budget. There are no photos or graphs for the story in the newspaper.
Though the main headline for the paper is “Obama: Hike taxes on rich,” is in bold font right under the nameplate and a sub-heading that says “His 10-year budget plan seeks health care money,” precedes the article, there is no photo or graph accompanying the article. In fact, the paper placed a picture of a solar-powered car for a story about a man who makes them and is going for a world record.
Usnews.com uploaded their online article on Friday. The most prominent detail I noticed about the online issue is that it actually quoted newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and a couple other American newspapers. The article was 619 words in length.
It is much more like print than broadcast coverage. There is no real personality or human emotion to the article. It seems very subjective; most likely because there is more feeling present if you are watching and listening to a person talk as opposed to reading words off of a computer screen. But, it is not much different from print coverage except the fact that the paragraphs are at least twice as long in the internet article.
Overall, the stories were similar. The main difference is how personal the media felt. TV and radio seem more interactive and demand more of your sensory attention, so by default, they were more intriguing and informative. The newspaper is a nice way to get an entire story in one sitting and having the ability to reread any piece of information you didn’t catch the first time. As far as convenience goes, the internet takes the cake with a plethora of articles on a single subject available at anytime.



Sources of my stories:

radio
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101234106

TV
Fox News Channel

newspaper
http://sanjosemercurynews.ca.newsmemory.com/ee/sanjosemercurynews/default.php?pSetup=sanjosemercurynews

web
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_090227.htm