Media Comparative Essay - comparing two news articles
by
berkay560 (student)
In status quo, media could play as a great manipulation tool towards public opinion. It all depends on the presentation of a particular event. An author of a newspaper could use the language in such a way coupled with a subtle fragmentation that the article could have a biased influence upon its readers. The way the language is used could dramatize and exaggerate an event while the fragmentation provides supportive plot for the bias to take place. Meanwhile an objective article leaves the interpretation of the said events to the reader after presenting an unbiased presentation of facts. The text 3.2 and the text 3.3 yield a great example to distinguish between a biased and a neutral article. While the article named “Inside Bitama’s camp” (text 3.1) shapes the reality as much as possible with the use of several deliberate informational bias strategies to have an influence over its audience, the text 3.2 uses quotations, politically correct language and avoid vague expressions (caused by the author himself) to leave the interpretation part to the readers, staying neutral to the given incident. Ultimately the only similarity both articles share is that they are mainly written around specific events revolving around a single individual instead of a one big event including several individuals.
The purpose of two texts is very different. Unlike text 3.1, text 3.2 does not try to have any influence on the reader. To avoid having any influence on the reader the author of text 3.2 uses several direct quotations and euphemism are used. In addition, vague and emotive language were evaded by the author. The only vague or emotive languages in the text 3.2 is seen on the quotations, like “We’re baffled at this point … the mystery deepens” as a source said. Mystery deepens is a vague language because it does not specify the meaning or “deepening” or the outcomes of it, but since this kind of vague language was used by a source and not by the author in presenting the scene to the readers it is not considered to be biased, instead it is considered to be objective. Meanwhile, the author of “Inside Bitama’s camp” uses expressions like “… about 100 posters” to belittle Paddy Bitama as much as possible. The phrase “… about 100 posters” makes it look like Paddy Bitama was very careless in his campaign that he provided small and insignificant amounts of posters. Emotion language in text 3.1, such as “... got off the list of presidential candidates in a dust of light moments”, conveys subtle yet offensive language. The “dust of light moments” makes it sound like the Paddy Bitama being a candidate was very random and unwanted by the society. The subtlety in this expression, since it is not very explicit in language, helps the author to include offensive content without looking “offensive” towards Paddy.
