Critical thinking journalism assignment

In this particular story, 16 year old Alex Herbal stabbed and slashed 21 victims with kitchen knives. The Fox News internet article chooses to focus on how the stabbing suspect wasn’t bullied in school, and showed no history of violent behavior (Foxiness. Com, 2014). “ At this point don’t have anybody that, you know, was targeted,” Mercurially Police Chief Thomas Scoffed said. “ I know the issue of bullying has been brought up but his attorney has even said that bullying is not part of this and we have no evidence or reason to believe that it is (Foxiness. Com, 2014). Trying to focus mainly on the lack of bullying and lack of motive seems to be he main focus of this article, not really the attack itself. The suspect profile in this article really plays at the readers thirst for finding out the motive of the attack. Following this same story, the CNN news channel didn’t really seem to mention possible motive at the time of the broadcast. Instead, the broadcast focused on the victims and their injuries. There was only a brief mention of the suspect, and in that time, only his name, age, and legal charges were given (CNN, 2014).

The focus on the victims really makes the story seem like less of a crime story, and more off life story. The adversity of young kids arriving a deadly attack, but fighting for their lives in the hospital. This is still a very important part of the story, and reports the health conditions of the young victims. Lastly, the Chicago Tribune had an article in it’s paper regarding this incident. In this front page piece, the article seems to really focus on the details of the attack itself. “ He did it so stealthily that at first no one knew what was happening,” Freshman Josh Frank said. We heard a girl scream bloody murder. Then two seniors were running down the hall and we followed them out of the school (Chicago Tribune, 2014). ” The vivid details of his quote really seem to put the reader in the school as the incident transpired. Also, the description of the assault weapons itself really stuck out in this article. Unlike the previous media outlets covering this story, we see reported for the first time that the attacker carried two 8-inch steel blades (Chicago Tribune, 2014).

The existing challenges that arise from the different media mediums Of this story, can change the way readers or viewers perceive the given event (Roger Black, 2008). With news websites and blobs in the digital age, journalists have to focus more on the speed in which they post a story. Since breaking the story is what’s important, the challenges of giving the reader all 5 Was (Vivian, 201 3) in a detailed manner are put in jeopardy. Before the internet, journalists had more time to write stories and the details that went into them.

This difference really showed in the comparison between the writing on the websites, and the newspaper. With the time it takes to gather information and create a more vivid article, the journalists miss out on breaking the story. The internet has taken away the ability for newspaper journalists to be the first to report on a story. Twenty-four hour News stations (CNN, Fox News, MASC., etc. ) have the ability to report on breaking news as it happens. This, much like website articles, is a huge advantage when it comes to breaking stories.

The challenges that arise from television compared to that of written articles, is the lack of length at which the stories can run. With multiple news stories breaking, news channels don’t have the luxury of staying on stories long enough to get the maximum amount of detail from what is happening. In addition, not every person always has a television in front of them to tune in. Smart phones have given people the ability to access web articles where ever they are, and in this way more convenient.

This particular story and the three forms of media that reported on it, all had different angles of how they decided to report it Fox News reported on the suspects past, and the lack of motive involved in the incident (Foxiness. Com, 2014). The CNN TV news report mostly focused on the victims involved and their recovery in the hospital (CNN, 2014). Lastly, the Chicago Tribune saw an almost real time depiction of the events through the eyes of witnesses (Chicago Tribune, 2014). Though different in their focuses of reporting, there really shows no media or journalistic bias of opinion.

Each one Of the three different media mediums were reporting on the solid facts Of the story, just not the same part of the story. Melvin Mencken once said that every reporter, “ tries to write an interesting, timely and clear story. The reporter uses quotations, anecdotes, examples and human interest to make the story vivid (Vivian, 2013). ” In each one of these stories, the reporters used everything in that list except for examples. Both the Chicago Tribune and the Foxiness. Mom articles had their direct lead in the first paragraphs, explaining the 5 Was (Who, What, Where, When, Why) of the story.