MEDIA AND POLITICS-POL 165V

MEDIA AND NEWS COVERAGE

I got interest in comparing news coverage from Al-Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com ) and CNN (http://www.cnn.com ), two prominent global news networks selected for their distinct editorial focus. As a news organization that prides itself on the up-to-date presentation of today’s battlefields and humanitarian problems, I discovered that Al-Jazeera’s perspective often revolves around the effects of regional war, crime and diplomacy. [1] On the other hand, CNN is recognized for its emphasis on political coverage, international affairs particularly relating to U.S. and global politics. [2] I selected this comparison to enable me understand the disparities in editorial purpose and how they responded to similar events, especially instances of conflict and political news. By analyzing these two sources, I would identify how each network’s focus influences its reporting, perhaps reflecting the audiences it appeals to. To identify the article order on the news source’s main page, I was picking top right corner of the webpage in descending order until I reach to the eighth article. I also picked some articles from left to right side depending on the latest news posted.

Audience Demographics and Differences

Both Al-Jazeera and CNN are international news networks that cater to unique audiences with differing demographic profiles, which influence their editorial and coverage choices. Al-Jazeera’s target audience is people of the world, with a specific focus on the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). It still targets a younger crowd, an often more global one. It logically comprises those highly interested in the affairs of the Muslim world, global conflict, regional war and humanitarian disasters. The audience that tunes into Al-Jazeera is literate, having more likely attained their college education and interested in international affairs and human rights. This demographic distribution explains the way Al-Jazeera tends to provide much consideration to the suffering of civilian citizens and the general consequences of hostility, especially in Middle East and Arab nations.[3] The network’s programming is of interest to a conflict-sensitive audience interested in the consequences of war, the fate of refugees, immigration policies and diplomacy in the region.

CNN has its audiences worldwide; however, more of its audiences are in the United States where the media headquarter is located. CNN is popular amongst a wide range of audiences, mainly the middle-aged and the elderly, who are most interested in politics, world news, current events, technology, disasters and business. This demographic is more educated and interested in politics and economic news and can be considered slightly more liberal in the American sense. For these reasons, CNN’s audience will probably make the network focus on the political and economic consequences of the events in the world concerning the United States’ interests and the world’s policy. [4] The network’s reporting also frequently provides extensive political commentary and programmatic debates on economic plans and proposals, more so given that its audience tends to be predominantly from the West. Most importantly, a big percentage of CNN coverage is about the U.S politics because of the coming elections on November. The audience want to be convinced if they will elect the first female and black president. On the other hand, the audience want to know if Donald Trump will be elected again after serving one term (2017-2021).

These demographic differences imply that while Al-Jazeera gives more prominence to humanitarian stories and their international consequences of regional war, CNN offers more political news and economics, as seen from the U.S. or Western point of view.

Expectations of Coverage

Due to the differences in audiences, one can expect the following in terms of coverage:

Topic Coverage

Al-Jazeera: Pay greater attention to the role of people in social warfare, the consequences for non-combatants, or regional intervention and humanitarian aid. The coverage can bias narratives that appeal to a global audience, especially the Middle Eastern audience. For instance, I noted that the media is so much against the Israel attacks but fail to warn the consequences after Hamas started the war and Iran getting involved. I expected most of the topics from Al-Jazeera attracts the Muslim groups. I can relate this with skewed reporting where some news are over reported while others are underreported depending on the importance of the subject matter to the targeted audience.[5]

CNN: Mainly address themselves to political and diplomatic dimensions of conflict, and how it affects the U.S. The stories might be more blow-by-blow, with details on political maneuvers, economic measures and the emerging scenarios for American foreign policy. This media helped me understand about “beat” reporting that involve reporting particularly on policy area, organization or institution over time.[6] I expected that most of the topics from CNN presents breaking news or sensational events.

Bias

Al-Jazeera: Most of the news coverage may have a slight orientation towards aggravating the suffering of particular population in conflict areas and present West’s intercessions in a somewhat more negative illumination. I expected that most of the news coverage from Al-Jazeera are investigative reporting that focus on exposing crimes, corruption and uncovering hidden truth.

CNN: Most of the news coverage may show a bias that is in agreement with U.S foreign policy, possibly by favoring conflict framing to suit U.S foreign policy or by writing the human element off as insignificant in analyzing conflicts. However, I also expected that most of the news coverage in CNN applied the alarm model that is more highly explosive and skewed. This coverage focus on dramatic, sudden, attention-grabbing and exciting stories. Most importantly the model triggers either social or political changes.[7]

These expectations are connected to some of the concepts we learned from class readings including media bias, audience power, investigative reporting, beat reporting, skew, alarm model and the world’s media as instruments of globalization. Being part of the audience targeted by media, I discovered that not all the news we see in front of the webpage always represent what we need know about the current world problems or developments. Most news sources work on the idea of ”framing’ and ”agenda-setting’ to comprehend dissimilar aspects of news coverage based on audiences targeted and editorial decisions.[8]

Bibliography

Al-Jazeera. “Al Jazeera.” Aljazeera.com, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/.

Boydstun, Amber E. “Making the News: Politics, the Media and Agenda Setting.” The University of Chicago Press. 2013.  

CNN. “CNN International – Breaking News, US News, World News and Video.” CNN, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/.

Peterson, Erik. “Paper Cuts: How Reporting Resources Affect Political News Coverage.” American Journal of Political Science. Texas A&M University. 2020.

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[1] Al Jazeera. “Al Jazeera.”

[2] CNN. “CNN International – Breaking News, US News, World News and Video.”

[3] Peterson, Erik. “Paper Cuts: How Reporting Resources Affect Political News Coverage.”

[4] Boydstun, Amber E. “Making the News: Politics, the Media and Agenda Setting.”

[5] Boydstun, Amber E. “Making the News: Politics, the Media and Agenda Setting.”

[6] Boydstun, Amber E. “Making the News: Politics, the Media and Agenda Setting.”

[7] Boydstun, Amber E. “Making the News: Politics, the Media and Agenda Setting.”

[8] Boydstun, Amber E. “Making the News: Politics, the Media and Agenda Setting.”