Today I will move away from talking about 4Runners and direct my writing towards identifying political positions and biases in writing. I will do this by contrasting and commenting upon two articles on the same topic from different Calgary newspapers. Many different media outlets carry political biases. This to my understanding, is done mostly to appeal to certain consumer market segments. Although this makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, it raises questions as to journalistic accuracy. In addition the ethics of providing fair and balanced information to the reader. However, I will expand more upon these topics as I analyse the writings.
My topic of choice will be the recent developments with respect to cost overruns and hotel expenses for the Alberta government. These expenses were accrued over the London Summer Olympics, and are even rumoured to include $113,000 of unused hotel rooms. I will used the Calgary Sun and the Calgary Herald as my two newspaper texts to be used in comparison.
First up, we have an article which was published on the Calgary Sun website. It is titled "Alberta government's attempt to save money costs taxpayers 113K". This title seems sensationalist to me. In the sense that it is attempting to create bias in the readers mind. This even before one begins to read the newsprint. Upon reading the article, and drawing from prior knowledge, it becomes quite clear the article was written with a strong right wing bias. Nowhere in the article is there any discussion of the benefits of Alberta's engagement in the Olympic games. The meetings with UK representatives to encourage trade and commerce are not discussed either. Rather, the article spends its time using select quotes of government officials and tax federation representatives to distort the context. In fact, about half of the article is just quotes, with very few quips of writing to tie them together. The intent of this article is blatantly obvious. It is not written to inform, but rather to entice and antagonize the reader.
http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/10/01/alberta-governments-attempt-to-save-money-costs-taxpayers-113k
Next up, The Calgary Herald has published an article on-line which is titled "Reford catching heat over half-million dollar tab for London Olympics trip". To me, this seems like a much more appropriate and thought out title. Instead of presenting a bias in terms of cost, it appears to be making more of an effort to educate and properly inform the reader about the entire trip. After reading the article, I feel that both sides of the argument were more or less accurately explored. Although both articles agree in the context of the wasted $113,000, The Herald makes an effort to discuss both sides of the conversation. In fact, a portion of the Herald article even discusses efforts made to reduce the wasted expenses. The article states that "Two cabinet ministers who travelled with Redford said the Tory government got stuck with a $113,687 hotel bill when it decided last spring to reduce the delegation by 18 people, including four other cabinet ministers.
They said the government asked the hotel to re-sell the rooms, but the market “softened” and the rooms could not be resold." This information is not mentioned in the Sun. Overall, I feel that the Herald has done a better job reporting this story and offering more fair and balanced information to the reader.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/Redford+catching+heat+over+half+million+dollar+London/7327055/story.html
In conclusion, I feel that contrasting the different news websites has made it easier to identify good and bad reporting. In this case, and many others, I would certainly utilize the Calgary Herald more so than the Sun to provide me with more reliable information. The article from the Sun seems to be trying to tell me what to think. Whereas the Herald is presenting information from both perspectives, allowing me to think and take my own conclusions from the writing. Biases do exist in writing, but I find it is only more noticeable through comparison. In the end, we are free to read and write what we like. But with that said, not all information sources are created equal.
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