Mark Marafioti Professor Thomas Kolsky POL101 3/11/2013

Assignment I: Mass Media Analysis

There are countless sources of Mass media and they all distribute information to the public from different viewpoints and in many different ways. After examining issues of The New York Times, The Inquirer, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, Time Magazine, and multiple television and radio news sources it is clear that social and political information is displayed differently through print media in itself and in relation to electronic media sources. PART A: PRINT MEDIA (1) The first set of articles I read were from The New York Times. Cuts Give Obama Path to Create Leaner Military was an article about the plans to cut budgets for military programs. President Obama is interested in cutting the budget for programs that are not as beneficial to the United States more than others as opposed to cutting each program equally. The article points out that there has not been budget discipline since before 2001 and although equal cuts across the board are easier, they are not necessarily the most beneficial to the country. The second article I examined was Afghan Leader Says U.S. Abets Talibans Goal. This article explains how President Hamid Karzai is unhappy with the actions of the U.S. in his country. He went as far as to say that the United States wanted to destabilize his country just like the Taliban. He believes that Americans are showing contrasting view of the Taliban and that we are overstepping our bounds in his country. Some examples of the offenses of the United States are our control of how prisoners are questioned and released and the alleged continuation of negotiations with the Taliban(which the U.S. denies). The last article I read from The New York Times was Myanmar Opposition Leader Vows Party Reform. This article was about the growth of the

National League for Democracy party and the changes implemented by Aung San Suu Kyi, the party leader. The party leader said that she wanted to bring new blood in the party. The article mentions their trouble dealing with the growth of the party and the problems they had because of poor party management in the past. The next newspaper that I read was The Inquirer. The first article I read was GOP: Obamas Wooing May End Logjam. This article was about the republican response to the meetings with the president about budget deals. The writer suggests that the ill will of republicans will not go away easily but that the president was well received. The article included many quotes from republicans who thought the president was genuinely trying to improve the nation and not just trying to pull a political move. The second article I read from The Inquirer was Obama to Pic Perez For Labor. This article was about how President Obama plans to name Thomas Perez for secretary of labor. Perez would be the only Latino cabinet secretary. The last newspaper article I read was Myanmar Opposition Affirms Role of Suu Kyi. This article paralleled Myanmar Opposition Leader Vows Party Reform from The New York Times. The two articles were very similar but the article from The New York Times had more information about the party and the problems they faced in the past. The New York Times and The Inquirer both seem to be a good source of political information. David Sanger and Thom Shanker, the writers of Cuts Give Obama Path to Create Leaner Military, provide information on the amount of money that is planned to be cut and the programs that it will affect. Since the article is not an argument for or against these budget plans it allows the reader to form an opinion of their own. In Afghan Leader Says U.S. Abets Talibans Goal, the writers explain why the president made the comments he did. The article could have easily detailed the statements President Karzai made and allowed the reader to form unjust opinions but the writers give you the reasons why President Karzai said what he did so you can fully understand the situation. The articles seem to be written from a neutral stand point, with no clear evidence of liberal or conservative biases.

(2) After examining the newspapers I moved to the weekly political journals. I started by reading through the conservative journal The Weekly Standard. The editorial was a highly opinionated article called Indefensible that starts out by calling President Obama an appalling commander in chief. The article goes on to attack President Obama, saying he muscles his way through the senate, was completely irresponsible and was a failure in respect to political responsibility. The first article I read in this journal Second-Term Blues continued with the anti-Obama ideas. The article said that President Obama thought he was stronger politically than he actually was and called him a fear monger for the statements that he made. The article attacked the OFA (organization for action), saying that the groups purpose was promoting the presidents priorities and calling it a private political pressure group. The last article I read was Sayonara, Asain Allies: Obamas Damaging Diffidence which was an article about Obamas unwillingness for decisive action in China and Japans dispute over the Senkaku islands. Switching from the conservative to the liberal side of politics, I read the weekly journal The Nation. The editorial was an article called The Keystone Test about how the effects of global warming are a serious issue. The article supported Obamas progress in the fight for climate control. Although this article was in a liberal journal, the writer was very displeased that Obama was not doing more for the climate fight. The next article I read was Theyve Got the Fever. This article details how liberals were hoping that after a second consecutive election loss, they would see how they were wrong about many things. It also insinuates that the republicans are solely to blame for the breakdown in our political process. The last journal article I read was Does Innocence Matter in Texas. This article is an attack on the death penalty in Texas. The article portrays the Texas courts as cruel establishments that want to give people the death penalty without a focus on whether the person is guilty or not. Larry Swearingen is a man who was convinced of rape and murder. He was sentenced to the death penalty but the courts seem to be ignoring some scientific evidence that suggests that he is innocent. Since all the articles in

this journal are so opinionated it is hard to judge if this article is a fair representation of the situation or not. It makes the reader get the feeling that the facts could be skewed or exaggerated to suit the liberal predominately anti-death penalty beliefs The articles in the liberal and conservative journals read more like a debate than an informative article. They are so full of clear biases that it makes them difficult to take seriously. The facts seem to be exaggerated and the articles are full of opinionated statements. In the conservative journal Obama and the democrats are attacked and blamed for things and in the liberal journal the republicans are attacked and blamed. This tells me that journals of opinion are not the most credible source for political information. The information is presented in a way that is clearly meant to persuade the reader in one direction or another.

(3) The Weekly Magazine that I decided to analyze was Time Magazine. I noticed immediately that there was a fairly equal mix of conservative and liberal articles. The first article I read was Party, Heal Thyself: How the Republican Party can reclaim its title as a champion of opportunity. In this article, Pete Wehner explains how he believes the Republican Party has been broken into 3 different groups after the loss of the election. The first group believes that the party is well off and that all they need is an attractive torchbearer and some small changes to be back on top. The second group believes that their candidates did not contrast Obama enough and that they need to purify the Republican Party and get some true Republicans in the running. The writer identifies himself as a member of the last group who believe there are some big problems with the current Republican Party. They believe that the party needs to become more reform-minded and aggressive. Wehner believes the party needs to show America they support the common good by supporting certain groups. He also believes the Republican Party should cut their losses in some areas pertaining to same-sex marriage. The second article I read was The Path to War. This article was about Irans nuclear program and the U.S.s steps to prevent it

and the possible difficulties to come. The last article I read from Time was called Double Trouble. This article was about John McCain and Lindsey Graham and their interactions with President Obama. Both McCain and Graham say that they hold no grudges against Obama and they have no problem with him. Although McCain and Graham were very publically against Obama, they were quoted saying This is a business to me. You disagree on Monday, and on Tuesday you work together. Time Magazine seems to be a good source of political information. The magazine as a whole doesnt seem to have a liberal or conservative affiliation. The first article was from a Republican point of view but it was not anti-liberal. The second and third articles had no affiliation and were from a purely informative standpoint. For the most part the articles in the magazine dont support one group or another but when they do, they are not focused on putting the other group down like the opinion journals.

(4) It was difficult to establish the attitudes towards American domestic and foreign policy from the foreign news sources I found. The first foreign news source that I accesses was an online Chinese newspaper. The first article that related to The United States was about the swell in cyber-attacks that China has recently faced. The Chinese government took issue with the U.S. expanding our cyber war force because of our preemptive policies on cyber war. The article said that China believed that America was responsible for nearly 2,000 attacks. The Chinese news expressed that their government welcomed the United States role in their country but they felt the U.S. needed to respect Chinas interests and concerns more. The second foreign news source I found was another online paper/news system called Afghan Daily. Many of the artic les on this site were clearly anti-American. There were several articles detailing the statements of President Hamid Karzai mentioned in (1) above and the reaction of the people. The articles express similar beliefs as those expressed by Karzai, that the U.S. is overstepping its

bounds in some respects. One article even went as far as to insinuate that the U.S. was collaborating with the Taliban.