Media Analysis Essay #2

Brennan Murphy

Section 309

Word Count: 1509

Evaluation of Mizzou Demonstrations News Coverage

No news outlet is the same. While each news outlet covers the same events, they all do so

in different ways, with a different emphasis and level of information. No matter how stark or

how blurred the differences between outlets in the United States, all are expected to remain

unbiased and fair in their coverage. This is true for the coverage of the resignation of University

of Missouri President, Tim Wolfe on November 9th, and the racial justice demonstrations that

preceded his resignation. Based on the American Journalism principles of truth, balance, and

objectivity, Buzzfeed covered the events in a way that meets those principles by presenting the

facts of the event; and by not interpreting the events according to one person’s perspective.

Newsweek failed to meet those standards by engaging in superfluous interpretation in an attempt

to achieve the goal of a dramatic structure.

Buzzfeed begins their coverage of this event with a pure description of the event:

“Moments after University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned on Monday,

students gathered in celebration at Carnahan Quad.” Truth is upheld through the use of facts and

through verification by others. (Rojas, 2015) This form of coverage shows how the principle of

truth is being followed. Buzzfeed remains truthful through the use of facts by incorporating a

picture and tweet of the demonstrations from an individual who was present, first hand

testimonies and perspectives. (Figure 1.)

Figure 1: Buzzfeed’s Coverage of Mizzou – Tweet Celebration

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/university-of-missouri-students-celebrate-presidents-resigna#.xabMKXj9

The whole rest of the Buzzfeed article continues coverage in this fashion. Author Mary Ann

Georgantopoulos utilizes social media to provide truthful facts through the perspectives of the

people present at the demonstrations. This all demonstrates a high level of facts used in

Buzzfeeds coverage. Facts are described as “based on observation, but also on human agreement”

(Rojas, 2015). These first hand accounts were observations, and their summaries were based on

human agreement. These facts contribute to what we determine as reality so it is important they

provide an accurate reality, which Buzzfeed does. In comparison, Newsweek, provides

superfluous interpretation.

The Newsweek articles author, John Walters, does not begin by describing the events at

Mizzou, he begins with his own interpretation of the events: “many people of diverse

backgrounds yearn to combat racism. They begin by finding a bedrock of consensus on some

issue related to this problem. They begin with common ground.” (Walters, 2015) This

interpretation resulted in a dismal representation of truthful reporting. Truth requires verifiability

of information, users have to come to a consensus about whether the information is accurate and

therefore true. (Rojas, 2015) This interpretation Walters provides clearly violates the grand

principle truth, there is no definite or apparent verifiability that this is what is going on in

Mizzou, and there is are no first hand accounts provided that state those involved believe this is

interpretation is true.

Buzzfeeds author also maintains truth in the conclusion of her article, she notifies the

reader: “This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on

Twitter.” (Georgantopoulos, 2015). Georgantopoulos clearly states at the end of her article that

this is a developing story. Truth is self-corrective over time (Rojas, 2015), she and alerts the

audience to this by stating in bold that new information may change the current, and past

coverage of the events. She even encourages readers to take part in the open inquiry of the story

by checking for updates.

In contrast, Walters ends his article by simply reporting that even though it was thought

to be cancelled because of protest by players, a Mizzou football game will take place soon. He

makes no effort like Georgantopolous did to recognize the story as a developing one, he simply

closes the open inquiry and does not recognize the information presented may change.

Walters interpretations not only lead to his coverage lacking in upholding the principle of

truth, but also lacking in upholding the principle of balance. Walters interprets the week of

demonstrations as a bizarre week that set up the Carnahan Quadrangle as a staging ground for a

skirmish between to goals: “And so it was ironic—and yet indicative of what a bizarre week it

has been in Columbia, Missouri—that common ground was ground zero for the divisiveness.

Carnahan Quadrangle, a common area on the UM campus on Monday afternoon became the

staging ground for a skirmish between two estimable goals: racial equality and free speech.” This

interpretation did not uphold the grand principle of balance. Balance is described as “suspending

your own beliefs on an issue, you rely on the accounts of others and their interpretations of

events.” (Rojas, 2015) Walters once again depends on his own interpretations of the events, and

not those involved directly with the event. Balance also involves making sure both sides to a

story are heard from. Walters provides a video of Tim Wolfe Resigning, a video of a

demonstration interrupting the homecoming parade, and a video of a student photographer, Tim

Thai attempting to photograph a demonstration while other students resist him doing so. This

provides a great collection of perspectives, but there is a skew in what videos Walters provides

his readers. Two out of the three videos were videos where disrupters were seen as being

disruptive to others, one where students denied Tim Thai photography, and one where students

interrupted the homecoming parade. This presents a skew in the balance of the article, Walters

fails to include any videos of primarily peaceful and undisruptive demonstrations.

Buzzfeed upholds the principle of balance by not only providing the first hand student

perspectives as mentioned before, but providing a picture of a statement (with no interpretation,

just a description of what the letter was) from the Mizzou Board of Administration regarding Tim

Wolfe’s resignation as well. Author Georgantopoulos provides two perspectives prevalent to the

story without a skew towards one side, maintaining the principle of balance.

This maintenance of balance also contributes to Buzzfeed being more objective.

Objectivity requires sticking to the facts without sharing preconceptions about the facts (Rojas,

2015). Author Georgantopoulos provides descriptions of events with no interpretation or

preconceptions stated, just first hand accounts. For example, “The football team will return to

practice on Tuesday.” And then provides a tweet from a sports writer for Mizzou stating the team

will return to practice on Tuesday. This simple and interpretation free coverage allows

Georgantopoulos to remain objective in this coverage.

The lack of balance in Walters coverage contributes to his article being less objective.

Objectivity requires sticking to the facts without sharing preconceptions about the facts, we do

this through implementing balance via a diverse, non-skewed and equal amount of perspectives,

and a lack of interpretation (Rojas, 2015). Walters lacks complete objectivity due to his

interpretation. As mentioned previously, Newsweek provides a video Tim Tai attempting to take

photos of a demonstrating crowd who is resisting their photos being taken. Walters interprets all

of the events covered as a dramatic narrative. Walters directly uses language like “the fight was

on, Civil Rights, versus the First Amendment” to describe the events as a battle between two

sides, this is directly synonymous with a dramatic structure. This interpretation in the form of a

dramatic structure is not synonymous with objectivity or balance, and therefore does not uphold

the principle of objectivity.

Walters has a motive to write with a dramatic structure. Walters writes with many

interpretations of the events in the form of dramatic struggles where it’s “Freedom of Speech vs.

Racial Equality”, “Students vs. the Faculty”, “Students vs. Other Students in Homecoming

Parade”, or “Students vs. Student Photographer”. These interpretations of events are attempts to

gain more readers. Walters must understand that audience’s respond more to drama in stories

compared to stories with a lack of drama (Rojas, 2015).

Through the comparison of Grand Principles of American Journalism of truth, balance, and

objectivity to the coverage of the President of the University of Missouri resigning and the

demonstrations that preceded it, we can conclude that Buzzfeed covered the events more

according to the Grand Principles of American Journalism of truth, balance, and objectivity

compared to Newsweek. This can be interpreted as two different approaches to gaining more

viewership, Buzzfeed takes the more fact-based approach, attracting viewers with brief

summaries, many first hand social media testimonies in the form of tweets, photos, and videos.

Newsweek takes an approach dominated by the dramatic narrative structure. Author John Walters

provides a narrative in the form of his own interpretation of the events. As long as there are

consumers for both kinds of media like this, both types of reporting will continue to exist. These

two evaluations of coverage can be expanded to the idea of adapting to consumers within the

industry as a whole. Even though research shows that drama is more attractive to audiences

(Rojas, 2015), audience preferences are still changing, and therefore news coverage will adapt.

These two stories are a manifestation of the medias battle to survive through gaining viewership

in a variable and changing consumer landscape.

References

Walters, J. (2015, Nov. 14). At Missouri, Free Speech and Racial Equality at Odds. Newsweek.

Retrieved from: http://www.newsweek.com/missouri-free-speech-and-racial-equality-odds-

394201

Georgantopoulos, M. (2015, Nov. 9). University of Missouri Students Celebrate President’s

Resignation on Campus. Buzzfeed. Retrieved from:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/university-of-missouri-students-celebrate-

presidents-resigna#.ykkdrWzae

Kovach B. & Rosenstiel T. (2010). Chapter 6: Evidence and journalism of verification.

In Blur (pp. 94-120). New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Rojas (2015). Lecture notes. http://201.journalism.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/J201-

Fall-2015-Lecture-19.pdf

Rojas (2015). Lecture notes. http://201.journalism.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/J201-

Fall-2015-Lecture-20.pdf)

Rojas (2015). Lecture notes. http://201.journalism.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/J201-

Fall-2015-Lecture-30.pdf