On March 9th, 2015 during the
afternoon an Amtrak train that was heading to NYC from North Carolina crashed into
a truck and derailed in Halfiax County, North Carolina. Many Americans tuned into this breaking news
since Amtrak is a popular mode of transportation for many people and to see if
any fatal injuries occurred. According
to many sources there has been approximately 50 injured in the incident. The
three sources I used are: CBS News, Fox News and Wral News to see the different
perspective taken on the breaking news.
CBS News covered the
news story in association with their affiliate Wral. Wral is a local television
station in Raleigh, North Carolina. CBS
had two anchors reporting the breaking news of the derailment of the Amtrak
train. The two anchors had spoken few words because the video they showed had a
bigger impact. The video presented by CBS had a woman in the background
screaming as the Amtrak train derailed. The tactic used by CBS evoked an array
of emotions from anxiousness and astonishment. The last update that CBS made on this event
was at 5:19 pm. Fox News was another news affiliate that gathered some of their
information from Wral and from the Associated Press. Fox News coverage was
short, but both the news anchor and the invited guest seemed very shocked and concerned. Especially since, this is the third time there has been an Amtrak crash. The video report showed a woman screaming as the Amtrak derailed and added more to the shock.
As I mentioned before Wral, is a local television station in Raleigh,
North Carolina that had a lot of information covered on this event. The online site of Wral was updated
constantly, the last one being 20 minutes ago. Wral had a full team covering
the scene of the crash through a helicopter on video for approximately 10
minutes on their website. The site also had a news
article that was very detailed, with various quotations and specific
information about the eye witnesses of the incident.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4102841856001/at-least-55-injured-after-amtrak-train-hits-truck/?#sp=show-clips
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/
http://www.wral.com/40-hurt-
Harrison Ford Crash Lands: Real Life Hollywood Drama!
ReplyDeleteHarrison Ford crashed his airplane on Thursday afternoon March 5th on a golf course right next to the Santa Monica airport he took off from. I will look at three coverage reports of this accident as it appeared on Fox News, NBC News and local KABC-TV Los Angeles (ABC 7) on March 5th and March 6th. Fox News informed about this accident at 4 pm as the first from the three (not counting the live “raw material” of the transportation of the injured into an ambulance without commentary) and focused on it the longest. On a split screen, they were showing live footage of the crash site and simultaneously Harrison Ford’s red carpet interviews and pictures from the crash. Commentary provided a lot of speculations about the seriousness of Ford’s injuries or about the reason of the crash. They didn’t have enough information to give so they kept screening the live footage of the accident and official statements of fire department and LAPD (for 11 minutes), which refused to reveal the identity of the pilot, but that didn’t stop Fox from labeling their segment “Harrison Ford crash lands”. Later that day, Fox presented very short report with original audio of Ford saying his plane was having engine problems. March 6th news focused on the miracle safe landing and offered aviator specialist’s opinions (news anchor, who couldn’t care less, jokes about Han Solo’s bravery with an expert, who explains airplane skid at LaGuardia in the same segment).
NBC offered their first situation assessment at 6:30 pm. Their message was much more dramatic, the commentator was spitting out words like „fuel was leaking, Ford was bleeding, players rushed to help, real life Hollywood drama“. Editing was quick, no split screens and from the first moment they offered the most interesting part of the accident – the amateur crash footage. Their later news put together mobile phone material, witness reports, photos and radio recording to “reconstruct” the accident with commentator filling out the blanks. On March 6th they saw Ford as a hero who managed to land safely outside of populated area, and as an experienced pilot, who saved people with the help of his plane before. The extra info they provided the previous day was that planes crash in this area relatively often and no house was taken down yet.
ABC 7 (KABC-TV Los Angeles) started their coverage at 11 pm. They were the only network that used music (the news jingle overlapped into the beginning of the report) and highlighted the sounds of an ambulance. They offered the most varied material too – apart from amateur and crash site footage, they informed about Harrison Ford’s previous plane safes (complete with pictures and videos from interviews), presented direct interview with a doctor who had helped Ford from the plane and interspersed the news with generous amount of film scenes (Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Ford’s plane crash in Six Days Seven Nights) and didn’t forget to mention that new Star Wars movie is coming in December (we can’t forget that Walt Disney owns ABC and Lucasfilm now).