Monday, March 9, 2015
Harrison Ford's crash in the news
Last Thursday, actor Harrison Ford was in a crash while piloting a small plane. Initial reports had many conflicting reports about the severity of the crash, as well as the level of his injuries. Some reports stated that the crash was very mild, and he was totally fine. However, some outlets reported that the crash was major, and that Ford was in critical condition, on the brink of death. However, as the mystery around the event dissipated, it was revealed that the injury's were "non-life threatening," as described by Ford's publicist. He crashed into golf course, and the course's conditions are partially to blame for the level of the crash, in the opinion of ABC correspondent John Nance. It was also revealed that two doctors were actually at the course at the time, and aided in the handling of the situation. TMZ's reports indicate in their timeline of the incident that Ford actually got up and walked away from the plane a bit before being helped, and had a minor gash in his head.
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All three news sources covered the shooting of a 19-year-old African American man in Madison Wisconsin after he allegedly assaulted a police officer. News 3, which reported the story March 6, at 10:15pm, took the least emotional approach to the incident and instead began the report with a map of the location where the shooting happened. Rather than focus on the death of young boy, the news site started by saying that they were “investigating a police shooting that shut down a busy Madison street.” After the image of the map faded, the report broadcasted footage of the street inundated with police cars—still with barely any regard for the life lost in this shooting. It was only after about 45 seconds in of the 3-minute report that they mentioned the name of the young African American male who was shot, and then went into footage of the Young Gifted Black Coalition demanding justice. Thus, this new source rather than depict the emotion and injustice that essentially created the newsworthiness of the event, instead focused on the hectic nature that happened as a result. CNN, which reported the story March 6, at 9:28 pm was the most vague in their broadcast, focusing most of their reporting on mere speculation. After briefly detailing the event, and the fact that a young African American male was shot, they went into footage of the riots in the streets. However, after simply mentioning minor details without piecing them together in a coherent manner, CNN brought in three analysts, who were unable analyze the event. The anchor asked them to essentially speculate “based on what [they’ve] heard so far” to which they subsequently responded that “it was too early to tell what the incident [was] about.” Thus, rather than truly communicate the news, CNN chose to present bits and pieces of the story in a fragmentary and incoherent manner. Madison Wisconsin’s local news outlet, WKOW reported the story a day later, at 6:23am and took the more emotional approach, highlighting the impact of the event on the family and community. The broadcast began with footage on the young man’s mother crying and describing the warm-hearted nature of her son. The footage then shifted to the chaos on the streets with video of the Young Gifted and Black Coalition along with community members demanding justice. Included with this footage was an interview with the leader of the coalition highlighting the racial implications of this event and the hurt the African American community felt for their loss. Thus rather than merely give scattered and incomplete details of the incident, the local news outlet presented the most intelligible and coherent reporting on the event as well as its broader impact.
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