Inaguration Media Evaluation- The Women's March

For this assignment I analyzed coverage on The Women’s March from media outlets NBC, FOX, and Breibart News.

NBC’s coverage of the event was the most descriptive and informative. It also conveyed the most diversity in opinion in regard to reporting on the reasons people attended the event. Overall, it had a positive spin on the March, with the headline, “Peace, Positivity as marchers make their voices heard in D.C.” NBC dedicated a significant portion of the article to the numbers of marchers involved in the D.C. event as well as the many others across the country and world. The article also discussed some of the reasons why protesters had attended in the many quotes given by socially conservative and liberal women interviewed in the story.

FOX’s coverage of the event was very sparse and lacked depth. The article seemed to focus more on the reporter than the individuals attending the march. The headline for this article was “Inclusion and Compassion; Watters visits the Women’s March in Washington.” It began with the reporter’s personal experience of finding out that his mother and sister were attending the march which presumably piqued his interest in reporting on it. The article did not mention the size or the scope of the event but included a tongue-in-cheek reference to “nasty women” and the fact that someone swore at the reporter during his visit in D.C.

The article from Breibart News provided the most biased and uninformative coverage. The headline from this story read “Anti-Trump Marchers, mostly white women who need therapy after Clinton loss.” This article did not discuss much background information, and did not have any actual coverage from the event itself. This story was more an opinion piece on the “types” of women involved in the event, and the views of the author regarding the reasons why people had chosen to participate.

All of the articles included quotes from women attending the event, although the Breibart article’s quote was pulled from a Twitter feed instead of an on-site interview. All three stories also mentioned, in one way or another, the reason why participants were protesting. 

Below are photos I took from the Women's March on Austin 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/peace-positivity-massive-women-s-march-make-voices-heard-d-n710356

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/01/22/jesse-watters-world-womens-march-washington-donald-trump-inauguration

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/21/womens-anti-trump-marchers-mostly-white-need-therapy-clinton-loss/

Inauguration assignment - Women's March

As I followed the coverage of the Women's March on Twitter, I was stunned to see just how widespread the support for the march in Washington was worldwide. Sister marches were held from Canada to South America to Australia with a total of 673 taking place this day. In comparing the coverage from this historical event, I decided to look at three university newspapers of vastly distant places: University of Toronto's The Varsity, University of London's London Student and University of New South Wales' Tharunka.

Here is an illustration showing the solidarity rallies of January 21. 



The Varsity had one tweet directing their followers to their news editor's account, Jenna Moon, who was covering the March on Washington. Moon wasn't unbiased in her coverage there, while the day before this was hinted at when she said, "ain't nobody got time for four years of bullshit." Moon followed the attendees throughout Saturday taking photos and asking people why they were marching. The editor shared her coverage with an array of humorous photos that showed the tone of that day.

1. Jenna Moon ‏@_JennaMoon  Jan 21
   

   On our way to smash the patriarchy #WomensMarchTO

   

   0 replies1 retweet1 like

   
   

   
   

London Student published a story on Sunday following up on the Women's March on London. The lede began with a quote from an attendee, "I hate crowds, but I hate Trump more." Their Twitter included photos of the March on London, with the hashtag, "love trumps hate."

1. London Student ‏@LondonStudent  Jan 21
   

   #womensmarchlondon #LoveTrumpsHate

   

   0 replies0 retweets1 like

   
   

   
   

The Tharunka published a story on the Women's March Sydney which ended with the feature editor describing the march as energizing and powerful. "Because it just so happens that nasty women everywhere - from Antartica to Washington - are ready," said the author. Their Twitter included only a couple of photos, but several quotes from the marchers that day.

1. Tharunka ‏@tharunka  Jan 20
   

   'My mother taught me how to be one hell of a boss woman' -Jenny Munro #womensmarchsydney #WomensMarch

   0 replies1 retweet3 likes

   
   

   
   

All-in-all, it seems that these universities took a lighthearted approach with a mix of humor and support of the cause. Though I didn't include The University Star here, I would like to note that our newspaper remained neutral on their official Twitter account as did the editors on their personal accounts who attended the march.

Inaguration day - International newspapers

For my coverage of inauguration day, I choose to look at the front pages of three international newspapers to see if it was just as important to them as it was for us.

The first newspaper I found was from Mexico. I definitely wanted to see what they had to say about our new president, especially after all he has said about their country. The front page says "Trump is the judgement to the world." When I heard about this project, I wanted to see what Mexico had to say about everything. Most of us know about all of the terrible things Trump has said about Mexico, so it was an interesting aspect to see.

Another look into inauguration day that I found was from Argentina. The front page reads "The new master of the world." I found it very interesting that even in South America people find Trump's presidency to be important enough to be found on the front page. It was a different view from what Mexico had on its front page, however similar in a sense that they believe that Trump rules the world.

For the last international newspaper that I used I found from Germany. I really wanted to find one that was based from Russia to see what they had to say about it because of all of the controversy that has gone on in the past election. However, Germany still had Trump on its front page. It reads "From this day onwards: America First, America First." They had a quote that Trump had said from his inauguration speech. It was very different from what Mexico and Argentina had to put on its front page. Germany instead used a quote instead of simply putting that Trump runs the world.

I found this assignment to be interesting because I now have an idea of what everyone else in the world thinks about the new president. I learned a lot, and now have a better understanding of the worlds view of Trump.

Inauguration - The riots

I chose to compare three popular online news outlets – CNN, Fox News and BuzzFeed – on their coverage of the riots in Washington D.C. and in other locations that occurred during and following the Inauguration. CNN’s coverage of the riots was lengthy and well-rounded, offering video, live tweets and striking photographs. A section of the article was dedicated to “Demonstrations elsewhere” and was being updated in real time as reporters at the different demonstration areas (New York, Portland, Seattle, etc.) sent in information.

Fox News also had photo and video accompanying their article, but the article itself only covered what happened in Washington D.C. and the damage that had been done there. Their sources were relatively balanced; half were protestors and half were Trump supporters. There was a single mention of peaceful protestors near the end of the article, but it was very brief.

Like most live coverage that BuzzFeed conducts, the claims in their article were mainly backed by photos and tweets from BuzzFeed’s own journalists who were at the scene. Unlike CNN but much like Fox, this article only covered the riot in Washington D.C. What I found most interesting upon reading this article, in comparison to Fox News and CNN, is that there was little to no mention of the peaceful protestors at the site of the riots. Like Fox, all the coverage included only spoke of the damage that had been done, with photos and video to add proof.

As such, CNN offered the best well-rounded coverage, BuzzFeed had the fastest updates (though they all only spoke about what was going on in one location), and Fox News was the most succinct and to the point.

Inauguration

I compared how three prominent media outlets, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic each used twitter to cover the Inauguration day in general.  The content of each outlets tweets was mostly similar, with all three live-tweeting the inauguration and placing an emphasis on covering the Inauguration speech itself.  The New York Times, had the largest quantity of tweets in relation to the inauguration speech as they steadily retweeted journalist’s impressions of President’s Trumps statements.  The Times also was the only outlet which tweeted a link to its live coverage of the inauguration, and seemed to place the greatest emphasis on constantly updating its followers.

              The Post and The Atlantic were not as focused on the constant updates and did not have anywhere near the same number of tweets as The Times.  Instead, both outlets focused more on analyzing the events of the Inauguration and comparing them to past inaugurations.  The Post tweeted a comparison of the attendance to Trump’s Inauguration and Obama’s, while The Atlantic examined what they deemed to be the worst inaugurations in U.S. history.  The Atlantic also featured opinions on how the inaugural speech could possibly be received around the globe and its possible meanings towards Muslims.

              The Post captured the scene in Washington, D.C. in greater depth than either of the other two media outlets, which makes sense due the cite of the Inauguration being the hometown of the paper and making the topic of more interest to its readers.  The events they covered the most were the protests happening around the city and focused on accurately depicting the pulse of the city.  It seemed that each media outlet had a different view on what was most important to its followers.  The Times emphasized rapid updates, The Atlantic had a global perspective, and The Post focused on local aspects.  

Inauguration assignment

        CNN gave complete coverage to the Trump inaugural event. The website covers everything from his full acceptance speech, reactions from the crowd and information about him signing an executive order on Obamacare. The news outlet does a compelling job in covering women marching on Washington to protest the event. They speak of women converging all over the world united against the Trump presidency. Read about it here http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/21/politics/trump-women-march-on-washington/index.html

          Fox News online gives a more celebratory tone to the Trump inauguration. It is clear they are throwing their support behind him, while CNN is restraining themselves and trying to remain unbiased. The site is similar to CNN in showing executive orders being implemented, but there is overt patriotism on this site. The website depicts protests against Trump as violent, in sharp contrast to CNN. It’s as if they are betting the protestors will cause upheaval instead of being peaceful like the ones depicted on CNN with women marching in solidarity across the world. Read about that here http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/20/d-c-officials-gear-up-for-weekend-protests-as-friday-rallies-turn-violent.html

          The BBC website takes a much more cut and dry approach to depicting the inauguration. It is very bland and depicts the whole event as not a huge deal even though it makes the front page of the website. There is more focus on all the marches and protest against Trump’s inauguration but done so in a tame form, with just clickable links to the side of Trump’s image without pictures depicting any of the protests. They seem to remain the most neutral of all three outlets but I feel CNN does the coverage the most justice.

Old Main's new roof in 2013

Old Main is surrounded by scaffolding for the installation of a new roof in 2013.  Photo by Kym Fox