MWF 3pm-4:20pm Blog Post 2

When comparing CNN and Aljazeera it seemed that there were not many differences between their ways of covering the news. I watched a video on the death of singer Whitney Houston.

I watched the video on Aljazeera’s website first. It was on the front page of their website. The tone of newscaster was somber and played video clips of her in concert, some of her music videos, and clips of her on the red carpet and at other events. The newscaster talked about where she found dead and then talked about her achievements and how her fans are reacting to her death.

I watched the same story on the CNN website. It was also on the front page. The tone of the newscaster was sad. He sounded more appreciative. It showed similar clips of her in concert, her music videos, and clips of her at certain events. The video was informative like the Aljazeera report and explained where she was found and the mystery surrounding her death.

There were one main difference between the Aljazeera video and the CNN video and that had to do with the tone of each video. Both videos went into details about Whitney Houston's life and career. It highlighted all of her achievements including her many awards, her number one hits, and her film career. It also talked about her struggles with drug and alcohol abuse and how it affected her career during the years but the CNN video had more emotion. The Aljazeera video seemed to treat the story as just news with a very somber monotone voice.

I believe that since Whitney Houston was an American superstar it made sense that CNN would have a more emotional connection when talking about her death. Aljazeera was not bias or unfair but I believe it did have a discernible point of view. It gave the right information on her death to be informative to people who may want to know about her but some of the information shared on the CNN report was sensitive to Americans and the American culture. Mentioning her achievements at the American Music Awards or the Grammys is not necessary since these things don’t pertain to Aljazeera’s audience or their culture.

With Globalization difference audiences from different parts of the world can access information about all kinds of things just because it is provided for them. Aljazeera has a way of presenting the news so that people are informed but makes it clear in a subtle way that this isn't really a big deal for "us" (their intended audience.)