Free Journalism Essay Sample

Analysis Essay

Woman found dead in car in Safeway parking lot
Article Summary
The article posted on Tucson News 4 website features the story of a woman found dead in the car in Safeway parking lot. The Tucson police department reports that the family of the deceased was noticed on Monday morning of March 3, 2015. Furthermore, the report of the incident recalls that the woman was found inside the car in Safeway parking lot and has been there for two days when the body was found. The woman was identified in her 50s and was found in the driver’s seat, which eliminates the possibilities of a foul play in her death. On the other hand, the identity of the deceased woman was not yet released by TPD.

Article Analysis

Information Bias – the term refers to the media engaged in the practice of either concealing or holding back information from the public or leaning towards the single side of the story. In order to detect information bias, there are certain elements that need to be identified such as the source, diversity of information, double standards, skew coverage, unchallenged assumptions, quality of context, and prominence of the issue in focus. Looking at the article, it appears that there is information bias in so many levels. For example, the article was very brief, which encompasses the lack of context, diversity in information, and lack of volume on the amount of information given in the article. The article lacks diversity in terms of the absence of individuals mentioned in the article that contributes largely in understanding the situations encased within the story. In addition, the article lacks context on the obvious reasons that there is not much to read on the article not to mention the fact that the context lacks dimensions or rather centered only on one angle, which is the dead woman found in the car in the parking lot and nothing more.
Personalization – On a positive note, there was no sense personalization involved in telling the story or anything that gives a hint of telling the story from the first person perspective. The use of texts diverting the audience towards the person reporting the story is considered as an act personalization, which is the same as interjecting personal opinions on the matter being discussed. Apparently, the article did not show hints of personal opinions conveyed within its context.
Dramatization – the term refers to the use of certain phrases in the article that conveys extreme emotions or in other word, exaggeration. Dramatization in media may work its purpose in the conveyance of stories that are intended to make an emotional impact towards the audience. However, delivering reports of real situations with questionable nature should remain in a neutral voice. On the other hand, the article being analyzed here did not show any form of dramatization that could mislead the readers to perceived unnecessary thoughts about the real facts of the story.
Fragmentation – It refers to the expansion of choices in consumption of the media in terms of identified channels. As for the article being discussed, fragmentation implies the apparent difficulty of the story in reaching its intended audiences. Consequently, there was no information showing other available media where the story was channeled through. It appears that the news was only made available through the website. There could have been more audiences reached by the news if it was made available in other forms of media such as print, radio or television. Apparently for the news article, there was no indication that the news was made available on other media. Therefore, the news about the woman found dead in car in Safeway parking lot did not made it a larger audience, which makes it fragmented.
Authority-Disorder – Refers to the general form of media bias where depth and coherence was overlooked in the system of fragmentation, dramatization, and personalization. It is a tendency in which the authoritative voice of the people in authority or an official has taken over the spotlight. The evidence of proposition in the news being discussed was delivered in a manner that is negative in nature. Although there was no sign of other conflict in the context of the news, there is still an increase in mayhem because of the fact that the news itself is about a person being found dead in a car. There is a significant amount of human effect in the news because it leaves the audience to wonder about the cause of the woman’s death and a lot other questions that emerges out of uncertainty on what have cause the death of the woman. On the authority-disorder side of the news article, there was no indication that a certain individual in power is in control of the news or interjects an authority that could change the context of the news as a whole. However, the tiny bit of information such as the decision to leave the name of deceased woman unknown could also be considered as a form of authority-disorder because it holds back important information that the audience could easily connect with.

Conclusion

The news about the dead woman found in car in Safeway parking lot is a typical story that can be found in almost all media channels. However, the news article encompasses the characteristics of vagueness because of the lack of context apart from fact that the news itself was very brief and full of biases, which makes it a very unreliable and not credible piece of news.