The Different Ways of Delivering One Story - Compare and Contrast Essay.
Abstract
The paper explores two articles having the same subject matter - a recent story of a woman who was being arrested and deported back to her country of origin. This one story is being delivered by two different reporters Nigel Duara from Los Angeles Times and Fernanda Santos from The New York Times in two different ways. The first reporter seems to maintain a neutral tone in his writing, whereas the second one appears to go beyond basic facts and provide the readers with a variety of details and testimonies, focusing on the broader context of the story which is expected to make people care about the subject matter. The essence of this comparison lies within one simple question – should a journalist provide a broader picture of the topic and make sure that the story gets the reaction from the people because of the coverage being not only factual but also broad, specific and maybe somewhat sympathetic?
DIFFERENT WAYS OF DELIVERING ONE STORY
Nowadays various media sources use different approaches to news reporting. Consequently, two stories can be depicted differently in terms of the language use, the tone of the article or even its purpose. Moreover, some newspapers oftentimes have their own policies that not only define the rules for a writer to convey the story, but also determine whether he is entitled to take a side in a controversial issue surrounding the narrative or, on the contrary, obliged to stay objective and concise. When comparing and contrasting the articles covering the same subject matter differently, many people often find themselves asking the same question: should a journalist go beyond the basic facts of a particular event and provide the reader with a broader context, delving deeper into the story and its characters in a somewhat sympathetic manner in order to reach out to people and bring the issues of importance to the attention of the community?
The following question can be examined in the comparison of two articles covering a recent story of Guadalupe García de Rayos. This material received much publicity on the 8th of February, 2017 and a number of newspaper reporters, including Nigel Duara from Los Angeles Times and Fernanda Santos from The New York Times, did not hesitate to cover it. Both articles, addressing the same issue, give an insight into the story of a woman who was being arrested and deported back to her country of origin Mexico, wherefrom she fled to the United States 21 years ago in hope for the better life conditions.
The headline of the article from Los Angeles Times (further referred to as the first article) states: “Longtime Phoenix resident in U.S. illegally detained in early display of Trump executive order's reach”. This headline was created using the formula of a summary of the main ideas of the article, supplemented with specific information about the details of the story. In comparison, the headline from The New …
