COM125 Week 12: Reading Something Online Is Just More Fun

Let's face it, everyone wants to know what is going on in the lives of Hollywood's elite stars and when something happens to a celebrity, the whole world hears about it. Weather we wanted to hear about it or not, we got the news that Anna Nicole Smith was found dead in her hotel room last month. Anna was always in the celebrity news being portrayed as person who abused drugs. Last month, shortly after her death, you could not pick up a national newspaper, or get on the internet without seeing something related to her death or the after-effects of her death such as who her baby's father is, how she died, or where she was going to be buried. Many differences occur in news sources regarding this information filled topic such as presentation, attitudes, and the overall information context that is displayed. I have found through reading several print articles and several online articles relating the same topic, word choice is key in setting the mood of an article and one can express opinions through certain words, without stating them directly.

The New York Times printed an article on the cause of Anna Nicole Smith's death on March 27, 2007, almost two entire months after her passing titled, "Anna Nicole Smith’s Death Is Ruled an Accidental Drug Overdose." After reading the entire article, I found it to be fair; opinions were decided to be left out of the article and facts were the main aspect in the content of this article. Many things could have been said regarding the many prescriptions she was taking at the time of her death, but judgments were not on print. I felt that for this particular topic, death, it was probably an intelligent plan to get the story across and not get wrapped up in what 'could have happened' or who was at fault for this tragedy.

On the other hand, I read a blog regarding this topic of Anna Nicole Smith's death. It appears that the person who started the blog titled it, "Anna Nicole Smith's Death: Accidental OD." This title is almost exactly the same as the one printed on the New York Times however, the content of the material is drastically different. Throughout the blog, several people comment on how millions of people are not surprised of her death because of her history with drug abuse. Also, people accuse her family and friends of giving her these drugs to gain access to her fortune of millions of dollars. I was not surprised by the heavy opinions of this blog. Gillmor (2004) writes, "… bloggers and operators of independent news sites already do a respectable job of scanning for and sorting news for people who want it." Throughout his book, We the Media, Gillmor explains that the foundation of this country was based on many different kinds of freedom, freedom of speech contributing heavily to the United States Constitution. Resting on the very laws of this freedom of speech lies an entire online community devoted to giving their opinions (weather people want to read them or not) about topics that interest them or are in relation to current events. Part of their rights as American citizens is to be able to express themselves freely by stating where they stand on issues and events and these rights can sometimes be abused which is where lawsuits come into play.

Overall, many differences contributed to the general feel of the information being presented. In the news article, the information was professional, obviously because it was written by someone from the New York Times who has a responsibility to the reputation of themselves and their corporation. The blog entries were opinionated and lacked detail; they gave accusations when most of these people probably had no idea what they were talking about. Gillmor (2004) writes, "Call them newsmakers. Call them sources. Call them the sub-jects—and sometimes, in their view, the unwilling victims—of journalism. But however we describe them, we all must recog­nize that the rules for newsmakers, not just journalists, have changed, thanks to everyone’s ability to make the news." Most bloggers are not professionals, and you can never really trust what they write because of the fact they lack credibility, but if it wasn't for these people, I would be stuck getting my information from stuffy articles in newspapers!


References:
Anna Nicole Smith's Death: Accidental OD . Topix, Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://www.topix.net/forum/county/broward-fl/T3F12SOCE0BHNDNH1

Finin, Tim (2006, April, 27). Proving that blogs affect society. Ebiquity Group, Retrieved 27, March, 2007, from http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/04/27/proving-that-blogs-affect-society/

Gillmor, D. (2004). We the Media. Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, Retrieved March 28, 2007, from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap3

Goodnough, A. Anna Nicole Smith’s Death Is Ruled an Accidental Drug Overdose . (2007, March 27). The New York Times