Thoughts on an Early Sunday Morning: March 8th, 2009

Tomorrow is a relative's 54th birthday. Not quite news for the world, but still special to me.
Today, I will watch/explore the news through two different platforms: this time, the online news presented by http://www.cbc.ca compared to that of http://www.bbc.co.uk. I will examine if budget/public funding (as they are both public stations for two different countries) and how they affect the answers to the founding questions below.

1.How is news presented differently on these different platforms?

On www.cbc.ca:

- 3 of 9 "top stories" are local/national - remaining 6 are international
- Categories presented in: Home, World, Canada, Health, Arts and Entertainment, Technology and Science, Money, Consumer Life, Diversions, Weather, Your Voice


On www.bbc.co.uk:

- 1 of 8 "top stories" in the international section are local/national (U.K.) - local stories reserved for U.K./Nat'l section, somewhat similar to CBC's Website
- Categories first displayed by continent, then by Business, Health, Science & Environment, Technology, Entertainment, Also in the News


In discussing the March 8th, 2009 update of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, BBC specifically mentioned that the Prime Minister was grieving his deceased wife in the neighbouring country of Botswana; an important factor in displaying Tsvangirai's power as Prime Minister under President Mugabe's rule. CBC reports the founding information and the news that official government reporters provided, but not much in regards to the opposing perspective. However, most of what BBC reports seems more authentic and researched-into than the story that CBC.ca quickly published.



2. Where and how can you identify some of the following: citizen journalism; public sphere; issues of globalization; humanist photojournalism; war image; filters; discourse; interesting or problematic race/gender representation?

Citizen journalism is more prevalent in the BBC.co.uk article about Tsvangirai's injuries and trip to Botswana in comparison to Cbc.ca's article about the same matter: the website displays pictures of an injured Tsvangirai, his toppled car and other issues Zimbabwe has faced in the past. On the subject of globalization, the issue revolves around the post-colonial Zimbabwe and two conflicting governments; this is further exemplified by BBC.co.uk's story of Tsvangirai fleeing to Botswana, but also reported equally by Cbc.ca (despite their attempt to paint Mugabe as a caring figure by visiting Tsvangirai in the hospital). Race representation may be affected by the article in presenting the two conflicting views of a post-colonial African country; there is no one definable way to represent all Zimbabweans.

The war image of the political crimes in Zimbabwe is being filtered out - not sure for what reason - but it isn't reaching the two main networks being compared in this entry, which shocks me; the images of starving citizens work most effectively against political corruption, yet the major outlets have shown little outside of the faces of Tsvangirai and Mugabe.


3.What did you learn from reading / listening to news from a venue you don’t usually go to? What do YOU have to say about news?

I usually open my Firefox internet browser with a Cbc.ca news feed attached to the home page - it wasn't until I really took a critical look at the website in comparison to www.bbc.co.uk, a larger and wider-distributed public broadcaster, that I saw what Cbc.ca was missing. The BBC's perspective seemed a bit more international with regards to Tsvangirai's whereabouts in comparison to Cbc.ca's lack of foreign information. However, in defence of the CBC, I am accessing this story at an early time during an off-period for news delivery (outside of rush hour, dinner hour news time slot, etc).