CNN vs. Al Jazeera

The two articles that I read were about the recent death of singer Whitney Houston. Right away, the first thing that I noticed was the different length between the two articles. CNN went into greater detail regarding the death and the days before her death. Al Jazeera covered the story but not the days before. Both articles seemed to have a neutral point of view. Both articles also covered the recent Grammy awards and how Whitney Houston was honored during the award ceremony. However, CNN went into much greater detail when talking about the ceremony and quoting many of the celebrities that recognized Whitney Houston during their speeches. None of the authors put their points of views into the articles. The articles stuck to covering the news and presented all of the facts that are known so far. CNN seemed to try and attract more readers who are Whitney Houston fans. CNN described the confusion that her friends are feeling because of her upbeat and joyful spirit that she was in nights before her death. She was quoted as singing and dancing all night and was not drinking since that was a theory on what caused her sudden death. Al Jazeera on the other hand targeted an audience that was more interested in reading about her death because it is one of the biggest stories going on rather than being one of her biggest fans. They simply stuck to the facts instead of going into great detail about the Grammys. Since CNN is an American news network that could be why their article was much larger and in greater detail because of the freedom that they have being based in America. America is known has having a social responsible theory of press, which allows them to have freedom when publishing and covering news. On the other hand, Al Jazeera is more controlled when it comes to the press because they are considered to have an authoritarian theory. They have many heavy regulations that prevent what they can and cannot publish. Overall, CNN covered the story much better then Al Jazeera.