Each news website I looked at shared the top story of Barack Obama’s North Carolina primary win. The story’s timeliness and prominence were major factors in its dominance in the news.
Following the election story, CNN.com chose to have two stories about the devastation after the cyclone in Myanmar. One Myanmar story had a headline talking about dead bodies being thrown into a river; this type of a headline shows that CNN values human interest (emotional appeal) when choosing its top stories. Also included in CNN.com’s top stories was one about Britney Spears’ visitation rights. Although CNN does focus its headline news on more serious topics that its audience needs to know, it does not ignore stories that its audience wants to know about.
Google News followed the election story with a story about the new president of Russia. A drug bust at San Diego State University was the final top story included in Google News. All of Google News’ top stories are timely and inevitably affect the audience because of the stories’ prominence. Because Google News posts stories that are linked to popular news websites, the stories included in Google News are very credible and adhere to the “Murrow Standard.”
The New York Times website’s second story, like CNN.com’s, was about the Myanmar cyclone crisis. Its story about the situation was fair and balanced, using the facts to interest its audience rather than emotional appeal. Because the majority of the New York Times’ audience is probably more educated than CNN’s, the New York Times does not need to rely on emotional appeals and human interest as much when deciding newsworthiness. Another top story on the website was a story about the release of multiple North Carolina death row inmates. This story’s newsworthiness is unique because of its proximity to New York. Although the New York Times does not specifically cover New York stories, its audience is bigger on the east coast, which can contribute to the difference in news value ranking among its top stories.
I would personally use Google News. The stories included on the website are not unique to the Google News website, but they are all very objective stories from more credible and genre-specific news sites. I feel like Google News chooses the most informative stories about each topic, so I know that I will be linked to the highest quality story about Myanmar or whatever the subject may be. Also, Google News does a good job of highlighting stories its audience needs to know, putting stories its audience may want to know in a position of less significance.
