Comparing two articles

The two articles that I will compare are from:

The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-youth-movement-loses-luster/2012/01/10/gIQApyF2vP_story.html

And The Peninsula http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-youth-movement-loses-luster/2012/01/10/gIQApyF2vP_story.html

1) Compare the two articles. How is coverage similar? What differences do you notice?

The topic of both articles is about how things are going in Egypt especially with January 25^th right around the corner. We have all witnessed history being made during this revolution and its first anniversary is shortly approaching. Both articles discuss a miniature timeline on the events that have go on since and how the Military being in power has shown a negative effect amongst the Egyptian people. Each article also focuses how this day will be remembered and how the youth movement toppled down President Hosni Mubarak and his regime. One the main differences between these articles is definitely the point of view that is being shown. To start with, The Peninsula gave a very positive headline which was “Egypt to celebrate revolution the toppled Mubark” where as The Washington Post gave a more negative headline, “Egypt’s youth movement loses luster”. The Peninsula started off by giving information on how the Egyptian people and government will celebrate and how far they’ve come and then begins to discuss the Military’s attempt to remain its grip on power. Whereas The Washington Post immediately jumps into how the Military is ruling in such an aggressive manner and how the people are suffering under their rule. The difference is quite clear but each article decides to focus on what they think is worthy of telling their readers.

2) Considering the type of bias and reasons for bias we’ve discussed, how do you account for the similarities and differences between the articles?

Since The Peninsula is a Qatari based newspaper its views will definitely follow those of the government and it will publish something that the readers will want to read. So by using the informational bias technique of dramatizing they are showing how successful the revolution was but then showing what is being done about the current situation. On the other hand The Washington Post clearly uses the Authority-disorder technique of informational bias due to the continuous stressing on how the military are the bad guys and the people are the good guys. This could be because of the US’s strong opinion on democracy and determination on having Egypt as a democratic Arab state. Fragmentation is shown in both articles as The Peninsula doesn’t really go into detail and has a rather short and easy to read article, whereas The Washington Post has a much longer article really focusing on the ruling of the Military.