COM 125- Journalism

Since we are only 4 days away from one of the most important presidential elections and the first of which I will be able to participate in, I decided I should choose some articles about the election. I took a look through the Buffalo News today and found on the cover an article about Sarah Palin’s visit to Erie, Pennsylvania. For the online source, I found an article on this topic at FoxNews.com. When looking at the two articles, it is clear that the print source from the Buffalo News is more in depth and has more content. The online source fails to inform the readers that upon Palin’s entrance, the song “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones was playing as her entrance music.  One piece of evidence that the Buffalo News failed to mention that FoxNews did not, was the fact that Palin was booed when she congratulated the audience for the Phillies winning the World Series. She said she was thrilled to be in the home state of a World champion, but she wasn’t in the home city and the people from Erie are mostly Pirates and Indians fans.

 The FoxNews article is focused on how Palin accuses the Democrats of wanting to cut defense spending while the Buffalo News article talks briefly about that topic.  The Buffalo News only states that Palin accuses the Democrats of wanting to slash the defense budget, even though Obama has promised to build a bigger army. The FoxNews article takes a direct quote from Palin’s speech and uses it as the bulk of the article. The Buffalo News article has a lot of quotes from people in the audience while there are none in the FoxNews article. The article focuses on how Palin electrified her audience and how much the audience liked her. The author of the article characterizes Palin as a Rock Star, drawing larger crowds that McCain and very popular with her fans. Also, The Buffalo News informs you that while making her exit and shaking hands, Shania Twain’s “She’s Not Just a Pretty Face” was playing through the sound system.

 To me it seemed like the article from FoxNews was short and sweet and focused on the main focus of Palin’s speech and didn’t mention much else. The Buffalo News article seemed more focused on the event and Palin’s ability to electrify the audience, even though it does mention what was said in her speech. The Buffalo News article was more on a personal level and let you know how people in the audience felt.

Conroy, Scott. "Palin: Obama's Speeches Can't Protect the Country." CBSNews.com. 30 Oct. 2008. CBS News. 31 Oct. 2008. 

Erwin, Erica. "Palin: McCain trumps Obama on national security." Erie Times-News 31 Oct. 2008. 

Walshe, Shushannah. "Palin Stumps in Tom Ridges Hometown." FoxNews.com. 31 Oct. 2008. Fox News. 31 Oct. 2008 . 

Zremski, Jerry. "Palin shows 2012 aura in Rust Belt." The Buffalo News 31 Oct. 2008: A1-A2.