The Bin Laden Story -Questions & Answers-

Questions:

1. Who owns each source?

2. What does the source say explicitly about the story? Give a summary.

3. What voices are included? What voices are excluded?

4. Consider how the following are constructed: Bin Laden, Obama, the U.S., Pakistan, other countries (if applicable).  Consider the adjectives and other language used, the placement of information in the text (e.g. what is said first, second, etc.,) the images used.

5. Who benefits if the implied message is accepted? Who may be disadvantaged? Explain.

6. How much of the news source seems to be dedicated to this story? Give an approximate percentage. What are other stories about?

Answers:

1. MSNBC is owned by U.S., and BBC is owned by Canada.

2. MSNBC says that shooting of unarmed Osama Bin Laden is justified as an act of national self-defense and the killing of the Al Qaeda leader was legal. BBC explicitly says the same thing as MSNBC, saying that the killing of the Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, was a lawful military target whose killing was "an act of national self-defense."


3. For both MSNBC and MMC, voices of police, attorney, lawyer, President Obama, Senate, Committee, and NAVY SEAL team members (from U.S.) are included and voices of Pakistan, Muslim, and Al Qaeda are excluded in the articles.


4. Bin Laden is constructed, in both articles, as a person with evil characteristics and the "bad guy" who deserved to die. In both articles, Bin Laden is constructed as the mastermind and he's death is justified, because of his authorization of 9/11. This support the evilness of Bin Laden.
Obama is constructed as a hero who saved the world from the great threat of Al Qaeda, because of his speech on the death of Bin Laden. With him saying, "Justice has been done," Obama has earned the respect from everyone in U.S..
The U.S. is constructed in a way that other people sees it as a very strong country, because the articles mention the word, "U.S.," a lot, for example like, "U.S. special forces in Pakistan...," "U.S. Navy Seals stormed...," and, "U.S. senate committee legalized...." These help with convincing the audience that U.S. is a powerful and good country.
Pakistan is constructed as a bad place, because the articles keep connecting Pakistan with Bin Laden, and Al Qaeda. On the other hand, Pakistan is also constructed as a hero like U.S., because in BBC article, it mentions that Pakistan army supported U.S. special forces.


5. President Barack Obama would benefit from this implied message if accepted, because then President Barack Obama will have advantage for up-coming election for new President of U.S. Furthermore, Muslim will may be disadvantaged if the implied message is accepted, because now the leader of Al Qaeda died, therefore the people around the globe will once again recognize the Muslim societies, and would probably look at them stereotypically.


6. News source seems to be about 90% dedicated to this story, because this topic has been on-going and was on front page of newspapers for more than a week. And there are many different issues within this story, such as "Was it necessary to kill Bin Laden?" and, "Is Bin Laden really dead or is U.S. lying?"