Independent VS Corporate Owned Media: A Comparative Assignment

Main Stream Media Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/23/3223717.htm

Independent Media Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/19/kids-climate-change-youth-initiative_n_864357.html

CLIMATE CHANGE

The ABC News is owned by Walt Disney Company and The Huffington Post is owned by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti. Based on these information, bias of ABC News might be to persuade the reader to read their article with some fascinating, not-always-true facts. The editorial decisions of this article would be influenced by a need-to-stay-in-business, thus they might make the article more dramatic, such as wording of the topics, in order to make the article interest enough for the reader to buy it. Furthermore, there is a reputation in the ABC News, therefore this article would be seen by a wide audience. For the bias of Huffington Post, it might be that the media is actually trying to make the reader aware of what is happening around them, society, and the world because the article is self-published. They probably have many truthful facts about the article's topic, and most likely, the article was not created in order to make profits, but to give benefits to readers, because it is unlikely to be influenced by advertisers. The Huffington Post would probably seize a smaller audience compare to The ABC News, thus the reputation might be more depends on the quality of articles the media produces. 

The ABC News article explicitly says that the Earth is at the risk of becoming destroyed, due to stronger and faster warming. The cause of the global warming is surely humans, and the solution for the global warming is to trust the people who have decades of experience who are saying that global warming is caused by humans, and also to reduce the carbon emissions. The Huffington Post article explicitly states that young generations, such as students, are taking initiative and fighting the climate change by all sorts of different, small yet effective solutions. This article states that younger generation might be more capable of fighting the man-made climate change than adults.

The ABC News article implicitly demonstrates that one of the causes of global warming is not all people living in the planet but, Australia with its carbon emissions and unclean energy source. Also in the article, it says that "science is being muddied in the media by many with no credentials," and also that we "need to get beyond the fruitless phony debate in the media." The ABC News is a mainstream media, and by stating this sentences, it promotes that The ABC News is a trustworthy media that contains actual facts and truths and other media are not "believable." The Huffington Post article implicitly says that adults should learn from younger generations about taking initiative towards global warming that was created by older generations. The article also shows how a normal people can save their planet from global warming by doing easy things, such as recycling and plating trees.

ABC News

The report warns global warming could cause global sea
levels to rise up to one metre by the end of the century.

Huffington Post

Getty: A child holds a poster during a demonstration urging
stricter controls on carbon emissions on December 1, 2010 in Denver, Colorado.

In the ABC News, voices of directors, professors and scientists who commission climate and global warming. ABC only included people who are related to government and media an excluded average and everyday people. The article only included high-class people to speak about the whole issues about global warming and climate change, and mid and low-class people are excluded in this article. In Huffington Post, voices of many different people, but related to the topic, are heard. Boston Latin student, other mainstream media such as New York Times, and the founder of the organization are included in this article. The Huffington Post excluded people who are closely related to the government, and also excluded people who are professors, scientists, and board commissioners. This article probably selected people who are actually related to the global warming and the corporation which is fighting against climate change. 

If the message from the ABC News article is accepted, then the media is benefiting, because they are making the article "good" to persuade the consumers to buy the article. Also the Australia will disadvantage if the message is accepted, because the article states that Australia needs to decarbonize its economy. If this is accepted, then it might mean that Australia is a country with bad environment. On the other hand, the Huffington Post article, us, the consumer, benefits from this message, because the article is not trying to sell their company, but to make people recognize the global warming and how dangerous it is.

The ABC News source seems to be dedicated only a little to its article, because, even though it talks about global warming, but the media over exaggerates the story, such as the impact of global warming, to make the consumers to buy their article to learn more about the issue and the solution. On the other hand, the Huffington Post seems to be much more dedicated to its article, because the article just states what the problem is, and give examples of how to solve the problem. It also influence the reader to take action on saving planet Earth from global warming and climate change.