Assignment Description: This paper had to provide an analysis/description of a news story. I had

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1 Analysis of a News Story 1 Course: Public Communication in Society Course Number: COMM Instructor: Jennifer McCullough Course Completed: Spring 2015 Assignment: Analysis of a Hard News Story Assignment Description: This paper had to provide an analysis/description of a news story. I had to find a Hard News Story and analyze its content. More specifically, I had to describe the story s Personalization, Drama, Eventfulness, Defiantness, Ongoing theme. The news story had to be current and up to date. I had to site my news story and why I believed it was a hard news story. Reflection: This assignment was very fun one to do. I enjoy watching the news every morning to keep up with what is going on in the world and the environment around me. I chose this assignment for my reflection because I enjoyed this assignment and thought it showed throughout this paper. I find the media is an interesting outlet, and how we take in that media is fascinating to me. This class showed me how to analyze and look at a hard and soft news story. We learned to find certain criteria to find within our news pieces and we had to analyze our findings. I chose a recent story about an ISIS member that was from the United States and what he was doing with ISIS. This story was a hot topic when I wrote this paper in February. I took my news piece from ABC News, I news station that I watch often and analyzed why this story was a hard news story. I did very well on this paper and wanted to share what I learned. I think our media today is very interesting and when I put my mind to things I can accomplish anything.

2 Analysis of a News Story 2 Melissa Nagel News Coverage Analysis: Jihadi John Kent State University Jihadi John News Coverage

3 Analysis of a News Story 3 The news story that I chose to analyze was the New Clues about Jihadi John Past. This news segment was hired early morning around seven on ABC s Good Morning America on March 2, ABC is currently owned by the Walt Disney Company. I than rewatched the news piece on abcnews.go.com/gma/video/clues-emerge-jihadi-johns-past This news piece was personalized by speaking and looking into the past of Jihadi John an ISIS member who, now calls himself one of their leaders in the extremist and violent terrorist group. The news piece also spoke about his family and focused some part with his brother Omar who was still living in London. The news focused on what Jihadi John who is real name Muhammad Emwazi, mostly focusing on his past and how he became involved with the terrorist group ISIS. (News, 2015) The news coverage displayed how is childhood action in London, England reflected to his violent behavior now as an adult in Iran, Afghanistan, and Israel. (News, 2015) One of the news anchors spoke to one of his teachers and how he used to act violently to other children and staff. The same anchor than spoke to one of the ex-leaders of the ISIS group that Jihadi John, was involved in. He explained how he used to be an attraction ploy to get other young men to join their ISIS clan and that he was not a leader at all. He was the pretty face to trick young individuals into joining ISIS. (News, 2015) The larger problem, is ISIS terrorist group itself, the group is an extremely brutal group, using Islam as a ploy to attract young men to this aggressive terror group. ISIS is very dangerous and well- talked about extremist group looking for violence and attacks on other nations. The news piece lightly touched on what ISIS is and how it is effecting the world today. The news coverage spoke on how the ISIS group is moving into where Osama Bin Landon once lived and grow up. (News, 2015) They also spoke about the violent attacks they have displayed on different countries and their threats to other countries, including the United States.

4 Analysis of a News Story 4 The thing that grabbed the audience for this piece in the news is the pictures and the video footage of the ISIS group. As soon as the segment started it showed bombs going off in the dessert and the leader Jihadi John holding a knife and his face covered threatening different groups and countries. (News, 2015) The news showed just how dangerous this individual is and how we all should be in fear of him and his comrades. The tension within this news coverage was the violent act that ISIS has showed in the past and how they continue their violent acts. The groups threatening videos talk in detail how they will act if their demands are not met or if the world does not begin to change. The news programing also made tension with Jihadi John s younger brother and how he tries to convert non-muslims to Muslims on the streets of London. The news spoke how the United States and other nations are not scared of this terrorist group and how they will continue to track Jihadi John s and his member s movements. (News, 2015) This coverage was about midway throughout the morning news show, therefore this piece was preplanned and edited to the news programs liking before aired. None of this news piece was live other than the anchors Robin Roberts introducing the piece before it aired. The segment was edited to showing bombs going off and the small piece of video of a recruiting video of the leaders. (News, 2015) The piece also was edited with certain interviews they held with the different people that Jihadi John was in contact with throughout his life. The coverage was pieced together with different videos and footage to show how dangerous this man really is and how we should be very concerned with his behavior. This gave the feel of re-creation into an old segment into a new one. Some of the footage could not have been taken all at the same time, plus the interviews were more than likely edited to fit into this short news piece. (News, 2015) This news coverage was made special because ISIS is a huge hot topic in today s society and news. ISIS is a violent extreme terrorist group, which people fear of. Everyone is

5 Analysis of a News Story 5 concerned on what they are doing, who are these people who are attacking innocent lives, why are they doing what they are doing and how are the Unites States and other nations handling this terrorist groups. This news coverage gives the American people a face to the terrorist group ISIS, it gives us a look into why he would join this group and how his childhood reflected his horrible actions today as a young adult. Americans want to feel like we know this person and understand why he is doing what he is doing. The coverage spoke about his present acts and about his childhood acts. The news showed how others who knew him viewed him, the one who know him in the ISIS group as a joke and not a true leader. While the other, an elementary school teacher in his London school, a violent and angry boy who could not control his emotions, therefore acting out. The news piece was aired Monday March 2 nd, around seven in the morning. I am assuming that this even took place over the weekend, the whereabouts of where Jihadi John was staying as well as other members of the ISIS groups. ISIS group is not a new subject on the news, this year they have been spoken about daily on the news especially, the following days and months of their violent bombing in France this winter. (News, 2015) The main story of this news coverage is the terrorist group ISIS. The news piece gave a face of a leader of this terrible and aggressive group of individuals. The past months have been very informative on ISIS, especially in the news. There are several new leaders and news coverage on the extremely violent group almost daily. Right after this news coverage was aired, John Kerry the Sectary of Defense went on ABC NEWS and spoke on how he plans on dealing with ISIS. John Kerry spoke on the violence that has occurred in Israel and Iran in the past few months, and the horrible acts that have taken place there because ISIS. (News, 2015) John Kerry believes that America and other powerful nations are on the road to success to stop ISIS violent acts and destruction. (News, 2015) I found at least a dozen news coverage on this

6 Analysis of a News Story 6 hot topic of ISIS and the violence they have conducted in the Middle East and Europe. There were different news companies such as NBC, CBS, and CNN; that also covered the story of Jihadi John s past and the new face of ISIS. The larger picture of this news coverage are how other nations and the United States are going to stop ISIS and how they are going to act on this terrorist group. (News, 2015) With all of that being said and analyzed, do I believe that this was a truly Hard News coverage? Yes and No, I think the news coverage was factual and looked into the life of the extremely violent and active terrorist but, I think some opinions were part of this news segment that should have not been in there. It was the opinions of the news anchors, the opinions of the teacher interviewed and the opinions of the once ISIS member that made me think that this piece could have been better represented. This news piece had personalization with focusing on Jihadi John and his life before he joined, like where he grow up and how he got involved with this terrorist group. I think several things were missing, was why they not talked to any of Jihadi John family members or even his brother. I think that many things were assumed they, edited the segment to make his brother look like he is also involved with ISIS, when clearly that is incorrect and assumed by the media. The dramatic factor was showed, within this coverage and made others watching this piece to fear this group. ABC did a well job on the timely and currency of this news piece because ISIS is always being talked about nowadays and ISIS video threats are being aired daily. All in all I think this news coverage tried to be a hard news coverage, but in some aspects fell a little short for me. I honestly do not know if any news coverage is one hundred percent Hard News opinions and biases are unfortunately going to be part of a news segment. I learned several things, from doing this assignment. It really made me look and break

7 Analysis of a News Story 7 apart the news I was watching. Looking into depth of news coverage, really makes me think what I am watching and if I am truly learning anything by watching todays new.

8 Analysis of a News Story 8 Works Cited News, A. (Director). (2015). New Clues Emerage about "Jihadi John", Past [Motion Picture]. News, A. (2015). Sec. John Kery threats on ISIS (Good Morning America).