Portrayal of diversity

By Bridget Janis

Water is an important factor in our lives, two news outlets published articles with water being the main focus of the conversation. In the Ethic Media Services, “New UCLA Study - State Makes Progress on Goal to Guarantee Water as a Human Right" by Mark Hedin which focused around a study that surrounded California and their state’s Prop. 1, their water code.

The second article by The New York Times, “Flint’s Water Crisis Started 5 Years Ago. It’s Not Over” by Mitch Smith, Julie Bosman and Monica Davey talked about how Flint ended up changing their pipes and claiming that the water is safe but people living in the area still do not trust it.

Both these articles discuss similar ideologies of water, expressing how people need water and something needs to be done somewhere about it. In the New York Times article, the level of background information was higher compared to the Ethnic article, which still some background information mostly about the economic difference between households in California rather than more statistics on the water intake itself. This also can show the news value difference in the two articles; the New York Times article was heavily focused on Flint and the water issues there but also on personal experiences people in the community had and the team that worked on the crisis. While the Ethnic article just talks about the families that are affected and only quotes the author of the study, the New York Times gives quotes from real people that were affected and more of a personal insight into the people trying to fix the issue. This source selection for the New York Times can play out in their favor because the reader now can develop an emptier feeling, while in comparison, the Ethnic article showed signs of silence in fact retrieval. By not providing a quote from an affected community member the reader can be at disbelief of the story that so many community members are being affected. The big pictures of these articles are very important, while the Ethnic article is a quick, straight to the point read, it can at times be hard to follow, while the New York Times article is a longer read but contains more of an interesting story with multiple perspectives.

The differences between these two articles are mostly show in who they choose to report on and how they presented their facts. These differences might not seem that big but can cause a huge effect on the reader’s attention and their feelings towards the crisis.