If you are like me (i.e. a political junkie), then you've been closely following the Massachusetts Senate race for Edward Kennedy's seat. All last night, my phone lit up with CNN twitter updates showing the latest from the exit polls. As they predicted, Scott Brown won. Why was there so much anticipation surrounding this race? The answer lies in the subsequent news coverage tying Brown's victory with the fate of the health care bill.
Majority of news organizations from CNN to Fox News covered the race in a one dimensional fashion: What does this mean for Democrats' goals (specifically health care)? What does this say about President Obama? First, those two questions are important. CNN did a great job about exploring the ramifications of Brown's election: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/20/analysis.massachusetts.election/index.html?hpt=T1
First they analyzed Brown's campaign against Coakley. There were pieces analyzing how Brown's win has/will change the political landscape. They covered the Democrats response to Coakley's loss. On their website, there are campaign videos, links to pieces about President Obama's current status, and photos galore from the entire campaign process. BBC News covered the race in a similar fashion, although they mainly focused on the Obama factor. They too analyzed the campain, talked about the political landscape, and posted a video of Brown's acceptance speech: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8470187.stm
News coverage of the race answered or dealt with some important questions. But national news organizations simply looked at the political factor on a broad scale. For instance, none of the national papers covered Brown's win from a local perspective. Specifically, no one focused on what his win meant to Massachusetts voters. What kind of policies was he going to address that directly affects Massachusetts? There were not even links to voter reponses in his own state, although I'm sure that's entirely possible given the nature of the internet. Additionally, only the Boston Globe really showcased Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's response to the Republican win. No other news organization successful captured responses or thoughts from Brown's constituents. No news organization shied away from the health care issue and looked at other concerns such as imigration or the financial crisis. I'm not saying that NATIONAL papers really need to dive into specific LOCAL concerns (they are national for a reason), but they should've addressed these repsonses or provided links elsewhere to ensure full maximum coverage from all spectrums.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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