Week 4: Student Response to Discussion One and Two and Assignment

WednesdayOct 25 at 11:39pm

Manage Discussion Entry

It's a riveting tale of independence and struggle: an autonomous, rebellious province yearning to be free from one of the great global powers of the past millennium. Sadly, most Americans are probably not aware of Catalonia's October 1 vote for independence from Spain; only to be rebuffed by the Spanish security forces under the direction of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The prime minister said of his use of police to try to stop referendum voting, "We did what we had to do"� (Minder & Barry, 2017, para. 12).

New York Times journalists Raphael Minder and Ellen Barry wrote a comprehensive article the same day as events unfolded in Spain. The writing was detailed and neatly reported the current events while explaining the context regarding the political relationship between Spain and Catalonia, a region that enjoys significant self-rule from Spain, but not outright independence.

The story of Catalonia and the restive region's struggle for independence is similar to America's revolutionary roots. Also, the populist movement in Spain follows the election of President Trump who campaigned and won as a new kind of candidate. If successful in achieving independence, Catalonia could inspire Scotland to reenergize its initiative to separate from the United Kingdom (Minder & Barry, 2017).

All of the points I listed are reasons why the story could interest Americans. However, the authors did not directly tie the events in Spain to a relevant story in America. "To be published in the mainstream media, foreign news must have a more profound impact on the political, economic, or cultural concerns of the United States than domestic news" (Graber & Dunaway, 2015, p.9.1, para. 4).

- Joel Seppala

References

Graber, D., Dunaway, J. (2015). Mass Media and American Politics, Ninth Ed. Sage Publications, Inc: Thousand Oaks, California.

Minder, R, Barry, E. (2017, October 1). Catalonia's Independence Vote Descends Into Chaos Clashes. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/01/world/europe/catalonia-independence-referendum.html